Sell me on the suburbs- willowsford/ashburn

[Btingle76]

Also does anyone know about the ymca enrichment programs that are offered in the buffalo trail school?

[NC211]

Originally Posted by cdmurphy

Yes, the school board withdrew their purchase offer to avoid a lawsuit from homeowners in The Grant. The last I heard from our school board rep, they didn't have an alternative yet for ES-31 but they really wanted to have something locked in before the boundary process for Madison's Trust ES starts this September. (Madison's Trust, formerly known as ES-27, opens in Fall 2016.) They don't want to move kids twice but it may be inevitable without a plan for ES-31 (scheduled to open in Fall 2018). What they really need is a parcel to magically open up somewhere between Brambleton and the Greenway, because Moorefield Station ES and Rosa Lee Carter ES are also both overcrowded (though not as overcrowded as Creighton's Corner ES, where Willowsford north of Route 50 is zoned, and Legacy ES).

One note: since my earlier post in this thread from February 2014, the Brambleton rezoning was approved, so now the sites for MS-9 (name still TBD after the John Ryan/Mathias Giordano naming fiasco) and HS-11 are locked in and kids in the Grant and Grange villages of Willowsford will almost certainly end up at those schools once they are open (MS-9 opens in Fall 2017; HS-11 opens in Fall 2020). On this map, the leftmost number 10 is MS-9/HS-11; the rightmost number 10 is Madison's Trust ES. The entrance to The Grant is on the west side of Evergreen Mills Rd. north of Hanson Park; the entrance to The Grange is on the west side of Evergreen Mills Rd. south of Hanson Park.

I'm curious what ever happened to the eminent domain claim on the parcel at Belmont Ridge and Croson from approximately two years ago for an ES? It was all the talk back then, but now a developer has it for yet even more town homes. How'd the county let it slip through their fingers like that? They had it in their grasps.

All of these town home projects, and not enough schools. Why are they making these ever so obvious mistakes on the proper balance between occupancy and support services?

To be perfectly honest with you, we've started looking else where to move partially because of this fiasco. We'll stay in Loudoun, but to a more established area for schools and less construction. Looking towards Lansdowne on the Potomac at the moment. I know it too is about to go through some changes, but at least we'd be out of (some) this construction mess that keeps swamping everything. I heard there are going to be over 1,000 kids at M/Station ES this year. A friggin' 1,000 kids!! And, may I add, the ingress/egress of that school is so poor, it's absolutely dangerous and a threat to life/safety services if an emergency were to occur. Thanks entirely to the county for not finishing up the connection points of the two roads (maybe 1,500 feet of roadway).

If you ask me, somebody needs to get fired over this garbage. There should be no excuse for this, given the cost of real estate here. True, it's a bargain compared to several other areas closer to DC, but we're not exactly slumming it here. Just feels like things are being managed with a reactionary stance instead of a proactive vision to understand the basic needs. Honestly, I think it's only a matter of time before lawsuits begin to fly over some of this stuff.

[mdcrim]

Ashburn is getting so big. They keep expanding and backfilling with no infrastructure. It's a mess...

[cdmurphy]

Originally Posted by Btingle76

Where can I find all the new school info? Is there a website I can follow to stay current on all of the updates and announcements?

The LCPS Planning Department is where you will find official information - including the annual CIP, future school sites, attendance boundaries under review, etc.

Originally Posted by Btingle76

Does anyone know if buffalo trail is overcrowded for kindergarten?

I don't see anything about it on their home page, which is where it is usually posted. See the Creighton's Corner ES page for an example. The text reads:
Creighton's Corner ES has reached the
maximum class sizes (we are now in overflow status)
at the following grade levels:
Kindergarten and Grades 1, 2, 3 and 4

Originally Posted by NC211

I'm curious what ever happened to the eminent domain claim on the parcel at Belmont Ridge and Croson from approximately two years ago for an ES? It was all the talk back then, but now a developer has it for yet even more town homes. How'd the county let it slip through their fingers like that? They had it in their grasps.

I think the public opinion was very much in favor of the landowner not getting ripped off by LCPS. Plus, that location didn't fit in with the current board's ideal of using Ryan Road as a north/south divider for a Briar Woods cluster.

Originally Posted by NC211

I heard there are going to be over 1,000 kids at M/Station ES this year. A friggin' 1,000 kids!!

It is upsetting that the planned community which proffered the land for MSES hasn't even started building homes yet, but the school is already overcrowded. These are the attendance numbers for the four schools that serve Brambleton and Loudoun Valley/Estates and the neighborhoods around them:



The September 30 numbers, as previously mentioned, are the "official" numbers used for planning. I pulled numbers again in April, and then again, on a hunch, in May. (I did check again when school let out in June, and the numbers hadn't changed since May.) You can see how many kids were added over the year, and even just in the period between April 22 and May 12. All four schools were well over 1000 students by the end of the year, and all have capacities in the 900s. That is a lot of extra kids to shove into those schools. Legacy has been very impressive, and frankly it comes down to an excellent administration, faculty, and staff - but imagine how much more awesome it could be if resources weren't stretched so thinly.

[NC211]

Thanks for posting these facts, CD! Very insightful! Honestly speaking here, I don't think I have ever seen a development setup like LoCo do such a poor job of delivering public services (schools) like I have seen here in LoCo, and I've lived in a lot of places in my life. Why on earth (I know how though) can there be so much open space to put a school, and they're not being built? There has been billions of dollars poured in to eastern loudoun county by residential developers over the past 10 years. Yet, schools are busting at the seams. There are public statements made within the past year from officials suggesting the proffers are full (as a tactic to prevent a builder from trying to essentially buy their permits), yet MSES had to do a charity fund raise for a basic playground. I'm telling you (and anyone else who'll listen), something about this just doesn't add up correctly. Something isn't balancing here. It just doesn't make sense.

Those who are calling the shots on how this area unfolds for the COUNTY, need to get a backbone and stand up to these residential developers who are essentially walking out of the county with 100's of millions of dollars of profit while not really contributing to the longer term health of the area. Someone needs to MAKE it a requirement for all developers who want to do business in LoCo to contribute more than another string (5 townhomes) of vinyl wrapped wood boxes. MAKE VanMetre build a new elementary school as part of their new 1,000 home project. If they bark, then tell them to pound sand elsewhere. MAKE Stanley Martin buy and donate land to the county for a new school as a condition of issuing permits. MAKE Miller & Smith contribute 20 acres for a middle school and build it "at cost" for the county. MAKE Lenar, Horton, Toll Brother, and all of the other nationals pool their resources to solve this problem for the area. Currently, MAKE Toll Brothers connect up the road out front of MSES as a condition of developing all of that land into townhomes behind the school.

I can assure you, public opinion was not on the land owner's side for that issue. Public opinion for those who are impacted by that parcel of land, are looking forward to it finally being cleaned up. It's an eyesore, and a has been a point of battle with the owner (now deceased) for many many years. Instead of a badly needed school, it's now going to become even more townhomes, with the 100% blessing of the LoCo planning board.

My gut just tells me that somebody is in the wrong here on this stuff. I hope they get caught too. If you can't tell, I've grown quite passionate about this topic over the past couple of years. Sorry!!!

[Btingle76]

A quick question- if my son is starting kindergarten next year and we move to Willowsford in the grant section he is zoned for creightons corner. If that school is full though, what are he overflow schools he would go to? Any insight on when a new elementary would be opened into which Willowsford would be zoned?

[mdcrim]

They had actually proposed a school in Willowsford which was strongly objected to by the current homeowners. I believe the school board is back to square one trying to identify another location. So now expect a lot of moving and shuffling as the boundaries continue to move due to the huge growth and projected growth in that part of the county. Unfortunately I think the NiMBY's made a bad call.

[cdmurphy]

Originally Posted by Btingle76

A quick question- if my son is starting kindergarten next year and we move to Willowsford in the grant section he is zoned for creightons corner. If that school is full though, what are he overflow schools he would go to? Any insight on when a new elementary would be opened into which Willowsford would be zoned?

I don't think anyone could tell you where he would overflow to. It would depend on space available elsewhere and on the ultimate outcome of the Madison's Trust ES boundary process, which starts in October and wraps up in December. This year, I've heard individual reports of CCES-zoned children in different grades overflowing to different schools - second grade to Hutchison in South Riding, kindergarten to Newton-Lee in Ashburn. These parents found out where their kids were going the week before school started.

Madison's Trust ES will open next fall (2016). It is very likely that The Grant and/or The Grange could be zoned there if they don't remain at Creighton's Corner ES. As mdcrim mentioned, ES-31 was supposed to be in The Grant but LCPS withdrew the purchase offer after homeowners fought them. I haven't heard any new rumors about a possible location for ES-31, unfortunately. Not only is the school sorely needed, but knowing where it will be would alleviate a lot of issues that are going to be raised in the Madison's Trust boundary process. ES-31 is scheduled to open in Fall 2018.

[NC211]

What a mess, but it'll get ironed out at some point in the future I'm sure.

As far as living in the suburbs of NoVa - it's quite nice actually. Very pretty country side, TONS of young families with young kids, quite a bit to do, can be very relaxing as well. We personally love the area, and will likely love it even more in about 10 years when all of the construction mess has moved on (further west and south), and the roads are finally done, specifically Belmont Ridge.