The Loudoun Planning Office has released a draft of recommendation for its eight-month community outreach project that includes increased law enforcement and crime watches to help address quality-of-life issues in the Potomac and Sterling districts.
Miguel Salinas, the director of the outreach program, said many of the concerns voiced by citizens were related to issues involving neighborhood housing commissions, crime and gangs.
Sterling Park, one of the oldest planned communities in eastern Loudoun, does not have a homeowners’ association, an organization with the legal authority to protect citizen interests and enforce ordinances within planned communities. Without HOAs, residents have a more difficult time dealing with the increasingly common complaints of overcrowding and zoning violations.
One proposed recommendation is to support the establishment of a neighborhood-based revitalization organization, which would act as a liaison between citizens of Sterling Park and the county government.
Salinas said that he does not believe the recommendations were affected at all by the Sept. 24 emergency meeting about a recent crime wave in Sterling. He said the report validated some of what he heard was discussed at the meeting, though he added that he did not attend the gathering.
“The one thing that we’re trying to make clear is that these are strategies that [were guided by] citizen input,” he said.
The goal, Salinas said, is to get another round of citizen feedback before presenting the recommendations and the results of a citizen survey at a board business meeting in late October.
He said it was ultimately up to the board to decide what recommendations to pursue, adding, “If they do it, it would probably require further exploration.”
“It is important to note that to accomplish most, if not all, strategies will require either a shift in current resources or the allocation of new resources,” the first page of the draft reads.
Finding new resources could prove difficult — the county is facing a budget deficit of $176 million for fiscal 2010 according to County Administrator Kirby Bowers.
An open house designed for residents to comment on the county’s recommendations or strategies is scheduled for Wednesday from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Cascades Senior Center, located at 21060 Whitfield Place in Sterling.
