The Loudoun County Planning Commission, seeking ways to help developers in western Loudoun, voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to relax regulations requiring test wells on new developments and to give special "consideration" to 87 subdivisions now being rushed through the county zoning process to take advantage of temporary A-3 zoning.

The commission first proposed "grandfathering" for all 87 developments, even if they have not been approved by the county or even been reviewed by county agencies. But that apparently would be illegal under Virginia court decisions.

The commission then proposed urging the Board of Supervisors to grant a 4-5 month "grace period" for the developers. That would have allowed virtually all of the 87 three-acre-lot subdivisions to be approved even if the pending Clem-Burton rezoning of western Loudoun goes into effect in June, as expected. The Clem-Burton plan would require minimum lot sizes of 20 and 40 acres.

The 4-5 month grace period, proposed by Chairman Teresa White Whitmore (Potomac District) and vice chairman Robert Klancher (Broad Run), "is another way of grandfathering isn't it?" one commissioner asked. "Yes," she was told. But the grace period failed in a vote, when several commissioners said 4-5 extra months was "too long." They proposed a two-month grace period, to help the 87. But that also failed.

"Approve Them All"

Still wanting to do something for landowners and developers, "who have spent energy, money and time" on their projects, the commission simply recommended that the Board of Supervisors do everything in its power to help the developers. The 87 subdivisions "should all get approved," one member said. That passed in an 8-1 vote, Nancy Hsu (Blue Ridge District) opposing.

Hsu said the extraordinary actions proposed to help this particular group of developers were inappropriate. Neither the old zoning nor the proposed (Clem-Burton) "zoning changes will prevent them (landowners) from selling their land" at a considerable profit.

The Planning Commission, appointed by the supervisors, has been outspoken in support of developers, calling current Loudoun building regulations "burdensome," "slow" and a "hardship" for them.

In a separate gesture to developers on Wednesday, and with little discussion, the commission voted 6-3 to "do away with" what commissioners called "expensive" and "costly" well-drilling requirements. The county Health Department requires 30-50 percent of a development's wells to be drilled and tested early in the county subdivision approval process. Under this commission recommendation, which also will go to the Board of Supervisors, developers would only have to do well drilling and testing in the final stages of the approval process.

Commission support for grandfathering, grace periods or special "consideration" for the 87 subdivisions, was done out of what commissioners have called "fairness" to landowners and developers.

Unfair

The nonprofit Unison Preservation Society, in appeals to both the Planning Commission and supervisors last week, urged the county instead to consider "fairness" to the 50,000 residents of western Loudoun and the neighbors who would be impacted by the developments. The 87 subdivisions would be "spot zones of high-density A3 development" surrounded by 20 and 40-acre rural zoning and would dramatically reduce property values of neighboring property owners, the society's statement said.

Such dense A-3 subdivisions, impossible in rural Loudoun under the previous 50-acre zoning, suddenly became possible last March, when the Virginia Supreme Court threw out western Loudoun's 50-acre zoning on a technicality. It made all of western Loudoun as, at least temporarily, A-3 zoning. The Unison group said approving the 87 hastily-planned subdivisions would have a major negative impact on western Loudoun. They would generate more than 5,000 car trips a day on rural roads, the Unison group said. And the majority of lots would use the controversial and "quirky alternative septic systems that have high failure rates and are banned or strictly controlled in other counties and states." The widespread and virtually unregulated use of such systems in Loudoun, which can overflow on open ground, could pose a health hazard for the county.

Another criticism by the Unison group is that the developments, including a 28-house subdivision in Unison, provide no proffers, as do large developments in eastern Loudoun. "They generate huge new tax burdens on county residents, require more schools, teachers and buses, more fire and rescue and police services." In short, the subdivisions have no benefits, only negatives. So why should county officials bend over backwards to try to help them, to grandfather them, to give them a grace period or special "consideration?" The nonprofit group said it would be bad public policy, and probably illegal, for county officials to purposely relax or bend county regulations to assist a group of landowners in making large profits on particular business ventures.