Staunton City Council declared this week, with its vote to approve a special use permit for the development of McIntosh Village, a planned 267-unit housing development, that a young boy’s life doesn’t matter, that the residents of Green Spring Valley, Middlebrook, and Shenandoah Heights don’t matter, but a millionaire with a “concept” of a plan can get everything he wants.
This is what is wrong with this country.
Justin Shimp, with Shimp Engineering, speaking for the developer, Staunton Augusta Properties, when asked how long this project will take, answered “two or three, or maybe five years.”
That little boy who lives on Gloria Place will be unable to go out and play because of all the dust in the air, for up to five years?
Shimp hasn’t even done a site survey to determine how rocky the ground is, but those rocks extend out to homes on Middlebrook – whose actual foundations are built around those rocks. A blast scenario like we saw with Middlebrook Trace could destroy their foundations.
The blasting of rocks causes high levels of radon – one person who lives behind Meadowbrook Trace saw their radon levels skyrocket to 13.3, where the safe level is 3.5-4. They had to spend $1,400 retrofitting their home to ameliorate the issue. When they start blasting to put in those 267 homes, everyone in the area will have the potential for increased radon levels because the Shenandoah Valley sits in a high potential radon area.
Mayor Michele Edwards and Councilman Adam Campbell saw the foundation issues firsthand, saw the issues with traffic – Charles Place and Moore Avenue were proposed as alternatives; those roads barely fit one car. We thought they heard us, but our detailed research and requests fell on deaf ears.
When asked who will pay for damages to homes or increase in radon, they were told that they would have to bring a civil suit against the builders – how is this protecting the taxpayers who live here?
Shimp used veiled threats to get his way. Instead of having to preserve the land because of his “planned community,” he threatened to develop *all* the land – but based on the map shown, the land he would have to develop to put in 267 homes and follow the R2 Zoning Laws is currently undevelopable and too expensive to do. Anyone with half a brain could see that it wouldn’t be economically viable for him to do so.
The City Council went ahead and voted to put through the special use permit anyway, despite not one person at that meeting defending this.
Millionaires win again, while everyday taxpayers get screwed.
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