County Inks Purcellville Settlement

December 20, 2008 - 1:02pm

Purcellville, the county and the School Board have given their blessing to a settlement agreement that should get all of them out of court and into the business of building Woodgrove High School.

Since 2006, when the School Board chose the Fields Farm in Purcellville's urban growth area for the second western high school, disagreements between town and county over who has the authority to do what under the terms of their joint-planning agreement have delayed construction of the school.

This settlement commits the town to drop its remaining lawsuit and to supply water and sewer service to the new school once the property is brought within town boundaries. The county must transfer $5.78 million to the town for transportation improvements.

Construction on the school should start early next year and be ready for students by September 2010.

Supervisor Jim Burton (I-Blue Ridge) voted for the settlement Dec. 18 at a special joint meeting of the Board of Supervisors and the county's Planning Commission. But Burton made it clear he blamed the town and its mayor for the protracted delay that has led to overcrowding at Loudoun Valley High School, Harmony Intermediate School and Blue Ridge Middle School.

The town's demand for transportation money, Burton said, is nothing but "extortion ... the town council has deliberately held the children of western Loudoun hostage."

Burton said the $5.78 million would be far better used to fend off the School Board's expected move to close four older, smaller elementary schools in the west. The superintendent of schools' proposed budget is expected to cut $2.5 million by closing Lincoln, Hillsboro, Middleburg and Aldie elementary schools.

If that happens, Burton said, parents can place at least partial blame on Purcellville's council.

"Every dollar that is given to the Purcellville Town Council is money taken away from these schools," he said.

Several of Purcellville's council members pointed to Burton for the long delay and protracted litigation when they voted to approve the settlement Dec. 16.

Burton, said council member Tom Priscilla is responsible for the death of the Purcellville Urban Growth Area Management Plan (PUGAMP) -- the joint-planning agreement the town and county adopted in 1995. Purcellville council members have maintained that the county's plan to build a school in its urban growth area, covered by PUGAMP, served by a private well and an on-site sewage-disposal system violates that agreement, and leaves the town with no power to guide its own future.

The Virginia Supreme Court ruled Sept. 12 that PUGAMP is a binding contract, but that the town has no planning authority outside its current town limits. The town has moved quickly to bring properties in its urban growth area, particularly those it would like to see developed commercially, into town boundaries. The same night it approved the Woodgrove settlement, it acted to bring the properties on Hirst Road and Business Route 7, south of Patrick Henry College, into the town in order to have authority over development there.