Loudoun Has Lost Its Vision

Dear Editor: 

The residents of Loudoun County both East and West are about to see our Mountainsides become the next developer profit center. I join in support of those who are desperately trying to avert this tragedy. But this time instead of using my own words I quote what the County Plans used to say about our Mountainsides.

The 1991 Choices and Changes General Plan stated in the Preface: “The mission of the General Plan is to enhance the quality of life and sense of community enjoyed by people who live and work in Loudoun County (emphasis added) by providing guidelines and standards that ensure the orderly growth and balanced distribution of growth, sound fiscal and economic investment and the preservation of a healthy functioning environment (emphasis added).”

And within the section of the plan on Mountainsides most of the argument’s citizens are making today in protest of the pending zoning changes were the vision in the Plan’s text 35 years ago.

The 2001 General Plan also endorsed the importance of the Mountainsides in Chapter 5. It stated: “The County’s mountainside area contributes to its beauty, qualify of life, and geologic uniqueness and are valued by residents and visitors. Mountainsides are highly sensitive to land disturbance and development. 

“In addition to the destruction of prime viewsheds, uncontrolled land disturbance within mountainside areas can cause major soil slippage if trees and vegetation is removed, the soil is disturbed by cutting, filling or blasting, or the moisture level is upset by excessive drawdown or increased run off … They are the location of unique flora, vegetation, and plant communities and provide a variety of wildlife habitats. These features create an environmental system that is unique to this region that contributes to the scenic character of rural Loudoun County. “ 

In the 2019 Plan the vision is gone but the zoning ordinance retains some of the regulations which are today threatened by leaders focused on letting land owners monetize their properties rather than follow the 1991vision that the plan is for “the people who live and work in Loudoun County.”

We have lost our vision.  Is it too late to restore it?

Al Van Huyck
Round Hill