Has Tulloch Had a Dulles Change of Heart?

Did Loudoun County Board of Supervisors Vice Chairman Bruce E. Tulloch (R-Potomac) actually say last week that the board should consider ditching the entire Dulles South Comprehensive Plan Amendment?

Sure sounded like it to those who attended Tuesday's work session on the Dulles South proposal, which would open up a 9,200-acre area west of Dulles International Airport to as many as 33,800 homes.

It's not clear where Tulloch is going with this (he did not reply to several phone messages).

Tulloch said at the work session that his goal was to save George Mason University's plans for a Loudoun campus. He said he agreed with hundreds of Loudoun residents who think that the new homes would cause roads and schools in southeastern Loudoun to be overwhelmed. And he said he didn't want GMU's plans to be doomed if the plan amendment died.

The trouble with that thinking is that GMU officials say the success of their project depends on approval of at least part of the plan amendment. The state university wants to build a 123-acre campus just west of Arcola and north of Route 50, relying on the road improvements, housing and retail services that developers will build only if supervisors approve the plan amendment.

Supervisors have asked GMU officials to present their needs at a meeting Oct. 30. There, supervisors will hear that the university's future in Loudoun depends specifically on the plans of Vienna-based developer Greenvest, one of several developers hoping to build in Dulles South.

Greenvest has proposed about 15,000 homes in four planned communities and has promised to build more than $200 million in roads, a 200-acre park and a town center within walking distance of GMU. Greenvest also donated the 123-acre site for the GMU campus.

One possibility bounced around Tuesday was to focus on gaining approval for just one of Greenvest's planned communities: Arcola, which would provide the town center, the new road to serve GMU and about 3,000 homes.

"It sounds to me that he wants to see how he can support a university," said Supervisor Mick Staton Jr. (R-Sugarland Run), when asked what he thinks of Tulloch's proposal. "He doesn't want to support the big plan amendment, but he would like to see how he at least could have the university there. Everything that George Mason says is that it is their intention to build a university along the Route 50 corridor. If that's the case, then how do we make that happen?"

Opponent Backs Down

Remember when Sandra Chaloux, president of the anti-sprawl Gum Spring Regional Citizens Network, passed out bumper stickers last month with the words "Remove Steve Snow" emblazoned on them?

And how she took offense when Staton approached her to warn that state law could require her to form a political action committee to advocate for or against a particular candidate?

So offended that she e-mailed Commonwealth's Attorney James E. Plowman seeking an opinion?