Middleburg Summit Focuses on a Loudoun Future Together

Middleburg Summit Focuses on a Loudoun Future Together

By Bridge Littleton Middleburg Mayor

Over 200 members of the Middleburg and greater Loudoun communities gathered in Middleburg for the “Loudoun Together Summit” at the Salamander Resort in April.

Middleburg Mayor Bridge Littleton presided over a recent Summit at Salamander Resort to discuss the future of Loudoun County. Here, he also presented a check for $4,500 from the proceeds of the event to Tami Erickson, head of Seven Loaves.

Organized and hosted by the Town of Middleburg, the goal was to discuss the challenges facing Middleburg, our surroundings and greater Loudoun County and offer a way that ALL of the county could come together in creating solutions. It was divided into three areas of discussion: Why our community is special, the threats, and what can be done about it.

Speakers highlighted the need for collaboration between suburban east and rural west. They also discussed the imperative of preserving the rural character and open space of western Loudoun while providing for necessary services, economic opportunities, and right-sized housing crucial for eastern Loudoun. All raised flags about the cost of inaction.

In the end, the Summit began a discussion that must continue at our local levels up to the County Board of Supervisors, pushing them to take an active and engaged role in advocating for the future of Loudoun.

It began with two round table discussions, the first led by Beth Erikson, president of Visit Loudoun and several visitor-based businesses. It was followed by the Coalition of Loudoun Towns (COLT) comprised of the seven Loudoun town mayors and was led by former Virginia Delegate Randy Minchew.

Both focused on the special nature of western Loudoun and how it adds to the tourism base and benefits the overall quality of life for all Loudouners.

Participants next heard from Chris Miller, president of the Piedmont Environment Council (PEC) who discussed the benefits and major challenges on our community with the explosion of data centers. Following PEC was Chuck Khun, CEO of JK Moving and a champion for conservation. He discussed the pressures being felt by over development in western Loudoun.

I had the honor of delivering the concluding presentation on behalf of the Town of Middleburg. It focused on an innovative approach we developed to solve the data center challenges of the east, while protecting open space in the west.

The solution is to pursue a “transfer of development rights” (TDR) program that would allow landowners in the west to sell, or transfer, their right to build houses on their land to data center developers in the east.

This would achieve a win-win-win for everyone in Loudoun: the preservation of open space and farming land; proper placement of data center development in exclusively industrial locations making more efficient use of land in the east. That would open acreage for key needs, such as affordable housing, government services, and schools, parks, etc.

If done properly by the county, a TDR program as envisioned by the Town of Middleburg has the potential to preserve over 50,000 acres of open space in western Loudoun while using half as much acreage in eastern Loudoun for the remaining data centers left to be built.

I presented our TDR program to the Loudoun County Transportation/Land Use Committee in late May. A positive recommendation from that committee to the Board of Supervisors would allow this effort to move forward in earnest.

For questions on how this program works, see the link below or reach out to me at blittleton@middleburgva.gov. Let the members of the Loudoun Board of Supervisors know of your support for this program.

Details: To view the TDR presentation, go to https://www.loudountogethersummit. com/summit-presentations.