Beware of developers bearing gifts, Fraser chides

Is a vote for Purcellville annexations welcoming a Trojan horse?

By Valerie Cury

During mayor and council comments at the Feb. 22 Purcellville Town Council meeting, Mayor Kwasi Fraser responded to people’s inquiries about the proposed Kuhn annexation request by referring to it and other potential requests as a “Trojan horse,” warning the council against “developers bearing gifts.”  

The proposed annexation, named the Valley Commerce Center, was formerly known as the Warner property. Owned by Chuck Kuhn, the 118.81-acre property is located at 17110 Purcellville Road. 

Annexation takes a property under Loudoun County jurisdiction and brings it within the Town of Purcellville. Access to Town utilities and Town density are primary reasons a property owner seeks annexation.

Before the Town can annex a property located in the County, the property owner is required to go through a 17-step annexation process. If annexed by a majority vote of the Town Council, the owner then presents their change of zoning request and goes through a Comprehensive Plan Amendment and a Zoning Use Amendment. 

This requires two public hearings: one at the Planning Commission level, and the other at the Town Council level. If a majority on the Town Council votes yes to the annexation request, this would change the low density use to a much higher density use, after a Comprehensive Plan and zoning amendment are also given a green light by a majority on the Town Council. 

At a Town Council work session on Feb. 22, Mayor Fraser chided his critics with a cautionary metaphor.

“Annexation — the Trojan horse — beware of developers bearing gifts,” he said, alluding to the Greeks’ duplicitous destruction of Troy. The ancient Greeks hid soldiers in a huge, hollow wooden horse and presented it as a gift to the unsuspecting Trojans, who gladly welcomed it within their gates and brought about their own downfall. 

Fraser pointed out that no one annexes a property to retain the County zoning they already have. Usually, property bordering the Town is zoned JLMA-3, which means one house per three acres. 

“They annex for densification or increased density,” Fraser explained. 

“It has been said to me by prior Council Members that if we annex, we control our destiny. To the contrary, I have said that we control our destiny by controlling water and sewer. There are only two creatures that follow water and sewer.”

Fraser continued: “For example, we did not annex Jack’s Run [Silcott Springs Road and A Street], and we did not provide water and sewer to it, and in so doing we controlled what was built there — a beautiful community at our borders with County density. Those residents still eat at our restaurants, contributing to meals tax, and water and sewer usage while dining out.”

“To annex with the goal of retaining the County zoning or Transition X zoning is silly and is equivalent to opening the gates of Troy to the Trojan horse. Beware of developers bearing gifts.”

Transition X zoning is the current lower dense zoning of a property when it is annexed into the Town of Purcellville.

Council Member Tip Stinnette initially weighed in on the proposed Kuhn annexation at the Feb. 8 Town Council meeting. “I would like to clearly address three points that should inform any discussion on this matter. They are water, process, and our comprehensive plan. Any discussion on bringing new land into the jurisdiction of Purcellville needs to be informed by our capacity to support its water requirements.”

“While we do have excess wastewater treatment capacity,” he said, “quite the opposite is true when it comes to source water capacity. At present we have what we need for as we are. Any new land discussion will need to be informed by this point.”

Stinnette added, “With respect to the second point, the town’s process for bringing new land into its jurisdiction is a 17-step process. Mr. Kuhn is on step number one, which is called community briefing prior to application. While this process may be condensed or modified, it is designed to protect the interests of our community.”

“As to my third point,” he continued, “we forecast there will be new applications that will come before the Town and specifically wrote into the Comprehensive Plan, that any new land coming into the Town must come with its existing County land use.”

“If an applicant wants a different land use than currently authorized under the County as part of their application, then a change to the Town Comprehensive Plan will be needed. And that will require a public hearing and a vote by Town Council.”

“In short, the Comprehensive Plan adds an 18^th step to the 17-step process,” Stinnette concluded.

“To be clear, I do not support a data center in the Purcellville environs, nor do I believe one is logistically feasible given our water constraints,” he clarified. “Moreover, I fully support the Town’s application process and the comprehensive plan, which requires community engagement and restricts changing County land use as part of the jurisdiction application process.” 

Fraser said he sees the proposed Kuhn annexation before the Town Council as “a waste of time.” 

“Why go through a 17- or 18-step process when the community does not support it?” he asked. 

“I was recently told that there is another Trojan horse working its way to our gates, represented by a property adjacent to the O’Toole property by the Berlin Turnpike circle — the same property Council Member [Erin] Rayner’s campaign banner was on.”

Fraser said the annexation request was not about data centers. 

Chuck Kuhn has said repeatedly in meetings that he has no intention of bringing data to western Loudoun.

Fraser countered, “The data center was brought up by my detractors to distract the citizens of Purcellville into raging a battle of the mind so that an annexation can slip in under the guise of other high-density, traffic-impacting uses, hoping that the people will choose the lesser. It’s almost Machiavellian, but I am no longer a political neophyte. After four terms as Mayor, I see these things in slow motion.”  

“For the record, with Central Offices now being equipped with data center gear, the Central Office across from the Purcellville Library has data center functionality,” he added. 

“Further, this Town Council recently approved an agreement that will allow for the development of a data center at the base of our soon-to-be-built cell tower number 2. So, Purcellville already has its unique version of a data center and has an edge data center coming.”

Mayor Fraser told the Blue Ridge Leader in a phone call that monetizing the Town’s assets is working for the Town. He said the Town received over $900,000 in net revenue for planting 100,000 trees on the 189-acre, Town-owned Aberdeen property.  

Said Fraser, “We can have the County build the aquatic and recreational center without annexation, and still obtain revenue by providing water and sewer to it under a deal with the County” – referring to the western Loudoun recreational center the County will build in the west.

“I do not view annexation as an asset monetization strategy. The larger Purcellville grows, the more services it needs in infrastructure, staff, water and sewer treatment costs, and public safety, to name a few,” Fraser concluded.