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Election season influenced Crosstrail vote
Throughout the Crosstrail saga, many members of the Board of Supervisors opposed to the mixed-use development from the beginning called the project a nice design in the wrong place.
Ultimately, by an 8-1 majority, the board sided with airplane pilots who use the airport and Leesburg residents and officials concerned about traffic, and turned down the residential, retail and industrial center planned for the area between the Dulles Greenway and Leesburg Executive Airport.
We believe the timing of the vote, rather than the project's location, contributed more to its denial. In an effort to please the public, and prospective voters, the supervisors decided on the application in a surprise vote July 17, instead of holding off until September as planned.
It's a shame that the majority of supervisors who would have normally voted for Crosstrail allowed election-year politics to blind them, thus running a reputable local developer out of town.
Since originally submitting its application in 2004, Peterson Cos. has spent more than $500,000 preparing and changing the project.
Sure, the mixed-use community placed homes near the airport, but so did communities such as Stratford and Oaklawn that the Leesburg Town Council had approved.
No one should expect a developer to pour money into an area and not get anything in return. In today's world, residential is needed within these mixed-use centers for the developer to turn a profit.
Peterson Cos. seemed willing to work with the airport to ensure its survival, most recently agreeing to sell 40 acres for future expansion.
But, rather than focus on how the industrial and retail aspects of Crosstrail would bring in corporations thrilled to store jets at the nearby airport, the powers-that-be decided to focus on noise complaints that may have never materialized. Now, the financially strapped airport will continue without industrial uses it so desperately needs.
The other major issue several supervisors honed in on was transportation. County officials expected Peterson Cos. to shoulder the burden for Leesburg's earlier mistakes in approving developments with insufficient transportation proffers.
But a single developer can't solve Leesburg's gridlock. The off-site improvements Peterson Cos. was proffering would likely have mitigated all of the traffic Crosstrail would have generated, making the roads no worse than they are now.
In return, Leesburg residents could have reduced their travel. They could have found work in the corporations headquartered at Crosstrail; they could have enjoyed the quality restaurants and retail; and they could have seen a new movie the day it came out in a theater just south of town, instead of driving to Sterling or Brambleton.
If Crosstrail had moved through the county's application process smoothly from its inception in 2004, groundbreaking would have taken place next year with tax-generating services and uses coming forth in 2009. Thus, the town said no to more than $10 million in road improvements, and the county said no to millions of dollars in tax revenues.
We hope Peterson Cos. will come back with an application even nicer than Crosstrail (if that's possible) and not be forced to develop by-right and building 25 houses in an area that desperately needs industry and retail. Otherwise, board members, residents and Leesburg officials will regret their opposition 20 years down the road.
Sometimes politics gets in the way of common sense. July 17th will be “A Day that Will Live in Infamy” for Leesburg and Loudoun County, see www.leadership4loudoun.org for my thoughts on this.
Posted by jimhaynes
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