Eighth Inning, Down 3-0

By Charles Houston

Start at the Beginning

Western Loudoun is a special place, starting with its geography: rolling hills, forests, rivers and mountains. For almost three hundred years since it was first explored by European adventurers, the hand of man was gentle. Early settlers cleared land for crops and livestock and built attractive small homes – log cabins, fieldstone houses. 

Roughly a century ago, wealthy northerners bought property in the southern part of the county and established grand estates. The northern part of the county lacks the grandeur of Middleburg’s manicured horse farms, but is still a gracious place with a strong agricultural heritage. Now, though it suffers from zoning that’s allowing rampart development.

Dulles Airport opened in 1962 and soon thereafter, eastern Loudoun yielded to developers’ bulldozers. That lamentable encroachment has crept westward. Residential sprawl is a dagger pointed right at us, especially as it has brought out the sharpies who would turn western Loudoun into a drink-and-drive destination. On a positive note, the wineries seem to see the threat of their vistas being despoiled by tract housing.

Planning (Plotting?) Loudoun’s Future

In 2017 the County began the process to update its Comprehensive Plan, which would address many aspects of our future: transportation, economy, agriculture, housing, fiscal matters and so on. As was the wont of governments, an early step was hiring a consultant and thus began the carefully-named Envision Loudoun project. 

There was significant public input featuring many community meetings. That was a good thing, I guess, but only if citizens’ opinions were heeded. 

They weren’t.

The County then empaneled a group called the “Stakeholders.” Sadly, it was dominated by business interests and the end result was a Comp Plan that gave only lip service to protecting western Loudoun while encouraging commerce. The County uses the concept of “stakeholders” on many of its boards and committees. That’s inimical to the principle that government should be of, for, and by the people.

I’ll use a fictional committee to make the point. Imagine a Death Services Committee. As the County currently operates, it would include several morticians, a hearse company, a cremator or two, a florist and a monument maker, several cemetery operators and three ordinary citizens. Do you think the public will be well-served by that committee? I don’t. There would be a clear majority of members whose financial wishes pose clear conflicts of interest.

The result of Envision Loudoun was that the majority of Stakeholders had an economic self-interest in pushing for growth the citizens do not want. We lost.

It Gets Worse

Once the Comp Plan was baked, it needed to be translated into a new zoning ordinance. Thus, the Zoning Ordinance Committee – ZOC – was established. For about three years it has commented section-by-section on Planning Staff’s draft ordinance. 

This was a huge task, with hundreds and hundreds of pages to read and hours and hours of discussion on topics from affordable housing to parking to zoning districts. 

About a third of the committee members were from the west, but almost every helpful idea we suggested was shot down by the other members. Unsurprisingly, developers got their way since ZOC membership was over-representative by people from land-use law, civil engineering, land planning and so forth. 

Despite the disparate perspectives, ZOC members seemed to get along fine. In retrospect, though, some knock-down, drag-out fights may have helped. Early-on, ZOC rolled over and ceded almost complete control to Staff, thereby emasculating itself.

All Dirt is Not Equal

In parallel with the zoning rewrite, our Supervisors passed a directive: protect prime agricultural soils. This seemed like an apple-pie-and-motherhood idea until special interests began carping at the plan. They consistently said worst-case scenarios would come true. 

Prime soils are not always contiguous, and they claimed that site planning for subdivisions would be infinitely more difficult. Three powerful groups complained that the prime soils directive would reduce the number of houses. That, they said, would have consequences.

Some large landowners complained that the potential of lower density would reduce the value of their properties. A second group, developers and realtors, complained that any lower density would reduce their profits. I understand their greed.  The third group was a dispiriting surprise.

Internecine Warfare

Several major donors of conservation easements believe that saving prime soils would result in lower lot density and hurt the value of their easements. They and their consultants, appraisers and engineers had access to the highest levels of county government, and worked that political access hard.

These donors have saved countless acres, for which we should be thankful. Some in this group are my friends. While I think common ground could be found, I suspect it won’t be and that this prime soils squabble will continue.

We Lose

The recent meeting of the influential Loudoun Conservation and Preservation Coalition was Al van Huyck’s swan song, as he’s retired from its chairmanship. No one else who has worked so hard to save rural Loudoun. 

Towards the end of that meeting someone asserted that, “We got 60 percent of what we wanted in the ZOC process.” That might be true if you count t-crossings and i-dottings, but the fact is that the good guys are losing badly. 

Skip the t’s and I’s and look at the big picture: The mountainsides remain unprotected. Intense uses such as breweries and event centers can still plop down wherever and whenever they wish. Housing density remains unchanged at a level that’s killing western Loudoun.

A Nonth-inning Hope

We have allies on the Board of Supervisors, and at least one enemy. I’m certain our adversaries are politicking hard, but let’s hope that the Board will see through their avarice and vote to protect the wonderful asset that is Western Loudoun.

Charles Houston developed more than six million square feet of office buildings throughout the south for an Atlanta based firm. He lives in Paeonian Springs.