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Home My Public Portal About2011_tcmin0614COUNCIL MEETING June 14, 2011 Council Chambers, 25 West Market Street, 7:30 p.m. Mayor Umstattd presiding. Council Members Present: David Butler, Thomas Dunn, II, Fernando "Marty" Martinez, Katie Sheldon Hammler, Kenneth "Ken" Reid, Kevin Wright and Mayor Umstattd. Council Members Absent: None. Staff Present: Town Manager John Wells, Town Attorney Jeanette Irby, Deputy Town Manager Kaj Dentler, Director of Public Works Tom Mason, Finance Director Norm Butts, Chief of Police Joseph Price, Assistant to the Town Manager Scott Parker, Deputy Director of Planning and Zoning Brian Boucher, Transportation Engineer Calvin Grow, Environmental Planner Irish Grandfield, Project Manager for Design and Engineering Tom Brandon, and Clerk of Council Lee Ann Green AGENDA 1. CALL TO ORDER 2. INVOCATION: Mayor Umstattd 3. SALUTE TO THE FLAG: Council Member Reid 4. ROLL CALL: Showing all council members present. ITEMS 5. MINUTES a. Work Session Minutes of May 23, 2011 On a motion by Council Member Reid, seconded by Council Member Butler, the minutes of the May 23 work session were approved 7 -0. b. Regular Session Minutes of May 24, 2011 On a motion by Council Member Reid, seconded by Council Member Butler, the minutes of the May 24 regular session were approved 7 -0. 6. ADOPTING THE MEETING AGENDA On a motion by Council Member Martinez, seconded by Vice Mayor Wright, the meeting agenda was approved, after moving Item 9f before the Petitioner's Section, by the following vote: Aye: Butler, Dunn, Hammler, Martinez, Reid, Wright, and Mayor Umstattd Nay: None Vote: 7 -0 7. PRESENTATIONS a. Resolution of Respect Virginia McGuire On a motion by Council Member Reid, seconded by Council Member Martinez, the following Resolution of Respect was approved unanimously: 1 1 1'a e COUNCIL MEETING June 14, 2011 RESOLUTION OF RESPECT Virginia McGuire WHEREAS, Virginia S. McGuire, of Leesburg died April 14, 2011, at the age of 48; and WHEREAS, Ms. McGuire served our community for more than four years first being appointed to the Environmental Advisory Commission in July of 2006, and spending over two years as EAC Chairperson; and 'WHEREAS, Ms. McGuire dedicated countless hours to help others and improve our local community; and WHEREAS, Ms. McGuire inspired people to protect animals and the natural environment; and WHEREAS, Ms. McGuire was an active and valued member of this community, a loving wife to her husband, and a wonderful mother, daughter and sister to her family. THEREFORE, RESOLVED that the Mayor and members of the Council of the Town of Leesburg in Virginia extend their sympathy and respect to Ms. McGuire's family and to all who knew her; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this Resolution of Respect be spread upon the minutes of this meeting and that a copy be presented to her family; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Town of Leesburg will dedicate a memorial tree at Raflo Park in honor of Ms. McGuire's life and service to the Town of Leesburg. PASSED this 14` day of June 2011. 2 I P COUNCIL MEETING June 14, 2011 8. PETITIONERS The petitioner's section was opened at 7:41 p.m. Lamott Smith, 307 Nickels Drive, SW, stated he is the district administrator for Virginia District 16, Little League International. He stated he would like to thank the town for its continued support of Little League programs in Leesburg, Loudoun County and the Commonwealth of Virginia. He stated this year, Loudoun will be hosting the 2011 Little League Baseball tournament. He stated this tournament is different from the previous ones that were hosted here. He stated there are 16 districts in the Commonwealth and this year's tournament will be the very important 11 -12 age group which is only hosted by a district once every 16 years. He stated the last time Leesburg was host to a Little League tournament in 2008 and made a huge and positive impact due to the fine level of services and facilities. He stated the tournament begins on Friday, June 22 and will run through Wednesday, June 27 with 16 teams playing in a round robin format throughout the weekend, turning into a single elimination tournament on Monday. He stated the winner of this tournament goes on to southern region, which is comprised of Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Alabama. He stated the last two years, the representative from the southern region has been Georgia, which has gone onto the World Series in Williamsport. He stated the runner up for the past two years has been the state of Virginia. He stated they are hoping the Virginia team will be able to get past Georgia to go onto Williamsport. He stated his organization is very humbled by the fine facilities that they have to use and all the support the town has given. Jim Sisley, 1117 Franklin Court, SW, thanked the Council for initiating efforts that have taken place over the past 90 days with regards to the design for South King Street. He stated they came up with a design that captured all the items that were requested by the citizens that spoke to Council. He stated the process was truly amazing and came up with a truly amazing plan. He stated the implementation of the plan is just the beginning of the process to make the historic district a success. He stated the small business owners of the downtown are competing against businesses that are national and it is very hard to compete against businesses that are better underwritten. He noted that some of the town's commissions are working on the other aspects necessary to build business in the downtown and he thanked Council for their support of the business efforts of the merchants in downtown Leesburg. Joby Reynolds, 14 -16 South King Street, stated he has been a citizen of Leesburg since 1955. He stated one of the things that is important is to understand the participation that occurred in deciding the plan that has been presented to Council. He stated no parameters were set and everybody came to the table with their own ideas, many of which were similar. He stated a lot of new ideas came out of this process and this plan allows for flexibility. He stated that everyone had their chance to put ideas on the table and this is the collective of those ideas. 3 Page COUNCIL MEETING June 14, 2011 Kevin Ruedisueli, stated he has lived in Loudoun County since the late 70s, and has contributed to the town by 30 or more buildings downtown first as a builder and now as an architect. He stated he is proud of Leesburg and taken a great deal of pleasure in the projects he has participated in. He stated this process was marvelous and it was remarkable to see how divergent views were able to be pulled together to find common ground. He stated now the town will be able to go forward to the next level, which will be design development. He stated people will come back because their experience downtown was an enjoyable one. He stated the process of moving through the town cannot be taken too lightly. He stated the competing village centers and town centers have streets that are made to be pedestrian friendly. He stated this is done because the developers know that it is smart. Jennifer Frankenfield, 10 South King Street (business), 46475 Cedarhurst Drive in Sterling, stated she has spent 10 years watching traffic on King Street. She stated about five years ago, she was struck by a car at the intersection of King and Loudoun while she was in the middle of a pedestrian crosswalk. She stated that experience has made her a big proponent of pedestrian safety and traffic calming in the downtown historic district, particularly in the two block area that is addressed in the Plan for an Amazing Place. She stated even when pedestrians do everything right, they can still be hit by a car. She stated the traffic is fast, very close, and completely inattentive. She stated her business on the east side of King Street has to deal with narrower sidewalks, no parking buffer, and the traffic is very intrusive. She stated the great majority of foot traffic has to cross over King Street, which is why she likes this plan because it addresses the ability of pedestrians to cross the street. She stated she participated in the plan and believes it is not only important to address pedestrian issues at the intersections, but also mid block. She asked Council to take this opportunity to move this forward. Judy Hines, 213 Andover Court, stated she and her husband moved to Leesburg in 1996 from the mountain in Taylorstown. She stated it was the first time they lived somewhere they could walk to things. She stated they trained cars to slow down and stop at pedestrian crossings. She stated they eat out a great deal, often on King Street and this process has been very thrilling. Milton Herd, 303 Riding Trail Court, thanked Council for allowing the time to work on the plan, An Amazing Place, for the past few months. He urged Council to embrace it, support it, and implement it aggressively as best as possible because it represents three months of hard work by a lot of people. He stated they managed to reach a broad, strong consensus about key ideas and resolved a lot of the basic conflicts. He stated the concept drawing has been signed by over 100 people, many of which are from those two blocks of King Street. He stated this was due to the hard work and good will of the many people who attended the design sessions and the donation of over 300 hours of professional time amongst planners, architects and engineers from the local community, pro bono to the town valued at over $45,000. Further, he stated his hope that the issues surrounding the flexible parking lane will not slow down the plan as it is understood that the parking lane was designed to be flexible and primarily a parking lane, but flexibility was built into the design with the understanding that sometimes the space could be used for pedestrian activity. He stated protocols will have to be 4 I Page COUNCIL MEETING June 14, 2011 developed to manage the space, but do not have to be completed until construction is completed. He stated so much good will has been established with this process, that it will carry forth. Mr. Herd quoted Mohandas Gandhi, "there go my people, I must follow them, for I am their leader He asked Council to embrace that. Bob Brown, Leesburg, stated he has two subjects to speak on. He thanked the town for the tremendous support for the Classic Car Show that was held downtown last Saturday. He stated the Northern Virginia Rods and Classics Car Club does three charity car shows per year. He stated this is the oldest and the largest, with this year being the 25 anniversary. He stated there were approximately 200 classic cars and he stated it attracted 7 -8 thousand people and they raised in excess of $5,000 for the C.S. Monroe Technology Center's Auto Collision Repair course. He stated it was a great event, but could not have occurred without the tremendous support from the town. Further, he stated he lives in the historic district and has a business on Royal Street. He stated he is also speaking on behalf of his brother and sister -in -law who just opened the Bachrach Photography Studio at 14 South King Street. He stated he first started buying properties here 21 years ago. He stated in the past, there was very little pedestrian traffic downtown, but this plan has an option for parking or sidewalk dining. He stated this is the best compromise he has heard of and will be a great thing for Leesburg. He stated he and his wife visit Europe every year where sidewalk dining is very popular. He stated restaurants in town that have implemented sidewalk dining have done very well. Neil Steinberg, 2A Loudoun Street, SW, thanked Council for the opportunity for what has proven to be an outstanding design effort brought about by a remarkably cooperative collective of Leesburg business owners, property owners, and residents. He stated this group owes an enormous debt of gratitude to the designers who gave so freely of their time and talents. He thanked Milt Herd who did a remarkable job of facilitating the entire process. He stated approval of this design will be a big win for the downtown and the entire town. He urged Council to continue with the process and vote to approve the design. Dave Bowers, 105 Church Street, SE, stated he is the professional engineer in the group. He stated he was trying to keep the architect's feet planted on the ground. He stated an important point that was missed was that the richness of the plan comes from the personal interest of all those involved. He stated they could not solve all the problems in the time allowed, but if moved forward, it can be solved during the formal process. Butch Porter, 108 Paddington Way, NE, stated his appreciation for the efforts of everyone who had input into this. He stated he generally supports the plan but is challenged by the flattening of the street, which was talked about before this process began. He stated the merchants of downtown made it clear that they had concerns about this because of questions when the bollards will be out and when they will not, pedestrian safety, and technical aspects such as snowplowing and drainage. He stated the merchants have made it clear that they don't want their parking taken away by a 5IP COUNCIL MEETING June 14, 2011 quick decision. He stated the curb is an important element to delineating pedestrian areas. He stated the rest of the project is also important and outdoor dining by itself will not save the historic district by itself. Raymond Jones, 33 Linden Hill Way, stated he is the Homeowner's Association's representative to the Council and asked for updates. Robin Peacemaker, 604 West Market Street, thanked Council for the Resolution of Respect for Virginia McGuire. She stated Ms. McGuire was an awesome woman and and exactly what the town needs as far as environmental awareness. She stated she was not present at all the meetings but signed off on the plan. She stated the bollard management plan needs to be decided prior to the plan being approved. She thanked everyone who worked hard on it. Dieter Meyer, stated this plan is very well grounded. He stated that everything has been well thought out and is a reasonable plan and is doable without breaking the budget. He thanked Council for the opportunity to come together as a group to work on this. The petitioner's section was closed at 8:23 p.m. 9. APPROVAL OF THE CONSENT AGENDA On a motion by Vice Mayor Wright, seconded by Council Member Martinez, the following items were moved for approval as part of the Consent Agenda: a. Approving the Waiver of Fees for the 2011 Little League Baseball Virginia State Tournament RESOLUTION 2011 -068 Approving the Waiver of Fees for the 2011 Little League Baseball Virginia State Tournament b. Accepting the Public Improvements, Releasing the Performance Guarantee and Approving a Maintenance Guarantee for Fort Evans Plaza II RESOLUTION 2011 -069 Accepting the Public Improvements, Releasing the Performance Guarantee and Approving a Maintenance Guarantee for Fort Evans Plaza II c. Accepting the Public Improvements, Releasing the Performance Guarantee and Approving a Maintenance Guarantee for Fort Evans Road Improvements at Fort Evans Plaza II RESOLUTION 2011 -070 Accepting the Public Improvements, Releasing the Performance Guarantee and Approving a Maintenance Guarantee for Fort Evans Road Improvements at Fort Evans Plaza II 6I Page COUNCIL MEETING June 14, 2011 d. Performance Guarantee and Water Extension Permit for Wolf Furniture RESOLUTION 2011 -071 Authorizing an Agreement and Approving a Performance Guarantee and a Water Extension Permit for Wolf Furniture e. Supplemental Appropriation for Rent Escrow for the George Mason Enterprise Center Leesburg Lease RESOLUTION 2011 -072 Approving a $99,960 Supplemental Appropriation for the Rent Escrow for the George Mason Enterprise Center Leesburg Lease f. Making an Appointment to the Environmental Advisory Commission (Umstattd and Dunn) RESOLUTION 2011 -073 Making Appointments to the Environmental Advisory Commission g. Supplemental Appropriation and Contract Award for the Police Headquarters Security System RESOLUTION 2011 -074 Amending the FY 2011 General Fund Operating Budget and Making a Supplemental Appropriation in the Amount of $146,896 to the Police Department and Awarding a Contract in the Amount of $146,896 to Purchase a Security System for Police Headquarters and Town Hall Public Hearings h. Supplemental Appropriation for Public Works Variable Message Board RESOLUTION 2011 -075 Amending the FY 2011 General Fund Budget and Making a Supplemental Appropriation in the Amount of $13,556 Resulting from the Receipt of an Insurance Payment from VACO for Replacement of the Variable Message Board that was Destroyed During a Wind Storm Awarding the 2011 Annual Street Milling and Resurfacing Construction Contract RESOLUTION 2011 -076 Awarding the 2011 Annual Street Milling and Resurfacing Construction Contract The Consent Agenda was approved by the following vote: COUNCIL MEETING June 14, 2011 Aye: Butler, Dunn, Hammier, Martinez, Reid, Wright, and Mayor Umstattd Nay: None Vote: 7 -0 10. PUBLIC HEARINGS a. Town Manager's Public Hearing to Consider Residential Permit Parking Zones on Royal Street Between Liberty Street and Wirt Street, Mayfair Drive from Edwards Ferry Road to North Street, and Edwards Ferry Road Between Washington Street and Mayfair Drive The public hearing was opened at 8:39 p.m. Calvin Grow: Madam Mayor and members of Council, the residents of Royal Street, Mayfair and Edwards Ferry Road have requested permit parking from the Town Manager. These residents expressed concern about available parking on their streets. The residents of these streets do not have homeowners associations, so therefore they have asked the town for help in this regard. Public Works has conducted some preliminary counts on these roadways and they do meet the criteria for permit parking. That is that 75% or more of the parking is taken up during the day and at night and also that of that 25% or more of the people parked on the street are not residents of that street. Town staff has sent out notices regarding this public hearing and I think there are a number of people here tonight to be able to talk about that. I will be glad to answer any questions that you may have. Butler: I just wondered if any of this has or will go to the Standing Residential Traffic Committee? Grow: No, this has not... according to town code, this is a public hearing conducted by the town manager and he can make the final recommendation on that. If he wants to refer that, I guess he could, but according to the town code, it is up to the town manager. Butler: I understand that. I was just wondering. It seems to me that when I was on the SRTC, we had a couple of these come forward and we discussed them there to provide input and I just wondered if that was going to happen and isn't that part of our normal process? I'm not asking whether it is legally required. Grow: previously, where we have permit parking on Appletree and some of those other roadways, that was a referral from, I think, council at that point for the SRTC to look at that. So again, council can refer this to the SRTC, if they wanted to, but I think in the other cases, it was actually referred to the SRTC from the council. Mayor: Was the law a little bit different back then, Calvin? 8 Pa ge COUNCIL MEETING June 14, 2011 Grow: There was a couple of things... there was the one on Cornwall Street and also the residents of Appletree and that area. We had to actually change the ordinance... we changed the ordinance and had to tweak it a little bit back then. So, I think that was a recommendation that the SRTC look at that. Mayor: I would imagine that the town manager has the authority to request input from the SRTC, but as this is legally his purview and not the Council's, I think we could request that he consider that, but I'm not sure if legally we can direct him to do so. Nona Hayward, I'm Nona Hayward. I live at 127 Mayfair Drive. My husband produced some photos for me to use. It's very difficult for me to stay focused, so if you would please bear with me, Mayor, Council and Staff, I am going to read because I have about 20 years of frustration to talk about in five minutes. Thank you. This photo is the front south corner of our property on Mayfair. As permits were required for Cavalier Arms condo complex parking, that the complex you see within the fence, we saw an increase in people parking on Mayfair and then climbing the fence. One night, someone moved our heavy pedestal that you see, move due to climb over. Later in the week, an overturned joint compound bucket, but most times will climb the 2 x 4 at the angle of our fence to climb over. After discussion with police, Cavalier Arms management put up no trespassing signs. Now people parked for the night on Mayfair and someone else drives them home wherever that is. In the morning, the process repeats only backwards. A vehicle drives up in the morning drops off a person or two to get in their vehicle that was parked on Mayfair and everyone drives away for the day. I feel the complex at Fields Apartment across Edwards ferry really has the greatest number of people parking on Mayfair. Trash has been a constant problem since Loudoun house put the fence around their complex 20 to 25 years ago. At that time we began seeing all sorts of trash issues that have continued to this day. People were not given permits in the now Fields complex because of a restraining order, dead tags, not on the lease, whatever and they would park and party on Mayfair. Picking up trash is a constant task for residents. My e -mail to the Mayor which I believe she forwarded on on March 1 had some very disturbing trash issues that were of concern to us. If you want details, I will provide them. They are too disgusting to talk about here. The police have been very responsive to concerns that I have reported. I make it a point to pick up trash along Cavalier arms fence on days I feel that the town crew would come to mow so they don't have to deal with it. This photo was not taken to criticize a neighbor. However it shows how frustrated we are getting. It is a representation of what takes place. We all realize that this is a public street, but some do this to secure a parking spot, to leave a gap so that trash and recyclables can be seen by CSI to be picked up. I often wonder if our trash is last to be picked up in the past few months because the crew could not see are conveniently remove those items left by residents because of all the parked cars. Now in these pictures, you're really not seeing the parked cars, that will come in the last picture. Also, the continuous line of parked cars poses a danger for visibility for cars backing out of the driveway's and for some child that may dart into the street. When I e- mailed 9 1 COUNCIL MEETING June 14, 2011 the mayor on March 1, the taking of all available parking spaces had not spilled too much into the North area of Mayfair. However now they are parked everywhere at night. There are actually, I believe 26 homes along Mayfair Drive and the long fence that you saw in the first picture takes up all whole bunch of that space, so there's a lot of people crammed into a small area. My husband put on here in the line of cars nearly reaches the fire hydrant at 127 at 10 o'clock at night. Even in the past few days, that has changed. Actually tonight, it doesn't seem quite so bad. I think the word is out there is a public hearing. By 10 o'clock, the cars are parked much into the northern most of our double long block. I have called police a couple times over the past few weeks to report people parked in front of the fire hydrant. These are the issues as my husband I see them at our home. People in the duplexes to the South, and as you look at this picture, you can see all along the fence and then down as you approach Edwards Ferry, there are some duplexes. Then as you would come up the street to the North, it appeared when he took the pictures there were parking spaces. While they weren't, they were people's driveways. There were no parking spaces. I hope you will take into consideration the dilemma the people to the south of us have to deal with as well. In closing, people often speak of their rights. Well I'd like to speak a moment of our responsibilities. We, on Mayfair, have for years helped each other, encouraged each other, tried to maintain a safe environment for our properties, and have tried not to impact in a negative manner the desire of all of our neighbors to maintain a good quality of life for their families. The police, town staff, and town Council seem to have these goals for town residents as well. I'm wondering why the big complexes do not accept their responsibility to allow their residents and their visitors to park at their facilities and not to impact us as Mayfair residents. Joan Mentzer, 101 Mayfair Drive, right at the corner of Edwards Ferry and Mayfair. There are quite a few cars parked there daily from across the street at the Fields. They don't have any permits over there, so the overflow comes over to our street. I understand that we have a lot of new residents on our street and there is an increase of vehicles for each house but there are people who cannot even park near their house because the, why I still call it Loudoun House, still comes over and parks where we are. This is getting to the point now, where even at the corner of Edwards Ferry and Mayfair, where we have yellow curb, and they have visitors... even some of the visitors park right at the yellow curb all of the time just for an hour or two. Within the past month, there was one truck that was parked there for the whole weekend. Then when he did get ticketed, he turned around and came over and parked on my side of the street for about four or five days. We do wish you to consider permit parking for us. Of course, there is a lot of trash there too. They come by and after getting into their cars, they just throw their trash right out into the street. It is very frustrating. Allison Camp, 124 Mayfair Drive. I live across the street from the fences of Cavalier arms. My husband and I, we do have two parking spaces; however cars are still parking in front of my home. I have a handicapped daughter who is picked up by ECHO every morning and some mornings the bus was not able to 10 1 Page COUNCIL MEETING June 14, 2011 come directly in front of the house because people parked there, leave their cars overnight, do not come back until way past nine o'clock or so before moving. I have watched people come, bring their cars and then someone else will drop them off... They will park their cars, someone else will pick them off and then they drive off. They would take their car and continue to park on the street, then move it to the other side to where you see now all the cars are parked. I have watched them do that starting about nine o'clock at night is when this actually happens. I just want to thank Mr. Armstrong, because now I have a handicapped place in front of my house so I don't have that problem as much. People do have the tail and to where the handicapped sign is, but they are no longer parking directly in front of my home. It still impacts everyone else on the street. I live across the street from Ms. Nona and so what she sees, I see as well. The trash along the road is also in front of my home as well. We try to clean up and pick up as much as we can. Like it was said earlier, maybe because they got word there was a council meeting tonight, it is pretty quiet; however, I don't think this is going to stop unless something is done. Michelle Steinberg, thank you Mdm. Mayor, Council, and town manager for taking this up. What I'm going to add to Mrs. Hayward would be helped by that very valuable document or picture that the town manager showed of the street, if we could go back to that. I want to thank Nona Hayward for pulling this picture together for us. I first spoke to Mike Armstrong who is from the town manager staff on April 12 or April 10, I believe. We had a long discussion and I want to point out a couple important things about Mayfair Drive as this is considered. Edwards ferry and Plaza Street is the location of a number of the largest multi person dwellings inside the city limits. That includes Loudoun house, now called the Fields, there is a garden apartment across from that and then on Washington Street, there is the Cavalier arms... That is the next street. If you know the area at all, Mayfair drive is the only through street that goes through to North Street and then all the way to Battlefield from Plaza all the way practically to Harrison Street. All the other streets along... Coming off Edwards ferry are barricaded because of sewer issues, sidewalk issues, and so forth. They also do not allow parking because of the sidewalk issues so as Allison Camp pointed out, this issue is not going to go away because we are the only side street that is available parking unless we have the cooperation of the Fields and other big apartment dwellings and we have not had that. My husband, Jeff Steinberg, spoke to the manager of Fields around March or maybe February of this year when we had snow which further complicated things. After one discussion where she admitted they had cracked down on non leaseholder permit parking, she has not been getting back on the phone with any of us... With cooperation. They have a lot of parking area, we have checked it out. They could accommodate their visitors and whoever is living in those apartments, I believe. Okay, there is one other thing I want to point out about this. Of concern to all of us is crime and unfortunately our street has had quite a lot of it. In late 2010, there was a large law enforcement operation and raid on a duplex building at 107 Mayfair. The tenants who were there at the time no longer live there. I understand that drugs were involved and that it was a multitask force raid that was conducted. On May 11 Page COUNCIL MEETING June 14, 2011 12 of this year, and is still a mystery to us residence what happened exactly, there was a bloody garment left on the street. In fact, it was in front of my house at 106 Mayfair. It was picked up by the police and it involves some kind of apparent stabbing incident and I don't know who was involved... Was it someone on the street or was it people from all the street? I have come out in the morning and found half drunken large beer bottles, you know the colt 45 type on the curb. Perhaps, all of you remember an incident maybe over a dozen years ago of a shooting on Edwards ferry and Mayfair in which a tragic loss of one of our neighbors from Queen Street took place. I worked late. As a woman, who knows all of this going on, I have lived there and been a property owner since 1987, I am afraid when I have to park all the way down at the end of the block to walk back because I know there's a lot of unknowns going on in the street. It would be very valuable for me to be able to park in front of my house, as all of us. I'm very proud of my neighbors and so forth and I think with the permit parking, we could get this under control. Thank you. David Cherry, 103 Mayfair Drive, my wife and I have been there since 1996. Mayor Umstattd, Council members, staff members, I am here in the same causes my neighbors. In the past month or maybe even a year, it has gotten much, much worse. There is an issue of coming home late at night, it means you don't get a parking space in your own immediate neighborhood. My wife works in Washington and comes home after the rush -hour between 8 and 9:30. I am frequently coming home from work late so one of us has the pad and the other one has to go way down the block passed Cavalier arms or even beyond to park. We have tried stratagems to accommodate, one is to park one of our cars forward into the yard in front of the car that's on the pad. Sometimes it works, but it can be cumbersome in terms of switching places if one comes out first. It's also not nice to be parking in your yard. We have also struggled to park for cars between this driveway in that driveway, if no cars are very big, it works. But if we do that and someone else comes along from elsewhere and doesn't think about what they're doing, they park in the space and take two spaces. Even if we are doing both these things, this is just kind of a drop in the bucket. Pictures that Nona Hayward presented are very helpful. I wish we had an infrared camera for after 10 o'clock at night because the picture with the three white cars in a row, that gives you a hint of what it's like. After 10 o'clock or 9:30, it's just like being in... parking in downtown Washington in the middle of the business day. Finally, others have also emphasized that people who come from another neighborhood don't necessarily care too much about their candy wrappers and their beer bottles. We have experienced that too. Nona has been the police woman on the block for years. I do it in my immediate area and I think that summarizes the case. I would like to make one correction to what Michelle said. The raid involving the drugs was at 105 Mayfair. I say that because I don't want the people at 107 to be considered... Jeanine Pappas, Mdm. Mayor, Council members it's a pleasure to be here. I would really... I almost don't have anything to say after Mrs. Steinberg said exactly what I wanted to say. I'm going to add the neighborhood is getting to be 12 1 Page COUNCIL MEETING June 14, 2011 trashy. I'm bought my house here in 1983 at the time I was at the Pentagon. I had a very good job and I was very happy to come home. It was peaceful even though we had the old Loudoun house. But it was still... Now I don't know what happened. It's horrible. She is talking about the shirt that was full of blood, I saw it. I walk my dogs three times... All my neighbors know me and see me. I have two corgis. I'm not the queen she has seven. I walked the dogs two or three times a day. I saw this bloody shirt. I almost picked it up. I thought it was a dog. Drops of blood all the way up to my next -door neighbors... drops. We don't know what happened. Maybe somebody else knows, but it was pretty sick. As far as the parking is concerned, it's bad. I don't know where the people come from, really. I know all of my neighbors. Myself, I have a little... Which I won't be able to use much longer... I have a disability... On Edwards ferry I have a little type of a garage, if you want to call it a carport and it's this steep. As you see me, I have two broken ribs... I had a car accident. So I'm not able to use that for a while and I have to park in the street. To tell you the truth Mdm. Mayor, I'm scared now in this neighborhood. I am alone and I'm not young, as you can see... I'm 85 and it's not nice any longer. I wonder what we can do about the parking. I don't know what you're going to decide. If I may, I don't know if we talk about this, maybe not here... Handicapped parking for me. I don't know if we can. This may be out of place now. One thing I would like to mention is the speed people are going. I have called the police. I have called several people. I think I've called Mr. Thomas Mason in public works and asked about a speed bump, maybe one. I forgot who told me, I'm not going to name the person because I really forgot, but one person told me we may be able to do something but in neighborhoods, upscale neighborhoods... So what? We are not upscale? But we are human and we don't want to be run over. We are not upscale, no we are not but we deserve a speed bump, at least one. That's all I have to say because all my neighbors spoke for me. Thank you, Madam. Maria Flores, declined to speak. Michelle Steinberg: if it would be appropriate, I would like to ask how to go about asking the town Council to consider a resolution on our behalf of what we presented. Mayor: it's fine. The town manager has heard everything and it's completely within his authority to attempt to remedy this situation. I'm sure the Council could certainly pass a resolution requesting that he try to help, but he is extremely helpful anyway and he has listened very carefully. I have full confidence that is there is anything he can legally do to help you out, he will try his hardest to do that. John, do you want to say anything? Michelle Steinberg: Or do you have any questions for us? Wells: No, I don't. I think the information is very clear and I thought the presentation and the information presented by the residents made a very clear 13 1 Page COUNCIL MEETING June 14, 2011 case. I will be working very quickly with Mr. Grow and I would expect to make a decision within about 24 hours. Wright: if I may, John, can you also have the community enhancement team take a look at this area as well? Wells: Yes. Hammier: Madam Mayor, if I may... that was exactly my reaction. This is far more than a parking issue. This is a core, quality of life. We are talking about crime, violence, significant issues and Wells: I will be following up with the appropriate departments and report back to Council on what steps we will be taking. Reid: In terms of the speeding issue, the Standing Residential Traffic Committee... it may very well be a good idea to put the Smart trailer out there. It looks like the folks' work schedules are such that they are not going to be able to go to the traffic committee. I don't see why we can't have the Police just put the Smart trailer out there and get some data and see if it is really a priority for traffic calming. Wells: I will be working with staff on following up pretty aggressively on all these issues. This sounded very serious. Dunn: I just had a question or two. How many.... It sounds like a lot of the overflow parking on your street is coming from the apartments. Do you know how many parking spaces are available per unit? Grow: On the street itself, there are 155 spaces, excuse me... there are 55 spaces on the roadway on Mayfair Street. Of those... it's like 95 percent of those were taken up when we did our survey. Most of the parking is taken up on the street, it meets the criteria. We have worked with the police department and they have not run the license, but we have found that 50% of the people who are parking there do not have town stickers, so they are not even residents of the town that are parking there. Dunn: Do the apartments have their own parking, or are they having to park on the street? Which is the case? Grow: I'm not sure. Are you talking about Washington Street? About the apartments there? Again, I'm not sure what the parking situation is there. We haven't looked at that to survey what their parking is and if it is full or not. Dunn: Just as an additional comment, I wouldn't ask John... Mr. Wells, to delay this for the traffic committee to review. I think the folks have reviewed it enough. Let's move forward without adding any more layers of government. 14 I Pag COUNCIL MEETING June 14, 2011 Nona Hayward: I have lived next door to Cavalier Arms for 35 years and I believe it was about two to three years ago that they implemented the permit parking. To my understanding, for each of the units there and there may be 96 units there, but I'm not sure on that, but they are allowed one space. They have some visitor's spots. As an example, there were three or four yellow cabs parked in the visitor's spots. One morning, one of the yellow cabs came over and dropped a lady off and she drove her car away. My friend in Cavalier Arms says that people are parking all over Washington Street, anywhere that they can. Also about three years ago, a gentleman that is not on the lease in Fields Apartments approached me as I was picking up trash and asked me if people got towed from our street and I said "no, as long as they had everything current... stickers, license plates, no stolen license plates, both Virginia license plates, as long as everything was legal He said he was manager of a restaurant here in Leesburg and I had noticed his car on our street. He said he was home on Mondays. He left at 10 in the morning and he got home at 11 at night. I don't think he can make it on our street at 11 at night. I don't know where he goes, but I know for a fact that he is not on the lease there, but he lives there. That, I think, is what is going on. A lot of the partying, a lot of the partying I think was because of the drug house, but it is just all one day... it's one thing and then the other. It's just the way it is. Hammler: If there are overcrowding issues, may we also follow -up to ensure that everybody knows what the procedure is for getting things documented because we follow- through aggressively on overcrowding issues. So, if you are aware of certain residences where there may, for instance, maybe people not on leases, those are additional things that we need to follow -up on. Mr. Cherry: This is a comment specific to my end of the block where we have these duplexes. These duplexes are very spacious. So, there are correspondingly are a lot of people in them. In our case, 103, we have five people in our house and we have four cars. That isn't true for everybody, but it's probably not very far above average. So, you have to consider that we do have considerable parking needs. Mrs. Pappas: I was just wondering about... I have seen in some nice neighborhoods "Neighborhood Watch Can we have that? Mayor: Yes, the police department is always very enthusiastic about working with the community to set that up. Wells: I will have Officer Tidmore get in touch with the neighbors. Mrs. Pappas: Do you think it would help? Mayor: I think it would help. Mrs. Pappas: It may scare people. 15 Pan COUNCIL MEETING June 14, 2011 Mayor: That is true. Mrs. Pappas: Madam Mayor, if you would please think about the speed bump. I am retired now, so I am in the street maybe a little more than my neighbors because I walk my dogs. A couple of times, I have had to.... You know I always hold them. I am going to show you what I do. Let's say you are driving... like this people understand that I am getting you to slow down. I don't want to tell you what they do to me. That would be rude. Very rude. Hammier: Ms. Pappas, just so you don't feel like you are the only one. I was on my street last weekend. I did the same thing and there was a word that I won't repeat. It is happening all over the town which will come up in our resolution about... I mean at some point this is getting out of control, everywhere. The public hearing was closed at 9:16 Mayor: To all of you who came out, thank you. Mr. Wells will be in touch, I'm sure with all of you, within the next 24 -48 hours to let you know what he has decided. This has been extremely helpful to us. So, thank you very much. b. Approving TLSE 2011 -0001 Theriot Extended Family Residence The public hearing was opened at 9:16 p.m. Brian Boucher: What this request is, for an extended family residence. The applicants, Bart and Beth Theriot, are seeking special exception approval to construct a 900 square foot extended family residence at 114 Morven Park Rd., N.W. actually, this has been on the books for seven years but this is the first application of this type that we have had. I'll just kind of give you the definition of what is it is intended to be. Within a single family residence, or within a conforming accessory structure, which is the case here, a living area designed to provide independence and privacy by allowing a separate bedroom, bathroom, dining area, and kitchen for an extended family member. I'll explain all that later. The structure will be one story and approximately 18 feet in height. It will have architectural shingles, vinyl siding and will be used by Lawrence Theriot and his wife, Beth, who are the parents of Bart. Bart and his wife, Beth, living in the main house. They would use it when they are in town. To show you... To familiarize you with the area, it's on Morven Park Road. To the north is... This is the Heritage Hall nursing home. This is the recent expansion over at the Loudoun Memorial Hospital where they put in a new apartment building. Then you have a residential single family detached here to the North and to the west. To the south is about a 3 acre vacant field. The zoning is R -4 and I'll just tell you now that means that you can have one house for every 10,000 ft. if you subdivided it. So you have the potential for as many as eight units here. You have to put some type of road to get back there so it would probably drop down the number of units to perhaps six. So you can see with the potential density is. The 16 1 EP g COUNCIL MEETING June 14, 2011 town plan calls this downtown. Really the test in the town plan for compatibility for special exception use is... The test is compatibility with adjacent uses for special exception uses. Talking about that a little bit, you wanted to be similar in character to the things that are in the area and from a town plan standpoint the fact that the single family residence is actually residential, it's essentially a small house so it's compatible with the homes in the area. Again is a permissible use in the R -4 district. You need a special exception approved by counsel to achieve one. They actually... As part of this going to some other parts of the town plan they actually achieve the natural resources element because as part of this they would preserve some buffer area... Some actually existing trees on some portions of the property. From a community design standpoint, it works in that it's a small accessory structure, so would essentially look like an out building to the main house on the property. Again, from a land -use standpoint, you have residential Maxtor residential. This is actually the special exception plat. Just a orient you a little bit, this is the main house and there is a pool there. Lucky them. They are also proposing a pool house to be built eventually. That is not actually part of the special exception approval, that's an accessory structure that's by right in the R4 district. Again, from an orientation standpoint, the Heritage Hall is over on this boundary. Over here is the hospital and medical office buildings, and again here's Morven Park Road and to the West is residential with one fellow living there and a vacant field here. Now just to give you an aerial view, that's a few years old because if you kind of reorient things, this is the Theriot's property, if you can see it down there in the lower right. This is essentially their property. Over here today, you would actually see a lot of parking spaces because that has been developed, again with the office building expansion on the hospital site. So, looking at this stand of trees next to heritage Hall in particular, they are going to condition to preserve. They need a buffer their, 17 a half feet on their side. 35 feet separate those uses. They are willing to stipulate that as part of the special exception. Also when you're looking at the property overall, you see a number of trees, about in this area. Around that area is where they would be building this building. Actually all the large trees will remain. They actually want to take advantage of the trees on the property. They may lose a few of the small ones, but that's to the extent back there. Now if you look here on Morven Park Road, you take a look at this place, you can see is heavily treed. The picture on the left is looking at the main house and the picture on the lower right is actually the garage building and the main house is right here, just the vegetation obscures it pretty well. And a couple more pictures. The houses here, this is on the northern side. There is a single- family detached dwelling a little farther over this way. It gives you an idea of the buffer that exists there. And again, on the lower right you are looking across the vacant field to their garage. You can't even see the house from there. This is their property line running that way. As far as traffic management goes, you are essentially adding a small single family detached house to the property. Our traffic management section found no appreciable impact on site, so no need to make any transportation changes. The applicant will use the existing driveway that I showed you in an earlier photo, right here. They would just simply use that area. They would also Park... There is existing parking their to accommodate two additional cars. So there would be no change on site. Again, 171 Page COUNCIL MEETING June 14, 2011 emphasizing the buffer yard's, you get some of those preserved as part of this. So for the duration of this unit, you would have that 17 a half foot buffer, a lot of those mature trees preserved on their property. Again, we are talking about preserving the buffer, particularly here and here. To make sure we know what it looks like, the applicant has submitted elevations. We would condition that the elevations be compatible with what has been submitted. Here is what they have submitted to this point to give you some idea what it would look like. Again, one story, a small porch on the one side. The applicant is trying to make it compatible with the architecture that exists on the site. One thing about extended family residences... they have a lot of criteria that you have to meet that is special use standards. In fact, there are nine of them in the zoning ordinance. I will go through them real quickly and show. I think these were created to try to prevent people from building a dwelling with a kitchen and everything else in it and then renting it out to other people. What the owners have to do is limit the area. It can be no more than 900 square feet. The applicants are proposing to build a 900 square foot accessory dwelling. The main house has to be owner occupied. That is the owner of the main house and the folks in the accessory family residence have to be related by blood, marriage or guardianship. In this case, again, they are the in -laws. They are the father and mother of the son and his wife who are going to be in the main house. Again, the location. It can be either inside the house or a separate structure. Here it is a separate structure. We have a stipulation that the residences cannot be separately metered for electric or water. Again, you want it on the same bill so the likelihood of people cheating is minimized. That is the case of how it happened here. The occupancy is limited. Again, you get no more than two people who are related by blood, marriage, etc. Again, in this case, they are the parents of the owner of the main house on the property. They have to demonstrate a temporary need. This after all, is something that will only last for the time the parents actually wish to occupy it because they are the only folks who can. That will be stipulated. An interesting feature of this ordinance is there can be no rental payment. It says that the occupants of the extended family residence cannot pay the folks in the main house while they are there. I think the intent of that was.... Because there was a fair amount of discussion of this at the planning commission was to inhibit people from thinking they could rent it out to anybody else. There are a lot of stipulations in this ordinance... They specify who can actually live there. So we have a lot of zoning enforcement tools in this case as opposed to an excess of occupancy where people might appear without us knowing. Here they actually have to do a lot of things to prove to us who is in the house. We could ask them to prove to us who's in the house. A very different thing from the average excess of occupancy. They have to acknowledge that they understand all of this. I have actually put together an affidavit that basically says they understand that they are going to be subject to conditions of this ordinance and anything else the Council puts on this use. It goes right through it, the number of occupants, who the occupants will be, relation of the occupants to the main residents, the location, size of the extended family residence. All that stuff. Along with the conditions that you would approve, they have to sign this statement and notarized it. It's really an enforcement tool for us, it helps a lot in case somebody starts doing 18 1 Page COUNCIL MEETING June 14, 2011 something not in accordance with the special exception. And then, there's an annual staff review. We have to check this out every year and the good news is we are a little more automated than we were in the past so we can put things into LM IS and the like to trigger these things for us. They also have to certify annually that they are abiding by... That they are following the conditions in the special exception. That's pretty much unlike any other special exception that we do so there are a lot of controls on this. The applicant in this case have said they understand it and will comply. As a result of all that, staff recommends approval of this extended family residence subject to the conditions that are contained in the town councils public hearing staff report dated June 14. That's all nine of those things that I went through with two extra ones. One is a substantial conformance with the plat, you know preserving the trees that etc., substantial conformance with elevations, and then they don't get any waivers unless you approve them. In this case are not really asking for any. So it's actually a fairly restricted special exception. I didn't want to fail to mention that at the meeting on June 2, the planning commission recommended approval 5 -1 subject to conditions that you all have in your report. I'm not going to go through... I just talked about all of them, but essentially there are a whole lot of conditions here. Having said all that, that concludes my presentation. I will note that the applicant, Larry Theriot, is here also with his representative, Dave Bowers, and Julie Meyers of Stantec. They actually were not looking to make any presentation. They are here to answer any questions you may have about the application. Dunn: Well, I almost couldn't see their property from all the public notice signs that were out in front of it. It... you know as you were talking and going through all these regulations, I thought of the treasures of Sierra Madre, where they said "badges, we don't need no stinking badges." In this case, substitute the word badges for regulations. It almost seems like folks who are legitimately trying to do something for themselves and their families are getting run over by regulations and those people who don't need no stinking regulations and are going to violate them anyway are overcrowding as we just heard tonight. This almost seems ridiculous. I know we are trying to protect ourselves from ourselves, but this... I am just amazed by this. I am just ready to move forward and pass this. I don't want to keep these people here any longer than they have to. Thanks. Reid: I have to echo Council member Dunn's remarks that if someone wants to build what basically is a granny cottage, right? Which is a growing thing that is happening in this country where people are doing this for their mothers, fathers, so they can have them close. Yet, somebody can just go ahead and rent a duplex or a house out on whatever the street that we got the complaint about... what was it? Fairfield? No, no, the other street that we got the complaint about, in the northeast? Right, they can just rent it out and don't have to worry about anything in the world and the burden of proof is on us to determine whether in fact there is a blood relationship. So, yes, I am ready to 19I Pa COUNCIL MEETING June 14, 2011 approve this; however, I do have a question for you, Brian. This strip of land was discussed by the traffic committee many years ago as a potential... Martinez: Madam Mayor. Point of order... does this have anything to do with the resolution? I personally would like to get this done and passed. Mayor: Ken, thus far is within the scope of this. Ken, go ahead. Reid: I can ask it off line. They are using just the back yard. It is not the whole property, right? For the granny cottage. Boucher: Right, it is going to be located relatively close to the main house and they are not looking to develop any of the rest of the site. Reid: Do they own that whole strip? Boucher: They own the area that is within the trees. Yeah. Reid: But this little block here, is that all theirs or is it different property owners? Boucher: What they own is basically this. So, there is land here that they do not own, that's adjacent. Wright: I would echo the comments that you probably just have a few more requirements than are necessary, which brings up an interesting question. What happens when the criteria are no longer met? Do they have to tear the house down? Boucher: No, and that's the interesting thing from an enforcement standpoint. It is there. It exists. It gets to remain. The problem is... if you want to look enforcement down the road. Let's say the Theriots sell it. Bart doesn't own it anymore. He and his wife move on and the parents are living somewhere else. You have got this outbuilding that's fully equipped as a residence that no one can live in as a residence. It would be an enforcement issue for us. Wright: So, when they move and I buy the house, and my daughter gives me a headache, I can't kick her out into that building? Boucher: If she is living out there permanently, they would need to come in and ask to change the person who is living there, because as part of the approval, we specify specific people. Wright: That makes my head hurt, so we will need to look at how to fix this going forward because as several folks have talked about, this is a need that all of us as we are watching our parents age, it is going to be a recurring need that I don't necessarily need to see everyone that's got the ability to have an accessory 20 1 Page COUNCIL MEETING June 14, 2011 piece of property on their land come to me and ask permission for their parents to live in the back yard. Irby: (inaudible). Boucher: I think this... no one has actually asked for this in a long time... yes, there are a lot of regulations to this. The world is changing and we have been actually looking at what some other jurisdictions have been doing. There are things that I think either in a batch or some point we are going to bring back to you because a lot of communities across the country are beginning to allow these granny cottages by right and frankly they are not worrying a whole lot... about the only stipulation they will have is owner occupied... you can't buy this as rental property.... Stick people in the main house and then rent out the other one. Usually what they say, if you own the main house, you can rent it out and we are not going to question because they assume if you are living there, you are probably not going to put a terrible person right behind you, if you can avoid it. So, that seems to be the big restriction and I think that's something we are looking at. It's a lot simpler than what we've got here. Wright: When you bring that in a batch, you will make sure however we adjust that in the batch will not make these guys come for another special exception to have that the same? Boucher: No, I think if we were going to go and become actually more generous, if that's the word... certainly more flexible, then that would apply to them. Martinez: Thank you for bringing this to light. Because it is an opportunity to clean up some regulations to help people out like you guys and I just want to vote and get it done for them and let them go home. Hammler: On average, what would a homeowner have to spend to go through this process with the town? Boucher: Actually, Mr. Theriot could probably explain that to you. The fee itself is not overwhelming, but I think the rest of the stuff might be a little expensive. Larry Theriot: Madam Mayor and Council, as a prospective new resident of Leesburg, I want to compliment the Council. The kinds of issues you guys have to deal with on a day to day basis are really amazing and I want to congratulate you on how you have dealt with your citizens here tonight. It's very, very impressive. All we wanted to do was move into your town. We own and operate and built Montessori school in Ashburn and we have been here for ten years. Our son was able to buy this wonderful property and it seemed like a wonderful idea for us to be able to move into the backyard with him and be with our grandkids. Then, thank goodness, I had Dave Bowers and Julie behind me. 211 ►,�t COUNCIL MEETING June 14, 2011 That's the good news... and Byron. He did a wonderful job. But as a guinea pig, I can guarantee you that I am the first and last who will ever go through this process. $15,000 so far for a 900 square foot residence. $15,000. Thank you. Hammler: Thank you for being willing to bring that forward. That is significant and something this Council also needs to consider. Mr. Bowers, did you want to say something, sir? Boucher: He was actually going to say for the record it also includes the site plan, because there is a kind of... mini -site plan that is required because they are putting in water lines and sewer lines and things. Good news is it includes that at least too... the building plan. Hammler: Council member Dunn pretty much summed up exactly what was going through my head... the stark contrast of the last public input session that we just had. If we could take all of Brian's energy and his incredible ability to do what he does and apply it to some really hard problem, which is what Mayfair is dealing with... I think we would be on to something. Because, I am feeling like I am in a Monty Python movie. Butler: Thank you Madam Mayor. Thank you, in an odd way, Mr. Theriot for bringing this to our attention. Something that we haven't tried in a long time so our watchful eye hasn't gone onto it yet. We have actually met before because my two sons went to your son's Montessori school for two years a while ago. An excellent school. I have a couple of questions... just for grins. Why was the vote 5 -1 on the planning commission? I'm not asking who is the one, I'm just asking what the objection was. Boucher: I would say the individual didn't express any statement as to why, not publically. Theriot: I heard a complaint... someone said that it would be nice if the architecture... the facings were more of a 1912 house than a house. Butler: okay, so at any rate my only other comment is I'm sure took you 1000 times longer to create that PowerPoint than it did for me to figure out how was going to vote on this application. So with that, thank you very much. Mayor: Brian, I appreciate the staff report reference to the discussion we had on rental payment issue. I'm going to request that the Council eliminate 4f, the no rental payment as a condition on this and the reason is families when they do their estate planning need the maximum flexibility to either pay rent or not pay rent. We should not be mandating that there be no rental payment because there is always the risk that the IRS will deem there is imputed income to Larry and Beth Theriot because they are living there rent free or the IRS may impute a) that their son and daughter -in -law are giving them a gift and that gets into all kinds of potentially complicated tax issues that I don't think we, as a town, need 22 1 Page COUNCIL MEETING June 14, 2011 to be requiring through this process. They need flexibility. The parents may want to pay rent for tax planning purposes and estate planning purposes were not but I don't think we should be getting involved in IRS issues because of the special exception. So I'm going to request when we approve this tonight, that we eliminate 4f, no rental payment. Yes, I'll make a motion for this and exclude 4f. We haven't yet closed the public hearing. We don't have anybody signed up to speak, is there anybody that wants to speak. All right. The public hearing was closed at 9:40 p.m. On a motion by Mayor Umstattd, seconded by Council Member Reid, the following was proposed with the elimination of Condition 4f: RESOLUTION 2011 -077 Approving TLSE 2011 -0001 Theriot to Permit an Extended Family Residence at 114 Morven Park Road, N.W. Martinez: on item I, we have annual recertification. I don't know if that's really an issue we need to deal with. Once it's been certified, just let it go. Mayor: Brian, do you have any comment on that? Boucher: no as you all are empowered. These are special use conditions and you all can change our eliminate any of them that you desire. Mayor: I would accept it as a friendly amendment to also eliminate condition 4i. Ken, do you accept that? Reid: Yes. Dunn: Mdm. Mayor, I think too, I know the reason why we have these regulations is to protect people from renting out properties that are supposed to be residences. And that's understandable. It also looking at this property, then I don't know if you all want a bigger property than 900 ft. but when I see 900 ft. I'm thinking, "oh I need two of those in fact, I know my wife wants to get one of these for me. I don't know... to me 900 square feet seem small. You said the purpose was to almost dissuade people from even wanting to live there. Boucher: I will just say this. The reason is these are supposed to be cottage so they limit them to 900 square feet maximum or a percentage of the house. I wall so say this in the ordinances I have looked at typically, and I have looked at a number of them, Seattle has one and some other places, they will limit them to 800 or 900 ft. I haven't seen anyone who is gone above 900 ft. Why we happen to have that too, I don't know Dunn: can I offer a suggestion. Can you bring up a picture of the lot again? It almost seems like, we talked about buffers... It seems like they would 23 I E'age COUNCIL MEETING June 14, 2011 want the buffers from what's around them, not buffering this cottage from the parking lot. I'm just baffled by that. I would say though that in this case with such a large lot, rather than looking at it as a percentage of the big house, why not make it a percentage of the lot. Because you're dealing with a lot that is going to hide two more big houses. So it just seems to me that I would be willing, Mdm. Mayor, if the applicant wants it... I mean if you would rather have a bigger square footage I would also recommend that we eliminate the... Or increase the square footage to 1500 ft. 2000 ft. Whatever... 900 seems so small. Boucher: the other thing I would caution... And I think it's pretty typical when you see these is these are smaller structures because there's a principal house on it. You just need to be careful that you don't make two full sized houses on one lot. You can vary the size here but again that I think it would lose its status as kind of an accessory to the main house and it becomes literally another main house. I'd say the intent of the ordinance was at least a smaller building, because again it calls it an accessory dwelling unit and there is a definition for accessory and it does mean smaller. So, just to keep that in mind. Dunn: if I could ask the applicant a question. If the restriction of 900 feet were not there, what would you have chosen? Theriot: or original intent was to build something about 1200 ft. and my wife would thank you, Mr. Dunn, forever because 900 ft. is small and we were really thinking about 1200 ft. Dunn: by the way, are these meant to be one level or can it be two levels? Boucher: they can only be 20 feet tall, so yes as an accessory structure would have is a one story. Dunn: I would ask if the motion... 1200 is acceptable to you? Mayor: Brian, do you still view this as a smaller auxiliary structure? Boucher: Given the scale of the main house, which is well over 2000 square feet in total, then I think it would still be substantially smaller than the main structure on the property. Reid: Can you amend it under the ordinance? Boucher: You can, because again that is a condition of the special exception... a limitation and you do have the authority where you think appropriate to modify this. 241 Page COUNCIL MEETING June 14, 2011 Mayor: I am comfortable accepting it as a friendly amendment. I want of make sure we don't lose any Council votes that might have been supportive of 900. Do Council members object to going to 1200? Marty? Martinez: No, as a matter of fact, that was my second friendly amendment to increase the size because 900 would not... no way. I would like to think that... I'll tell you what? Let's save the debate for when you are going to bring those changes to the ordinance. I am ready to move the question. Mayor: Ken, do you accept 1200? All right. Anybody have any other comments before we go to a vote. Hammler: Just to confirm, we did read that there is a limit of two people so for instance in some other situation I can see where the stresses of school age children, or sheer number of people would have been an issue, but that's not one here. Mayor: So the motion has been amended to be approval with amendments to 4a, the area limitation has been raised to 1200 square feet, 4f, the no rental payment has been eliminated as a condition entirely so they have the option to charge rent or not and finally, 4i has been eliminated relieving them of the annual recertification requirement. That's the motion. Wright: one quick question, just thinking of the amount of money that has been spent... since we upped the square footage, if they decide to do what they have already drawn, they can do that, right? So it's up to them not to exceed? Boucher: I think that would be the wiser way to put it, if they decided they did not want to go through any additional processes to get that extra 300 feet approved and I am not sure what that would be from a site planning standpoint, then putting it "up to" is probably a wiser way to phrase it. Wright: Madam mayor, what you meant to say is "not to exceed Mayor: Right, to a maximum... or not to exceed 1200 square feet. Boucher: may make one other point? They do have elevations here that show a 900 ft. building and you haven't seen what a 1200 ft. building would look like... Dunn: I'm sure they will like it. I'm sure they will like it. Boucher: Just pointing that out. The motion was approved by the following vote: 25 Page COUNCIL MEETING June 14, 2011 Aye: Butler, Dunn, Hammler, Martinez, Reid, Wright, and Mayor Umstattd Nay: None Vote: 7 -0 c. Amending the Town Code for Items from the 2011 General Assembly The public hearing was opened at 9:47 p.m. Jeanette Irby: as was brought forward to the Council several months ago by Ms. Fields and myself, when the general assembly finished their work, the town code needed some minor adjustments. That's what is before you this evening. Very briefly, disabled veterans and their surviving spouse are now eligible for tax relief and it would mirror the County application process. We wouldn't be doing anything new, we would be doing the exactly the same thing we do with the elderly and disabled. Updating the ordinance to prevent discharging firearms within the town and the town parks. Authorizing the discharge of pneumatic guns on private property and we had previously discouraged that practice but the general assembly has indicated that will be allowed under certain conditions. Those are airguns, air soft guns, paint guns your BB guns. Then there are minor changes with respect to the collection process for doing when sewer and water bills which requires the town code update. That to amend the town code with respect to the use of air guns and other weapons in the park as to make it clear that although you can certainly carry your weapon into the park and you can certainly carry a concealed weapon into the park, you cannot discharge it from the park nor can you discharge it into the park. Those are briefly the updates I am bringing before Council this evening. If you have any questions I will certainly be happy to answer them. Reid: yes, if I'm allowed to by Mr. Martinez. You have a lot of prohibitions on firearms. You know we've had a complaint from a person about the signs in the park. Irby: there is nothing wrong with the sign. He doesn't like the sign because the sign says "prohibiting weapons pursuant to 18.2 which includes... Which does not include guns, it includes knives and numb chucks and other types of weapons. That's what that statute refers to. I have explained to this individual that we are not banning guns from the park, but to the extent that we can prohibit other weapons other than firearms, council has done so. Reid: what does he want us to do? Specifically say firearms are okay? Irby: yes, he wants us to change the sign to say firearms are permitted. Reid: and you are saying we don't have to do that? Irby: we do not have to do that. 26 1 Page COUNCIL MEETING June 14, 2011 Reid: and I asked you a question earlier about that 350. Did you get back to me on that? Irby: I did, I sent you an email. Reid: We don't have to do anything? Mayor: Jeanette, thank you very much. Is there any member of the... we have nobody signed up. But, is there any member of the public who would like to speak to this, including our externs? The public hearing was closed at 9:52 and p.m. On a motion by Council Member Martinez, seconded by Council Member Butler, the following was proposed: ORDINANCE 2011 -0 -013 To Amend and Reordain the Town Code: i. Chapter 20 (License, Taxation and Miscellaneous Regulations), Article II (Taxation Generally), Section 20 -23 (Exemption Authorized) to Allow for an Exemption from Taxes on Real Property for Disabled Veterans ii. Chapter 24 (Offenses and Miscellaneous Provisions), Article IV (Offenses Against Public Safety), Division 2 (Weapons), Section 24 -157 (Discharging Firearms) and Section 24 -158 Use of Pneumatic Guns on Private Property iii. Chapter 26 (Parks and Recreation), Article II (Park Rules), Section 26 -24 (Prohibited Uses of Parks) Hunting, Traps and Discharge of Firearms iv. Chapter 34 (Utilities), Article II (Water System), Division 2 (User and Service Charges), Section 34 -70 (Delinquent Charges as Lien) v. Chapter 34 (Utilities), Article III (Sewers and Sewage Disposal), Division 2 (Sewer Use Charges), Section 34 -161 (Delinquent Charges as Lien) The motion was approved by the following vote: Aye: Butler, Dunn, Hammler, Martinez, Reid, Wright, and Mayor Umstattd Nay: None Vote: 7 -0 d. Amending the Town Code to Allow Permanent Vehicle Decals The public hearing was opened at 9:52 p.m. 27 1 Page COUNCIL MEETING June 14, 2011 Norm Butts: Your honor, members of Council, you are asked this evening to amend the town code to provide for permanent vehicle decals in place of the current program that requires an annual vehicle decal. All other changes are essentially the same. I would be happy to answer any questions. Reid: are we allowed to provide for a fee like a partial fee... There's some kind of a quirk in the law or the current system where you have to pay for new decal if you get a new car in the middle of the year. You can't get a rebate... You can't get a credit towards that? Butts: will you do have to... If you get a new car and you can't remove the decal you're going to have to get another decal. Reid: yes you got to get a new decal, but you got a pay a new fee. You can get a prorated fee towards the new decal. Butts: I don't think we provide for that, do we? Irby: all right, the decal really just indicates that you have registered your vehicle. The $25 is a registration fee. It's not really for the decal. People confuse those so if you get a new car, you're getting a new decal which are also registering a new vehicle for $25. Reid: I see, so even if you have like six months last on your $25, there is no provision in the law for you to get like $12 back? Irby: right, there's no provision in the law. They get prorated their personal property tax, which they get back but not the registration fee. Reid: well I'm glad we're doing this because I think we've had a lot of complaints about the decal and I'm glad we're going to a permanent decal. Thank you. Martinez: well I've got a neighbor that's going to be disappointed because he just perfected a way to take the decal off and replace it and now is not going to be able to pass this method along. He can't sell it or anything. Oh, the county sticker! Let's move on. Hammler: I just wanted to say that I did want to follow up in a parallel way about the fees associated with paying any online taxes and sundries and the fact that we are charging for echecks and processing things like this with the town. But I don't have any direct questions on this item. There were no citizens to speak on this public hearing. The public hearing was closed at 9:55 p.m. 28 1 P 0 e COUNCIL MEETING June 14, 2011 On a motion by Council Member Martinez, seconded by Council Member Reid, the following was proposed: ORDINANCE 2011 -0 -014 To Amend and Reordain Chapter 32, Article III of the Code of the Town of Leesburg, Virginia, 2009, as Amended and Section 32 -91 of Appendix B, Fee Schedule Regarding Vehicle Licenses Reid: I just wanted folks in Leesburg to realize that they don't have to worry about taking that decal off even though Mr. Martinez's neighbor... I hope you he can explain how he has been able to do it. I think this is a very good move that we have done here. I am very grateful. Dunn: the only comment I would make is I would rather see the overall fee for this lower. I doubt that I would get a second or even a motion. I would rather see the overall fee lowered. As I understand it, they are going to be able to have a permanent decal, they pay one time or are they still going to pay annually? Irby: the state code requires an annual fee. Dunn: again, I would rather see that annual payment reduced. Wright: just one thing for the public benefit, as I understand it you do have a scripted off one more time... With feeling, put the permanent sticker on, right? Butts: You have to take the current one off in order to put the permanent one on, absolutely. Wright: You have to give me the permanent one. So, Marty, we have one year to do it. Hammler: I actually do need... I have the sticker. Do I just hold on to it until I get my permanent one? What do I do? (inaudible). Butler: Yeah, I'm glad because it seems like every sticker I put on starts to wobble and get sideways... more and more... I'm glad of this. Thanks. The motion was approved by the following vote: Aye: Butler, Dunn, Hammler, Martinez, Reid, Wright, and Mayor Umstattd Nay: None Vote: 7 -0 29 1 Page COUNCIL MEETING June 14, 2011 e. Amending Appendix B (Fee Schedule) of the Town Code to Increase the "Bad Check Fee" As Set Forth in Chapter 2, Article IV, Section 2 -163 of the Leesburg Town Code The public hearing was opened at 9:58 p.m. Irby: Thank you Madam Mayor, members of Council, this is just to amend our town code... several years ago in fact the General Assembly allowed localities to increase the bad check fees as well as private merchants from $35 to $50. Rest assured, this does not begin to cover the cost for collection should we be written a bad check, so it's just to conform to the state code. Wright: Just one and I think you answered it in your comments is that we are going to incur a cost greater than $50 if we have one bounced on us. Irby: Yes, if we are in a situation where they passed a bad check, we never really recoup the cost of that endeavor because there is also a bank fee attached to that as well. Wright: The bank fees are getting close to that number, if I recall correctly. Hammler: Jeanette or John, how big of an issue is this in terms of the town and the expense of bad checks? Irby: With respect to the collection practice, it is an issue. I can't say what other checks are resolved in finance. They resolve a lot of those things before it gets to my office, so I don't have that information for you. Hammier: It would be good if we could be proactive and determine how best to avert those added costs. Thank you. There were no members of the public wishing to speak to this public hearing. The public hearing was closed at 10:00 p.m. On a motion by Council Member Martinez, seconded by Council Member Butler, the following was proposed: ORDINANCE 2011 -0 -015 Amending Appendix B Fee Schedule of the Town Code to Increase the Bad Check Fee from $35.00 to $50.00 The motion was approved by the following vote: Aye: Butler, Dunn, Hammler, Martinez, Reid, Wright, and Mayor Umstattd Nay: None 30 1 P COUNCIL MEETING June 14, 2011 Vote: 7 -0 11. ORDINANCES a. None 12. RESOLUTIONS AND MOTIONS a. Goal, Objectives, and Process for a Bike /Ped Plan for Leesburg On a motion by Council Member Hammler, seconded by Council Member Butler, the following was proposed: RESOLUTION 2011 -078 Establishing a Goal of Being a Bike and Pedestrian Friendly Community Hammler: Yes, I, Kathryn Hammler do officially thank staff for taking the lead on moving us forward establishing the goal of being a bike and pedestrian friendly community. It is clearly the key to our sustainable future certainly as witnessed by practically every discussion tonight ranging from the downtown to Mayflower. I appreciate your support. Butler: I echo Katie's comments... or is that Kathryn? That's all. Dunn: I'm going to say this jokingly, not sarcastically, but as I mentioned before in this, these things are easy to say. What does it mean? As I said before, we could put in butterflies and humming birds here too that we love. I wish that we had more of an idea about what our goal is that we want to do rather than just making these broad statements, but we will get there. So, I'm all for it. Wright: Thank you, Kathryn and Dave, for bringing this forward. The motion was approved by the following vote: Aye: Butler, Dunn, Hammler, Martinez, Reid, Wright and Mayor Umstattd Nay: None Vote: 7 -0 13. UNFINISHED BUSINESS 14. NEW BUSINESS a. South King Street Ped /Bike Crossing Supplemental Appropriation On a motion by Council Member Reid, seconded by Council Member Dunn, the following was proposed: RESOLUTION 2011 -079 Amending the FY 2012 General Fund Budget and Making a Supplemental Appropriation in the Amount of $30,000 for Three (3) Push -Button Activated Warning Lights on the Route 7 Interchange 31 1 Page COUNCIL MEETING June 14, 2011 Ramps at South King Street Contingent Upon Final Approval from the Virginia Department of Transportation Reid: I would just like to thank Council member Dunn and staff for discussing this last year and it sort of fell to the wayside but I think that it is important for us to have a sense of security for the South King Street Trail especially as we are going to extend it to Greenway Drive within the next year. Hopefully the widening project will go forward and I think this is a way to add some sense of... especially for the children and for other folks who are going to be increasingly using that free trail to get into town. I think this is a good move and I want to thank Mr. Wells for bringing it forward. Dunn: I would just say to Ken it's not just a sense of safety, but it is additional safety. So, it's not just a state of mind, but it's an actuall. It is obviously needed and it has been a concern for folks down there and it's about time. I'm glad to see this is coming forward. Wright: John, what's the source of these funds? How are we doing on fund balance? Wells: Our best projections at this point, we have undesignated fund balance available from last year and we appear to be in a position of meeting our requirements for the current year, so we are projecting to be slightly ahead in the current fiscal year. Wright: By more than $30k? Wells: Yes. Butler: Thank you, Madam Mayor. I am glad this has come forward. This was one of the recommendations of the Trails Committee from 2006 and so but... never had a chance to get it implemented since the project was already underway. I'm glad we are coming back and doing that and I am sure that the Trails Committee will be pleased. The motion was approved by the following vote: Aye: Butler, Dunn, Hammler, Martinez, Reid, Wright and Mayor Umstattd Nay: None Vote: 7 -0 b. Downtown CIP Design Vice Mayor Wright asked to suspend the rules to move this item up before the public hearings. On a motion by Council Member Hammier, seconded by Council Member Butler, the following was proposed: 32 Page COUNCIL MEETING June 14, 2011 MOTION 2011 -018 I move the Town Council accept the presentation of the schematic design of the Downtown Capital Improvements Project forwarded by "Voices for an Amazing Place" at the Council's work session of June 13, 2011 for review by Town staff. The items for consideration and review shall included, but not be limited to, engineering feasibility, regulatory issues, operational management, ongoing maintenance, and overall construction costs. Hammler: On behalf of all of us on Council, who already mentioned this last night I think we are deeply in debt and have a great deal of gratitude for all those who were so deeply involved. All of your leadership over the last several months... As I was listening to all of you this evening and thinking through everything that has unfolded, I could not help but remember seeing the movie Bucket List and one of the items on the list was witnessed something truly majestic. Listening this evening and really feeling the consensus that has been created and the spirit of unity that you have created because of everything you've done to bring together your creative ideas, your energy, and your willingness to come up with this kind of plan is nothing short of truly majestic. So for that, I thank you and I look forward to passing this this evening. Butler: thank you Mdm. Mayor. I just wanted to say right now on my netbook here, I'm looking at the civic center in Elk Grove, California, and I'm really glad that's not what you had reached a consensus on. It's a very strange item. In any case, it's wonderful that you all came and reached a consensus and I know that for a lot of you just getting to that point and realize that you got something that everybody can agree on is, a very emotional experience even if it's not outward. You know the satisfaction that comes with that is enormous and it's great. This is clearly something that we want to move forward tonight to get all the details, where the devil is. We want him to show himself so we can move him along. I'm just reminded of the meeting a couple months ago where we decided to allow you a few months to get to this place was one of the more interesting Council meetings that we've had an opportunity to attend. If you really have nothing else to do, it's a learning experience potentially for civics class to go in and watch that video of that section of the meeting and say "this is how sometimes things get done" and at the end of the day even if the process is a little bit messy we end up with the right result. I'm really glad that we have the three months and everyone did a wonderful job. The fact that you have 100 signatures on a document is really incredible. I thank you very much. Martinez: well I just have to ask oh everybody's comments. I do appreciate your patience and willingness to help out our group and facilitate this. I'm also really encouraged by the consensus we got throughout the businesses in downtown along with the other homeowners, I'm sorry property owners, and how you work together and came together with a plan that works. I'm telling you 33 1 Page COUNCIL MEETING June 14, 2011 going to the planning reviewing it I was really surprised, not surprised I guess, really glad to see the ingenuity they came through on that. I'm excited to see this thing going on. I'm definitely going to support it and let us move forward. I'm just... I think somebody said in one of the previous meetings that the only way you can tell you're doing the right thing is when nobody's happy. I've got to disagree. In this case, I think we all saw we were doing the right thing and we made everybody happy... Or is not ecstatic at least content to know that they had input and that we got a job done. Even though it took three months, I'm just really grateful and really appreciate all the work you guys did putting this together. Thank you. Wright: I want to thank everybody for the involvement in this process. I got additional feedback today from some folks who have been on the polar opposite side. I think if anything, the one thing that has been refreshing to see as this process has gone through is downtown has at least come together as a community. I know I expressed to several folks as we were kind of leading up to the last vote "we've got a do something" because the conversation as it was getting to kind of a fever pitch was almost tearing the downtown apart. It's good through the course of this discussion and this process to see the community come back together and bring forward a community recommendation. I'm happy to support this moving forward to the next step just to see how well we are able to navigate through some of the engineering and legislative concerns with our friends at VDOT and what not. But I'm optimistic that we can move forward in a positive manner. Thank you very much. Reid: thank you very much, Mdm. Mayor. I also want to thank the group for this really novel proposal and the very eloquent comments by Ms. Hines and Mr. Brown, Mr. Williams, and Ms. Frankenfeld about the downtown. It's good to hear some fresh voices and faces appear to talk about this project. Thank you Robin for the wonderful words you said about Virginia McGuire. I was wondering, though whether we should have an amendment to also specify that staff, with some proposals for a process for moving the bollards including in cases of snow removal emergencies and also a process for handling this propose free speech corner. I was wondering if Ms. Hammler and Mr. Butler would accept that. Mayor: I think it's already... Butler: Yes, it's included in the operations management. Reid: John, it's your understanding that you're going to come up with some ideas on how to handle those? Okay. That's very important because somebody suggested to me earlier today that there could be a proposal where let's see, you have a restaurant that wants to have the bollards moved out so there is no parking out front, they might be able to get a signature from the adjacent owner on either side. I see a problem with that, John, in the sense that you could 341 Page COUNCIL MEETING June 14, 2011 have competitors that might say no and then veto it. I don't think you have to a poll of the whole street... Butler: Why don't we let John work it out? Reid: Yeah, I know, but I just wanted to state that there has to be a fair process and something that we have to be thinking long term when it comes to that, especially with snow removal. If we have a terrible snow storm and those things are covered, how are our plows going to move around them? With that, I am very, very pleased that we have come to this point and I am hoping and praying that the construction costs will be low enough to get through Council because I think that is going to be the major sticking point. Thank you. Dunn: well, again, thank you all.... For everyone involved for working so diligently on this and bringing so many people to the table and getting so many signatures. I think that's a great effort and it shows that while we may have been a little quick initially to say yes, maybe taking this time initially we could have saved ourselves a little bit. It's good that we finally got here, so that's the important thing I think it's important to continue this, and this is an ongoing process, as folks have mentioned that keeping pedestrian safe is obviously key. The next thing is making sure that the parking needs that were what brought us as I said yesterday, to the chalkboard, that we really work on that to get a consensus. Funding for a project that is not completely done is not the best planning, but it often happens. Often, in my line of work which is... The fancy word is business development, the old- fashioned word is sales, there is a process called ready, shoot, aim That's where we're at. We are at the ready, shoot, aim. Which basically means go ahead and make your adjustments after you've made the first shot and I think we can do that. I am encouraged by this and I think it's a great testament to Leesburg and the people in our community and I wholeheartedly support it. Thank you again for your efforts. Mayor: thanks Tom. Before I turn this back to Katie for final comments, I too would like to just thank everybody who is been involved in this. Initially I wasn't sure that there would be any compromise between those who wanted no parking, those merchants who felt that their livelihood depended on ample street parking. So you've done a wonderful job of compromising and I appreciate it. I do take seriously the comments made last night by Paige Buscema and tonight by Butch Porter and Robin Peacemaker that we do have to make certain that the parking remains available and that pedestrian safety is paramount, as Ms. Hines pointed out. I'm really very pleasantly surprised and very proud of the town merchants and property owners who were able to largely come together tonight. I thank you all. Hammler: just as way of final word, I think we have... all of us much to be proud of. Kevin mentioned bringing all the downtown community together... All of us who live and enjoy downtown, have businesses... But I think you've also brought the Council back together. So I thank you for that. We obviously are 35 I P g COUNCIL MEETING June 14, 2011 going in with our eyes wide open with the facts that our highly esteemed town manager and great staff will be bringing back. But you have set the tone that we will work through these issues and we are now prepared for the future we will create based on this great creative compromise. So thank you. The motion was approved by the following vote: Aye: Butler, Dunn, Hammler, Martinez, Reid, Wright and Mayor Umstattd Nay: None Vote: 7 -0 15. CLOSED SESSION Irby: I can speak to the Cornerstone item. The final order will be entered tomorrow. I will send Council a brief update as to what that means. It is my understanding that the Linden Hill/Country Club item is going to be moved forward by a council member at the next meeting, so that can certainly wait. Mr. Wells had the last item. Wells: The sale of surplus property, I can provide information to Council in preparation for the next meeting regarding deed restrictions for discussion at that meeting. Hammler: Jeannette, regarding the Linden Hill, there is going to be a new item coming up at a work session for an additional future item, or what specifically were you referring to? Irby: A council member wanted to place it back on the agenda to discuss the possibility of soliciting interest in entering into a real estate partnership with the town to purchase 1 Country Club, sell the easements to the town and retain the house. The closed session was deferred. 16. COUNCIL COMMENTS Council Member Dunn: Thank you. I want to congratulate all those Leesburg graduating seniors. Most of them will probably be going through graduation before our next meeting. There is one particular senior at Heritage High School, class of 2011, I would like to point out who has done a great job for her school, great grades, editor of the school year book and is going to be a future underclassman at Ole' Miss, to which I give my great honor and pride to Ashley Dunn, my daughter, and why I am wearing this bowtie tonight. While being my first school was University of Arkansas, at that time part of the southwest conference, now a part of the southeast conference, met my wife at LSU where she graduated and I attended many classes there. So, to have her go to Ole' Miss is tough, but I'll learn. She couldn't chose a school that was within four hours of where we live now, there is plenty of good ones. She had to take a two hour trip. She will be greatly missed, but it is exciting times for all graduating seniors and I tend to remember back in 1980 when I graduated and the feelings that my parents probably had are the same ones that I have and I really wasn't too concerned about what was going on 36 I Page COUNCIL MEETING June 14, 2011 around me, except that "hey, this is just a great time So, I know what she is going through and I congratulate her. Also, when we meet again, I will have by next Friday have completed half of my life by reaching the halfway century mark and so I still get another good half to go. John is getting younger and I'm just getting older. Council Member Reid: Thank you very much, Madam Mayor. I appreciated your words tonight about Virginia McGuire. I lost it, we both did. She was a wonderful, wonderful lady. I guess.... To see her kids... her kids are really dealing with this well and Terry is dealing with it well. They have a wonderful community in Kincaid Forest. Planting that tree in her honor at Raflo Park is just very sweet. The Mayor and I and Ms. Hammler were at the Glenfiddich House, formerly Harrison Hall for the fantastic dedication of that Civil War landmark and I really appreciate the Sons of Confederate Veterans and others coming out and the wonderful vintage food from the Civil War era. I don't think I have ever had cornbread with bacon and pork in it, but it was really, really good. I'm going to try to get the recipe. The Mayor was absolutely correct in terms of the African American contribution and so one of the people who was in charge of the event, Rich Gillespie with Mosby Heritage. He is on the sesquentennial committee. Several members of the African- American community and a great fellow by the name of Noyes, who lives in Oaklawn pointed out the legacy of Marion Mallory who was a slave and was born in the early 1800s. She died... I think she lived to almost 100 years old. She is buried at Mount Zion Cemetery... is that right? As I walked through the cemetery the other day, I noticed a lot of other gravestones of folks who lived before the Civil War. I think we need to have a landmark there and at the Leesburg training school, which is that white building right near Union Street and Glady Burke and others have said why don't we put a placque on that. That would be the place to put the Civil War monument. The town can go on in on it as a sponsor and then we can have an arrow pointing to Mount Zion cemetery. It's right on King Street and this was where blacks were educated prior to Douglass School. If you go to Robinson's barber shop and talk to Raymond... he went to the Leesburg training school. I really want to see something done and I hope that we can sponsor that. Finally, after five years of chasing every single four legged creature in our back yard and jumping up if he sees an animal on the television set and going in the back yard, our West Highland Terrier, Bentley, finally caught his first rabbit. I thought it was a real, real victory for him, but as it turns out there is a little warren of baby rabbits in our back yard that had been abandoned by their mother, so he brought the rabbit in the house Sunday night and my daughter is yelling upstairs "there is a mouse in the living room" and he is sitting there playing with it, or looking at it. Then, the next night he caught it. Then I figured I got to follow the dog to find out where he is finding these little creatures. Sure enough, he was in our old carrot patch. So the rabbits were hanging out there. So for every night this week, we have had to go to TLC, the Life Center on Fort Evans Road. Thank God that we have a 24 hour veterinary center. You should go there. They are fantastic. Gave them the rabbit and they rehabilitate it and put him back with the wildlife. I want to say that my dog was diligent and he finally got his first rabbit, but I am very happy he did not kill them. What a sweet dog. Vice Mayor Wright: I wanted to thank all of our Relay for Life participants. We have several of them here tonight. John, who I can testify was there all through the 37 1 Page COUNCIL MEETING June 14, 2011 night and was walking all through the night. Marty was there. Lee Ann was also there through much of the night and we also had on our team Debbie Cooke, Carrie Curry, Michele Parker, Debi Parry as well as several of our spouses were out there as well. The official total for our team... if you look at the site is about $3200 but I know that Marty is still missing credit for his pie in the face donations that have not shown up on the site yet. So, I need to follow -up on that. Grand total is probably closer to $3500. That contributed to a total so far for Western Loudoun Relay of $225,000 raised. Their goal this year was $210,000. They will continue to get donations and actually donations will come in through August. Really, really solid year for Relay. We also had another great pie in the face event. I think we raised right around $1,000. I think. We can poll those participants who are here. Katie got the lightest pie, we might say. Dave got the pie I think with the most force and emotion. (inaudible) yes, that was encouraged, but it did seem to be very healing. Council Member Martinez: I want to echo your comments about Virginia McGuire. She is going to be missed. As Tom had said, seniors are graduating which means we have another project grad thing we are doing. We are going to be doing that project grad all night party on Monday night at Heritage High School. It's going to be at Ida Lee. I am looking for volunteers to help with the casino. Also, Tom, unfortunately, they go to college but they come back. My son Jacob graduated and he is moving back in on Thursday to look for a job. Our food bill is going to at least quadruple while he is here. My youngest daughter, Hilary is back. She is doing an internship. She is getting a doctorate degree in physical therapy and she is going to be doing all her internships so she gets to stay at our house rent free eating too. They come back. Anyway, on to Relay for Life. I wanted to thank everybody who contributed and helped us out there. For those of you who didn't know. I wanted to thank one of the staff members who had my nephew give me the pie in the face. He did a pretty good job. That's another one that is living with us too. We got a full house all over again. I do want to say tonight, this is one of the nights that I feel good about and why I am glad I am on the town council. We had some public hearings... we got some good things done. We got the downtown improvements thing done. Hopefully we can... as Katie mentioned earlier... that this Council can continue to do good things in a good manner with a positive attitude just like our businesses and our downtown people showed us how they did it. Council Member Hammler that's a good segueway formally thanking Mr. Don Devine and Mr. Mike O'Connor. Don came to be part of the pie in the face contest... just good camaraderie given all the stress and tension that really was developing because of the downtown and symbolic factions, but everybody coming together. You know it's one town and we all care about each other. But in this case, a wonderful charity. So, thank you, Kevin and Marty and your entire team for everything you have done for cancer research and the great walk. I guess if everybody is mentioning things about kids, we had a lovely visit this evening from Major Gutierrez from the VFW who came to present Kathryn with the second place Patriot Pen award, so I want to thank him for that. I had a wonderful evening... I was able to watch the entire game so Mr. Culbert thank you for letting me go to a different meeting to hear about his update, but John is heading to the... he won the division championship and he is heading to the finals. So, Marty maybe you can come Saturday and see the finals for the Little League. Just the 38 I Page COUNCIL MEETING June 14, 2011 last couple of things... thinking about yesterday and our discussion on the water rates, I went home and I was reading my National League of Cities magazine and there is a really great article about how a number of municipalities around the country are actually creating electric power through their public water systems and making a lot of money. So, I'll pass that along. Specifically it isn't just big systems near dams, but can be produced in conveyance systems such as water treatment plants, wastewater treatment plant outfalls or where there is any pressure reducing station and facilities can generate approximately $1.1 million annually through electricity sales as well as of course, take some of the pressure off the grid. So, I thought that was an interesting idea that we might want to seriously look at. And, finally two quick things. I wanted to mention that I was at the Glenfiddich house, but most notably Rich dropped me off and then he stayed and he is the Civil War buff. Such a great, incredible ceremony. It was so well done and so interesting. I have been on the Balch now with these incredible historic experts, but I had never heard Jim Morgan provide the briefing of the background of Balls Bluff and everything that was happening in Leesburg and the significance of Harrison Hall in terms of not just who had slept here, rather all of the top generals, but as I mentioned that day, Madam Mayor, I truly felt you made such an important point when you brought it back to the underground railroad. I appreciated your comments as well. Thank you to Tracy and Rich Gillespie and everybody who participated and definitely Melanie and David for opening their home and allowing us to all have such a wonderful morning and everything it will mean for our citizens and visitors alike. Finally, I did attend the VML legislative meeting. I was assisted by Staff, so thank you very much. We are moving forward with support from the VML for city status as well as the cornerstone issue. Obviously as we move that forward, we are going to need a little bit more information to be able to succinctly articulate why that is such a significant issue to every municipality but I do anticipate that will be going through the committee getting full support of VML and we can hopefully get some support from the General assembly. Council Member Reid: I was appointed to the transportation steering committee. I just got a letter today that they are going to meet on the 23r So, if anybody has any ideas I can convey on transportation, please let me know. Hammler: That's the steering committee for the transportation? Reid: That's just the steering committee, but they are the ones that basically write the statement for VML on transportation, so email me your suggestions. I will be going down there on the 23 or doing it by teleconference. Hammler: My economic and community steering committee meeting is coming up as well. So, same thing. It's a different day for the steering committee but we are all heading down to Richmond on the 28t when the actual committees are meeting. Council Member Butler: I agree with Marty that today was a good day for Council. Every vote was 7 -0. So that's always a good thing. I do have a disclosure, right before this meeting, I met with the Allman family, LLC and Anne Stanfield LLC on a 39 1 P age COUNCIL MEETING June 14, 2011 rezoning for the property south between Meade and whatever... Greenway. Marty was there as well. Wright: I had a meeting with them prior. Thank you, Dave. Butler: okay, will write Marty's name in there. You know, as I like to say the presentations are almost always my favorite part of the Council meeting, but quite frankly not tonight. And that's too bad. I appreciate all the kind words from other Council members. I, too, was in the relay for life, but for a different team. I think my face is now starting to recover from the force of the blow, but my wife has definitely been a much better mood ever since. No, just she's got an opera actually tonight and this coming weekend. Between opera rehearsals and all the extracurricular activities I have been engaging in, she always gets a little stress during operas. Anyway, it was a good outlet...good thing. I also went to a class today... Ms. Wall's class at Smarts Mill. Her civics class and my understanding is that the Mayor has been there before. She brought up an intriguing idea... Was wondering if maybe sometime during the day we could maybe have one or two hour mock Council session and they could bring up all of their pet issues. They could come to the microphone and act just like we would regular council meeting and we could debate it and we could ask staff their opinions... Staff wouldn't necessarily have a report prepared but they would have opinions and we could debate it and follow the normal process that we would. They would all get to learn how Council actually operates. I told her we would suggest that and maybe John could take it under advisement and think how that might work. I went to the car show and thought the car show was wonderful. Especially the Delorean that was decked out like Back to the Future car. That looked... was really cool. I bought a raffle ticket for a car that was being raffled off. I hope I win, but I won't know until like August or September or something. My kids both graduate from fifth grade tomorrow. That's not as big a thing as graduating from high school or college or something else. They already live with me, so there is no moving back in. But it is still something to be celebrated and I will be there tomorrow during the day. Last, but not least, since we were talking about baseball games, my son's team lost their play off game on Saturday, but it was a very, very interesting game. At the end of six innings, which is the normal amount of innings, they were tied 6 -6, so they went into extra innings, which they already thought was pretty cool. So, the top of the seventh inning the other team scores a run, goes ahead and then my sons team scores in the bottom of the seventh to tie it. Then they go into the eighth inning. At the top of the inning there is no score and then in the bottom of the eighth inning, we get a man on third. My son is up, hits it and the guy tries to score from third and gets thrown out at the plate on a great play so they go into the ninth inning. Then in the ninth inning, the other team scored like four runs in the top of the inning and then in the bottom of the inning, my son's team scored two and they had a couple of guys on base and then one guy got out. So their season was over, but they played the equivalent of like two full games almost at that one time and so nobody was truly disappointed. They said it was one of the most exciting games they had ever seen in Central Loudoun Little League. At any rate. Just wanted to share that. 16. MAYOR'S COMMENTS 40 1 Page COUNCIL MEETING June 14, 2011 I want to disclose that I had a meeting with representatives from the Village at Leesburg. Also, I want to really thank the Council Members who were really active on the Relay for Life. Especially Kevin and Marty but all of you... Just about everybody... let me see we had Dave taking a pie, Katie taking a pie, Marty and Kevin taking a pie, John and JB Anderson taking a pie. That was fun to watch. I had never stopped by the Relay for Life late enough to see the Luminaria on the bleachers before. I had always been there earlier. This time, I couldn't get there until late. It is absolutely beautiful. It is quite moving to see all of those candles. I was really, truly impressed. That weekend was a big weekend for important fundraisers. It was my honor to be honorary co -chair of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation walk at the National Conference Center along with Delegate Tom Rust. That was a huge crowd. For any of you organizing fundraising walks, it is a lovely facility to walk around. One loop is, I think, about a mile. We had people walking a mile or two miles, or five miles. It was a really great crowd. There were a lot of kids and kid bands playing. They were all excellent. That was wonderful and a lot of the kids and adults who have had diabetes testified as to their experiences and that was quite moving. I want to thank, as Katie and Ken did, David and Melanie Miles and Tracy and Rich Gillespie for their work on the Civil War trails placque. I was really encouraged by both Tracy and Rich pointing out that there is a lot of strong African American history and a lot of courage in the African American community that came out during the Civil War and that is something that we would all love to see celebrated and documented, especially examples of the underground railroad, as Katie mentioned. Ken and I were at the Meadow Glen 10th anniversary and it's a beautiful, beautiful home. We got to talk and spend time with the residents there and the staff there. They have done a beautiful job. As Ken was talking to them, they are looking at expansion. So that may come before us in the future. I want to thank Eggspectations for hosting a ribbon cutting. That is a really neat restaurant with wonderful color scheme inside. It's very popular with families on the weekends. That's out at the village at Leesburg. I would also like to mention, I know John and staff are working on this. TLC where Ken had to take the baby bunnies, they are still looking for some way to put in a directional sign for emergency vet clinic. We don't want to let that fall between the cracks. If we could just get updates to Council where we are on that. I wonder really complement, I'm sure this applies to all the middle schools, the three middle schools in Leesburg, but I got to work the summer sendoff last Friday night at Simpson middle school which is sixth graders, seventh graders and eighth graders all having a blast. These are kids who really don't want to be in school at this time and you would think that they would be... I don't know maybe less courteous. But they were, they were wonderful. I got to man the sticky wall which involved tearing kids wearing Velcro suits off the wall that they were stuck to. But they were really polite. They all wanted to go... We had a long line so we had to limit them to two times against the sticky wall. They all wanted to do more times but they were also polite they never objected to leaving the wall... Well if they could get off after their second time and they made way for each other and I was really impressed with them, how polite and courteous they were and how much good humor were shown that night. Thanks to all the parents who helped volunteer there. Brenda and Ann did a wonderful job organizing all the parent volunteers. 17. MANAGER'S COMMENTS 41 1 Page COUNCIL MEETING June 14, 2011 Wells: thank you Mdm. Mayor and Council. Our thank you's on the relay for life. I thought we should add the pie assassin to the list who made a very generous contribution but only participated through a mercenary to... I thought that was a low level of going about it but we do appreciate the contribution. Hammler: I personally loved the photo in the newspaper. Mayor: That was excellent. A highly esteemed mercenary, I might add. Irby: Experienced. Looking for someone who is experienced. Wells: I did want to note for counsel, and I'll send this out tomorrow in writing, I just wanted to quickly note we have for capital projects that are in serious dirt moving and construction mode and will be seeing completion of either those four projects or segments of those four important projects between now and the end of the calendar year. Lownbach, we are actively working there. Catoctin Circle is the section being worked on right now. We anticipate that work on that road by the end of August. By the end of September, the segment of Sycolin Road that is currently being worked on will reach completion. The work is actively moving now on Wage and Anne. We should see the completion of that project by the end of November. On Monday, we will be closing the segment of Edwards Ferry so that we can begin some serious work on Battlefield. We expect the entire road to be completed by the end of December, by the end of the calendar year, but we will have those two lanes opened before school starts. So, we are in the home stretch on some projects that started several years ago in some cases. We should be bringing those to conclusion. I will do a quick email to everybody tomorrow so you have that in writing. As a 18. ADJOURNMENT On a motion by Council Member Martinez, seconded by Vice Mayor Wright, the meeting was adjourned at 10:34 p.m. AT EST: Jerk of ou 2011 tcmin0614 C. Umstattd, Mayor Town of Leesburg 42 1 Page