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Annexation plans move ahead
The Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Nov. 20 in favor of working with the Town of Leesburg to proceed with preparations to annex 2,500 acres of county land into the town limits.“This has been an ongoing, maturing process,” said Councilman Kevin Wright. Town and county representatives have met over the course of six months to talk about the possible annexation.
This is only the second step in a long process of getting the land added to the town, said Wright.
The land, which sits south of Leesburg roughly between Route 7 and the Dulles Greenway, would give Leesburg greater control over its destiny by controlling the land around the town, Wright said. The land is largely undeveloped, he said, and has a low population.
Even though the county voted in favor of moving forward with the annexation, Supervisor Jim Clem (R-Leesburg), who has worked with the town on this issue, said slow and meticulous decisions are needed to make sure this is a “win-win” for the town and county.
The proposal was approved by Leesburg Town Council in early October when all but Mayor Kristen Umstattd voted in favor of annexing the property. Councilwoman Kelly Burk, who will replace Clem in January as Leesburg's representative on the Board of Supervisors, was absent the day of the vote but has been a proponent of the proposal.
Umstattd said she voted against the proposal because she is “generally very skeptical of land annexation” because “the more territory you annex, the harder it is to protect that small-town feel.”
After the town approved the proposal, supervisors Clem and Sally Kurtz (D-Catoctin) met with town officials at a joint county and town land annexation meeting Oct. 11 to discuss removing the land from county control and placing it within the town's jurisdiction.
Both supervisors recommended the switch to the Board of Supervisors Nov. 20.
Annexing the land means an increase in economic development opportunities for the town, Clem said. Specifically, he said, the land offers the town the chance to add commercial development where needed.
He added the county would lose little by the land transfer because new town residents in this area would also pay county taxes.
Thinking of the future is important, he said, especially if the county government seat should move out of Leesburg.
Currently, the supervisors are considering five locations to which to move the County Government Center, now at 1 Harrison St. The board hasn't limited its search to these five; even so, only two of the sites are in Leesburg. The other three are in eastern Loudoun.
“If the County Government Center moves out [of Leesburg],” there will be an economic hole, and the local businesses will feel the “pinch,” Clem said. “[Council members] need to find some other avenue to generate revenue if the county government should leave.”
Having the annexed property within its limits would also give the town more control of the land-use applications.
Part of the land belongs to Peterson Cos., developers of Crosstrail, a development that would have brought 1,020 homes, 2 million square feet of office space and another 850,000 square feet of retail to the area between the Dulles Greenway and Leesburg Executive Airport.
Of the 550 acres belonging to Peterson Cos., 400 to 450 acres could be annexed into the town.
Peterson Cos. is suing the county for voting against its development plans in July. The case, filed with the Loudoun County Circuit Courts, is still pending.
That lawsuit could be dropped, said Wright, since Peterson Cos. would no longer be seeking approval of its project from the county.
Leesburg's council largely opposed the Crosstrail development.
The next step for annexation is a series of meetings – including stakeholders meetings and public hearings, said Wright.
It will be several months before the land is formally annexed into Leesburg's limits.
Contact the reporter at hhobbs@timespapers.com
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