In a letter dated December 29, 1999, Grayson D. Hanes, representing Reed Smith Hazel & Thomas, LLP wrote to the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors to express his concern and displeasure at the Board's attempt to slow down the rate of growth in the Loudoun County.
An extensive pool of building permits for residential units were approved in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Tens of thousands of units were yet to be built. But the negative effects of sudden, rapid growth were already being felt.
Virginia severely restricts legislative initiatives by localities through the "Dillon Rule," so the options for the County to control growth were few. The state does not allow moratoriums of any kind on development. Proffers are strictly voluntary. Property owners can develop their land to its "highest and best use." This gave landowners who wanted to sell the family farm for a subdivision a legal whip over the Board. By the time Jim Burton (former Supervisor for the Mercer District, now the Blue Ridge District), gave his 2003 presentation "A Case Study in Unbridled Growth," 193 lawsuits over land projects had been filed.
THE COST TO EDUCATION
By this time Loudoun County had been absorbing an annual general population growth rate of 8-9% for a decade, and a student population rate of 10-12%. This is FIVE TIMES the sustainable rate. A dozen schools were in the planning or building stage. Another 32 were being built or were newly constructed. Classes were overflowing, teachers were being hired as rapidly as possible. Neighborhood boundary lines were being shifted around to accommodate the burgeoning student influx. Students were changing schools almost as quickly as they were changing grades! In just three years (2000-2003) the annual debt payment went from $35.2M to $84.3M. Taxes and debt were skyrocketing. Developers had the upper hand and they were wielding it. Since his first presentation, Burton has updated the information in the presentation twice, in 2009 and again in 2011. Very little has changed.
Here is the Loudoun County Public Schools Capital Improvement Plan for 2017-2022 - 138 pages of school enrollment statistics and improvements and new construction. This is just a sampling of what is to be expected in the coming years.
KEEPING IT RURAL
As the new century advanced, talk of "smart growth" increased. The Board of Supervisors with some dissenters had expressed a consistent idea of keeping the western part of the county in more rural land use. In 2006 the Right Growth Policy Institute (RGPI) launched an assault on Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, the Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC), conservation easements, and the "rich, elite Hunt Country" horse farm owners. The argument pitted the so-called privileged few with their "land-use taxes" which significantly lowered their tax rates against the beleaguered suburbanites in the eastern part of the county. The RGPI argued that this tax benefit to the rich was so great it put burdens on the middle class homeowners in the east. The reason, they were saying, was that we needed MORE TAXES FROM THE OPEN SPACE CROWD BECAUSE THEY WEREN'T PAYING THEIR FAIR SHARE AND THAT WAS WHY THE TAXES WERE GOING UP ON THE BELEAGUERED HOMEOWNERS IN THE EAST. They attacked Kaine for not approving higher taxes on the rich and for encouraging land conservation because roads had to be built, and the rich people were keeping the necessary funds out of the government’s hands, and they needed to open up much more land for more houses, so that there were more taxes for more roads. It was a rehash of Hane's argument in an ad they ran in the Leesburg Today, July 28, 2006. Blame the rich with their incredibly low land-use taxes and all that open space. In other words, stop restricting growth,
Even Purcellville's Special Assistant to the Town Manager, Marty Kloeden, wrote a Letter to the Editor in the October 19, 2006 Washington Post, exclaiming his dissatisfaction with the growth and RGPI. Mr. Kloeden continues to write grants for the town. Some of these ads appeared in the Leesburg Today June 23, 2006, September 22, 2006, September 29, 2006 and October 13,2006. in addition to All Loudoun Fall 2006 and the Middleburg Eccentric October 26, 2006 and November 22, 2006 issues.
It is appealing to say you are trying to "spread the burden around" and that an increased tax base keeps taxes lower for everyone, which is what the Town of Purcellville keeps repeating. But here's the truth. Open space never cost the taxpayer a dime. It does not need roads, services, and above all, schools. Despite the lowered rate for land use taxes, horse and other livestock farmers, fruit and vegetable farmers all pay MORE in taxes than they demand in serves, whereas homeowners never pay sufficient taxes to cover expensive the costs of the services they demand. The greatest demands come from families. Children are expensive, and schools are a massive drain on the County budget.
ADVANTAGES OF BEING A DEVELOPER
And this is where proffers, known formerly as impact fees are supposed to relieve the taxpayer and the county from the debt they incur when services needs have to be met. Loudoun County has gone to great lengths to attract the tech industry, the medical industry and the tourist industry. In the process it has been criminally irresponsible by not demanding adequate proffers from developers. When the former Purcellville Town Council passed the by-right ordinance for developers John Chapman and Mark Nelis' downtown Vineyard Square project, in the very last days of Bob Lazaro's role as mayor, it took away the developers' obligation to pay impact fees for their project, and the taxpayer paid for those improvement - the redesign of 21st Street, No one bothered to ask the taxpayers of they wanted to help finance Chapman's business venture, but that's what occurred.
Beyond negating proffers from this proposed development, the Purcellville Town Council creates an additional bonus for Chapman - a Tourism Zone for the project specific properties. Another way of deferring tax obligations from developers and passing along to the citizens.
UNDERSTANDING ZONING & ANNEXING
The land outside the town is zoned A-3. The town would have to annex the property before the County could do anything other than the A-3 zoning. The County shows no interest in coming to Purcellville. The A-3 zoning is, in fact, a very effective constraint upon land uses. A-3 zoning would not put a significant burden on the taxpayer. Page 108 of the County's Revised 1993 Zoning Ordinance states this regarding A-3 zoning, "This district is established to provide for the continued practice of agriculture, farm operations, agriculturally related and home based businesses, low density residential developments, preferably in a hamlet subdivision pattern, and other uses in a predominantly rural environment. The district also permits direct marketing of farm products and services."
A second argument, that the town will have more control over land in the town is equally false. A small increase in the town's tax base is all it can hope to get by a simple annexation. Site plans for developing properties are submitted months, usually years, before they are ever approved. Purcellville knows exactly what the developer's expectations are long before the property is annexed, and the developers know exactly what ordinances for open space, landscaping and buffering the town demands. Only BEFORE an annexation does the town have any real control over changes in the site plan, including an outright denial of the plan. THE ANNEXATION PROCESS IS THE POINT AT WHICH THE TOWN ACCEPTS THE DESIGN, CHARACTER AND PURPOSE OF THE PLAN, AND ONCE IT IS ANNEXED THE TOWN HAS ALMOST NO CONTROL OVER THE DESIGN. ANY ATTEMPT BY THE TOWN TO MAKE CHANGES AT THAT POINT WILL BE MET BY A LAWSUIT WHICH THE DEVELOPER WILL WIN. Only by making a Boundary Line Adjustment can the town incorporate additional land into the town without the obligation of increasing the density on that land. But it wouldn't be smart, because the landowner could make demands on the town that it might feel pressured to fulfill.
The annexation of the Mayfair (formerly Autumn Hill) development will cause a flurry of annexation requests. The green buffer north of town was a perfect divide between town and open space areas but now the forested area will come down. The inadequate impact fees will cost residents more in taxes and the County more in debt.
For those who chant grow or die, the flip side is grow AND die. Slowly the quality of life declines and one day you wake up to schools that cheat on grades, classrooms that are overflowing, empty parking lots. canopy trees gone and little spindles in their place. Noise, air and light pollution, empty storefronts, crowded roadways, and rude neighbors all make you wonder where the town you fell in love with went.
