He seems more concerned about making a quick profit than building a sustainable future for the Shenandoah Valley community.
"The house is lovely and land is beautiful, but we're concerned about the neighbors. The shooting, helicopters, and men in black are all kinda spooky." Home values are down since 2006 and having a military training center in the community is going make property values go down further.
"Location, location, location." According to a testimony from a United States General Accounting Office "... training areas are used primarily to test weapons systems and train military forces."(1) Basically this means endangering local wildlife, more air pollution, more noise pollution, more dropped cell phone calls (i.e. competition for radio frequency spectrum), and danger from stray or unexploded ordnances and munitions. Yikes.
Oh yeah, expect the area to become noisier and more dangerous as weapons ranges increase and become more powerful. Quote "... according to one Defense Department official, the increased speed and range of weapons systems are expected to increase training range requirements." (1)
He makes the claim about the cost of freedom suggesting that the U.S. needs more training areas. However, where are the facts? Does the Department of Defense need more training areas for military readiness? He claims he understands the concerns and is an expert in the area of building training areas. We don't have to be involved in shooting ranges for 30 years or need to build a shooting range to understand our property values.
As he has noted, there are other way to make a profit without changing the zoning, such as develop it for uses that is congruent with the land use, neighbors, wildlife, and community. Building more homes is not good, but to us it sounds great compared to a military training area. The housing market is down, but it will pick up again and at that time he can make a profit building homes.
You can act by getting involved. Read more about at the Shenandoah Valley Rural Steering Group website. His Permit Request has been pulled from the May 7, 2009 meeting but he probably will submit again after the dust has settled.
If the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors grant land use permit for a military training area, do not vote for them again.
(1) "DOD Needs a Comprehensive Plan to Manage Encroachment on Training Ranges", United States General Accounting Office, May 2002