Builder Seeks Board's Consent to Proceed With Creekside
By Michael Laris
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 1, 2005
The hills and woods and overgrown fields south of Leesburg would make a beautiful park, say supporters in Loudoun County's government.
A prominent developer, Leonard S. "Hobie" Mitchel, says the 400 acres would best serve the county as a large new subdivision, and some county officials seem to agree.
Those opposing visions have resulted in a public and private struggle that, since it began last year, has been characterized by aggressive lobbying, seesawing government action and caustic public debate.
Now Mitchel's supporters on the Board of Supervisors are renewing their push to allow him to include the county land in his proposed development.
Mitchel has proposed that the board agree to allow large-scale residential and commercial development on the land to boost its value. His firm, Creekside LLC, would then acquire the land from the county. As part of the deal, Mitchel would pay for tens of millions of dollars in road improvements. Those would be constructed by Clark Construction Group, a Bethesda-based firm working closely with Mitchel. Creekside would also pay for the construction of a park nearby, Mitchel said.
Last week, Supervisor D.M. "Mick" Staton Jr. (R-Sugarland Run) proposed that the board let Mitchel submit a development application that includes the county parkland. That would mark the latest turnaround for the county.
In December, a majority of supervisors voted to instruct county attorney John R. Roberts, despite his concerns, to negotiate terms for giving Mitchel the county's consent to submit the application. In a confidential memo, Roberts had said he knew of no precedent for Mitchel's multifaceted proposal, which he characterized as risky and potentially illegal.
In February, supervisors reversed themselves and voted not to sign on to Mitchel's proposal. That motion, brought by Supervisor Jim E. Clem (R-Leesburg), suspended any county action on Mitchel's plan pending a joint planning effort with Leesburg officials.
Although county supervisors and Town Council members have yet to meet on the matter, Staton said last week that the county should move ahead with the Creekside proposal anyway.
"We're either going to look at this or we're not," Staton said. He said he hoped to reach "closure" on the matter rather than let it linger.
The renewed debate comes as officials and others are debating how best to use hundreds of county-owned acres south of Leesburg. The county is preparing to draft a master plan of the area to determine how to accommodate expanded public safety projects, a possible park-and-ride lot and the planned park.
In all, the county owns about 550 acres in the area, where it has a fire-and-rescue center and other facilities and is building a jail. County officials said the public safety facilities need space to expand. That could cut into the land set aside for a recreation center envisioned as part of the planned Philip A. Bolen Memorial Park, officials said, though 17 planned ballfields would not be affected.
All those demands on the county property could undercut Mitchel's plans, and the discussions prompted another proposal from Mitchel. In an April 21 letter to Staton, Mitchel said his firm could "take the first step in preparing a conceptual" plan for the area to determine the "compatibility" of possible county uses with his development proposal and the park.
Mitchel has not made public many of the specifics of his development plans, though he has described some elements. He said he wants to build more than 4,200 homes and a large commercial development on the county parkland and nearby. He said about $200 million in transportation improvements would be made in and around Leesburg as part of the proposal, a figure he said includes about $50 million in public funds. Mitchel also said he would provide 500 acres for a park and school sites.
Clem, a former mayor of Leesburg, expressed impatience with Leesburg officials, saying the Town Council should hurry to the table and consider annexing land south of town before an annexation becomes impossible. That might happen if the park or the Creekside development were built. Proponents of annexation, the subject of a long and bitter fight in the town, say it would promote economic development.
The Town Council has voted against annexation. Mayor Kristen C. Umstattd said she was concerned that a future council might use annexed land to promote substantial home building in the area.
Supervisor Sarah R. "Sally" Kurtz (D-Catoctin) objected to Staton's latest push to move ahead with the Creekside proposal, which he made Monday at a meeting of the board's transportation and land-use committee, of which he is chairman. Kurtz said the county should set aside six to nine months to work with Leesburg.
"We agree to a joint planning process with the towns," Kurtz said. "We don't just plan their borders around them without contacting them."
Staton said signing on to Mitchel's development proposal, using legal language hashed out between Roberts and Creekside, would allow the county to pull its support at any time and did not mean the county would approve Mitchel's proposal. The county's consent would speed up negotiations with Mitchel, Staton said.
Roberts recommended last year not approving Mitchel's plan without first seeing his detailed application. Roberts said supervisors should not allow Creekside to "create a false sense of urgency."
"If the developer is telling you that you need to consent before he shows you anything, don't believe it," Roberts wrote in a December e-mail to board members and county officials. "Creekside has little interest in competition -- the Board does. . . . The question is whether you are getting a fair deal. Is the county creating or securing more value than it will receive in improvements?"
Clark Construction Group has submitted a proposal to make road improvements as part of the Creekside effort under the state's Public-Private Transportation Act, which allows private companies to seek to build public projects in a less competitive procurement process. The objective is to get such projects built faster and more cheaply.
Supervisor Lori L. Waters (R-Broad Run) said the county should work with Leesburg officials to determine residents' priorities for the area.
"Let's go to the community and ask them what they want," Waters said. "What do you want to see? What don't you want to see?"
Waters also said the county should follow through with its promised engagement with Leesburg.
"The planning process is not yet complete," she said. "We don't know what the planning language is going to end up to be."
Waters also asked Roberts whether granting Creekside the county's consent to move ahead was the best way to get the highest price if Loudoun officials decided to sell the parkland to raise funds for transportation or other purposes.
"I think there are better ways to do that," Roberts said. "The land deal ought to be separated out from the rest of the proposal."
Staton said a meeting with Leesburg officials, which had been set tentatively for June, should be moved up, and he vowed to push again at a land-use committee meeting this month for a vote recommending that the full board grant Mitchel the county's consent to move ahead with the Creekside proposal.
