Sunday, May 17, 2009
Hana Newcomb's letter in the May 14 Loudoun Extra seems to imply that Loudoun County School Board member Priscilla Godfrey's letter of May 10 states a desire for the Wheatland area to "emulate" Tysons Corner.
Nowhere in Ms. Godfrey's letter does she advocate turning Wheatland into Tysons Corner. Ms. Godfrey merely cites Ms. Newcomb's family farm there as being successful in spite of being surrounded by development.
Nowhere in the proposal to buy land for three schools to serve the projected build-out in western Loudoun does it project development in the Wheatland area as dense as in Tysons Corner.
Implying that schools are the development equivalent of Tysons Corner is like comparing the project's impact to that of a prison or factory, which some in Loudoun have done.
Ms. Godfrey did not state that she or the School Board thought the county's Comprehensive Plan was irrelevant. She said that the existing plan shows a need for schools, and that schools must go somewhere to serve rural children who will need them.
Our Comprehensive Plan states that schools in the rural area should be located near towns and villages "whenever possible." In the constant climate of protest in Loudoun, where will that be possible? To date, nowhere.
Barbara Munsey, South Riding
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