Dear Editor, as a long term resident of Purcellville, I would like to take a moment of your time to share with you why my family and I support the Valley Commerce Center. 

The Valley Commerce Center application is the right place for a much-needed light industrial, flex, and warehouse project that will bring employment and business expansion opportunities.   It will fit in well with the surrounding area that includes industrial parks and commercial establishments.  The project contains specific architectural and landscaping commitments that will provide a high-quality appearance for the buildings and the grounds as viewed from adjacent properties.  Enhanced buffers, reforestation areas, lower building heights, and the significant distance to nearby homes will mitigate the visual impacts of the project.

Support from our Neighbors

It is important to note that the Mayfair neighborhood was approved as part of an industrial park that is located immediately to the south of the homes and the Wright Farm neighborhood has industrial uses located to their east.  No Mayfair residents are immediately adjacent to the site and only a handful of Wright Farm residents are located within sight of the eastern border of the Valley Commerce Center.  The Wright Farm adjacent property owners and other homeowners to the west of Purcellville Road will be offered well monitoring and mitigation per the proffers and many of them will continue to benefit from the substantial tree cover that will remain on the northern section of the project.  Neighbors to the south and southeast of the Valley Commerce Center that will likely be impacted the most have indicated that they support the application.  Care has been given to limit site lighting and to locate the loading and unloading activities away from the adjacent residential areas.  All truck courts will be centrally located behind the proposed buildings to minimize noise intrusion. 

There is Guidance from the Comprehensive Plan to Support the Project

The Loudoun County 2019 General Plan contains policies in Chapter 2, Land Use, that support the development of industrial centers in the Joint Land Management Area (“JLMA”). The Introduction for the Quality Development section states, “Loudoun County’s growth management strategy has comprised an approach that 1) focuses the location and intensity of development in eastern Loudoun and around towns, which maintains the agricultural character, pastoral landscapes, and natural resources of the County’s rural areas…” The Introduction to the Towns and JLMAs section states, “While still influenced by their agricultural tradition, the Towns play a larger economic and cultural role that includes retail and service-based businesses, educational opportunities, medical centers, and industrial centers.” And the Development Approach in the Towns and JLMAs section states, “The Plan continues the Joint Land Management Area (JLMA) Concept, in place since 1991, which intends to accommodate the outward expansion of the Towns, permitting moderate growth at densities and designs suitable to the Towns until the Towns choose to annex property.”

 Prior versions of the County and Town’s long-range plans identified this area as a commercial and industrial corridor and that guidance to support local businesses, while still maintaining the protection of the Rural Policy Area, was overlooked in more recent place type updates within the Plan.   This is not the Rural Policy Area and the JLMA is the appropriate location for this type of development in Western Loudoun. 

Town Council Actions

In July of 2024, the former Town Council voted to move forward with a memorandum of understanding to evaluate the annexation of the property.  That process was not completed and in the fall of 2024 town council and mayoral elections occurred. The current Town council acted to reject the annexation request without fully evaluating the potential benefits to the Town.  Commitments regarding additional well resources to the north and west of Valley Commerce Center could have been included in a water and sewer agreement but the current Town Council chose not to evaluate that possible benefit to the Town’s utility situation when they halted the review in January of 2025.

No Outstanding Transportation Issues

Community comments have been provided to the Board that stated additional traffic on Hirst Road would completely negate the expected benefits of the 7/690 intersection. First, there is no 7/690 “intersection”  and a new interchange is under construction.  This statement, if referring to the interchange, is incorrect for the following reasons:

• The traffic study showed that the amount of traffic anticipated to be shifted off of Hirst Road due to the Route 7/Route 690 interchange is more than what Valley Commerce Center traffic will add to Hirst Road. For example, the section of Hirst Road between Purcellville Road and Berlin Turnpike, showed removal of around 1,900 vehicles per day due to the new interchange. The Valley Commerce Center will add approximately 900 vehicles per day to this section of Hirst Road. Hence, the new interchange will continue to provide benefits in the overall traffic network and specifically to Hirst Road.

• In addition, Valley Commerce Center is proffering a $500,000 contribution for the installation of a signal at the intersection of Hirst Road/Purcellville Road/Hatcher Avenue to further mitigate the site’s traffic on Hirst Road.

The Valley Commerce Center project will provide much needed improvements to the through lanes on Purcellville Road to meet present day VDOT standards and will also provide a separate left turn lane from Purcellville Road to Mayfair Crown Drive. 

The long-term storage use will consist of at least 300,000 square feet or 1/3 of the project.  This will result in minimal truck trips due to infrequent pick up and drop off schedules.  A moving and storage business that likely would generate greater truck traffic is not allowed in the IP zoning district and will not be coming to this location.

Providing a much-needed location for businesses also allows opportunity for Purcellville area residents to work near their homes, reducing commuting traffic on rural roads and not driving long distances to their places of employment. 

Through application submission materials including extensive transportation proffers, email correspondence, and discussions with transportation staff, the applicant has consistently worked with county staff to resolve outstanding transportation issues. The applicant and county staff’s collaboration led to a staff report that that did not identify transportation as an outstanding issue.

Groundwater Protection

There is no impact on the Town of Purcellville wells from the Valley Commerce Center. This was determined by the detailed groundwater testing hydro study that was performed by the applicant that was in compliance with the Loudoun County Facilities Standards Manual and reviewed and approved by a third-party consultant. This conclusion was also confirmed by the Town of Purcellville’s professional Hydrogeologist as presented in an email written subsequent to her review of the hydrogeologic testing data.

The project site receives substantially more groundwater recharge than it will use both during average rainfall years (87,000 gpd) and drought years (52,250 gal/day,  than it will withdraw on a maximum day (40,560 gpd). In addition, the application has proffered to install groundwater recharge cisterns that would collect stormwater from the rooftops. Lastly, much of the water used on site will be returned as groundwater recharge through the centralized wastewater drainfield.

The Vally Commerce proffer commitments included as part of the project require off-site residential well monitoring and onsite well monitoring for a period of 5 years. In addition, the project proffers offer a detailed mitigation protection plan for the off-site owners that includes the drilling of a new residential well if adverse impacts were to ever occur. Valley Commerce has committed to using no irrigation water and has a second independent well on site (a well that is not influenced by the pumping of the main supply well VCC-D) that will serve as an emergency reserve water source if off site impacts were to occur . This project is an example of how the County should approach properly managed water usage and offsite well protection in groundwater dependent areas. 

The water usage is far less than an alternative by-right single-family detached land use using approximately 39 individual wells; which would also use 39 individual septic systems. 

The Valley Commerce Center is a great project and a great step forward for the Purcellville area. Thank you for your support.