Media Advisory
Campaign for Loudoun's Future

For Immediate Release:
November 8, 2006

For more information
Andrea McGimsey (703) 726-0646

Loudoun Supervisors Reject 33,000 House Proposal

Residents Applaud Board for
Protecting the Sensible Growth Plan

The Loudoun Board of Supervisors voted 6-3 to reject a proposal to massively change the County’s growth plan on Wednesday night.

“The collective voice of thousands of Loudoun residents who have been demanding fair and responsible planning has been heard,” said Andrea McGimsey, Director of the Campaign for Loudoun’s Future. “We thank our Supervisors for putting the interests of the residents before developers. This decision is good for Loudoun County, the entire region and the state of Virginia.”

The proposal that was denied would have changed Loudoun’s existing growth plan to allow 33,000 houses in an area west of South Riding & Ashburn and south of Leesburg. Under Loudoun County’s current growth plan, at build-out, the area under discussion will accommodate 4,608 houses. Speculative developers proposed a massive change to the existing growth plan in Loudoun, despite the County’s notable struggles to meet the transportation, school, recreation, and other service needs of existing residents and the 36,000 houses that are already approved but not yet built.

“There was nothing reasonable or wise about proposals for 33,000 houses in eastern Loudoun,” said Karen Ficker, one of the leaders of Ashburn Citizens United, “We are thrilled our officials turned down this proposal and recognized it is not in the County’s interest to change our plan to fit the private financial desires of development companies.”

It has been clear that public opinion and professional advice were against the proposed change. There has been an outcry of public opposition across the county to these massive development proposals for the past two years. Residents understand that if the County provided such open permissions to speculative developers, the area would never recover. The Virginia Department of Transportation’s analysis found that the proposal would create gridlock not only in southeastern Loudoun but in neighboring Fairfax and Prince William counties as well.

“I thank our Supervisors for doing the right thing and rejecting the CPAM,” said Susan Klimek Buckley, Sterling resident and leader of the Eastern Loudoun Schools Association. “I hope we can now turn our attention to needs of our existing residents.”

At the end of Wednesday’s discussion Supervisor Waters and Supervisor Tulloch called on the developers to withdraw all rezoning applications, which total over 19,000 residential units, in this area. Residents from across the county were in attendance to listen to the discussion and witness the vote.

“Greenvest clearly underestimated the power of an organized community of Loudoun citizens who understand that where and how our region grows is incredibly important,” said McGimsey.

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