Best Small Town Rural Feel in Loudoun/NOVA? (Arlington, Alexandria: cul-de-sac, apartment)

[Hudlander]

I don't care much for the cookie cutter soulless suburbs like Centreville/Chantilly/Ashburn/Sterling/South Riding.

I prefer a more rural setting or if devekooement must occur, there is a true town center like in the Northeast as opposed to strip malls and subdivisions.

I wanted to know, what's the best place is enjoy living in Loudoun or NOVA?
I like being within a major metro market but on the edges where it's got open space, farms, and regular commuters who want a similar setting (NOT people trying to squeeze a 4000 sq foot McMansion into their budget).
I like a friendly area where strangers wave to one another, neighbors help each other out.
Where you can be 20 minutes or so from a service center with the shops/boxes stores.

I feel that is the optimal, you are in a rural residential area with more mom and pop business nearby but conveniences a Saturday morning errand away.

Where can you get this and be assured in 20 years it won't transform into South Riding?


Based on my rough analysis, Lovettesville zip code seems best.
It's 10 miles NE of Leesburg, far enough away over the Catocin mountains to be sparred the urban light pollution.

Purceville....3 miles north or south of town also seems nice.
Middleburg and SW Loudoun are too preppy and rich.
What about Bluemont/Hillsboro/Marshall?
Or Round Hill, again 3 miles away from town?

I don't want to see McMansions or large subdivisions.
I also want a community of average nice people not ignorant people or yuppies.

[rmm0484]

I am afraid that the NOVA style of rampant, thoughtless development will remain a threat, unless the Federal Government relocates to somewhere in Montana. You might find what you are looking for in Central/Western Maryland, or in West Virginia, which is still close in by some standards. Downtown Frederick is very close to farms, etc, but has a small town feel, it is actually quite charming.

[LynchburgLover]

Depends on your budget. If you have a couple million, there are plenty of areas in Western Loudoun that are a few miles from each of those towns.

It's not in Loudoun but you may want to check Berryville in Clarke County. Again, to be "landed gentry", you'll need a chunk of change but there are houses in town that are rather affordable.

Best of luck.

[Bigfoot424]

Originally Posted by Hudlander

I don't care much for the cookie cutter soulless suburbs like Centreville/Chantilly/Ashburn/Sterling/South Riding.

I prefer a more rural setting or if devekooement must occur, there is a true town center like in the Northeast as opposed to strip malls and subdivisions.

I wanted to know, what's the best place is enjoy living in Loudoun or NOVA?
I like being within a major metro market but on the edges where it's got open space, farms, and regular commuters who want a similar setting (NOT people trying to squeeze a 4000 sq foot McMansion into their budget).
I like a friendly area where strangers wave to one another, neighbors help each other out.
Where you can be 20 minutes or so from a service center with the shops/boxes stores.

I feel that is the optimal, you are in a rural residential area with more mom and pop business nearby but conveniences a Saturday morning errand away.

Where can you get this and be assured in 20 years it won't transform into South Riding?


Based on my rough analysis, Lovettesville zip code seems best.
It's 10 miles NE of Leesburg, far enough away over the Catocin mountains to be sparred the urban light pollution.

Purceville....3 miles north or south of town also seems nice.
Middleburg and SW Loudoun are too preppy and rich.
What about Bluemont/Hillsboro/Marshall?
Or Round Hill, again 3 miles away from town?

I don't want to see McMansions or large subdivisions.
I also want a community of average nice people not ignorant people or yuppies.

You've already determined in your closed mind which communities are "yuppie, preppy and rich" so you're pretty limited to West Va.

[spencgr]

Originally Posted by Bigfoot424

You've already determined in your closed mind which communities are "yuppie, preppy and rich" so you're pretty limited to West Va.

My thoughts exactly!

[SteelCityRising]

I moved out of NoVA and back to Pennsylvania primarily because every "Northeastern-like" traditional walkable Main Street-oriented neighborhood was either meteorically out of my price range (i.e. Vienna, Falls Church City, Fairfax, Old Town Alexandria, etc.) or not commutable to my office in Tysons Corner (i.e. Berryville, Winchester, Warrenton, etc.), leaving me to live in one of those sterile, soulless "planned" areas you mentioned in Fairfax County. I found the lack of long-range urban planning in NoVA to be quite abhorrent, but it seems like most people there are content in living in haphazard aesthetically-unappealing suburbs as long as their salaries are high enough to offset their desire to live someplace with character and charm.

I really don't know what to tell you, to be quite honest. I absolutely loved Purcellville so much that I would regularly drive out there to enjoy their farmer's market, engage with friendly strangers, and run on the W&OD Trail from the trailhead, but it has grown by leaps and bounds just since I moved away in 2010 to the point where it's now a cute small town enveloped by hideous vinyl-sided McMansions and townhouses. I never really understood the appeal of Hamilton or Round Hill since neither really has much of a "Downtown", in my opinion, and both are now also surrounded by newer development. Berryville was great and was the first place I hit along the Route 7 corridor that actually felt "Southern" to me, but it is quite a long hike to major employment centers in NoVA and still has quite a few newer McMansions in/around the town center, too.

Warrenton might work, if commuting isn't an issue. Similarly you can check out Culpeper or Winchester.

I think what irked me the most about much of the cookie-cutter newer development in NoVA was that the vast majority of it didn't link up to the original street grids of established neighborhoods. For example, in a town like Purcellville why not extend the existing dead-ends of the old street grid out further and build new streets at right angles to promote density, walkability, and neighborhood cohesion instead of making all new development islands upon themselves with separate entrances and windy cul-de-sacs to promote exclusivity? That's how this country's older cities grew and flourished. Why did the street grid become out of style when it is the most efficient way to plot out new development so you don't have to drive your kids to the ice cream parlor you can see from your house but can't walk to because of the way the new development occurred?

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by rmm0484

I am afraid that the NOVA style of rampant, thoughtless development will remain a threat, unless the Federal Government relocates to somewhere in Montana. You might find what you are looking for in Central/Western Maryland, or in West Virginia, which is still close in by some standards. Downtown Frederick is very close to farms, etc, but has a small town feel, it is actually quite charming.

Why are there no urban growth boundaries in Northern Virginia to restrict newer development closer to the urban core and to preserve precious open space for future generations to enjoy? I'm sure the land South Riding is sited upon looked quite tranquil and was an inviting change from the rat-race closer in to Chantilly/Centreville before it was paved over for McMansions and townhouses. Urban growth boundaries would reward developers for redeveloping existing brownfield and/or underutilized parcels nearer to the Beltway while deterring developers from letting another South Riding, Broadlands, or Gainesville to occur---communities in which 100% of residents MUST drive long distances to access anything worthwhile, creating greater dependency upon fossil fuels and worsening the air quality in the process.

Denser urban infill needs to occur closer to The District before everything west of a line extending from Leesburg down to South Riding and on into Haymarket becomes overrun with cookie-cutter development in the coming years. At what point do people in NoVA decide "that's far enough" when it comes to the outer edges of urban sprawl? Who wants to live in The District and have to drive progressively deeper and deeper into the boonies of VA with each successive year to find open space to relax within? Why would anyone want to live in a place like Haymarket and commute an hour or longer each way to work just to have more unnecessary square footage for their dollar?

If you increase residential supply via increasing density closer to the urban core, then eventually prices will begin to plateau as the greater supply starts to catch up to the demand that formerly outpaced it. Instead of watching in horror as rents in the urban core continue their upward trajectory they'll start to cool off, letting more and more people who don't want to be relegated to places like South Riding, Gainesville, or Haymarket the opportunity to live closer in at a more reasonable price point. Why would anyone willingly move to a new house in Haymarket when they worked in Tysons Corner or Arlington for any other reason than "cheap housing"? We need to add more housing supply closer to the urban core so more people can afford to live closer to work. This will discourage traffic congestion, which will lead to reduced stress levels and reduced air pollution.

[FCNova]

Originally Posted by Hudlander

I also want a community of average nice people not ignorant people or yuppies.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but ignorance is everywhere. Doesn't matter where you go, there's always the chance it will be next door. My experience is the smaller the town the more there is.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by FCNova

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but ignorance is everywhere. Doesn't matter where you go, there's always the chance it will be next door. My experience is the smaller the town the more there is.

I have to agree with this. Even here in Pittsburgh, a city noted for being "down-to-earth" that is proud of its blue-collar roots, there are arrogant/ignorant/pretentious people to be found, especially in certain neighborhoods. There were even snooty, boorish people where I grew up in the impoverished Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area of PA, too. The issue is trying to find a community where their presence is minimized.

To be quite honest I think car-dependent communities in and of themselves feel more "cold" and "sterile" because so many people just wave to one another from their cars and then "that's it" because they're so stressed out from just battling traffic for an hour to get home from work. Where I live now I can walk two miles on my days off to Downtown via a neighborhood that is replete with markets, boutiques, and vendors selling food by the street. That walk puts me in such a positive mood that I can't help but want to be neighborly and friendly when I return. When I used to dance in the Route 7 conga line back-and-forth from North Reston to my office in Tysons Corner at rush-hour each day I used to be so irked by the congestion I'd just run into my apartment, plop onto the couch, and turn on the TV on weekdays. My neighbors did the same. It wasn't a good quality-of-life at all, "good job" or not.

[Deluusions]

Winchester