Dulles District Supervisor candidates Stephen “Steve” Snow (R) and John Murphy, Jr. (D) both see a need to improve the county’s economic development approach, however, Snow has hesitations about the county’s future growth plans, while Murphy fully supports the Revised Comprehensive Plan and revised zoning ordinance.
A South Riding resident and telecommunications consultant, Snow wants to see Loudoun improve commercial economic development in the county and increase its commercial tax base. Business people are telling him that they are “upset about rules and regulations” and the slow permitting process,” he said at the League of Women Voters Oct. 16 Candidate Forum. “As a conservative, I’m for less government. More rules [mean] less freedom. We need to have businesses and jobs.”
SNOW DOES NOT fully support the county’s planning documents, such as the Revised Comprehensive Plan and revised zoning ordinance, he said. “The Comprehensive Plan doesn’t put people first,” he said, adding that the plan yields to rural interests in the west and to special interests. He opposes what he and others call density packing in the east, or the placing of most of the projected future growth into one area of the county.
“The Dulles District should not have to continue to accept all the growth to protect the view of the wealthy in Middleburg,” Snow said, adding that the Dulles District is being over built for the present infrastructure. “The growth pattern that has been approved for the next 20 years shows eastern Loudoun, including the Dulles south area, accepting 80 percent of the growth.”
In addition, “the Dulles area has been overlooked for too long,” Snow said, adding that he will fight for equalization of services. For example, he plans to bring parks and recreation services to the Dulles District. He supports “well-managed development such that we will get the necessary money from developers to build our roads and to provide land for our schools and other community facilities,” he said.
If elected, Snow wants to see several roadways in Loudoun fixed, including Routes 28, 50 and 659, and Loudoun County parkways and mass-transit come to Loudoun. “We must make the roads more traversable for the citizens of Loudoun County,” he said.
Snow, a supporter of lower taxes, also wants to eliminate “wasteful spending” through program-based budgeting, along with the Purchase of Development Rights program that gives the county authority to purchase easement rights from property owners. “I will look at the budget to ensure it reflects our needs, not [that of] county staff, and stop run-away spending of our hard-earned tax dollars,” he said.
MURPHY FINDS the county can improve economic development. An Ashburn resident and business owner, Murphy wants to see the county speed up the permitting process for commercial developments. One way, he suggests, is adding a permit review division to the Department of Building and Development that would expedite the permitting of commercial projects that are proposed to be less than 40,000 square feet, a process already used in other local jurisdictions, he said.
Murphy, the at-large planning commissioner since 2000, wants to make sure the Revised Comprehensive Plan and revised zoning ordinance are implemented during the next board’s term. “I support the General Plan and its policies,” he said. “The sustainability of this county would be detrimentally affected if those policies are overturned.”
As Murphy points out, the Comprehensive Plan reduces 80,000 future homes and cuts $1.8 billion in future infrastructure costs. “To me as a resident, that’s what I’m looking for out of leadership, to ensure that the county I’ve lived in for 26 years will continue to look like the county when I moved here,” he said.
If elected, Murphy wants to complete a comprehensive review of the county’s transportation needs. As a planning commissioner, he worked with the county’s proffer system. “There’s a tremendous amount of proffer money that hasn’t been triggered yet,” he said. “County staff is inventorying that. Once we know the amounts and locations, we can then put together a plan to meet the transportation and public facility needs.”
Murphy also plans to encourage private-public partnerships and funding options to complete fragmented roadways in the Dulles District, supports mass transit in Loudoun and will bring forward district concerns to the board level to make sure there is an “equal distribution of services throughout the county,” he said.