SCHOOLS BY RIGHT - public input to Supervisors this Wednesday June 5 at 6pm
Sarah Stinger
Hi neighbors,
As you can see from the Schools By Right attachment, the subject Action Item is on the BOS agenda THIS COMING week (Wednesday June 5). Supervisors will vote on whether to advance the Item to the Planning Commission. The Item is to eliminate the Special Exception process for public schools (Schools By Right). Please try to attend the Supervisor meeting this Wednesday June 5 and speak out during their preceding public input session at 6pm, for a reasonable effort to be made to get public input on the Action Item before it is submitted for final approvals. With the encouragement of citizens like you, perhaps Supervisors would vote to do so, instead of voting to push it through with little public involvement. If you don't know anything about what is about to happen, then it shows our elected officials have done very little to advertise it!
Personally I think the concept is OK, to streamline gov't process whereby schools can open, but the way they are trying to rush approval of this Action raises concern (read why below). Perhaps you have knowledge about lighting and noise levels, or appropriate traffic controls, which are reasonable to be required for new schools and have specific recommendations on some of the proposed Peformance Standards (see page 16 of the attached), but I believe our long-standing goal of encouraging placement of schools in or adjacent to established communities (where the majority of children reside/study/play/socialize/etc..), thereby improving families' quality of life, reducing the time most children ride the bus to school, reducing the construction/operating costs of those schools, and investing limited tax dollars on infrastructure improvements IN our communities instead of for proposed developments miles away, is to show your strong support for revising the VERY FIRST Performance Standard listed in the item: (see page 16 PERFORMANCE STANDARDS: 5-665: Schools, Public (Elementary, Middle or High)
CURRENT VERSION:
(A) Utilities. All public schools shall be served by public utilities, where available. If no public utilities are available to serve a school site, then on-site facilities meeting Health Department standards shall be used.
PROPOSE REVISION TO:
(A) Utilities. All public schools shall be served by public utilities. If no public utilities are available to serve a school site, then approval for on-site facilities meeting Health Department standards shall be obtained via the Special Exception Permit process.
I think this revision is fair because, as highlighted in the attached LCPS letter, it could ultimately help schools open even faster. And in the case of Lovettsville, the Town has shown strong support for providing utilities to future schools nearby.
Apologies for any intrusion/duplication.
Thank you for any consideration.
Sincerely,
Sarah Stinger
For more information, go to the County's website on the topic: www.loudoun.gov/schoolsbyright
To contact your Supervisor, go to the Board of Supervisors website here and click on your Supervisor.
WHY NEXT WEEK'S VOTE STINKS:
The attached shows the Action Item was sent in December 2012 to numerous County government agencies, including LCPS, Parks and Rec, Transportation, Economic Development Commission, etc... for referrals, and those departments had several weeks to respond, and those recommendations were obviously incorporated in the current May 2013 version.
We, the public was only afforded ONE public input session (held last week on May 29 from 6-6:30pm). That session was VERY poorly advertised (wasn't on the Gov't Calendar the week before it was held, nor advertised in Supervisors' newsletters (York, Clark, Higgins or Volpe's - perhaps others' newsletters missed it too). And that input session was held only ONE week before the Action Item is being voted for advancement to the Planning Commission! If the public was afforded the same consideration for providing recommendations (as were government entities), then staff couldn't possibly have had sufficient time to reasonably evaluate and incorporate the public's recommendations in the measure before it is advanced for final approvals.
It is clear that this measure is intended to be pushed through with little to no public knowledge, much less input. Officials who want to reduce public involvement and eliminate the step whereby those living/working next to those schools can negotiate measures for mitigating school impacts will respond, "public input is still possible at the Planning Commission's and Supervisor's public hearings." But shouldn't the Action Item be closest to its final version (with the public's input incorporated) before it is submitted to the Planning Commission for approval? That way the Action Item could ultimately be approved faster. Further, scheduling Planning Commission and subsequent Supervisor hearings in the summer when many citizens are on vacations is questionable. Elected officials won't even be around to attend those public hearings (School Board recess is July and Supervisors' in August).
Please understand, we are not trying to stop this action, we just want the same opportunity for making recommendations that was provided to numerous government officials! - as demonstrated in the attached.