Congratulations! Thanks
to the hundreds of you who spoke out, this week the Board of
Supervisors voted
no on the Crosstrail proposal for 1,000 houses
near Leesburg. This wouldn't have
happened without your action.
Developers
Looking for a Back Door Deal
Developers
are trying to end run the democratic process in Loudoun, by seeking
the right to build thousands more new
houses. But because the houses would be by-right,
there would be no public say, and we would get stuck with the bill
for millions!*
At a public
hearing on Tuesday, July 31, the Board
of Supervisors will consider massive
changes to the Zoning Ordinance,
the laws that enforce our county's Comprehensive Plan. If approved,
these changes would mean:
- Developers
could build more houses per acre than currently allowed without
paying proffers.
Most of these new houses would be in suburban
Loudoun alone and could be built
by-right above and beyond what is already
allowed. This is an addition to the 30,000 houses already in the
pipeline.
- Laws
would become mere "guidelines" that
could be easily waived.
Many of the critical laws governing how new
houses are built would become guidelines that
could be easily changed, putting our safety, environment,
and quality of life at risk.
- Citizens
would lose their say.
Because the new houses would be by-right,
they would be approved by administrative process instead of a
public hearing.
- It
would cost county taxpayers millions.
We - not the developers - would pay the high costs
of county services for thousands more new houses.
New houses cost the county more in services than they provide
in taxes.
- We
would feel the impacts immediately.
The
county hasn't done transportation, fiscal, or county services
impact studies -- but the changes would take effect immediately.
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Email
the Board of Supervisors |
Tell
the Board of Supervisors: It's
unfair to expect us to weigh in without all of the information! The
county needs to analyze the impacts of the proposed changes
to the Zoning Ordinance first.
*Please
be sure to include your name and address so your comments
can be counted.
|
Be there on
Tuesday, July 31 |
This
is our one chance to be heard! Please come to the
hearing and speak, hold a sign, and represent your neighbors
who are on vacation. Let
us know you will be there.
Public
Hearing
with the Board of Supervisors
Tuesday, July 31 @ 6:30 PM
County Government
Center
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|
Tell
the Board of Supervisors it is unacceptable to consider
these massive changes without studying the impacts of thousands
more houses in suburban Loudoun.
*The county
has not studied the impacts of these proposed changes, so we
don't know exactly how many new houses would be allowed and how
much it would cost us. We are currently reviewing the proposed
changes and will get back to you with more information.
The
Proposed Changes
There
are 846 pages of suggested changes to Loudoun's Zoning
Ordinance,
adding up to one thing: an end-run around the vision set forth
by our Comprehensive Plan.
Highlights
of the proposed changes:
-
Thousands
more new
houses could be built by-right, most
of them in suburban Loudoun. This is in addition to the
more than 30,000 new houses in the pipeline.
By making
small, technical changes to the zoning ordinance, developers
could build more houses than currently allowed and change
the way our neighborhoods look and feel. These changes
include less open space, less parking, less landscaping, taller
buildings closer to the street, and density bonuses for unbuildable
floodplain land.
-
Environmental
protections called for by the Comprehensive Plan are missing.
Restrictions to protect
environmentally sensitive areas are missing. These protections
could include Conservation Design, Limestone Overlay District,
and River Stream Corridor Overlay District.
-
Removing
a restriction against using residential neighborhood streets
for primary access to shopping centers -- which would allow
truck traffic on our streets.
The impacts on our neighborhoods and local roads have not been analyzed.
-
Many
rules for developers, including safeguards for the public
and the environment, could be easily changed without public
say.
This
would be accomplished by moving the regulations from the legally
binding zoning ordinance to the Facilities Standards Manual (FSM),
where changes can be made administratively. An example is moving
floodplain regulations to the FSM would increase the potential
for flooding and loss and destruction of personal property.
More
Information
Analysis
of the proposed changes (pdf)
Prepared by the Piedmont Environmental Council
Proposed
amendments to the Zoning Ordinance (pdf)
County document
What is zoning?
An
ordinance that divides the county into different districts
or zones. The
land in each zone is assigned specific use or uses, either by-right,
as a special exception, or as a rezoning. Zoning
also determines how our communities look by guiding where and
how buildings are placed in relationship to each other, whether
and how environmental features like streams and trees are protected,
and amount of impervious areas allowed.
How
is the Zoning Ordinance different from the Comprehensive Plan?
The Comprehensive
Plan lays outs the county's and citizens' vision for future
growth: how much, how it will look, where it will be located,
and what we want to protect. The Zoning Ordinance is the law
that is supposed to ensure that the vision becomes a reality.
It provides specific limits and rules for development.
What does by right mean?
By right describes the amount of development that can be legally
built without a public process. By right development applications
are handled by county staff. Developers don't offset the cost of
by right development.
Sincerely,
Rebecca
Perring, Coalition for Smarter Growth
On behalf of the
Campaign for Loudoun's
Future
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Together, We're Fighting to Protect the Quality of Life in Loudoun
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