Influence of Developers, Allies Runs Deep

Snow and other officials also said that their votes were based on the projects' merits and their view of what is best for the county.

Myers declined repeated requests to be interviewed.

In recent months, FBI agents have interviewed several people in the county about development decisions, according to three who said they have been contacted. One person, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the inquiry, was interviewed at length and said the agents probed for information about whether local officials may have development interests that would conflict with their duties on a public body.

Debbie Weierman, spokeswoman for the FBI's Washington Field Office, would not say whether agents are conducting an investigation in Loudoun but said her office "is looking into reports of possible public corruption, unfair business practices and the like . . . in the Washington metropolitan area."

Until late last year, the board votes helped spur the county's swift growth. But as voters have shown signs of displeasure, supervisors seeking reelection in November have backed off from their general enthusiasm for rapid development, voting down a major building project known by advocates as Dulles South and limiting construction in western Loudoun.

At the same time, new construction has slowed with a sagging market. Nevertheless, tens of thousands of homes that have been approved are yet to be built.

Myers's Many Roles

Myers, 50, likes to say that her family has owned land in Loudoun "only" since 1779. She is a regular presence at public meetings, where she lobbies officials in the hallway and from the podium on causes that have included youth baseball and rights of property owners.

In eight years in public office, first as an appointed planner in 1992 and then as chairman of Loudoun's Board of Supervisors in the late 1990s, Myers was a dogged advocate for speeding up development.

But in 1999, voters threw her out of office and swept in eight politicians to the nine-member Board of Supervisors who promised to limit growth. The county's population had doubled in a decade to 169,000, and voters -- many of them newcomers themselves -- were attracted to the message of protecting Loudoun's quality of life.

Myers was able to turn that painful defeat into a string of business opportunities. She was looking for work just as developers and home builders were looking for people to help them block the limits on development they expected from the new board.

Myers started a consulting firm and began working with Carter Braxton Real Estate in Leesburg. She also joined with a group of builders, landowners, lawyers and Tysons Corner-based developer Greenvest L.C. to mount a well-funded, years-long campaign to regain political clout after the surprise defeat at the polls by the anti-growth forces.

After supervisors passed the strict development limits they had promised, Greenvest companies filed more than 20 lawsuits against the county, part of a coordinated barrage of about 200 such suits by developers seeking to overturn building restrictions. Greenvest companies own more land in Loudoun than any other private landowner -- more than 5,000 acres, much of it undeveloped.