No final vote on Ridgewater Park
By Jason Jacks
The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors decided Dec. 11 to send a rezoning application for the Ridgewater Park development to a future Transportation and Land Use Committee meeting, meaning the next board will most likely have final say on this controversial development.With Ridgewater Park, developer Creekside LLC wants to build 996 homes and almost 500,000 square feet of office space on 388 acres near Leesburg Executive Airport. The parcel is west of Goose Creek and bordered by Sycolin Road, Cochran Mill Road and the Dulles Greenway.
Earlier this year, supervisors rejected a request to amend the county's comprehensive plan, which would have allowed this developer to change a portion of Loudoun's Transition Policy Area -- a buffer between the rural west and suburban east -- into suburban development.
Opponents of the project say it will add more motorists to already clogged roads and harm the Goose Creek Reservoir, an important water source.
During a public hearing Tuesday night, 26 of the 27 people who spoke on Ridgewater Park said they opposed the project.
"Once the physical barrier between rural and suburban is gone," said speaker Gigi Robinson on building in Loudoun's Transition Policy Area, "we can't go back."
Contact the reporter at jjacks@timespapers.com