Development Tale Rings All Too True
I read the guest column "To Take Trees Is to Hurt Trust," by Elaine Wolfe Komarow and Mike Cavin, with great interest [Fairfax Extra, Feb. 3]. My amazement grew bigger and bigger as I read each paragraph, because the content reflected my experience of the last three years almost to the letter. If the place name "goat farm" were exchanged with "Deepwood Farm," I would have insisted that one of my neighbors had written this column.
Deepwood Farm is a new 10-acre development in the subdivision called Little Rocky Run, south of Lee Highway and west of Union Mill Road. The developer is Equity Homes. The land adjacent to my house used to be a native hardwood forest of many decades. During the last three years, I have attended a public hearing, written letters to county site development services officials and talked to the site inspector many times, pointing out the discrepancies between the proffer and the practice of the developer.
None of my complaints made any difference. Right before construction started, the forestry service came out and put ribbons on certain trees. I was told that those were to be preserved. No such thing happened. Bulldozers raged clean the entire area. When I asked about the ribbons, the forester said it was merely for identification. My question is, why is my tax money spent to identify trees that are razed clean?
There was supposed to be an undisturbed buffer of at least 10 feet "to establish the limits of clearing and grading" between my house and the new project. When heavy equipment razed this part, I called the Equity Homes director of the site, and he did not even know there was supposed to be a buffer.
When I talked to the county site inspector, my feeling was that she was just busy explaining how the developer was doing everything according to the approved plan, and I was the one who did not understand. According to her, the "undisturbed" buffer mentioned in the proffer did not mean anything.
Those big old trees are all gone. They cannot be replaced. A single line of 6-foot evergreens will not replace those destroyed trees no matter how many years you wait. The land-use process in our county is a disaster, and we need to raise our voices together to demand a change before it's too late.
Kyung Hi Kim
Clifton
