LoudounNow
INSIDE:
LOUDOUN COUNTY’S COMMUNITY-OWNED NEWS SOURCE
[ Vol. 1, No. 16 ]
[ loudounnow.com ]
Theater pros prop up school play ....... 26
Courthouse expansion gets green light ........... 33
[ February 25 – March 2, 2016 ]
CASE DISMISSED
Hounds stadium lease terminated; One Loudoun to pursue sports complex BY NORMAN K. STYER
A
six-minute hearing in Loudoun Circuit Court on Tuesday provided significant relief to years of frustration for the developers of One Loudoun. After a nearly two-year court battle, Judge Burke F. McCahill signed the order dismissing the lawsuit against Virginia Investment Partnership, the group that worked for more than a decade to build a stadium for an Atlantic Baseball League franchise—to be called the Loudoun Hounds—and a soccer team in Ashburn. The order resulted from a settlement agreement hammered out over the past several weeks and terminates VIP’s lease for the land planned for the stadium near the Rt. 7/Loudoun County Parkway interchange. That’s what One Loudoun Holdings, LLC, asked for in 2014, after a series of delays in VIP’s construction plans called the project’s feasibility into question. A groundbreaking ceremony was held in 2013, but the stadium never got off the ground. The case had been set for trial next month. The two sides first told McCahill they were working toward a settlement in early January, but an agreement proved elusive. As they approached the court date, VIP’s final remaining officer, Bob Farren, underwent cancer treatment, which threatened to delay the trial. Attorneys have been before McCahill each week this month to report on their progress toward a settlement, with nothing definitive to report until Tuesday. Miller and Smith Vice President Bill May, who leads the One Loudoun development, said he plans to bring the vision of building a stadium for baseball and soccer teams to fruition. “We look forward to now being able to pursue getting a ballpark, to test the market for a ballpark,” May said. “We think there is a strong demand for this kind of entertainment in the area. We’re going to work very hard to bring it to One Loudoun and to Loudoun County.” One Loudoun is one of two locations approved for development of a sports stadium. VIP initially won approval to build a stadium in the Kincora development near the Rt. 7/Rt. 28 interchange, but abandoned the site when that development stalled. That zoning remains in place. The Loudoun market appears well-suited for a sports complex, May acknowledged that there are major hurdles to the project. “We’re going to have to start from scratch,” he said. And financing will be a challenge. “Getting a ballpark built without public funding is a very difficult task.” The previous Board of Supervisors rejected a plan that would have allowed the county to help underwrite bonds for VIP’s stadium. The courtroom dealings in the case may not be over, however. One Loudoun’s attorney previously indicated they may seek formal sanctions against VIP’s original attorneys who filed a $30 million counter-claim lawsuit.
Douglas Graham/Loudoun Now
The Second Street School in Waterford has been a history tour site for thousands of Loudoun schoolchildren as they recreate a day in the life of black children in the late 19th century.
A NEW FACE FOR HISTORY?
Mosby Heritage Association reconsiders symbol amid national debate over Civil War monuments BY MARGARET MORTON
T
he national debate over race relations that ignited after the June 17, 2015, murders in Charleston, SC, is resonating in Loudoun—evoking a sharpened interest in how black history is presented. The killing of nine black parishioners during a prayer service at Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston by 21-year-old Dylann Roof horrified the nation. Photos of Roof posing with guns and a Confederate battle flag prompted calls for the removal of Confederate symbols from statehouses and courthouses across the South. Loudoun County has just concluded a five-year commemoration of the Sesquicentennial
! LE W SA NO N O
of the Civil War, historians’ lens seem refocused by the national enquiry—reevaluating their presentations on slavery, the Civil War and the Confederacy, the bitter reconstruction period, segregation, Jim Crow laws, and the Civil Rights era.
Looking Beyond the Civil War “Of course, there’s an impact on any interpretation dealing with American history,” said Mosby Heritage Area Association President Childs Burden, who co-founded the organization in 1995. “You have to know the real meaning of the war—it can’t be ignored, when one side embraced slavery and the other did not.” The MHAA, spurred by the Charleston murders, tasked its Outreach Committee with
re-thinking its entire approach for the heritage area, including whether the nonprofit should change its name and its logo— which depicts Confederate guerilla leader Col. John Singleton Mosby. Mosby fought hard for the Confederate cause and lost. But after the war, he became a friend of Union General Ulysses S. Grant, eventually joining his administration. The MHAA’s logo can be seen on the roadside signs marking the geographic area in which Mosby conducted his raids. And whether that is the right focus is the question, said Executive Director Rich Gillespie. The stories of the area— Loudoun, Fauquier, Clarke and part of Prince William
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MOSBY HERITAGE >> 22
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