Election May Focus On Dispute Over School

Mayoral Contender Wants Suit Dropped

By Arianne Aryanpur (Contact)

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Purcellville's legal challenge to Loudoun County's plans to build a high school near the town promises to be a major issue in the May 6 municipal election.

Karl R. Phillips, a former Purcellville Town Council member, announced last week that he is running for mayor. If elected, he said, he will seek immediately to drop the town's lawsuit against Loudoun County over construction of the high school at Fields Farm. Phillips also said he has recruited three candidates who will run for council seats on the same platform.

"The first thing we have agreed to do when we take office is to end the lawsuits so we can move forward with building the high school and restore our relationship with the county," he said.

Phillips will face Mayor Robert W. Lazaro Jr. in a rematch of the 2006 election. Lazaro has led Purcellville's legal effort to block the school project, saying the county is violating a 1995 land-use agreement that requires town approval of the school's construction.

The legal proceedings have reached the Virginia Supreme Court, although attorneys for both sides have been discussing the possibility of an out-of-court settlement since December.

Purcellville residents are divided over the case. Some support the litigation, saying the town's ability to control development near its boundaries is at stake. Others say it is more important to let the school project go forward so Loudoun Valley High and the schools that feed into it will get some relief from crowding.

Phillips supported the project when he served on the Town Council from 2002 to 2006. The town's lawsuit was filed in June 2006, shortly after the municipal election.

"This lawsuit has completely deteriorated the relationship between the town and the county, and I want to reverse that," Phillips said this week.

Lazaro said he is not opposed to school at Fields Farm but rather to the county's insistence that it can proceed without the town's approval. He said he is hopeful of reaching an out-of-court settlement that will allow the school to be built while upholding the town's authority.

"I'm confident that if the county wants to reach an agreement with us, it can," he said. "The issue has never been with the high school; it's been with them following the growth-management contract."

A Loudoun Circuit Court judge delivered a mixed verdict in March. He ruled that Purcellville is entitled to have a say in development decisions in the area covered by the land-use agreement but that the town's approval of the school is not required because a school was included on a map that was part of the agreement. The town and the county appealed his ruling.

Lazaro said the town is seeking a settlement that would give the council a vote on the project and require the county to finance road and utility improvements to offset the school's effect on traffic and Purcellville's water supply.

"Defending our growth-management contract is non-negotiable," he said.

Phillips said that the high school will not have a significant effect on traffic or utilities and that the town should not delay the project any further.

"The county began planning this high school in 1995," Phillips said. "What I've heard from people on the other side of the issue is that it wasn't planned. That is not a valid argument. The county is not ramming this down the town's throat."

The council has seven members. In addition to Lazaro's position, the seats of council members Janet Clarke, Gregory Wagner and Christopher J. Walker III will be on the May 6 ballot.

Phillips's slate of candidates includes Jim Vogt, who ran unsuccessfully for the Town Council in 2006 and owns the Daily Grind Coffeehouse and Cafe in Leesburg; Chris Bledsoe, a program manager for VeriSign; and Tom Larry, a scientist with Toyon Research.

Your Thoughts...

Are you happy that the school year is over?