Middleburg’s Community Community Newspaper Middleburg’s Volume 15 Issue 12
B E L O CA L BUY LOCAL
OP ITY AND SH R COMMUN SUPPORT OU
LOCALLY
mbecc.com
Printed using recycled fiber
Coalition of Loudoun Towns Aspiration and Concerns Page 8 March 28 ~ April 25, 2019
Spring Point to Points Come Alive
Townview Project: Request Denied Middleburg Town Council Report
A
Dan Morrow
Continued page 46
Request in homes by Thursday 3/28/19
facebook.com/MiddleburgEccentric
PRST STD ECRWSS US POSTAGE PAID DULLES, VA PERMIT NO 723
Full Story on Page 17
POSTAL CUSTOMER
March in Virginia’s Piedmont region tends to be weather’s “wheel of fortune,” but this year Mother Nature positively beamed on Warrenton Hunt Point to Point’s season opener, at Airlie on March 16, with sun, blue skies, and brisk temps, but no unusual precipitation such as last year’s snow that blew sideways
standingroom-only crowd filled Town Hall on Tuesday, March 25, for a public hearing on a request to change the language of key provisions of the landuse provisions of the Town’s Comprehensive Plan and Zoning Code by P. Daniel Orlich’s Townview Properties. Orlich requested the changes in order to pave the way for construction of “over 120” residences, “apportioned to independent living, assisted living, and memory care units,” to be built on land bordering the east entrance to Middleburg on the north side of Route 50. The land is currently zoned “AC,” shorthand for the agricultural conservancy. On March 25, Deputy Town Administrator Will Moore made clear that the Planning Commission was meeting to decide whether or not to recommend Town Council make changes in the language of its key planning and zoning documents, NOT on the merits of the proposed Townview project itself. P. Daniel Orlich himself opened the “public comment” segment of the meeting. For ten minutes he outlined the reasons for his request in terms of the specifics of his vision for the development: a shortage of elderly housing in Middleburg; his development’s potential benefit to the
town’s economy; and his dedication to making the project conform to the Town’s environmental, safety and aesthetic standards. No less than 25 citizens and friends of Middleburg then addressed the Commission, including the Mayor, a number of present and past members of Town Council, Chairmen of Town advisory Committees, Presidents of local homeowners associations, and others. All but one opposed both Orlich’s project in general and his proposed changes to the Town’s codes. A number of speakers expressed resentment at what one characterized as a “propaganda” mailer, sent out prior to the Commission’s hearing. The mailer, it was alleged, tried to make “housing for seniors” the issue at hand, when, in the speakers’ view, the real issues were the development of open space, public safety, the appropriateness of the project for Middleburg, and fears that allowing an exception for one project would open the door for many others Mayor Bridge Littleton expressed concern that the small changes in language requested were really requests for radical changes in allowable development density; that making those changes would put Middleburg on a developmental “slippery slope;” and that the ultimate goal of those changes were