Stafford County Board of Supervisors Chairman Mark “Mudslide” Dudenhefer clearly doesn’t want to deal with the mudslides and sinkholes threatening his constituents’ homes. While these families are about to lose everything they own due to a catastrophe caused by a lack of county government oversight of developers and Stafford’s lax regulations over builders — Mudslide Mark is more focused on his political career advancement trying to grab the newly created 2nd Virginia House District seat.

Here’s a report from WJLA on a recent mudslide that destroyed several families homes in the Austin Ridge community of Stafford County:

At a recent town meeting with county officials, the affected families received few answers on the cause of the mudslide. The responses they received from Dudenhefer and other county officials were useless and the meeting seemed to resemble the late 70s game of Pass the Buck.

So the developer had a permit to build a retaining wall, providing support to what appears to have been a pretty steep slope, and county officials can’t confirm if it was ever inspected. If they can’t confirm it was ever inspected, can they confirm one was ever built?

As we recently tried to explain to Mudslide Mark, regarding our schools, accountability doesn’t come cheap.

As the ground steadily slides down the hill taking all the families assets with it, Mudslide Mark is more concerned with scrambling to cover his own ass(ets) then trying to help the families. Unfortunately for these devastated constituents, the best that Dudenhefer will offer is an anemic off-loading of responsibility. “The board will decide what can or can’t take place,” Dudenhefer said. He went on to say, “any perception that we’re ignoring or not dealing with it are not true. There’s meetings…ways to help.”

Meetings? That’s the best Dudenhefer can offer to these displaced families? How about a top-to-bottom investigation of the permit office that can’t seem to find the inspection of the retaining wall? How about rolling back the lax ordinances that allowed builders to construct homes on such risky sites? Oh right, Mudslide Mark is too busy gunning for a promotion and collecting big developer dollars for his delegate campaign to allow himself to be distracted with the real problems of his current constituents.

Let’s not forget, it was Mudslide Mark who was at the center of helping to overturn several county ordinances that dealt with maximum slope steepness and setback for resource protection areas (see Potomac Resource Protection District).

Mudslide Mark may not care about residents in his district, but he cares about his developer buddies. Someone’s got to fund his campaigns. After all, limiting what a lot yields (20 units vs. 100 units) would seriously dampen developer profits. Screw the homeowners who may one day see their piece of the American dream drift away into the mud.

In general, it is our understanding, that current county development ordinances prohibit building on slopes 35% or greater. As we just explained-due to the fact that most of the stable land in the county has already been developed-slope steepness is of great interest to developers trying to maximize profits in the county.

Other issues that arise from slope steepness are environmental (e.g. runoff) and safety concerns (e.g. mudslides).

In addition to the angle of the slope, ordinances must consider soil types when determining suitability for development. Ever try building a sand castle and then dumping water on it? Sandy soils are typically less stable then dense clay. Generally sandy soils on steep slopes require extensive engineering to assure stability of construction. Of course, this safety factor adds to the cost of construction and cuts into builder’s profits. When builders complained about this to Dudenhefer, his door and campaign war chest were wide open.

An issue of safety should never be subject to political back-scratching and pocket-filling. Common sense — and common decency — are needed. Mudslide Mark Dudenhefer is far too concerned with filling his campaign coffers versus finding a balanced approach that allows for future development, but also keeps residents safe and our environment clean.

It’s time to hold Mudslide Mark accountable!

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