we just agreed on new comp plan.
how can we accept whitman south application?
The development of the Loudoun 2019 Comprehensive Plan was a massive undertaking, with nobody getting everything they wanted. It represents a compromise. It's done and outlines a vision and maintains the important concept of the Transition Policy Area.
Within the Transition Policy Area, Supervisors designated the southeast corner of Braddock Rd and Gum Spring Rd as Transition Community Center, one of three in the TPA.
The key characteristics of Transition Community Center are to be:
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Pedestrian-focused retail centers with small footprint retail uses;
- 50% Open Space for Recreational, Community, and/or Natural, Environmental and Heritage;
- Two and three-story buildings with active ground floor retail and entertainment uses. A few single story buildings integrated into the compact, pedestrian-oriented environment.
The Whitman South application proposes a typical, unwalkable collection of uses. A grocery store at one end, retail strip at the other, and two automotive service facilities in between. This application was approved by the same Planning Commission whose recommendations for suburban-style growth throughout the TPA were roundly rejected by the Board of Supervisors.
Retail is needed in the area. But the application does not include the open space uses called for in the new Comprehensive Plan; it does not look anything like the place type envisioned for the Transition Community Center; and the dominance of automotive service seems incompatible with the area. It does not conform to current zoning either, so we believe that any zoning exceptions granted for this application should conform as closely as possible to the intent of the new Comprehensive Plan.
On July 10 the board voted to consider the application at their September business meeting . You can comment on the Loudoun Online Land Application (LOLA) system by following this link.
Whitman South Application
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