We the citizens of Catoctin County, in order to form a more perfect union...

Mark Baker, center, a planner with Bowman Consulting, waits with other developers, lawyers and county staff members in the halls outside the Planning Commission meeting for their cases to be called. (By Bill O'Leary -- The Washington Post). Go to the article for a larger version of this photo.

Someone passed along to me a link to Citizens for Catoctin County, the group that wants to split off the mostly rural western two-thirds of Loudoun County into a new county, in order to focus on preserving the rural landscape and to reduce the power of developers who have a majority of like-minded Supervisors on the Loudoun County Commission.

They need a bill to be entered into the Virginia Assembly, preferably from a Loudoun County legislator.

Can we say Growth Machine? In any case, I admire their efforts. According to the Post, outside of the towns in Western Loudoun County, there are only 9,000 homes in the 300 square miles of the mostly rural landscape.

See these Post articles to get a flavor of why the splinter group has formed:

-- Gatekeepers at the Gold Rush: Commissioners Labor at the Epicenter of Loudoun's Development Boom;
-- The Question of 46,000 vs. 14,000
-- Sanity, at Last, in Loudoun
-- Loudoun Reopens Door to Growth

Index Keywords: civic-engagement; sprawl; growth-machine