Student Housing Moratorium

One thing I’ve mentioned in my campaign is a moratorium on rezoning for student housing. That’s not an anti-student stance, or even an anti-housing stance. Here’s what it means.

There are more student apartments in Harrisonburg right now than there are students. There will be for at least ten years, and for longer than that if developers build more.

We can’t flat out ban student housing, but we can stop rezoning more land for it.

The question nobody has answered about new student housing is this: Who moves into the old housing? If a development on South Main draws a thousand renters, who’s going to move into the empty apartments on Port Road? Will it be young men wanting to live closer to campus? Will it be families who can’t afford to live anywhere else? If the changes produce new costs for the city, who pays for them?

Those answers are a time bomb for Harrisonburg. We should stop rezoning land for new townhouses and apartments. We have plenty of that kind of housing in Harrisonburg, and the people building it have plenty of money.

Sparta to Harrisonburg, the principle's the same

Does voting really matter? (Longer version)

A lot of people think it doesn’t. There isn’t that much difference between the candidates, they’ll argue, and partisan districting means a Democrat may not win the 26th Delegate seat or the 6th Congressional District in our lifetimes.

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But it you’re getting this letter, it’s because you’re on the list of people who vote. You know it matters, and here’s why I think it does.

1985: Late precincts and worst election karma

The worst election I ever dealt with was probably the one where everybody got sick. Or maybe it was the one where Sid thought he’d won. There are so many different layers and types of worst that it’s hard to cut it fine enough. And there are too many ways to define awful.

But here’s one way. Stuff kept being stolen from my apartment in Petersburg. I hadn’t known my girlfriend that long and was starting to wonder if maybe I shouldn’t have given her a key. But it turned out that someone had a key to the vacant apartment next door, and was climbing into that attic and through the connecting space. I finally found out what was happening after I nailed the windows shut. The thief couldn’t get out the windows, so he had to scramble back out of the tiny attic opening in the bathroom. He turned over a set of shelves on the way out, and left footprints on the wall, evidence he’d never left before when he was dropping in and walking out onto the top of a connecting porch.

Vote Nov. 2: Fitzgerald for Council

I’m running for City Council in 2010.
As a council member, my training curve will be less steep than for most. I’ve served in the office for four years, 2000-2004. I have the experience, the knowledge, and the memories of what we did right and wrong in a tumultuous period for the city. During that time the council built a new high school and approved a new comprehensive plan for the city. We also voted to complete Heritage Oaks, a decision that I hope and believe most of my neighbors have come to accept as the only cost-effective option.
The main thrust of my campaign will be the future development of Harrisonburg. The Friendly City needs to continue to be the sum of its people, and not the sum of its strip malls, townhouses, student housing, and parking lots.
The city is developed to the point that any variance, special-use permit, or rezoning decision will have permanent consequences not just where it’s granted but for the city as a whole. Sometime in the next decade, we’ll be down to the last square mile of undeveloped land in the city. We need to plan more wisely, and more long-range. We are past the point as a city that development decision can be made based on friendships and the needs of the individual developer. It doesn’t help to be the City with the Planned Future if we don’t stick to that plan.
There are other challenges facing the city. Taxes and services cannot both continue to grow in a recovering economy. Police, fire, and rescue services need to meet the needs of our changing community without losing touch with that community. We need to make sure our roads meet the needs of the city’s drivers while working to encourage increased bicycle, bus, and pedestrian traffic. We need to continue looking for ways that recreation, especially the golf course, can pay for itself.