A two-acre site for fire and rescue services that disappeared from a proffers statement on a Broadlands residential development concerned supervisors at a Jan. 11 public hearing.
The explanation turned out to be simple enough: Loudoun County Fire and Rescue no longer needs an additional site in Broadlands. Developer Broadlands Associates has come up with alternative offer.
"What we have agreed to do is to build a Little League baseball field," said Mark Looney, an attorney representing the developer at a Jan. 24 Transportation/Land Use committee meeting.
"I think that adding a ball field is a great idea," said Supervisor Lori Waters (R-Broad Run). But she and other supervisors wondered why the application didn't include bathroom facilities.
"Generally, people like a toilet," said Supervisor Sally Kurtz (D-Catoctin).
"There will be bushes, right?" asked Supervisor Eugene Delgado (R-Sterling).
Children "don't have the staying power of adults," noted Supervisor Stephen Snow (R-Dulles).
"Don't forget their pregnant mothers," said Waters.
"And the old men," added Delgaudio.
The developer agreed to include bathroom facilities at the ball field, which will be located adjacent to St. Theresa's Catholic Church.
CONGREGANTS AT ST. THERESA'S weighed in with hundreds of signed statements supporting the application, which requests a rezoning of 55 acres in two parcels along the Dulles Greenway. One parcel, on the southern edge of Waxpool Road, is proposed to contain up to 234 multi-family units at a density of 12 units per acre. It is currently zoned for commercial use.
As a part of the proffers package, the developer would complete the road between Broadlands Boulevard and Faulkner Parkway, including a bridge over Beaverdam Run. In order for this to happen, however, the county would have to cooperate by making proffer money from other projects available for the road completion. Broadlands Associates would receive a credit on its capital improvements contributions if the road were included as part of the proffers package.
Another concern supervisors noted at the public hearing had to do with an additional disappearance from the original application: this time of a dining facility in an age-restricted community.
"In a small, roughly 125-unit elderly housing project, having that type of facility is not typical," Looney said, adding that it would be "inefficient."
The compromise offered here was to replace the dining facility with a community multi-purpose room within the elderly housing project, a condition that supervisors accepted.
The supervisors voted to forward the application to the next business meeting with a recommendation of approval.