LoudounNow LOUDOUN COUNTY’S COMMUNITY-OWNED NEWS SOURCE
[ Vol. 3, No. 41 ]
[ loudounnow.com ]
IT’S RESTAURANT WEEK IN LOUDOUN Special Section inside
August 23, 2018 ]
Board Balks at Push for More Homes, Schools BY DANIELLE NADLER
Academies of Loudoun. The Academies will house expanded versions of the Academy of Science, Monroe Advanced Technical Academy, and the Academy of Engineering and Technology, serving high school students with interests ranging from biomedical research to culinary arts. The new school year also brings a major milestone for the county’s youngest students. Today is the first day every Loudoun
Loudoun County School Board members got some unwelcome news last week—that they’ll need several more school sites in the next 30 years than they had initially planned. County planners on Aug. 14 gave the board an update on how the recommended changes to Loudoun’s comprehensive plan, if adopted by the Board of Supervisors, will result in a need for two additional elementary schools, an additional middle and an additional high school. That’s because the 26-member stakeholder committee of industry representatives and citizen groups that was tasked with taking the first stab at updating the comprehensive plan—a road map for development through 2040—is recommending the county allow 15,000 more homes than would ultimately be permitted under current planning policies. Today, the county’s comprehensive plan envisions 180,000 homes in Loudoun at full buildout. As of 2017, 133,000 of those had been built, with another 29,000 already approved and awaiting construction. That would leave about 18,000 more that could be built. The new plan, as written so far, would increase that figure to 33,000 more over the next two decades. “This triggers the addition of four new schools,” Beverly Tate, director of Planning Services for the school system, told the School Board during last week’s work session. The news left several School Board members frustrated because land in the Dulles North and Dulles South planning areas —that cover the southeast end of the county—is hard to come by. Plus, they stressed, most developers wanting to build large communities—such as the proposed Silver District West development with 3,706 housing units—only want to proffer elementary school sites, leaving it to the school system to find and buy larger sites for secondary schools. “I understand that developers don’t want to proffer a site large enough for a
BACK TO SCHOOL >> 42
MORE HOMES, SCHOOLS >> 42
Douglas Graham/Loudoun Now
Kindergartner Emmalyn Homcy practices her walk to the bus stop ahead of the first day at Frederick Douglass Elementary School. The school year, which begins countywide today, is the first every Loudoun kindergartner will receive a full academic day.
Back to School
Loudoun Marks Milestones Years in the Making
I
BY DANIELLE NADLER
t’s a big day in Loudoun County. Today is the first day of a new school year for more than 83,000 Loudoun public school students, plus several thousand more who will hit the books in home schools and private schools. But that’s just the start. The county also opens three new long-awaited public schools: Goshen Post Elementary, Willard Intermediate School, and the
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