Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 15, 1991 TAG: 9103150928
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C3 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: ROBERT O'HARROW Jr. Washington Post
DATELINE: WATERFORD LENGTH: Medium
Catoctin Creek wound past bare farmland, scattered trees and fenced-in sheep. A low ridge to the west rose toward a pale winter sky. But the scene, virtually unchanged in Waterford's 258 years, is threatened by the spread of development, Ladd said.
"You take that setting away and you have a little village you would find anywhere," said Ladd, 59, executive director of the Waterford Foundation, a non-profit preservation group. "I see it as a fine piece of crystal. Once you lose it, it's gone forever."
After two years of work at a cost of more than $200,000, the foundation has found what it thinks is a way to protect those views.
Under the terms of an unusual agreement, landowners would voluntarily agree to limit the number of houses on about 800 acres surrounding the village. In exchange, the foundation would pay the farmers for any loss of value of their property.
The so-called Waterford Compact is the latest example of a zealous regard for heritage and aesthetics in Waterford, a village 40 miles west of Washington, D.C.
Since the 1940s, preservationists in Waterford have shown they care more for historic ambiance than growth and that a good view is worth a thousand houses.
"The tie that binds us is an aesthetic one," said Julie Savage Lea, a painter of landscapes who moved to Waterford 20 years ago. "That might be seen as snobbishness."
Experts say the zeal is well directed. The National Park Service considers Waterford a living museum piece. The Department of the Interior granted the village national landmark status in 1970 because of its landscape and rows of brick, stone and timber buildings that date to 1733.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation will begin publishing an education newsletter from Waterford this month. The foundation also plans to hire an architect this spring to design renovations for its headquarters and an education center for the trust at the empty Waterford Old School.
Preservationists also say Waterford is a testing ground: the challenge is whether anything can be done to save the village and its bucolic views from the housing sprawl that transformed Sterling and other areas in eastern Loudoun in the 1980s.
"Loudoun County is growing at an extraordinary rate," said Kathleen Hunter of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. "The surrounding rural landscape is as historically significant as its village core . . . It's a document of our history, just as important as a document in an archive."
Settled by a Quaker family, Waterford became a bustling argicultural center in the early 1800s. Now, there is a post office, one store, four churches and five working farms, much as in the 19th century.
"It is considered to be an excellent example of a small agrarian town," said Jean Travers, a historian for the National Park Service.
But traffic on the village's narrow streets continues to increase, and residents say the insular area is growing more expensive. Houses range from about $275,000 to about $600,000. "It's an address," said Charles Fishback, real estate agent with the Raymond Group Inc. in Leesburg.
If the Waterford Compact works, growth will be limited to about 65 new houses on the land surrounding the town. Under current zoning, and without the compact, more than 290 houses could be added. About 250 people live in the Waterford area, and several houses are under construction.
The foundation, which has been negotiating for more than a year, hopes to reach agreements with four key landowners by June, Ladd said. One farmer signed the compact last year and received about $200,000 to build 14 new houses on his land instead of the 60-plus allowed by zoning. Under permanent deed restrictions, no other development would be allowed.
by CNB