Nearly three months ago, the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors voted to overturn a controversial commission permit that would have given the green light to telecom giant AT&T to expand a so-called telephone transmission utility substation on top of Short Hill Mountain in western Loudoun.
But months after the board’s decision -- and with at least one application filed by AT&T a day after the vote still pending county approval -- many in the community are left wondering: What’s really going on on the scenic mountaintop?
“I think there’s absolutely some kind of government involvement in that [site] and there’s absolutely no transparency with the county government right now as far as who knows what,” Lovettsville resident Laurie Hailey, who lives directly below the site, said. “And who does know what is not speaking.”
Hailey says she has seen more construction, lights at night, tree removal and more activity from the site in the months since the board overturned AT&T’s commission permit than at any point in the past 20 years she's lived there. The company, through a prominent Northern Virginia land use law firm, has asked that information about a total of seven applications and permits for the site be withheld from the public.
