Cellular phone towers are popping up like mushrooms. In counties to the north, like Loudon and Prince William, all of the local candidates are now campaigning against development. The interests of farmers are defended by candidates in terms of the farmers' inviolable right to develop land. The enemy is government, which might try to buy historic land or river frontage. Civil War preservation groups are an enemy as well, though not as notorious as government, despite the fact that they buy much larger pieces of land.
Environmental concerns are pretty much off the political map.
But there is some attempt at controlling development. For some this means that residential, commercial, and industrial growth should happen first where water and sewer services are closest. For several candidates, controlled growth means going out and soliciting desirable companies, namely computer companies, which have settled in Northern Virginia more than any other region of the country. Culpeper is currently renovating its downtown, and doing a terrific job of it. But there are a lot of empty lots in town, and a lot of sprawl around the edges.