Is Western Loudoun already gone?

By Laura Longley

While the Loudoun County Zoning Ordinance Committee works its way through revisions of the 2019 Comprehensive Plan, a process that will take at least until summer, an increasing number of farms in western Loudoun are disappearing fast. Four large farms around Hillsboro have been sold since June, a fifth a few months earlier. 

At least four of them have sold to developers planning to build rural cluster communities before zoning changes could limit the number of houses they can put on their property. In fact, at least two of the developers are currently seeking density increases above the rural cluster limit.

Cluster subdivisions are characterized by smaller lots and dense housing set in groups and common open space comprising over 50 percent of the whole property. 

Developers who recently purchased the properties around Hillsboro will each design their own unique rural cluster communities as no property has the same terrain, water resources, and access to roads. Despite the challenges, however, they are wasting no time buying open land and selling lots for their designed homes. 

With conservationists lobbying for zoning closer to that of southern Loudoun, which is one house per 15 acres, and the entire elimination of rural clusters, the cluster developers around Hillsboro alone are rushing to beat the clock.

 The properties recently sold around Hillsboro include 47 acres of rural land on Short Hill Road, a 113-acre farm on Heskett Lane off Rt. 9, 122 acres adjoining the Blue Ridge Center for Environmental Stewardship, soon to become a state park, 196 acres at Harpers Ferry and Sagle roads, and a 167-acre property, currently a winery. 

At least three of the farms were purchased by Carrington Builder, one of the most active developers of rural clusters in western Loudoun. Among the communities Carrington has already sold out or has on the market are Black Oak Ridge, James Farm, Short Hill View, Huntwick Place, and Meetinghouse Farm, all in the Purcellville area; Old Wheatland Estates in Waterford and The Crest at Waterford in Paeonian Springs; Chudleigh in Aldie; Eagle Creek and Downey Farm in Lovettsville; Ivandale Farms in Hamilton; Highlands and Blue Ridge View in Round Hill. 

Carrington’s latest acquisitions, now in the County applications pipeline, have already been named and prepped for marketing. 

Carrington’s 113-acre farm on Heskett—a narrow, steep, dirt road just west of Hillsborough Vineyards and Brewery—will become a 22-home HOA called “The Ridges at Hillsborough.” Its immediate impacts will be agricultural land lost and traffic gained. Using the County’s and VDOT’s conservative estimate that each new residence yields a minimum of 10 vehicle trips per day, the Ridges at Hillsborough could be expected to create 220 more vehicle trips not only on Rt. 9 but also on north-south routes. Drivers headed east and south to the future 690/7 interchange could choose to stay on 9 through the recently traffic-calmed Town of Hillsboro, then turn right onto Hillsboro Road, or cut through via Cider Mill and Woodgrove roads.  

Either way, the residents of the Ridges at Hillsborough will meet up with vehicles coming and going from the other new developments. 

“Hillside,” to be built on the 196-acre property at Harpers Ferry and Sagle roads, is slated for 39 residential lots.  Using the 10 trips yardstick again, Hillside would generate almost 400 more trips per day on Harpers Ferry Road. Some of the traffic might go north to Maryland, but more likely the bulk would end up on Rt. 9. 

The 47-acre property on the Short Hill will become “Westview at Short Hill,” a nine-home residential community off another narrow, steep, and heavily potholed dirt road.

In addition to these Carrington projects, another application has been submitted for 10 homesites on 120 acres on Koerner Lane off Hillsboro Road. On Harpers Ferry Road, Maggie Malick Wine Caves, with nearly all its 167 acres in agricultural use, sold in December for $4.5 million. While no subdivision application has been submitted and Malick says she is not aware of any plans to create a subdivision, this sale worries Loudoun conservationists.

Even more concerning is the future of the land on Sawmill Lane. The 122-acre farm adjoining the Blue Ridge Center for Environmental Stewardship, soon to become Sweet Run State Park, has been purchased by Pleasants Construction and Development. 

Pleasants created the master-planned Brunswick Crossing near Brunswick, Md., with townhomes, single-family homes, and amenities such as parks, tot lots, and grocery stores. While nothing so ambitious could be constructed on this parcel, now registered as “Sawmill Lane LLC,” the parcel could be subdivided into 24 residential lots or more with the rural cluster option.

Besides the usual concerns about loss of another farm and more traffic, the prospective Sawmill Lane development could lead to water pollution of Cedar Creek and light pollution that would impact bats, birds, and other nocturnal animals at the new state park. 

With so many new developments underway in the Hillsboro area, community activists and conservation organizations are urging the County and VDOT to immediately undertake traffic-calming studies of the north-south routes on both the east and west sides of the Short Hill between Rts. 9 and 7. 

The aggressive build-out of northwestern Loudoun will come with new demands and costs—for more paved and widened roads, parks, ballfields, and other public amenities and services. And, lest we forget, there will be children in all these new developments. How many new schools, teachers, and buses will the Hillsboro neighborhood need? 

Several Loudoun County Supervisors, including Mike Turner (D-Ashburn), point to voluntary permanent conservation easements and Purchase of Development Rights as the best tools to encourage farmers to keep their land in agricultural use. Rural residents are skeptical, however, anticipating the loss of the region’s unique heritage, natural resources, rural roads, small schools, even those bingo games at the fire hall. 

Ironically, as developers fill the west’s farms with clusters, it is western Loudoun’s wide-open spaces and rural environment that developers are marketing. Carrington Homes sells western Loudoun on its website this way: 

“Loudoun County encompasses a 520 square mile area, of which 75 percent of the land is considered western County while the vast majority of the population resides in eastern Loudoun. This means western Loudoun County maintains a rural, pastoral environment dotted with historic manor homes, original general stores, and thousands of acres of land protected eternally by conservation easement.”