In the days leading to the 8 to 1 vote, the commission also added policies designed to increase the availability of affordable housing, in an effort to offset other policies that they acknowledged would add pressure to rising housing prices. The initiatives include tax incentives, the creation of a housing authority to aid poor residents, and a pledge to seek legislation in Richmond that would allow the county to require affordable housing in developments of fewer than 50 units. The so-called Affordable Dwelling Unit program now applies only to developments of 50 units or more. The program allows developers to build extra units in exchange for offering below-market units to the county for home buyers who make no more than 70 percent of the local median income. Just how much the far-reaching plan hashed out by the commissioners will affect Loudoun's future depends on what happens next to the plan.
County supervisors have three months to add to, subtract from or redo the commission's handiwork.
Then, county officials will rewrite the ordinances and county development policies that will give the broad policies the force of law. Officials said they are keenly aware of the gap that occurred in the early 1990s between an ambitious land-use plan and the county's zoning ordinance. They said the 1991 Comprehensive Plan did little to affect the last decade's growth boom because the zoning ordinance, as well as other county policies and officials themselves, facilitated unbridled development. The standards manual, which includes administrative rules about development in the county, is being rewritten to match the plan and determine how developments should be designed and built to conform with the environmental and other regulations. Such ideas must be backed up by new rules and incentives if they are ever to become a reality, observers said.