NEWS Contact: Vicki Bendure
November 2, 2004 540-687-3360 or
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Reneé Brohard
540-687-5144
BUILDING WORKFORCE HOUSING IN LOUDOUN COUNTY
Developer Proposes a New Way of Building Communities
VIENNA, VA-- “The average cost of a new home in Loudoun County today is $500,000,” states Packie Crown, vice president for planning and zoning with Greenvest. “Our recent Comprehensive Plan Amendment (CPAM) includes affordable workforce housing which is critical to the economic viability of Loudoun County.”
With housing costs soaring and no end in sight, teachers, health care providers, firefighters, mid-level managers and service employees cannot afford to live in
the county.
Greenvest recently filed a Comprehensive Plan Amendment Application with Loudoun County seeking to increase density on 4,200 acres which would allow for 14,700 residential units. The amended plan proposes that Greenvest will use Community Development Authority (CDA) funding to pay for the roads, off-site utilities, and a regional park thus allowing an assessment to the homeowners to pay back the bonds over a period of 20 years. The county has no liability for these bonds. Schools will be constructed through a separate CDA bond financing. Project density has been determined based on the economics of building the infrastructure.
Greenvest, LC, a development firm headquartered in Vienna, Virginia is proposing a managed growth approach for the development of their communities where the communities will pay for the roads, utilities and construction of schools which will be built before they’re needed and not languish with government budgeting and bureaucracy. In essence, it’s a community that will pay for itself. Not only that, independent studies by the research firm Robert Charles Lesser & Co. point out that Loudoun County will net approximately $650 million over the 20 years of the community build-out.
It is particularly important to note that, while Greenvest’s community build-out will take approximately 20 years, roads and schools will be built upfront. Road improvements and the new park proposed by Greenvest include those on the County’s plans.
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Greenvest, L.C. 2
Greenvest’s “workforce housing” initiative calls for the building of approximately 1,800 workforce housing units. These units are in addition to approximately 900 affordable dwelling units (ADUs), administered under the County’s ordinances and would allow the developer to sell single-family, as well as, townhome and condominium units at below market rates to families who qualify by income. These would be available to families who do not qualify under the ADU rules. Greenvest is also proposing to build senior housing, a golf course and a 200-acre park with extensive land area dedicated to open green space. This is in addition to civic and public safety sites, a hospital site and the building of six schools.
If approved, the project will get underway in 2005 with build out over the next 20 years. Greenvest will invest $1.3 to $1.5 billion in the project. For more information, visit www.greenvest.com.
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