“Straight to the heart of Mayfair” — Vice Mayor Bertaut expresses concern as NCR removal is delayed again by council majority

By Valerie Cury

At the Purcellville Town Council Meeting on Dec. 12, Vice Mayor Chris Bertaut tried to move forward again with the proposal to remove the Northern Collector Road (NCR) from the Purcellville Town Wide Transportation Plan. During the Nov. 14 Town Council Meeting vote to approve an easement on Mayfair Crown Drive, the mayor and council members expressed a sense of urgency to remove the NCR when voting to approve the easement. Removing the mention of the NCR from the transportation plan would make it more difficult to extend Mayfair Crown Drive to Fields Farm Road – also known as the NCR – at a future date. 

While attempting to clarify that amending the 2009 plan would not be a big lift, Bertaut differentiated between amending and revising the Town Wide 2009 Transportation Plan. “Amending the Town Transportation Plan means making corrections or changes necessitated by conflict with countervailing documents – in this case the Comprehensive Plan.” 

From page 98 of the Town’s 2030 Comprehensive Plan: “The Town does not support the proposed Northern Collector Road in the JLMA and 2019 County Plan.” 

“A revision means a full transportation study is required. The planning commission agrees that a revised version of the transportation plan is long overdue, but the time frame” for doing so would be at least 18 months, Bertaut said. 

“So based on recommendations from county staff, town staff and from a number of town council members, the planning commission compiled” a list of amendments to the transportation plan.

Bertaut explained that in some instances, these amendments are as simple as removing the mention of the NCR. In other cases, some sentences “needed to be heavily revised.”

The key distinction between a comprehensive plan and a transportation plan is that the latter “seeks to optimize traffic flow without regard to the safety of the surrounding neighborhoods,” Bertaut said.

“A comprehensive plan has a lot of other objectives, but one of those is the health, safety, and welfare of residents. When those two come into conflict, the comprehensive plan needs to prevail.”

Bertaut said the most recent county revisions regarding the Northern Collector Road show a path for the NCR … “straight to the heart of Mayfair.”

“So back to my earlier point, the idea of a transportation plan is to maximize the flow of traffic and not necessarily for the purpose of anything other than just moving the cars through as fast as possible. We have to ask ourselves ‘What is the greater goal here?’

“Comprehensive plans, transportation plans are put together holistically with a view of a variety of factors,” he said, adding that the council must look at the second and third order of effects as well as their ramifications.

Council Member Erin Rayner responded, “Alright, so I have numerous comments on this. I mean, I echo Councilman [Caleb] Stought’s comments of absolutely looking at this holistically long term. I mean we’ve gone over and over the Northern Collector Road since ad nauseum for the last 10 years … I’ve said on the record multiple times … I don’t want thru traffic. I wanted an emergency egress. People spoke; they didn’t want the exits. The supervisors said they will move it off their comprehensive plan and vote.”

Rayner said she does not favor taking the language referring to the NCR off the Town of Purcellville’s Transportation Plan until the county goes through the process and until the Town of Purcellville completes a new transportation plan.

This would delay the process of a simple amendment to remove mention of the Northern Collector Road in the town’s transportation plan.

Agreeing with Rayner, Mayor Stan Milan — who ran on taking the NCR off the transportation plan — said, “I would prefer to recommend the county do a county wide transportation plan and also the town do a transportation plan. Because a single isolation removal over one point of road does not cover or explain the whole totality of the traffic situation in Purcellville.”

Milan said that the town needs a traffic study first. He also said that Supervisor Caleb Kershner (R-Catoctin) described the NCR as “obsolete.”

But according to a Sept. 8, 2023, email from the Department of Building and Development, Land Development Division – in reviewing an application from Chuck Kuhn for Valley Commerce Center, county staff commented the following:

“Staff notes the proposed right-of-way dedication for future north collector road. Staff questions if a temporary turnaround will be provided until such time that the future collector road is completed as a through road.

“FSM 4.310.E requires that roads containing commercial, retail, industrial, or office uses shall be no longer than 1,500 feet in length. As proposed, the right-of-way dedication for the proposed collector road [the NCR] is approximately 4,028 feet in length. Please demonstrate compliance with FSM 4.310.E.”

The applicant is requesting a Zoning Map Amendment to rezone 117.07 acres, located on Purcellville Road. The property, which is across from the Mayfair community, is currently zoned Joint Land Management Area-3 (JLMA-3) and can currently be developed at one house per 3 acres. This is equivalent to 39 homes. Kuhn is applying to change the zoning to Planned Development – Industrial Park (PD-IP) – with total build out at 1,274,892 sq. ft. of industrial.  

According to a VDOT memo dated Aug. 24, 2023, there is an estimated 4,297 weekday vehicle trips for the proposed site.

Staff comments also mention, “The ZMAP plan set includes a depiction of a 70-foot-wide proposed right of way dedication for the future North Collector Road included in the Countywide Transportation Plan.”

An archeological study has revealed the potential of a grave site on the property.

In a county memo dated Sept. 6, 2023, “Staff recommends that the applicant undertake an archaeological delineation to determine whether human graves are present at 44LD2044 and, if so, the full areal extent of the burial area” is needed.