Editor’s note: This article is part of a series by Potomac Local News introducing candidates for the Stafford County Board of Supervisors. This fall, voters will choose representatives for the Garrisonville, Hartwood, Falmouth, and Aquia Districts. To help local voters learn more about their candidates, Potomac Local News invited all Board of Supervisors candidates to a virtual interview with the same five questions. Their answers have been condensed for clarity. The remaining candidates either declined, had scheduling conflicts, or did not respond.
Videos of the interviews are available.
Today’s topic: With continued growth, how can the county preserve its natural spaces, protect parks, and maintain its rural character for future generations?
Michael Catell (R), Falmouth: 
You’ve got to have balance…we cannot develop every single parcel of land. I’m aware that the county currently has a purchase program to protect agricultural areas, and I believe the program is working. Green space is part of the quality of life, just as much as an excellent education for our children, just as much as economic development is for our families.
Kecia Evans (D), Falmouth: 
You have to work with the Department of Parks and Rec, and you have to work with the people to make sure that we are still keeping green space. By working with the county, having the experts do their jobs, and also making sure that we are accepting commercial businesses that have the same goals, like making sure that we have good, clean energy. Also working with our delegates, you know, making sure that the laws and the regulations that they are proposing for the localities have the same goals.
Kelly Robertson (I), Hartwood: 
Hartwood has a green district, where our farming communities are and our acreage is. We have this amazing green wave from Fauquier into Stafford on 17 South. I had reached out to [current supervisor Darryl English] over the last few years about the initiatives Fairfax took in Clifton in order to preserve that. We have a very diverse district, and we need to look at what services are missing. We have a lack of park services where we’re building residential, dense construction, and in those targeted growth areas we need to make sure we’re carving out green spaces. We can’t afford to pour all of the money we would like into these, so we should look at opportunities for [public-private] partnerships to provide more services. In Curtis Park or Lake Mooney, we could bring in canoes and kayaks and have a private service do rentals, to give people more opportunities for entertainment and healthy activities in Stafford. There’s a lot of small missed opportunities we need to take advantage of.
Marcus Oates (I), Hartwood: 
That preservation is very important, and there are all kinds of programs that residents can take advantage of. My job as an elected official would be to inform the residents of those opportunities, and be the voice for residents, specifically speaking for Hartwood.
Bart Randall (I), Garrisonville: 
I would minimize opportunities to expand the urban services area, where water and sewer are available down the I-95 corridor. We keep developments in the urban services area, and stop them from being built out into the community. If we want to protect the rural environment, we need to be able to approve developments inside the urban services area. According to our comprehensive plan, we are hundreds of acres short for Parks and Recreation land, and I don’t see a dedicated effort by our current board to fix that.
Hank Scharpenberg (R), Aquia: 
There are literally thousands of homes yet to be built on land that’s been bought up by developers. If that’s done, we’ve eliminated a large amount of green space. I’d like to have informed open discussions and see if the developers would be willing to trade land for increased density. If they have 1,000 acres, we let you increase the density on a certain portion of that, and turn the rest of the land over to open space that doesn’t get developed. There’s a lot of innovative suggestions we can look at if we’re willing to talk to people, entertain suggestions, and open it up to public input. We can’t continue as we’re going right now because we’re going to lose a good percentage of our open space if we do nothing at all.
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👉 Coming tomorrow: In our final installment, candidates reveal their top priorities if elected and the kind of leadership they would bring to the Board of Supervisors.
