Waterford property rights case may go to Va. Supreme Court
By Shannon Sollinger
Milari Madison is taking her campaign to have Waterford removed from the state's list of historic districts to the Supreme Court of Virginia.
In March 2008, the Loudoun County Circuit Court dismissed Madison's lawsuit challenging the state Department of Historic Resources. The department had denied her petition to de-list Waterford.
In the petition to the Supreme Court for appeal, Madison alleges she has repeatedly been denied permission to build a single-family home on her lot in Waterford. The county's refusals, she argues, are based on its historic district ordinance, and that ordinance is dependent on the state agency's "destination of Waterford as a historic district."
Madison has not filed any applications to build on that lot since settling multiple lawsuits against the county in December 2006 and razing the existing structure, said Zoning Administrator Melinda Artman.
Heidi Seibentritt in the Planning Department said the state, national and local historic districts are independent of each other, and only the county's has zoning regulations attached. The county can establish an historic district prior to any action at the state or national level, Seibentritt said, as it did in the case of the Goose Creek Historic District.