The proposed Birdhill residential subdivision is, to me, a quintessential example of lousy planning.

It is to be located at Kearneysville, fronting on West Virginia Route 480, and is to hold 720 housing units. Some are to be single family, others multifamily.

Several weeks ago about 85 people showed up at a meeting of the Jefferson County Planning Commission, most to register their disapproval of the proposal. The meeting lasted several hours, at which many objections to Birdhill were offered by those in attendance.

The developers of the subdivision headed off one major objection by withdrawing a request for a variance from having to check to see if there’s a graveyard on the property. They said they might renew that request at a later date. As there seems to be fairly strong evidence that there might indeed be a graveyard there, suspicion was aroused that the developers might be waiting for a future meeting with a smaller crowd.

One objection raised was to the ability of Route 480, in its present condition, to handle the additional traffic that would be caused by Birdhill. The developers promised to work with the West Virginia Division of Highways (WVDOH) to reconfigure Route 480. The final decision as to when that might occur is entirely up to the WVDOH.

West Virginia is one of only four states that has no county or other locally maintained roads, other than city or town streets. The others are North Carolina, Virginia and Delaware. Every public road outside a municipality is a state road. Neither the Jefferson County Commission nor the Planning Commission can order the WVDOH to make a change in any state road.

Some of the roads maintained by the state are called “county” roads, because they once were. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, many counties in our state were on the verge of bankruptcy, and the state took over all county maintained roads to help counties financially.

An even more serious problem may be the railroad underpass to which Birdhill would be essentially adjacent. It would take a fortune to widen that underpass (called a “subway” by longterm residents of Kearneysville). Railroad crossings are strictly under the control of the railroad by federal law, and I suspect that even if the railroad were to agree to widen that underpass, the state would have to agree to pay for it. The railroad might not even then agree to widen that underpass, as it might cause delays in commercial rail traffic.

The reason we have planning and zoning laws is to guide us to find the best location for a particular type and size of development. There are plenty of places in our county for a development the size of Birdhill. I believe no development with anywhere near 720 homes should be put at that location.

Our county will certainly grow, and we need more affordable housing. But we cannot simply approve every proposed development unquestioned, which is what many people with whom I’ve talked think is now happening.

John Doyle is a 26-year former member of the West Virginia House of Delegates. He can be reached at rjohndoyle@comcast.net.