Council charts area for growth

Northern Virginia Daily

November 22, 2007

By Preston Knight

NEW MARKET – The Town Council added to its comprehensive plan by adding a future growth area study to the document Monday night.

A steering committee worked for several months on the project, which establishes a vision for New Market’s future.  The thrust of it is how the town will handle a population that is expected to double over the next 40 years.

“It’s been a really healthy process,” Town Manager Evan Vass said Tuesday.  “It’s a very good example of long-term planning.”

The study will now head to the Shenandoah County Board of Supervisors, which may adopt it as part of its comprehensive plan.  The ultimate goal, Vass said, is for New Market to enter a friendly annexation agreement with the county.

In the study, the annexation area is 1,724 acres, including 165 acres in Rockingham County.  The majority of growth is focused on 982 acres east of town, where U.S. 211 and U.S. 11 north could be connected and commercial opportunities will be available.

“I don’t want us to become a city but we need to provide the stores and shops people look for,” Councilwoman Mary Alice Burch says in the plan.

The ideas in the study all may look good on paper, Vass said, but future town officials will be the ones making the final decisions.

“What is adopted today and what is implemented in 20 years may be very different,” he said.  “At least there’s some vision.”