Four months after collecting nearly 14,000 signatures on a petition opposing rapid growth, the Campaign for Loudoun's Future has finally submitted the names to the Board of Supervisors. It did so with much fanfare on Tuesday night: more than a 100 supporters cramming the board room and singing, to supervisors' delight, a version of the Tammy Wynette classic tweaked to go "Stand By Your Plan" — in support of the much-maligned comprehensive plan.
Some supervisors had criticized the group for taking so long to turn over the petitions. Laura Olsen, assistant director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, one of the campaign's member groups, had a simple explanation.
"It takes a long time to go through 14,000 names," she said. The list had to be vetted for duplicates between the petitions and the Web site and invalid addresses. "It's been quite a chore."
The Campaign for Loudoun's Future presented the petitions to the supervisors Tuesday night at the board's monthly public hearing. The number of names had grown from Election Day to 15,033 thanks to virtual signing via the groupís Web site, www.loudounsfuture.org.
Several members spoke out about why they opposed the comprehensive plan amendments that would allow denser development and double the population of the county if approved. Fourteen of the original 20 amendments are currently with the Planning Commission for consideration.
Mike Keeney, a Sugarland Run resident who consults with a Washington, D.C., firm, supports property rights. A Republican, he believes property owners should be allowed to do what they want with land — to a point.
"If they want to pick up the true costs of doing that, OK," he said.
What Keeney and other members of the campaign oppose is the fact that the developer's promises to build roads and schools isn't enough. The taxpayer will still be paying to maintain those roads and staff those schools ó not to mention wrestling with thousands of new commuters to and from work.
"It makes my morning commute, along with everyone else, worse," Keeney said.
RACHAEL FISHER, an Ashburn resident, is another Republican in the campaign's list of supporters. "I value my quality of life over my real-estate profit," she said.
Fisher, the mother of two preschool children, wonders about the future of Ashburn's reputation as a family-friendly place with a huge, rapid influx of new population increasing traffic, cramming in homes and overflowing schools. She lives near the intersection of Ryan Road and Belmont Ridge Road, already "a scary intersection" as she calls it, and said she'll never let her children walk to school.
"I'd like to keep my title as suburban soccer mom rather than urban-sprawl-no-place-to-play soccer mom," she said.
Organizer Andrea McGimsey refuted criticism from supervisors that the campaign was deceiving people who signed and using the petitions for political purposes. Supervisor Mick Staton (R-Sugarland Run) has been particularly vocal in his criticism of the group, since his wife signed up in order to stay informed of the campaign's movements. She didn't receive e-mails from the group, although others did.
McGimsey explained that they didn't send e-mails to all geographic locations with the idea that eastern Loudouners weren't as interested in the developer-related situation regarding Philip A. Bolen Memorial Park, which is proposed for just south of Leesburg.
"We're just doing the American process, informing people and trying to get them involved in their local government," McGimsey said. "I mean, geez."
SUPERVISOR STEPHEN SNOW (R-Dulles), a vocal proponent of the plan amendments, enjoyed the spectacle but didnít buy the protestersí argument that the amendments will worsen Loudounís growth problem. He noted that all the current problems stem from development that was approved before the current board took office.
"This board has not planted a home, put a car on the road," Snow said. "It validates our election."
To Snow, the amendments promote smarter growth.
"The densities they speak to are a plan over 20 years," he said. "Those communities are not actually in place until the roads are there."