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Rogerdale Place Homeowners #elitist #crackpot loudountimes.com

Some 160 property owners have signed a petition opposing this Rogerdale Place stop, claiming it would destroy their quality of life. They assert that a bus stop would draw strangers into their close-knit community who would then park illegally, litter their roads, create hazardous conditions for their children and pets, and lower their property values. What is making them really angry and frustrated, they've said, is that the the county transit and commuter services division is moving forward with their plan to keep this stop without considering the feelings or the input of the affected neighborhood. They say a county survey carried out in 2019 was flawed and should be redone. That survey elicited 56 responses for a bus stop of which two explicitly called for a bus stop outside the community, that got positive responses for a bus stop asked whether a bus stop should be located within or without a community.

That message was delivered forcefully and vociferously at an Oct. 26 community meeting that Supervisor Matthew Letourneau, R-Dulles, called to assuage their concerns. His explanations were largely drowned, and met with disdain and jeers, especially when he said "We are at this point where we can't undo [the service]."

Letourneau's explanation that the bus service would get more cars off the road and alleviate congestion also were ignored. His assertion that some residents told him that they were pressured to sign out of fear of angering their neighbors was greeted with booing.

The Dulles district supervisor, who also sits of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (Metro), was joined by Scott Gross, manager of Loudoun County government's commuter and transit services division, whose explanations and rationale for why this bus stop would not pose safety concerns to the community also were shouted down.

Shouts of "skip the stop" and "we don't want a bus stop in our community" peppered the hour-long meeting that at times seemed more like a market brawl. Calls for holding another survey of the residents were turned down by Letourneau who said "we can't redo every survey for every community. That's not how it is done."

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