People You Should Know: Chris Van Vlack

Chris Van Vlack — Urban/Agriculture Conservationist, Loudoun Soil and Water Conservation District

What does a self-proclaimed anglophile with a bachelor’s degree in government from American University do? Move to Loudoun County to become a farmer of course!

At least that is what Chris Van Vlack did.

Chris wears many hats, all of which involve developing Loudoun County public policy for the rural west. Chris is the Urban/Agriculture Conservationist for the Loudoun Soil and Conservation District (SWCD). He is a Loudoun County farmer. He is immediate past president of the Loudoun Farm Bureau. He is a member of the Rural Economic Development Council and most recently he has been appointed “Coordinating Lead – Agriculture/Conservation” for the Western Loudoun Zoning Ordinance Amendment (ZOAM- 2024-0002).

Chris has been with the Loudoun Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) since 2005. Currently his primary job is to help Loudoun County farmers prepare and implement Conservation Farm Plans. In Loudoun, a Conservation Farm Plan is required for certain uses, such as Farm Market or raising farm animals on parcels less than 5 acres. Chris’s work includes helping small acre farmers access state and locally funded cost share projects like fencing horses, cattle, and other livestock out of streams, and providing water systems for livestock.

Chris also works with Loudoun suburban communities through the Virginia Conservation Assistance Program (VCAP). VCAP is a cost-share program that provides financial incentives as well as technical and educational assistance to help homeowners and HOAs solve water management problems such as erosion and poor drainage. Solutions include conservation projects like rainwater harvesting, dry wells, conservation landscaping, and rain gardens. This is important because nonpoint source pollution is the leading cause of water quality problems in our region. Rainfall or snowmelt from suburban lawns, golf courses, and paved surfaces picks up and carries away natural and human-made pollutants depositing them into lakes, rivers, wetlands, coastal waters and ground waters such as Goose Creek and the Chesapeake Bay.

Chris is a farmer. He farms about 40 acres of leased land in 8 parcels throughout Western Loudoun. He grows mostly hay but over the past 5 years he has been expanding into oats and wheat. Now about 30% of his land is in small grains. In addition, Chris also does custom harvesting for other farmers.

According to Chris, there are three factors that make Loudoun a great place to farm — proximity to a large, diverse, wealthy market; rich soils; and a strong community of farmers. Generally, Loudoun farmers do not think of themselves as in competition with each other. There is a lot of cooperation and mutual aid.

As immediate past president of the Loudoun Farm Bureau, Chris helped the organization become more directly involved in developing County policy to preserve and protect farming and farmland in the County. He also helped the organization become more diverse. Currently the Board of the Loudoun Farm Bureau has the youngest membership and the most women of any Farm Bureau in the Commonwealth. Of course, the Farm Bureau was exceedingly active in the Board of Supervisors (BOS) adoption of the so-called Prime Soils Initiative (ZOAM 2020-0002: Prime Agricultural Soils and Cluster Subdivision Regulations). Friends joined with the Farm Bureau and most other conservation/environmental organizations in Western Loudoun to support the initiative.

For readers of Happenings Around the Blue Ridge perhaps one of the most interesting roles that Chris plays in developing Loudoun County public policy is his most recent assignment.

The Transportation Land Use Committee of the Board of Supervisors has appointed Chris as the Agriculture/Conservation “Coordinating Lead” for the Western Loudoun ZOAM (Zoam2024-0002). This is one of two “Coordinating Lead” positions, the other being for Business/Tourism. Beth Erickson, President and CEO of Visit Loudoun has been appointed to this position.

The role of the “Coordinating Lead” will be to recommend the individual “stakeholders” who will be participating in the public input sessions associated with drafting the Western Loudoun Zoam.

This ZOAM is exceedingly important to FBRM because it specifically includes a review of, and possible changes to, zoning regulations in the Mountain Overlay District (MOD). In many ways the ZOAM is more important than the new zoning ordinance because of the specific focus on the MOD.