For not the first and not the last time, citizens gathered to weigh in on the massive development proposals on the Route 50 corridor on March 30 at Mercer Middle School in Aldie.
It was the first of two Planning Commission public input sessions on CPAM 2005-0003, the proposed comprehensive plan amendment for Upper Broad Run and Upper Foley Subareas, Transition Policy Area — a dense name for a sweeping project.
The plan amendment is the single offspring of six developer-initiated plan amendments submitted to the county last September. The Board of Supervisors directed county staff to combine the six amendments, which propose more than 20,000 homes over 6,300 acres, into a single plan amendment for consideration.
All six original applicants are located in the Transition Policy Area, a 22,800-acre swath of land between the rural west and suburban east designed to ease the change between the two identities. Critics of the amendments have claimed that the amendments would erase the Transition Policy Area altogether — making it simply another part of the suburban area.
Those critics were out in force at the public input meeting, but so were those who view the plan amendment as a viable way to ensure that Loudoun grows in a reasoned manner in the next 20 years.
UNDER THE CURRENT comprehensive plan, the Transition Policy Area is planned for 10,681 homes in the next 10 years and is, as the plan states, "not a reserve area for future development."
The comprehensive plan amendment, however, is looking at remaking the image of the Transition Policy Area. The 6,300 acres in question cover 74 percent of the Upper Foley and Broad Run subareas; there are six subareas in the Transition Policy Area total.
While the comprehensive plan projects the area to have a population of 30,525 people in the next 10 years, the amendment could open up the area to a population of 58,000, said Piedmont Environmental Council land use officer Ed Gorski.
"To put that in perspective, that is more than one and a half times the size of Leesburg," Gorski said.
MOST OF THAT POPULATION would come from Greenvest, a four-community, 15,000-home development that is one of the largest proposals in the country and the largest Loudoun has ever seen. Greenvest took the brunt of criticism at the meeting.
"It would have a catastrophic effect on the county," said Aldie resident Laura Tekrony. "The Greenvest development would reduce our time with our children because of gridlock."
Greenvest's answer to offsetting the impact of the new population its homes will house is the establishment of Community Development Authorities, or CDAs, which create special assessments on residences to help pay for nearby improvements.
So when Greenvest says it's proposing $462 million in road, school and park improvements, the company itself isn't paying for them — the residents who will live there will pay.
But a CDA isn't a good enough answer for Tekrony, who worried the system wouldn't work.
"What if those residents decide they don't want to pay this?" she said. "The taxpayers will be responsible for the remaining debt."
CITIZENS ALSO wondered about a perceived "rush" in the Planning Commission's treatment of the comprehensive plan amendments, a sentiment that has been echoed in recent weeks by Loudoun County Chairman Scott York.
"What is the rush?" asked Aldie resident Cheryl Hutchinson. "The previous Board of Supervisors spent three years developing the revised comprehensive plan. In a matter of months, you could wipe out the Transition Area."
But not all speakers castigated the Planning Commission.
"The writing's on the wall — the Route 50 corridor is the next big boom in Loudoun County," said Mark DiLuigi, a member of the Route 50 Task Force. "We in Dulles south have an opportunity to mold the area."
Dealing with developers' desire for higher density allows the county to negotiate for transportation and service improvements, something that Aldie resident Jeff Hartzog noted.
"These by-right builders are getting away with murder," he said. "They ... build thousands of homes and are not contributing to the infrastructure."
THAT THE SIX comprehensive plan amendments were combined into one and adopted as a county-initiated amendment means that the impact could be significantly different once the process is complete.
Plan amendments affect policy language. Much like the recent Countywide Health Care Facilities Plan, which started off as a Loudoun Healthcare-initiated amendment and changed drastically as a county-initiated amendment, the Transition Policy Area amendment could change likewise.
The actual home-building will come in traditional rezoning form. Greenvest chief executive Jim Duszynski has said the company will submit its rezoning application within the next 30 days.
The CPAMs
The developer-initiated comprehensive plan amendments that were combined into one are the Westport, 590 acres; Greenvest, 4,200 acres; Shockey Family, 291 acres; Rouse Transitional Residential Neighborhood, 927 acres; Braddock Village, 48 acres; Stone Ridge West, 232 acres. All six amendments proposed an average of 3.5 dwelling units per acre.
Public Comment
The Planning Commission will hold a second public input meeting on the transition area comprehensive plan amendment April 11, at the Government Center at 1 Harrison St., S.E., Leesburg, at 7 p.m. It will be identical in format to the March 30 meeting.