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Round Hill residents question size, need for Sheriff’s Office
Round Hill residents are questioning the county’s plan to build a Sheriff’s Office Substation in their community, even as the county moves ahead with a special exception application to build the new public safety facility on a 14.18-acre lot just west of the town boundary.
At a public input meeting Aug. 6, architect Jim Beight, with PSA-Dewberry in Leesburg, unveiled three building designs he has developed for a 16,000-square-foot-substation at 47 W. Loudoun St. The size is down from the 18,000-square-foot proposal of 2007, but still larger than community members seem ready to accept.
Round Hill Councilman Scott Ramsey questioned the need to go from a 1,000-square-foot facility – the western Loudoun satellite station on Main Street -- to 16,000 square feet. He said he would prefer a 4,000-square-foot building.
The Board of Supervisors, said Supervisor Jim Burton (I-Blue Ridge), can place conditions on the approval of a special exception, everything from the design and height to lighting, buffering and replanting. He would be unlikely, he said, to approve a parking area for 150 cars. The property is zoned for residential use, but the zoning allows the substation with the approval of a special exception.
“If we can meet the community’s concerns,” said Lewis Rauch, director of the county’s construction office, “there’s no reason we shouldn’t be there.”
“The community should not be saddled with this size of building, and this location is robbing from the future of Round Hill,” said Carolyn Thomas, whose property abuts the proposed site. “It takes 14 acres off the tax rolls in the future when the town expands into the JLMA [Joint Land management Area].”
The county has a $1.2 million contract to buy the lot from Loudoun Hospital Center, which was willed the property in 2005. The lot is assessed at is $527,500, down from nearly $700,000 in 2007.
Ramsey asked if a cost-benefit analysis has been done – the $8.3 million to build a regional substation versus the cost of deputies driving from Leesburg to respond to calls and back to deliver evidence to a secure locker.
Capt. Eric Noble, the Sheriff’s Office western Loudoun commander, said cost is not driving the plan to establish a substation in western Loudoun. “The primary driver is that we get more involved in the community.”
Compare the cost of calling 911 and having help arrive in two hours from Leesburg where deputies were tied up delivering evidence, versus 15 minutes from the Round Hill substation, Sheriff Steve Simpson suggested.
The substation will include workout and locker facilities for the deputies, two holding cells, an evidence room, an area for property storage, a room for community meetings and two kennels for police dogs.
Beight said the building will pursue LEED certification, for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.
Why do we need to foot the bill for another Sheriff Substataion when we just built one in Lansdowne that is not being used. Sheriff Simpson is taking advantage of the taxpapers. We build a new substation in Sterling and Landsdown and still have one in between that the county rents. I guess someone forgot to tell Sheriff Simpson we are in a recession.
Posted by disgustedtaxpayer
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disgustedtaxpayer needs to get their facts straight before they spout off. The Public Safety building in Lansdowne is for Fire/Rescue, not the Sheriff's Department. There is only an office in there for deputies. Plus the bond for the substation in Round Hill was approved long before the recession hit. They obviously have a vendetta against the agency, maybe a lead foot disgusted?
Posted by truthseekerva
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Truthseekerva must be a loudoun county sheriff. No venedetta here Sheriff, just tired of watching my services get worse and my taxes go up. Perhaps you would like to pay my tax bill?
Posted by disgustedtaxpayer
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