LoudounExtra.com

Rally Held To Protest 3 Schools

Complex Planned Near Lovettsville

By Derek Kravitz

Originally published at 12:00 a.m., May 5, 2009
Updated at 11:08 p.m., May 5, 2009

Dozens of western Loudoun County residents rallied outside the county government building in Leesburg on Monday night to protest a plan to build three public schools near Lovettsville.

The Wheatland Alliance, an advocacy group made up of western Loudoun farmers, organized the event, as well as a petition with 1,200 signatures that was delivered to the county Board of Supervisors. In addition, there were more than two hours of comments against the project at the board's regularly scheduled public input meeting Monday.

Critics of the three-school plan say that the 170-acre development, in the Wheatland community along Route 287 and north of Route 9, would bring traffic congestion, create water shortages and ruin the area's rural economy.

Photo: Derek Kravitz

Protesters from western Loudoun gather in front of the Loudoun County government building to protest the purchase of lands being purchased in Lovettsville for new schools.

"Our movement is not a simple showing of NIMBYs," said Ellen Polishuk, a co-owner of the 180-acre Potomac Vegetable Farms, which is next to the proposed schools site. "We are fighting to make sure we can continue to provide food to our community with the use of clean air and abundant clean water."

Polishuk, who represents one of the eight farms that make up the Wheatland Alliance, warned county officials that if they did "not use every power within your reach to kill this deal, you will be pilloried."

Outside, protesters held signs that read, "Will You Guarantee Our Water Supply?" and "School Board Overspends," pointing to the $11.4 million the county would pay to two landowners, developer Salvatore J. Cangiano and cattle farmer Alvin Burgess.

Cangiano purchased 550 acres north of Route 9 in 2006 and received initial approval to build nearly three-dozen houses on lots of three acres and larger. He later offered to sell 160 acres of the property to the county for $15 million; school officials negotiated the price down to $9.9 million, or $62,000 per acre.

Burgess is set to sell the other 10 acres to the county for about $1.5 million, or $147,500 per acre, because it sits on what would be the middle of the high school site, officials said.

School Board members said that neither property owner is compelled to sell and that the agreed-upon figure is a fair-market price. The county tried unsuccessfully in 2006 to purchase a 99-acre portion of the site for $5.6 million, before the land was subdivided. Since then, property assessments in western Loudoun have held fairly steady. Many parcels in the area are being quickly sold and subdivided for residential development, and "both property owners can wait out the current economic downturn and sell this land for more in the future," the School Board said in a statement.

Supporters of the project also say that the schools, which would serve more than 4,000 students, are needed north of Route 9 to relieve crowding and reduce students' travel times.

"At long last, students north of Route 9 will not have to cross Route 9 — sit at the light for minutes — in order to go to school," said School Board member Jennifer Bergel (Catoctin).

The plan gained initial approval from the School Board in February by an 8-1 vote, and county staff members and Lovettsville Mayor Elaine Walker have signed off on the deal.

But heavy opposition to the plan has built among residents, and Loudoun County Supervisors Jim Burton (I-Blue Ridge) and Andrea McGimsey (D-Potomac) signaled that they would fight the proposal up until the July 8 deadline to approve the contract. Other opponents include the Piedmont Environmental Council; Linda Chavez, a Purcellville resident and conservative commentator who was former president George W. Bush's pick for labor secretary in 2001; and Mark Foster, a former chief executive for NeuStar, a communications service provider headquartered in Sterling.

Many of those fighting the Wheatland Farm school plan helped kill a similar deal for the Grubb property, a 104-acre grassy field two miles east of Hillsboro and about halfway between Lovettsville and Purcellville. The School Board canceled that contract in October 2007 after the county's Planning Commission indicated it would vote it down.

If the Board of Supervisors approves the Wheatland Farm plan, an 875-student elementary school would open on the site in 2016; a 1,350-student middle school would open in 2017; and an 1,800-student high school would open in 2018.

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