FBRM President Sends Letter of Concern On Suspending Zoning Enforcement Lawsuit

Peter Weeks, President
Friends of the Blue Ridge Mountains

Last week, Peter Weeks, President of Friends of the Blue Ridge Mountains sent a letter to the Chair Randal and the entire Loudoun County Board of Supervisors expressing strong concern about the decision to temporarily suspend filing a lawsuit regarding an apparent zoning ordinance in the Mountain Overlay District (MOD).

Weeks’ letter expresses concern about two fundamental issues with the Board’s decision. First, the zoning ordinance in the MOD is intentionally and necessarily rigid. The thin soils and steep slopes demand detailed and carefully calibrated protective zones. While regulatory “flexibility” may be appropriate for the more forgiving topography to the east and to the west of the mountains it does not work for the Blue Ridge.

Second, echoing the concerns expressed by both Supervisors TeKrony and Turner during the Board discussion on the 15, this suspension establishes a dangerous precedent. Supervisor Turner specifically asked “… doesn’t that establish a legal precedent that if anybody in the county has a zoning violation that we’re going to prosecute? They’d have every right to come before this board with precedent and say, ‘I’d like a vote of the board to waive your enforcement of my violation in that Zoning Ordinance?”  While County Attorney Leo Rogers said he did not think so, it certainly establishes a precedent for those violating the zoning ordinance to at least raise the issue.

Supervisor TeKrony also raised the question as to why this particular situation merits special handling right now. “There are so many people who have come to us and said it is rigid, our Zoning Ordinance is rigid … We’re fixing that, so I’d rather fix it in a comprehensive, wholistic view than look at it as a one-off. Because I could bring a bunch of these as one-offs,” TeKrony said.

As part of the Western Loudoun Zoning Ordinance Amendment (ZOAM 2024-0002) the Transportation Land Use Committee (TLUC) will hold a public hearing on Tuesday September 30 regarding the Mountain Overlay District (MOD). Friends of the Blue Ridge Mountains will testify at that hearing.