Still marveling over the new policy enunciated the other week by our developer-controlled all-Republican (but I repeat myself) Loudoun Board of Supervisors: to wit, that it is now the taxpayers’ job to save land speculators and developers from the financial consequences of their own stupid business decisions.
In addition to approving 100 new homes on what had been a commercially zoned property in the “University Center” area in Ashburn, the Board also gave megadeveloper Toll Brothers a similar fat gift by flipping one of their commercially zoned properties to high-density residential in the “Avonlea Reserve,” adding another 100 new homes.
The cost to the taxpayers of these moves? According to the standard formula used by the public schools to calculate how much the steady-state student population increases with each new home built in the county, it will mean $760,000 a year — that’s forever into the future — in increased school costs, plus $5.6 million in new school construction costs.
The rationale the Board gave for their generosity Continue reading