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Supreme Court rules on Purcellville high school
A Virginia Supreme Court ruling released Sept. 12 may not bring a quick resolution to the long-running dispute between Purcellville and Loudoun County over getting a high school built on the Fields Farm in the town's urban growth area.
The county must get a permit from the planning commission before moving ahead with the school, Supreme Court Justice Donald W. Lemons wrote. But it only has to apply to its own Planning Commission, not the town's.
The 30-page ruling upholds the county's argument that teh town has no zoning authority beyond its current borders. The town has argued that commission permits are needed from both planning commissions – its and the county's.
Both sides hailed the decision as a victory. The legal ramifications are less clear, and parents fear more delay and more crowding at Loudoun Valley High School.
Rob Lynch, whose son attends Harmony Intermediate School rather than Loudoun Valley High School because of crowding there, said he fears the ruling could end up delaying the school another year or more.
"I wish they could have come together before it got to this point," Lynch said. "There's a lot of hard feelings out there, and it's going to be difficult for us to get a high school built in a reasonable amount of time."
Loudoun County Attorney Jack Roberts said, in a statement, "I am pleased with the court's ruling. It rejected the town's fundamental assertion that it had authority beyond its borders to veto the location of public facilities."
The Loudoun County School Board, according to the county release, will next submit the proposed school location on the Fields Farm in the town's urban growth area, to the Loudoun County Planning Commission "for a determination that it is in substantial accord with the plan."
Purcellville's government is not likely to agree that the school, as planned, is in accord with the Purcellville Urban Growth Area Management Plan, a planning document signed by both town and county governments in 1995. That plan bans alternative and communal sewage disposal systems.
Lemons agreed with Loudoun Circuit Court Judge Thomas D. Horne that the PUGAMP – Purcellville Urban Growth and Management Plan – is a valid document and both town and county must cooperate on planning development in the urban growth area.
"The Town may participate in the process; however, zoning authority is left with the commission where the territory is located – in this case, in the County," Lemons ruled.
He reversed Horne's ruling that the county does not have to get a commission permit -- a permit from the planning commission -- before moving ahead with the high school.
The Fields Farm, in the northwest corner of the town's 3,100-acre urban growth area, is two miles from the high school site specified on the PUGAMP planning map, Lemons' ruling noted. The "H" (for a planned high school) on that map is in the northeast corner of the urban growth area, and that entire area has since been developed as the 3-acre residences of Wright Farm.
That's too far to be considered the "general or approximate location" cited by Horne in his earlier decision, Lemons wrote.
"The proposed location of HS-3 amounts to the functional equivalent of no feature at all," Lemons wrote. Further, Horne erred in "determining that the proposed construction of HS-3 is a feature shown on the PUGAMP and the trial court further erred in holding that no commission permit was required for the development of HS-3."
At the same time, Lemons ruled that the town has no right to take part in the planning process outside its current borders. Horne had ruled that planning is distinct from zoning, and the town has a right to take part in planning in the PUGAMP.
Purcellville Mayor Bob Lazaro greeted the ruling as a victory for the town. Supervisor Jim Burton (I-Blue Ridge) welcomed it as a victory for the county. Parents greeted it with frustration – more time will pass before a high school is built, and more children will see their high school experienced degraded, said parent Rob Lynch.
The judge ruled, Lazaro said, that "HS-3 is not a feature shown [on the PUGAMP planning map], that it requires a commission permit, and that involves the town. PUGAMP is upheld, which is more important that anything else."
The ruling is clear, Burton said, that "the county and the county alone makes zoning and commission permit decisions on the high school. The town will not have the authority they claimed."
The county will move quickly, Burton said, to get an application for a commission permit before its planning commission.
"The Board of Supervisors ratifies that decision after the Planning Commission makes its decision," Burton said.
One of the attorneys involved with the case noted that it will be difficult for the county's Planning Commission to say that the high school is consistent with the comprehensive plan, when the Supreme Court ruled that it is not a feature shown.
Lazaro said the county can put an end to the litigation by accepting a settlement offer, made by the town months ago, which would require the county to abide by the requirements of the PUGAMP for joint planning, to apply to have the Fields Farm property annexed into the town, to hook the school up to the town's water and sewer, and to add a little more than $7 million to the county's contribution for street improvements in town to take care of the added traffic from the new school.
Burton declined to discuss the possibility of the county's moving forward with a request to bring the property into the town boundaries.
"But certainly," he said, "being on central utilities would be best for the public's health and safety."
Lazaro and the council have made it clear they will continue to fight construction of the school if the county insists on building an on-site sewage treatment facility. The PUGAMP, which has now been affirmed by the Supreme Court, Lazaro said, specifically bans the use of alternative and communal sewage disposal systems. The town will oppose, in court if necessary, any attempt to built such a system in the urban growth area.
Lynch, parent and member of a loose-knit parents' group lobbying to get the school built, said he hopes several parents – one from in town and one from the surrounding county – will be included in a process to settle all the differences and get the high school built as soon as possible.
Contact the reporter at ssollinger@timespapers.com
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