n LOUDOUN
Pg. 4 | n LEESBURG
VOL. 6, NO. 19
Pg. 6 | n PUBLIC SAFETY
Pg. 10 | n OBITUARIES
Pg. 20 | n PUBLIC NOTICES
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Pg. 25
APRIL 8, 2021
Supervisors Open New Housing Talks BY RENSS GREENE
rgreene@loudounnow.com
ect many have been watching take form since its Sept. 17, 2017, groundbreaking. From the start, those who worked within the hospital’s walls and the community it serves were a big part of the North Tower’s makeup. Both Addo and Special Projects Manager Kelly Stevenson pointed to the mock patient and clinical rooms set up in tents outside the hospital before construction began. Back in the days
Loudoun supervisors on Tuesday night got their first look at a long-awaited strategic plan to tackle the high cost of housing in the county. The Unmet Housing Needs Strategic Plan was called for in the 2019 General Plan, the first rewrite of the county’s comprehensive plan in almost 20 years. The general plan acknowledges and calls for a fix to Loudoun’s housing cost problem. But despite the years spent on that plan, it yielded no detailed steps to tackle that problem, instead setting in motion work on the separate unmet housing needs plan. That work started in September 2019. The draft plan first highlights the need to provide housing for a range of incomes in Loudoun. Those include factors ranging from the importance of good housing to the health and well-being of children and families and its importance to the economic stability of workers and families, to the relief locally available housing can provide for traffic and long commutes. It also highlights the growth and changes of the county. According to the draft plan, from 2000 to 2015, Loudoun added more than 67,000 new jobs, nearly 77% growth, and young working families are forecasted to be a key component of Loudoun’s growth over the next 25 years,
NORTH TOWER continues on page 35
HOUSING PLAN continues on page 35
Inside the North Tower
Douglas Graham/Loudoun Now
The new North Tower at Inova Loudoun Hospital in Lansdowne.
One Year Later, Inova Loudoun Prepares ‘Opening Day’ BY KARA C. RODRIGUEZ krodriguez@loudounnow.com
Now that it’s a year old, Inova Loudoun Hospital CEO Deborah Addo is finally getting to show off her new baby. It’s a big one—382,000 square feet— that came out of 30-month-long project. When construction of the Lansdowne campus’ North Tower finished last spring, the project did not get the huge public celebration that Addo and other hospital
leaders had long envisioned. Instead, it quietly opened its doors on April 13, 2020, just a few weeks into the COVID-19 pandemic that forced a widescale lockdown. But, a year later, the North Tower still has that “new car” look and feel. Finally, as coronavirus restrictions begin to loosen, Addo and her team envision a time not too far into the future where that long-awaited celebration can finally be held. In the meantime, though, she offered Loudoun Now a glimpse inside the proj-
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