Fw: news on Lovettsville community middle/high schools

[Stinger]

Contracts which held together the McDonough Assemblage ended Monday (26th).  This troubling news reveals another lost opportunity for Lovettsville to ever have a chance to host future middle and high schools. The Assemblage was first presented to the public ~one year ago in May 2009 as a $5.9M 108-acre site located very close to the Town of Lovettsville.  

 

The McDonough Assemblage was uniquely community-based

The loss of this option is truly unfortunate because the McDonough Assemblage, located northwest of the Lovettsville Fire and Rescue Department and near the planned bike trail, represented one of the most promising community-based, accessible school sites to be identified in western Loudoun.  Many believed it to be Lovettsville's best option.  A future Town high school would surely emerge as the center of the community, and the McDonough site in particular offered minimal traffic impacts.  Unlike the multi-million dollar water/wastewater treatment plants needed for Cangiano, McDonough's site was close to the Town's water/sewer lines.  A future high school also would help the stalled commercial development in Town.  Further, with schools constructed at the McDonough site, the Town of Lovettsville would receive County investment via utility tap and usage fees, road improvements, and most notably County (and grant) funding for sidewalks to/from the schools.  Funding for sidewalks?  Well, according to the Comprehensive Plan:

• All public schools will be linked to adjacent neighborhoods by sidewalks or trails on both sides of roadways and crosswalks, and where possible, linked to greenways or trails.” Chapter 3, Sec.

It also states:

• Whenever possible, new public schools in the Rural Policy Area will be located in or immediately adjacent to the Existing Villages, Towns, and Joint Land Management Areas (JLMAs).” Chapter 3, Sec 9a8
• Loudoun County’s quality of life is a key competitive advantage that is vital to the economic base. The County offers a distinctive sense of place, a beautiful rural environment of mountains, valleys, farms, estates and open space, charming small towns and existing villages, and well-planned suburban communities in proximity to employment corridors. Maintaining these distinctive places and their accompanying sense of community are important advantages for Loudoun County in a competitive marketplace.” Chapter 4, Section 3d

Forseeable consequences to Hillsboro's Elementary

But the vision of the Comprehensive Plan is being discarded, especially with the County's continued interest in siting the next western elementary school (ES-25) at Cangiano's Wheatland Farm.   Will their ES plans facilitate going back to Wheatland Farm for MS/HS-10?  It's a real possibility and appearing alarmingly similar to Fields Farm.  At the very least, many believe a Wheatland elementary school will, upon opening, result in the immediate closure of Hillsboro Elementary School.  Since acquiring adjacent land is the only way Hillsboro ES could ever be expanded, why would the County dismiss an offer made to them for the parcel behind that school, which has frontage on paved Mountain Road?  And considering that option is  "possible" how can they instead justify land banking in a rural area far from any Town or Village, based on by-right lots that don't even have final plat approval? 

 

Site acquisition recent history:

This situation underscores the ongoing difficulty Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) and the Board of Supervisors (BOS) have with acquiring school sites in a timely cost-effective manner.   In 2007, voters County-wide approved bonds for acquiring school sites.  As a result, land acquisition funding was set aside (budgeted) for a future high school (HS-10) in northwest Loudoun, specifically north of Route 9.  The urgency to acquire that site clearly existed with the February 2009 LCPS (binding) contract for $11.4M for 170 acres (Cangiano's Wheatland Farm).  However, since LCPS' Wheatland proposal failed last May and public support of the McDonough Assemblage grew, the urgency to acquire a HS-10 site simply evaporated.  

 

Lack of urgency illogical

The McDonough Assemblage contract terms were well known to officials, yet without urgency, time was literally running out.  Without even a letter of intent from the County, a year is understandably too long for the landowners in the Assemblage to be expected to wait.  Supervisor Burton sensed some urgency in May 2009 when he said expressed the desire to purchase the land soon.  His rationale was the bonds for the HS-10 land purchase had already been sold and Loudoun taxpayers had begun paying interest on the bonds.  What he won't say is that without actually being invested in land, their value further erodes as the real estate market rebounds and land prices recover.  

 

LCPS' repeated waste of limited funding

Including their attempt to acquire a site for the MS-10, LCPS has now wasted over 4 years and nearly $2M on failed contracts for two (2) sites, both in Wheatland, closer to Purcellville than Lovettsville.  LCPS figured out they need MORE money and waited until last week (April 20) to ask Supervisors for an additional $372k for MORE site studies.   But their request simply came too late for keeping the McDonough Assemblage option on the table.  Lenah, Rouse, Sycolin Creek, Fields Farm and now McDonough - school siting failures like these have become LCPS' signature.  

 

With no information, we are left to wonder

Is this an example of LCPS intentionally stalling the acquisition so they can justify returning to Wheatland where they seem obsessed with helping Mr. Cangiano with amenities (school) for his exclusive Wheatland 'Reserve' development?  Or was it simply ineffective bureaucrats and politicians?  Either way, this news reflects poorly on all involved.

 

Don't hesitate to ask questions and share your thoughts with your representatives on the Board of Supervisors, b...@loudoun.gov; Scott York, Sally Kurtz, and Jim Burton and on the School Board  lc...@loudoun.k12.va.us Tom Reed, Jennifer Bergel and Priscilla Godfrey.

 

And of course, if you want more information about anything presented above, don't hesitate to ask. 

Thanks for your interest and support of community schools.

 

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