A Bit of Battlefield Opens

A small but important part of the Battlefield Parkway corridor opened this week.

Several town representatives gathered with members of Keane Enterprises, the developer of the Oaklawn community at the intersection of Battlefield Parkway and Miller Drive in Leesburg to mark the opening of several new roads, including Battlefield Parkway from Sycolin Road to the Dulles Greenway, Miller Drive from the Greenway to Tolbert Lane and a new interchange on the Greenway. - Leesburg Today

There are now two exits for Leesburg off the Greenway, which should free up a little bit of the traffic on the Rt 15 Bypass coming from that road. It also adds another piece to the critical ring road that will be the completed Battlefield Parkway.

Like the Wegmans/River Creek Interchange, this important road improvement was the result of a negotiated proffer. In this case, one with Keane Enterprises, as part of the approved, mixed-use Oaklawn development.


Oaklawn Master Plan

Oaklawn is a 165 acre mixed-use project in Leesburg, VA located at the interchange of the Dulles Greenway (Rt 267) and Battlefield Parkway (Rt 654). The project is zoned a combination of PRC (planned residential community) and PEC (planned employment community) and approved for 326 residential units (being developed by Pulte Homes), 1.0 million SF of office, 130,000 SF of retail, and a 150-room hotel. - Keane Enterprises

While it will be nice to have the new interchange, exit and roads, the additional houses this will bring to the already soft Leesburg market will not be welcome for many of the folks trying to sell their homes. The hotel and office space, however, represent a great addition to the Leesburg market, given their location right off the Greenway. That is one of the reasons this site is one of the finalists for Loudoun's new government office complex.

On balance, this development and the roads and businesses it brings is beneficial to Leesburg, and is just one more example of good development, done right, under the aegis of a Town Council willing and able to make good development decisions.