Proposed Bypass Threatens 250-Year-Old Family Farm in Loudoun Co., Va.

Andrew Jenner
Virginia Correspondent

PURCELLVILLE, Va. — Rooflines peak above the trees encircling Crooked Run Orchard. A row of townhouses sits just beyond the wood fence on the east edge of the peaches. On the north side of Main Street, opposite the entrance to the farm, which has been in the Brown family for 250 years, a billboard proclaims the coming of Purcellville Gateway — a bank, a restaurant and a grocery store gathered around yet another Loudoun County parking lot.

Of greatest concern, though, to Sam and Uta Brown, who run the 102-acre farm, is Purcellville’s proposed “Southern Collector Road” that would divide their farm in half and pave the way, literally, for even more construction and bustle on the eastern edge of Purcellville.

“We just don’t need more development,” says Sam Brown, walking along the dirt lane toward the back pumpkin patch. “We don’t want the road. We don’t think it’s needed.”

The planned road, which has already been built right up to Browns’ property line, would cross a small, narrow section of their farm but would separate a 45-acre tract from the rest of the orchard.

The Browns sell the majority of their fruit —apples, peaches, cherries, plums, pears, pumpkins and more — to pick-your-own customers, about 20,000 of whom visit the orchard each year, they say. The couple worries about how visitors to the farm will cross the road to reach fields on the far side, how Sam will get his tractor and spraying equipment across the road, and whether a new public right-of-way through their orchard will encourage theft.

They don’t understand why the town of Purcellville would do anything to harm a business that attracts so many visitors and adds so much charm. And in any case, they’re determined that the road will never be built.

“It isn’t going to happen,” said Uta Brown. “We’re going to fight them tooth and nail.”

Bob Lazaro, Purcellville’s mayor, is equally adamant.

“The Southern Collector Road will be built to help relieve… traffic on Main Street,” he said, emphasizing “will.”

The road, Lazaro said, has been planned for 30 years, and will be critical to mitigating the traffic impact of significant population growth in and around Purcellville (Loudoun County as a whole has grown by nearly 250,000 residents — or 500 percent — over that 30-year period). Lazaro also said the town has made repeated efforts to work with the Browns to address the concerns about crossing the road. According to the project website, right of way acquisition for the remainder of the road will begin next year and construction will start in 2011, pending funding availability.

The Browns and their supporters say the town has not made any effort to address their concerns, and that the road will make traffic worse, not better.

“They are building a road for developers,” says Kelli Grimm, who’s helped form Friends and Neighbors of Crooked Run Orchard to fight the proposed road project.

Grimm said the project amounts to a tit-for-tat deal between politicians and developers that will do little to relieve traffic congestion and do a lot to encourage new construction near the Browns’ orchard. Various proposed commercial developments totaling more than 175,000 square feet of new buildings are planned for the area around the new road, according to a flyer she made.

“It’s a shame they try to make it political,” Lazaro said. He also pointed out that Sam’s brother, Tim, is the majority owner of the parcel through which the town proposes to build the road and is willing to work with the town on the project.

Sam and Uta Brown, however, are preparing for a legal battle in anticipation that the town will attempt to condemn a portion of the farm to build the road.

“I think it’s premature to talk about [condemnation]” Lazaro said. “I think reasonable people could come to an agreement that would help them and help the town.”

Jim Burton, a county supervisor whose district includes Purcellville, opposes the road’s construction because he thinks the road, and subsequent development, will worsen traffic in and around town, and because of the road’s detrimental impact to Crooked Run Orchard. Burton also said the county board of supervisors is in unanimous agreement that a recent vote by the town to annex the part of the farm where the road will go — a precursor to condemnation, Burton said — violates previous agreements between the town and county regarding Purcellville’s growth, and has set the stage for a showdown between the two localities.

“We’ve got a real dispute going on here,” Burton said. “It’s unfortunate that the Browns are caught right in the middle of it”