var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-23660351-1']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })(); Rural Crescent in 2007
2013 Rural Crescent Study
PWCA Preliminary Comments on the Rural Crescent Study
Rural Crescent Myths & Facts
Why Do We Have a Rural Crescent?
Rural Crescent in the News
2006 Proposals to Amend the Comprehensive Plan in the Rural Crescent
All 2006 Comprehensive Plan Amendment Applications
Quick information about the Comprehensive Plan
Get the news, receive our e-newsletter here.

The Rural Crescent

The Rural Crescent generally includes lands located south of the Route 234 corridor and west of Route 15. However, some properties - notably Dominion Valley, South Market and Bristoe Village - were ‘cut out’ of the Rural Crescent before it was adopted by the Board of Supervisors in 1998.

The county’s designated rural area, better known as the Rural Crescent, covers approximately 80,000 acres. Even so, not all this land is subject to Rural Crescent densities. Some properties were already developed at greater than the Rural Crescent densities of one home for every ten acres.

Others, including many parcels that might appear undeveloped to the casual observer, were already zoned for higher densities. These can develop accordingly at any time. Also, some family subdivisions have resulted in development rights for increased densities.

No one knows how much Rural Crescent land - properties that must be developed at densities no greater than one home per every 10 acres - is left.

Despite the lack of information assessing the value of the Rural Crescent, anecdotal evidence shows that the Rural Crescent has been instrumental in changing the county’s reputation from the home of low-end retail to a quality community that is attractive to a broad range of commercial development.

Rural Crescent densities have kept traffic impacts to a minimum. Virginia’s current transportation deficit is astounding. It is clear that managing land uses is the most cost effective tool available to localities.

The Prince William County Comprehensive Plan already plans for more houses than infrastructure can support. Good planning now can create great new neighborhoods with van pools and attractive Omnilink service, and minimize future highway construction and maintenance costs.

The Rural Crescent has created opportunities for a diversity of residential housing, including executive housing. The Rural Crescent has protected green, open space in a county where no other vehicle exists to conserve important resources. The Rural Crescent has helped protect our public water supply, scenic viewsheds and the rural character of west Prince William.

Protecting the Rural Crescent protects our wallets as well as our watersheds. The Rural Crescent is working for Prince William not against us.

Local officials are planning to debate the merits of Prince William’s Rural Crescent during 2006. Share your views with your neighbors and Prince William officials. Every voice counts.

Click here to read about developer's 2006 applications to amend the Comprehensive Plan or more about the applications to remove land from the Rural Crescent.

The Rural Crescent in the News:

Rural Crescent faces change
Chad Umble, Potomac News; May 15 2005
Whether they know it as the Rural Crescent, Rural Croissant, Rural Subdivision or simply as the Rural Area, many in Prince William County have a love affair with an 80,000-acre swath of land across the southern and western part of the county. But like many love affairs, this one is showing signs of age. After seven years, many residents, county officials and developers are vaguely dissatisfied with the Rural Crescent; yet they remain fiercely loyal to using the area to preserve the county's rural heritage in the face of rapid growth.

Rural Crescent remains unchanged
Chad Umble, Potomac News; March 17 2005
Prince William County 's Rural Crescent found a host of defenders among residents and supervisors this week, as four proposals to build more houses in the area failed. Two of the proposals that called for higher-density development in the Rural Crescent were withdrawn the day before the supervisors' meeting, the third did not make it to a vote and the fourth failed to pass.

DEVELOPERS CAST EYE AT RURAL CRESCENT
Lillian Kafka, Potomac News; March 10 2005
Prince William County is quickly running out of land planned for two-acre lot subdivisions, so developers are turning to farmland to satisfy the bullish housing market, said one attorney representing two of nine land use applications up for review next week. The only problem is that farmland in Prince William's "Rural Crescent" is only allowed to be developed at one house per 10 acres, a mixture that fetches about the same amount as a custom home on about two acres, said Jay du Von.

BATTLE BEGINS OVER SEWER IN THE RURAL CRESCENT
Tara Slate Donaldson, Gainesville Times; Feb 17 2005
In debating the issue, supervisors briefly touched on the larger question of whether sewer lines should be allowed in the Rural Crescent at all. That issue is likely to resurface later in the spring when the board takes up sewer lines again. ...Instead, the board voted to hold a work session to determine how and when exemptions should be granted. Public input will be sought. Covington said Wednesday that he's going to keep talking about the issue. "What I wanted to do is get the facts out on how many problems are out there," he said of the failing drainfields and privies that dot the landscape throughout his district. "Everyone seems afraid to talk about it."

PRINCE WILLIAM'S RURAL CRESCENT
Kim Hosen, Gainesville Times; Jan 26 2005
The county received nine applications to change the Comprehensive Plan. Several proposals, covering nearly 900 acres, request increased densities that range from one home per acre to three homes per acre for properties inside the Rural Crescent.

DEBATE TO BEGIN OVER RURAL CRESCENT SEWER LINES
Lillian Kafka, Potomac News; Feb 6 2004
On Tuesday the Board of County Supervisors will consider the first step toward overturning the Planning Commission's decision to allow the sewer line extension, which is about 200 feet across the eastern Rural Crescent boundary near Va. 28.