A Bunch of Stuff

The Missing Billions

By Charles Houston

How much does the Board plan to spend? It’s hard to know. There’s an adopted budget of $6.9 billion on the County website, but Supervisors now bandy about a much lower budget, $4.7 billion. The $2.2 billion difference needs to be explained. I’ll try.

Is the $2.2 billion difference merely an apple-and-oranges comparison? Perhaps the $4.7 billion number excludes schools. You’ve probably seen the County’s spending illustrated as a dollar bill divided into vertical tranches, one for operations, another for public safety, and so on. The largest slice—54% for schools. 

But where did the $4.7 billion figure come from? Board and Staff could be using the lower number to obscure their fiscal profligacy from voters. Loudoun County spends $15,700 per citizen, shockingly more than the $9,100 per citizen spent by Fairfax and Prince William counties. (According to Google, that was an apples-to-apples comparison, and school system costs were always included.) Perhaps that hit home with our politicians, who hoped to avoid voter backlash.

Thus, subtract $2.2 billion from the $6.9 billion budget and—Presto!—Loudoun would seem to spend exactly what those other two counties do.  

The School Budget

The replacement Park View high school is budgeted at $221,000,000. Wearing my former commercial developer hat, I find that number to be absurd. Each year LCPS presents its ideal budget to the Board of Supervisors. Negotiations ensue, but in the end LCPS is always given boatloads of money. Many believe that largesse is squandered.

Years ago, I asked my father to double my allowance. He replied, “No.” Supervisors should say that to LCPS.

Out of Power—Soon

As data centers shift to power-hungry AI chips, we’ll face a shocking power crisis (Pun.) This is getting much attention at the state level but it will be a miracle for meaningful reforms to survive data center lobbying in Richmond.

Local measures might not be available, given this from our 2019 General Plan: “Electrical and communication services are provided under the purview of state and federal agencies. This limits the County’s ability to mitigate certain impacts.”

This language is probably correct since the Zoning Ordinance doesn’t cite power requirements as an impact to be considered when evaluating land use proposals.

Bummer.

Senate Bill 1449 might be a baby step in the right direction by requiring applicants to submit expansive evaluations of impacts the data center may create, but the bill does not grant counties a full range of items—especially power needs—it can use in evaluating data centers proposals. Thus, the Dillon Rule kicks in: Counties have only those powers specifically granted to them by the Commonwealth.

Real bummer.

Our Water Resources are Drying up

(Pun, again.)

A respected hydrologist reports that our groundwater is now some fifty feet lower than in the past, due to unchecked development of every kind. Conservationists have long proclaimed, “No more, no more!” But nobody listened. An agriculture working group is studying the water problem and may release its findings in the near future. Rain water can recharge an aquifer, but we are withdrawing more water than is being recharged.

We can make more electricity, but conjuring more water is unlikely. Ironically and helpfully, this could be grounds to deny unwanted development proposals. The Board could simply say “no” and cite declining water availability as justification. Sadly, the Board seems gun-shy about being sued. Frankly, if a county is not getting sued from time to time, it’s probably not doing its job. 

Grandfathering

The County is contemplating major zoning provisions to manage data centers’ impact on communities. Data center promoters are energetically fighting this. Their negotiating position is, “Give us plenty of grandfathering and we’ll agree to those new rules.”

The principle of grandfathering allows projects that are actually under development to move ahead under prior, more permissive zoning provisions. If a project is under construction, I get it. Unfortunately, the bad guys have always gamed the system.

Legally, grandfathering requires real development activity, perhaps engineering design, then followed by SAGA. (“Significant Act of Governmental Authority”) from the County. Given the cozy relationship between developers and the County, a rough site plan sketched on a napkin usually suffices as being “under development,” and when that napkin is handed over to Staff, a SAGA is magically declared and the developer gets grandfathering. 

This must change.

The 1999 General Plan Needs Updating

State Code requires plan updates every five years. The last General Plan was birthed by a botched process of “civic engagement,” dominated by business interests. This bled into a new zoning ordinance rife with problems.

Businesses should focus on results, not process. Ironically, in updating the Plan we need a better process, centered on regular citizens, with confidence that meaningful results would followin an updated zoning ordinance. 

Vision

Vision is the foundation of any comprehensive plan. Vision should also be a key part of Board decisions on individual development applications. A case in point is a proposed 300-megawatt data center with the odd name “Greenlin Park,” by Loudoun’s biggest land speculator. Supervisors gushed over his fancy presentation, mentioning slick architectural renderings, detailed site plans and so forth.  

That’s a developer’s trick I used many times: Gussy up a pictorial presentation that leads the audience to say, “Wow,” rather than ask, “Do we really want this?” 

In truth, the guy’s proposal included a few good things such as an increased buffer or two and as Supervisor Letourneau said, Greenlin’s 83 acres are surrounded by data centers. True, but that should not have been determinative. 

The collective Board should have said, “We have a duty to provide for the community’s health, safety and welfare, so we vote nay” but being careful not even to whisper, “300 megawatts! They’re crazy! That’s enough to power up to 50,000 homes! These people are nuts.” They can think that, but not verbalize it.

Pity.

Charles Houston and his wife live on a restored horse farm dating from 1760. He had a stellar career developing large corporate office buildings and knows many developer’s tricks.