Coalition seeks to involve the voice of leaders in agri-business

By Reed Carver

Representatives of the multiple associations that seek to preserve either the historical, or natural resources of Loudoun met on June 26, at the Purcellville Train Station. The Loudoun County Preservation and Conservation Coalition meets there every last Tuesday of the month at 4 p.m., and the meetings are open to the public. 

Emily Houston, with the Waterford Foundation moderated the June meeting.  

In participation were: Trinity Mills with The Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy, Madeline Skinner with the Historic Village Alliance, Gem Bingol of Piedmont Environmental Council, Jim Hanna and Alex Newton with the Loudoun Transmission Line Alliance, and John Ellis with Save Rural Loudoun, among others.

The Coalition keeps members up to date on current land-use decisions, pending projects, and shares their ideas for future Coalition actions.

As the County re-evaluates Rural Standards in the Zoning Ordinance over the next two years, Maura Walsh-Copeland led the discussion about how stakeholder representatives will be chosen.

The Board of Supervisors ultimately begins the selection process. Currently there are three categories, conservation/agricultural, residential, and tourism/business, requiring nine representatives, who can choose 36 different stakeholders. 

The hope for this design is that the right expert will be placed in the right role. Each meeting will be very specific, limited to one topic, like: equine uses, mountain overlays, wineries/breweries etc. 

As of press time, discussion on lead selection should continue on July 17, in the Transportation and Land Use Committee. The coordinating leads will be finalized in September. 

Jonathan Tourtellot, with the Destination Stewardship Center, spoke about the intersection between tourism and love of place from his experience with National Geographic. He wants the coalition to work together to begin a new approach called “destination stewardship,” in which business leaders who depend on the preservation of rural Loudoun will join the coalition’s advocacy and conservation groups. 

“We don’t have a coherent whole,” he said. “What’s broken is care for the destination. Tourism is not necessarily broken, so tourism is a new tool in our bag.” The fact that tourism facilitates education, and therefore affection for rural places remains under-utilized, he said.

Tourtellot felt the development pressure was urgent. “The kettle is beginning to boil,” he said. “What we don’t have are leaders; everybody here is overloaded.” Leaders of rural businesses certainly have a stake in conservation, since poorly-planned development can irreparably damage their business. Tourtellot identified that an economic argument needs to be made to the Board of Supervisors. New faces, he said, speaking out of concern for their businesses, will be heard.

Del. Geary Higgins, (R-30), attended the meeting to update the groups on the progress of relevant bills in the Virginia Legislature. He is involved with conservation, since he is on the Counties, Cities, and Towns committee. He spoke about a bill that requires a 30 day’s wait to tear down a structure after anyone voices a concern. Local control needs to be prioritized in local decisions, he said. Richmond sees Northern Virginia as a cash cow, but they lack education on the region’s agricultural attributes. “The greatest impact is to have people know what’s going on,” he said. 

Skinner discussed possible ways for the County to differentiate protocols for eastern and western Loudoun, so the whole County does not become homogenized. Examples Skinner offered for western Loudoun were smaller fire trucks called “Brush Trucks” which can navigate narrow driveways and gravel roads, and more frequently distributed fire stations with smaller footprints.

Jim Hanna reported that the Transmission Line Alliance is in conversation with NextEra Energy, and their efforts to sway the decision-makers against installing lines near Waterford are looking effective, but not certain at this time. He also said Loudoun’s rural roads won an award from the Department of Economic Development.