Willowsford Throws a Bluegrass and BBQ Party

Willowsford – a planned community that will, over the next decade, add 2,082 single-family houses to Loudoun County’s map on 4,077 acres north and south of U.S. 50 in the Arcola/Lenah/Braddock Road area – threw itself a party Saturday, Oct. 8.

From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. hundreds of the curious, many of them potential buyers, enjoyed the hospitality: salads, barbecue, artisan cheeses, ice cream, blue grass music, celebrity cooking demonstrations and hayride tours of the site. They came from Loudoun, Fairfax, Alexandria, the District of Columbia and Maryland. Most seemed pleased with what they saw.

“We heard it is going to be a massive project with a big lake and organic gardening and it just sounds really organic and wholesome,” said Bonnie Sides, who came with husband Patrick and their three children. They live now on a three-acre wooded lot on nearby Watson Road. They prefer a wooded environment and like Willowsford’s commitment to preserving its existing trees.

Willowsford is doing something new in land development, said Bill Baker, who brought a tractor and hay wagon from his nearby New Asbury Farm, where he raises White Dorper sheep. Unlike the many hamlets that have sprung up in Loudoun over the past 10 years with the intention of preserving open space, Willowsford has made a commitment to manage its open space, Baker said. In the past, open space has been left to homeowners associations, which often lack the will, the resources, the expertise, or all of the above, to manage it productively.

More than 2,000 acres of Willowsford, roughly half, will remain open and under the management of the Willowsford Conservancy. The conservancy will manage and maintain the forests, trails, streams, parklands and agricultural resources, and will offer educational activities. It will cooperate with but be independent of the homeowners association.

Nearly 250 acres of the open land has been dedicated as Willowsford Farm, which will produce fruits, vegetables, berries, flowers and, in the future, chickens, sheep, pigs and cows to stock the larders of the Willowsford residents with fresh, locally grown products.

Robin and Scott Kydd came from Ashburn with daughters Caroline and Chandler to see what the development might offer. “We love the open space and the back-to-nature,” Robin said.

The Kydds toured one of the models that K. Hovnanian Homes will offer. They liked the floor plan, Robin said, but would have to make sure they could afford it.

A Maryland woman on the hayride tour asked the tour guide twice if every house on Founders Lane would back up to woods or open space. The answer was “yes.” And that means, the Willowsford representative pointed out, quarter-acre lots will seem larger.

The development is divided into four villages: The Grange, 382 houses on 483 acres along Evergreen Mill Road just north of Arcola; The Grant, 386 homes on 1,133 acres west of the Grange and north of U.S. 50; The Grove, 628 houses on 481 acres south of U.S. 50 off Braddock Road; and The Greens, 686 houses on 1,980 acres south of The Grove.

The property has a circuitous history. Greenvest LLC, headquartered in Vienna, previously owned the land and petitioned the Loudoun Board of Supervisions to rewrite its Comprehensive Plan to allow upwards of 15,000 new residences – 5,765 single family homes, 4,034 townhouses and 4,203 multifamily units – along with 791,00 square feet of commercial space.

The Comprehensive Plan designates the space roughly between Belmont Ridge Road and Route 15 as Transition Area – lower density residential, most on one-acre lots, to buffer the densely populated eastern part of the county and the still-rural west. Greenvest’s proposal could move forward only if the supervisors rewrote the Comprehensive Plan. Greenvest insisted it couldn’t proceed with its plans, which included plans to spend millions of dollars in proposed roads and other infrastructure, unless the county increased the density in that area.

In November 2006, the supervisors denied the application, pointing to traffic impacts on U.S. Route 50, “fiscal stress” on the county to provide facilities and services for all those new residents, even with the proposed contributions.

By August 2009, the entire project went bankrupt. Greenvest owed iStar Financial in New York $130,000 million. At an Aug. 24 foreclosure auction on the steps of the courthouse in Leesburg, iStar bought the land back for $69 million. In December, iStar sold the property to Rockpoint Group of Boston. RPL, a private real estate investment and development company affiliated with Rockpoint, is developing Willowsford according to the existing zoning – a mix of one- and three-acre lots. By clustering the houses, all single family, the developer complies with the zoning, while preserving about half the land.

Planned amenities include Sycamore House north of U.S. 50, Willow Lake and Willow Lake Lodge, pools, a second clubhouse south of U.S. 50, a dog park, a sledding hill, a pick-your-own community garden, a farm market, trails and boating. Sycamore House, the Tenant House next door, and the Willow Lake Lodge will be available for residents’ activities and for cooking classes and culinary experimentation.

Three builders have signed on thus far: K. Hovnanian (www.khov.com/Willowsford) is building eight models, ranging from just under 3,000 square feet to more than 4,000 square feet, on 110 lots in The Grange. Van Metre Homes (www.Willowsford.com/VanMetre) is offering three floor plans, all in the mid-4,000-square-foot range, on 15 lots in The Grange, close to Sycamore House and the nearby Tenant House, built with the reclaimed stone and beams from the original farm house.

Beazer Homes (www.Willowsford.com/Beazer) is building three floor plans, from just a bit more than 3,000 square feet to more than 3,600 square feet, in The Grove.

For complete information, go to WillowsfordPRW.com.