Full narrative of above pictured Memo:
I am writing to advise you of recent actions taken by the Purcellville Town Council regarding the Route 7/690 Interchange as well as the Fields Farm Park and adjacent Park and Ride Lot.
I have attached a letter from Purcellville Town Manager David Mekarski on the proposed Route 7/690 Interchange that provides the specific actions of Town Council related to the proposed vacation of a floodplain easement. The release of the floodplain easement is a necessary step to allow acquisition of land rights, permitting, and construction for the project to proceed. The Town’s vacation of the easement is one of the final steps needed to secure necessary approvals by the Virginia Department of Transportation (“VDOT”). After the easement is vacated, the Town staff will be able to finalize the plats and deeds necessary for final permitting.
Please keep in mind that the initial applications for the plats, deeds, and related documents were submitted to the Town beginning in August 2020. As staff has previously reported, the amount of time taken by the Town to process the County’s applications has been unusually lengthy and significantly beyond processing times by local governments in our region.
Related to the processing of Town approvals is the County’s timing and performance on the project with respect to grant funds provided by VDOT through the Commonwealth’s Smart Scale grant program. The County is behind schedule with this project, largely due to the extensive review periods by the Town of necessary applications, many of which are ministerial and do not require Town Council approval. The staff and I notified the Board this fall, beginning in September of the critical need for the Town to process our applications in a timely manner in order for the County to remain compliant with our Smart Scale grants. The Town Manager and the Town Council were made aware of the time constraints in the same time period. As you may recall, the general timing the staff and I provided at that time was a need to have the Town approvals around the end of calendar year 2022.
The actions taken by the Town Council, in the opinion of the staff and me, are unusual and are likely to add anywhere from 3 months to a year in additional process (as well as an undefined and additional amount in County taxpayer funds), none of which is codified nor printed within the Town’s land development rules and regulations. Some of the actions, such as requirements for two-thirds of property owners in an adjacent Homeowners Association to approve the sale of specific easements and land for the project, may never happen, and are likely to take several months as well as additional project costs to obtain if it does happen. Other requirements, such as review and agreement by the Town of the interchange design as a requirement for the release of the floodplain easement, as well as a review of the design by the Town Planning Commission, are unusual and appear to be an attempt at regulatory overreach, particularly since the interchange design has been approved by Loudoun County Building and Development, whose process included referrals and reviews by both VDOT and the Town, and both confirmed all comments were addressed. The Town does not have regulatory authority over the project, has no funding in the project, and does not have any maintenance or other ongoing responsibilities with respect to the interchange project. Once constructed by the County, the interchange would belong to VDOT, who would maintain it, and it is VDOT who controls the design of the interchange. Further, the wording of the letter is imprecise, making it challenging at best to determine what is needed to gain Town agreement to release the floodplain easement.
The Town’s floodplain easement covers a portion of the eastbound Route 7 exit ramp onto Route 690 and consists of approximately 7,000 square feet in total. As it relates to the project, since the exit ramp will become a part of the VDOT highway system, VDOT requires all easements to be extinguished. The construction of the interchange will also modify the floodplain and the environmental requirements of the project require the County and VDOT to ensure that sufficient drainage systems are constructed as part of the project so that adjacent properties are not impacted negatively by its construction. The project has completed this portion of the engineering and permit review and all regulatory agencies that review the floodplain and stormwater impacts have approved the design and engineering, including the Town, for the limited floodplain review that belongs to them. There is no regulatory reason for the Town to continue to hold the floodplain easement as the project changes the floodplain at that specific location (it becomes a travel lane for the exit ramp) and the additional requirements that the Town has placed on the release of the floodplain easement are not regulatory in nature.
The staff and I will continue to review our options and plan on returning to the January Finance Government Operations and Economic Development Committee (“FGOEDC”) meeting. Should the Town continue to desire to follow this path, the staff and I are likely to recommend that one of two actions occur: 1) the project be removed from the CIP and Smart Scale funds be returned, meaning an indefinite delay to the project which would also involve all work on the project ending. The staff would return to the project sometime in the next 5 to 10 years or later when alternate funding can be made available. Please keep in mind that construction inflation averages about 7% per year, so it is unclear when funds may be available for the project to proceed in the future; or, 2) If the staff and I can develop a reasonable alternative that would allow the project to maintain a timely schedule, we may recommend pursuing a yet unidentified alternative. We recognize that the project is very important to western Loudoun, so we will do what we can to try and identify a reasonable alternative to the Town’s current position.
The second set of projects within the Town are the Fields Farm Park and adjacent Park and Ride Lot. After directing a series of changes to the Fields Farm Park, such as relocating the road through the park, eliminating a soccer field and placing a playground and pickleball courts in its place, and other minor changes, the Town Council removed the project from the scheduled Public Hearing on December 13th and remanded the project back to the Town Planning Commission. Minor changes were also made to the Park and Ride Lot as well. The Planning Commission was directed to review the changes to the Park and to the Park and Ride Lot, asked to determine if any additional mitigation measures are needed, and directed to hold a Planning Commission Public Hearing no later than the end of January. Following, the two projects would return to the Town Council for Public Hearing and final action by the end of February 2023.
While these actions by the Town Council were unexpected, if final action is taken by the Town Council by the end of February, staff is optimistic that we may be able to maintain our schedule for the Smart Scale grant for the Park and Ride Lot. If final approval cannot be accomplished by the end of February, or if the Town continues to modify the project, staff may return to the FGOEDC and the Board and recommend that these projects also be delayed indefinitely and the Smart Scale funds returned.
The changes requested by the Town to Fields Farm Park and the Park and Ride projects are mostly reasonable and staff can recommend these changes to the Board. However, the potential elimination of the Route 7/690 Interchange project could delay these projects, as well as the Route 7/287 Interchange improvements as the traffic impact studies all assumed that the Route 7/690 Interchange was going to be constructed. Furthermore, the effective operation of the Park and Ride lot would be significantly impacted by the elimination of the 7/690 project and could trigger a rescoring of its Smart Scale application.
The recent actions by the Town make the construction of the Route 7/690 interchange unlikely (absent a yet identified alternative), which means that these projects will need to be designed under the assumption that the interchange will not be constructed. This change has impacts to these other projects and will need to be reflected in revised traffic impact studies. While we believe we may be able to modify these studies for Fields Farm Park and the Park and Ride projects in time to meet the Town’s revised schedule, it is likely that a more comprehensive updated analysis would be necessary for the 7/287 interchange project. The staff and I felt it important to mention that the Route 7/690 change could impact timing for delivery of these three projects, to varying extents.
As noted in the above paragraph, the Route 7/287 Interchange improvements were modeled with the assumption that the Route 7/690 Interchange would be constructed. While VDOT has not yet advised the County of any potential design impacts, staff believes it likely that we may need to revise the traffic model of these interchange improvements to determine the impacts of Route 7/690 not being constructed. If additional changes are needed, these changes could delay the Route7/287 interchange improvements as well.
The staff and I will provide an update at the January FGOEDC Meeting on all three of these projects. Should you have any questions in the interim, please contact me.