Happy New Year! 

Important news to kick off 2006:
1. Public input session on rural zoning
2. Back again: Massive development along Rt 50
3. Thanks for supporting the campaign

1.  Rural Zoning Update
In November 2005, the Board of Supervisors voted to move forward with public review of changes to Loudoun's rural zoning to reduce the number of houses that can be built (45,876 vs. 13,936).

The Planning Commission wants to hear what you think about the plan at a public input session scheduled for Saturday, January 21, from 9:00 AM to Noon.  Speaker sign up begins at 8:45 AM. 

We will send out more details about the plan soon, but for now you can reference these resources:
Information from Loudoun County
Why rural zoning is important to Loudoun
Article in the Leesburg Today

2.   It's Back: Plans for 28,000 New Houses on Route 50
As you know, developers are pushing for up to 28,000 new houses along Route 50 in eastern Loudoun County.  Their latest effort to get approval for this plan was to file rezoning applications for several pieces of land within the area targeted for development.  (Read Supervisor Jim Burton's explanation of the rezoning requests in his December newsletter.)

If one rezoning application is approved, it will be much easier for the remaining land to be rezoned and then developed.  To prevent this domino effect and to maintain the integrity of Loudoun's Transition Area, it is critical that we closely track each individual rezoning request.

Development at this massive scale will cost Loudoun residents far too much.  Can you imagine adding 77,451 new people to the Route 50 corridor?  How much longer will our commutes be?  How high will our taxes go?

We promise to track this issue carefully and give you updates as soon as they are available.

Update from Supervisor Jim Burton
Excerpt from his December 2005 Newsletter
Last month, the Board rearranged some of its land use priorities. While the Western zoning ordinances remain the Board’s first priority, the Dulles CPAM (a consolidation of the Dulles-area developer-initiated CPAM’s), which had been the Boards #2 priority, was superseded by the Route 50 Task Force, an initiative by Supervisor Snow for the eastern portion of the highway. In making this reprioritization the Board recognized that its decision would delay consideration of the Dulles CPAM by at least six months – a delay which did not bother me a bit.

However, I have since confirmed that almost all of the developers whose individual CPAM’s were consolidated into the Dulles CPAM have filed rezoning (ZMAP) applications during the last few months. These actions indicate to me that a change in strategy is taking place. I believe that there is good news and bad news inherent in this change.

The good news is two-fold. First, it demonstrates the power of public pressure. The Board and Planning Commission received hundreds of emails, letters, and phone calls from concerned citizens who opposed the Dulles CPAM. Over a hundred citizens attended the Planning Commission’s Public Hearing. Many of them staged a mini-demonstration when they were denied access to the Board room that night. I believe that the developers saw the public opposition to the CPAM as a public relations nightmare – a battle for public opinion which they were not winning.

Second, because the density requests of their ZMAP’s will not match the density for the parcels recommended in the current County Comprehensive Plan, the Board (if a majority so chooses) can legally deny the rezonings.

However, rezonings do have a legal time limit associated with them. This requirement may accelerate their timing. Further, each rezoning will move through the process separately rather than as a consolidated whole. Thus, citizens will need to be especially alert about tracking each rezoning through the public process and recognize that they may need to attend multiple public hearings over the next two years. During this time, citizens and the Board will also need to remember, that while one rezoning may not add significant density to an area, when all the rezonings are added up, the result will still likely be some 28,000 units in the Transition Area.

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3.  Thanks for supporting the campaign
A big THANK YOU to the many donors who made our fundraising drive a success!

Last month we challenged you to help us raise $50,000 by December 31 so that we could get the matching dollars offered by an anonymous donor.

Thanks to your donations, we not only met our goal -- we exceeded it by quite a bit!  Your generosity will ensure that the Campaign for Loudoun's Future continues and expands in 2006.

Thank you for your support,
Andrea McGimsey
Campaign for Loudoun's Future
http://www.loudounsfuture.org/
info@loudounsfuture.org

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