You may not have been aware of it, but judging by the swift and efficient recommendations of the new all-development-industry review committee appointed by our new all-Republican Board of Supervisors, among the major impediments to making Loudoun more “business friendly” turn out to be the requirement that developers don’t needlessly bulldoze away trees, soil, or irreplaceable archeological sites.
Doing away with those onerous business unfriendly regulations are the first proposed changes the new highly efficient business-friendly Facilities Standards Manual Public Review Committee has come up with. The texts of the proposed new rules were helpfully dictated by completely objective disinterested conflict-free committee member Joe Paciulli, vp of a major Loudoun engineering development firm. (Tossing off the committee any representatives of environmental groups plus any civil engineers who don’t have a direct stake in the development industry certainly has made the job so much easier.)
It’s indeed remarkable how much you can get done when you appoint to all of these boards and committees members of the national lobbying organization for the commercial development industry, representatives of the Northern Virginia Building Industry Association and the Dulles Area Realtors, and sundry engineers and lawyers who represent or work for developers. (One group that has repeatedly featured in appointments and the new Board’s official lists of “stakeholders” in zoning and regulation changes is the Herndon-based NAIOP, the commercial developers lobby. Who knew that a national trade association in fact represents the true interests of the citizens of Loudoun County?)
The supervisors are also planning to axe from the county Building & Development department — in the name of cost-cutting efficiency, of course — the small number of staff positions responsible for overseeing archeological review of development plans.
No doubt as soon as these onerous business-unfriendly regulations are eliminated, commercial investment dollars, like manna from heaven, will begin descending upon our fair county. Just don’t expect to read details about any of these actions in any of the ever so perky “newsletters” and “action reports” our supervisors have been sending out every month.
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