Our Region

PEC focuses on nine counties and one city in the northern Piedmont of Virginia: Albemarle, Charlottesville, Clarke, Culpeper, Fauquier, Greene, Loudoun, Madison, Orange, and Rappahannock.

We also team with local organizations to promote thriving communities and healthy natural resources in a much larger region, including the Shenandoah Valley, the central Piedmont, and the Journey Through Hallowed Ground Corridor. In addition, we are proud to serve as fiscal sponsor of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, an organization that focuses on land use and policy in the greater Washington D.C. area.

Update on Data Center Development and Transmission Lines in Fauquier

Update on Data Center Development and Transmission Lines in Fauquier

Fauquier County is under incredible pressure from energy infrastructure facilities to serve data center growth in Northern Virginia and from data center development projects within its own borders. Here is information about the proposed data center developments, an update on the new transmission line threat and PEC’s recommendation going forward.

Virginia Grassland Bird Initiative offers financial incentives for delayed haying and summer pasture stockpiling

Virginia Grassland Bird Initiative offers financial incentives for delayed haying and summer pasture stockpiling

Now through Nov 15, the Virginia Grassland Bird Initiative (VGBI) is accepting applications from producers in 16 counties across the northern Virginia Piedmont, Blue Ridge, and Shenandoah Valley, who are interested in financial incentives for protecting nesting grassland birds during the 2025 haying season.

Town of Orange Comprehensive Plan Community Meeting

Town of Orange Comprehensive Plan Community Meeting

This text was taken from an email alert sent out on Sept. 16, 2024. Sign up for email alerts →

main street usa streetscape with blue sky and road signs crosssing that say E Main Street and Short Street
Share how you’d like the Town of Orange to look in the future at a community meeting, Sept. 23. Photo by Sophia Chapin/PEC.

Dear Supporter,

The Town of Orange is seeking input from residents on its Comprehensive Plan, next Monday, Sept. 23, at a community meeting hosted by the Town of Orange Planning Commission. The chance to update the Comprehensive Plan only comes around every five years, so if you care about making Orange an even better place to live, you should definitely attend!

The Comprehensive Plan is a critically important document that represents the community’s vision for the future of Orange. It sets the framework for how land is used, identifies needed improvements to public facilities and programs, and it guides policy priorities and decisions around growth and development for the next 5–20 years.

Town of Orange Community Meeting

Monday, Sept. 23 @ 6–8 p.m.
Town of Orange Community Room
235 Warren Street, Orange

We hope that as new land use proposals come before the town, the updated Comprehensive Plan will help steer future economic growth and residential development, including affordable housing, into the town’s existing developed areas. PEC believes a mix of redevelopment and infill, developing vacant or underutilized parcels within existing developed areas, helps to improve infrastructure and quality of life for residents while preserving a town’s architectural assets.

Photo by Sophia Chapin/PEC.

The Town Wants to Hear From You

As a resident, you now have the chance to weigh in on the updated Comprehensive Plan, which will shape how Orange moves forward over the next 20 years. A lot is at stake, including how we will protect natural resources, ensure a healthy and vibrant quality of life and thriving economy for everyone, address the impacts of a changing environment, and preserve the town’s rural, historic character. Review the draft updates → 

The community meeting is designed to help the Town Planner and the Planning Commission better understand community needs and priorities, especially on: 

  • Economy
  • Public Facilities/Infrastructure
  • Education
  • Transportation
  • Architectural Assets and Aesthetics
  • Environment 
  • Town-County Partnerships
  • Public Safety/Fire and Rescue/Community Health/Government
  • Arts
  • Population/Demographics/Housing
  • Recreation

Planning Commissioners will welcome everyone to the meeting and give a brief overview of the process before inviting attendees to move around the room and visit different tables focused on these topics. You can visit each table, hear what the Planning Commission is proposing and respond in real time to the representative at that table. They hope to collect the feedback and continue working on a draft into the winter, but this may be one of the only chances to have this level of direct engagement in the process. There will be no online or virtual component to this event.


Please share this email with friends, family and neighbors so more voices can be heard early on. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out, and I hope to see you on Sept. 23.

Sincerely,

Don McCown 
Land Use Field Representative 
Orange & Madison Counties
[email protected] 
(434) 977-2033 x7047