Loudoun Together Summit

Living in western Loudoun County, Virginia, offers its residents that wonderful combination of the rural outdoors with easy accessibility to shopping, major airports and our nation's capital. A central theme when discussing why people live here or move here is to get away from the hustle and bustle of urban life, and that's something very dear to their hearts.

The past 20 years have witnessed an ever increasing encroachment of more dense development in our area, a concern which has been growing significantly, and for good reason.

As a result, the Middleburg town council adopted as a major strategic initiative to hold a rural summit, designed to engage residents, business owners and leaders, and talk about ways to ensure that the east and west areas of the county can grow in harmony, and in balance.

The Loudoun Together Summit was held on Tuesday April 11th at the Salamander Resort & Spa in Middleburg, chosen because it has the space for up to 200 attendees and is a major tax contributor to the town. Panels included three female business owners discussing why visitors spend over $2 billion a year in western Loudoun County, followed by the seven mayors of the seven Loudoun County towns which are all located in the western portion. The mayors talked about how the towns successfully support their rural neighbors, and the challenges they all face on a daily basis.

Chris Miller with the Piedmont Environmental Council and Chuck Kuhn, who, with his wife Stacy, through their JK Land Holdings vehicle has placed thousands of acres of rural land in to conservation easements, followed with talks which stressed the importance of protecting open space for future generations, the challenges we face and how to try and overcome those threats.

The event welcomed Mike Scheffel, Agricultural Land Preservation Program Administrator for the Office of Agriculture in Montgomery County, Maryland, who eloquently told their story and how transferable development rights (TDR's) have worked in Montgomery County.

Middleburg's mayor, Bridge Littleton, closed the event with an impassioned speech about how we must leverage our resources and maintain that crucial balance between east and west.