In 2004 a rezoning application for a mixed used development, The Village at Leesburg, with Wegmans as an anchor tenant, was presented to the Town of Leesburg. After another year, in November of 2005, the rezoning was approved. This summer, almost two years later, grading finally began for the project. But unbelievably the site plan for the project has still not been approved. Will Wegmans be patient, or will they find another site that can be approved more efficiently? Think One Loudoun.A loss of Wegmans would be a loss for Leesburg. I remember another very similar project that like The Village of Leesburg that was compelled to build a very expensive grade-separated flyover interchange. The project was forced to file for bankruptcy. It was then was taken over by the lender. Eventually the development was completed after millions had been lost by all parties. The project was Cascades.
We can blame the Town planning department for this delay but there is a higher authority to which the planners report - the Town Council. The Town Council is led by the Mayor who has great influence. For years she was a member of the Planning Commission.
Mayor Kristen Umstattd and her close allies, Kelly Burk and Marty Martinez, tend to vote in lock-step and believe Leesburg is just the downtown Historic District. To this group Economic Development means brick sidewalks, way finding signs, and traffic calming medians filled with weeds. (Drive into Leesburg via South King Street to see this “garden” of weeds.)This Wegmans mess is only one example of the difficulty of doing business in Leesburg, opportunities lost, revenues lost and unnecessary expenditures. It is systemic of our Town government. Stay tuned as I will be writing about other perhaps more dramatic examples.
3 comments:
That "flyover" in Leesburg connects Rt. 7 to the Rt. 15 bypass (that's the only flyover I know of) and it was desperately needed. If a developer got stuck paying for it, then GOOD! Previous Town Councils approved everything developers stuck in front of them and the traffic in Leesburg rivals anything in Tysons these days. Developers need to cough it up or move out! As for the Wegmans, the issue revolves around the developer of the entire property (not Wegmans) - you know, the one who wants to stick a huge shopping center and a few hundred homes with only one exit onto Rt. 7? Yeah, the Town Council forced them to redo the whole intersection and upgrade the appearance of the stores so we don't have another Leesburg Plaza eyesore. Most citizens applaud the Town Council forcing developers to contribute to roads they will be clogging with their "luxury" townhomes and strip malls, and making them spend a bit more on beautification. If Wegmans doesn't like it, so what. We have other grocery stores in town.
Ah, what a difference from "business as usual", abiding by the Town's policies and the developer's proffers. Gee, do you think Supervisor Clem might get the County to do that one day?
Yeah, if Bob Kettler let Wegman's slip through his fingers because of his dilly dallying on the interchange, we might have ONE less grocery market to shop at....what a catastrophe! hmm, hurricanes, blight, drought, hmm.
Hey, love to stay tuned, but do get some "more dramatic examples."
I am one of the anxious consumers waiting for Wegman's to come to LEESBURG. It will be a HUGE loss if this town does not drag it in by any means possible. It is not just another grocery store by any stretch of the imagination! People travel out of their way to get to it. This store would be icing on the cake for Leesburg. We need it.
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