Nestled in the rolling hills of Loudoun County is Woodgrove High School, built on a retired dairy farm. In years prior, the school’s baseball team enjoyed a full view of the Blue Ridge Mountains during practice and home games. As of this school year, however, a cell tower was built just past the baseball field. Coach Rusty Smith stated, “They haven’t really encroached on our space. It’s just an eyesore that took away from the great view we had of the mountains and the atmosphere of our field.” However hard on the eyes the new tower is, it is bringing better cell service to Woodgrove students and surrounding residents. This is not the first instance that the Loudoun aesthetic was affected by modern ingenuity and the pursuit of “high-speed connection.”
Waterford is registered as a historic town, and many of its residents have been protesting its urbanization, specifically with a proposed power line project that would string through the town. Senior Brienza Marraccini, a resident of Waterford, shared, “I think it is important to keep the history alive because we need to respect our history.” Marraccini mentioned that she started seeing signs in neighbors yards and throughout Waterford that protested the power line project last April, and many signs are still planted. Although the power lines would bring technical connection to the town, these protesting residents value the community connection more.
Senior Ele Winner lives on a farm in Lovettsville. “The most rewarding part about living on a farm is that all of our produce, food, and meat comes in fresh,” Winner explained. “I think local farms bring the community together. In Lovettsville, we actually have a small grocery store called the Co-Op where local farmers bring in their produce and fresh food that they can sell.” Winner shared that she is personally opposed to urbanization in her community. “It’s sad to see that farms shut down because of all of the urbanization. My neighbor just sold his land so that a construction company could build a neighborhood with it,” she shared. “It’s just sad to see them slowly wither away, and that their incentive to give up their land is that they get paid a lot for doing it.”
Though many are against rural decay in Loudoun, urbanization has come with its benefits as well. Former farmland is being transformed into living spaces, restaurants, essential services, and new and improved roads. Woodgrove will reap the benefits of urbanization from a new road and exit currently under construction at the school. Hundreds of families and individuals can now call Loudoun home because of new neighborhoods.
Although D.C.’s urban lifestyle is slowly seeping into the west, the love that western Loudoun residents have for their charming community will preserve it. Winner expressed, “We have beautiful rolling hills and plains, and I wish that we can at least preserve some of that land so we don’t forget how magnificent our state is.”