How much are you willing to pay for “by right” development?

By John Ellis

Loudoun citizens’ frustrations continue to rise as breakneck growth and development overwhelm our roads, schools, neighborhoods, and countryside. And that’s even before we start to consider how much it costs us as taxpayers; which is a lot.

Congested roads and crowded schools have direct impacts on County spending. The County needs to build more roads and more schools and has to pay more teachers, administrators, sheriff’s officers, first responders, and other staff. These public facilities and services are not cheap. 

The County’s current combined capital and operating budget is now $3.9 billion, or about $27,000 for each of our 140,000 existing households. This is the amount the County can expect to spend every year to provide the required public facilities and services to the average new household. And, since the average tax revenue the County receives per household is about $6,400, the net cost to County taxpayers when a developer builds another house is well over $20,000 per year.

In the coming years, County staff expect most new residential growth to take place in western Loudoun. In our rural areas alone (not including Purcellville and the other small towns west of Route 15), they calculate that the current “by right” zoning allows for more than 10,000 new houses. 

To provide the public facilities and services those 10,000 new households would need, the County would need to spend about $65 million in one-off capital costs and over $2 billion in annual operating costs, cumulatively, over the next 20 years. 

And “by right” development isn’t the end of it. On April 10, the Board of Supervisors will be considering a series of proposed “zoning modifications” and “special exceptions” that would allow the developers of the “Clear Springs” subdivision on Evergreen Mills Road to increase the size of their project from the 50 houses that are currently permitted “by right” to more than 1,000 houses. 

If the supervisors approve these proposals, they will be voting to add to County taxpayers’ bills another $6.2 million in one-time capital costs and about $350 million in operating costs over the next 20 years. 

Until recently, we might have thought these kinds of increases in County spending weren’t a big problem because data centers’ tax contributions have covered most of the County’s spending growth over the past decade. But now we know that the power grid doesn’t have enough capacity to supply the data centers currently under construction, much less the many more that are being planned. 

We can no longer count on data centers to bail us out from rapidly increasing County spending. If fewer data centers are approved and the tax revenues they pay fail to keep up with County spending, the difference will have to be made up with our real estate taxes.

Loudoun’s foot has been heavy on the pro-development pedal for decades and the bills are starting to pile up. The County’s operating budget increased by one third in the previous four years and another 11% this year. This is reckless. It’s long past time for citizens and our elected representatives to chart a more prudent and fiscally conservative path.

Before April 10, please let your supervisors know what you think about the tax burdens we will be assuming if they approve the proposed zoning amendments and special exceptions for the “Clear Springs” subdivision, and any others like it. 

The Board of Supervisors recently decided to review the County’s rural zoning regulations. This provides a last-chance opportunity to reduce the number of new houses that can be built “by right” in rural areas, which would save County taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. Please let them know how much more taxes you are willing to pay for future “by right” rural development.

Of course, Loudoun citizens have other concerns with too much development. We’re concerned when traffic congestion makes our roads unsafe, when our children have to be bussed long distances or because the nearest schools are over-crowded. 

We’re also affected when our wells run dry because over developments tapped out our aquifers, when we’re flooded out because someone denuded a property upstream, when we’re kept awake at night by the rock concerts over the hill, when our tourism business loses customers who aren’t as attracted by changes in the character of the area, or when gigantic power lines destroy the neighborhood or the scenery we spent our life’s savings on.

But even if we’re only concerned about our tax bills, all of us clearly have an interest in how much “by right” or “special exception” development the Board of Supervisors decides to approve. 

County supervisors respond when they hear from their constituents. They hear from deep-pocketed developers every day. Please make sure they hear your side of the story too!

John Ellis lives near Hillsboro. He is the President and co-founder of Save Rural Loudoun and serves on the Board of the Between the Hills Conservancy, the official community friends organization for Sweet Run State Park.