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High school plan goes to Va. Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of Virginia will decide whether, and perhaps when, a high school will be built on the Fields Farm just north of Purcellville.
Negotiations between the Town of Purcellville and the county Board of Supervisors fell apart sometime between May 20, when the town scheduled a council meeting to discuss the county's response to its latest offer to settle disputes over use of the Fields Farm, and May 27, when the town canceled the meeting.
The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments June 3 in five separate cases involving Circuit Court Judge Thomas D. Horne's rulings on the Purcellville Urban Growth Area Management Plan (PUGMAP) and the county's plan to build a high school on the Fields Farm. Horne ruled that the town and county must cooperate on land-use decisions in the Joint Land Management Area, but that the high school can go ahead without permission from the town's Planning Commission.
The settlement offered to Supervisors Chairman Scott York (I-at large) May 19 was not the latest, but the last, said Purcellville Mayor Bob Lazaro.
York questioned the town's "coming back to us through the press and not coming back to us with a counter offer."
"There will be no counter," Lazaro said. "They didn't respond appropriately. They rejected our offer and that's it."
No agreement is possible, Lazaro said, that doesn't guarantee the town full partnership in land-use decisions in the town's Joint Land Management Area. The county's response, he said, falls far short of that.
Council member Tom Priscilla said the town's major concession was its agreement – a major concession, Priscilla said -- to the construction of a high school on the Fields Farm.
Many town residents want to see the school built, Lazaro said. But they also want the town's future protected, and the PUGAMP does that.
As for the high school, said Priscilla, the town has done its best to help that happen. "When [the county] loses at the Supreme Court, you'll have to ask them about the next [school] site."
In exchange for that concession, Priscilla said, the county should commit to give all water resources on the Fields Farm to the town, and to give the town land on the Fields Farm to construct a water tower and a water treatment plant.
The county, in its counter, committed to dedicating sites on the Fields Farm to the town for developing wells and water treatment, but only after the town has started supplying water and sewer service. The county did not offer to pay to build those facilities.
The town's settlement offer flatly rejects any use of on-site sewage disposal for the school. The county is willing to annex the Fields Farm into the town, and to hook the school up to town utilities. But it retains the right to go ahead with an on-site system.
York said that clause simply faces the reality that a school is needed. "We would like to be on [town] water and sewer, but if they take their time and drag out the process, there is a point in time the school has to go forward either on public utilities or with on-site water and waste water."
The county's comprehensive plan, Priscilla said, puts public facilities in or near the towns, where they can hook up to public utilities. That won't work, Priscilla said, unless the county pays its fair share of the development needed for those new schools and public facilities.
The county's counter included some support for transportation projects, but not everything the town had asked for, including a full partnership for improvements along Main Street. Nor would the county commit to using its condemnation powers to acquire the right of way needed to complete the Southern Collector Road.
A majority of the Board of Supervisors, which met in executive session May 19 to consider the settlement, did not want to use condemnation, York said.
The Supreme Court's ruling should be issued in September, York said. "If it goes in our favor, as we expect, construction on the high school will start in October."
Contact the reporter at ssollinger@timespapers.com
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