The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors voted to move a park project it planned to build at Fields Farm in Purcellville to a 143-acre parcel of land it is buying just outside the town.
That parcel will be the site of a future Western Loudoun Recreation Center and a new Purcellville Library, the county said in a statement. Funding for the library has not yet been budgeted.
The park project will have as many as 10 lighted athletic fields, picnic pavilions, pickleball courts, and playgrounds. Other amenities may include a concessions stand, other outdoor courts, offices, and meeting rooms.
Supervisors voted unanimously for the proposal at its meeting last week.
The county is in the process of closing on the land, about a quarter-mile west of Franklin Park, in June. The parcel cost nearly $7 million.
The move is the latest in a series of disagreements between the county and the town.
The county had already withdrawn its application to put the complex at Fields Farm last month. Meanwhile, the Purcellville Town Council earlier this month voted to rescind its approval of a park-and-ride lot at Fields Farm, near Woodgrove High School and the Mayfair Crown neighborhood.
Among the issues is a buffer zone between an access road and the school and neighborhood. Mayor Stanley J. Milan said at the Town Council meeting that by withdrawing the park-and-ride proposal, which included the buffer zone, the county had “flipped the script” and undone months of negotiations over the buffer, Loudoun Now reported.
Supervisor Tony Buffington told the Loudoun Times, “I wished the Town of Purcellville had worked with us better. Everybody on both sides wanted these fields, and then at the last minute, the town council decided they wanted otherwise.”
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