HomeMy Public PortalAbout2022_tcmin0208 COUNCIL MEETING February 8, 2022
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 Planning& Zoning Susan Berry Hill, Director of Utilities
Amy Wyks, Director of Public Works and Capital Projects Renee LaFollette, Airport Director
Scott Coffman, Director Information Technology Jakub Jedrzejczak, Director of Finance and
Administrative Services Clark Case, Deputy Director of Finance and Administrative
Services/Treasurer Lisa Haley, Management and Budget Officer Cole Fazenbaker, Senior Planner
Rich Klusek and Clerk of Council Eileen Boeing.
AGENDA ITEMS
1. CALL TO ORDER
2. INVOCATION was given by Council Member Cummings.
3. SALUTE TO THE FLAG was led by Council Member Nacy.
4. ROLL CALL
a. All Council Members present.
5. MINUTES
a. Work Session Minutes of January 24, 2022
MOTION 2022-024
On a motion by Vice Mayor Martinez, seconded by Council Member Steinberg, the minutes of
the Work Session ofJanuary 24, 2022, were moved for approval.
The motion was approved by the following vote:
Aye: Bagdasarian, Cummings, Fox, Vice Mayor Martinez, Nacy, Steinberg and Mayor
Burk
Nay: None
Vote: 7-0
b. Regular Session Minutes of January 25, 2022
MOTION2022-025
On a motion by Vice Mayor Martinez, seconded by Council Member Bagdasarian, the minutes
of the Regular Session ofJanuary 25, 2022, were moved for approval.
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COUNCIL MEETING February 8, 2022
The motion was approved by the following vote:
Aye: Bagdasarian, Cummings, Fox, Vice Mayor Martinez, Nacy, Steinberg and Mayor
Burk
Nay: None
Vote: 7-0
6. ADOPTING THE MEETING AGENDA
Council Member Steinberg requested item 13.a. —Motion to Rescind Resolution 2021-154
be removed from the agenda.
MOTION2022-026
On a motion by Council Member Steinberg, seconded by Council Member Cummings, the following
was proposed:
Remove item 13.a. —Motion to Rescind Resolution 2021-154from the meeting agenda
Council discussed the motion.
The motion was approved by the following vote:
Aye: Bagdasarian, Cummings, Vice Mayor Martinez, Steinberg and Mayor Burk
Nay: Fox, Nacy
Vote: 5-2
MOTION2022-027
On a motion by Council Member Steinberg, seconded by Council Member Bagdasarian, the meeting
agenda was moved for approval with item 13.a. —Motion to Rescind Resolution 2021-154 removed.
The motion was approved by the following vote:
Aye: Bagdasarian, Cummings, Vice Mayor Martinez, Steinberg and Mayor Burk
Nay: Fox, Nacy
Vote: 5-2
7. CERTIFICATES OF RECOGNITION
a. None.
8. PRESENTATION OF PROCLAMATIONS
a. Black History Month
Mayor Burk read the proclamation for Black History Month recognizing Tammy
Carter, MLK Diversity-Engagement Foundation Chairwoman. Ms. Carter made a few
remarks.
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COUNCIL MEETING February 8, 2022
b. Motion to Approve Proclamation for The Basics Gracie Jiu-Jitsu 10 Year Business
Anniversary
MOTION2022-028
On a motion by Council Member Nacy, seconded by Council Member Fox, the following was
proposed:
I move to approve the Proclamation for The Basics Gracie Jiu-Jitsu 10 Year Business
Anniversary to be proclaimed at the February 22, 2022, Town Council Meeting.
The motion was approved by the following vote:
Aye: Bagdasarian, Cummings, Fox, Nacy, Steinberg, Vice Mayor Martinez, and Mayor
Burk
Nay: None
Vote: 7-0
9. PETITIONERS
The Petitioner's Section was opened at 7:12 p.m.
Paul Sheaffer. Spoke to Council as Chair of the Environmental Advisory
Commission(EAC) to request funding in the FY23 budget for an Energy Manager position
to lead the Town's energy conservation and management effort.
The Petitioner's Section was closed at 7:15 p.m.
10. PRESENTATIONS
a. Town Manager's Fiscal Year 2023 Proposed Budget
Mr. Kaj Dentler presented Council with the Fiscal Year 2023 Proposed Budget and
the Six-Year Capital Improvements Program for Fiscal Years 2023—2028. Mr. Dentler
reviewed Council's strategic initiatives which include: economic development, Town Plan,
environment, information technology and emergency preparedness. Mr. Dentler proposed
enhancements in the following areas:
• Economic Development- $295K investment
o Identify Issues and Opportunities—Action Steps
o Support and Assist Leesburg Small Businesses
o Maintain Entrepreneurial Spirit
o Strategic Plan
o One staff position—Business Development Coordinator
o Lease Space Downtown—Co-House Small Business Development
Center
• Planning& Community Development-$960K investment
o Zoning Ordinance rewrite
o Capital Intensity Factors
o Traffic Study
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COUNCIL MEETING February 8, 2022
o One staff position— Senior Management Analyst
• Information Technology-$1.2M investment
o Cybersecurity
o Customer Support
o Two staff positions—Staff Analyst(1) and Technician(1)
o 2nd fiber connect at the Leesburg Police Department
o Video storage
o Phone system
• Emergency Management- $520K investment
o Operations Plan
o Training '
o Public Outreach Planning Information
o Snow Removal
Mr. Dentler reviewed the overall Capital Improvements Program(CIP) and review
the 14 proposed new projects to include:
• 16 Wirt St Facility
• Excavated Materials Holding&Drying Facility—DPW portion
• Second Fiber Connection to Leesburg Police Station
• Town Hall Fire System Upgrade
• Town-wide Video Storage
• Old Waterford Road Trail to Morven Park
• North St Improvements (King St to Old Waterford Rd)
• Church St Sidewalk, missing link
• S King St Improvements (W&OD Trail to Royal St)
• Traffic Signal—Fiber Connection
• Valley View Sidewalk—Davis to Barricade
• Misc. Storm Drainage Construction&Repair
• Water Treatment Plant Electrical Upgrades
• Water Storage Tank Recoat—Hogback Tank
Mr. Dentler noted the total CIP for all six years is $228,961,990 for 81 projects
inclusive of the 14 new projects with$52,880,540 of the total in Fiscal Year 2023 for 46
projects.
Council and staff discussed the proposed budget. Council will begin Budget Work
Sessions beginning February 22, 2022.
11. REGIONAL COMMISSION REPORTS
Vice Mayor Martinez reported he resigned from the Loudoun County Transit Authority.
He encouraged anyone interested in filling his vacancy to contact him if they had questions about
the position.
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COUNCIL MEETING February 8., 2022
12. APPROVAL OF THE CONSENT AGENDA
MOTION 2022-029
On a motion by Vice Mayor Martinez, seconded by Council Member Fox, the following consent agenda
was proposed:
a. Airport Maintenance/Storage Facility Project Construction Change Order No. 6
RESOLUTION2022-016
Approving Construction Change Order No. 6 in the amount of$17,943 for the Airport
Maintenance/Storage Facility Project
b. Sewage Sludge Stabilization and Disposal Service
RESOL UTION2022-017
Awarding a Change Order for the Sewage Sludge Stabilization and Disposal Services to
Synagro Central LLC for$250,000
c. Appointment to the Economic Development Commission
RESOLUTION2022-018
Appointing Mary Harper to the Economic Development Commission
d. Appointment to the Commission on Public Art
RESOLUTION2022-019
Appointing Jan Wilson to the Commission on Public Art
e. Process for Town Proclamations
RESOLUTION2019-116(Amended)
Process for Town Proclamations
The Consent Agenda was approved by the following vote:
Aye: Bagdasarian, Cummings, Fox, Vice Mayor Martinez, Nacy, Steinberg and Mayor
Burk
Nay: None
Vote: 7-0
13. RESOLUTIONS /ORDINANCES / MOTIONS
a. Motion to Rescind Resolution 2021-154
This item was removed from the agenda.
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COUNCIL MEETING February 8, 2022
b. Fiscal Year 2023 Budget Review and Adoption Schedule
MOTION2022-030
On a motion by Vice Mayor Martinez, seconded by Council Member Nacy, the following was
proposed:
RESOLUTION2022-020
Fiscal Year 2023 Budget Review and Adoption Schedule
The motion was approved by the following vote:
Aye: Bagdasarian, Cummings, Fox, Vice Mayor Martinez, Nacy, Steinberg and Mayor
Burk
Nay: None
Vote: 7-0
c. Loudoun County Referrals: Village at Clear Springs Rezoning. Airport
Impact Overly District Comprehensive Plan Amendment, and Goose Creek
Club II Rezoning
Ms. Susan Berry Hill provided an overview of three Loudoun County
referrals to the Town: Village at Clear Springs Rezoning, Airport Impact Overlay
District Comprehensive Plan Amendment, and Goose Creek Club II Rezoning, and
staffs recommendations for each project. Council and staff discussed the referrals.
Council Member Steinberg made a motion to accept all three resolutions;
however, Vice Mayor Martinez requested the Endorsement of the Consolidated
Comment Letter for ZMAP 2021-008, Village at Clear Springs, Second Submission
be voted on separately.
MOTION 2022-031
On a motion by Council Member Steinberg, seconded by Council Member Fox, the following
was proposed:
RESOLUTION2022-022
Endorsement of the Consolidated Letter for CPAM2021-0001, Airport Impact Overlay
District, Second Submission
and
RESOLUTION2022-023
Endorsement of the Consolidated Comment Letter for ZMAP 2021-0020; Goose Creek Club
II, First Submission
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COUNCIL MEETING February 8, 2022
The motion was approved by the following vote:
Aye: Bagdasarian, Cummings, Fox, Vice Mayor Martinez, Nacy, Steinberg and Mayor
Burk
Nay: None
Vote: 7-0
MOTION2022-032
On a motion by Council Member Steinberg, seconded by Council Member Fox, the following
was proposed:
RESOLUTION2022-021
Endorsement of the Consolidated Comment Letter for ZMAP 2021-0008, Village at Clear
Springs, Second Submission
The motion was approved by the following vote:
Aye: Bagdasarian, Cummings, Fox, Nacy, Steinberg and Mayor Burk
Nay: Vice Mayor Martinez
Vote: 6-1
14. PUBLIC HEARINGS
a. Public Hearing on Calendar Year 2022 Personal Property Tax Rates
The Public Hearing was opened at 8:06 p.m.
Mr. Clark Case presented Council with the proposed Calendar Year 2022 Personal
Property Tax Rates. Council and staff discussed the proposed rates.
Public Speakers:
There were no speakers wishing to address this public hearing.
The public hearing was closed at 8:11 p.m.
MOTION2022-033
On a motion by Vice Mayor Martinez, seconded by Council Member Bagdasarian, the
following was proposed:
I move to approve the proposed tax Ordinance to set the tax rate on personal property, vehicle
license fee, and personal property tax relief for Tax Year 2022 as proposed at the currently
adopted tax rates.
ORDINANCE 2022-0-008
Setting Tax Rates on Personal Property(Section 20-22), Vehicle License Fee(Section 32-84),
Motor Vehicle Tax Reduction(Section 20-25), and Personal Property Tax Relief(Section 20-
30)for Tax Year 2022, and Amending Leesburg Town Code Section 20-25 and Appendix B—
Fee Schedule
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COUNCIL MEETING February 8, 2022
The motion was approved by the following vote:
Aye: Bagdasarian, Cummings, Fox, Vice Mayor Martinez, Nacy, Steinberg and Mayor
Burk
Nay: None
Vote: 7-0
b. TLTA-2021-0001, Legacy Leesburg Town Plan
The Public Hearing was opened at 8:13 p.m.
Mr. Richard Klusek presented Council with an overview of the Legacy Leesburg
Plan. Council and staff discussed the draft plan.
Public Speakers:
Vincente Gonzalez, 15 Leesburg Mobile Park. Spoke to Council regarding the
depiction of the Leesburg Mobile Home Park in the Legacy Leesburg Town Plan and asked
Council to amend the Zoning Ordinance to allow for mobile home parks and to strengthen
the proposed language in 3.3.6 of the Plan to address State Code §15.2-2223.5 to recognize
manufactured housing in addressing affordable housing needs.
Jose Monroy, 79 Leesburg Mobile Park. Spoke to Council regarding the depiction of
f
the Leesburg Mobile Home Park in the Legacy Leesburg Town Plan and asked Council to
remove the Leesburg Mobile Home Park from the Crescent District Master Plan(page 49)
where it shows.the Leesburg Mobile Home Park as an area where development will likely
occur.
Emily Perez, 57 Leesburg Mobile Park. Spoke to Council regarding the depiction of
the Leesburg Mobile Home Park in the Legacy Leesburg Town Plan and asked Council to
amend the redevelopment concept sketches to remove townhomes and two over two's on
the site of the current Leesburg Mobile Home Park.
Angela Kollman, 1409 Moore Place SW. Spoke to Council regarding the depiction
of the Leesburg Mobile Home Park in the Legacy Leesburg Town Plan and asked Council
to amend the Plan to show the Leesburg Mobile Home Park as a permitted use in Leesburg.
Evelin Garrido, 41 Leesburg Mobile Park. Spoke to Council regarding the depiction
of the Leesburg Mobile Home Park in the Legacy Leesburg Town Plan and asked Council
to consider the need for affordable housing in Leesburg and to come together tofind a
solution.
Julie Bolthouse, 410 Madison Court. Spoke to Council regarding the depiction of
the Leesburg Mobile Home Park in the Legacy Leesburg Town Plan and asked Council to
take the development opportunity section showing the Leesburg Mobile Home Park out of
the Leesburg Plan, pages 167 through 183, and start working on the Crescent Design
District Master Plan now.
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COUNCIL MEETING February 8; 2022
Elizabeth Pekin, Purcellville. Spoke to Council regarding the depiction of the
Leesburg Mobile Home Park in the Legacy Leesburg Town Plan and asked Council change
the redevelopment concept maps in the Plan to include Leesburg Mobile Park; protect the
homes from redevelopment; remove Leesburg Mobile Park from the selected opportunity
sites section of the Crescent District Master Plan; create a text amendment to allow mobile
home parks as a zoning option in Leesburg; and, strengthen the protections for current
mobile park residents under State Code Section 15.2-223.5 which requires localities to
incorporate manufactured housing into their Comprehensive Plans.
Molly Novotny, Cooley LLP. Spoke to Council on behalf of Kettler and Lidl. For
Kettler, Ms. Novotny advocated for Land Bays D &E to be zoned residential versus the
industrial uses depicted in the draft Legacy Leesburg Town Plan. Ms. Novotny noted how
the property would be better suited for residential and would benefit the Village at Leesburg.
Ms. Novotny also spoke on behalf of her client Lidl regarding the vacant property on
Edwards Ferry Road across from Costco that is planned and zoned for retail and would like
to work with Council to re-designate the property for something other than retail.
Charles Kieler, Kettler. Spoke to Council regarding Land Bays D &E in the Plan
and asked Council to reconsider the industrial designation on those land bays noting other
uses should be available which would benefit the Village at Leesburg. Mr. Kieler noted that
there is approximately 11 useable acres of the 15-20 acres on the two parcels combined due
to floodplains and other prohibiting factors.
John-Faett, Village at Leesburg. Spoke to Council as a business owner in the Village
at Leesburg requesting Land Bays D &E be converted from industrial to residential to
benefit the business owners at the Village at Leesburg.
Isa Mar. Spoke to Council about the need to represent residents who are making
40%below the median income. Ms. Mar noted many residents have been forced to move to
other areas because it is cheaper but have the desire to stay in Leesburg. Ms. Mar said it
feels like nothing is being done and the residents are being displaced from their homes. She
asked where the affordable housing is in Leesburg for all of the workers who provide
essential services.
The public hearing was closed at 8:48 p.m.
No action was taken by Council. This item is on the March 7, 2022, Town Council
Work Session agenda for further discussion.
15. UNFINISHED BUSINESS
a. None.
16. NEW BUSINESS
a. None.
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COUNCIL MEETING February 8, 2022
17. COUNCIL DISCLOSURES AND COMMENTS / ADDITIONS TO FUTURE
MEETINGS
Council Member Nacy noted she would be bringing up the Neighborhood Grant Program
during the Budget Work Session and hoped that Council could identify funds to support the
program.
Council Member Fox disclosed she met with Mr. David Gregory regarding the Leesburg
Mobile Park. Council Member Fox requested a Motion to Rescind Resolution 2021-154 be added
to the February 22, 2022, Council agenda.
Council Member Steinberg disclosed he met with Mr. Avram Fechter regarding the
Leesburg Mobile Home Park and that he attended the VML/VACO Conference in Richmond.
18. MAYOR DISCLOSURES AND COMMENTS /ADDITIONS TO FUTURE
MEETINGS
Mayor Burk welcomed Burn Boot Camp located on Sycolin Road and its Director Erin
Darante to Leesburg. Mayor Burk stated that she and Board of Supervisors Chair Randall,
Supervisor Umstattd, and Vice Mayor Martinez met with the residents of the trailer park to hear
from the residents after the developer released its purchase contract and to learn what the Town
and County can do to help them. Mayor Burk noted that there is another developer that has a
contract on the property. Mayor Burk said she had lunch with Mr. Shye Gilad to talk about the
Airport in general and its important impact to economic development. Mayor Burk attended the
VML Board meeting where they discussed legislation that would be impacting the Town. Mayor
Burk said she was joined afterwards by Vice Mayor Martinez, Council Member Steinberg and
Council Member Nacy to attend VML's Lobby Day called Local Town Day where Council
Members had the opportunity to speak with legislators and their staff. Mayor Burk and Mr.
Steinberg attended a meeting at Roots 637 in Lucketts where a proposal for the Route 15
improvements was discussed. Mayor Burk requested a Work Session discussion on the Route 15
North road widening and the impacts it will create for Leesburg.
It was the consensus of Council to add this to a future Work Session discussion.
Mayor Burk commented on the future Work Session discussion regarding COVID and the
policies in place as a result. Mayor Burk emphasized her main criteria is creating a safe work
environment for the employees. Mayor Burk added that Council will need to review advice from
the Health Department, guidance from the CDC and look at the data carefully to ensure the Town
is in an endemic before'moving forward with safely removing the mask mandate and other
restrictions. Mayor Burk wished everyone a Happy Valentine's Day.
19. TOWN MANAGER COMMENTS
a. None.
20. CLOSED SESSION
b. None.
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COUNCIL MEETING February 8, 2022
•
21. ADJOURNMENT
On a motion by Vice Mayor Martinez, seconded by Council Member Steinberg, the meeting was
adjourned at 8:54 p.m.
•
Kelly t rk,117 yor
Town of Leesburg
ATTEST:
fuldp . c:462.Q
Clerk of Council
2022_tcmin0208
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February 8, 2022—Town Council Meeting
(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.leesburgva.gov 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: Excuse me. I would like to call to order the February 8th, 2020 Town Council
Meeting. If anyone in the room needs hearing assistance, please see the Clerk. Council Member
Cummings will be giving the invocation, followed by the salute to the flag by Council Member Nacy.
Council Member Cummings?
Council Member Zach Cummings:Thank you.As we celebrate Black History Month, I'm just going to
ask that we take a moment to reflect and honor those that have stood up for racial and social justice
throughout our history, and for those who continue this important work here today in Leesburg and
beyond. If we all just bow our heads and take a moment of silence. [silence]Thank you
Mayor Burk: Ms. Nacy?
Council Member Kari Nacy: [inaudible].
[pause]
Mayor Burk: Let the record reflect that all Members of Council are here tonight. We have two sets of
minutes. The work session minutes of January 24t1, 2022. Do I have a motion?
Vice Mayor Fernando"Marty" Martinez: So moved.
Mayor Burk: So moved by Vice Mayor Martinez. Second? Seconded by Council Member Steinberg.
All in favor indicate by saying aye.
Members:Aye.
Mayor Burk: Opposed?That passes 7-0.The regular session minutes of January 25th,2022 moved by
Mr. Martinez. Second?
Council Member Ara Bagdasarian: Second.
Mayor Burk: Seconded by Council Member Bagdasarian. All in favor?
Vice Mayor Martinez: Aye.
Mayor Burk: Opposed?That passes 7-0.Adopting the minute meeting agenda, do I have a motion?
Council Member Neil Steinberg: Madam Mayor?
Mayor Burk: Yes.
Council Member Steinberg: One moment. I'd like to remove item a. of Section 13 of the Agenda.We
have work session plan;to discuss this topic on the 22nd.
Mayor Burk: All right. Is there a second to--? Excuse me. You're moving. You're taking it off. We're
adopting the meeting agenda-
Council Member Suzanne Fox: Madam Mayor, that needs a second Council approval.
Mayor Burk: The motion to rescind?
• Page 1 I February 8, 2022
Council Member Fox:Yes.
Council Member Martinez: Motion to take off the rescind resolution.
Mayor Burk: Okay, sorry. There's a motion by Mr. Steinberg to remove 13.a. Is there a second?
Council Member Cummings: Second.
Mayor Burk: Seconded by Mr. Cummings. All in favor?Any discussion at this point? [crosstalk]
Council Member Fox: Madam Mayor, I got something to point. Thank you
Mayor Burk: Yes. Ms. Fox.
Council Member Fox:Thank you. It should come as no surprise that I'm once again urging this Council
to a look at the data, look at the emergency legal precedence, and look at what other jurisdictions are
actually doing, and drop this draconian vaccine mandate. This Council said we needed the vaccine
mandate because the Federal government required it. Federal law does not require us to keep this
mandate, as the Federal mandate was struck down by the Supreme Court.
This Council said we needed the vaccine mandate to keep our workplace safe. The relevant data, data
that's been out there for all of us to see for months shows that while vaccines might offer some protection
to individuals who choose to be vaccinated there does not seem to be any reduction in the spread of
the virus among the heavily vaccinated populations. In fact, there's even recent evidence that shows
the virus might spread more readily among heavily vaccinated populations.
This Council said that the vaccine mandate is because all the other really doing this because all the
other jurisdictions were doing it. The decision to institute a mandate was objectively wrong and we
instituted the most draconian possible version of that mandate with no weekly testing option except
under the very narrow conditions.
Moreover, we're now seeing jurisdiction after jurisdiction dropping their mandates, including some of
the ones that we cited examples when we adopted our own.The Council said that the vaccine mandate
would have little or no adverse impact on our workforce.The number of employees and commissioners
that we lost may seem statistically small, but it certainly has had an impact.
It's had an impact on the Town as we know and as we now both we have numerous vacant positions
and we've made it harder to recruit and fill these positions. In a labor market where employees are
having an extraordinarily difficult time finding new talent, we've decided it would be a good idea to
handicap ourselves and create even bigger personnel and recruiting challenge.
That's not even mentioning the impact that this mandate has actually had on our now former employees
and some of their families. Sweeping them aside as mere statistics was both disingenuous and
disrespectful. This Council has said that the vast majority of employees willingly comply with the
mandate. Yes, they did. It is amazing what can be accomplished by threatening someone's livelihood.
I'm glad that we are going to have a discussion on this and it finally came. It's time to look over the data
and reconsider our position on this mandate, and we will be doing that. However, I find it strange that
we are reconsidering our position one meeting after dismissing non-compliant employees and
commissioners based on the recent data which has been out for a long time. It's been available for
months. While I'm in favor of reevaluating this, I think what we really need to do is reevaluate how we
got here in the first place. Thank you.
Mayor Burk:Anyone else at this point?Ms. Fox, I'm going to disagree with you very strongly.We never
intended this to be a permanent mandate. We always intended that we would look at it at a later date,
and that is exactly what we're doing.We are going to look at the numbers and how they're going down,
and what the impact is. That's why a lot of the other jurisdictions are doing the same thing.
We don't expect to be in a pandemic for the rest of our lives. We want to make sure that we are
protecting our staff, making sure our workplace is safe, making sure that it's safe for people to come.
Page 2 February 8, 2022
When we get to the point that the virus is becoming an endemic which we hope will happen within very
near future, that is when we look at the numbers, and can we do away with these mandates?
We are not having any problems hiring anybody. We have hired six new police officers already. We
have not had any problems at the Town staff. Your numbers we can agree to disagree. I'm sure we
would if we had a conversation about it, but it most certainly has made us safer.
I think that this Council has done a very good job to take into consideration the impact that it would have
to our workforce, and the importance of keeping our workforce safe and the public safe that comes into
our buildings. Thank you very much. We have a motion to rescind 13.a., the Resolution 2021-154. It
was moved by Mr. Steinberg. Seconded by Mr. Cummings.All in favor indicate by saying aye.
Members: Aye.
Mayor Burk: That is Mr. Steinberg, Mr. Cummings, Mr. Martinez, Mr. Bagdasarian, and Ms. Burk. No?
Council Member Nacy: No.
Council Member Fox: No.
Mayor Burk: That is Ms. Nacy and Ms. Fox.All right. We go back to adopting the minute agenda. Do I
have a motion to accept the meeting agenda with Resolution 13.a. not being part of it.
Council Member Steinberg: So moved.
Mayor Burk: So moved by Council Member Steinberg. Second?
Council Member Bagdasarian: Second.
Mayor Burk: Seconded by Council Member Bagdasarian.All in favor indicate by saying aye.
Members:Aye.
Mayor Burk: Opposed?
Council Member Nacy: No.
Mayor Burk: Okay. That is five, two. All right. We have no certificates of recognition, but we do have
certificate, a presentation for Black History Month. I would like to read that today, and then go down.
Tammy Carter is here to accept it. I would like to go down and present it to her after I've read it out loud.
This is a proclamation for Black History Month February 20, 22nd. Whereas in February of 1926, 61
years after the ratification of the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution, Dr. Carter
Woodson, a noted historian, desired to recognize the achievements and the contributions of African
Americans in this country.
Whereas the month of February was appropriately chosen to recognize the accomplishments of African
Americans as it contained the birth anniversaries of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglas.Whereas
Black History Month we celebrate the many achievements and contributions made by African
Americans to our economic, cultural, spiritual, and political development.
Whereas we recognize Tammy Carter, MLK Diversity Engagement Foundation Chairman for all her
hard work and efforts in organizing the annual Dr. Martin Luther King March in celebration. Ms. Carter's
leadership on organizing this event is bringing the residents of Leesburg together to show their support
and advancing equality, social justice, and opportunity for all.
Therefore, proclaimed, the Mayor and the Council of the Town of Leesburg and Virginia, hereby I
proclaim the month of February of the year 2022 as Black History Month in the Town of Leesburg, and
Page 3 I February 8, 2022
urge citizens of Leesburg to join in recognizing the contributions and the accomplishments of Black
Americans throughout the history of our nation proclaim this 8th day, February, 2020. Tammy, would
you come up to the mic?[silence]Well,Tammy, I really appreciate you coming today. This is really very
important. We always have, what? For 31 years, we've had a march for Martin Luther King Day and
then two years ago, we had COVID. Tammy who always is in charge of it, pivoted and made it virtual.
We had the actual march, but the program has been virtual for the last two years.
It's been an astounding program. It's just been fantastic. I know it took hours and hours and hours of
work. I want to recognize, we want to recognize you today for all of your hard work and thank you very
much for all you do to make equity and social justice such an important role here in Leesburg. Would
you like to say a few words?
Tammy Carter: I just would like to thank the Town and the School Board for all that they do to help
make this event possible.The Leesburg Police showed up in numerous numbers.The Town made sure
the streets were clean and safe for everyone. The school also made streets, sidewalks clear for the
marchers. I really appreciate the care and efforts that you all put forth to help make this event happen.
It is an important event for all of us, not for just African Americans. It's a diverse group.We love to see
all of you there. We did miss you all this year because you usually show up as well. Thank you all for
all that you do.
Mayor Burk: Hopefully, next year it'll be live. Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much.
[applause]
Mayor Burk: Now, I need a motion to approve the proclamation for the basic Gracie Jiu- How do you
say it Kari?
Council Member Nacy: Jiu-Jitsu.
Mayor Burk: Jiu-Jitsu 10 year business anniversary? Would you like to make that motion?
Council Member Nacy: Yes.
Mayor Burk: Moved by Ms. Nacy, seconded by Council Member Fox. Any discussion? All in favor
indicate by saying aye.
Members:Aye.
Mayor Burk: Opposed That passes 7-0. We have the petitioner section. One of the first orders of
business is to hear from the public. All members of the public are welcome to address the Council on
any item, matter or issue. We ask that you please identify yourself and if comfortable doing so, give
your address for the taped record. Any public speakers will be requested to state their name and spell
it for the purpose of closed captioning.
In the interest of fairness,we asked that you observe the three-minute time limit.The green light on the
timer will turn yellow at the end of two minutes, indicating you have one minute remaining.At that time,
we would appreciate your summing up and yielding the floor when the bell indicates your time has
expired. Under the rules adopted by this Council, the three-minute time limit applies to all. The first
name we have before us is Paul Sheaffer.
Paul Sheaffer: Council Leesburg, Virginia. I am Chair of the Town's Environmental Advisory
Commission.
Mayor Burk: Paul, would you please spell your name for close caption?
Paul Sheaffer:Yes, certainly. It's S-H-E-A-F-F-E-R.
Mayor Burk: Thank you.
Page 4 I February 8, 2022
Paul Sheaffer: Yes. There's 12 ways of spelling Sheaffer. Over the past two years, the EAC has been
working with Town government to develop an energy conservation and management plan. Town staff
provided comments on the most recent draft of the plan in late 2021, indicating they liked the plan but
stated we did not have the staff resources to implement and maintain it.
The EAC is recommending the Town of Leesburg obtain an Energy Manager to lead the energy
conservation and management effort. Most organizations the size of Leesburg have a staff member
that is responsible for energy management, which is the process of tracking and optimizing energy
consumption to conserve energy often resulting in energy savings of 3%to 6% per year, in many cases
through no or low-cost measures.
Given Leesburg's size, this would likely not require a full-time position, and Energy Manager positions
are often combined with health, safety, environmental, water, facilities management, or sustainability
responsibilities. Some of which we also understand are needed by the Town. The EAC sent an email
last Thursday to Town Council with a recommendation package for your consideration in the upcoming
budget. The recommendation also included a listing of the job skills needed for this position. The EAC
commissioners are ready to help you now in the future with this important effort. Thank you for your
consideration of this recommendation from the EAC.
Mayor Burk: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Sheaffer. There is nobody else that has signed up. Is there
anybody in the audience that would like to speak? Anybody else would like to speak at the petitioner
section here tonight? Okay, nobody comes forward, so I will close the petitioner section. We have a
presentation from the Town, right.
Mayor Burk: Did someone raise their hand and I missed it? Okay. Alright, so the petitioner section is
closed.We have a presentation from the Town Manager on the Fiscal Year 2023 proposed budget. Mr.
Dentler has asked for 30 minutes, is there anybody who has an objection to that?All right. I know.
Kaj Dentler: I appreciate your indulgence. I will try hard to stay at 30. Okay. Good evening, Madam
Mayor, Vice Mayor, Members of Council. Pleasure to present to you the proposed budget tonight for
fiscal year 2023. Tonight, I'm happy to show you some highlights of the budget, and this is a broad
overview of what we're going to go through, but you're going to hear a lot of these themes throughout.
We know now that we've almost for two years of COVID, we started in March of"20, I will speak for
myself, that I thought in a few weeks, maybe a couple months, we'd be over. Most of us probably
thought that. It's been two years. It's had impacts on us. We know inflation is high, we have supply
chain issues. We have labor disruptions, we have rising costs for construction, contracts, equipment,
personnel, et cetera.
Good news is the economy is recovering in a lot of ways, and you'll see that as I go through the
presentation tonight. The Town remains in a very, very strong financial position. We have a significant
amount of unassigned fund balance for you to make strategic decisions about those. These dollars
came about because I made a lot of management reductions in the early days of COVID far more than
what we ultimately needed, but at the time we didn't know.
We also have received a significant amount of Federal dollars over time and the economy has
recovered quicker, our revenues have returned faster than what we even projected. All of those have
built up into positive cashflow for us for now. It will help us throughout the budget process.
This budget will represent investments in capital, meaning facilities, infrastructure, et cetera. It
addresses your Council priorities and your work plan that you as established in back in April and May
of this year.The tax rates for personal property or proposed remain the same as your decision to decide.
You have a public hearing on that tonight. Then, the real estate tax rate, I have recommended a
reduction from 18.4.
The approach is a little similar to what I just went through.Wanted to make sure that we're able to fund
the base budget. That's what we are basically operating from today, that we address your priorities,
which we have done, that we are using our, we're making strategic investments in our infrastructure,
our facilities, in our human resources.
Page 5 February 8, 2022
With all the things that we do, all the things that we build without people and staff,we can't do anything.
They are the backbone of the organization, so this budget attempts to address that.Then,wisely using
our reserves for appropriate things, such as one time measures. A dollar is only available one time.
Whatever we use,we don't want it to be a recurring cost.
Your strategic initiatives that you approved in May after your April retreat, included these items:
economic development, the Town Plan, Information Technology, environment and emergency
preparedness. In this budget, I have covered all of these areas. Environment I have included mainly in
capital projects, which you'll read through as you go through the document, and you've heard tonight a
recommendation from the Environmental Advisory Commission,which I'm aware of.The first area is an
investment in economic development based on your priorities. This almost a$300,000 investment is to
try to achieve the goals that you have set forward to me to identify issues and opportunities for which
was for our Economic Development Director to address. You've asked specifically for an Economic
Development Strategic Plan, we have evaluated that, we can do an in-house plan, we can do a
consultant plan.
Our issues are and you'll hear that tonight a couple of times is bandwidth. My recommendation is that
we use a higher approach of using a consultant working with our Economic Development staff and our
Economic Development Commission to present a proposal to you that actually has value.You will have
to make that decision which path you want to go.
In order to support our small businesses and to maintain the entrepreneurial spirit that we have in the
community, I've recommended a Small Business Development Coordinator position. The $120,000
number there is salary and benefits.
As you know,we are leaving the Mason Enterprise arrangement that we've had for 10 years.We've put
in about a net of about $60,000, $66,000. Although this bottom request of 75,000 to lease space is
actually netted out almost by what we've already been paying.The concept here is, even though we're
vacating the Mason Enterprise Center,that we look to rent or lease space in the downtown so that we
can have this new position there with businesses able to come in co-housed with our small Business
Development Center who's staffed by Eric Byrd.
The County is going to make a decision of where to place the SBDC. The indications are that they will
keep that position in Leesburg. This is to help ensure that they stay in Leesburg for the benefit. Their
approach after vacating the MEC is to hire two new people to provide small business development
assistance.Two people in the County the size of Loudoun will not go very far.Our businesses,we think
will get shortchanged, so we're investing in a higher amount. That's why you see the opportunity to
invest higher. That's the concept there.We will talk about that through the discussions.
The second area that you've identified is an Investment and Planning and Community Development.
$960,000 that are identified here.The first two things that you've asked for is a Zoning Ordinance rewrite
that comes directly out of your workplan. We've evaluated what the estimates will be through an RFI
process.We know that it's going to be over$300,000. We estimate it will be over$300,000.
The last time that we did a comprehensive rewrite of the Zoning Ordinance was in 2003. Before that, it
was 1990. If you think about, since 1990, this would only be the third rewrite since that time.After you
adopt the Town Plan, one of the most important decisions you can make is to update your Zoning
Ordinance so you can carry out the things you want carried out. The exact same thing that County is
doing now after their Comp Plan.
The second area that you've asked for recently didn't come out of your workplan, but it's come out
recently through the Planning Commission, is to develop capital intensity factors. The estimate for that
right now was$250,000.We're still continuing to work on that number. That's the estimate that we have
received as of this time period.
The third item there is a traffic study, also came out of the Planning Commission recommendation. Here
you will have to make a decision. The Planning Commission's idea of what the traffic study needs are,
are different from your professional transportation and engineering staff. We will share those
conversations with you. I encourage the Planning Commission to share that. Ultimately, my advice to
Page 6 I February 8, 2022
you is, if you want to do a traffic study, what is it that you want to evaluate?Taking the input from both
parties to make your decision.
Finally, I'm asking for another staff person, not for the traffic study, but for the Zoning Ordinance and
the capital intensity factors. The staff and planning in my office do not have the bandwidth to take on
two major projects. The Zoning Ordinance is estimated to take 18 to 24 months with a consultant and
staff. If we don't have the staff, we just hired the consultant, that project's going to go on for three or
four years. The capital intensity factors is estimated at a year. Maybe six months if we're lucky, once
we start, up to a year. Again, there has to be a staff person who not only manages the contract but is
driving that project, making sure that the right stakeholders are being heard, the conversations are
being held, knowing the history, the analytics, the economic development aspect, the planning
knowledge. That's why we're asking for the position. If approved, this position will then take over the
fiscal impact model that we already up and manage our proffers.
The third area is in information technology. You heard from the Technology and Communications
Commission a couple weeks ago, maybe a month ago. This is basically exactly what you heard. I'm
asking for two new staff positions, a Systems Analyst and a Customer Service Technician in order to
approach our cyber security and customer service needs. The approach is this, we could hire an
Information Security Officer at extremely high salary, probably at least$200,000, probably$300,000 in
this market.
That's an expensive investment for one person. Our approach is to hire more of the frontline staff to
keep the day-to-day operations going and protect our systems, make sure they're running correctly to
free up our senior staff in IT to be able to do the cybersecurity. If that's their approach that you agree
with, then that's what we're recommending that you proceed with. You may have a different concept.
The next three items are really investments in our, the first two are CIP projects. We need a second
fiber connection to our Dispatch Center at Leesburg Police Station. We don't have that today. That's a
flaw, a weakness.The next one is video storage.We have about five departments that have technology
that are capturing data and video, whether those are traffic cameras out on the streets, police cars,
security at our plants, our water and sewer plants, different Town facilities.
What we're trying to do is begin to transition out of those and consolidate down on to a better way to
doing business versus everyone operating on their own. Use the life that we have of those systems
begin to merge and transition out into a consolidated approach. Our IT Director can talk more about
that when we get into the work session discussions. Then, to replace our phone system, that is well
over 20 to 25 years old and not current. You heard the Technology Commission address it. That also
helps our ability for efficiency and Cyber Security.
The last area to mention is emergency management. In fairness, the first item is really more of your
goal.The second one is more mine.To add resources to emergency management office,we only have
one person to do that in order to continue our continuity plans, our different emergency operation plans
provide training for our staff and our citizens and public outreach, one person's not going to get that
done.
We're asking $20,000 to be able to basically hire someone part-time, use trainers, et cetera, a
combination of all, to be able to continue to make progress in this area. The second area is snow
removal.As you know, we have a budget of$600,000, but we're spending and I'll show you this chart
over a million dollars a year. This chart, if you look at FY 21, you'll see the actual last year we spent
$1.2 million in our snow operation. This year, we're estimating 1.3. That number may go down. If we
keep, keep, keep getting nice weather here, but that's the estimate on the trend that we're going.
If you go now to FY 16, you see that we spent almost 650,000, but that was Winter Storm Jonas that
basically paralyzed the entire reason. Since that and lessons learned and investments made, our
response is far greater than what it was then. Had Jonas occurred, our number would've been much
higher. What happened over the next three years from '17, '18, '19 and '20 is we didn't have as many
storms.We didn't have to spend the money.
Page 7 I February 8, 2022
Bottom line is we know that we've underfunded the budget and the way we operate, I have $600,000
to get the job done. If Renee and Public Works has to push the snow, her direction is keep going, I will
float the money until I settle up with Council for you to draw it out to reserves to pay it. Bottom line is
this, Council, you're either going to pay me now or you're going to pay me later. It's a far better
management practice to put the money in the proper account. It's there. It's not used. It gets returned,
versus having to go to the reserves and ask for it. The total of the general fund budget rises from $65
million approximately to $72.1 million, based on the things that we have talked about. Some of that,
well, this slide shows you where the money goes first. 76 cents of every dollar goes to the key areas
that you would expect it to go to. Police, Public Works, which includes your snow removal, your trash,
your leaf collection, et cetera, storm drainage, capital projects, our debt service, parks and recreation,
and library.
These are the areas that you would expect it to go to, this is why we have a Town. If we don't put the
money in these areas, we really shouldn't be a Town. We should turn the keys over to the County and
turn off the lights, but this is what we're paying the extra taxes for. Makes our life a better quality of life
is the goal.
In terms of revenues, as I said earlier, is all positive. Except a little bit of caution in a couple of places.
Meals and beverage taxes continue to rise. We expect that we're projecting that FY 22 will yield about
$6.5 million. The 22 budget is only calling for 5.8, so that's a positive. Our projection for FY 23 is slightly
lower only because we don't know for sure if we're going to hit the 6.5 projection as we stand today.
It's again a conservative approach to make sure that we don't overreach.Transient and occupancy tax,
that's the hotel tax. That's down industry-wide. It's coming back, but it isn't quite there yet. Business
taxes are good. Real estate is very positive and assessments have come in 13%, 14% higher. I've
recommended a reduction in this real estate revenue amount of 1.4 million reflects the number with the
recommendation of the tax rate that I have for you and I'll share that in a second.
Sales and use tax, that's gone up mainly because online transactions. Now, it is tax, wherever it is
originating from. Parks and Recreation is a little deceiving.Although this chart shows it's slightly above
projections,that's only because the second tennis bubble that you have already approved. If we did not
have the second bubble, this number would be a negative. I just want to caution that, but that's why it's
there.
The base budget, as we talked about that increase in the 7.1, all the things that I've just talked about,
enhancements, inflation, et cetera. Some of the key things that are driving the budget up. The annual
debt service, we know what that debt service is going to be. We've approved projects, we have our
interest rates,we have our financial plan,we know what's coming, 900 some thousand dollars.
Trash contract, same thing. Every year, it goes up based on the contract. This year it is 318,000.As IT
pushes more and more things to the cloud,that's a good thing for us for a lot of reasons. Cybersecurity
reasons, less staffing, less servers, less things that we have to be concerned with, better efficiency, but
there is a cost to do that as well. Is estimated to be almost$200,000.
On the personnel side, our investments in human capital, recommending that we continue with the pay
for performance program, employees can get up to 4%. We budget less than that. Then we have the
retirement contributions. The cost of living adjustment really isn't a base budget item, but that is
recommended here for 2%.As we know, inflation is generally 7%and a lot of different calculations.This
is new. If approved, this would be the first cost of living adjustment for employees since July 1, 2013,
FY'14.
I alluded to the tax rate, I'm recommending that we reduced the tax rate from 18.4%to 17.6%. That's
because again, the assessments, in general, have risen 13%, 14%. The equalized rate is 16.6 cents.
Each Penny is valued at approximately $1 million. If Council wanted to reduce the proposed budget,
which is set at 17.6 to the equalized rate at 16.6, you would need to reduce the proposed budget by$1
million.
In terms of the tax rate, this chart I show every year is the same average assessments that we show.
In tax year'21, the same house that was valued at almost 586,000 is now valued at almost$676,000.
Page 8 I February 8, 2022
That average homeowner would pay about$112 more a year, $9 a month.The twnhomes and condos
are significantly less. Townhomes, now the average assessment is 460. That particular owner would
pay$56, condos would pay$17.You can see the fluctuation.All of this is, again based, on the 17.6 tax
rate and all of this is average. Each home will be slightly different based on where your home value
falls.
This chart I show every year because I think it's important.You know that I am on the record for stating
that I believe that Leesburg tax rate is below where it should be. Our rate is at 18.4, and that's where
we've worked from. I'm recommending to go 17.6 only because the assessments are so high this year.
You will make that decision. I've advertised at 18.4, so if you want to go there, you can. My
recommendation is 17.6.
Herndon, Vienna, and Purcellville's tax rates are much higher. Our rate shouldn't be higher, just
because another jurisdiction is higher. If you compare Leesburg with Vienna and Herndon,there aren't
a lot of differences in the services that are provided. It's just something that the Town will need to
continue to look at. Every year, we have to make that decision.
You will notice in my budget, I have not recommended anything beyond your priorities that you have
asked for. I have not recommended anything else. I've not recommended increases in public works,
things like that.Those issues will have to be addressed in the future. I just make that known for yourself
and you all make those decisions.
Bottom line here, to balance the general fund proposed budget, on the left are the expenditures that
I've talked about, on the right are the revenues that balance it up. From debt service reserves we are
using significant amount of reserves. Whether unassigned fund balance or strategic reserves, those
pay for those one-time expenditures that I talked about.
The various capital intensity factors, your traffic study, Zoning Ordinance, Economic Development.
Those were all paid for out of reserves,one-time money.They're not recurring costs should you approve
them.
Jumping to the CIP, six-year program,there are 81 projects, over$228 million in that period. There are
14 new projects total, almost half come from the Utilities Department alone. The Town has made a
significant investment in our infrastructure, and Council should be applauded for that proactive
approach.
A little bit of an exaggeration, but it is real. We know what happened with the bridge collapse in
Pittsburgh a few weeks ago. We never want to see that in our infrastructure here. By being proactive
and remaining proactive we can avoid disruptions. In water and sewer alone, that is I think the most
critical service that we provide of everything we do.We don't want that to fail when we need it.
In terms of the new projects, I'm only going to highlight two. Some I've already mentioned. Under 16
Wirt St on the General Government. Next door to us,we have acquired the house for$375,000. Council
will have to make a decision on what's your next step.
In the budget, I've included $625,000 from our unassigned fund balance, one-time dollars for you to
make a decision. Whether you want to renovate that as some have talked about, whether you want to
mothball it, whether you want to demolish it, that's a process and we will go through. I have been on
the record and I will remain on the record, the Town's best decision is to demolish the facility because
we bought that for long-term needs.
I personally as the Manager do not support spending the money to put that in there when we're not
going to be needed in the future. If we renovate it now,we will have to build around it.That's a decision
you have to make. Bottom line, I put the funds in there for you to make your decision at the appropriate
time.
Parks and Recreation, there is a trail in the budget that residents came forward with. I don't know if it
was last year or the year before?At the end of Fairview and Old Waterford Road in front of the Equine
Center to Morven Park. A lot of us walk that. Morven Park has truly become a destination and a great
Page 9 I February 8, 2022
asset to our community, but we're all walking in the road from that section, from Fairview to Morven
Park.The residents asked for a trail. It is in the budget to move forward with if you so choose to do that.
All of these projects have different timelines,they're not all next year.As I mentioned earlier with COVID,
we have impacts,financial impacts, rising costs for construction, labor, et cetera.These green numbers
reflect the increasing budget cost, which may ultimately impact our ability to move forward on some
projects. That is a real decision that we may have to make, but we don't know that yet. The key project
that's coming forward that we have to watch closely is the Police Station expansion. That currently is
about a$20 million project. The rising cost is estimated at$23 million.
We go to bid in the spring, early summer, and upon how we hit the schedule, we're going to know in
that time frame,what the numbers are.That will then be brought to you, Public Works Director will bring
that forward to you with a recommendation for Award of Contract. You will make that decision. That's
the moment in time where we'll know whether we go forward with the project,we stop the project, or we
look for other alternatives.That will be the bellwether I think for a lot of other projects, and what we may
have to delay or not.
The second project is an investment.We've already bought the land in the area on the right. In the red
is the land that we've acquired or about to close on, and that will allow the Town shop to be expanded.
Final section, Utilities. Our Utility section, I have already bragged about our infrastructure and our staff.
We do not have to worry about our operations. Thankfully, we have great leadership, and great
employees who manage that for us, and jobs that not everyone wants. The proposed budget is almost
53 million. Almost 28 million of that is operations,21 million is capital projects. Heavy investment in our
infrastructure, which is where we should be doing. There's a variety of CIP projects that are identified
there that continue that.
You've seen recently over say the last year, constant items on the agenda to upgrade all our plants.
Those are our investments.This is the fourth year of a five-year rate plan. It does have a four and a half
percent increase on our rates.What happens is, Council decided several years ago to go to a five-year
rate plan. You approve the rates one time for the next five years.
Now,you still have to approve the budget, but you've already set the path of what you want to do.Then,
that decides how much investment we're going to put in our infrastructure, how much investment in our
staffing. This request includes the three staff members that were approved when that plan was done.
This year, if I'm not mistaken,we will start the new process of the next five-year cycle. By the time that
new study and rate schedule is approved by Council, we'll be going into the fifth year, so it all hits the
cycle, and we don't lose time.
The reason that we did that, if you recall, very briefly, Council for over 10 years did not raise the rates.
When we got into a situation, we raised the rates in a way that probably wasn't to our advantage. We
had some challenges, and we've adjusted back to a five-year plan to truly try to make the decision a
little bit easier from a business perspective.
Finally, the budget process, this is the entire budget. Everything combined that I have talked about is
$153 million. The summary here is that again, the Town is in very strong financial condition. That's a
compliment to the Council's leadership.
This budget that's proposed meets our base budget needs. It is addressing your priorities that you have
already established. It reduces the tax rate from 18.4 to 17.6. We're strategically using our one time
reserves, and using it in the right way. We're investing in our future, not only in infrastructure and
facilities, but our human resources to make everything work.
The schedule that's before you is an action item tonight.You'll be pleased to know there are no Saturday
Work Sessions proposed. Should you wish one, I'm sure the Directors would be very happy to be here
on Saturday morning, but your first Work Session is scheduled, if approved next is the 22nd.That'll start
at 5:30 ahead of your seven o'clock meeting, because your seven o'clock meeting is light, and there is
no work session on the 21st due to the holiday.
Page 10 I February 8, 2022
The target that we need,we have to be finished by is March 22"d, because we have to turn in our rates
for personal property, and real estate to the County, because again, they bill and they collect on our
behalf. The budget will be posted tonight, and it's available for people to view, available for people to
provide comments. Obviously, they can even call and we'll address their questions. As you give us
questions and you'll be getting your books tonight and you start going through it, you give us your
questions,we will respond to those. Those are also posted not only for your benefit but for the public's
benefit.
That concludes my presentation. Staff is going to give you your books. They're over there tonight, you
can collect them later,unless you're really eager to read them sooner.The staff is ready here to address
questions as we go into the Work Session on the 22"d and allow you to absorb. We're available to take
questions in between over the next two weeks as you wish.With that, Madam Mayor, I'm finished.
Mayor Burk: 49 seconds left.Whoa.
Kaj Dentler: Notice the time.
Mayor Burk: Do you want us to ask questions tonight or will you have the Work Sessions?
Kaj Dentler: If you have questions, I'm happy to address. I personally think there's a better practice for
you to absorb what you've heard. Start looking through the budget and develop your questions.There's
a lot of information there. If you have a few questions, I'm happy to address.
Mayor Burk: Is everybody okay,waiting?
Council Member Fox: Just one clarifying question. Sorry. That last point where you said we need to
go ahead and get those rates to the County. That's why February 22nd is important. What if during
subsequent Work Sessions,that rate changes?How will that affect what we sent to the County already?
Kaj Dentler: Because of my hearing, I apologize. I think what I heard is, if you're not able to meet the
March 22"d?
Council Member Fox: No. Did you say March 22"d? I thought you said February.
Kaj Dentler: March 22"d
Council Member Fox: Sorry.
Kaj Dentler: The first work session is February 22nd. My apologies. We have until March 22"d. March
22nd is the scheduled adoption date. The amount of time between now and March 22"d is the same
amount of time we have always used even since John Wells was here.We just have to be done sooner.
It used to be we were done the first meeting in April, but because the County bills and collects on our
behalf,we have to start sooner. That's why. Does that help you?
Council Member Fox: I misunderstood, yes. I thought you said we needed to meet on February 22"d
because they needed the rates.That's what I thought you had said.That was just clarifying.Thank you.
Mayor Burk: I just have one clarifying-
Kaj Dentler: Sure.
Council Member Fox:What happened with the new Airport employee?Was that decided-
Kaj Dentler: I'm sorry. I don't-
Mayor Burk: The new Airport employee?
Page 11 I February 8,2022
Kaj Dentler: That is in the budget, but the recommendation is not to start that position until January but
that is included.The Town takes over the condos. I think there are 40 condos that we're taking over on
November 1,and we need another staff person to do that.We delayed that until the new year. Ironically,
years ago, we had five employees, full-time employees at the Airport and we went down to three. Now
we're going back to where we were when I was out there at the Airport many years ago. It's an
interesting irony of how things play out.
Mayor Burk: All right. Well, I had other questions, but I'll hold those until we have our Work Session.
Anyone else have any clarifying?All right.
Kaj Dentler: Thank you.
Mayor Burk: Thank you very much, I appreciate the information. It's a pretty concise budget this year.
It'll be very interesting how the discussions go. Thank you. All right. Anyone have any Regional
Commission reports?All right. Let me read the Consent Agenda. Yes, sir. Sorry.
Vice Mayor Martinez: [inaudible]
Mayor Burk: Yes, I know.
Vice Mayor Martinez: Anyway, I'm on the Loudoun County Transit Advisory Board. I resigned last
week. If anybody's interested, you can contact our Leesburg Supervisor, Kristen Umstattd.
Mayor Burk: Maybe if they have any questions, could they call you and ask you?
Vice Mayor Martinez: Yes.
Mayor Burk: Okay. All right. Consent Agenda. There are a couple of items here. Item 12A, Airport
Maintenance Storage Facility Project Construction Change Order Number 6. B, Sewage Sludge
Stabilization and Disposal Service. C, Appointment to the Economic Development Commission. D,
Appointment to the Commission on Public Art. Process for the Proclamation Review is E. Is there any
that anybody want removed?
Council Member Martinez: So moved.
Mayor Burk: Okay, then I need a motion that moved by Mr. Martinez. Second? Seconded by Council
Member Fox.All in favor?
Members:Aye.
Mayor Burk: Opposed? That passes 7-0. Our first resolution is Fiscal Year 2023 Budget Review and
Adoption Schedule. That is the schedule that you just referred to.
Council Member Martinez: So moved.
Mayor Burk: Moved by Vice Mayor Martinez. He's getting a record tonight. Seconded by Council
Member Nacy.All in favor indicate by saying"Aye".
Members:Aye.
Mayor Burk: Opposed, All right. That's passes 7-0. C is the Loudoun County Referral, the Village at
Clear Springs Rezoning, Airport Impact Overlay Comprehensive Plan Amendment, and Goose Creek
Club Number Two Rezoning. Is there a presentation on that? No presentation.
Kaj Dentler: Staff is prepared to give a presentation. If you want to go right to Q&A. Our
recommendation is that you hear from Planning Director Susan Barry Hill, but it's your choice.
Mayor Burk: Does everybody want to hear the presentation? Okay.
Page 121 February 8, 2022
Kaj Dentler: If you feel it will be beneficial.
Mayor Burk: Yes.We would like to hear the presentation. Susan is not in here?
Kaj Dentler: If you want to-
Mayor Burk: That's only the only thing we have, so we can't-
Kaj Dentler: She's coming.
Susan Barry Hill: I'm so sorry, Madam Mayor.
Mayor Burk: That's okay.
Susan Barry Hill: I didn't realize we were on this. Okay. Just briefly, for those of you that may not
understand why this item is on the agenda. Occasionally the Town staff gets referrals for land
development applications or ordinance amendments from the County.We are asked to provide referral
comments on those. If they're minor,we don't bring them to Council.
For those applications that have impacts on the Town of Leesburg, we prefer to bring them to Council
to make you aware of those development proposals and amendments,and to get your recommendation
on whether or not you endorse our staff comments back to County staff. That's what these three items
are on the agenda tonight.
You have seen two of these last fall. The first of those is Village at Clear Springs. This is a rezoning
and it is located south of Heritage High School and east of Evergreen Mill between Evergreen Mill and
the Dulles Greenway. It's 246 acres. It's approximately 19 Parcels for 19 different property owners.The
rezoning proposal is again for approximately 230 units.This is the second submission.They decreased
the number of units by eight. It is now at five dwelling units per acre.
The unit types are mixed. It's 238 single family detached, 590 single family attached. That includes
Duplexes, Triplexes, and Quadraplexes. Of those 574 are market rate units. They are proposing 402
multifamily units of those 600 or 360 or multifamily and 42 are the two over two stacked units. 180
affordable housing units and that is to serve up to 60%of average median income.That's the definition
of affordability for those units.
They are anticipating low income housing tax credits for that. That's what the developer is proposing.
There are 180 age restricted units. I think that covers—they changed the unit mix a little bit with this
second submission. What's in blue is the changes to the rezoning application. This is a concept plan
for the development that shows the six different land bays for the different types of units. There's not
been a significant change in that from the first submission that you saw last fall.
In the staff comments are largely repetitive from the first submission comments. The Town Plan does
not support residential uses in proximity to the Airport.There was some transportation clarifications and
request for more information with the second submission.There were continued to work with the County
staff and the applicant to try to get information on the transportation study and the impacts. The Airport
Manager and the Airport Commission recommended last fall denial of the application due to the fact
that there is residential units proposed next to the Airport and the resulting impacts that we anticipate
to get from that noise complaints,and so forth. In the Town Plan,this area is within the area of influence
for the Airport.This is why. I think the Airport Commission prepared this illustrative that we showed last
fall showing the air traffic impacts on the proposed residential development.
That is the Village at Clear Spring. We are recommending denial, continuing to recommend denial of
that application. Your consolidated comment letter is in your packet. There's also a resolution for you
to act upon, should you choose to?The second one is again,the second submission. [crosstalk]
Council Member Steinberg: Susan? Madam Mayor, just a point of clarification. I don't have any
questions. I think I heard you say a total of 230 units in this project where the number should be 1,230,
but maybe I misheard.
Page 13 I February 8, 2022
Susan Barry Hill:Yes. I'm sorry if I did say that. Yes.
Council Member Steinberg: Thank you.
Susan Barry Hill: It's 1,230.Thank you.The second is Comprehensive Plan Amendment, CPAM 2021-
1, Airport Impact Overlay District. Again, this is a second submission. The Comprehensive Plan
Amendment among other things proposes to eliminate the one mile notification buffer area.The revised
Airport Noise Impact Area is the policy basis that's in their Comprehensive Plan that supports the zoning
overlays for noise that are in the Zoning Ordinance.
These illustration show the existing Airport noise impact areas,that's currently on the left,that's currently
in the Comprehensive Plan, and the changes that are proposed on the right. Again, the Board of
Supervisors has directed County staff to eliminate the one mile noise buffer area because of potential
impacts on real estate transactions, and so forth. It's an extra burden to notify residential property
owners in that one mile buffer area.
It is also proposing to eliminate the one mile buffer around Leesburg Airport, as well. As you can see
on the image on the right,the blue area is completely eliminated.This is something that has concerned
our Airport Manager and Airport Commission. They opined on this in the fall and recommended denial
of, or I should say retention of the one mile notification buffer area. We continue to recommend that
with the second submission.
The third application is a new application which is ZMAP 2021-20, Goose Creek Club. It is located in
our JLMA. It is just west of the Goose Creek and extends to Route Seven. This shows the total area
and our corporate limits are shown on this slide light in the yellow area that's the Village at Leesburg,
that's in the yellow triangular area there.
This illustration shows the subject property. It's 25 acres. It is part two or phase two of the Goose Creek
Club subdivision. Goose Creek Club One is already built and they're expanding it. It's around 81
townhouse units that are proposed here. This shows the proximity to the Village at Leesburg. It is just
east of Village at Leesburg, east of land bays D and E.
In your memo, I noted that we do have it a Town Plan Amendment that has been submitted to the Town
of Leesburg on Land Bays D and E, which are in the Town to change the land use from industrial to
residential on those land bays. This is an important plan amendment for the Town. It's in staff review
right now, but I just wanted to make you aware of that.
This is a concept plan showing the townhouse units,the layout. On this application, staff has noted that
water and sewer was extended to phase 1 of this project in 2016. The approval was given for the
extension of water and sewer to the project at that time.That is part of the proposal for this application
as well. One of the things that staff is suggesting that the applicant do with this, is provide a notification
to purchasers in the Phase 2 project that they will be, maybe, located next to industrial property that is
in the Town of Leesburg in Land Bays D and E.
Just so that they're aware that should our plan amendment that has currently been submitted to change
that if we decide to retain the land use of industrial uses there,then purchasers in this development will
be aware that they're buying next to industrial property. The question for Council is, does Council wish
to endorse each of the three consolidated comment letters for each of these applications? If so, do you
want to memorialize this endorsement through the approval of a resolution for each? Those are
provided in your packet and the motions are shown on this slide.
Mayor Burk: Susan, I have a couple of questions. The first one is, going back to that triangle where
you said that they put in a Town code amendment, you were asking that they be notified that this is a
light industrial area. Do they have to be notified that there are overhead wires, high tension wires going
through the site?
Susan Berry Hill: We could include that. The overhead transmission lines do not impact the Goose
Creek Club II portion, but they do impact the Land Bays D &E in the Town of Leesburg.
Page 14 I February 8, 2022
Mayor Burk: The only other comment I wanted to make was that when the Supervisors were looking
at the Airport noise ordinance, they were only looking at Dulles Airport. They didn't realize that it was
going to impact Leesburg. Both Supervisor Umstattd and Supervisor Turner have promised that they
will bring it up at the next meeting in February or March, and they will exclude Leesburg and leave
Leesburg alone.That doesn't mean that we shouldn't send a letter to remind them just so that everybody
knows that.Anybody else have any questions on this? Mr. Steinberg.
Council Member Steinberg: I don't have any questions. I just wonder, in the motion, can we simply
approve all three at once or do they have to be done individually?
Mayor Burk: It can be done at once.
Council Member Steinberg:Then I'd like to make a motion to approve the resolutions regarding Village
at Clear Springs,Airport Impact Overlay District, and Goose Creek Club II.
Mayor Burk: Is there a second?
Council Member Nacy: Second.
Mayor Burk: Seconded by Ms. Nacy. Does everybody understand what we are approving?
Everybody's okay with it?
Vice Mayor Martinez: I would like to remove one for a separate vote.
Mayor Burk: You would like to remove--Which one would you like to-
Vice Mayor Martinez: Item number one.What I don't want to do is I don't want to reject the other two
because I don't approve of number one.
Mayor Burk: The other two, one is the noise ordinance that the Airport Commission has asked us to
deny.
Vice Mayor Martinez: I know what the three are.
Mayor Burk: All right,well, you can-
Vice Mayor Martinez: The Village at Clear Springs, item number one on the motions, I would like you
to separate it or let it be known that I don't plan to vote for that. If you put all three together, I will say
nay.
Mayor Burk: The Village of Leesburg Clear Springs, you're recommending denial.
Susan Berry Hill: Yes.
Vice Mayor Martinez: I oppose that.
Mayor Burk: You're in favor of this development.
Susan Berry Hill: I think Mr. Martinez wishes to separate the question.
Mayor Burk:All right, I'm sorry. I misunderstood.All right, Mr.Steinberg,we will just be doing the CPAM
2021-0001 and ZMAP 2021-002 Goose Creek Club. That was made by Mr. Steinberg, seconded by
Ms. Nacy.All in favor, indicate by saying aye.
Members:Aye.
Mayor Burk: Opposed? That passes 7-0. All right, we have a recommendation of denial by staff. Do
we have a motion on that for the Clear Springs? Council Member Steinberg. Second?
Page 15 I February 8, 2022
Council Member Fox: Second.
Mayor Burk: Seconded by Council Member Fox.Any discussion on this?All in favor of recommending
denial of the Clear Springs indicate by saying aye.
Members:Aye.
Mayor Burk: Opposed?That's 6-1. Thank you.All right, I took care of all of them.All right,we are now
to the public hearing.The first public hearing is for the Calendar Year 2022 Personal Property Tax Rate.
I have to open. I'm sorry. I'm busy reading ahead. Sorry. Okay, let me call to call to order this February
8th,2020 public hearing of the Leesburg Town Council. Unless there is an objection, I will dispense with
the reading of the advertisement. If you wish to speak, we either ask you sign up on the sheet in the
hallway outside the Council Chamber, but if you did not get the opportunity to sign up,we'll give you an
opportunity to speak.
In the interest of fairness, we also ask that you observe the three-minute time limit. The green light in
front of you will turn yellow at the end of two minutes, indicating you have one minute remaining.At that
time,we would appreciate your summing up and yielding the floor when the bell indicates your time is
expired. Under the rules of orders adopted by this Council, the five-minute time limit applies to all
citizens.
However, rather than have numerous citizens present remarks on behalf of the group, the Council will
allow a spokesperson for the group a few extra minutes. In that instance,we would ask speakers when
they sign up to indicate their status as spokesperson, the group they represent, and their request for
additional time. Our procedure for the public hearing is as follows. First,there is a brief presentation by
staff about the item before us. Second, members of the public that have signed up to speak will be
called and given three minutes to make their comments. Public hearing item on the agenda tonight is
calendar year 2022 Personal Property Tax Rate.
Clark Case:Good evening,Mayor Burk,Vice Mayor Martinez,Council Members,members of the public
here in the Chambers and viewing remotely. My name's Clark Case. I'm the Director of Finance
Administrative Services for the Town. I'm here to do the presentation on the Public Hearing for the 2022
Personal Property Tax Rates as included in the Town Manager's proposed budget. Separate adoption
of the Personal Property Tax Rate is required from the real estate tax rates under an MOU between the
Town and the County whereby Loudoun County bills the Personal Property Taxes semi-annually in May
and October on behalf of the Town.
Personal Property Tax is prorated for vehicle moves during the year. Per the agreement with the
County, the Personal Property Tax rates must be adopted by the Town Council in February, in order
for them to have the time to get it all processed and in time to bill it for the first half billing. There are no
proposed changes in the 2022 tax rates from the 2021 tax rates for personal property.Aircraft are billed
at$0.001 per$100,000 of assessed value. This is primarily due to the very high value of the individual
aircraft and the need for the Town's Airport to be competitive with other regional airports in Winchester
and Manassas.
Tangible personal property and motor vehicles are all billed at$1 per$100 of assessed value.Vehicles
are the overwhelming majority of the personal property tax revenue source. Bank capital is billed at 80
cents per$100 for net capital of the assets located within the Town of Leesburg. Any changes to the
tax rates would have implications for both the current Fiscal Year 2022 budget because of the first half
billing and the adopted budget for fiscal year 2023 for the second half. The proposed 2023 budget
includes a Personal Property Tax revenue of about$2.8 million.That's about 3.9%of the general fund's
revenues.
The Commonwealth of Virginia passed Personal Property Tax relief a number of years ago where they
set aside a set dollar amount each year to help soften the blow of personal property taxes and it's
applied to the first $20,000 of value of each individual vehicle. Loudoun County has a computerized
model that calculates what the Personal Property Tax Relief rate should be for the Town of Leesburg
and that model has calculated 39%. The ad said 50% but that was because when the ad had to go to
press,we did not have the current calculation from the County which arrived last week.
Page 16 I February 8, 2022
The proposed vehicle license fee for tax year 2022 is also unchanged at$25 per vehicle for all types of
vehicles and the vehicle license fee is billed by Loudoun County on the same bill as the Personal
Property Taxes. The vehicle license fee is assessed according to the January 1, 2022 situs of the
vehicle and is not prorated for moves during the year the way the personal property tax is.With that, I'll
be glad to answer any questions.
Mayor Burk:Thank you. Does anyone have any questions at this point?You were so thorough, no one
has questions. Is there anybody from the public that would like to speak at this point?No one has signed
up on the sheet but is there anybody in the audience that would like to speak on this topic? No one
coming forward,then I will close this public hearing and ask for a motion. Does anybody want to make
the motion?
Vice Mayor Martinez: Yes. I move to approve the proposed tax ordinance to set the tax rate on
personal property, vehicle license fee, and personal property tax relief for tax year 2022 as proposed
at the currently adopted tax rates.
Mayor Burk: Is there a second? Council Member Bagdasarian.Any questions?All in favor indicate by
saying aye.
Members:Aye.
Mayor Burk: Passes 7-0. Takes us to our next public hearing. I call to get to that's the wrong one. No,
I think he should turn it on while he's speaking. Yes, after Mr. Klusek speaks. After he is finished
speaking with his presentation,we will put the overhead on translation.Sure. I call to order this February
8111,2022 public hearing of the Leesburg Town Council. Unless there is an objection I will dispense with
the reading of the advertisement. If you wish to speak, we ask that you either sign up on the sheet in
the hallway outside of the Council Chambers. If you did not get the opportunity to sign up, we will give
you an opportunity to speak.
In the interest to fairness,we also ask that you observe a three-minute time limit.The green light in front
of you will turn yellow at the end of two minutes indicating that you have one minute remaining. At that
time, we would appreciate your summing up and yielding the floor when the bell indicates your time is
expired. Under the rules of order adopted by this Council, the three-minute time limit applies to all
citizens. However, rather than have numerous citizens present remarks on behalf of the group, the
Council will allow a spokesperson for the group a few extra minutes.
In that instance,we would ask the speakers when they sign up to indicate their status as a spokesperson
and the group they represent and their request for additional time. Our procedure for the public hearing
is as follows. First, there's a brief presentation by staff before us. Second, members of the public that
have signed up to speak will be called and given five minutes to make their comments. Public hearing
on the agenda for tonight is TLTA-2021-0001 Legacy Leesburg Town Plan. Mr. Klusek.
Rich Klusek: Good evening, Madam Mayor and Members of the Council. Obviously, we've been
discussing Legacy Leesburg for quite some time. None of the information presented here this evening
should be seen as new to you all but we are providing this for the record for the public hearing record.
The document itself is divided into five chapters. It is Introduction, Setting the Stage, Legacy
Framework, Place-based Recommendations, and Moving Forward. I'll go through each of these very
briefly.
Within the introduction, there are a couple of key sections; the Playbook Approach, Community
Character, section describing the community outreach efforts that were done which led to the
development of many of the strategies in the document, an overall vision, five guiding principles, and a
discussion of ways that the Town can measure positive growth and change in the future. One of those
key sections is the Playbook Approach.We have had discussions about this in the past,where it really
positions the Town Council to react to the individual things going on at that particular time.
Another key component of the document is Community Character. The Planning Commission went
through extensive lengths to define the existing community character, as well as the desired future
community character in the Town. As I mentioned, community outreach was a big component of this
Page 17 I February 8, 2022
Legacy Leesburg effort, and many of the policies and strategies are derived directly from that
community output. The document does include an overall vision, as well as the five guiding principles;
Town character and authenticity, dollars and sense, moving around Town, places to live, and all things
green.
One of the key things that we've been discussing to date during our work sessions is measuring positive
growth and change.The document outlines a series of questions to help the Town Council evaluate the
decisions being made going forward. Does the decision enhance the Town's character?Does it support
new parks and public spaces that invite people to gather and celebrate community? Does it provide
more green space? Help to address increased walkability and mobility? Provide high quality
architecture? Does it result in an increased provision of amenities? Does it contribute to a strong tax
base? Does it provide new local employment opportunities?
Expand the range of housing to give options to people in all phases of life and incomes? Provide
environmental benefits? Promote and ensure compatible land-use pattern? Again, these are the
questions that Legacy Leesburg proposes the Council ask when making decisions moving forward.The
second chapter in Legacy Leesburg is Setting the Stage, provides the planning foundation, some
market demand and demographics on which the policies are based, and it also identifies various
opportunities and challenges. Key to note with respect to the planning foundation is the fact that the
Town Plan is the overarching document for all of the other documents in the Town.
Things like the streetscape plan, the capital facilities plan, the transportation improvement plan, these
are all things that are guided by the overall strategy set forth by Legacy Leesburg.Then, ultimately, you
have some regulatory implementation tools to help the Town Council actually achieve that vision. The
plan is very heavily weighted in market and demographic information to ensure that the policies and
strategies are realistic. A couple of key things to note from the document is that there is strong market
demand for a variety of uses in Leesburg. There are changing preferences.
There's also changing demographics and evolving transportation technology,that all guide some of the
new strategies for the future. There are opportunities and challenges that have been identified, things
that really need to be considered, and the reasons that the strategies were put together. Chapter 3,
Legacy Framework, is where you'll see a lot of the actual land-use policy guidance in the document.
You have area-based land-use initiatives, character areas, and a planning policy framework.The land-
use initiatives include areas to preserve, areas to enhance, areas to transform or evolve, and areas to
strengthen.
These four categories really set forth the overall idea of what is to happen in those areas. Are those
areas intended to be preserved? Are they intended to be enhanced? Or, is this the place where we
expect some degree of transformation? The character areas map, essentially, replaces the existing
land-use map that you see in the current Town Plan. It sets forth these character designations, things
like residential neighborhood, or retail center, or mixed-use centers, to provide a land-use vision for
those areas. Also, within the document, you have a series of five guiding principles. Those guiding
principles are the foundation for decision-making going forward.
Underneath those guiding principles, you'll see a series of goals. Those goals represent different
initiatives to set the direction for the Town moving forward, in a series of specific policies and actions,
or strategies that the Council can undertake to help achieve those goals. In Chapter 4,you have place-
based recommendations.There are some development opportunities identified in Chapter4. In Chapter
5, you have your implementation matrix, which identifies all of the different strategies in the plan that
the Council can consider moving forward. A couple of key things to note. How is Legacy Leesburg
different from the current Town Plan?
We've talked about this in the past. Essentially,we see the current Town Plan as being very reactive to
development proposals primarily considering the fact that it was reactive to development taking place
on greenfield development, whereas Legacy Leesburg proposes a more proactive approach
recognizing that in the future the Town will be dealing with a lot more redevelopment.Also,in the current
Town Plan, you have very prescriptive policy calling for specific percentages or acreages or FAR's or
things of that nature.
Page 18 I February 8, 2022
Whereas Legacy Leesburg really asked the Council and Planning Commission and staff to consider
things on a case by case basis to best achieve the overall character and vision as articulated in the
document. Also, within Legacy Leesburg, you have a series of companion documents, things like the
Eastern Gateway District Small Area Plan,which is actually being carried forward from a previous effort,
the Crescent District Master Plan, and the Transportation Improvement Plan. These are just three
examples of documents that supplement the Legacy Leesburg document.As you all know,the planning
commission put extensive work into this document as well.
They considered the comments from other boards and commissions, from staff, they put a lot of work
into developing the Transportation Improvement Plan, defining the future character, considering the
concept sketches, and making sure it was clear that those concept sketches were just that, concepts,
not necessarily dictating a particular form of development moving forward. They also looked at parcels
for consideration at the very end of Chapter 4, which highlighted a couple of key parcels where the
Town might actually expect to see change in the future.
They spent time looking at implementation and, of course,they made minor edits throughout the entire
document. I'd like to remind everybody that the project website is up and running. That is your source
of all of the plan-related documents as well as the information on how the plan was developed. That's
at legacy.leesburgva.gov. That concludes my presentation. Happy to take any questions.
Mayor Burk: Thank you.Anybody have any questions at this point? Ms. Fox?
Council Member Fox: Yes, I'm sorry. I should have asked this last night. Adding this third layer of
oversight; we have our ordinance, we have our Crescent Design District, now we have Legacy
Leesburg, how does that affect the application process and the length of time it takes to go through an
application?
Rich Klusek: It doesn't affect the application process at all.Legacy Leesburg replaces the current Town
Plan. The current Town Plan provides a lot of evaluation criteria that we would consider right now.
Legacy Leesburg replaces that and gives the Council a new way of looking at different applications.
Council Member Fox: I get that.When we discussed it last night Council Member Cummings said it's
a 30,000 foot and then you come down into an overlay like the Crescent District and then you come
down into the nitty-gritty,the Zoning Ordinance.Those are three layers that a prospective applicant will
look at and maybe need to go through and so adding that layer to me might cause an extension of sorts.
Rich Klusek: I understand the concern, but with the current Town Plan, it's exactly the same process.
Legacy Leesburg would replace the current Town Plan so you're still following those same exact three
steps.
Council Member Fox: Thank you.
Mayor Burk:All right,any other questions at this point?All right,thank you. I will open this to the public.
Our first speaker is Vicente Gonzales followed by Jose Monroy.
Vicente Gonzales: My name is Vicente Gonzales, V-I-C-E-N-T-E G-O-N-Z-A-L-E-S. I'm here as a
member of the Leesburg Mobile Home community. I'm here to ask the Town Council to do four things
for the 336 of the Legacy Leesburg Town Plan.The first thing is create a text amendment to the Zoning
Ordinance that will allow mobile homes as a zoning option in Leesburg. Leesburg Mobile Park has
existed since 1957 and has always been a legal non-conformity.The existence of the mobile home has
been a grandfathered use.The residents of Leesburg Mobile Park are forced to move as a result of the
sale of the property. There is nowhere we can legally move to.
Second thing, strengthening the proposed language and strategy 3.3.6 of the Legacy Leesburg Town
Plan to address the State Code 15.2-2223.5. A. The current wording is not sufficient or strong enough
to preserve the lease for mobile home park or encourage new mobile home communities and other
locations in Leesburg. B. Suggested changes consistent with the requirements of 15.2-2223.5 of the
State Code. The Town recognizes the contribution of manufactured housing in addressing affordable
housing needs.
Page 19 I February 8, 2022
The Town desires to preserve existing manufactured housing and promote the creation of new
manufactured housing communities in Leesburg which serve a role in addressing the Town's affordable
housing objectives. While any decision to potentially redevelop existing manufactured housing would
be subject to applicable zoning and decisions of the individual property owners,the Town seeks to have
any affordable housing loss as a result of redevelopment activities replaced with other affordable
housing servicing comparable price points. Manufactured housing can also be considered in other
locations in the Town where addresses affordability and other applicable land use strategies of the
Town Plan. Thank you for your time.
Mayor Burk: Thank you. Jose Monroy, I'm saying that incorrectly?
Jose Monroy:Hi,my name is Jose Monroy,Jose,J-O-S-E Monroy M-O-N-R-O-Y. I live in the Leesburg
Mobile Park community. Remove Leesburg Mobile Park from the selected opportunity site section of
the Crescent District Master Plan. The Crescent District Master Plan is dated in June 27th, 2006. Page
49 lists several selected opportunity sites, including Leesburg Mobile Park in them. It said opportunity
sites represent some preliminary examination of significant areas where development is likely to take
place in the coming years. We are asking Town Council Members to remove Leesburg Mobile Park
from this page in order to protect and preserve its affordable housing community. Thank you.
Mayor Burk: Thank you very much. Emily, I think it's Perez followed by Angela Coleman.
Emily Perez: Hi, I'm Emily Perez. Amend the redevelopment concept sketches in Legacy Leesburg
Town Plan to show Leesburg Mobile Park. The redevelopment concept sketches in Legacy Leesburg
Town Plan currently shows townhomes and two over two housing in place of Leesburg Mobile Park.
The map said they are intended to provide an example of development that consider key strategies in
Legacy Leesburg.Keeping Leesburg Mobile Park on this map shows the Town's commitment to helping
preserve and protect its residents. Thank you.
Mayor Burk: Thank you, Emily.Angela Kollman followed by Evelin Garrido.
Angela Kollman: Hi, I'm Angie Kollman. I live in the Town of Leesburg. I'm on the PTA Board at
Catoctin where a lot of the kids from Leesburg Mobile Park go to school. I'm here to ask the same thing,
that you amend the Town Plan to include the mobile park and allow the mobile homes as permitted use
in Leesburg. I think the thing that we need to, maybe, consider is that a mobile home provides a home
that is affordable, but it's also a space of your own.
If you have a single family home, I'm sure you can appreciate the space that it allows you.Apartments
and townhomes and condos are all great in their own ways but they don't provide that sense of personal
space and ownership that a mobile home can provide for a low income family. Consider things like
having a driveway or a yard or a ground level entrance into your home. Those are things that a mobile
home can provide that other affordable housing units cannot. I think that when we are considering this
plan we should maybe think about all the good things that this mobile park provides and all the things
that it is instead of looking at all the things that it is not.
I know there's this big push for newer and bigger and keeping the character of the Town and that's one
of the main reasons why I moved into Leesburg because I love the character here but character goes
deeper than just how things look, how new they are, how fresh they are. We go to Catoctin. That's a
really old school. It doesn't have that new look to it, but it has all that history and we love it. I teach at
Destiny School of the Arts. It's that manor house.Again, it's this old historic house.
You wouldn't think of it as a school but it is and it's that character. The Leesburg Mobile Park is the
same way. We need to consider its history, the people that are there, the character of the people, not
just the character of the buildings, and try to preserve that character for them, for us. I thank you for all
this. I know it's not easy. I do ask that you please consider this, take the extra time and effort I know
that it will take but I think it will be worth it.
Mayor Burk: Thank you.
Angela Kollman: Thank you.
Page 20 I February 8, 2022
Mayor Burk: Thank you very much. Evelin Garrido followed by Julie Bolthouse.
[silence]
Evelin Garrido: Good evening. My name is Evelin E-V-E-L-I-N Garrido G-A-R-R-I-D-O. We've been
here before and tonight we are here again to ask you to please consider affordable housing for working
families in Leesburg. It's very hard to find somewhere affordable to live in the Town and by now
everybody is aware that this is a problem and that we need a solution for the working families. I pledge
you to come together for a solution in this matter. Thank you.
Mayor Burk: Thank you. Julie Bolthouse followed by Elizabeth Pekin.
Julie Bolthouse: Good evening. I'm Julie Bolthouse, J-U-L-I-E B-O-L-T-H-O-U-S-E, Deputy Director
of Land Use for Piedmont Environmental Council and resident of Madison Court. I watched the work
session last night and I was very frustrated. I know that you all agreed that the Crescent Design District
and affordable housing edits were done. The purpose, though, of a public hearing is to hear from the
public before you make a decision and I hope that you are open to the comments that you receive
tonight. I understand that the Legacy Leesburg Plan provides the 20,000-foot perspective and the
Crescent Design District Master Plan provides the next level of guidance followed by the zoning
regulations.
Knowing that, what I don't understand is the insistence on including the redevelopment concept
sketches of bounded very specific development opportunity areas in the Legacy Leesburg Plan. Are
you sure you want to replace the Giant, Petco, Autozone, OfficeMax, Party City, all the restaurants,
banks, small stores and offices of the Leesburg Plaza Shopping Center with, basically, two Crescent
Places? Crescent Place was a fine redevelopment, but it was of a blighted property. I can count the
number of times that I've shopped at it on one hand, even though I walk by it regularly. I shop at the
Plaza Shopping Center at least three times a week.
Considering the Safeway and Food Line are also in the development opportunity areas,are we all going
to have to go to the outskirts of Town to go grocery shopping now? There won't be a single grocery
store in the center of Town if this plan moves forward. What about the Leesburg Mobile Home Park?
The narrative and concept sketches show complete erasure and replacement with multifamily units,
townhouses and two over twos, but staff says we shouldn't worry because we can change the Crescent
District Master Plan.
If you're working with a designer on a new house and he says, "I'm going to go ahead and get started
on your log cabin,"and you go, "Oh, no, no, no,wait, I wanted a contemporary style house,"do you just
say,"Oh, I won't worry about it, I guess we'll just work on your log cabin design and make the necessary
changes as needed?" Does that make sense?
If all of this is going to be addressed in the Crescent Design District Master Plan, then take this
development opportunity area section out of the Leesburg Plan, pages 167 through 183, shred it and
then we'll get started on the Crescent Design District Master Plan. If you don't do that, I'm sorry, but it
feels like you are complicit and you are only feeding us platitudes.
Mayor Burk: Thank you, Ms. Bolthouse. Elizabeth and I think it's Perkins followed by Molly Novotny. I
don't know where you are. You signed up twice. You can only speak once. You had two different--All
right.We don't generally let people speak twice. Okay, thank you. Yes, go ahead.
Elizabeth Pekin: Good evening everyone. My name is Elizabeth Pekin, E-L-I-Z-A-B-E-T-H P-E-K-I-N.
Like many other people in this room, I was very happy to hear that the sale of the Leesburg Mobile
Home Park was cancelled. This would not have been possible without the hard work, open dialogue
and solidarity of the families who live in the mobile home park and their allies, as well as the local
journalists who cover these events. However, our work is not done yet. If we don't do anything to
preserve Leesburg Mobile Home Park, some other guy with a lot of money could still come in and
destroy these families'homes just to make himself richer.
Page 21 I February 8,2022
As members of the Town Council, here are four things that you can do. One, change the redevelopment
concept maps in the Legacy Leesburg Town Plan to include Leesburg Mobile Park.Two,to protect the
homes for redevelopment, remove Leesburg Mobile Park from the selected opportunity sites section of
the Crescent District Master Plan. Three, create a text amendment to allow mobile home parks as a
zoning option in Leesburg.
Four,strengthen the protections for current mobile park residents under State Code Section 1,5.2-223.5
which requires localities to incorporate manufactured housing into their Comprehensive Plans.
Fortunately,there is no longer a pending contract on the property so you can protect their homes without
interfering with a private sale. This is your opportunity to send a message to real estate investors that
Leesburg Mobile Home Park is here to stay and that the Town of Leesburg wants affordable housing
for the working-class people in our community to continue to exist here. Thank you, everyone. Have a
good night.
Mayor Burk: Thank you. Molly Novotny, followed by Santos Esperanza.
Molly Novotny: Good evening, Madam Mayor, Members of Council. My name is Molly Novotny, and
I'm an urban planner with Cooley and I'm speaking right now on behalf of Kettler, which owns the 37
acres on the east side of Crosstrail Boulevard. This is the area subject to a Town Plan amendment.
This land is zoned and planned for industrial uses and Legacy Leesburg looks to continue that plan
designation. It's been zoned that way for 20 years. If it were going to develop with industrial uses, it
would have done that. I have followed very closely the writing of Legacy Leesburg. I've been to Planning
Commission and I've listened intently to your discussion.
Last night you talked about three different goals; affordable housing, infrastructure, as well as
walkability. For affordable housing adding more residential units here addresses that concept. It adds
housing which therefore should decrease the cost of this housing. Additionally, as a rezoning, it would
add designated affordable dwelling units within the project. In terms of walkability, the Village at
Leesburg is directly across the street from us. Within a five-minute walk these residents would have
access to Wegmans and all of the shops at the Village of Leesburg. Finally, infrastructure. There were
comments last night does the Town have the infrastructure in place to handle the density called for in
Legacy Leesburg?
This is the perfect site to put more density. It's on the outskirts of Town, you have that interchange that
Kettler built as part of the Village of Leesburg, and you've got Crosstrail Boulevard that is connecting
down to the Dulles Greenway in a number of years, all of those things. Additionally, the consultant last
night talked about retail and how Leesburg is over-retailed. Keeping the site for additional commercial
development just doesn't make sense in the terms of retail. Finally, office space. The consultant last
night said a third of office workers will not be returning to their office. Again, leaving this property
designated for office or commercial uses really doesn't make sense.
What we're asking is to re-designate this land to allow residential uses there to support the businesses
within the Village of Leesburg, to support that walkable community that everyone looks for and to keep
that to be the focus of it.As you wrestle with Legacy Leesburg over the next several weeks or months,
we ask you to consider re-designating parcel D and E, land bays D and E to allow residential uses. I'll
take my last 45 seconds for my second client which is for Lidl. Lidl has a piece of property across the
street from Costco that is planned and zoned for retail. Again, the consultant said last night Leesburg
is over-retailed.
This property has no access to the Battlefield Shopping Center. Having a separate standalone retail
parcel there really doesn't make sense and so we would like to work with the Council on re-designating
that five-acre site for a different use other than retail. Thank you.
Mayor Burk:All right, thank you. Santos Esperanza followed by Jose Lopez.
[silence]
Not here? Okay, Jose Lopez. Not here either? Charles Kettler, followed by John Faett.
Page 22 I February 8, 2022
Charles Kieler: Good evening. I'm Charlie Kieler with Kettler. I run the Community Development
Department at Kettler and I've been involved with the Village of Leesburg from the very beginning which
is almost 20 years ago. Most of you folks weren't even here then. I've struggled with it for many, many
years. I wanted to ask you this evening to reconsider the designation that staff has placed on the
property. The remaining property land bays D and E, which are part of the Village of Leesburg were
part of the rezoning at the time. The Town does not have and still does not have a mixed-use
designation which would allow a Town center which is what we built there.
We had to bifurcate the zoning.There are many different zones in the Village at Leesburg and because
of that land bays D and E were pushed to the side to be dealt with later. The industrial designation on
those we feel is inappropriate that a mixed-use designation or residential desig--There should be some
other uses available.We're going on 20 years now where we've been trying to get industrial users out
there and in the intervening time,we've managed to get one self-storage facility,one small self-storage
facility.
We think industrial's the wrong designation for that piece of property right at the entryway of the Town.
With the massive amount of infrastructure that we built$50 million worth,the interchange,and all of the
investment that the County and the Town are putting into Crosstrail Boulevard, it's a very, very visible
site, and you have a great opportunity to do something there other than an industrial warehouse. The
problem is that those two land bays may be 15 or 20 acres but there are floodplains and other
restrictions on the properties that really reduce the amount of land area to around 11 acres total on both
sides of the road.
One side's four acres, the other side's seven acres. There's rock there, there's topo. These types of
constrictions don't lend themselves to industrial development. Believe me, we've tried. If we had been
able to get a user out there or users,we would have.We'd appreciate your consideration to think about
re-designating this from an industrial type use. Thank you.
Mayor Burk: Thank you. John Faett, I'm probably saying this wrong.
John Faett: Good evening.You were close. It's John Faett.
Mayor Burk: I was close, okay.
John Faett: You were close. Then I'm one of the vendors in the Village of Leesburg. I own Victory
Martial Arts. I came right from teaching because I felt this was important. Talking to Paul Dicenzo and
then some of the other folks in the Village. Designating that corner there as an industrial park doesn't
make sense. For me, as a business owner, I look for a lot of walk-by traffic and what I can say is we
were hit pretty hard by COVID.We came back strong but we're maybe only at 50%of our ability to run
our martial arts school there. I know the restaurants in the Village are worse off than we are especially
Wildwood and some of the ones that are further down away from Wegmans.
I also know for my particular kind of business,the number one reason people pick martial arts schools
is because of proximity to their home. Then I have people in the Village currently that live there, that
live in the apartments above, that live in the townhouses across the way and they even walk to the
school and I know that if more residential housing was there, it would affect my business in a positive
way. I humbly ask you to consider re-designating it as residential because it would help every business
that is already in the Village. Overall, I just think it's a better decision. Thank you.
Mayor Burk: Thank you. That's our last speaker that signed up. Is there anybody in the audience that
would like to speak that didn't have the opportunity to sign up? Everybody's spoken that needs to?All
right, yes, ma'am.
Isamar: I say in Spanish. My name is Isamar, I-S-A-M-A-R.
[Spanish]
Mayor Burk: Gracias. Is there anyone else that would like to speak at this point?Okay,then I will close
the public hearing, and this Legacy Town Plan, the discussion continues at our work sessions on this
Page 23 I February 8, 2022
particular plan. Thank you all very much for coming. We go to future meetings and-- I did close the
public hearing, yes. Future Council meetings, and agenda topics, Ms. Nacy?
Council Member Nacy: I don't have any. I just want to reiterate that I will be bringing up the
neighborhood grant program again during our budget discussions. Hopefully, other Council members
will support that and we can earmark some money to fund that. Thank you.
Mayor Burk:All right, Mr. Bagdasarian.
Council Member Bagdasarian: Nothing. Thank you.
Mayor Burk: Ms. Fox.
Council Member Fox: Sorry. I've got one addition. I'd like to add a motion to rescind Resolution 2021-
154 of February 22 regular meeting. I do have one disclosure. I have had a couple of conversations this
week with David Gregory about the Mobile Home Park.
Mayor Burk:All right, Mr. Steinberg.
Council Member Steinberg: Nothing to add. One disclosure,a conversation I had Avram Fechter who
is an affordable housing builder regarding Leesburg Mobile Home Park, and just a couple of comments.
Several of us attended the VMLNACO conference down in Richmond this last week,where we had the
opportunity to learn about pending legislation and speak with a number of our legislative representatives
regarding issues that would affect the Town and surrounding areas. Thanks.
Mayor Burk: Mr. Cummings?
Council Member Cummings: Nothing at this point.
Mayor Burk: Mr. Martinez?
Vice Mayor Martinez: No.
Mayor Burk:All right, I would like to welcome Burn Boot Camp on Sycolin Road. This is actually in an
industrial area, and it's a great place to work out. They just opened this facility. Erin Darante is the
Director. Let me tell you, having participated in one of her workouts,they will get you in shape.January
31st, the Chair of the Board of Supervisors Chair Randall, Supervisor Umstattd, Vice Mayor Martinez
and I met with the residents of the trailer park. The interested developer released the contract and the
residents wanted to talk about what they could do and how they could get help from the Town and the
County. It was a very honest and productive discussion.
Now another developer has a contract on the property.We'll see how all this works out. February 1st I
had lunch with Shye Gilad and talked about the Airport in general and the excitement that our Leesburg
Airport used to be a little country airport, and it is most certainly grown into a gigantic economic
development tool. It's wonderful to see it doing so well. On February 3rd, I attended the board meeting
for the VML and we discussed legislation that would be impacting the Town.Then we followed up with,
as Mr. Steinberg said, Mr. Martinez, myself and Ms. Nacy attended the VML Lobby Day called Local
Town Day and we ended up talking to our legislators and their staff.
On February 7th, I attended, Mr.Steinberg was also an attendance,a meeting at Roots 639 in Lucketts.
It's about a proposal for Route 15 improvement. It didn't take long to realize that this proposed
improvement will have a huge impact on Leesburg.One fact the Chair stated was that this study showed
that 90% of the traffic on Route 15 North is from Maryland. There is a request from this community
group and others for the County Planning Commission to look at this road and reconsider the
improvements.
I think it will be important for us to understand the implications for Leesburg. I am asking that in March
we have an update a discussion and work session on the Route 15 project and what it will mean to
Leesburg. This is something that was very eye opening for me. I had not thought of it in the amount of
Page 24 I February 8,2022
traffic that is going to be coming into Leesburg because of these improvements. If I could get four people
that would be willing to have that discussion-- I appreciate that. Okay, that's everybody. Last night we
asked for data concerning the COVID numbers.We're going to look at these numbers and look at where
we are.
We want to make sure that this virus and its impact on the workplace, and the County and the Town,
we have all those numbers as a whole. We will look at these numbers to determine when the virus is
so diminished that we are in an endemic, and we will be safe to lift this mask mandate.We will do this
with the Health Department's advice and the guidance of the CDC. Everyone is tired of this terrible
disease. I know everyone is tired of wearing these masks. We must remember we have lost over
900,000 people to this disease. Even now it should not be taken lightly. I will tell you clearly my main
criteria is for a safe work environment.
While it is always good to hear from others, this policy was and is for Town employees to make sure
that Town employees work in a safe environment.When the data indicates that it is safe,we will gladly
remove the mandate at that time.We must continue to protect our workers and I'm sure that we will do
so with a very concerning way.We will make sure that the data supports our decision. Now I would like
to wish everybody a very happy Valentine's Day, which is why I'm wearing my thing. Town Manager,
do you have anything to report at this point?
Kaj Dentler: No comment.
Mayor Burk:All right, is there a motion to adjourn?Second.All in favor?
Members:Aye.
Mayor Burk: Opposed? Stay here by yourself. Goodnight.
Page 25 I February 8, 2022