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Court: Town can suspend Fields Farm lawsuit
Purcellville, over the objections of the county, has the court's permission to suspend activity on its lawsuit challenging the county's approval of Fields Farm for a high school.
Circuit Court Judge Thomas D. Horne ruled Nov. 27 that issues involved in that lawsuit and in those now under appeal at the state Supreme Court are closely related. Argument and decision in the special exception case will wait until the Supreme Court has ruled on the town's and county's legal rights in the area around the town known as the Urban Growth Area.
At stake is the future of Woodgrove High School, set to open on the Fields Farm in the Urban Growth Area north of the town in January 2009, but probably on hold until the legal disputes are resolved.
Horne also ruled that discovery -- all the interviewing and taking of depositions and paperwork that precedes a trial -- shall continue while the town and the county wait for the Supreme Court's decision. Pleas in bar and demurrers -- legal maneuvering that also precede a trial -- must occur within 30 days of a Supreme Court decision, and the trial itself must start within 90 days of the Supreme Court's decision, Horne ruled.
According to Purcellville Mayor Bob Lazaro, he and other council members met with Blue Ridge Supervisor Jim Burton (I) immediately after the Supreme Court announced Nov. 13 it would hear appeals of the Purcellville Urban Growth Area Management Plan, or PUGAMP, cases. The town has promised to stop action on the special exception lawsuit, Lazaro said, and deliver to the Board of Supervisors a list of issues. The disagreement is about the long-running dispute between the town and county over who gets to decide what in the town's urban growth area.
It seemed to be an opportunity to get out of court and get a high school built.
But the county attorney, without notifying anyone in town government, filed a motion to force the town to keep prosecuting the case, which was to have been heard Nov. 30. Supervisors, after a Nov. 20 closed session, took no open vote instructing their attorney to act.
Supervisor Lori Waters (R-Broad Run) said the board can give its attorney "informal direction" without taking a vote. "It's the nature of how we are able to consult with our attorney on legal matters."
Chandra Lantz argued for the town that the special exception case should be tabled until the Supreme Court has ruled on the appeals.
"One of the issues before the Supreme Court," Lantz argued, "is the propriety of sitting a high school on the Fields Farm."
Randy Greehan argued for the county that the town's request is a delaying action, calculated to prevent any progress on building the high school.
The Supreme Court will rule on whether the county must obtain a permit from the town's Planning Commission before putting a high school, or anything else, in the land covered by the PUGAMP.
Horne ruled in April that the PUGAMP is a joint planning agreement and the town and county must agree on development decisions in the Urban Growth Area around the town.
He also ruled that a high school site marked on the PUGAMP map, even though several miles east of the Fields Farm, is permission enough for the county to proceed without clearance from the town's planners.
The town is appealing that ruling. The county is appealing the decision that the PUGAMP applies to them before the land has been annexed into the town.
Horne noted that water and sewer issues for the high school are central to the appeals and to the special exception challenge. They are "like heat-seeking missiles," Horne said. "They just jump right at you."
Allowing the discovery phase to proceed while delaying the actual trial until after the Supreme Court speaks will minimize the delay, Horne said.
Contact the reporter ssollinger@timespapers.com
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