The following op-ed is sponsored by the Pageland Farmers & Stakeholders

Members of the Board,

We are representatives of over 100+ landowners who strongly support the approval of the exciting and important PW Digital Gateway Comprehensive Plan Amendment (CPA). We have lived here from recent times to generations ago – some as far back as the late 1800s. Many of us remember when Pageland was truly a Lane and supported nothing but large farms, including the Marsh Farm – which is now Heritage Hunt patio homes and a golf club.

There is a vocal minority (some of whom are from Fauquier) who have systematically targeted us and some members of the Board. Most recently, this same small group has sought petitions to remove Ann Wheeler and Pete Candland from office. Many view this as a desperate and blatant effort to threaten and intimidate you into doing exactly what they want – rather than what you conclude is right for the County as a whole. They have misled you and the public with false “facts” and fear mongering. They think that if they say it often and angrily enough, these misrepresentations and lies will become more convincing.

Who really opposes the Digital Gateway?

There are 470,000 county residents. The core group you hear from constantly are fewer than 100 people from Heritage Hunt.

They slander us as being greedy shysters and worse, in print and in public statements. Throughout this process (since last November), we have repeatedly asked to meet with the Heritage Hunt community and have been refused by representatives of its “Board” and “Committee.” Their most egregious lie is that they represent the majority of PWC residents. They do not. We have closely monitored Public Comment time for many months, as well as editorial opinion pieces. At the most recent BOCS meeting, 49 speakers supported the Gateway and 24 opposed it. So, let’s have an honest reality check.

Let’s consider who they really are. According to HH’s own 2021 survey, 83% of its residents moved here from other VA counties or out of state. They exercised their property rights and sold their previous homes at a profit and fight to deny us the same opportunity. Their survey notes that 43% moved here within the last 2 years, and 12% within the last 4-6 years. They live in a gated community protecting them from crime and do not have school age children. None of them opposed the Gainesville Crossing Data Center campus, which is nearby the HH community, Conway Robinson State Forest and adjacent to the MNBP.

They believe that our land is there for their benefit and enjoyment – their “neighborhood.” However, we cannot benefit from or even enter their gated community. All we get is fertilizer and pesticide runoff from their golf course onto our lands and into our streams that they scream need protecting from Prince William’s generational farmers and landowners.

Then there are the professional “just say no to change” naysayers who oppose everything and refuse to acknowledge the changes underway in PWC. Many of them claim to be the “true experts” on everything from technology to the environment. Many of the “truths” they espouse are designed to incite and mislead the public with false facts, which are directly counter to the CPA details.

And, of course, we cannot leave out the special interest groups whose focus  is securing contributions to pay its staff to continue to oppose projects in areas where they don’t even live! 

This core group claims that professional and objective County staff and you are “not listening to them.” What does this mean? That you are not capitulating to vitriol and criticism.  That you are exercising leadership and demonstrating strength against bullying naysayers who have no plans to support Prince William, have their gates and no need to support our working families, to lower our residential tax base to realize the fiscal benefits of high technology, jobs, funds for our schools, teachers, parks, affordable housing (they don’t need affordable  housing for themselves so why should anyone else have that help?),  They insist that this  Board immediately deny the most significant economic opportunity ever presented to Prince William, without weighing its tremendous benefits and opportunities, because they have exclusive pools and club houses and golf courses and want to pull up the ladder and shut their gates

These bullying opponents now claim that the editor of the PW Times is Chair Wheeler’s flunky? Really? If so, then why does the Times publish all the opposition’s op-eds repeatedly and decline to publish many of ours? And why is Peter Carey’s biased reporting (quoting the opponents) then conveniently cited as “fact” and gospel by the same opponents?

These  elitists “ just moved into the County and I’ve got mine, I’m set, so time to pull up the ladder on hard-working, blue-collar families” “ opponents expect the County to just bend to their screaming voices and circumvent our objective and expert land use planning processes – “just say no!” They have made their opinions known repeatedly at forums, meetings, public comment time, and through the media, affording themselves every opportunity to be “listened to.” They berate you, County staff and us, because we aren’t immediately capitulating and running scared to their bullying tactics.  They are resorting to desperate measures, because you have strength, wisdom and vision to think about the long-term benefits for our families. You are wrong because you have the audacity to question their baseless claims, to discern the facts, to exercise strength, judgement and leadership, as you were elected to do as you took an oath to do. Be proud and stay strong for the great majority of Prince William.  Don’t given in to loud bullying. 

“We explain when someone is cruel or acts like a bully, you do not stoop to their level. Our motto is when they go low, you go high.” ― Michelle Obama

“Leadership means firmness, not harshness or bullying; understanding, not weakness; justice, not irresponsible freedom; humaneness, not intolerance; generosity, not selfishness; pride, not egotism.” — Omar N. Bradley

It’s  time to create an opportunity zone out of this “exclusionary” zone. 

Thank you for your service,

Page Snyder, Mary Ann Ghadban

Pageland Owners

Pageland Community Leadership