Dean of James City supervisors says purposeful growth is key to county character

It's Aug. 17. Chair McGlennon, longest serving board member, says some growth is OK,but should be purposeful. York Sheriff looks for 20-year-old man in murder of Williamsburg area teenager.

John McGlennon in office with bumper sticker, left, on Busch Gardens ride, right. (Williamsburg Watch and McGlennon photos)

Ask James City Board of Supervisors Chair John McGlennon how the county has changed during his nearly three decades on the board, and he begins with the reason many people came here in the first place:

They wanted a community with a small-town quality.

The problem, McGlennon says, is that the growth produced by that appeal can threaten the character residents came looking for. It can also produce backlash.

Bill Brown, who served as county planning director when James City County had only a quarter of its current population, had already seen existing residents complaining about new development more than 40 years ago. Brown called it “The drawbridge syndrome” or “The Oregon syndrome”—a tendency for newcomers to oppose new arrivals they fear will change the character of the community.

“A certain amount of growth is inevitable and good,” McGlennon says during a recent interview with Williamsburg Watch. But he says it should serve a purpose rather than simply bring more of what the county already has.