Following more than nine hours of public testimony before the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, and on the eve of what was expected to be a final vote by the Supervisors on a proposed Comprehensive Plan Amendment (or CPAM) critical to the future of land use in the western part of the county, Supervisor Jim Burton (I – Blue Ridge) spoke at the June 8th regular session of the Middleburg Town Council, the last regular session of the council to be presided over by Mayor Tim Dimos.

Noting what appeared to be overwhelming public support from citizens living in both eastern and western Loudoun, the retired Air Force Colonel told the council he was confident that a firm majority of the Supervisors would vote to restrict development by adopting some variant of what has come to be known as the Clem/Burton plan, aimed at limiting growth in the west to around 14,000 new homes instead of the roughly 45,000 potentially allowed by the one-house-on-3-acres, A-3 zoning, currently in force.

Burton warned the Council, however, that the plan, and its limits on growth, could be effectively nullified if the county's zoning ordinance were amended to allow landowners who were already in the "process" of subdividing their holdings to have their right to 3-acre zoning "easily grandfathered in."

A spate of subdivision by western landowners followed a March, 2005, Virginia Supreme Court decision, which overturned 20-to-50-acres-per-house restrictions in western Loudoun, and restored 3-acre zoning for the time required for the Supervisors to properly advertise and re-instate the overturned regulations. Most, if not all landowners who started the process of subdivision during that short window of opportunity will seek to have their subdivision rights guaranteed.

The Middleburg Town Council unanimously agreed to support the Clem/Burton plan, passed a resolution urging the Supervisors not to nullify its provisions by "grandfathering in" subdivision rights applied for during the post-court-decision window of opportunity, and sent outgoing Town Council Member Bundles Murdock to represent the Council at the Supervisors next public hearing.