Foes Meet On Plan For School

Bid Made to Settle Fight Out of Court

Two adversaries in the long-running fight over plans to build a high school north of Purcellville met last week to explore the option of negotiating an out-of-court settlement.

Purcellville Mayor Robert W. Lazaro Jr. and Loudoun Supervisor Jim Burton (I-Blue Ridge) said they met and discussed how town and county officials could reach a compromise that would allow construction of the school to proceed while addressing the town's concerns about the effect on traffic and utilities.

The meeting happened the same week that the Virginia Supreme Court announced that it would hear appeals in a lawsuit filed by the town to block the project. The appeals process probably would delay plans to open the school in January 2009 and aggravate crowding at Loudoun Valley High School and other western Loudoun schools.

Lazaro and other Purcellville officials contend that because of a 12-year-old land-use agreement between the town and the county, the project cannot proceed without the town's approval. A Loudoun Circuit Court judge ruled in March that although the town is entitled to have a say in development decisions on the land near its borders, its approval of the school is not required because a school was included on a map that was part of the joint agreement. The county and the town have appealed the ruling.

After meeting with Burton, Lazaro said town officials will work on putting together a document that provides "a framework to resolve some of the problems" through negotiation. He said he hoped to have that done within two weeks and to present it to Burton.

The Town Council's priorities are to be given a vote on the project and to get the county to agree to the upgrading of roads and utilities, Lazaro said. He said that if those conditions are met, the council could approve a new high school on the contested site.

"If they are able to resolve some of these questions . . . to the satisfaction of four members of the Town Council, that answer would be yes," Lazaro said.

Burton confirmed that he and Lazaro discussed how the county could build the school while helping to ease the town's growing pains. He declined to provide specifics on their talk.

Lazaro said that as a further indication of the town's interest in an out-of-court settlement, the town has put off a hearing in Loudoun Circuit Court on another lawsuit. In that suit, the Town of Purcellville is seeking to overturn the Board of Supervisors' approval of a permit to build the school. That hearing had been scheduled for Nov. 30.

School Board Chairman Robert F. DuPree Jr. (Dulles) said he welcomed the effort by Burton and Lazaro.

"I have said all along that if the lawsuits go away, we can build that high school," DuPree said. "That's the fastest way to get relief."

School officials said they were told that the earliest that the Supreme Court could hear the appeals probably would be in March, with a decision likely several months after that.