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No agreement, no high school
A second western high school might open in 2010, but the chances of that happening are growing fainter as talks between the town of Purcellville and the county government grind to yet another stalemate.
By late Sept. 30, the town and county were about $2 million apart. Extended talks between Board of Supervisors Chairman Scott York (I-at large) and Purcellville Vice Mayor Tom Priscilla had brought the two to that point – the county would commit to putting $3.75 million toward traffic improvements in the town.
The town, according to a letter from Mayor Bob Lazaro to York, is still expecting $5.75 million – down from its original request for $7 million.
If no agreement is reached, and the town proceeds with its petition to have the Supreme Court rehear its recently decided cases, the delay could push the opening of the high school back another year.
The county, York said, is looking down the barrel of a $176 million deficit for next year. Finding another $2 million, he said, could be a deal breaker for his board.
Town goes back to court
The town has voted to ask the Supreme Court to rehear arguments in the five cases involving the town's and county's authority to rule on growth in the 3,100-acre urban growth area surrounding the town – land that is now in the county's jurisdiction but is slated by planners to become part of the town at some point in the future.
Even if the Supreme Court denies the town's petition, the delay could make it impossible for construction on the school -- already named Woodgrove High School -- to start in time for a 2010 opening. And the town will not drop its legal opposition to the county's plan to build the school without hooking it into the town's water and sewer systems -- something the town says is required by the joint planning agreement that the court upheld.
A Sept. 12 Supreme Court decision that upheld joint planning in that urban growth area surrounding the town went on to give all the power to make decisions on development in that area to one party only -- the county.
At issue is the county's plan to build a high school on the Fields Farm northwest of the town's current boundaries without getting a permit from the town's planning commission, without getting the property annexed into the town, and without getting the school hooked into the town's water and sewer systems.
Paying for traffic
"It appears they want a considerable amount of money from us to handle traffic problems in town that have nothing to do with the high school," said Supervisor Jim Burton (I-Blue Ridge). "That has been a sticking point with us from the beginning. There is a limit to what we can do."
Lazaro, who voted against asking the Supreme Court for a rehearing, insists that the county is putting its transportation money in the wrong place – paving Allder School Road west of the high school to Round Hill. That money, he said, could be used to better effect in town, where school buses, parents and students clog the Main and Maple intersection at the heart of town for hours every day.
Purcellville is home to Loudoun Valley High School, Blue Ridge Middle School and two elementary schools already, and buses to and from Harmony Intermediate School to the east pass through town as well, Lazaro said. A second 1,600-student high school will add to the town's traffic woes, Lazaro said, and it is only fair the county help pay to mitigate that traffic.
Other than that, Lazaro said, the town has been flexible in trying for a solution to the impasse that prevents the high school from being built.
First, Lazaro said, the town has agreed to having a second high school. Second, it has dropped its requirement that the county help pay for buying right of way for the Southern Collector Road.
To end the impasse, Lazaro said, the county needs to do the paperwork to get the Fields Farm annexed into the town. Then "they need to work with us on water and sewer, help us with respect to whatever water they have on the property, and they need to pay their cap fees [payment to hook into the water and sewer systems of the town] like anyone else."
And the county needs to pay for those road improvements, Lazaro said.
Board of Supervisors Chairman Scott York (I-at large) has been "tremendously helpful" in trying to reach a settlement, Lazaro said. "But every time we reach an agreement, the Board of Supervisors shoots it down."
York said he had been talking with Priscilla, and "we both recognize if we are going to move forward, there are things we have to wrap up to reach a tentative agreement so the school can move forward. The board as a whole is behind the effort."
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