A Loophole The Size Of A Few Hundred Houses

"In March, on a technicality, the Virginia Supreme Court threw out a controversial zoning ordinance intended to vastly restrict the number of houses that could be built in a wide swath of Loudoun's rural west. Now, county leaders are working quickly to approve a new ordinance, one nearly as restrictive as the last proposal. But it is not law yet, and in the meantime, the county's older, less restrictive rules, which allow one house every three acres, prevail...As the clock ticks, developers are pushing hundreds of new homes through the county's approval process. There is much at stake: In a county where the average home price approaches $600,000, developers stand to make millions. And residents stand to be overrun, some Loudoun officials say, by increased traffic, schoolchildren and a demand for government services the county can ill afford."