Loudoun Now for Jan. 4, 2024

Page 1

n LOUDOUN

4 | n EDUCATION

VOL. 9, NO. 8

6 | n PUBLIC SAFETY

8 | n PUBLIC NOTICES

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Harris Family Donates Cattail Run to NOVA Parks BY NORMAN K. STYER nstyer@loudounnow.com

JANUARY 4, 2024

SCC Poised to Make Decisions on Greenway Tolls, Western Loudoun Power Lines in 2024 BY HANNA PAMPALONI

After several years of talks, plans to create a new regional park on Leesburg’s eastern border were finalized Wednesday when an 85-acre tract along Battlefield Parkway and Edwards Ferry Road was donated to NOVA Parks. The gift was made by the Harris family, which had owned the farm and timber property for five generations. The donation was made by Henry Harris, the nephew of A.V. Symington, who donated the 286-acre Temple Hall Farm north of Leesburg to NOVA Parks 30 years ago. Cattail Regional Park will feature hiking trails through the property, which includes an upland bog wetland fed by underground springs, as well as wooded areas and meadows on a prominent ridgeline through the property. The property also includes several historic structures, including one believed to have served as a colonial-area ordinary. “The Harris family has a deep tie to this land and the history of our county. It is because of this connection that they have taken the remarkably generous step of creating a new NOVA Park. Many of NOVA Parks’ properties have been donated by generous people with a love of the land, few have been as generous as the Harris/Symington family,” NOVA Parks CATTAIL RUN continues on page 24

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hpmpaloni@loudounnow.com

The State Corporation Commission is expected to make two important decisions affecting Loudoun County in 2024— whether to approve a toll rate hike for the Dulles Greenway and whether to approve a route of powerlines across western Loudoun. Just who will be making those decisions is not yet known. There are two vacancies on the three-member commission. The General Assembly is responsible for electing commissioners who serve six-year staggered terms. The Virginia Constitution gives the General Assembly authority to elect up to five members on the commission, but to date it has only appointed three members at a time. With a Democratic majority in both the House and Senate, the General Assembly is expected to make those appointments early in the session, which opens Jan. 10. Formal deliberations on the Greenway rate application will open Jan. 9 with a public hearing at Freedom High School in South Riding. A continuation of that public hearing will take place in Richmond Jan. 30. Toll Road Investors Partnership II, which owns the 14-mile Greenway, applied to the SCC to raise tolls on Norman K. Styer/Loudoun Now

NOVA Parks Executive Director Paul Gilbert walks though the new Cattail Regional Park, which includes a spring-fed uplands bog.

WESTERN LOUDOUN continues on page 27

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