The Pollinator Problem

By Charles Houston

Let’s talk about sex.

A pollinator is anything that carries pollen from the male stamen of a flower to the female stigma of that or another flower. Honeybees are the most recognizable pollinator. Here’s the usual vision: Pastel flowers on knee-high stems, sprouting in a sunny garden. Bees and a few other friendly insects, perhaps butterflies or dragonflies, flitting and buzzing around the scene.

The image is appealing.

Flower Gardens

In recent years I hear less “flower garden” and more “pollinator.” Are people just showing off by using the botanical word? I often hear that term from the county’s custodians, the Supervisors. I especially hear it in zoning and land use cases. Who doesn’t want more flower gardens?

Developers have figured it out: Most requests for looser zoning or density-adding Special Exceptions emphasize that there’ll be a pollinator garden. Then watch a good number of the Supervisors swoon. The developer generally ends up getting whatever he wants. This happens time after time.

Fairfaxed

These scattered little pollinator gardens don’t mean Loudoun will become Eden. More accurately, following this path increases the likelihood that Loudoun becomes Fairfax.  Supervisors go ga-ga over any rezoning scheme that claims pollinator cred. The result is consistent approval of bad developments. If you doubt me, wait about three years and look at the sad Transition Policy Area between the suburban east and the mostly rural west. It will cease to exist as anything other than areas of banal subdivisions wedged between data centers, with a Sheetz or two around the corner.

An Unnecessary Celebration

It seems that at most Board hearings at least one Supervisor gushes after hearing some shyster or their shill brag about the generosity of their project. That tells me something concerning about the Supervisors’ decision-making: Few of them have deep enough understanding of the zoning ordinance. I also think that the County’s planners sometimes drop the ball, or lack in-depth knowledge.

It’s all so unnecessary. You don’t have to take my word for it, just look at the zoning code’s Chapter 7.04.07, Section B.2, Subsection f, paragraph 2. Or take an easier route and see what it says:

f. Native Plant and Pollinator Habitat Requirements. To support native plant and pollinator habitats, Plant units must be provided as follows:

2. Pollinator Habitat Requirement. A minimum of 75% of the small deciduous trees and shrubs provided must produce conspicuous flowers at some point during their growing season;

Simply, current zoning already requires pollinator habitats, so why give undeserved credit to a developer bragging about doing something he’s already required to do? Why doesn’t some staffer or Planning Commission member say, “Hold on, dude. Zoning makes you do that already.”

Exception Addiction

I’ve heard more than one Supervisor brag that the Board has not done a single residential rezoning in western Loudoun. That might be true, technically true, but why are we seeing so many new houses? Much is on grandfathered by-right lots and some may be via the Special Exception process. Developers beseech the Board for special favors of all sorts, and it looks like they are automatically granted. Shame, shame! How about something special for us ordinary voters, like lower taxes or reducing permitted residential density?

Why even bother with a zoning ordinance if you’re going to give special dispensations to every slickster who asks for one? I would love to see the statistics on the SPEX history. The County loves land use acronyms like SPEX, ZMOD, CPAM and ZOAMs. These can immensely effect land use, but they sound like video games and tend to make land-use issues even more opaque.

While I’m At It

With an upcoming $6.9 Billion budget, Loudoun is spending more than five U.S. states. 

In the past two decades Loudoun’s population has grown by 220,000 people. 

I think the current budget for Loudoun’s public schools has a $112 million increase over the prior year. Enrollment increased by 203 students.

Leesburg has just eliminated by-right status for data centers. Why doesn’t Loudoun? One possibility besides lack of will: Overly worried about lawsuits. Loudoun down-zoned once before and got sued. The County won.

In 2008 angry anti-sprawl voters ejected the entire Board of Supervisors.

Charlie Houston developed millions of square feet of significant office buildings throughout the South. The suburban buildings usually had grand landscaping budgets while the largest high rises also had monumental sculptures. While there were marketing reasons to spend that kind of money, it was the right thing to do.