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Crosstrail meeting stirs up debate with no resolution
Loudoun supervisors and Leesburg council members hammered away at the Crosstrail development team at a joint meeting July 11.County and town officials joined forces to question Crosstrail representatives about whether they had been forthright about the impact the development would have on traffic patterns and whether the development team was doing enough to help alleviate these traffic tensions.
The Crosstrail development, if approved, would be south of Leesburg between the Dulles Greenway and the Leesburg Executive Airport. It would include some 1,000 residential units, 900,000 square feet of retail space and 1.5 million square feet of office space.
Traffic concerns have been a growing concern for the town, which draws commuters through the area to and from the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area via U.S. 15 and routes 7 and 9.
The county and town argued that additional growth at Crosstrail would only worsen the traffic woes.
"The problem is that ... we're considering a very substantial development proposal when we have significant deficiencies on existing roads," said Supervisor Lori Waters (R-Broad Run).
Proffered road projects for Crosstrail would add up to $42 million in transportation improvements. Off-site proffered projects would amount to $15.6 million and include the widening of Sycolin Road, paving of Shreve Road and adding of a lane on Green Mill Road.
The Peterson Companies' development team, which represented Crosstrail at the joint meeting last week, said its traffic study had met the standards required by the county, and the development wasn't responsible for taking on the town's traffic problems.
"The town definitely [has] road problems," said Peterson's attorney Mike Banzhaf, who lives in Leesburg. "The state should give you a greater portion of [money and] maybe the county should too. But this is neither the state nor the county. These people are not here to bail out the town for whatever [road] deficiencies are happening in the town."
The comment seemed to heat up the tension between county and town representatives and Crosstrail. County and town officials insisted that since Crosstrail would add to traffic woes, it should help solve the problem.
"I don't understand how you can say that Sycolin Road is somehow not going to be the major access point," said Leesburg Councilman Ken Reid. "Your own traffic study shows that the levels of service at various points of Sycolin Road, the bypass and Evergreen Mill Road are [major access points]."
Waters seemed more concerned about when the off-site proffered road projects would be completed. She said if the development was built before the roads were ready to handle the new traffic, the town could be in for more traffic congestion.
"If you're assuming that 39 percent of traffic [from Crosstrail] will go on the [Dulles] Greenway, then 61 percent is going on the other roads like Sycolin and Ashburn Farm Parkway," she said.
Although the majority of discussion focused on road proffers and traffic calming, the town continued to press for no residential building in this area.
"I think there are still serious concerns about having residential that close to the airport," said Leesburg Mayor Kristen Umstattd. She also said the transportation proffers are inadequate, falling short by about $10 million of what the town feels it needs to handle growth at Crosstrail.
During the proceedings, Crosstrail's development team was asked if the development could be built without the residential component.
"The simple answer is it wouldn't work for us [and] it wouldn't work for you," said Danzoff.
He said the building market worked in a way that 50 percent of the building could be office, but to support that, the other half had to be residential and retail.
Reid, who is running as an independent candidate for the Board of Supervisors, handed out a news article about a recent Florida plane crash that killed five people. He warned that with residential so close to the Leesburg Airport, an accident like this could be imminent.
The town's approval is not needed for Crosstrail to begin construction because the development is outside town limits.
Board members needed more time to consider the pros and cons of the Crosstrail proposal. They deferred their vote; it's likely they will vote at the first meeting in September.
Contact the reporter at hhobbs@timespapers.com
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