Home Land: What Does It Mean To Be Rural?
Your Clarke County; Understanding the past, present, and future through the comprehensive plan
Story and photographs by Jennifer M. Lee
Whether you have lived here all your life, moved recently into a town neighborhood with your young family, grew up here at some pivotal point in life, or in any way found yourself knowing Clarke County in a more than passing way, you know that it is a unique place.
This year, Clarke Monthly will take a deep look at the county — its geography, people, economy — with the Clarke County Comprehensive Plan as our reference and guide on its history and vision for sustainable future. Clarke County adopted its initial comprehensive plan in June 1974, and it has been updated over the years, most recently in 2022. Code of Virginia requires that every county have a comprehensive plan and that planning commissions review their plans at least once every five years in order to determine whether it is advisable to make changes.
The ”Comp Plan” shouldn’t be confused with the zoning ordinance. From the county’s website: The Clarke County Comprehensive Plan maps the future of land use in the county. This long-range Plan captures the county’s vision, projects the necessary resources to make this vision happen, and provides strategies and recommendations to make the vision a successful reality.” The zoning ordinance contains the laws and regulations governing the use of land in the unincorporated areas of the County. It does not apply to properties located in the towns of Berryville and Boyce.
With 15,466 people estimated to live in the county in 2023, Clarke is the 97th most populated jurisdiction of 95 counties and 38 independent cities (such as Winchester, Richmond, Harrisonburg) in Virginia. Comprising 178 square miles (114,103 acres), it is the 42nd smallest of all counties and independent cities in land area. Arlington is the smallest county by land area with 26 square miles; Pittsylvania in south-central Virginia is the largest at 969 square miles. In comparison, neighboring Loudoun County comprises 515 square miles with 338,916 people; Frederick is 413 square miles with 80,377 people; Warren is 213 square miles with 38,142 people.
Statistics don’t define a place, but they do help us understand the changing needs and character of it. So do the people. Clarke County has been home to Native Americans inhabiting the river banks and mountain land over 10,000 years ago. Immigrants from Germany, Ireland, Scotland, Denmark, and England came here 400 years ago. Clarke County was formed in 1836, and the first census in 1840 showed 55 percent of the population to be African American with the vast majority being enslaved at that time. According to 1860 census data, Clarke County had the largest percentage of land in farms and ranked second in wheat production in the Shenandoah Valley, with wheat being the largest cash crop until the early 1900s, when it was replaced by apple production. In the late 20th century, an increasing number of people moved to the county to construct or buy new homes, prompting the county to enact new land use regulations in 1980 to limit residential growth in rural areas and focus new housing in the Berryville area.
Compared to our neighbors to the east (Loudoun County) and west (Frederick County), Clarke County has experienced relatively low population growth, with an increase of 16 percent between 2000 and 2020, while Loudoun’s population increased 119 percent and Winchester and Frederick County grew by 40 percent in that time. According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2019 American Community Survey Estimates, nearly 70 percent of Clarke County residents worked outside the county, with Loudoun and Fairfax counties being the primary workplace locations (Virginia Employment Commission).
An agricultural county
The Comprehensive Plan states that agriculture is still one of the county’s main sources of income, although statistics from the Virginia Employment Commission show that less than 5 percent of jobs are in agriculture, forestry, fishing, or hunting in contrast to 19 percent in public administration and 17 in manufacturing.
Seventy-three percent of the County is zoned Agricultural Open Conservation (west of the Shenandoah) and 23 Forestal Open Conservation (east of the Shenandoah), with a hefty 77 percent of all county land in 20+ acre lots. Urban Residential (parcels in Berryville and Boyce) comprise one percent of county land, Suburban Residential (parcels less than 6 acres) comprise 6.7, Rural Residential (parcels between 6 and 20 acres) comprise 9, and Commercial (towns, highway, neighborhood) comprises less than one percent. The remaining 6 percent is comprised of government-owned parcels, roads, and the Shenandoah River.
For many years, state agencies and land trusts worked with county property owners to voluntarily place land in conservation easement, and the county created the Conservation Easement Authority in 2002 to oversee its own easement program. This program limits future development on parcels of agricultural, natural resource, and historic value. An impressive 24 percent of all county land is now in permanent
conservation easement.
What does rural mean
There was a time when rural meant primarily working lands, with small towns serving as the commercial center for the surrounding countryside. People went into town to get what they needed. Many rural towns also had some level of industry and warehousing close to railroad depots.
The automobile changed that. There were roadhouses, dance halls, tack shops, and all manner of businesses in the countryside that had nothing to do with working lands. Nowadays, rural areas try to retain areas of prime soils for agriculture, even if properties in those areas are not currently farming. The idea is, once they are gone for other uses there is no getting them back.
“Rural” today is also a census designation based on population density. Rural zoning designations often reflect local desire to subdivide only into large lots as a way to retain “rural character,” reduce the need for schools and high-speed roads in far flung places, and provide environmental benefits like groundwater recharge and wildlife habitat. Today, rural is a decision — it both enables traditional agriculture economies and determines what kind of housing can be built and the types of businesses can be operated within certain zones.
Our county remains rural because that’s the way we like it. What will the future bring? With open-mindedness, community participation, and foresight, it can be steered to reflect the wants and needs of the people and the land we live on. The county’s comprehensive plan is a detailed, thoughtful, and highly informative document. It states: “The purpose of this plan is to guide land-use decisions, both public and private, as they relate to the specific goals of the County.” As such, county residents have the privilege — duty, even — to understand the plan. It is a 133-page document. We hope to distill it into bites you can chew on and digest. We encourage you to check out the plan in its entirety here: https://www.clarkecounty.gov/government/
planning-zoning.
Sources:
2022 Clarke County Comprehensive Plan
US Census Bureau’s 2023 Population Estimates Program, https://www.virginia-demographics.com/counties_by_population