[ 25 February 2020 e-mail from PWCBG to Occoquan Supervisor Kenny Boddye titled “Kenny: Pls Help Us Defeat Devlin, Kline Projects To Protect West County, Revitalize East County”]
Hi, Kenny. As you could tell from our November email, we were both very happy about your narrow victory over the incumbent in the Occoquan race.
Now, with your indulgence, let’s go back a bit in time to when the three of us met outside the McCoart Building after the 4 Aug 2019 pro-Rural Crescent press conference hosted by Supervisors Lawson, Principi, and Candland. It was good to talk to you and get to know you a little better. Your comments influenced us greatly and further convinced us that you are on the side of the ordinary people on land use issues, not the side of the residential developers (who too often care not a whit about the greatest good for the greatest possible number.) We then used every opportunity we had in the final three months to boost your candidacy. We hope it helped, and we know that the majority of Occoquan voters felt the same way about you that we did.
Now, cast your mind even further back to the BOCS vote on Ray’s Regarde 19 March 2019, the first time Ralph actually met you. You and Ralph were talking as you left the McCoart building, neither one of you knowing the other and both expressing frustration and deep disappointment with the BOCS, which ignored that night’s common-sense citizen input overwhelmingly opposed to the development. (“Why do we even bother? The BOCS doesn’t listen to ordinary citizens, just the residential developers…”) Here’s then-Supervisor Principi’s writeup on the hearing and vote: https://newwoodbridge.org/better-neighborhoods/rays-regarde-application-approved-despite-opposition-from-principi-public/
Our request to you is to remember how you felt, as you expressed it at the time to Ralph, who felt the same way. Please think of that as you cast your vote on the Devlin Road Project on 10 March and again on the upcoming Kline Farm Project vote. We urge you to vote no on both of these highly unpopular projects. Consider that the overwhelming majority of the community has been strongly protesting the Devlin Road Project and its predecessors (Stone Haven and Brentswood) for almost 15 years now, including again last night (24 Feb) at a packed Devlin Road town hall meeting — only to have residential developers return again and again and again, trying to sneak it through, using disinformation, propaganda, and lies to the public and, in effect, bribery of some members of the BOCS. Kline has been revised (due to improprieties and mistakes) and resubmitted so many times to the Planning Commission (PC) that we’ve lost count. Here’s the PW Times story on the PC’s 20 November 2019 approval of the Kline proposal:
https://www.princewilliamtimes.com/news/planning-commission-recommends-approving-homes-for-kline-property/article_8565f136-0c72-11ea-b03b-a32acc63110c.html
If you vote against Devlin and Kline and persuade at least one other Democrat to vote against as well, that would be wonderful and likely yield a 5-3 vote forcing the projects to be terminated (or at least started over with much lower densities), rather than just postponed for another vote in a few months or a year. That could also free up county bond money to improve roads elsewhere in the county, instead of Devlin, which will probably only need road widening [south of Jennell Road toward Linton Hall Rd.] if hundreds of new houses are built along it.
We are grateful for the civic virtue you have shown so far in all your public statements and actions on land use issues, even at times against your own party’s wishes. Our hats are off to you, and our thoughts and prayers are with you in those efforts.
We look forward to being friends and allies on land use issues in the years to come.
Yours truly,
Ralph & Kathy Stephenson Prince William Citizens for Balanced Growth
Only in the bright light of public scrutiny can the common good be secured,
while in darkness and obscurity the interests of the powerful and affluent prevail.