How Dense Can Loudoun County Be?

Not that kind of dense. County leaders are considering two zoning options for a 300-mile swath of western Loudoun.

Three months ago the Virginia Supreme Court tossed a set of restrictive zoning rules - passed in 2003 by slow-growth county supervisors - that would have allowed just 10,000 homes in western Loudoun.

That means the old three-acres-per-home rules are back in place, and developers could put up to 46,000 homes there, says the Washington Post. The two new options require more acres per home - one would allow 14,000 homes, while the second would allow 20,000.

One of the property rights acvitists who opposed the 2003 zoning rules told the paper his group, the Citizens for Property Rights, could accept the 20,000-home plan but some members will probably sue anyway to keep the three-acre rule in place.