Loudoun County is one of the most desirable places to live in Northern Virginia. Proximity to the Capital, great schools, and attractive homes… Loudoun has it all. What it might not have in the next 25 years, however, is enough of those attractive homes for the influx of new residents entering the county. According to the Washington Business Journal, “[a] new report from George Mason University's Center for Regional Analysis, prepared in partnership with Lisa Sturtevant & Associates, predicts a housing shortage approaching 20,000 units for Loudoun County over the next 25 years.” Loudoun is among the United States’ fastest-growing areas, and it seems the housing supply just can’t keep up with demand.
The Loudoun County Needs Assessment Report 2015-2040, which is due to be discussed by the Board of Supervisors this week, determined that Loudoun will have a need for 66,604 new housing units to accommodate some 66,355 new households between now and the year 2040. This is based off projected growth of Loudoun County over the next 25 years. The catch, however, is that Loudoun is only planning on adding 48,910 new homes within that same time frame. The Needs Assessment Report projects a shortage of 18,300 housing units “between unconstrained demand and what can be accommodated under the county’s current plans.”
Some say that the county board takes too restrictive an approach to adding new homes. They insist that they are only cautious about the development of new neighborhoods. The current land use policy “drastically limits residential development in the busy Route 28 and Route 7 corridors and the board generally views new home construction as a burden on taxpayers, among other issues,” says the Business Journal. The most recent example of this mindset in action was the recommendation that there be no residential development along Route 606, the Loudoun Gateway, ostensibly because of its overlap with the Dulles Airport Noise Overlay.
The Business Journal points to a 2011 report from Loudoun's Economic Development Commission as the bugaboo behind Loudoun County’s seeming resistance to build new single-family homes. The report found that the county had to spend 62 cents on residential services for every dollar in tax revenue that was generated. Supervisor Ron Meyer, R-Broad Run, apparently confirmed this fact even as he denied that the board was “anti-residential.” “The issue here is the localities bear the burden or the cost of growth, of education, of infrastructure. … That put a lot of pressure on the budget,” Meyer said.
The Report showed especial growth in the sectors of residents under the age of 35 and those over the age of 65.
