LoudounNow LOUDOUN COUNTY’S COMMUNITY-OWNED NEWS SOURCE
[ Vol. 2, No. 17 ]
[ loudounnow.com ]
One Loudoun’s plan for more homes rejected
6
Mar. 2 – 8, 2017 ]
Housing Needs Report Gets Mixed Reception from Supervisors BY RENSS GREENE
lous county in Virginia has lost 25% of its judicial workforce and will now have only three resident circuit court judges to handle a complex and growing docket,” he wrote. “I fear that this reduction in Loudoun judicial force will most certainly lead to a postponement of the proposed establishment of a remedial drug court in Loudoun County given the judicial time commitments required to run such a program.” After years of work by legislators, judges and lawyers to persuade the General Assembly of the need for more help in addressing Loudoun’s growing and complex caseload, a fourth Circuit Court judgeship was created two years ago. Judge Douglas L. Fleming Jr. was ap-
The Envision Loudoun effort to update the county’s long-term community development vision is entering a new phase, following several months of public input and consultant studies. Now the 26-member stakeholder committee, appointed by the Board of Supervisors to lead the effort, will sort through those piles of information—including 210 pages of public comments— and begin developing the goals that will form the skeleton of the massive planning exercise over the next year. In the end, county supervisors will establish the framework for what Loudoun will be like in 2040. At this stage of the discussion, no issue looms larger than meeting the county’s future housing needs. County leaders got a data dump on the topic last week. According to the newly released “foundations report” prepared by county consultants and the planning staff, current planning policies would allow the construction of more than 51,000 additional residential units. Of that total, more than 29,000 have already been approved and are somewhere in the construction pipeline. Meanwhile, a housing needs assessment prepared by George Mason University and a consultant also was released last week. That study’s key finding—that Loudoun needs to make room for 18,300 more homes by 2040—drew a mixed reception from county supervisors. Both studies agree that Loudoun will need to build tens of thousands of new homes by 2040; they differ on whether large-scale policy changes are needed to provide more development opportunities. County planners expect that demand to be about 50,000 additional units, while the GMU study put the need at 64,000 over the next 20 years. By comparison, 65,700 residential units were approved for development between 2000 and 2015, according to the foundation report.
JUDGESHIP >> 35
HOUSING NEEDS >> 34
Douglas Graham/Loudoun Now
An empty Loudoun Circuit Court courtroom may be a familiar sight following the General Assembly’s decision to eliminate funding for one of the county’s four judgeships.
Judgeship Cut Expected to Hit Courts Hard BY NORMAN K. STYER
T
he General Assembly on Saturday adopted a revised two-year, $107 billion state budget that closed a $1.2 billion deficit while also restoring raises for state employees, continuing the expansion of mental health services and protecting education funding. Left on the cutting block was one position that Loudoun’s legal community warns will have significant impacts to residents. Just two years after winning funding for a fourth Circuit Court judgeship to handle the growing caseload, the money was stripped away in this year’s cost-cutting. Losing the judgeship is expected to
strain the workload of the three remaining judges and all but ensures that Loudoun leaders will be unable to pursue plans to reestablish a drug court. Since word of the proposed reduction surfaced early in February, Loudoun’s delegation lobbied hard to preserve the position. Del. Thomas A. “Tag” Greason (R-32), a member of the House Appropriations Committee and a budget conferee, was able to restore funding in the House’s version of the budget, but in the end Senate conferees would not budge on reinstating the $288,000 needed. Del. J. Randall Minchew (R-10) informed the Loudoun County Bar Association of the outcome in an email Friday morning. “As a result of this ill-conceived and imprudent action, the third most-popu-
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