Purcellville council to discuss Valley Commerce Center annexation proposal

By Valerie Cury

At a recent meeting Purcellville Mayor Stan Milan indicated that the town council will discuss the Kuhn Annexation Boundary Line Adjustment proposal, known as Valley Commerce Center, at their June 11 town council meeting.

Approximately three years ago Chuck Kuhn gave a presentation of his proposal to town and county residents and the meeting was well attended. At that time Kuhn did not ask for annexation into the Town of Purcellville because then Mayor Kwasi Fraser said publicly no one wanted it. A few years prior to Fraser making that statement, a majority of Fraser’s council voted against (with then Council member Joel Grewe voting for) the annexation request for the same property which was under different ownership.

On Feb. 20, 2024 Kuhn and his team met with Mayor Stan Milan and Vice Mayor Erin Rayner in private along with the town manager, the assistant town manager, the town’s engineering department and the town’s head of public works to discuss Kuhn’s proposal. Nine days after their private meeting, Kuhn made a formal request for an Annexation Boundary Line Adjustment of Valley Commerce Center.

The 117.07-acre property is in the county and is located on Purcellville Road. It is currently zoned Joint Land Management Area-3 at one house per three acres, which totals 39 homes.  It is located north of Rt. 7, and east of Purcellville Road (Rt. 611).

Loudoun County Planning and Zoning has already weighed in on the proposed rezoning and recommended denial, when Kuhn approached the county for a rezoning from JLMA-3 to Planned Development Industrial Park (PD-IP) through the county. 

In a first referral memorandum, on Sept. 21, 2023, Loudoun County Planning and Zoning weighed in on the proposal saying, “Community Planning finds the proposed rezoning request to allow the development of a business/industrial park on the subject property is not supported by the land use policies or design characteristics for the Purcellville JLMA Rural Neighborhood Place Type. 

“Community Planning cannot support the rezoning request due to fundamental conflicts with the land use and land development policies of the 2019 GP for the Purcellville JLMA Rural Neighborhood Place Type.”

If annexed and rezoned the buildout will be approximately 1,274,892 sq. ft. of M-1 Industrial uses with the initial focus “on establishing uses such as long-term storage,” according to a May 6, 2024 response letter to Jordan Andrews, Planner for the Town of Purcellville, from Michael Romeo, Senior Land Use Planner with Walsh Colucci Lubeley & Walsh PC.

In that same response letter, Andrews writes,  “As we have noted in previous discussions, the Town’s water system does not currently have sufficient excess water to serve this development. Does the developer have a plan to offset the water usage with additional drinking water sources?”

Romeo responded, “There are currently no plans to offset water usage, however, it is anticipated that the individual businesses may provide bottled water for employees as an amenity, which can help to offset the public water supply.”

The estimate water usage is 255,000 gallons per day and sewer output of 204,000 gallons per day, on a three-quarter inch meter.

If the annexation is approved the applicant would have any by-right uses and any uses permitted by special exception or special use permit. The allowed building height would be 45 ft, and up to 60 ft. if at least 100 ft. from any lot line.

According to a VDOT memo dated Aug. 24, 2023, there would be an estimated 4,297 weekday vehicle trips for the proposed site.