Despite ‘distrust’ comments, county supervisors adopt ‘Envision New Kent’ strategic plan

With the population of New Kent County still remaining at the top as one of the fastest growing localities in Virginia, county leaders are dealing with the combination of accommodating for the growth while still maintaining the characteristics of the county. And despite opinionated comments about distrust from leadership in survey responses, New Kent leaders voted in favor of adopting a strategic plan to help the growth of the county during Wednesday’s morning work session.

Aaron Arnett of Arnett, Muldrow Inc. presented the “Envision New Kent” strategic plan as part of the work session.

“This is to be a bridge to the [county’s] comprehensive plan,” Arnett said. “It has specific strategies and goals to go along with it, but also have that planning focus to go along with it.

The 30-minute presentation began with an overview of the plan and the first steps of implementation. According to the graphics and numbers, more than 5,800 in total public engagements that include surveys and workshops participated in supporting ideas and receive feedback about the original proposal. The strategic committee used those ideas and worked towards a goal, creating a mission statement.

“New Kent County will remain a diverse community that values its outstanding, rural character, history, natural environment and quiet community lifestyle,” the statement read. “We will maintain these values through thoughtful planning and managed economic development, with continued responsive and accountable governance supportive of our residents.”

District 1 representative and board chairman Thomas Evelyn questioned the company’s analysis of the county’s communication and outreach to citizens.

“I don’t see how you came up with this and I don’t get,” he said, commenting on wording used by Arnett. “Distrust is a strong word. I don’t like it.

“To say distrust, I don’t like it,” Evelyn continued. “How many people come out to our meetings? You know how many people speak at our budget public hearing?”

“I agree with Mr. Evelyn,” chimed in District 4 supervisor Ron Stiers. “We had three people speak at our public bearing on the budget. The board has continuously had public meetings, town halls, and been transparent with the community.

“It’s not we haven’t reached out,” Stiers continued. “We have reached out to companies and communities and a lot of them are waiting before they invest. It’s not like we’re not doing stuff.”

Rodney Hathaway County Administrator interjected said he disagrees with the “distrust” comment, but it’s the conception that is viewed by the citizens.

“I know how you all feel, but this is the word and opinion from a survey with 1,200 people,” he said. “This survey is the things that people see us as and it’s something that we have to grips on.”

“This is a survey that was taken over a year and a half ago,” commented District 5 representative John Lockwood. “I want to take the opportunity to look at it now to see if they feel the same. We can’t force people to listen, and I view this as an opportunity to improve.”

Arnett commented that the strategic plan is being used as a tool to assist and that the county is already taking strides to move in the right direction since the original survey 18 months ago. In particular, he pointed to the way county leaders are addressing the issue with Internet services.

“You all have been working on broadband and that’s going to be the first thing you check off the list,” Arnett commented.

The presentation continued with Arnett highlighting market analysis, creating design characteristics of areas in the county while adjusting to the growth and maintaining that growth. Eight development types were discussed in the finalized report with areas highlighting include crossroads at roundabouts, villages, and utilizing Interstate 64. Additional feature points include the county’s brand extension to areas outside of the locality’s border to be attention grabbers for tourism and creating an all-inclusive plan that has 21 goals and 113 strategies to make it come to the fruition.

“This is a county plan, but you need the engagement of the community to make it happen,” Arnett added. “There’s a lot in this and we discussed them before and have public comment on those. We restructured the priority on those based on what the public was seeing.”

After presenting a slide with the implementation and first steps of how to put the strategic plan in place, straightforward comments from county leaders summed up their feelings on the presentation.

“It’s been a long process and I thank those who was part of the process,” said District 3 representative Patricia Paige. “Everything that I got out of this, I need to know about the ‘how to’ in this.

“Some of these things can be used to enhance,” she continued. “But as I look at it, it may be better for the citizens’ advisory board to take on this project.”

“I think it’s time for us to look at this and move forward, whether we agree with this or not,” Lockwood chimed in. “This is not an overnight process just like the Internet, and neither is this plan. I’m looking to turn our weaknesses into strengths.”

“The frustration I have about this document is that I’m being told that there is ‘distrust’ and I’m not being told how to fix it,” Evelyn commented. “This is a good document but I’m not being provided the information I asked for with my question of distrust.”

The plan was approved unanimously 5-0 by county leaders. In other action by the board:

–Forwarded a plan to provide funding (up to $10,000 grant and a $10,000 loan) to create a program the railway crossing assistance grant and loan program guidelines. The program will be a stop gap as local leaders will be requesting for railroad crossings to have guards and barriers. The grant would allow for lights and warnings while government leaders work for the additional safety measures. The recommendation comes as a result of several accidents that resulted in fatalities on private roads to populated areas in the county.