Board Might Vote Soon On 3-School Campus

Opposition Grows In Western Loudoun

Loudoun County supervisors could vote as early as this week on whether to kill a proposed deal for a three-school campus near Lovettsville, as pressure ramps up from a group of western Loudoun residents who say the schools would ruin the area's rural economy.

For weeks, supervisors and School Board members have been grappling with whether to sign off on the project, which calls for the construction of elementary, middle and high schools on 170 acres in the Wheatland Farm community along Route 287 and north of Route 9.

Last week, Leesburg developer Salvatore J. Cangiano agreed to reduce his price for 160 acres of the property from $9.9 million to $7.6 million, bowing to concerns from residents who said his original $62,000-per-acre asking price was too high. Cattle farmer Alvin Burgess, who has agreed to sell 10 acres to the county for about $1.5 million, also said he would reduce his asking price, by 10 percent.

Wayde B. Byard, a spokesman for the Loudoun school system, said Cangiano dropped his price because of his "interest in education." Cangiano also has filed applications with the county to subdivide the surrounding land for dozens of single-family houses on lots ranging from one to more than 20 acres.

Still, the lower sales price did little to assuage growing criticism from Lovettsville area farmers who say the three schools and their 4,000 students would bring traffic congestion, create water shortages and otherwise damage the area's scenic rural environment.

"The School Board has maintained all along that they required absolute secrecy with this process to make these amazing, hard-nosed decisions," said Ellen Polishuk, a co-owner of the 180-acre Potomac Vegetable Farms and a member of the Wheatland Alliance, an advocacy group made up of area farmers. "They said they needed this powerful negotiating position, but instead they just look like fools."

The plan initially gained support from the School Board in February by an 8 to 1 vote, and county staff members and Lovettsville Mayor Elaine Walker have supported the deal.

Since then, heavy opposition to the plan has cropped up, and Loudoun County Board of Supervisors Chairman Scott K. York (I) and Supervisors James Burton (I-Blue Ridge) and Andrea McGimsey (D-Potomac) have signaled that they would fight the proposal until the October deadline to approve the contract.

At last week's Board of Supervisors meeting, York suggested that the board might vote on the project when it reconvenes Wednesday, depending on whether the School Board decides at its meeting Tuesday to proceed with the plan.

"While the project is needed, it is the wrong location," York said, acknowledging that he gave "a nod" earlier to pursue a deal to buy the Wheatland property. "I am just not ready to go there, and I hope, at some point, the School Board will kind of rethink that."

School Board member Jennifer K. Bergel (Catoctin), a longtime proponent of the plan, said she was "alarmed" by York's comments and the possibility that the supervisors might vote the plan down Wednesday.

"I think it is very unfortunate that despite our efforts to mitigate citizens' concerns, the message is still, 'Kill the contract,' " Bergel said. She has cited the potential for shorter school bus rides for students living north of Route 9 and the lack of other available land in western Loudoun for the rapidly growing school system.