Crooked Run Orchard

“I move that we authorize the town attorney and staff to proceed with a TOWN INITIATED ANNEXATION of parcels located in the Purcellville Urban Growth Area in order to complete the SCR (Southern Collector Road) …”

Dear Neighbor:

On August 11th at 7 pm the Town Council of Purcellville, Virginia held a public hearing on the ANNEXATION FOR CONDEMNATION of land for a road to be built through part of Crooked Run Orchard, my husband’s family’s 250 year old farm.

Land owners to our east and the Town have arranged for the right-of-way for the majority of the road to fall on their property, in exchange for intensive commercial development. The Town wants all four corners of this area to be designated as a third Purcellville commercial district on the fringes of town to include a mall on the Cole Property (the lovely historic barn and farm setting on the right as you enter town), Catoctin Corner (new mixed-use development south of Patrick Henry College), and a 16-acre previously annexed portion of Crooked Run Orchard.

This is bad planning – development in the middle of the green buffer between Purcellville and Hamilton which will lower air quality, create more traffic, destroy hundreds of trees, and split our farm in two … all for a road that VDOT studies show will not improve Main Street traffic.

Please read on for the 5 MYTHS THE TOWN OF PURCELLVILLE IS using TO JUSTIFY its actions AGAINST CROOKED RUN ORCHARD. We are reaching out to our neighbors and customers for help in bringing some sanity to this debate, and need your help!

– Uta Brown

Myth #1: This is a routine annexation.

The Town of Purcellville has the power to annex land within its urban growth area. Sometimes property owners ask to be annexed so they can make more profit by selling to a builder/developer. In other situations, towns condemn land that owners refuse to sell because the public need is so compelling – for example, it’s the only land suitable for a fire station. But this Town action falls into neither category. Crooked Run Orchard has consistently opposed annexation, and per Myth #2 below, the Town has yet to show a compelling need for the road.

Myth #2: Our town needs the road.

The SCR is a “bypass” looping around Purcellville to the south. The Town says the road is needed to solve Main Street traffic problems, making it easier for cars to get to Route 7. But projections show a completed SCR will reduce Main Street traffic by just 2.54%.* A second study** shows that Main Street traffic is not simply people coming from the south and trying to get through town, but people coming into town for grocery shopping, for a doctor’s appointment, to go to school, etc. (Purcellville routinely serves between 25,000 and 35,000 people for such activities).*** Developers fought to put and keep the SCR on the Town’s planning documents because they know it will make it easier and cheaper to develop the land around Crooked Run Orchard.

Purcellville is still promoting the road as “crucial to the mitigation of traffic impacts.”**** It is not.

Myth #3: The road won’t hurt the farm.

Crooked Run Orchard produces apples, berries, vegetables, herbs, holiday wreaths and decorations, flowers, and fall produce such as pumpkins – it attracts 20,000+ visitors per year. The Southern Collector Road will cut farm operations in two – leaving 45 acres on one side, and 51 acres on the other. It will also put pavement across the widest part of the wetland/floodplain and Crooked Run Creek. Customers using the back 45 acres for peach, wineberry and pumpkin pick-your-own produce will be required to cross a 40 MPH, two lane road that will carry traffic from nearby mixed-use commercial and residential development. Recent Southern Collector Plan Reviews note that required increases in road elevation “will result in additional fill … thereby potentially impacting additional stream channel or wetlands …”*, yet despite this, the Town still claims that “the alignment avoids direct impacts to the existing farming operations of Crooked Run Orchard,”** and, in addressing environmental concerns says simply that “The Town will comply with the State Environmental Review Process (SERP) under the direction of VDOT.”** (Well that certainly clarifies things!)

Myth #4: The road represents progress.

Purcellville is one of Loudoun County’s fastest-growing towns. But that doesn’t mean that citizens in Purcellville need to give up treasured places like Crooked Run Orchard in order to meet their transportation and growth needs. Nor does it mean it is wise to sacrifice productive portions of the rural economy for cookie-cutter, suburban-style development that requires massive infrastructure investments and higher taxes.

Yet town records show that lots of developers have their eye on this south eastern entrance to Purcellville and that the Town is pursuing their projects aggressively. One large mixed-use development would add up to 75,000 square feet of new commercial space,* and another possible “mixed-use condos and retail”** development – 45,000 square feet, multiple drive-through special exceptions and 300 parking spaces – is under consideration.***

Importantly, even after all “traffic improvements” and the new roads are in, the existing intersection levels of service (LOS) will still earn a “D-F” grade.**** That doesn’t represent “progress”. Not in a Town like Purcellville that prides itself on welcoming the new while preserving history and traditional, productive ways of life like family living.

Myth #5: It’s not personal.

When the Browns tried to put the 41 acres of their in-town land into conservation easement, Purcellville stripped the property of its residential zoning.* This zoning was put on Crooked Run Orchard in 1965, and no other Town Council has found it appropriate to touch it. It was only after the Browns began to pursue a conservation easement that the Town acted, cutting deeply into the orchard’s potential tax break, and making it more difficult to take advantage of Virginia law designed to help farmers. Sam and Uta put the land under easement anyway – forgoing millions of dollars in potential profits. The Town uses the words “preserve and protect” in reference to Crooked Run Orchard in its Comprehensive Plan – but its actions have served to cripple the farm. In Woodgrove High School lawsuit negotiations, Purcellville demanded that Loudoun County “Acquire, including through condemnation the right-of-way for improvements of the remaining two segments of the A Street (Southern Collector Road) …”** The County said no. BUT, PURCELLVILLE PERSISTS IN ITS EFFORT TO GET CROOKED RUN OUT OF THE WAY. If these actions aren’t personal … what are they?

FROM THEN CANDIDATE BOB LAZARO:

“Opposes annexation and boundary line adjustment schemes that would result in
increased density of residential development.”

WHY THE CHANGE, MR. MAYOR?

What you can do to help stop the Southern Collector Road:

1.) Send us an email at CrookedRunOrchard@gmail.com with your message of support and suggestions; email your opposition to Mayor Lazaro and the Town Council and copy us.

Emailing the Mayor/Town Council:
Mayor Bob Lazaro: blazaro@purcellvilleva.gov
Councilman Tom Priscilla: tpriscil@purcellvilleva.gov
Councilman Steve Varmechy: vum1@comcast.net
Councilman Greg Wagner: gwagner@purcellvilleva.gov
Councilman C.J. Walker: cjwalker@purcellvilleva.gov
Councilman Jim Wiley: jwiley@purcellvilleva.gov
Councilwoman Joan Lehr: jlehr@purcellvilleva.gov

2.) Subscribe to this website in order to receive news and changes as they occur.

THEN TOWN COUNCIL CANDIDATE C.J. WALKER, III:

“ … the Southern Collector Road, a $10 million developers dream, will make traffic worse and inevitably increase taxes. There are millions of dollars at stake. Theirs and yours. If we don’t have a Town Council willing to stand up to the developers to defend our small hometown, Purcellville will become another  Ashburn … ”