Lovettsville in Loudoun’s Rural Area

Loudoun County, self-described as one of the richest and most splendid counties in America, has set upon producing a “new” comprehensive plan, titled, “Envision Loudoun,” and, to that end, sought to obtain the opinions of the community in what were called, “listening and learning sessions,” to determine what that plan should look like for the County including its rural area.

David Truman, a political scientist, wrote that public hearings and input sessions may be to inform the governing body or they may just be methods to expel political energy while disregarding the will of the people.

Focusing on Western Loudoun, the comments from listening, learning and postings in this ongoing process include thousands of published comments (in small 10 pica type) to preserve Western Loudoun and to stop the development that is underway; this is a sample of the comments:

• “Stop the urban sprawl and protect Western Loudoun.”
• “Maintain two distinct areas, rural west, urban east.”
• “Keep the West rural.”
• “Stop growth.”
• “Contributing to this is the county caving in to developers’ desires…”
• “Economic development should not be a higher purpose than livability – property rights matter.”
• “Rural roads should be left unpaved.  If people move to the rural area it should be for the aesthetics of the area.”
• “Protect culture of western Loudoun established over last 250 years.”
• “Protect stone fences throughout western Loudoun, along historic roadways in western Loudoun County, e.g., Beaverdam Creek Historic Roadway.”
• “Maintain open spaces.”
• “Preserve current agriculture [and] farms.”
• “Historic villages aren’t meant to support traffic.”
• “No big box stores [in] Western Loudoun.”
• “Love Western Loudoun as it is, keep open space, horse farms, fight development pressure/housing development.”
• “Stop the residential development.”

At the same time, the public’s opinions were released, there was a separate “Foundation Report” that purported to represent the findings of the “listening” and “learning.”

It described how “Loudoun County has evolved from a collection of rural villages” and from when it was “primarily an agricultural community.”

Rather than cite the will of the residents in the County, and in Western Loudoun, the Report says there is a “growing market demand for new types of development and community amenities.” Continue reading →