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Dulles Planning Commissioner Attacks Scott York
In the continuing saga of the Loudoun County Planning Commission “absentee” scandal, we continue to find more interesting tidbits surrounding the Dulles Planning Commissioner. The recent tidbit is contained within this e-mail:
From: XXXX@loudoun.gov
To: YYYY@loudoun.gov
Date: Mon, 15 Jun 2009 20:22:31 -0400
Subject: Re: Fwd: CTP-Roads in the Transition Policy Area
The question is where we want to guide residential growth. Wherever we place roads on the CTP that don’t exist is where the County is inviting residential rezoning applications to occur since we know the state will not fund them and developers will not proffer them unless they get suburban densities -which is not in compliance with our comp plan.Proposing expensive primary and secondary roads in areas that don’t warrant them doesn’t make sense to me. If a developer wants to come in and propose a Countryside Village why don’t we allow them to propose the road connection that would make sense for that sort of development. That sort of development probably would not require a street grid. Right now the by-right subdivisions in the Lenah area connect off Braddock and Lenah Road.
“What do you think of York’s proposal to take zoning ordinance review away from the Planning Commission?” Silly and misguided. Guess he didn’t take the PC training when he was a Commissioner.
Don’t you think it is silly and misguided to attack the Chairman of the Board of Supervisors for deciding to remove zoning ordinance review away from the Planning Commission? After all, there is a Zoning Department, which reviews all land use applications before they go to the Commission, and there is a provision for a Zoning Ordinance Review Committee. Why have another zoning commission? Scott York has been involved in Loudoun government for a long time, so why attack someone who knows the issues facing transportation, etc.
It seems to me that the Dulles Planning Commissioner would rather throw tantrums than work on the Countywide Transportation Plan (CTP), which will provide more roads and improvements.
The Loudoun Planning Commission Manifesto
Right now, scandal is brewing in Loudoun County, and no doubt, FOIA requests are being filed into why a planning commission member from the Dulles District sent an e-mail asking other board members not to show up at a meeting to discuss countywide transportation. The Loudoun Times-Mirror was the first to report about this scandal on July 1st after a June 25th hearing was postponed due to not having the necessary amount of participants to call a quorum. The same thing happened on June 27th. This meeting was discussing a transportation plan that would have created new roads in Loudoun, and now, it has been delayed until next quarter. Sounds odd, doesn’t it? Considering that the planning commission member in question was involved in an anti-growth environmental group.
For several days, there have been numerous statements that have been released regarding this email. Sterling Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio released a statement that appeared in the Loudoun Times Mirror on Thursday, July 2, 2009. Delgaudio said:
“Anyone who orchestrates the disbanding of any government meeting or causes a meeting to be cancelled through any effort is to be condemned. I ask the board of supervisors to investigate and find out exactly how 2 separate meetings of the Planning Commission failed to achieve a quorum and that the board of supervisors, if necessary restore a sense of confidence that the Planning Commission continues to function.
In response to the statement made by some that “its only two meetings” and “the transportation plan can wait until September”, I can only state that as far as my position: it is intolerable and not acceptable for anyone to purposely encourage dereliction in their duty to perform their responsibilities at scheduled meetings.
Additionally, Chairman of the Board of Supervisors, Scott York filed a FOIA request with Sandra Chaloux, the Dulles District Transportation Planning Board Member(Both the Washington Examiner and Loudoun Times Mirror have each filed a FOIA request as well into this matter) requesting any e-mails that she may have sent regarding the Planning Commission’s work session on the Countywide Transportation Plan.
This scandal only continues to unfold, but there are some questions that rise from this so-called manifesto. Is it illegal to tell a county employee not to show up to work (unless he or she has been terminated)? Can a county appointee or employee purposely not show up for a meeting, so there is not a quorum of members there to conduct a meeting? If anything, this is a shady way to govern.
