LoudounNow LOUDOUN COUNTY’S COMMUNITY-OWNED NEWS SOURCE
[ Vol. 3, No. 43 ]
[ loudounnow.com ]
September 13, 2018 ]
One Loudoun welcomes B Doughnut, Trader Joe’s
20
Bracing for Florence Catoctin Creek runs alongside the historic road bed of Downey Mill Road just outside the village of Taylorstown. Loudouners are bracing for Hurricane Florence, which as of Tuesday afternoon was a Category 4 hurricane and growing stronger. Flooding in Loudoun could be made worse by a rainy week leading up to the hurricane’s landfall. State and local officials have issued warnings and advisories for making it through the storm, and many events are cancelled. Check LoudounNow.com for cancellations and storm updates.
Douglas Graham/Loudoun Now
Planning for the Amazon Housing Equation
A
BY RENSS GREENE s Loudoun’s leaders write the county’s new comprehensive plan—a plan that allows for even more growth than the current plan—some are wondering if even that will be enough if Amazon decides to build its second headquarters here. The county is in the middle of what now stands to be a three-year process rewriting its comprehensive plan, a document that sets out the county’s policies on development, transportation, public
services and infrastructure that was written in 1991 and last saw a major revision in 2001. It is also a county holding its breath to see if it will be home to the new headquarters of the largest online retailer in the world—one that could require up to 8 million square feet of space, bring in more than $5 billion in capital investment, and create many as 50,000 full-time jobs, to say nothing of other businesses that will likely follow along to sell to the company and its employees. Amazon’s direct hiring and investment, construction and ongoing operation of
the campus is expected to create tens of thousands of additional jobs and tens of billions of dollars in additional investment in the surrounding community, according to the company. Those hefty figures apparently dwarf some of the county’s planning efforts. County planners estimate under the policies in the draft plan that went to the Planning Commission roughly 52,261 new homes between 2018 and 2040. Between 2021 and 2040, it only adds an estimated 8,727 homes to the current plan. During a meeting two weeks ago, Loudoun Deputy Director of Planning
and Zoning Alaina Ray told planning commissioners “options are very limited” for finding new spaces to build homes in Loudoun’s increasingly built-up east. But Ray expects Loudoun can nonetheless accommodate Amazon—especially taking into account the homes that are permitted in that area but not yet built. “For the most part, that area is already planned for what we would need, so between what has already been entitled and what the comprehensive plan is proposAMAZON >> 34
ECRWSS Postal Customer
Permit #1401 Southern MD
PAID
U.S. Postage PRESRT STD