Where Does The Dc Sprawl Stop (Richmond, Reston: house, living in, zoning)

[dayfielder]

Originally Posted by Stephen 81

Out of curiosity, wouldn't it be better from an environmental standpoint to just abandon that cute rural lifestyle and just let the forests regrow? I mean, it's not like western Loudoun's natural state is open fields dotted with cute farmhouses. If we really wanted to preserve things, we would try to maximize density and then let nature reclaim what we took from it.

The above paragraph was (mostly) tongue in cheek, but I really do want to know why people think preserving a rural landscape mostly devoid of forests is such a good idea. It's about as unnatural as tract housing, at least for the East Coast.

It's not environmentally good to have sprawl.
This leads to more traffic, water pollution from fertilizer and emission runoff, and destroys the habitat of nature.

Granted most of the east coast was originally a forest, but in a rural area typically it is a mix of both forest and farms.
There are less people, resources are preserved, and frankly, it's such a disguisting loss to have open countryside changed to townhomes.

[dayfielder]

Originally Posted by jfields

The guy has got a good point. Be careful where you buy because what is a nice little town today may easily be suburban sprawl 15 years from now. Just so you see what I'm talking about, when my family moved to Nova in 1986, pretty much everything west of Dulles Airport was small towns. Now there are several suburbs west of Dulles Airport: Sterling, Sterling Park, Ashburn. South Riding Brambleton.

Lenah/Gilberts Corner and points west are and will remain rural.
We're not going to let W. Loudon or Fauquier become E Loudon.

[jfields]

Originally Posted by ScranBarre

...West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio....

Seriously, I could see the suburbs sprawling all the way out to places like Charlestown and Harpers Ferry W. VA within like 10-15 years if they keep expanding the way they have for the last 10-15 years.

[dayfielder]

I can't see how Winchester and Stephens City are part of the DC sprawl.
They're 85 miles away in the Shendoah Valley...past the blue ridge moutains and back country.

[lchoro]

We have commuter sprawl out to West Virginia. People take the MARC into downtown from Martinsburg/Shepherdstown or drive into work in Arlington, Tysons Corner, Ashburn, and Fairfax/Chantilly. Move the urban centers out to Tysons Corner, to Herndon/Reston, and to Chantilly/Dulles, and the commutes from West Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley will drop to 1 hour. The other sprawl relates to active retirement communities. I would expect that they'll build many of these out in the Shenandoah Valley and West Virginia because of 2-hour proximity to the DC metro area, cheaper land, cheap labor, and medical centers in Charlottesville, Winchester, etc.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by lchoro

We have commuter sprawl out to West Virginia. People take the MARC into downtown from Martinsburg/Shepherdstown or drive into work in Arlington, Tysons Corner, Ashburn, and Fairfax/Chantilly. Move the urban centers out to Tysons Corner, to Herndon/Reston, and to Chantilly/Dulles, and the commutes from West Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley will drop to 1 hour. The other sprawl relates to active retirement communities. I would expect that they'll build many of these out in the Shenandoah Valley and West Virginia because of 2-hour proximity to the DC metro area, cheaper land, cheap labor, and medical centers in Charlottesville, Winchester, etc.

My fear is that with the insane growth occurring in and around Leesburg you'll soon start to have major employers setting up shop there as well. As soon as that happens you'll see Hamilton, Purcellville, Round Hill, Hillsboro, Lovettsville, Oatlands, and Lucketts (as well as more of the WV Panhandle) overrun with low-density housing developments. Northwestern Loudoun County will lose all of its rural charm and become as tacky-looking as Eastern Loudoun County and Fairfax County. Hell, it's only like what--40 minutes from Leesburg to Berryville and an hour to Winchester, right? Clarke County would be overrun as well.

[mwruckman]

There is a cure for DC suburban spwarl . It is $200 a barrel crude oil and $5-7 a gallon gas. This will erase the benefit of the cheaper cost of housing and when it craters the economy and their jobs go away they won't worry about having a nice big house on the edge of the DC exurbs.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by mwruckman

There is a cure for DC suburban spwarl . It is $200 a barrel crude oil and $5-7 a gallon gas. This will erase the benefit of the cheaper cost of housing and when it craters the economy and their jobs go away they won't worry about having a nice big house on the edge of the DC exurbs.

People are fickle though. When gas prices hit $4/gallon not long ago everyone was whining and rushing to sell their large SUVs for hybrids. Now that gas is $2.60/gallon I'm surrounded on my commutes by these monstrosities like Hummers, Range Rovers, Yukon Denalis, Suburbans, Excursions, Escalades, Navigators, etc. You'd THINK people down here would be educated and intelligent enough to realize that in a few years gas prices are likely to spike AGAIN (probably to $5/gallon), leading them to the same woes they were in earlier, but I suppose not everyone likes to think ahead too far.

[clintsullivan]

Originally Posted by ScranBarre

My fear is that with the insane growth occurring in and around Leesburg you'll soon start to have major employers setting up shop there as well. As soon as that happens you'll see Hamilton, Purcellville, Round Hill, Hillsboro, Lovettsville, Oatlands, and Lucketts (as well as more of the WV Panhandle) overrun with low-density housing developments. Northwestern Loudoun County will lose all of its rural charm and become as tacky-looking as Eastern Loudoun County and Fairfax County. Hell, it's only like what--40 minutes from Leesburg to Berryville and an hour to Winchester, right? Clarke County would be overrun as well.

Where have you been for the last 5 years? It's here!

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by clintsullivan

Where have you been for the last 5 years? It's here!

Not in my book. There are some low-density sprawling housing developments here and there around Purcellville and Hamilton, but except for Lovettsville none of the towns of NW Loudoun County have lost the rural atmosphere they once had. They will though the instant a few major employers announce they are setting up shop in/near Leesburg. As of right now most people who live in Leesburg work in Reston/Herndon or Tyson's Corner. If people could WORK in Leesburg, then all of those places I listed above will be sold out to developers galore.