[JYO] Land use

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Ed, would you please circulate the following to your Leesburg Pilots mailing
list?

 

I have been following the recently proposed developments near the Leesburg
Airport with interest and have read a few of the comments and letters
written by members of the Airport Commission and airport users.  Perhaps a
bit of history might help.  I will take the blame for all the development
south of the By-pass and east of Route 15 since 1980.  When I came to
Leesburg to manage the airport under a contract with the Town there was no
sewer and water south of the By-pass.  I negotiated a contract with the FAA
to build the Flight Service Station.  It was that contract that funded the
sewer and waterlines down Sycolin Road to the airport and made development
of the airport and the adjacent land possible.  For 12 years I worked with
the adjacent land owners to develop plans that were mutually beneficial.  We
extended the runway, obtained avigation easements, and developed projects
like the business park adjacent to the airport.  When the real estate bubble
bust in the early 1990s, banks and regulatory agencies, not families and
individuals, gained control of the land use process and much of the good
work of the 1980s was lost.  A change in the leadership of the Town Council
saw the Town's view of the airport change from one of an asset to a
liability.

 

Today we have an opportunity to perhaps once again work with the land owners
and developers to find win win opportunities.  I saw just such an
opportunity a year ago when there was a rezoning application by the Stowers
family to move an approved 300 houses closer to Sycolin Road and away from
the approach path.  By approving this rezoning the airport gained the
easement for the RPZ which is essential for the installation of a full ILS.
(I had negotiated this easement years ago, but to my surprise it had never
been signed.)

 

Recently the land south and east of the airport was proposed be annexed into
the Town.  The annexation failed on other 5 to 2 vote and the Town lost the
chance to control the zoning.  Now the zoning for this land is in the hands
of the Loudoun County supervisors with the strong support of the adjacent
land owners and developers.  I predict that letters to the supervisors will
not change a single vote, but discussion with the landowners and developers
to find common ground could succeed.  Hardening positions never leads to
compromise.  Cooperation worked 20 years ago and there is no reason, with
the right leadership, it can't work again.

 

Jim Haynes

 

Jim Haynes



 (703) 777-4142

 

 


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