Presented by Tom Olivier
Conservation and Political Chair for the Sierra Piedmont Group

9-13-2006

I am Tom Olivier, a member of the executive committee of the Piedmont Group of the Sierra Club. We are an environmental organization with over 1000 members in this region.

The Piedmont Group of the Sierra Club endorses the proposal by Advocates for a Sustainable Albemarle Population for an amendment to the Albemarle County comprehensive plan that requires the county identify a sustainable, optimum population size for our community and then use this size as a guiding factor in land use decision making. At this moment, our quality of life and the existence of local natural systems are threatened by ongoing growth. Although Albemarle County policies contain many commitments to maintaining our quality of life and commitments to protecting our water, air and biological resources, reviews of development proposals do not sufficiently consider impacts of growth on our quality of life and local natural resources. The ASAP proposal will require full costs of growth be considered in land use planning. It is a logical next step in the evolution of our land use decision-making process.

The Piedmont Group of the Sierra Club also supports mountain protection and phasing and clustering of residential building in our rural areas. The population size comprehensive plan amendment should be pursued in a process consistent with near term adoption of mountain protection, phasing and clustering.

We commend ASAP for the leadership it has shown in developing this essential population size proposal. We urge all Albemarle residents tell their supervisors to support the ASAP proposal.