So Is Loudoun County Pretty Much Ruined? (Arlington, Centreville: condo, how much)

[FindingZen]

Originally Posted by Hudlander

It's a fact, the sprawling NOVA region has imported a lot of minorities and liberals.
So why is it the fastest growing US County, has now voted ALL conservative?
Why did the BOS go to 9 republicans?

And yes, Lovettsville, Loudoun, have been ruined. This used to a pretty, rural county. Rolling hills, bright stars and constellations at night.
Now, RT 287 is dotted with awful, out of place McMansions.
Braddock Road has been paved, Ticondaroga Road, has been transformed a nice artifact of when NOVA was alright, into pretty much Franklin Farms.

Given the resilient, often expanding global job market in the region, even in Loudoun County itself, it would seem inevitable that sprawl would make it there. Then again, to my semi-urban non-native sensibilities at least, things look pretty darn rural to me not far west of Leesburg. As it is, it seems minimum housing lot rules have saved the western half of the county, albeit to the chagrin of households leapfrogging over to West Virginia for more affordable homes.

But again, as a non-native I am not familiar with what Loudoun County looked like 10, 20 or more years ago. I respect the fact that you may long for that period of time.

[saganista]

Originally Posted by Tone509

But again, as a non-native I am not familiar with what Loudoun County looked like 10, 20 or more years ago.

It looked like what western Fairfax County looked like 30 or 40 years ago. And the hermits and old-timers in those parts howled just as loudly when the developers took them over. Same old story, just moved out a few miles.

[Craziaskowboi]

Originally Posted by Hudlander

So Is Loudoun County Pretty Much Ruined?

Yep, and it's all YOUR fault!

[SPHokie]

Originally Posted by saganista

It looked like what western Fairfax County looked like 30 or 40 years ago. And the hermits and old-timers in those parts howled just as loudly when the developers took them over. Same old story, just moved out a few miles.

Exactly what I was thinking. I grew up in Fairfax Country and remember what it looked like in the mid-80's. Its barely recognizable today.

Rural countryside and rolling hills don't last forever and that has nothing to do with politics.

I suggest people looking to avoid the inevitable sprawl should probably move out to Montana, the Dakotas, or Alaska. Those will be some of the last places to be "ruined".

[stpickrell]

Originally Posted by globalburgh

I think we will see more diverse interests represented on a one-party BOS. A common enemy often makes for strange bedfellows.

IIRC, the 2003-2007 Board began to splinter quickly enough as it became clear folks didn't like what they perceived as runaway development.

[brooklynborndad]

Originally Posted by SPHokie

Exactly what I was thinking. I grew up in Fairfax Country and remember what it looked like in the mid-80's. Its barely recognizable today.

Rural countryside and rolling hills don't last forever and that has nothing to do with politics.

I suggest people looking to avoid the inevitable sprawl should probably move out to Montana, the Dakotas, or Alaska. Those will be some of the last places to be "ruined".

Nothing is inevitable. We have great scope to choose our futures.

[saganista]

Originally Posted by SPHokie

I suggest people looking to avoid the inevitable sprawl should probably move out to Montana, the Dakotas, or Alaska. Those will be some of the last places to be "ruined".

Exactly. When I was in grade school, US population was expected to double within my lifetime. Where would all these new people live? Well, some would live in dense areas that became larger and even more dense, but huge numbers would want sprawl -- a piece of which has been the American Dream since at least the days of forty acres and a mule. Those folks would force a spread outward onto the undeveloped perimeters of metropolitan areas, gobbling up farms, forests, orchards, stream valleys -- whatever lay in its path. First it was "outside the Beltway". (There were still cows, goats and chickens all over Vienna into the 1980's), then it was the so-called Western County. Now it's pushing into Loudoun and out past Gainesville to Warrenton. People think it will stop. It won't.

[brooklynborndad]

40 acres and a mule was a desire for a way to make a living. The forty acres werent for lawn grass.

We enabled that change by a host of policies, from how we built our transportation networks, to how we financed other infrastructure, to how we zoned and established building codes (in some cases making more traditional urban/small town styles of development impossible) to how we financed housing (mortgage qualification rules that look at income/housing cost ratios but neglect other location specific costs, like transportation). (whether it was politically feasible to have different policies in that era, is a question for alternative history, not for this forum)

Today of course, in the northern part of Northern virginia, where there is a particularly strong employment center (itself the result of conscious past decisions about airport location), we are seeing that growth continue. In a great many other parts of the country, we see empty houses on the metropolitan fringe. Even here in greater DC, we see strains on suburban jurisdictions located less favorably relative to employment concentrations.

A thread on the economic futures of PWC, Fauquier couty, Stafford county, etc would be interesting.

[JD984]

Originally Posted by brooklynborndad

40 acres and a mule was a desire for a way to make a living. The forty acres werent for lawn grass.

We enabled that change by a host of policies, from how we built our transportation networks, to how we financed other infrastructure, to how we zoned and established building codes (in some cases making more traditional urban/small town styles of development impossible) to how we financed housing (mortgage qualification rules that look at income/housing cost ratios but neglect other location specific costs, like transportation). (whether it was politically feasible to have different policies in that era, is a question for alternative history, not for this forum)

Today of course, in the northern part of Northern virginia, where there is a particularly strong employment center (itself the result of conscious past decisions about airport location), we are seeing that growth continue. In a great many other parts of the country, we see empty houses on the metropolitan fringe. Even here in greater DC, we see strains on suburban jurisdictions located less favorably relative to employment concentrations.

A thread on the economic futures of PWC, Fauquier couty, Stafford county, etc would be interesting.

The poverty rate in PWC and Stafford in 2010 was considerably lower than in Arlington or Montgomery Counties, not to mention DC (with its 19.2% poverty rate, the highest of any area jurisdiction).

The largest growing populations in NoVa are Asians and Hispanics. An equally interesting topic might be what their housing preferences are. From what I can observe anecdotally, many of them very much like traditional SFHs in Fairfax and Loudoun; certainly you don't see Asians with families pouring into the multi-family units in Arlington and DC like the childless white yuppies (though much of this is surely due to where their high, value-added jobs are located).

[brooklynborndad]

Originally Posted by JEB77

certainly you don't see Asians with families pouring into the multi-family units in Arlington and DC like the childless white yuppies (though much of this is surely due to where their high, value-added jobs are located).

I have seen asians in those neighborhoods - they appear to be young, college educated asian americans, no different (in regard to their locational preference) from their white counterparts. AFAICT most yuppie families who move into such areas seek out townhouses. I confess to not knowing if there are any such asian families in townhouses in those sorts of areas.