Dawn to Dusk

August 31, 2024 · By Jay Hubbard

A full room for public comment, August 22, 2024. (Town of Middleburg meeting video)

On the morning of Council's only August meeting, Loudoun County released its three new plans for Mickie Gordon Park. Every one of them restored baseball to Pop Gordon Field. Every one of them also kept the lights. By evening a dozen residents had come to say the same thing: take the lights down. They also said no to five-room bed and breakfasts. Council said goodbye to a merchant and a postal clerk, reviewed a hoax threat at The Hill School, and four days later the Planning Commission sent the new Ridgeview rules back to Council with its approval.

Council met August 22 with all members present. Mayor Bridge Littleton votes only to break a tie.

Dawn to Dusk

Megan Gallagher spoke first ▶ video. "All three concepts call for keeping lights on the pop Gordon baseball field," she said, "in direct conflict with the overwhelming community consensus last fall that keeping the park rural called for removing all field lights and operating the park from dawn to dusk, as it states on the current entrance sign." Every table at the workshop she attended put no lights near the top of its list. Donna Strama, Laura Frances, Nancy Gardner, Aiden Jones, Rita Emery and Jeb Benedict agreed. Mark Winchester of Fauquier County wondered whether a few requests for pickleball had counted as much as many requests for no lights. John Rizik of Carters Farm Lane, who has farmed next to the park since before it had lights, said the lights and the recycling center simply appeared, without a word from neighbors.

And the Legion, for whom the field is being restored, doesn't need them. Commander Gary Nickelson said his first-year team finished third in its district without lights, playing at Cornerstone and Northern Fauquier Community Park, and he asked that the Legion's use of the park not be a reason to keep the lights.

Council wasn't sure why the County kept them. "We get asked for a lot and sometimes the answer is no. So, it might just be that simple," Littleton said. Councilmember Bud Jacobs suggested "bureaucratic inertia," cost, or "an unfortunate precedent for other Parks and Rec plans." Councilmember Cindy Pearson wondered about timers or lower lights, not "the ones up in the sky that look like an airport." Littleton urged residents to tell the County directly at its September 5 meeting: twenty people in front of the Board of Supervisors, he said, makes a difference.

Three Rooms or Five

The same speakers were nearly unanimous on a second question ▶ video. The new owners of 204 East Washington Street, the property behind last year's 20-room inn fight, want a three-room bed and breakfast run by a resident manager rather than the owner. Neighbors support that. But Deputy Town Manager Will Moore also proposed letting B&Bs in the C-1 district grow from three rooms to five, an idea he said grew from Council's own talk last year about a small English-style inn. Gallagher said she and her neighbors saw no reason to raise the limit by two-thirds. Council agreed to let the Planning Commission study it; Vice Mayor Chris Bernard said there would need to be a compelling reason. The Commission took it up August 26 and scheduled a hearing for September.

Ridgeview's Rules Clear the Commission

At its August 26 hearing the Planning Commission recommended the R-2 package, including the 0.30 floor-area ratio, 3-1, with Commissioner Ed Fleischman opposed ▶ video. Fleischman, a Ridgeview resident for 12 years, worried that pushing garages back would put more cars on narrow streets and that the height cap would have "unintended consequences." Chair Dev Roszel said that without it more houses would come down and the town would lose its look. Every speaker supported the package. "Everybody has had a visceral reaction to the houses that have been built lately," said Mike Morency. Virginia Jenkins, of Walnut Street, said the new houses have "gotten really out of hand." David Blanchard of the Piedmont Heritage Area noted that even at 0.30 the cap allows houses half again larger than today's median. Gallagher said the neighborhood was "at a tipping point." Council gets it in September.

The same night the Commission recommended Salamander's request to enclose and enlarge a terrace off the Gold Cup Lounge, about 1,700 square feet, and a third short-term rental in the Residences, for Dr. Margaret Fortier, who lives there full time, capped at eight guests and 90 nights.

A Hoax at The Hill School

Town Manager Danny Davis briefed Council on a "swatting" call, a false report of an active threat, at The Hill School ▶ video. Middleburg's officer was there within three minutes of the dispatch and quickly confirmed with the school that there was no threat; Sheriff's deputies arrived within nine minutes from a station 20 minutes away, the buildings were cleared, and the Sheriff's Office is investigating. Lessons so far: Fauquier's sheriff didn't respond on site, and the Town will mirror the Sheriff's public alerts rather than issue its own. Davis urged residents to sign up for Loudoun Alerts. A Homeland Security assessment of the school was already scheduled.

Two Goodbyes

Council thanked Mark Metzger, closing Highcliffe Clothiers after 17 years ▶ video. Littleton remembered him cooking at Town events, twice donating lights for the community Christmas tree, and "putting the menorah up and bringing, you know, the celebration of Hanukkah to the town at the Christmas season, which had never been done in the past." Councilmember Peter Leonard-Morgan said he'd miss the hot dogs. Metzger's advice: "keep doing what you're doing. Make the town great. Just keep it decent."

Peggy Simmons retired after "41 years of service" at the Middleburg Post Office. "It is not going to be the same post office without you there," Littleton said. Bundles Murdock put it more simply: the town could not have lived without her, because she knew everything and everyone.

Also This Month

Drought: rain moved the area down to moderate drought, but the state warns about groundwater, and Council kept the restrictions ▶ video. July was the highest-production month in a year, even with the ban, which Littleton found puzzling: "August a year before... there's a million gallons less. And that was with no restrictions." Well L is offline awaiting a pump; Well P loses a foot a day; Well 2 will be cleaned up to help. Murdock asked for watering on alternate days to save trees; Annie Nickelson offered water from her own three wells, "in big buckets." Punkin Lee assured everyone the downtown plantings are watered from a pond outside town. The Hurricane Debbie storm on August 3 knocked out power at the sewer plant and the generator failed; Maintenance Supervisor Tim Cole caught it on a weekend.
Speed enforcement: officers wrote more than 25 tickets in July; a lidar unit arrives in September. Laura Frances asked for speed bumps on Stonewall Avenue; those need VDOT.
Sidewalk signs: Moore's draft permit would allow one sign per business, with insurance and a hold-harmless agreement. Council wants chalkboards, not printed graphics, and the Historic District Review Committee's advice. Littleton recalled a mother forced into the street with a baby carriage, and wants the Town's own signs held to the same rules.
Salamander bond: Liz White said many trees and shrubs at the Residences have died and the plantings don't match the marketing brochure. Moore said the work met the approved plans, the only legal standard, and replacements fall to the homeowners association. Council released the bond, 7-0.
Richmond: Town Attorney Martin Crim's draft fix to the state short-term rental law has the Virginia Municipal League's support, and all seven Loudoun mayors plan to ask Delegate Gary Higgins and Senator Russet Perry to carry it.
Asbury Church: 56 surveys are in; the church bell is back from the Middleburg Museum and on display in Town Hall; the building is deteriorating and needs stabilizing. Council asked the County for capital money for the church first, then South Madison Street, 7-0.
Police: the department won Lexipol's Excellence in Training Management award, and two part-timers will soon add up to one full-time officer.
People: Michael Rocconi joins the Planning Commission. Councilmember Pam Curran and Bernard are holding small neighborhood gatherings to hear how the Town should communicate.

Public Comment

August 22 ▶ video

Megan Gallagher, East Marshall Street, asked Council to keep B&Bs at three rooms and to ask the County to drop the lights at Mickie Gordon Park.
Liz White, Stonewall Avenue, said Salamander's plantings at the Residences don't match its brochure and many have died.
Donna Strama, Orange Drive, liked the County's Plan A but not the lights, preferred three rooms, and thanked Peggy Simmons and Mark Metzger.
Laura Frances, Stonewall Avenue, asked for speed bumps and opposed five rooms and the lights.
Nancy Gardner, North Hamilton Street, asked that the lights come down and opposed five rooms.
Jeb Benedict, Parsons Road, welcomed the restored baseball field and asked for a dawn-to-dusk park.
Mark Winchester of Fauquier County opposed the lights and asked whether the community's requests were weighed in proportion.
Aiden Jones, Hunt Court, opposed five rooms and the lights.
John Rizik, Carters Farm Lane, asked Council to relay to the County that neighbors want the lights removed and no pickleball.
Rita Emery, North Jay Street, asked for a dawn-to-dusk park and three rooms.
Bundles Murdock, Blue Ridge Avenue, thanked Simmons and Metzger and asked for limited watering to save trees.
Annie Nickelson thanked the Farmers Market managers and offered free vegetables and well water.
Gary Nickelson, Commander of American Legion Post 295, reported the Legion's awards and baseball season and said lights don't matter to the team.
Punkin Lee of Fauquier County said the downtown plantings are watered from a pond, not Town water.

August 26, Planning Commission

John Ross and Megan Gallagher opposed five-room B&Bs.
On the R-2 amendments, Jeb Benedict, David Blanchard, Mike Morency, Virginia Jenkins, Megan Gallagher, John Ross and Laura Frances all spoke in favor.

Tips & Wags (opinion)

Tip of the Hat to Mark Metzger, who brought Hanukkah to Middleburg's Christmas, and to Peggy Simmons, who knew where everyone's mail was going before they did.

Tip of the Hat to Gary Nickelson, for telling the County his team doesn't need the lights.

Wag of the Finger to three concept plans that kept the one thing nearly everyone asked to remove.

Coming Up

August 29: FOIA training for Council.
September 5: County community meeting on the Mickie Gordon plans, Community Center, 6 p.m.
September 11: Asbury Church community meeting, Town Hall, 6 p.m.; survey closes September 15.
September: Council takes up the R-2 rules; Planning Commission hearing on B&Bs; the Salamander terrace and the Fortier rental; audit fieldwork September 16–18.
September 21: Oktoberfest on Madison and Federal Streets.

Sources: the meeting videos (August 22, Planning Commission, August 26), the minutes (pending approval) and the transcripts attached to them. Quotes come from the Town contractor's transcripts; each ▶ link opens the video at the start of that agenda item.