The Town of Purcellville Projects continue amidst concerns

Tabitha Reeves

On Jan. 10, Mark Hoffman of the Transportation and Capital Infrastructure Department updated the Loudoun County Finance, Government Operations and Economic Development Committee on the Town of Purcellville Projects. Despite making some requested changes to the proposed infrastructure, such as including pickleball courts at Fields Farm and moving the Park and Ride lot location further from the adjacent neighborhood, there remain to be a variety of concerns which prevent major progress on the projects.

The concerns are based on the notion that the planned construction does not fit the rural feel of Purcellville. Specifically, citizens of Purcellville have expressed dissatisfaction with the potential lighting hours at the Fields Farm athletic fields and the large size of the future Park and Ride lot. Lighting and urbanization are amongst other worries, such as blocking residential views of the Blue Ridge Mountains, according to staff.

“As much as I’m scratching my head of what they don’t want, […] you can’t force progress on people who don’t believe that that progress is needed,” County Chair Phyllis J. Randall (D-At Large) said.

Randall brought up the November elections for Purcellville, in which many candidates who ran on the platform of maintaining small-town charm ended up being elected, further demonstrating that a number of citizens are not in favor of urbanizing.

Because citizens feel that the lighting hours will be long and disturbing, some have suggested to shorten the time of having lights on at night, or even to not have lights at the athletic complex entirely, encouraging only daytime usage.

Steve Torpy, Director of Loudoun County’s Parks, Recreation and Community Services, explained that the new Parks and Recreation standard is to only invest in fields with longer lighting hours at night. This policy is the result of local athletic fields such as those at Franklin Park, where evening sports games sometimes have to be ended early because the overhead lights turn off.

When asked about the potential of moving forward on the project with no overhead lighting, Torpy responded with the same sentiment expressed by many members of the staff in the Transportation and Capital Infrastructure Department, which lacks mention of unlit fields as an option.

“We are working through the process with the town and we are hopeful that we are going to be able to work through it,” Torpy said.

During the meeting, Hoffman cited the cost of the Fields Farm Park alone as being in the $25 million to $30 million range, and entirely county-funded. In response, Supervisor Juli E. Briskman (D-Algonkian) expressed her lack of interest in a park at that cost which does not have lighted fields.

The county’s projected income for tournament user fees for soccer, baseball and lacrosse fields collected for FY23 are estimated at $574,343.

“At some point, the funding just is going to have to be reallocated because it’s not fair on a couple of different levels,” Supervisor Matthew F. Letourneau (R-Dulles) said. “If we’re going to make an investment in a project, we have to be able to fully utilize it.”

Aside from the lighting at Field Farms Park, another point of contention during recent discussion of the Purcellville Projects has been the Park and Ride parking lot, due to its urban look and the presence of two other local lots.

The preexisting Park and Ride lots, one in Purcellville and the other in Hamilton, have a combined 480 spaces. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in the advent of virtual work, less than 100 vehicles are recorded to use the two lots throughout the day.

“Although the expectation is for park and ride lot use to increase over time, the timeframe to reach higher utilization rates is difficult to project,” according to the Finance, Government Operations and Economic Development Committee report, page 5.

While it remains unclear where the projects will go from here, Erin McLellan, Assistant County Administrator, reported that the staff recommendation is to continue headway on the Town of Purcellville Projects as much as possible.

“The staff is still trying to work through those last issues and will be attending Town Council and Planning Commission meetings in the hopes that our projects can gain approval,” McLellan said.