Commentary: 5 Biggest Issues of 2024 in Williamsburg
Incumbents Win, School BFFs Again, Development Stalled, Housing Crunched and Someone Surveyed Somewhere
My completely biased and self-indulgent review of the top 5 issues in our historic city this year …
1. Incumbents are victorious in City Council election.
In November, the people of Williamsburg maintained the status quo, giving the nod of approval to the Williamsburg City Council. Two incumbents, Barbara Ramsey and Pat Dent, won re-election while a student, Ayanna Williams, received the most votes and basically replaces the prior de-facto student representative, Caleb Rogers.
That said, this election represented one of the most competitive the city’s seen in some time. Fraser Hudgins built on his success preserving the Spotswood golf course – which I’ll mention again later – but came up short in his efforts to win a seat on Council. (Disclosure: I volunteered time and donated money to Fraser’s campaign.)
Thank you to all the people who choose to serve their communities. Congratulations to the winners!
2. City Council rebuked over breaking up the joint school system.
To me, it’s no coincidence that the Williamsburg City Council announced shortly before the November elections that they were still in support of the joint school system with James City County. This was likely the one issue that could have provided a marked point of differentiation for their opponents in the upcoming election, most of whom had indicated their support for the joint school system.
The drama originally began back in 2023 with Williamsburg City Council’s public vote to study the feasibility of leaving the joint schools system run in partnership with James City County, claiming they wanted to understand whether an independent school system would produce better results for City students. Yet, in a great example of how Williamsburg leadership generally operates, they didn’t bother to let their partners in James City County know about the spectacle before-hand. In response, the Board of Supervisors in James City County quickly voted to exit the joint agreement at the end of the current deal. Whoops. That put the Williamsburg City Council immediately on their heels to explain how a city of 15,000 people planned to educate its children.
The school separation feasibility report issued by Council’s hand-picked consultants did little to alleviate concerns about an independent school district. It clearly became obvious to city leadership that the issue was a loser for them. Achievement gaps for Williamsburg students need to be addressed. But the careless manner in which city leadership approached the issue put the city in a worse position to negotiate a new contract.
3. High density development stalls amid public scrutiny.
We have to go back a bit further on this one to some point in early 2023 when City leadership likely thought they were poised to transform the face of the city with a wave of splashy land development projects. The Spotswood golf course development plan is a good example.
Even after opposition to the Spotwood project emerged, one local journalist I spoke with scoffed at the notion that the development could be stopped, calling it “a done deal” already worked out behind the scenes. Of course, the project never happened and Spotswood will remain a 9-hole golf course thanks to donated funds. I believe that result represents a turning point in the city, as people stepped up in multiple ways to voice concern for this project and offer better alternatives.
Fast forward to 2024 and one can list some of the major projects supported by City leadership that also failed to materialize thanks to continued dogged participation in the background by members of the local community. These projects include a large high-density, mixed-use commercial venture on Colonial Williamsburg owned-property near the site of the sports complex and an ill-conceived deal involving city-owned land with a local developer who served on the Planning Commission at the time.
Despite these setbacks, current City leadership and Colonial Williamsburg clearly have more development in mind. Instead of the City’s habit of springing “done deals” on the public, there needs to be greater clarity to the development process in Williamsburg. This needs to include early and often disclosure of discussions with developers and institutional land owners, so that these interactions don’t later serve to undermine public trust in the process.
4. Affordable housing shortage pits town versus gown.
A lack of affordable housing has reached a critical point in the City. Local residents complain about overcrowded off-campus student housing. William and Mary students counter that they often have little choice due to the school’s housing policies and point out the slum-like conditions they’re forced to accept are typically ignored by the City.
Unfortunately, rather than focusing on using its extensive power to identify and enforce housing code violations, the City has undertaken a program meant to appease irresponsible landlords. Their Rent Ready program offers landlords the chance to rent to more people than currently allowed if they improve their properties to livable standards. Of course, many of those same landlords are currently making money hand over fist by renting slums to as many people as possible, so the effectiveness of the program is dubious.
Recent closures of dorms for renovations by the College have only made the situation worse. But think again if you hope there’s a light at the end of the tunnel in terms of less crowded student housing and neighborhoods. The school’s current building plan ultimately won’t add a single bed to the total number of beds available to students. If so, there’s no solution except to continue to have the surrounding neighborhoods absorb a large number of students. This dynamic, set up by the College and ignored by the City will stoke the tension between residents (of what they consider quiet neighborhoods) and the students who crave the conveniences of living near campus.
As discussed above, the City has supported more high density development but been unable to overcome consistent objections by city residents, which range from aesthetic to ecological to traffic. Much of the problem comes from long ignored issues with sidewalks, road design and traffic intersections finally catching up with City planners trying to find room to build that doesn’t already come with a list of festering neighborhood objections.
5. Someone, somewhere answered a survey about something.
The Williamsburg City Council recently released an expansive list of goals, initiatives and outcomes that numbered forty strong. The slick presentation, full of language reminiscent of corporate HR, claims to represent the will of the people – which the City collected in surveys that included mailed, online and in-person responses.
In fact, much ado has been made about these surveys by City leadership when justifying their economic development wish list. According to the GIO document, the mandate is to develop even more land and build even more expensive pet projects.
But questions surround the validity of the supposed survey results. Were they filled out by non-residents? How many people filled out each? How were the results of three different surveys (collected by three different methods) aggregated and weighted in decision making? These are but a few.
In order to alleviate concern that these surveys are nothing more than justification for their own priorities, the City Council should release the survey data sets for public review and discussion.
Update: fixed spelling errors in photo caption (12-24-24)
George Arbogust is Founder and Editor of the Williamsburg Independent. You can contribute too! Send stories and ideas to contact@williamsburgindependent.com.