A state loan for Crow's Nest gets final approval.

By RUTH FINCH
and RUSTY DENNEN

Date published: 12/4/2004

County cleared to borrow up to $30 million

Final approval has come through for a $30 million state loan for Stafford County to buy Crow's Nest.

Now it's up to the Board of Supervisors to negotiate the purchase of the 4,125-acre environmentally important peninsula. The board will also have to figure out a way to squeeze an additional $30 million loan into the county's limited capacity for new debt.

Supervisor Kandy Hilliard, whose district includes Crow's Nest, said the board will discuss the loan in closed session at its next meeting on Tuesday. She said she doesn't know how the board will manage the negotiations or the added debt, but she is confident supervisors will find a way.

"I remain committed to figuring out how to get this property preserved," she said. "We are not just talking about what happens right now. We're talking about Stafford's long-term future. Not just 10 years or 20 years from now, but 50 years or 100 years from now."

Stafford County has been trying to raise money to buy Crow's Nest for a natural recreation area all year--ever since negotiations fell through between K&M Properties of McLean, which owns the peninsula, and the state Department of Conservation and Recreation, which had wanted to buy it.

Supervisors decided last August to apply for a loan from the Virginia Clean Water Revolving Loan Fund. The State Water Control Board, which administers the fund, approved the county's application on Thursday. The county is now eligible to borrow up to $30 million and pay it back over 20 years with a 3 percent interest rate.

Statewide, the fund lends between $80 million and $200 million a year to local governments and other groups for projects such as wastewater treatment plant upgrades that will keep pollution out of state waters.

Four loans have been approved for land acquisitions since the General Assembly added that provision last year. Stafford's $30 million loan is the largest the program has made to date for land.

Now that the loan is approved, it must be processed. That will take at least several weeks, according to Bill Hayden, spokesman for the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.

It could be early spring before the county gets the money.

Date published: 12/4/2004