During its May 9 public hearing the Board of Supervisors took action on several commercial and residential development applications. The board voted to approve three development applications and to forward two others to the May 22 meeting of the transportation/land use committee for further discussion.
The Dulles District will soon be home to two new development projects, but neither project involves any residential development.
The board voted 8-1 to approve the creation of a Universal Technical Institute, a training school and certification center for vehicle mechanics, with Supervisor Sally R. Kurtz (D-Catoctin) opposing.
The school will be located northeast of Dulles Airport and east of Davis Drive. The project calls for an approximately 150,932-square-foot building with 879 parking spaces.
Supervisors said that they believed the inclusion of a trade school will offer a new and important aspect to life in Loudoun County.
"We've been working with economic development on this project project for a long time and this will be a great addition to our community," Supervisor Lori Waters (R-Broad Run) said.
Kurtz said her only concern was about the number of parking spaces the school called for.
"The sea of asphalt doesn't allow me to support the project," she said, "but I am happy you have been working with staff and I welcome you to the community."
Supervisors also voted to approve the Avonlea Plaza, located south of Route 50 and west of Loudoun County Parkway (Route 606), a 300,000-square-foot commercial center. The center will serve as the commercial aspect of the 414-unit Pinebrook Village residential development, which was approved in May 2003.
The only residential development approved by the board at the Tuesday night meeting was Ashburn Place, which would allow for the rezoning of 12.41 acres for the development of 27 single-family homes. The application, which is located on the north side of Ashburn Road and east of Jenkins Lane, was approved 7-0-2 with Supervisors Bruce E. Tulloch (R-Potomac) and Stephen Snow (R-Dulles) absent for the vote.
Supervisors said they were pleased with the application's adherence to the Revised General Plan, which allows for the development of the proposed area of up to 26 units at a density of four units per acre.
"You could do 26 by right and you are asking for a rezoning at 27," Supervisor Mick Staton (R-Sugarland Run) said. "I think that is very reasonable."
During the March 20 public hearing before the Loudoun County Planning Commission, residents of Jenkins Road asked that the developer extend the sewer and water systems to their properties in order to relieve the burden of their wells. As a condition of approval, the applicant, Ashburn Land Development LLC of Leesburg, agreed to extend Ashburn Place's water and sewer system.
TWO OTHER PROPOSED developments in the Dulles District, The Towns at Belmont Ridge and the West Dulles Station, were forwarded to committee following concerns over roads and density.
The West Dulles Station application would allow for the rezoning of 28.45 acres for office uses on the east side of Lockridge Road and just north of the Dulles Greenway (Route 267).
Project planner Jason Rogers told board members that the project had not yet received approval from the Army Corps of Engineers and that there were outstanding issues regarding road improvements, including the level of service at the intersection of Moran Road and Old Ox Road and the needed traffic signal at Moran Road, the Park and Ride Access Road and Lockridge Road.
For The Towns of Belmont Ridge, Supervisors were concerned with both the proposed density and the developer, K. Hovnanian Homes of Virginia. Both Waters and York told the developer's representative that they were not pleased with the status of other K. Hovnanian projects.
"I would like to know their timeline for finishing their project at Cameron Chase in Ashburn," Waters said. "They have been on bonds for years and years and years. I've got very frustrated residents in Cameron Chase."
"I know those homeowners also and they are very frustrated," York said. "If [the developers] are not going to do what their responsibility is under current performance then they ought not to get new applications until they have cleaned up their acts."
The Towns of Belmont Ridge would allow for 45 single-family homes on approximately 10 acres, a density many Supervisors felt was too high to approve.
"You're at four units to the acre and that's at the upper limit of what the General Plan calls for," Staton said. "I don't think I have ever supported an application at the upper density limits."
In addition to taking actions on proposed developments, the board recognized almost $3.4 million in savings from the school systems' capital projects. The savings came from 16 schools opened between the fall of 1995 and the fall of 2005. The money will be applied to the county's debt service.