The Loudoun County Planning Commission held a public hearing on Thursday, November 8, 2018 to gather public input on the draft Loudoun 2040 Comprehensive Plan (Loudoun 2040) and held a work session the following Saturday, where the planning commission addressed these comments. The majority of feedback was related to the Transition Policy Area (TPA). There was emphasis on the lack of housing diversity, lack of developable land in the Suburban Policy Area (SPA) and Urban Policy Area (UPA), and the unsustainability of increased and continued commercial growth in the county if there is not a concurrent increase or flexibility for residential development. The planning commission has directed county staff to clarify the description of some of the new place types, particularly the Transition Compact Neighborhood place type in the TPA to allow for better interpretation of the plan. The planning commission asserted that many misinterpret the TPA as a “permanent buffer” between the rural west and the suburban/urban east, however the TPA was intended to be a “visual transition” between the Rural Policy Area (RPA) and the SPA/UPA. The planning commission wants the TPA to have an independent concept, not tied to the surrounding policy areas.

The next planning commission meeting on Loudoun 2040 is tentatively scheduled for January 2019 to allow county staff an opportunity to make revisions to the Comprehensive Plan.

The attorneys and planners in the Leesburg office continue to monitor the Envision Loudoun process and can assist clients preparing public hearing testimony or written input for the planning commission’s consideration during its review of the plan.