Aldie

Staton's Hat Trick

As a constituent of Supervisor Mick Staton Jr. (R-Sugarland Run), I am profoundly disappointed with his chosen course of action regarding the zoning of rural Loudoun.

It appears to me that Staton orchestrated an eleventh-hour overthrow of an 18-month public process that yielded a reasonable compromise to ensure a balance between residential housing and a viable rural economy.

This bipartisan effort was called the Clem-Burton plan. Staton's last-minute actions stole the Clem-Burton plan from the public and showed a blatant disregard for the opinions of hundreds of citizens who participated in this process, as well as for the time and effort of his colleagues, Loudoun County staff and the members of the county's rural economic development and zoning ordinance review committees.

Staton wore so many hats during last week's meeting that I was confused, and I wasn't the only one. Staton, contradicting legal advice from the county attorney, offered his own legal opinion when he argued against forwarding his own plan through the public process. Staton seemed to have looked into a crystal ball, much like a fortune teller, when he guaranteed that the Clem-Burton plan would have been challenged and overturned anyway. And when Staton declared that a rezoning option under Clem-Burton would never have been used anyway, he sounded like a developer.

It appears that the only hat Staton did not wear last week was that of a responsive, visionary and thoughtful leader of the Sugarland Run District.

Although he attempted to present himself as all-knowing at that meeting, his image was shattered when he admitted he was only "spitballing it" when stating the increase in residential housing under his plan. And on the second day of the board's meeting, he admitted that he "screwed up" when his numbers didn't match the county staff's analysis.

The result is that Staton's plan increases the number of residences in rural Loudoun when compared with the Clem-Burton plan, resulting in higher taxes, more schools and additional traffic. He might say his plan is a compromise, but the only thing his plan compromises is citizens' ability to pay more taxes, the quality of our children's education and our ability to travel on the already gridlocked roads in Loudoun County.

Susan Klimek Buckley

Sterling