HomeMy Public PortalAbout2021_tcwsmin0607 Council Work Session June 7, 2021
Council Chamber, 25 West Market Street, 7:00 p.m. Mayor Kelly Burk presiding.
Council Members Present: Ara Bagdasarian, Zach Cummings, Suzanne Fox, Vice
Mayor Martinez, Kari Nacy,Neil Steinberg and Mayor Kelly Burk.
Council Members Absent: None.
Staff Present: Town Manager Kaj Dentler, Town Attorney Christopher Spera, Deputy
Town Manager Keith Markel, Director of Finance and Administrative Services Clark
Case, Director of Planning and Zoning Susan Berry Hill, Director of Economic
Development Russell Seymour, Senior Planner Richard Klusek, Management and
Budget Officer Jason Cournoyer, Public Information Office Assistant Leah Kosin, and
Clerk of Council Eileen Boeing.
AGENDA ITEMS
1. Electronic Participation for Council Member Fox
Council Member Fox requested to participate in the Council Work Session
electronically. Mayor Burk, Council Member Bagdasarian, Council Member Cummings,
Council Member Nacy, Vice Mayor Martinez, and Council Member Steinberg were
physically present at the meeting.
MOTION 2021-110
On a motion by Vice Mayor Martinez, seconded by Council Member Steinberg, the
following was proposed:
To allow Council Member Fox to electronically participate in the June 7, 2021, Town
Council Work Session.
The motion was approved by the following vote:
Aye: Bagdasarian, Cummings, Vice Mayor Martinez, Nacy, Steinberg and Mayor
Burk
Nay: None
Vote: 6-0-1 (Fox abstain)
2. Items for Discussion
a. Town Plan Development Update from Planning Commission
Mr. Richard Klusek gave an overview of the purpose of the Town Plan, its
framework and an update on where the process currently stands.
Council and staff discussed the item.
b. Fiscal Year 2021 Financial Update
Mr. Jason Cournoyer gave a financial update on Fiscal Year 2021 revenues
and expenditures, along with updates regarding the Capital Improvements
Program and the Utilities Fund.
Council and staff discussed the item.
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Council Work Session June 7, 2021
c. Marketing and Promotion of Leesburg as an Intersection of Art, Culture,
and History
Mr. Russell Seymour gave an overview of past initiatives for the Historic
and Arts and Cultural Districts and expressed the need to reevaluate. Ms. Leah
Kosin presented Council with staffs suggested vision for promoting public art and
culture awareness. She also provided a status of current art projects within the
Town. Ms. Beth Erickson from Visit Loudoun mentioned that she is working on
improving public outreach through a new marketing campaign, a digital toolkit,
and an interactive website.
Council and staff discussed the item.
It was the consensus of the Council to have staff work on recommendations for
marketing and promotion of the Historic and Art and Culture Districts to be presented for
discussion at a future work session.
3. Additions to Future Council Meetings
Council Member Nacy requested a discussion on using the American Rescue Plan
Act funds to provide Town essential workers with a$2K bonus for their work during the
pandemic.
It was the consensus of the Council to add this item to a future Work Session.
Council Member Steinberg requested a discussion on changing the employee
classification of Town Council for the purpose of receiving health care benefits.
It was the consensus of the Council to add this item to a future Work Session.
Council Member Cummings requested the addition of a resolution to the June 8,
Council Meeting agenda to waive the fees for the Juneteenth march organized by the
NAACP and the Loudoun Freedom Center.
It was the consensus of Council to add this item to the June 8 Council Meeting for
action.
Council Member Steinberg requested a discussion on a policy for waiving Town
fees.
It was the consensus of the Council to add this item to a future Work Session.
Council Member Fox requested a discussion on waiving fees for Town online
payments.
It was the consensus of Council to add this item to a future Work Session
4. Adjournment
On a motion by Vice Mayor Martinez, seconded by Council Member Bagdasarian, the
meeting was adjourned at 8:17p.m.
Clerk of Council
2021 tcwsmin0607
2lPage
June 7, 2021 —Town Council Work Session
(Note: This is a transcript prepared by a Town contractor based on the video of the meeting. It may
not be entirely accurate. For greater accuracy,we encourage you to review the video of the meeting
that is on the Town's Web site — www.leesburqva.qov or refer to the approved Council meeting
minutes. Council meeting videos are retained for three calendar years after a meeting per Library
of Virginia Records Retention guidelines.)
Mayor Kelly Burk: Our June 7th, 2021, Town Council Work Session. I need to ask for a motion to allow
Ms. Fox to electronically participate in this meeting. It's moved by Vice Mayor Martinez seconded by Council
Member Steinberg. That's what we're missing. All right. All in favor indicate by saying, aye.
Council Members:Aye.
Mayor Burk: Opposed.That's 6-0-1. Ms. Fox, you are now part of the meeting. Our first item for discussion
is the Town--
Council Member Suzanne Fox: Can you hear me?
Mayor Burk: Sure. Thank you. Town Plan Development Update from the Planning Commission.
Richard Klusek: Good evening, Madam Mayor, Members of Council. My name is Rich Klusek here to give
you a little bit of an update as to where we are with the Town Plan process. Before I do that, I just want to
give a little bit of a refresher as to what the purpose of the Town Plan is and some of the content of the
plan.The purpose is to first and foremost guide our land-use decisions, but also to help the Town in planning
for community facilities, open space, parks, and natural resources, to help with some of the fiscal planning,
and to guide Town initiatives.
The Town Plan is essentially the overarching document for many of the other studies and documents in the
Town, including things like some of the small-area plans, and some of the planning documents like the six-
year Capital Improvement Program. Ultimately,the Town Plan gets implemented through various regulatory
implementation tools like the zoning ordinance. I like to mention every time I can that, first and foremost,
the plan is based on public input.We had an extensive outreach process before COVID. Even after COVID,
we turned to some virtual means, including using YouTube, having WebEx meetings, and also setting up a
virtual room to continue that public input.
It's also based on background data, including an economic study. One of the things we wanted to stress is
that Legacy Leesburg does represent a new way of planning. Whereas the current Town Plan is very much
reactive and that's not a bad thing, but it's reactive in the sense that it's effective for building a new
community. It worked very well when Leesburg was growing fast and growing fast land-wise. What Legacy
Leesburg will do, however, is set us up with a more proactive approach, and we feel that that's better for
redevelopment and enhancing the Leesburg community.
Whereas the current Town Plan has a lot of prescriptive policy, Legacy Leesburg really seeks more in the
way of careful consideration of character and division and the Town taking the lead to make things happen.
That's done in large part through a playbook approach where we recognize that things are dynamic, they're
always changing, they're new ideas and trends. The playbook approach lets us essentially make decisions
on the field as we see new things happening. The planning area for Legacy Leesburg as is the current plan
is everything within the Town limits as well as within the Joint Land Management Area.
There are also several special planning districts that this plan considers, like the Old and Historic District,
the Crescent District, the Eastern Gateway District, and the Gateway Overlay District. These are all zoning
ordinances that the Town has adopted in the past. They are essentially being carried forward. They're not
just zoning ordinances, they're also small-area plan considerations. Legacy Leesburg carries all of those
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things forward. Within the plan, there are two key maps. You have the land-use initiatives map. It sets forth
an overall initiative for various areas within Town. It could either be preserve, enhance, transform or evolve
or strengthen as you would see in the Old and Historic District.
The next step of that is character areas. These character areas with the accompanying text in the document
set forth the overall look and feel that we would expect in different parts of Town. The guiding principles
should look familiar to those of you that were on the Council in January of 2020 because these were all
presented to you as part of a joint work session with the Planning Commission and Town Council. In large
part, these guiding principles have remained the same. The Planning Commission has made some tweaks
to the more in-depth language of this, but we have carried these forward essentially since the beginning of
the process.
Those guiding principles are part of the bigger policy framework. The guiding principles are the foundation
for decision making in the plan, but they also lead into a series of goals, which are initiatives to set the
overall direction and strategies that are specific policies and actions that the Town Council or the
development community can act on as we use this plan in the future. When we talk about the goals and
strategies, it's important to note that the goals and strategies in the plan are ideas. The implementation
measures are things that are going to follow later.
That's going to be more of the book of rules, whether that'd be a zoning ordinance change, or whether it'd
be an additional plan or document, or even a Council resolution that sets forth exactly what we're doing and
how we're doing it. An example of that, one of the goals and strategies speaks to increase transit. The
implementation measures would follow. That might be things like the transit route and a map, or another
goal or strategy suggests holding more community outreach meetings so that the Council has a regular
opportunity to hear from the community about the issues that are important to them.
Exactly when those meetings would occur and how much it would cost, that's something that we would
work out in later details as we go through the implementation process. Another part of the plan are our
focus area studies. The focus area of studies look at particular locations in the Town and consider additional
strategies for those locations. It includes a series of sketches to give everybody a sense of the overall look
and feel that the Town is anticipating in those focus areas.
Another thing, a recent addition to the plan document was a quick start guide. We heard some feedback
about how it was difficult to understand what exactly should be done with the plan document. We've
developed what we're calling a quick start guide, essentially provides the steps in evaluating a legislative
application and directs you to the exact locations in the document where you might need to go if you were
either reviewing the application or if you were an applicant trying to understand the policies that apply to
your site.
As far as the Planning Commission work, they have been at work very hard. They've gone through 11
meetings already discussing the document and they now have four left to go, ultimately with Planning
Commission certification on August 5th.
Recently a revised draft was developed, a draft dated May 27th. That draft incorporates the Planning
Commission comments received to date, as well as board and commission comments and staff comments,
including comments from some of the various directors.
Another thing I want to mention is the transportation improvement plan that is a companion document to
the Legacy Leesburg plan. It essentially provides you with a list of potential transportation projects. That
document is expected to be very dynamic,changing regularly as new projects are thought of and as existing
projects on the list are completed. Implementation as I mentioned is a key component of this. There are
essentially two types of strategies that we've identified. First of all, there are strategies for Town-led
initiatives, and then there are private sector strategies and initiatives.
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When it comes to the Town-led initiatives, one of the ways we intend to work through all of those things is
to provide the Council with some form of an annual report. That annual report might consider community
outreach measures or things that we hear from the community, a progress report on how we're doing, as
well as performance metrics to show how we're doing. That would then hopefully help the Council in priority
setting to identify strategies from the matrix that you actually want to work on.
It will help set forth ideas for the Transportation Improvement Plan, as well as the Capital Improvements
Plan. Ultimately, this would help contribute to a work plan for staff and to various boards and commissions.
It'll feed into some of your budgetary considerations. After all of that, it'll help set forth the annual budget
review. When we talked about the private sector initiatives, those are the land development strategies.
What are the criteria that we'd be looking at for legislative applications?The Planning Commission thus far
has spent a lot of time talking about the character of Leesburg as many of you were part of that conversation
in the past.
They've also gone essentially line by line and made a series of minor edits throughout the document. Some
of the larger conversation topics include density, affordable housing, public transportation, and utilities. In
general, all of the ideas and goals and things that were set forth back at the January 20th work session that
I mentioned, they have been carried forward throughout the document, but some members of the Planning
Commission did have concerns about some of these topics. To the extent that members of the Council
wanted to offer any feedback on these things,whether the plan was headed in the right direction, that would
certainly be welcome.
In terms of next steps, as I mentioned, per the Planning Commission schedule, there are four meetings to
go. Then the fun work begins for you all went on September 13th, we're scheduled to have a Town Council
work session followed by a Town Council public hearing on September 14th. That was my nine-minute
version of a download of everything that you will find in the plan and what the Planning Commission has
been up to. I'm very much happy to be here and to answer any questions you all might have.
Mayor Burk: Thank you. Congratulations. When I saw you had 34 slides, I thought, "Uh-oh."
Richard Klusek: I know how it works here.
Mayor Burk: Smart man. Are there any questions, Mr. Steinberg?
Council Member Neil Steinberg: Thanks for the presentation, Rich. First things first, the PC, Planning
Commission is now short one member. Do we expect this to alter our schedule or their schedule in any
way?
Richard Klusek:We don't envision it affecting the schedule. I don't know if, Susan, you think that changes
anything, but we are moving ahead. Our plan is to get it to you in September.
Council Member Steinberg: Fine. Do we need to change our perspective regarding the JLMA in terms of
planning at this stage given the County's changes from their perspective about the JLMA? How's this going
to alter what we plan there in effect?
Richard Klusek: I'll let Chris weigh in [unintelligible] if he'd like to.We have been coordinating very closely
with the Town Attorney's Office thinking about what we need to do.We're aware of all of the changes taking
place. I think that the language in the plan very much sets us up for success with where we are today. I
don't know if you have anything to add to that, Chris.
Christopher Spera: The only thing that I would add is that we remain hopeful that at least with respect to
the non-data center parcels, we may be able to come to agreement with the County. Obviously, that's still
a work in progress. To be determined, I think is the best answer I can give you at this point.
• Page 31 June 7, 2021
Council Member Steinberg: Thanks. Since the transportation modules included as part of our packet, are
there any changes in attitude of planning perspectives regarding transportation in general as we have seen
changes in work strategies brought to us by the last year and a half with the Coronavirus? Has that in any
way affected planning or Planning Department's perspective or the Planning Commission regarding how
we are viewing transportation at this stage?
Richard Klusek: Sure.A great question. First of all, a lot of that data is still developing.Things are changing
on a regular basis. I think we're going to have to monitor the trends very closely. In addition to that, a lot of
the wheels were set in motion even before the pandemic with respect to more people working from home,
and things of that sort. Ultimately,what this plan does suggest, it moves us away from being in the business
of building roads to improving roads and making them better and enhancing pedestrian connectivity and
such. If things change drastically over the next five years,with new and emerging trends,we'll have to keep
an eye on that.
Council Member Steinberg: Thanks. Given the number of road projects that were offered in the
transportation module, that's a good thing to keep in mind. Do we have any ideas at all regarding the
potential bus service connectivity to the Ashburn Metro?
Richard Klusek:We'll have to keep an eye on that too. I think the plan really speaks to enhancing transit.
Again, as I just mentioned a little while ago, exactly how the funding sources, the routes, that's something
we're going to have to coordinate likely closely with the County on because they do provide all of the transit
for the Town.
Council Member Steinberg: Then one final question regarding micro-mobility. I know towards the end of
2019, Council passed quickly an ordinance so we could have in place regarding things like the electric
scooters and so on. Have we seen any specific changes nationwide or even regional-wide regarding those
types of things? Have we had any businesses approach the Town or the County about those types of
transportation?
Richard Klusek: Not to my knowledge. I'm not aware of any specific proposals. I don't know if anybody
else--Susan says we have.
Susan Berry Hill:We have an electric scooter company express interest in coming to Leesburg. We were
in the process of going back and forth with them and trying to understand what their business proposal was
for Leesburg. I know Chris has been working on that too.We haven't heard from them lately so I don't know
if they've cooled a little bit on Leesburg or if they're still interested but there is interest out there.
Council Member Steinberg: Thanks. Thank you.
Mayor Burk: Mr. Cummings?
Council Member Zach Cummings: I don't have any questions at this point. Thank you.
Mayor Burk: Mr. Martinez?
Vice Mayor Fernando "Marty" Martinez: [inaudible].
Mayor Burk: Miss Nacy and Mr. Bagdasarian.
Council Member Ara Bagdasarian:Yes, thank you. Appreciate it. That's great work and amazing you got
through the presentation so quickly. Just a few things. Obviously, public input was a significant part of this
whole process. There's almost a year dedicated to soliciting input from the community. It's important to
obviously to look at that lens as the Planning Commission is going through the process. You mentioned
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engaging the community and outreach. The question is how best to in reach, how do we get more input
from the community when we get to that stage in the process. How best to engage.
Typically, it's not until something is wrong or you have concerns until you hear something, but how do we
engage people to get their feedback and input during the process as we move this along?Then finally,just
the timeline, that's great. I think it's critical that the Council has a final version to review by the beginning of
September. I'm very happy to see the timeline is pretty solid at this point to deliver in August. Thank you
very much.
Mayor Burk: Ms. Fox?
Council Member Fox:Thanks. I do have a few questions.Thanks. Rich,thanks for this update. I appreciate
it. My questions and comments were a little bit akin to what Council Member Bagdasarian just brought up.
Let's see. I was glad to hear about all this input and there were a lot of people. I think we did a great job
soliciting that public info, but there are still people out there who will be surprised by what they see, hear,
read, whatever.
I wanted to make sure,for those folks because they do live here in Leesburg, that there's ample opportunity
for them to view this document. As part of this timeline, I'm hoping that we put that final document out in
ample time for them to be able to read it and really parse through it before the public hearing happens.
That's one of my big concerns. I'm glad to see that there will be an executive summary but a lot of people
will parse through it. I was wondering if there's anything that has been done with the length of the document
or is it still a really long document?
Richard Klusek: Sure. As far as the length of the document, we haven't done much. It seems like there's
always somebody asking for more. There's always somebody saying, "We need to include that, and we
need to include that." I regret to inform you that we've actually probably added a handful of pages as, for
example, the Environmental Advisory Commission pointed out a couple of additional things that might be
necessary. Having said that, though, we do plan to put together an executive summary that's somewhat of
a two to four-page summary of everything that the plan includes, how it's intended to be used, and where
to find key content within that document.
Council Member Fox: That's wonderful. Thanks. The other question has to do with the policy topics on
page four of our report here. It has to do with the densities,affordable housing, public transportation, utilities.
These policy topics obviously were discussed by the Planning Commission, are they expected to opine on
these, or is this something that we're going to leave to just to Town Council to consider?
Richard Klusek: As it stands right now, a lot of the ideas that were presented to the Council at the joint
work session have been retained in the document. There's policies, for example, saying, enhance transit
throughout the community. We've heard from the Council on a number of occasions, enhance affordable
housing throughout the community. Those big picture ideas are still in the document.
There was some discussion from the Planning Commission whether Leesburg is ready for those things.As
it stands right now, no changes to the document have been made. If Council wanted to set a different
direction so that the Planning Commission was aware of your overall position, it would be an okay time to
do that now given the fact that we are continuing the fine-tuning of policies and strategies.
Council Member Fox: Now is the time to do that, not later on down the line when we get the document
from them?
Richard Klusek: It could work either way. To the extent that the Planning Commission is aware of where
you are headed with the document, it might help them to craft the appropriate policies.
Page 51 June 7, 2021
Council Member Fox: In order to do that, do we each just talk to respective Planning Commissioners, or
do we have a meeting with them?
Richard Klusek: I'm sorry, I didn't get that last--
Council Member Fox: Or a work session?What's the best plan of action if we want to opine now instead
of later when we actually get the real document in August? I'm just trying to figure out what's the best way
to go about communicating any issues we might have with them so that they can take it into consideration?
Richard Klusek: That's really up to you all. If you wanted to make a statement today that the Council
agrees on, we can certainly take that down and convey it to the Planning Commission. If there was some
other method that you all had in mind, I think we're open to ideas.
Council Member Fox:All right. Thanks for that. One last thing I heard, you mentioned that the public input,
you said this document is going to include the JLMA and that we're planning for that. I have to say that
every time something comes up in the JLMA, it seems to be all County-driven. I'm just wondering why we're
planning for things that the County drives.
Richard Klusek: The JLMA was established years and years and years ago. The land still is within the
County's jurisdiction, but in theory, the way that was set up is that the Town and County do collaborate on
that. Typically, the Town would receive a referral, provide our comments. In fact, many comments have
come before the Council so that you all can essentially endorse them before they're sent off. Admittedly,
there has been some challenges recently, but that policy is essentially being carried forward from what it
has been for quite some time.
Council Member Fox: It's just policy-wise then, it's not specific.
Richard Klusek: Correct. It is policy as to what the Town envisions in the JLMA, the town does not yet
have jurisdiction in any of those areas.
Council Member Fox: All right. Thank you for that clarification. That's it. I appreciate it.
Mayor Burk: Thank you. Most certainly we're looking forward to seeing this document as it comes forward.
The Planning Commission has really been doing a phenomenal job of trying to look at it and get it together.
Thank staff for all your hard work on this. Thank you.
Richard Klusek: Thank you.
Mayor Burk: That brings us to the Fiscal Year 2021 Financial Update.
Jason Cournoyer: Madam Mayor, Council members, this is going to be a very brief presentation to
summarize our item here, our periodic report to you on our financial and then on the American Rescue Plan
Act as well as to allow for some questions from you. First, I'm pleasantly surprised, I'll give you an update
to our revenue outlook. It has improved since the last time we were in front of you. Primarily this
improvement is on a personal property tax increase. As you know, this is our first year in partnership with
Loudoun County for collections. We've been pleasantly surprised with a larger return than projected.
A lot of that has to do with the reassessment of vehicles in Loudoun, it's generally up. I know that
Commissioner Woods has spoken to the Board reporting out that assessments are for used vehicles.
Overall,the portfolio went up, but as well the probation and the collection efforts by the County has resulted
in a pretty significant increase compared to our previous projection. BPOL was up as well. There are some
large sectors there that offset a lot of what we call the smaller businesses and retail and restaurants
establishment that may have been struggling over the past year.
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A lot of large retail businesses reported out very healthy returns this year so our BPOL was up over what
we projected back in February, about close to$400K increase as well. Development has not slowed down
as we might've thought. In fact, over the last quarter, we're now projecting an increase of over$300K. This
is what our Plan Review Director thought might be more future developments. We think this is more
accelerated development, which may have implications in the next couple of fiscal years, but it is a good
sign of where the status of Leesburg is during a pandemic.
Sales and use tax continues to trend up. Early on in the pandemic,we thought this was tied to internet sales
where now the status of the sale is the consumer. We've received a lot of taxes through that, but you
probably have noticed a lot more traffic at our local retailers as well,so sales tax is up. Parks and Recreation
fees, trends are continuing to turn down.A lot of this is a slower recovery once we opened the facilities than
we projected back in February.
There were some encouraging signs in this past weekend, was very full. I speak with the Director a lot,
Rich, and membership is improving at Ida Lee, so there are some encouraging trends. However, it's a little
bit delayed where we thought it might've been a few months ago so it is trending down compared to where
we were. On motor vehicle licenses, this is a practice change partnering with Loudoun County. The Town
tended to give a license for every vehicle while Loudoun does the vehicles[unintelligible]on January one.
If you buy a new car on January 2nd in Loudoun County, you've already paid for one decal. While the
previous practice of the Town when the Town did this collection, you would have two licenses. It's more
than offset with the proration of the property tax,which the Town didn't have in place before the partnership.
Traffic fines continues to trend down. Don't really have too in-depth reasoning for this but it's a good thing,
I think. That means our roads are a little bit safer so the traffic fines being down, I don't want to say it's a
bad thing.
Then planning and zoning fees, I get a lot of the ramp-up and plan review fees, maybe a result of a lot of
the development happening for things that have been approved, so you're going to get a little bit lower on
the zoning side. With that, this is just a breakdown. This was provided to you if you want to reference it
later, just some of the new categories and the resulting changes from our February projection. I welcome
any questions at the end of the presentation, we can go through these. Here's another one just a little bit
more granular for your reference.
We have continued to do our diligence in offsetting our revenue projection, which is now$4.6M. I forgot to
mention that. We are still on track to completely offset that primarily due to vacant positions. We hold very
few frozen at this time. They're more strategically held frozen to reevaluate any work plan changes with
where some of the needs are in the Town. However, recruiting has been delayed a little bit. We're still
producing salary savings that were beyond where we were projected before. This is going to help us offset
the revenue shortfall.
Everything else has remained.We've already yielded the savings from the past. The vacant positions tend
to be the only real update for this presentation. You probably recognize this. This is just an exhibit to show
you a side by side, where the pockets of the savings are compared to where the revenue shortfalls are.
Also provided in our packet was a capital improvements program update. These are just some notable
ones. The Police station, you just awarded the design contract. That's underway. Sycolin Road widening,
although the construction is complete, you generally complete the landscaping in the fall. That's
encouraging.
Edwards Ferry sidewalk as well has been slightly delayed, but it's still on track for completion next spring.
The Tuscarora Creek, one that's been around for over a decade, I'm sure has been completed. I think some
of you attended that completion. There's a digester boiler replacement. The Council just approved the
contract. There is some delays due to COVID with the production of the equipment, but it's still planned to
be done in the next quarter. Then West Market Street sidewalk has been completed.
Page 71 June 7, 2021
A Utilities Fund update. Although we're in pandemic conditions, usage remains constant from pre-COVID
levels and nothing's changed there from previous projections. However, we're starting to develop a refined
projection and revenues are definitely going to meet projected estimates, which is great news. It is offset
by expenditure savings so that we are projecting a slight surplus if you will. Utilities much like the General
Fund has experienced some personnel turnover. Council Member Cummings asked us today about the
delinquency rate. Our delinquency rate has actually improved about 50%since we were last in front of you.
It's about 330K to this point.
Compared to pre-COVID, we had the ability to collect any delinquent accounts because they would have
to come in compliance before they would be shut off. Moving on to the American Rescue Plan Act, there
are more details in the memo of course, but just to go over some of the high-level, note-worthy things. We
did just receive our first tranche. That's a 50% of our total award of about$5.9M. The second tranche will
come exactly one year later. Next June 8th, 2022, we should expect the second payment.
There are some limitations on ARPA funding. The one that I've highlighted here is one that staff is
developing a proposal for you to take action on the second meeting here of June of how we would like to
recommend that Council utilize the ARPA funding that we're receiving. You can use it to replace lost public
sector revenue that would otherwise have been used for governmental services. Other than that, there's
public health response efforts, economic grants to households and businesses, premium pays and hazard
pay for essential walkers, as well as water and sewer and broadband infrastructure improvements as well.
To walk through the evolution of where we got to$5.9M, initially from the Congressional Research Service,
prior to the US Treasury's termination of our allocation, they reported out erroneously that we were going
to receive $48.8M. Since the US Treasury has released their interim role, the real difference was is the
Congressional Research Service looked at us as a non-entitlement unit which means that we were not
eligible for CDBG grants, Community Development Block Grants.
However, because of our population and the US Treasury's determination, we are considered an
entitlement community. For the public, the real difference between the two is that the allocation of ARPA
money was determined differently. A non-entitlement unit was based on population of the total bucket
allocated to the State, where entitled units would have to go through HUD metrics that were weighted.
There's about four or five different categories weighted that takes into account poverty level of the
community, age of housing, and the growth within the housing.
With that, the Town, unfortunately as an entitlement unit in the State is receiving the lowest per capita
allocation of$110 where all the non-entitlement units were offered $1,038 per capita. With that, we have
been working with Town Council members, with the State and Federal departments as well as elected
officials. To date, we have received no indication that adjustments are going to be made to our allocation,
unfortunately. And at 10 minutes and 10 seconds that's the end of my presentation.
Mayor Burk: Oh, I'm so disappointed. Ten seconds. Just to fill in the information that you have, that was a
lot of information. We have been talking to Treasury, our legislative coalition and Congress has been trying
to figure out what happened. We did find out that we got put into the entitlement cap and that ended up
hurting us whereas our other towns, they became unentitled and it went by populations. They got it just
generally by their population.
We are being assessed by what's the rate of poverty, what's happening in regard to affordable housing,
what's unemployment. It was comparing two different things so it really wasn't particularly beneficial to the
Town. We are moving forward with our State delegation and having meetings with them. They are more
optimistic that perhaps, there could be some changes in their allocations because these entitled areas
within the State of Virginia really did take a hit. Hopefully, we can bring something forward from the State.
We're working on that as we speak now. Mr. Steinberg, do you have any questions?
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Council Member Steinberg: No questions. Thanks for the presentation, Jason. Obviously, the positives
in the budget are welcome and we can only hope those continue to help us out in the coming fiscal budget.
Thanks.
Mayor Burk: Ms. Fox?
Council Member Fox: No, I don't have any questions on this. Thank you.
Mayor Burk: Ms. Nacy?
Council Member Kari Nacy: I just have one quick question. Are essential workers during COVID, they
didn't get any hazard pay or bonuses?
Jason Cournoyer: No.
Council Member Nacy: Okay, thank you.
Mayor Burk: Mr. Cummings?
Council Member Cummings: No questions. I had some questions about the ARPA, but if you're going to
present it at the next meeting, I'll hold off my questions until we get your report.
Mayor Burk: Hopefully, we'll have even better news next meeting.
Council Member Cummings: I just wanted to thank the Mayor for all her work along with staff trying to
wrestle as many dollars as we could out of this. Thank you for your effort, Mayor Burk. Hopefully, the State
will come to our aid here.
Mayor Burk: Thank you. We'll see. We're working on it hard, believe me. Mr. Bagdasarian?
Council Member Bagdasarian: No, thank you very much. Appreciate it.
Mayor Burk: Mr. Martinez?
Vice Mayor Martinez: Yes, I do have a question maybe two. It should take about 20 minutes. Seriously,
though. My concern is lately we have this inflation that is occurring at a rate that's not being documented
by the Federal government but we are feeling the pinch in construction costs, wood, metal, and labor costs.
How is that going to impact our budget for the next year or two on any projects we're doing? I just found
out that plywood that was $20 six months ago is now at $90. It's devastating to our residents right now
because they can't do their projects like, "All right, I'm having to stop remodeling my basement because of
the rising costs." I'm concerned to how that's going to impact the Town.
Jason Cournoyer: We've learned some lessons about how to predict the near-term future of our projects.
Unfortunately, the trends are showing that we're going to have to reevaluate some of our construction costs
as well as our contingencies. I foresee, and we haven't gotten to that level yet but when we started
evaluating Fiscal Year 23's budget and the Capital Improvement Program, you may see some proposals
for increasing contingencies to allow for some of that flexibility. Frankly, it's hard to tell if this is a short-term,
midterm or a longer-term trend right now, especially with the material costs that have come up.
Development is still increasing in the Town. There is some encouragement that there is still a lot of
construction happening in the Town. Perhaps that's eating up more of the supply, that paired with the
pandemic conditions. Some of the factories might have shut down. If Renee was here, she is with several
professional associations that are very close to this and she's monitoring it very close.
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Vice Mayor Martinez: One of the concerns I have is that understanding the pent-up demand issue and the
fact that we went a whole year with every market not being able to-- It's not they weren't able to meet the
demand, there was no demand. They had to stop buying things, they had to sell things off just to get by.
My concern is that this is going to be short to mid-term anywhere between 2 to 10 years depending on how
fast manufacturing can ramp up for demand, if we're going to continue to be able to use overseas products
the way we have been in the past.
I'm anticipating that you're going to come to Council in the next few months knowing that we're going to
have to increase some of the projects' budgets because of that or maybe defer. Since you brought all this
up, I just thought that something that we all should have on our radar and be ready to, or at least anticipate.
If you got any news, I would love to hear in the near future. Thank you.
Mayor Burk: The question I have concerns the six frozen vacancies. Do we anticipate filling them any time
soon?
Kaj Dentler: In the near future.
Mayor Burk: In the near future. Okay.
Kaj Dentler: What we're trying to do is to make sure that we go slow and reasonable. Somewhere in the
late summer to fall, we'll probably start trying to advertise and begin to fill those as long as the economy is-
Vice Mayor Martinez: [unintelligible].
Kaj Dentler: Right. We have been hiring a lot of the positions back. Police have a lot of vacancies that we
still have to work through. That issue is more supply, people that want to be officers in the current
environment that we have. So we're working on it.
Mayor Burk: Great. Thank you very much. Thank you for the report even though you did go 13 seconds
over. The next one that we have to talk about today is Marketing and Promotion of Leesburg as an
Intersection of Arts, Culture, and History.
Russell Seymour: Good evening, Madam Mayor, Members of Council. One of the items that we have on
the agenda this evening is to talk a little bit about looking at what our previous market and promotion items
or initiatives were for our Arts and Cultural and History Districts. Then to look at evaluating those, what has
been done in the past, and to take a look at what we're going to hopefully be doing as we move rapidly
forward into the next era of this if you will. One of the presentations or items that we'll talk about tonight as
part of our presentation is to look at potential ideas for future promotion. That's a big item for us.
Some previous initiatives include the Public Art Guidelines that was done back in 2018, and then were
actually redeveloped or updated in 2018. I'm sorry, 2008 and 2018, the Leesburg Art Master Plan was
provided and completed in 2016, and then a vision for public art was completed in 2019. Those are the
initiatives that we'll be talking from and the initiatives that we've pulled information from.
This evening, I'm going to talk very briefly about the Leesburg Arts and Cultural District that was set back
in 2011. Leah Kosin is going to come up and talk about the vision for public art, touch on some of the initial
accomplishments that have been done to this point, as well as our next steps where we're planning to go
in the future, and then Beth Erickson with Visit Loudoun is going to be here to talk about our programs
working with Visit Loudoun, and how we solve this from an outside the Town point of view.
This is our existing Arts and Cultural District. This was a district that was laid out and in going back and
reading some materials, it was done really for two areas. It was a promotion of art, but is also talked about
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as a redevelopment program for Downtown. What you'll see on that map is this year area is only covering
Downtown, pretty much the Historic District with the exception of coming down and getting the Catoctin
Circle area.
I believe a lot of that was looking at possible redevelopment opportunities for that particular area. In looking
at the district and what has been done since it was started, there are three primary business initiatives.
There's BPOL, which is over a 10-year period. It's a sliding rate, starts at a hundred percent rebate, and
then you lose 10% each year as it comes down, the Town's real estate tax rebate, and a zoning permit
exemption.
One of the items that you see on there is the real estate tax rebate. I wanted to draw attention to that
because while that can be a very valuable incentive, that rarely goes through to the actual business that
we're working with on this. Most of the businesses rent space in our Downtown area, so that is not
something that is available to them. In a lot of cases, these smaller startup businesses aren't generating a
significant amount of revenue at the beginning, so that BPOL rebate really is not seeing a lot of activity.
You look at the second bullet point there, I asked finance to give us a breakdown of how many businesses
have actually received money since it was started and how much money has been going out. As you can
see, there've been a number of businesses that were certified. There were only two in that time period.
There's been one business that has applied and actively applied for this rebate. In 2016 through 2020, that
time period, roughly$2,7K was rebated back to that particular business for doing this.
As we explain a little bit more about what's being done, there are two items that I wanted to address that
are laid up on there as well. To take a look at it, one is looking at other options. I believe it's time for us to
go back to look at that incentive program. We've been talking to a lot of the art community, a lot of the
businesses that are out there now, ask them the simple question, "What do you need?" Finding out then
what we can possibly put in place to address that. Then the last item I put down there is just to keep an eye
on something.
The State does allow tourism zones. Now, these are programs that are initiated via locality. They can cover
any designated area. They follow the same process that our Arts District did, but the one advantage to that
is it does open up a lot of State, or potential grants with the State, through the Virginia Tourism Commission
or VTC. There are a number of those programs now that are active, and that is something that we will
certainly be looking at and providing additional information to Council as we move forward. With that in
mind, I am going to now turn the podium over to Leah Kosin to talk a little bit about some of the progress
we've made up to this point. Then all three of us, myself, Leah, and Erickson will be here to answer any
questions that you have at the end.
Leah Kosin: Good evening, Council. Our goal really is to increase awareness and support the arts culture
and history of Leesburg while creating more artistic opportunities, increasing capital investment, creating
jobs and further promoting our Town.What we already have are three murals in place, the bike mural, Gale
Waldron that faces Lassiter Way, and Discover the Charm.
We have two more murals currently in progress which include the King Street bridge mural and the Liberty
Street mural. The Harrison Street mural is in the beginning stages and began with priming as of this
morning. We also have a call to artists for three alley niches and the Town Hall parking garage facing
Lassiter Way. Other accomplishments include our sculptures, the ArtsPARKs project at Raflo Park, the
LOVE work sign across from Raflo Park. Last year, I helped create the virtual art tour for the Tour Leesburg
app. This was created during COVID 19 to help promote the arts that we already have. It features 11 pieces
of art at 7 locations, while providing a brief description of each and really helped bring people out into our
Town to tour what we have to offer.
We also created a video art tour created for YouTube during COVID-19, which features each piece of art,
as well as local businesses that promote art such as PhotoWorks that was featured and these two things
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here can be expanded upon. We also have the logo and banner project, which was approved last year in
2020, and will begin to come to life this year on July 3rd.
Our vision for growth, the outcomes of cultural districts extend beyond the arts and benefit all members of
the community. Some of our goals might include attracting artists and cultural enterprises to the community,
which will contribute to the economic potential, encourage business participation through special events,
classes, and tours, address specific needs of the community while establishing a tourism destination.
Cultural districts are marketable tourism assets that highlight the distinct identity of a community and
encourage in-state, out-of-state, and international visitors. How do we accomplish this? Our goal should be
to already utilize what we have. When it comes to history, the Thomas Balch library, Loudoun Museum,
and the BAR can help promote the history of Leesburg through exhibits, classes, tours, that will appeal to
both residents and visitors.
We already have a historic tour app that we could bring to life in person, and really, we need to educate.
Let's take people to our historic buildings and provide stories and experiences for them to better understand
the story behind Shoes or Lightfoot or to see the fingerprints that you can actually see in the Loudoun
Museum that indicate all the hard work that went into our historic buildings.
Our restaurants can help promote their culinary arts. We can promote more film and photography events
through Movies Under the Stars,Acoustic on the Green or Taste, and of course, music and performing arts.
We can work together with businesses already located within the district to make all of this a reality while
also creating a more clear economic incentive program, designed to spur creative business ideas.
When it comes to our culture, we really need to think about who lives and visits Leesburg, and what we can
do to cater to them. Age groups, marital status, families, we need to review high attendance location and
events. What are these people enjoying the most? We can do these through surveys, research, and also
looking at history. Where are residents, visitors going? How far are they traveling?What will keep them in
our town?
When it comes to this plan, of course, my favorite part will be to promote it. We can do this through a
number of different options, news releases, social media, video productions for YouTube, the use of
influencers to tell their own experiences and stories. What objectives can we reach? Our objectives need
to be generally useful so people pay attention and stay engaged. Consistency will be our key.
We need to know what we're going to say, how we're going to say it and what we want to achieve to make
this a successful launch and campaign. I personally have no doubt that we can and will get there. As a
town, we already have a beautiful canvas to work with. We have a fantastic material to work with, with no
shortage of stories or experiences to share. It all comes down to utilization, education and how we'll be able
to use this toward a lifetime of growth. That will involve a team which will hopefully include Visit Loudoun
and with that, I'll introduce Beth Erickson.
Beth Erickson: Great. In my remaining 16 seconds, 14, 13, you will recall that we had, in the FY 20
agreement MOA, that we put aside 10% of our allotment to support this project. We have completed this
checklist and we are ready to go with next steps.
Mayor Burk: Is that the end of your presentation?
Beth Erickson: [unintelligible]
Mayor Burk: Oh, okay. We'll give you a few more minutes if you would like to have a few more minutes,
but I would put them on notice. That wasn't fair to you.
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Beth Erickson: Yes ma'am. I think some of the key objectives that we have that I want to bring to your
attention were the development of a digital toolkit, a marketing plan, and an interactive map and website
on visitloudoun.org. Please take a look at it. We are really pleased with it, and it's bringing to life a lot of
what's happening here in the Arts and Cultural District,which by the way, is the only one in Loudoun County,
so it's a very important part for us to be promoting.
Once we are given the go-ahead on the marketing plan, we will execute the media buy. We need about
four or six weeks to do that. We've hired an agency. They're ready to go. We're collecting the assets, and
I'm really excited about what they've put forward and what it will look like. The digital toolkit, we're working
with Russ's department and Melanie. In addition to what you have in the packet, we have a one-pager that
will be going out with window clings that will help us brand the region by reinforcing the logo at every single
door.
We will be looking at hosting a webinar, going over the digital toolkit to help explain to all of the businesses
the best way to help amplify the message, to make sure that people understand the importance of the
district, more importantly, how do they extend the outreach through their digital campaigns? You have the
information in your packet. I would again, encourage you to go take a look at it. Everything has been vetted.
It was approved. The webpage was updated most recently on June 1st with a couple of changes that came
through COVID and we are ready to go. We're very pleased and very proud to be a partner with the Town
on what is, I think, a truly exciting project. Thank you.
Mayor Burk: Thank you. It's nice to see you. I haven't seen you for a year. Are there any questions, Ms.
Fox?
Council Member Fox: Maybe just a couple comments that I have. As I was listening to everybody speak,
it sounds like everybody's very excited about this. That's great. The one thing I would ask is-- I guess I
could ask Russ this, for the incentives that were offered, the rebates, the BPOL tax, and the rebate of the
real estate tax, and the exemption of the zoning permit fees, it sounds like we hadn't had much interest in
that in the past. Are we fortifying that?Are we changing that, are we keeping that the same?What's going
to happen with all that?
Russell Seymour: That is one of our recommendations is to take a hard look at those options, those
incentive program options that are out there, and just see if we can't tweak those to make it a little bit more
amenable to today's market, or look to replace that, or highlight that with additional programs.
Council Member Fox: Okay. My one concern about that, and I think I've always had a concern about this,
but now that I see it in writing, I don't know if I agree that we're not consistent all throughout the business
community with something like this, but that is something I suppose we can talk about down the line. If
we're going to be implementing everything that was just talked about by you and by Leah, and by Beth,
what kind of metrics will we have to figure out whether this plan that sounds very robust is actually working?
What are the milestones?When are we going to hear if it's working or not? Because it seems to be, I guess,
the end-all be-all for our Downtown.The other thing I'm wondering about is how the Arts and Cultural District
and the H1 district will coexist. I have yet to figure out our plan for that. Is that something that can coexist?
Those would be my thoughts on it and just turn it over to somebody else. Thanks.
Mayor Burk: Thank you, Ms. Fox. Ms. Nacy? Mr. Bagdasarian?
Council Member Bagdasarian:Well. Yes, thank you very much, all three of you. Appreciate it. Just some
historic context of the Arts and Cultural District. Back in 2010, 2011, I had the pleasure of being the Chair
of the EDC, and we worked with COPA in a joint task force to bring us about. The outcome that we were
desiring and targeting was to help foster a destination for arts, entertainment and dining, because
Downtown Leesburg, specifically Downtown Leesburg back then, would shut down at 5:00 p.m.
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Most of the first floor retail opportunities were occupied by offices, and it was a persistent issue in the
Downtown. How do we create this environment? We started with a tourism zone. That actually was our
very first approach, was looking at a tourism zone as a possibility. The Arts and Cultural District came on
the radar.We decided to go down that direction because,from a branding perspective,that really enveloped
what we were trying to deliver. That was the outcome we were ultimately trying to deliver.
I believe that outcome is really starting to happen over the last several years, organically. Even back then,
I think the whole' notion of the incentives, I don't think that the incentives alone were going to make a
significant difference. I think that the critical mass of the types of venues, the performance opportunities for
artists, really started to happen organically. Just in the whole notion in the context of that shared vision of
this arts, entertainment, dining district, that really started coming to fruition.
I think it's important to keep that whole context in mind when we look at this 10 years later. When it comes
down to, I think, to Council Member Fox's point, how do we bridge that intersect between a Historic District
and an Arts and Cultural District, and where do we lead in with that? How do we bring in both of those
elements to achieve the goals that we are trying to accomplish at the end of the day? Because it is a Historic
District and it is an Arts and Cultural District, and I do believe that both of them can exist and should work
together in order to have an outcome that's even greater than what we have today. That's the challenge
that we have before us. That's it. Thank you.
Mayor Burk: Mr. Steinberg?
Council Member Steinberg: Thanks for the presentation. I have a question for Russell, if I might, getting
back to the incentive program. As a business in both the Historic District and the soon-to-be Arts and
Cultural District, it was my impression that the incentive program was a lot of paperwork for not much return.
I wonder if you can just refresh our memory as to what the actual goal of the incentive program is or was.
Russell: The goal of the program?
Council Member Steinberg: Yes.
Russell Seymour: Looking at it and taking what a Councilman Bagdasarian was talking about, the goal of
the program was to highlight our Downtown area, highlight the businesses there, create that--
Council Member Steinberg: No. I meant the goal of the incentive program specifically.
Russell Seymour: The goal of the incentive program then was to give businesses an opportunity to either
help them with the startup period, because a lot of these businesses are startups that are going, or help
them buy, whether it was buying materials, it's just really helping them get their businesses off the ground.
Council Member Steinberg: I wonder now, as we have a more flushed out program in general for the
district, and it's more of reality, maybe the incentive program is not something we need, or does it have to
be made more robust that actually gives businesses the incentive to fill it out.
Russell Seymour: Part of what I would recommend is we take an honest look at what those businesses.
Go back now, it's been 10 years, go back and look at what those businesses have done, look at what their
needs are. Again, in talking with them, we've gotten a pretty good idea of what that is, but it may not be just
a monetary incentive. There are other programs, there are other options that we can put out there that help
with marketing, for example, help getting information out to the general public. Looking at opportunities for
different types of events or incorporating more of that arts culture and history now into some of the events
that we already have. There are other opportunities for us, and I think that's what we'd like to take a look
at.
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Council Member Steinberg: Thank you.
Mayor Burk: Mr. Cummings?
Council Member Cummings: I just had a quick question maybe for Russell or for anybody, but I know in
the staff report, it talks about next steps, trying to bring it up here, and what staff recommends for Council
for this discussion. I guess my question is, it's been 10 years, it sounds like there's a lot happening in the
art community and with what COPA is busy working on. We're still working within this Historic District like
Councilwoman Fox mentioned about how do you marry the Historic District with an Arts and Culture District
and the world is changing post-COVID.
I guess a long way to get to my question of what do we need to do as a Council to move forward? Because
clearly, the incentive program seems to not being taken advantage of, maybe it's because of what Council
Member Steinberg said that it's cumbersome. The staff recommends a number of, I think, six different
things, all very important things. I guess my question just generally is, is tonight's discussion just to hear
from them and talk about it, or are we going to try to come up with a plan to act on the recommendations
of staff to put a plan into place, to marry the Arts and Culture in the Historic District?
Kaj Dentler: Go ahead.
Russell Seymour: I think obviously this being a work session, it's my understanding we wanted to share
this information to let you know, coming off of your retreat, where we were with this program.The marketing
pieces of it, the promotional pieces of it. This is a really good opportunity for us, as we mentioned in our
staff report, that we are redoing our website now from an economic development standpoint.
There's a lot of positive energy that's being generated, and working now closer with COPA, with Leah and
her office in putting more of this out there. Those pieces are moving forward. Outside of that, as far as
Council giving us direction on that, we were here to give you a snapshot of where we are, and to let you
know these are some of the things that we're moving in place, and some of the recommendations that we
have for the future.
Council Member Cummings: Sure. I only asked that because I think it fits in with what the previous
presentation on the Legacy of Leesburg plan, talking about character and vision of Leesburg. Of course
our Historic District is part of the character and vision, and so is the art and culture that we have here. I
definitely think this is a conversation we need to have. I guess my last comment is, I don't want to speak up
and try to create a commission or another committee or an ad hoc, but it does seem like after 10 years with
more activity happening, it would make sense to really drill down and come up with a plan of what we want
to see for the next 10 years of how we marry this Historic District with an Arts and Culture District, because
there's so much activity happening. There's a lot of interested parties in both the historic side and the arts
and culture side.
Mayor Burk: Mr. Martinez?
Vice Mayor Martinez: Russell, I see you're working with COPA.You'd been integral in the Microsoft servers
data centers debate, you've been busy with the airport, you're also working with the group to redevelop
Liberty parking lot. Am I right so far?
Russell Seymour: Yes, sir.
Vice Mayor Martinez:You're working on the Town Plan.You're working on with downtown businesses and
other businesses within the Town of Leesburg. You're also working with Main Street. Now, I assume I did
not capture everything. My question is, what are you doing in the three hours you get to sleep?
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Russell Seymour: Thinking of what I'm going to be doing the next day, sir.
Vice Mayor Martinez: [chuckles]
Russell Seymour: Now, Mr. Martinez, I will say you've got a really good staff across the board, and one of
the things that I have seen in the time that I've been here is the ability for those staff members to work
across the lines. We are not in silos and I give all the credit to not only the ED staff, but you mentioned
planning, PIO, all of these departments work very closely together.
Vice Mayor Martinez: I get that and I understand that. My concern is when are you going to ask for help?
Russell Seymour: When will I ask for help? Whenever I stand at the podium, Mr. Martinez, and you tell
me we're no longer meeting what your needs are. At that point we'll ask for help.
Vice Mayor Martinez: Oh, my main concern is, there's a lot of extracurricular stuff going on in the Town
that I think eventually is going to be on your plate. I know COPA has got a lot of stuff going on and some of
the other commissions are working pretty heavily. This last year with minimal staff, we've managed to get
the job done, but as we expand, as the economy recovers, there are other issues that are going to be
coming up. I just want to make sure that the Town,just like I had mentioned earlier, about the rising costs
for construction, I want to make sure that the rise in demand for the Town of Leesburg and its services, the
Downtown, the first Fridays and all that other good stuff that we all participate in, that we're prepared to
handle more demand coming up. I think we're going to get more demand. I understand, Beth, that reading
your report, that hotel occupancy rates are going up, are you anticipating it to continue to increase at that
rate or faster?
Beth Erickson:We are seeing moderate gains. I'm very thankful of the fact that we are tracking with where
we projected. It's going to take us a long time to get out and get back to the 2019 levels for TOT.
Vice Mayor Martinez: Okay. Thank you, and thank you for your report. I appreciate that. Russ, I want to
thank you. I wasn't being critical. I just don't want you to burn out. I want you to hang around for a while.
Okay?Thank you, and Leah, thank you too.
Leah Kosin: [unintelligible] When we were sitting here talking about this, we don't want to put any staff
members on the spot, but I think to piggyback off of what Russ said, we're all very energetic about this, and
we're willing to make this happen. If we can just create a team from specific departments, which we've
actually already talked about, we can, I feel come together and create something that will help to create
this, not overnight, but within--
Vice Mayor Martinez: We call that in the business, a Tiger team. Thank you, Leah. Thank you, Madam
Mayor.
Mayor Burk: I have a couple of comments. The first one is piggybacking on what Josh was, oh, Josh, why
did I do that?Zach.
Vice Mayor Martinez: He looks like a Josh.
Mayor Burk:Yes. It's the beard. It does it to me.Anyway, Zach and Ms. Fox talked about is, I really thought
you were going to come with recommendations for us to talk about, rather than a presentation of an overall
view. I'm a little disappointed in that because I really think this needs to come back so that we can have
that discussion of what do we want to see on these incentives? What are some things that we can do? I
was surprised that it was on the agenda tonight because it was so soon.
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I would rather have us come back with recommendations, so we can have a discussion on what do we
want this to look like?What are the incentives, we've got one business that took the incentive, in 10 years,
that probably means it's not the best incentive. I happen to believe that Historic District and the Arts District
absolutely go together, I think they are perfect together. To talk about having a program in place to marry
them together, I think is just great. I think that'll be great for both of them, and it will help tourism because
you're emphasizing the Historic Downtown that has this great art bind to it.
One of the things that I noticed when you listed accomplishments, all of the accomplishments was the
murals. Now, of course, I can't find it, but it was all paintings. I think there's even more accomplishments
that are going on Downtown, having to do with the music scene and the dining scene and what's going on
with all the different breweries that are going in and stuff of that nature.
I think the arts are so important and intrinsic to making Leesburg a vibrant place, that I think it is tied to the
Historic District, and it is tied to tourism. If we can make it a tourism district,we should do that, if that means
that we can possibly tap into more money in regard to helping make this all happen. I really commend the
Commission on Public Art, the Friends of Leesburg Public Art, obviously, Economic Development staff for
all of the hard work that they do, and the whole idea of the energy and the excitement that's going on
Downtown, I truly believe does come from the Economic Development Commission, so many years ago,
when you were a Chair, making this a priority.
I would love to see it continue to be a priority. I thank Visit Loudoun for their marketing program, and I'm
anxious to see what it actually does. I do think we do have to have a measurable component to it. We can't
go 10 years and have one company take advantage of the incentives and think that the incentives or the
advertising is working. I look forward to you coming back and coming forward with the ideas of what are
better incentives? What are better things that we can do? How can we make this an even more vibrant
district?
Most certainly, it's organic because so much of what's coming forward is coming from the businesses and
anything that we can do to make it even stronger and better, I'm all in favor of.While I appreciate the report,
it's very thorough and very good, I'm looking forward to hearing what are these recommendations and what
do we think will make this an even stronger Arts District that will help the Town move forward. Mr.
Bagdasarian, you have three minutes.
Council Member Bagdasarian: I'll make sure I don't use the full three minutes. I have a comment and a
question. The first I'll start with the comment. To your point, I think what's unique about Leesburg, is our
purple cow, what makes us completely different than any other area in our region, and in some ways, any
other place in the country is our outdoor music scene. That is so unique, and I've been in many different
music places in the world and a country in the world.
Vienna,Austria, Nashville, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, and that's truly unique to Leesburg. So, I think
capitalizing on being the America's live outdoor music capital is an important thing. One thing I do ask, and
Beth, you might know this, are people coming to Downtown Leesburg specifically, we're talking about
Downtown now, it's not the whole Town, to experience the historic sites? Are they coming to Downtown
Leesburg to experience the live outdoor music, the visual arts, the dining, the culinary experience? Do we
know what's bringing people to the Downtown and how to exploit that?
Beth Erickson: I think not in a granular level. No, not yet. I will tell you that one of the things that we've just
launched is a study program through cell phone usage. We'll know when people are coming into the
destination, what they're doing. It also allows us to look at demographics, potential visitor spending. That is
a project through an organization called C-Source, which we just launched. The pandemic allowed us to
bring some of those projects to fruition very quickly. We'll continue to work with Russ and his team on that
project and getting a little bit more granular detail. I think that is a challenge for any Historic District or Arts
and Cultural District, is really articulating that in dollar and cents, but I think we can get there.
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Council Member Bagdasarian: Okay, great. Thank you.
Beth Erickson: My pleasure.
Mayor Burk: Thank you.
Kaj Dentler: Madam Mayor, I just wanted to say for you and Mr. Cummings and all the other members,
what you've asked for is the intention of staff anyway. Tonight was on your agenda because this is the date
that you assigned it as part of your work plan coming out of the retreat. It's an initial conversation,
discussion. The team has provided you that. There's a lot of follow-up and we will be back with more
information and more plan. This is not the end. This is just the beginning.
Mayor Burk: You can tell there's definitely an excitement here on the dais for this project. We want to do
what we can to support it.
Kaj Dentler: That's what we were hoping to find tonight. It's just confirm that we're on the right direction
and you've done that, so thank you.
Mayor Burk: All right. We are on to Future Council Meeting. Ms. Nacy, you have anything?
Council Member Nacy: I do. I just have one thing. When we have the ARPA briefing from Town staff on
the suggested spending uses, I guess, I would like, if possible, to see, as one of the potential spending
uses, what it would cost if we paid our essential workers during COVID a $2K bonus. I'd like to see what
that would equate to out of that money, if possible.
Mayor Burk: Are there four people that would be interested in hearing that information? Mr. Steinberg,
everybody, Ms. Fox?Well, it doesn't make any difference. Yes.
Council Member Fox: Yes.
Mayor Burk: It does turn out it's everybody.
Council Member Fox: Thanks.
Mayor Burk: All right. Mr. Bagdasarian?
Council Member Bagdasarian: Nothing from me. Thank you.
Mayor Burk: Mr. Martinez?
Vice Mayor Martinez: No, I'm good.
Mayor Burk: Mr. Steinberg?
Council Member Steinberg: Yes, I'd like a future meeting to revisit the conversation regarding the
employment classification of Council as it pertains to health insurance.
Mayor Burk: Are there four people that are interested in that? Four people that are interested in that? Ms.
Nacy, Mr. Bagdasarian, Mr. Steinberg, Mr. Cummings and Mr. Martinez. All right. I saved you for last, Mr.
Cummings.
Council Member Cummings: Is that the best for last? I received a request today for a waiver of fees for
the Loudoun NAACP's Juneteenth celebration here in the Town of Leesburg. Was hoping that we could
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waive those fees at tomorrow night's meeting. I know that according to Mr. Spera, we have some leeway
with that with the Council rules.
•
Christopher Spera: Yes, Mr. Cummings. Madam Mayor, I believe that that is under Rule 13 of your rules
of procedure. That is the type of addition with minimal staff time that could be added to the subsequent
meeting.
Mayor Burk: Do we need to suspend the rules for this one?
Christopher Spera: No.
Mayor Burk: No? Okay. We need to have four people that would want to--
Christopher Spera: That's correct. All you need are the four head nods and then staff--
Mayor Burk: Are there four people that would like to vote to waive the fee for the NAACP March on
Juneteenth?
Christopher Spera: It would just be to add a resolution.You'll consider a resolution tomorrow night,waiving
those fees. You're not taking a vote on waiving the fees tonight.
Mayor Burk: No.
Christopher. Spera: You're simply putting a resolution to that effect on the docket for tomorrow's agenda.
Mayor Burk: Better wording is to say consider a resolution to waive fees for the NAACP and the Loudoun
Freedom Center.
Christopher Spera: Juneteenth Celebration.
Mayor Burk: Juneteenth Celebration. All right. All in favor of that? Indicate by saying, aye. You have a
question, Mr. Steinberg?
Council Member Steinberg: After.
Mayor Burk: All in favor?All right. Ms. Fox?
Council Member Fox: Aye.
Mayor Burk: Okay, it's everybody. Yes, Mr. Steinberg.
Council Member Steinberg: I apologize, but this reminded me, I did want to add one more thing for a
future meeting which is, since this particular issue has come up several times, I think we should have a
discussion on a more solid approach as to how we make these decisions in the future.
Mayor Burk: You would like to have a discussion on a policy position on waiver fees?
Council Member Steinberg: Yes.
Mayor Burk:Are there four people that would be interested? I think that's everybody too. All right. Is there
a motion to adjourn?
Council Member Fox: No, I didn't get my [inaudible]. [crosstalk]
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Mayor Burk: Oh, I'm sorry Ms. Fox. Go ahead.
Council Member Fox: That's okay. Hey, I was going to ask for the same thing Council Member Steinberg
asked. I'm glad that went through. I also wanted to see if there was a discussion that could be had about
fees when we pay bills online. We've gotten some feedback in the past about the fees that are associated
with that, with electronic payment. I know we have some things that people could do, but they're not
educated about it at this point. I think we need a discussion about possibly waiving those fees or figuring
out a way to get the word out there that there's a way to do that because the people don't feel like they're
paying at the last minute and all of a sudden there's a fee associated with it. I'd like to work session
discussion on that.
Mayor Burk: Are there four people that would like to have a work session discussion on the different ways
that we can pay bills online? Is that summarizing it, Ms. Fox?
Council Member Fox: I guess, yes.
Mayor Burk: All right. Mr. Martinez, everybody?All right.
Council Member Fox: That's it.
Mayor Burk: Now is there a motion to adjourn?
Vice Mayor Martinez: So moved.
Mayor Burk: Vice Mayor Martinez. Second?
Council Member Bagdasarian: Second.
Mayor Burk: Council Member Bagdasarian. All in favor?
Council Members: Aye.
Mayor Burk: Opposed?
Council Member Fox:Aye.
Mayor Burk: All right. We are done.
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