On September 16, 2004, Loudoun County Supervisor Jim Burton held a community meeting in Round Hill to discuss actions taken by the Board of Supervisors (BOS) and receive citizen input on issues affecting the Round Hill area. The meeting was held at the Round Hill Center; approximately 25 people attended. It was the first in a series of meetings the Blue Ridge district representative has scheduled in the towns and villages in his district.

Burton began the meeting by commenting on what he felt were four major issues facing the district. The first of these issues is the county's rapid growth and the effects of that growth, especially relating to increases in taxes and the stress on the public school system. He also tied this issue to the more than 200 lawsuits filed against the county after the slow-growth zoning took effect.

The second issue Burton discussed was the number of requested comprehensive plan amendments (CPAMs) filed requesting changes to current policy that would open up wide tracts of the county to higher-density development. More than 30 CPAMs have been submitted this year; according to Burton, if all were approved, seven new towns would effectively be created in the county, for a total of 25,000 to 40,000 additional homes.  While none of these new town centers would be in the western portion of the county, many would be in the "transition zone" close to Leesburg. Burton stressed his belief that these changes should not be made through a CPAM but rather through an open public process. (See email message from Chairman Scott York on this topic.)

Burton then proceeded to his third issue, the construction of a new high school in Western Loudoun County. The construction has been put off for several years, but has now reached a critical time crunch; the decision of where it will go must be made this fall or winter. Responding to where it should go, Burton said, "I don't know the right answer." He explained that the town of Purcellville doesn't want it and has been resisting construction on the School Board-owned Fields Farm property. A second option would be to expand the site of Harmony Intermediate School west of Hamilton, but Burton cited traffic issues with both an intermediate school and a high school situated off a two-lane road. A third possibility is a site on the east side of Hamilton, but Hamilton doesn't want it and also may not have capacity in its water system to support a high school. (See Schools section for more information.)

Round Hill has capacity, Burton conceded, but schools Superintendent Edgar Hatrick and the schools' director of planning, Sam Adamo, say the sites they've seen in Round Hill won't work. Stating his personal preference, Burton said he is leaning to a site closer to Leesburg that will bring in students from the Leesburg area. When asked why the Round Hill site on Route 7 business between Round Hill and Purcellville would not work, Burton responded that he was told the owner was willing to sell but would put covenants on the contract that the original house remain intact. Burton said he has asked the school planners to look at the site again, putting aside their cookie-cutter plans and being creative when doing so.

The last of Burton's four issues was the pool/community center proffer to the community as a result of the development of the Villages of Round Hill. He said that the county staff had been compiling cost-scenarios for several different options for using the proffers. Those numbers were due in the following day (Sept. 17). He also said the developer owes the community two pools plus a community center and that all options were still on the table, including using all the money to build an indoor facility, as well as allowing the developer to use some of the funds to build a homeowners-only facility. Burton said once all the figures were in, he would return to Round Hill for a second public input meeting to present and discuss the options. (See Community Center and Parks pages for more information.)

During the question-and-answer portion of the meeting, Burton spoke extensively on roads, traffic, growth and the high school, reiterating many of the points he had touched upon in his earlier remarks. Through the course of the high school discussion, which was initiated by questions from Round Hill Mayor Frank Etro and several other citizens, Burton agreed to support a high school in Round Hill if the Town and the school board could make it work.

At the conclusion of the meeting, Burton stressed that "public opinion means a lot to this Board of Supervisors" and stated that the Board needs to hear the opinions of the citizens.

Supervisor Burton can be reached via email at jburton@loudoun.gov. The entire Board of Supervisors can be emailed at bos@loudoun.gov. To contact the superintendent of schools and members of the school board, write schools@loudoun.k12.va.us. The schools planning department can be reached at lcpsplan@loudoun.k12.va.us.

Notes compiled by Kim Ramsey for Round Hill on the Record