Loudoun Supervisors Vote For New Curbs on Growth

Supervisor Stephen Snow (R-Dulles), who has sought to increase housing construction in the county and who opposes the plan endorsed last night, pledged to help the legal fight against the county.

"I will be persistent in making sure that any lawyers that come up against this board are successful in their endeavors, because we are being irresponsible again in rushing through this thing, not bringing facts up," said Snow, who did not indicate how he would assist.

Snow slammed his GOP colleagues who supported the plan. "It's a sad day," he said. "We came in with six Republicans who all had literature that said we'd protect property rights, and now we're down to four."

Waters bristled at questions about her Republican credentials, saying perhaps they came from discomfort at a strong conservative woman.

"I went to the Republican National Convention and helped write the party platform. People in the Republican Party can have diverse views," said Waters, a former executive director of the conservative Eagle Forum. Her focus is cutting the tax burden and keeping Loudoun's character. "I want to continue the broad options for people who want to live in the suburban east, the towns, and the rural west."

Loudoun's population doubled in the 1990s, and it has grown faster than any other county in the United States since 2000. But the western area of the county remains relatively undeveloped, with farms, historic settlements and scattered groupings of new, high-end houses linked by patches of fresh asphalt and more than 300 miles of gravel roads.

In March, Virginia's Supreme Court threw out the 2003 building limits, which were adopted after three years of debate. The court unanimously concluded that a required newspaper advertisement published by the county was incomplete and misleading because it did not state precisely enough which parts of Loudoun would be subject to the rules.

Proponents of the new plan on the county board have quipped that they are planning the "mother of all advertisements" this time around.