"Don't Mess With the Landowners of
Tazewell County"
from "In Defense of
Rural America"
By Ron Ewart,
President
National Association of Rural Landowners (www.narlo.org)
and nationally recognized author and
speaker on freedom and property rights issues for over 10
years
©
Copyright Sunday, March 13, 2016 - All Rights
Reserved
The following article
was published on Newswithviews, March 16, 2016
NOTE: For the last 10
years NARLO has been trying to get across to rural landowners that they can’t
fight city hall alone. Finally, we found an example of where the people of a
county decided to fight back against big money and crony capitalism to preserve
their rural lifestyle. Their efforts paid off big time. These brave people slew
the government-developer dragon. Linda Sheets of Tazewell County, VA provided
most of the information for this article. We have added some background material
to the article to fill in the story.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Whenever government and business get together
and make deals, the public suffers. It’s what they call crony capitalism.
Business is looking for profit and the government is looking for tax revenue.
Such is the case in little Tazewell County, located in Southwestern Virginia,
straddling the West Virginia state line. But crony capitalism and corruption are
not isolated to a small county in Virginia. They are everywhere, throughout the
political process, local, state and federal. Control this crony capitalism and
corruption or it will control you. Right now, they do.
It seems that someone came up with the idea of
building a giant industrial park (680 acres) along Virginia State Highway 460.
The Park was named the Bluestone Regional Business and Technology Center
("Bluestone"). We haven’t been able to
determine whom the individual or individuals are who came up with the plan, but
what we have found is that the plan appears to have been the brainchild of
Tazewell County Supervisors, the Virginia Economic Development Partnership and
the Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority. But you can bet that
there is a developer in there somewhere.
According to the County
Supervisor of the Eastern District of Tazewell County, one Charlie Stacy,
"The concept of Bluestone is live, work and play,"
he said, adding
that, "the center will include upscale companies as well as restaurants, a
hotel-conference center, a residential area, recreation facilities, hiking
trails, and rental cabins and a lodge higher up on the
mountain."
According to Stacy, the county and
the other two agencies used a $10,000,000 grant from the Tobacco Commission to
build Bluestone. When we say build, it means that all of the infrastructure was
installed (roads and utilities) and building pads were graded. That’s it.
The park is just bare land with roads water and sewer. Nothing
else.
Stacy said that Bluestone
was a "wonderful vision for the board" and the grant was the county’s to lose. "You lose that
opportunity for the funding if you don’t act," he said. "Everybody is competing for it.
That money would have been allocated somewhere else if Tazewell County had not
worked for it."
Grant funding was also used for
much of the remaining $3 million, costing taxpayers relatively little, Stacy
added, and the investment will eventually pay off as the economy changes and
improves. The word "eventually" is a relative term and could mean anywhere from
one year to 100 years.
Unfortunately, this "great
vision" of the County Board of Tazewell County
Supervisors has sat empty for six years with no takers. It appears that the
county threw a party and no one came. This is what happens when government comes
up with a commercial idea to raise its tax base. Consequently, county and state
government have a costly red herring on their hands and they are working
feverishly to cover their collective tails with ordinances to protect that red
herring, to the detriment of the local landowners.
To add to the County’s "great
vision
", Supervisor Stacy pushed for zoning in the county
to allow Dominion Power to build an electricity generator Wind Farm on the ridgeline of East
River Mountain, directly behind Bluestone. (Remember: Government is always
looking for tax money to pay for their expensive promises in exchange for
votes.)
However, the other
supervisors on the Board objected to the Wind Farm and passed an ordinance to
stop Dominion. Then the Board went farther with another ordinance to protect the
"great vision" of their
red herring.
The farmers of Tazewell County got
wind of the Wind Farm (no pun intended) and started digging into the
provisions of the two proposed ordinances. They were aghast at what they found
in the second ordinance. Which brings us to what the county farmers did about
the proposed ordinances, relayed to us by Linda Sheets, a Tazewell County
farmer, in her own words.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Tazewell County is located in the southwestern part of
Virginia in the Appalachian Mountains. Most of the mountains are so steep that
they are inhabited only by deer, turkey ….. and snakes.
In the valleys, beautiful farmland abounds.
Some of the farm owners can trace their heritage to a time before Tazewell
County existed.
Farming and coal mining had been the
backbone of the county until the EPA regulations closed the coalmines. Since
most businesses were coal related, there has been a major increase in
unemployment rates in the area.
The farms are a major source of income to
Tazewell County, and most farmers take great pride in their land. Since there is
little employment opportunity, many people have started in-home businesses and
several have been quite successful. Citizens are hardworking and
resourceful.
Located between the towns of Bluefield and
Tazewell on SR 460 is the 680 acres, $13,000,000 Bluestone Industrial Park that
has been vacant for the six years since it was built. One business that showed
interest in the Park was a dental school that could not procure funding.
Statements made by the purveyors of
Bluestone inferred that only high-end companies would be accepted in the park.
(Ladies and gentlemen, high-end companies are moving offshore due to lousy trade
agreements that eliminate American jobs.) A housing development, recreation
area, lodging and, cabins, an upscale restaurant and meeting center are also
planned in part of the park. Obviously, if the County Supervisor’s (Charley
Stacey) plans materialize, this park will be for the elite. It will have draw on
an employment base that is mostly outside of Tazewell County.
Other businesses such as B.P. and Dominion
Resources wanted to build a wind electric generation farm on the East River
Mountain, but members of the Board of Supervisors led the charge to protect the
beauty of the mountain and the home of the snake. The County turned down the $23
-25 million dollars offered by Dominion and passed a tall-structure ordinance to
rid the county of an "undesirable" development.
A few months ago Board members announced
that another ordinance was needed to protect the park from "undesirable"
business, especially from the Wind Farm.
We thought that the tall-structure ordinance
was all that was needed. Being skeptical however, some of us attended a planning
committee meeting and were shocked to see that the zoning was on farms and that
the plans for the farms were to phase some of them out and replace them with
residential use.
In-home businesses were to limit the number
of their customers. The farmers were told the hours that they could operate
their business. UPS and FedEx would be limited to the number of packages
delivered to homes. The number of cars parked in a driveway was limited,
restricting large family gatherings. The size of trees and shrubbery was
specified. Even restrictions were placed on churches. Owners of older homes
that could not meet the code would be fined.
Thank goodness Bill Osborne, the president
of the Farm Bureau Federation, and some of the Farm Bureau members were also
present at the meeting. As word spread from farmer to farmer, people began to
question the motives of the Supervisors and the need for the new zoning called
for in the proposed ordinance. They began to feel betrayed and angry. Some
called the action akin to communism.
As the time for the meeting approached, so
did a blizzard. Many people had to remove snowdrifts before they could attend
the meeting. They were determined as many of the farmers felt that they were
going to lose everything that had been in the family for generations if they did
not stand up.
It was estimated that six hundred people
attended the meeting. Seventy spoke with only four or five in favor of the new
zoning. Emotions were high. Although people acted with restraint they made their
feelings clear. They were not going to give up their rights to use their land as
they saw fit. They pointed out that the members of the Board and members of
the Planning Commission would not be in office after the next election. It
was democracy in the purest form. Informed people stood together, united in a
common cause to fight for their freedom. The next day the headline in the
newspaper read "Ordinance Scrapped."
Is it over, I would like to think so, but I
have my doubts. Farmland is being transformed into residential and commercial
uses at an alarming rate all across America. When outside developers are
involved, farmers suffer. We have learned from our ordeal that we must always be
vigilant. We will make an effort to be informed; we will attend meetings to see
for ourselves the topics of discussion. We have learned that there is power in
numbers and that we must stand together to protect our freedom.
The landowners of Tazewell County found the
formula to protect their interests and that formula was to find out what their
government was doing and then stand up in large numbers in opposition to what
government was doing when it conflicted with the people’s rights.
The landowners of Tazewell County did
something. They acted. They didn’t just sit on their hands or
pretend the enemy wasn’t there like most Americans do. And they even had
to travel through a blizzard to punctuate their displeasure with
government. What they did was to beat government at the local level and
that is no small task. Because you see ladies and gentlemen the simple
fact is, "life is a continual struggle against competing interests. Either
protect your interests, or the other side wins."
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
THE LANDOWNER’S FIRST LINE OF
DEFENSE:
Ron Ewart, a nationally known author and
speaker on freedom and property rights issues and author of this weekly column,
"In Defense of Rural America", is the president of the National
Association of Rural Landowners (NARLO) (http://www.narlo.org) an advocate and consultant for urban
and rural landowners and a non-profit corporation headquartered in
Washington State. He can be reached for comment at: info@narlo.org.
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