Land Everywhere; Not a Bit to Buy

Loudoun Boom Impedes School Expansion Plan

Randy Vlad cruised the outskirts of Purcellville one afternoon this month in a hybrid sport-utility vehicle, window-shopping for land.

He pointed to a vacant field north of town. "Gone," he pronounced, noting that it had been subdivided for residential lots. He passed an old farm as he turned onto Route 9. "That's gone, too," he said. He tried to remember whether it was Toll Brothers or another home builder who had gotten there first.

Vlad's not an investor or a residential developer, though he drives in similar circles. He is a full-time land shopper for Loudoun County public schools. It's a critical job in a system that plans to open 23 schools in the next six years as enrollment is expected to climb by 40 percent to nearly 70,000 students.

With its wide-open fields and expansive views, the western reaches of the county would seem the likeliest place to find land for a new campus. But efforts to restrict residential growth there have fueled a land rush over the past year, and planners say hunting for future school sites has been anything but easy.

The Board of Supervisors approved new development rules Sept. 6, but a measure to implement them awaits final action. School planners hope the land rush will ease after those rules are in place. But officials still will face a major challenge in their efforts to locate schools in western Loudoun.

Historically, the school system in the eastern part of the county has relied on land donated by developers in exchange for being allowed to build higher-density housing -- a trend that's starting to change there. But that option would not exist in less-populous western Loudoun under the pending ordinance. So instead of cooperating with developers to build schools, the system must compete with them for land.

That's why, even though just three of the 23 schools are planned for the western part of the county, Vlad and his colleagues say they spend a disproportionate amount of time combing country roads west of Leesburg. They're on the hunt for useable acreage with adequate road access and, most important, a willing seller.

"The perception that . . . we can plunk a school down anywhere, that's just not so," said School Board Chairman Robert F. DuPree Jr. (Dulles). "Our staff has looked far and wide."

The search has intensified in the past year to find a location for a second high school in the western part of the county. Loudoun Valley High in Purcellville was built in 1962 on 36 acres. It is now packed with 1,500 students in 10th through 12th grades. Ninth-graders have been moved to a nearby intermediate school. Nearly all available space is crammed with trailers.

The School Board's first choice, approved by the Board of Supervisors in June, would carve out a portion of a county-owned, 236-acre parcel north of Purcellville. But the Town Council has opposed that plan, citing traffic concerns and contending that it violates a land-use agreement between the town and the county. The town filed a lawsuit in Loudoun County Circuit Court this summer seeking to block the planned high school, which is scheduled to open in 2008.

Purcellville Mayor Robert W. Lazaro Jr. said other towns would welcome the $70 million facility.

School planners identified more than 20 alternative locations last year through their own searching and tips from residents. Problems emerged with each. Some were too rocky or too wet; some lacked adequate roads. Others had owners unwilling to sell.

Eager to put the high school along the Route 7 corridor, where most of the area's students live, and to end the search and begin construction, the School Board is still pursuing permits and design plans for the Purcellville location.

Board of Supervisors Chairman Scott K. York (I) said the school system suffers from limited thinking.

"They just need some creativity over there," he said. "Sometimes you have to do things differently."

York said the system should tailor each new school to fit available land, rather than using the same prototype over and over.

In Loudoun, high schools are designed for 75 acres and 1,800 students, with plenty of room for parking and athletic fields. If they cannot tap into municipal utilities, planners say, they need even more land for wells and septic systems.

Some school systems in the Washington area are accustomed to doing more with less. Bladensburg High School in Prince George's County moved last year into a rebuilt five-story building on a campus that occupies little more than 20 acres and accommodates more than 2,000 students. In Fairfax County, where high school sites range from 25 to 90 acres, Centreville High was built 15 years ago on 36 acres and now has about 2,200 students. It uses athletic fields in an adjacent park.

Loudoun school officials said they can be flexible when necessary, citing a high school built in Leesburg on 52 acres a few years ago, but they said sticking to the prototype has saved money.

With new zoning regulations nearing final approval and the housing market cooling, school planners said they hope they to have a better shot at acquiring land this year.

Occasionally, they get lucky. On a scouting trip through western Loudoun last year, Vlad and a colleague turned off Route 9 and drove until they came upon an open, flat field with good road access. It seemed ideal.

With fingers crossed, they called the owner. Robert Grubb, 81, whose wife is a teacher and whose 19-year-old son graduated from a crowded Loudoun school, listened to their pitch. Ultimately, he signed a contract to sell 104 acres that have been in his family since 1886.

He had one condition: It couldn't be developed for a high school. "There's entirely too much activity day and night," he said.

The school system can work with that. Two campuses are planned for the site, a middle school and an elementary school.