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Council kills Festival Lakes plans
The Festival Lakes application was a good one, according to Leesburg town staff and some council members, but a 1 a.m. vote on Nov. 28 denied the developer's plans to build 275 housing units on the northeastern Leesburg property.Council members voted 4-1-1-1 to deny the application, with Ken Reid, Susan Horne, Katie Hammler and Mayor Kristen Umstattd voting for denial and Kevin Wright voting against denial. Kelly Burk abstained, and Fernando Marty Martinez was absent from the meeting.
Those who voted against the application said the property's developer, Michael Capretti of the Gulick Group, had not offered enough money to the town and county to pay for the impact the development would have on the community.
“We're trying to fix our transportation problems by building more and more houses, which are causing our transportation problems,” said Hammler.
Many of the county's housing developers are required to pay for road projects as part of their building agreement.
In addition to more traffic, Hammler said the effects of building more houses here would cause a “ripple effect,” creating additional overcrowding in schools and the depletion of open land in the area.
Others on the council argued that the deal the Festival Lakes developer was offering could be the best one for Leesburg.
“The application is consistent with the town [development] plan. The developer has done the right thing,” said Wright prior to the vote, adding that denying a good application could send an “un-business friendly” message to developers.
“If we vote both [the good applications and the bad ones] down equally, the development community says, 'What are we supposed to do?'” he said.
If it had been approved, Festival Lakes would have brought 140 single-family homes and 135 town houses to the PMW Farms property -- about 100 acres -- in northeastern Leesburg, a property now used as a sort of park for surrounding neighborhoods.
Town staff recommended approval of the application, saying that its housing density was lower than the density limits set by the town and the application provided more open space than what was required.
The developer also was offering $4.7 million for new schools. The council was visited Nov. 26 by supervisors Sally Kurtz (D-Catoctin) and Lori Waters (R-Broad Run), who asked the council to be flexible with the school money and allow as much as $1 million of it to be spent on road projects.
Some council members felt the Festival Lakes development team was low-balling its offer.
“It seems like the applicant is giving us the bare bones here,” said Reid.
Mayor Umstattd agreed, saying if one compared Festival Lakes to the Village at Leesburg by house count, the Village gave $26 million and, proportionally, Festival Lakes should give $13 million.
However, she said, the Village at Leesburg also includes commercial space and Festival Lakes would not have.
Although the application was denied, many on the council said this property – which is surrounded by other housing developments – inevitably will be filled in with residential building.
The next step for the Festival Lakes developer could be to resubmit his application to the council with more money for schools and/or roads.
Contact the reporter at hhobbs@timespapers.com
Its too many houses in too small a space, in an already overcrowded section of town. Put something besides houses there.
Posted by Waya
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