[JYO] Crosstrail Gets Hearing Monday; Former Airport Operator Joins Peterson's Team

Crosstrail Gets  Hearing Monday; Former Airport Operator Joins Peterson's Team
_Molly Novotny_ (mailto:)  

Jun 16, 2006 -- Some  may say Jim Haynes is a glutton for punishment. He 
prefers to say he is  passionate about the airport.  
Under either description, the former fixed base operator of the Leesburg  
Airport, whose position the 1993 Leesburg Town Council terminated after he  
struggled financially in operating the town airfield, continues to be involved  
in 
airport operations. Most recently, he joined the Peterson Companies team in  
touting the Crosstrail development as an economic boom to the town-owned  
facility.  
His support is in stark contrast to the townâs airport commission and the  
majority of town council. The council and airport commission oppose the 
project, 
 citing concerns about residences encroaching on the airport and the 
integration  of retail uses on land designated for regional employment 
development.  
In anticipation of the county planning commissionâs public hearing next week  
on the mixed-use application, the council adopted a resolution Tuesday  
reaffirming its opposition to the rezoning request. It previously sent two 
other  
recommendations of denial to the county, one in response to the applicantâs  
first submission and the second responding to the second submission, said David 
 
Fuller, chief of comprehensive planning for the town. This is the first  
resolution to go directly to the board of supervisors; those previous ones went 
 
to county staff, he said. The Leesburg Planning Commission is holding a public  
input session Thursday and intends to adopt a similar resolution. It will 
then  participate in the countyâs public hearing, which is scheduled to begin 
at 
6  p.m. Monday in the countyâs boardroom.  
Earlier this year, the town council declined to approve Haynesâ nomination to 
 serve on the Airport Commission. Last month, Haynes was a leader of the 
effort  to unseat Mayor Kristen Umstattd by mounting a write-in campaign to 
elect  
Supervisor Jim Clem (R-Leesburg) to the post.  
Haynes said he is serving as a paid consultant to the Peterson Companies, a  
position he said he asked for because he didnât agree with the opposition the 
 
project is receiving.  
âI know that property pretty well and have for 20 or more years, because I  
had a contract to buy it in the early â80s,â when he was managing the 
airport, 
 he said Tuesday. And after studying Petersonâs plans to model its 
development  after Fairfax Cornerâs mix of retail, residential and offices 
centered 
around a  movie theater and pedestrian gathering space, Haynes said, âI 
honestly 
believe  that what Peterson is planning to do there is the best thing that can 
happen to  the airport.â  
The companies that locate in Petersonâs Fairfax Corner, and would likely  
locate in its proposed development between the Dulles Greenway and the Leesburg 
 
Executive Airport, Haynes said, tend to be larger companies, âthe kind of  
companies that own and operate business jets.â  
He said itâs corporate jets that will bring the airport out of its financial  
dependency on the town.  
âI think Crosstrail has very high potential to bring those kinds of airplanes 
 back to the airport,â he said, referencing the jets he said were housed 
there in  the 1980s and early 1990s. It wonât take many to make the airport 
economically  viable, Haynes said.  
In a press release Friday, Peterson announced that the National Rural  
Utilities Cooperative Financing Corporation, CFC, is planning to build a  
125,000-square-foot office center at the Crosstrail property, if the 
development  is 
approved. CFC would house 250 employees at the new Loudoun office, according  
to 
the release.  
The majority of the town council and the airport commission strongly  
disagrees, warning that the development would threaten to close the airport, 
not  
improve its economic status. The airport commission scheduled a strategy 
session  
for Wednesday to prepare for its briefing to the countyâs planning commission 
on  Monday.  
In addition to the commissionâs claims that much of the proposed development  
is inappropriate for the airport, commission Vice Chairman Dennis Boykin said 
 members are also concerned about the âthrough the fenceâ airport 
operations 
the  Peterson Companies has discussed as a compliment to the airport.  
âWe canât find an airport where the airport manager is happy with  
through-the-fence operations,â Boykin said Tuesday. Boykin questions 
Haynesâ  
involvement, saying his past with the airport is less than successful.  
In endorsing its resolution against the Crosstrail development, Councilman  
Bob Zoldos and Councilwoman Katie Sheldon Hammler strayed from their colleagues 
 and voted against the resolution.  
Zoldos first questioned the need for another resolution, saying the council  
had twice previously expressed its opinion, without receiving any response 
back  from the county.  
âWhat are we accomplishing by the third one?â Zoldos asked. âThey 
havenât  
responded to the two that we sent previously, and I donât suppose theyâll  
respond to this one either.â He then went on to say the economic benefits of 
the 
 project will outweigh the safety risks.  
âI donât think Crosstrail will harm the Leesburg Airport. I think it will  
help,â Zoldos said on the dais.  
Hammler voted against the measure for other reasons, saying she wanted to  
hear from the public before sending another opinion from the town.  
âI think it would send a much stronger message if we let the process work,â 
 
Hammler said, referencing the planning commissionâs public input session  
scheduled for Thursday night in council chambers. That meeting is scheduled to  
begin at 7 p.m.  
Fuller said the request for the councilâs resolution came from the planning  
commission.  
âOur planning commission wanted to make a statement at the [countyâs] 
public 
 hearing,â he said Wednesday morning.

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