Officials of four nearby counties are reacting to the possibility of Loudoun County building a Western Transportation Corridor.
Loudoun supervisors at their June 1 meeting asked whether letters had been written to the neighboring counties to determine their stand on the issue. Loudoun first began consideration of the roadway in 1988, and the counties had given opinions in the past. Several alignments have been under review in the past 16 years.
The Loudoun supervisors considered an alignment 17 miles long following the Dominion Virginia Power lines this year, but are now contemplating alternatives.
Fauquier, Frederick, Montgomery and Prince William counties have weighed in on the matter again. The Loudoun County Department of Planning has received three letters and a verbal position, said Ann Goode, program manager of the Community Planning Division.
"Montgomery County has no objections to any local transportation decisions in Loudoun County," wrote Albert Genetti, Jr., director of the Montgomery County Department of Public Works and Transportation. Montgomery, however, opposes any extension of the corridor into its acreage reserved for agriculture, he wrote in his letter to Goode.
"We hereby request that you consider terminating your project within your own boundaries, either at the Potomac River or at a logical termination point," he wrote.
PRINCE WILLIAM County agrees with the need for the Western Transportation Corridor, according to Stephen Griffin, Prince William director of planning. In his letter, he said this county does not favor any specific alignment, but rather supports a study to determine the best place for the corridor.
Griffin, however, said Prince William also encourages the study to look at connecting the corridor to the proposed Route 234 North Bypass, he said.
He wrote his county does not want funding for the study to siphon money from current road construction projects.
FAUQUIER OBJECTS to any alignment of the Western Transportation Corridor that crosses that county, according to Harry Atherton, chairman of the Fauquier Board of Supervisors. Atherton's letter said supervisors endorsed the corridor in 1997, but a subsequent board rescinded that vote in 2000.
Frederick County opposes the roadway, but would recommend construction of it along Route 15 to the bridge at Point of Rocks, Md., if Loudoun builds it anyway, said Ed Gorski, chief of Frederick County Comprehensive Planning. He said the county has set aside land for a right of way should Loudoun choose this alignment.
The Town of Leesburg has gone on record supporting the corridor as long as it does not end at Route 7. Members of the Town Council recently met with the Board of Supervisors to discuss the issue. The council did not take a new stand on the issue or renew its former one at its May meeting.