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Gravel and dirt winning out on rural road
Shoemaker School Road is a brown, narrow ribbon of dirt and gravel shaded by a canopy of leafless trees this time of year. Situated a few miles south of downtown Purcellville, most residents of this community of horse farms and homes on large lots cherish their rural road as is.
"I like the dirt road," said Paul Bedard, 51, who is leading an effort to keep Shoemaker School unpaved. "It says western Loudoun louder than anything else.”
Unbeknown to most residents who reside east of Leesburg, Loudoun County has the second largest network of unpaved roads in Virginia at 337 miles, according to the Virginia Department of Transportation.
And for the many people who live on these byways and who long for the slower pace of life that a dirt road represents, they prefer to keep the paving trucks away.
So, according to Bedard, an editor with U.S. News and World Report who moved from Prince George’s County to western Loudoun in 2000, it came as quite a shock when he learned last year an effort was under way to pave Shoemaker School.
In November, fliers started appearing in the neighborhood describing the benefits of paving: “no more potholes,” “no more dust” and “no more mud.”
“The truth is the road cannot sustain the current traffic levels -- 300 cars per day -- with a gravel surface,” said Jeffrey Greene, who lives on Shoemaker School and whose e-mail address appeared on the bottom of the fliers. “We favor a rough rustic paving that maintains the look and feel of a country road but is capable of handling the current traffic levels.”
What Greene and other paving supporters want is to have Shoemaker School designated a Rural Rustic Road. Such a road, according to VDOT, will be paved, but not in a manner that drastically alters its rural appearance.
After the fliers arrived, word got back to residents like Bedard that the county was considering the paving request.
Soon enough, paving opponents created a Save Shoemaker School Road Web site, residents flooded county officials with e-mails, and homeowners held competing petition drives. Opponents to paving racked up 29 signatures to proponents’ 17.
At a public hearing in front of the Board of Supervisors Feb. 11, all those who spoke favored keeping the road unpaved. Most were fearful pavement would invite speeding motorists.
Lisa Wilkinson, who described her age as being “over 40,” has lived along Shoemaker School since 1999. She said she rides her horses along the road, while her kids walk on it to visit friends.
"If you pave it, then you're taking away anything you can do on this road except drive on it,” she predicted. “There is no good reason to pave this road."
The latest word is that paving may not pan out. County staff is heeding the uproar from paving opponents and is now recommending that supervisors and VDOT not move forward with the project.
"The support wasn't there," said Supervisor Jim Burton (I-Blue Ridge) on paving.
A victory, says Bedard, for keeping Shoemaker School Road as is -- dirt, gravel and all.
"It's probably a little silly," he said, "but it's something we like."
Contact the reporter at jjacks@timespapers.com
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