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A discussion on land acquisition in Loudoun
At last week's joint committee meeting of the Board of Supervisors and School Board, an interesting discussion came up about land acquisition and Loudoun County's needs over the next 10 years.
This was just a short portion of the meeting, but I thought this was something people might want to hear about.
In the county's current Capital Improvement Program, which covers the next 10 years, $420 million is included for land acquisition costs. This includes land for county government and schools. Land is estimated at $150,000 an acre.
In the CIP, 640 acres is included for school construction and over 2,000 acres is included for county government purposes.
The joint committee also had a discussion about the size of land required for schools and the recommendations for elementary schools to be on 20 acres, middle schools 35 and high schools 75.
Paul Brown, assistant to the county administrator, said the county needs a more strategic land acquisition process. Instead of assessing land after it is under consideration for purchase, assessments should be done ahead of time, which would produce more accurate numbers for the Board of Supervisors to budget each project.
"Then we won't have big swings," Brown said. "We could fine tune and save money in the process."
Brown also talked about co-locating county projects such as fire stations, community centers, libraries and schools.
"If we could change the process, change the budgeting... we could change our sources of funding allowing us to be more responsive to the market and get control over these swings of too much money, not enough money. It is my hope that we also talk strategically about how we can improve our process."
School Board member Priscilla Godfrey said she wasn't sure voters would support co-located facilities.
"It's going to take the acceptance of the public that there will be more than one public utility in one stop. There would be more traffic, more utilities... It is the public that has to decide and buy into the lessoning of the carbon footprint. I'm just not sure our public is there yet."
Superintendent of Schools Edgar Hatrick also commented on the land acquisition process.
"We also run up against reality," he said. "If we could pre-purchase land we would now be sitting fat and happy. But we're in the crisis mode we're in... We go through the same thing with building schools before they're needed. No one wants to see schools open if they're not full. Voters have to feel the pinch. Am I buying land for a need six years from now or bricks for a need next year?"
For more information about what happened at the Sept. 18 joint committee meeting of the Board of Supervisors and School Board, see my article on Supervisor Miller's presentation on possible school sites in Dulles South, which comes out in tomorrow's edition of the paper. (Sept. 24)
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