HomeMy Public PortalAbout2023_tcwsmin0410Council Work Session April 10, 2023
Council Chamber, 25 West Market Street, Leesburg, Virginia, 7:00 p.m. Mayor Kelly Burk
presiding.
Council Members Present: Ara Bagdasarian, Todd Cimino -Johnson, Zach Cummings, Kari
Nacy, Vice Mayor Neil Steinberg, Patrick Wilt, and Mayor Kelly Burk.
Council Members Absent: None.
Staff Present: Town Manager Kaj Dentler, Town Attorney Christopher Spera, Deputy
Town Manager Keith Markel, Planning and Zoning Director James David, Senior Planner
Rich Klusek, and Clerk of Council Eileen Boeing.
Minutes prepared by Deputy Clerk of Council Corina Alvarez.
AGENDA ITEMS
1. Item for Discussion
a. Affordable Housing Incentive Plan
Mr. David provided information on Council's past direction regarding
affordable housing, the Affordable Dwelling Unit Program administered by the
County, and staff proposals.
Council and staff discussed the item.
It was the consensus of Council to proceed with receiving additional information from staff
regarding the proposals presented except for the housing -in -lieu program.
b. Legacy Leesburg Annual Report
Mr. Klusek gave background information on Legacy Leesburg, its guiding
principles, planning policy framework, and 2022 highlights, goals, and
recommended future actions.
Council and staff discussed the item. Council will initiate any future
discussion or action, as needed.
2. Additions to Future Council Meetings
Vice Mayor Steinberg requested the formation of a committee to work with the
project developers on the Liberty Street Lot Redevelopment proposal. The committee will
include two Council members, Town staff, and the project developers. Any progress is to be
reported to Council.
It was the consensus of Council to allow the Town Manager to identify the staff members to
participate in this committee and return in two weeks with an action item for Council to formalize the
committee.
3. Adjournment
On a motion by Vice Mayor Steinberg, seconded by Council Member Cummings, the meeting
was adjourned at 7::47 p.m.
Clerk of Council
2023_tcwsmin0410
1 IPage
April 10, 2023 — Town Council Work Session
(Note: This is a transcript prepared by Town staff 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: [Unintelligible] to order. We have items for discussion tonight. The first one is
Affordable Housing Incentive Plan. Hello Mr. David.
James David: Thank you. Good evening, Madam Mayor, and Members of the Council. James David
here, Planning Director, for the Town of Leesburg. I'm going to kick off our discussion tonight about
the memo that Mr. Cummings circulated regarding a proposed Affordable Housing Incentives Plan.
First, just looking back at some of the Council actions that led to tonight's discussion. Back in October
of last year, the Town staff was endorsed in terms of participation in the County Affordable Housing
Task Force.
About the same time Council Member Cummings circulated the memo with some ideas on creating a
proposed Affordable Housing Incentive Program. That's included as attachment one in your packet
tonight. The Council majority requested the discussion on said proposal, so that led us to tonight's
agenda, but in the intervening time, recall that at your January Council retreat, in your goal -setting
exercise, you identified Affordable Workforce Housing as a work plan item.
A little bit of background on affordable housing and Affordable Dwelling Unit Program in the Town.
The Town's Affordable Dwelling Unit Program is administered by Loudoun County. Loudoun County
provides the housing services for the Town. That is spelled out in attachment two. It's a memorandum
of agreement with the County, effective March 2018. Essentially, there's three tenants in that MOU. It
says there's a limit on the number of Affordable Dwelling Units or ADUs that the Town can have per
the agreement.
That limit is set at 120 units in addition to the units that were already in the program, effective of that
2018 contract. Just for your context, we are at about 80 total units once Virginia Village comes online
and once Meadowbrook comes online. There were about 40 at the time of that 2018 agreement.
We're expecting 40 more in the pipeline.
Also in that agreement, it talks about the Affordable Dwelling Unit Advisory Board, or also known as
ADUAB. That is a County advisory board. They are the ones that look at the applications for
Affordable Dwelling Units. They qualify the folks that are in the program. They set the rates both for
sale and for rent. Interestingly, if you look in that agreement, it does say that the Town has the ability
to recommend one ADUAB member that's a citizen of the Town.
Now, when I looked at the roster, I couldn't tell if there is actually a citizen of Leesburg on that ADUAB
right now. Mostly they're listed at large, but something to consider. The third thing it talks about is the
County Housing Trust Fund. We do have a cash in lieu option for Affordable Dwelling Unit production.
It would take a modification of the zoning ordinance. To my knowledge, nobody has availed
themselves of that yet. However, if they did, the cash in lieu would flow to the County's Housing Trust
Fund, and that's clearly stated in that agreement.
Mayor Burk: Excuse me for interrupting you. We have it now?
James David: It is there in the zoning ordinance now by modification, but if somebody was to pay into
it, if they got the zoning modification, those funds would flow to the County's Trust Fund.
Mayor Burk: Okay, thank you.
James David: Fast forward to 2021, the County adopted the Unmet Housing Needs Strategic Plan
for the County. It's a very ambitious document, has a lot of strategies and actions. Town staff went
Page 1 !April 10, 2023
through it. We tried to call those strategies and actions that would be relevant to the Town of
Leesburg. Those are included in attachment three. The idea there is we could build upon some of
those strategies in collaboration with the County.
Now turning our focus to the memo for tonight's discussion. As I mentioned, Council Member
Cummings outlined a proposal. There were six different headings, and I'll just take them one by one,
give you a little staff response and context, and then, Mayor, you might want to discuss them one by
one with the Council. The first one, Establishing a Target Area Median Income for Leesburg. In the
memo that the target proposed is 30% to 60% of Area Median Income. In staff's response, in looking
at the Town's ADU program, we currently meet those recommended targets.
Right now, the ADU program in the Town is for purchase by households with income greater than
30% and less than 70%, and it's for rental households with income greater than 30% and less than
50% of AMI. A little bit more about our program. The criteria for requiring Affordable Dwelling Unit
production. Your project has to have a development yield of 24 or more dwelling units at a density of
24 or more dwellings per acre. For single-family detached and single-family attached projects, it's a
20% density bonus. If you meet the 12.5% ADU requirement for multifamily, it's a 10% density bonus
if you meet the 6.25% ADU requirement.
The next topic was Density Bonus. The memo urges the Council to exceed State -mandated density
bonuses when applicants exceed minimum affordable housing requirements. Staff agrees that this
would be a good area to look into because the State has changed their density bonus regulations
since we adopted our Affordable Dwelling Unit Program, and the State does allow a local jurisdiction
to grant larger density bonuses dependent upon how much of very low and low-income household
units are included in the project.
Staff is recommending that we look at that as part of the zoning ordinance rewrite to try and align with
that State code and align with the County's code. The County is also in the process of revising their
ADU ordinance. The next topic, Financial Partnership for Affordable Development. The memo
proposes fee and tax waivers for projects with 80% or more affordable housing. Staff would need
direction on this one. If we got that direction, we would come back with additional information on what
this would mean in terms of fiscal impact.
It would probably mean three separate ordinance updates because the utility fees are in the Town
code, the zoning fees are in the zoning code, and the subdivision fees are in a standalone ordinance.
We would have to take a look at all of that as part of that if we got that direction. Next topic was
Streamlining Application Process. This is a strategy that the County has in their Unmet Housing
Needs Strategic Plan already. They have an existence of fast track or expedited program for
economic development projects, and they're working on one for affordable housing projects.
If we went down this road, again, staff would need direction because it could have a resource impact
as we look at the number of people that are on staff to review and get things through the process.
Next topic is working with the County Government to increase affordable housing inventory. The
memo asks for collaboration with the County on public -private partnerships extending Affordable
Dwelling Unit timelines, increasing minimum ADU requirements.
In response, the Town staff has been reaching out to the County in hopes of getting this County
Affordable Housing Task Force going. It has not gone forward yet. They did recently go through some
transition in their leadership over at the County. They have a new Housing Director, Mr. John Hall.
Happy to report that I finally made contact with Mr. Hall. I got an email back tonight, and so we're
going to be continuing discussion. They do have some pretty aggressive goals for their own
affordable housing production going forward.
Then the last topic, Breakdown Regulatory Barriers. This would be looking at things such as reducing
parking requirements for affordable housing projects, creating a housing in -lieu fund and land
banking. Again, I think looking at the parking requirements is certainly part of the zoning ordinance
rewrite. When I was at the County, there were some developers, I think, Mr. Kim Hart, that
Page 2 I April 10, 2023
commissioned some looking and some studying of all affordable housing projects in the County. They
did find that they, in fact, consumed less parking spaces than market -rate projects.
There has been some analysis out there, but we need to look a little further as part of the rewrite. If
the Council wants us to go down the road of a housing in -lieu fund, that's something that we would
need to do more research on. I believe that the County needed a housing authority to administer a
housing in -lieu fund. They don't have a housing authority, but they have an Industrial Development
Authority, which can double as your housing authority. They call it the Economic Development
Authority, but even though, it's pretty complicated, so we would need more direction to go down that
road.
In summary, staff is recommending we continue to seek collaboration with Loudoun County on
affordable housing strategies and actions. Staffs recommending we reevaluate the Town's regulatory
provisions as part of the ZO rewrite. Then we're really looking for direction on whether we should go
any further on fee waivers, expedited land development approval process, and that housing in -lieu
fund. With that, questions, and answers.
Mayor Burk: Thank you. What you're looking for us for tonight is direction on fee waivers, expedited
land development approval, and housing in -lieu fund. Correct?
James David: That's correct. If the Council agrees with the approach of addressing the other items
as part of the zoning ordinace rewrite.
Mayor Burk: The fee waivers, my concern would be, for me, who's going to pay for it? If we're willing
to do away with fees and tax waivers for projects with 80% of affordable housing, who ends up having
then to pick that up, the cost of those fees and the tax waivers?
James David: That's something that we would have to look into. How many fees do you want to
waive? What is the cost? What's the fiscal impact of said fee waivers? Where would that money come
from? Could all be part of that analysis we bring back if the Council gives us that direction.
Mayor Burk: All right. Then my next question is about the expedited land use development. We
already have developers that are screaming and yelling that it's taken them too long, and now we're
going to put them in the back and move projects up ahead of them. That'll be fun. Then the last one,
housing in -lieu funds. After having dealt with parking in -lieu all these years, I will never, ever vote for
another in -lieu anything. That's just my opinion. Mr. Wilt, do you have any questions on this?
Questions, comments?
Council Member Patrick Wilt: Yes. Actually, I would just like to know specifically, what is a Housing
In -Lieu Program?
James David: The Housing In -Lieu Fund, how it apparently operates at the County as if a developer
does not want to construct their required Affordable Dwelling Units, they can pay into the housing
trust.
Council Member Wilt: That's similar to that $8K of parking space car park.
James David: Correct.
Mayor Burk: Yes. It's the same thing.
Council Member Wilt: No.
Mayor Burk: Mr. Bagdasarian?
Council Member Ara Bagdasarian: My understanding with the ADU requirements, that's something
that the Town Council has it at our discretion. Is that correct, as far as the policy and the number of
minimum units? Is that correct?
Page 31 April 10, 2023
James David: The minimum threshold is 6.25 and the 12.5. That was based on previous State code.
The State code would allow the jurisdictions to require that certain minimum based on that type of
housing unit. They have since changed those percentages and the density bonuses that come with it.
Part of the rewrite we're suggesting would be making sure we align with that code.
Council Member Bagdasarian: For some reason, I thought that was at the municipality level but that
is a state [unintelligible].
James David: I think the municipality could require less, but then the density bonuses go down
depending.
Council Member Bagdasarian: Right, so we can't require more? Okay. I guess I would have a
question too, like, what would the extent of the fee and tax waivers look like? 100%, 50%. I guess
that's where you're looking for direction. Correct?
James David: Exactly. I think these were all concepts that Mr. Cummings was putting out there for
discussion.
Council Member Bagdasarian: Also, I have the issue with the in -lieu of because it's going to go
someplace and never see the light of day. It's not accomplishing the goals that we're seeking as far as
increasing the amount of affordable housing options. All right. Thank you.
Mayor Burk: Ms. Nacy?
Council Member Kari Nacy: Thank you. Whatever side this goes. I'm struggling.
Mayor Burk: You're having a rough day today.
James David: [unintelligible].
Council Member Nacy: It's been a long day. Let me move my coffee over here.
Council Member Bagdasarian: Let me make sure the water bottle [crosstalk].
Council Member Nacy: A great echo what everyone else is saying, housing in -lieu, let's just strike
that. Fee waivers. I saw and I think the memo said something about it would only apply to
developments that were over 80% affordable. Would we ever even have one of those?
Mayor Burk: We possibly could. I think there is a proposal perhaps that's coming forward.
Council Member Nacy: I think it's worth exploring then. It's something actionable we could do.
Obviously, we need to determine what the fiscal impact is. It's a good start for us to show that we're
serious about trying to do something about affordable housing in the Town. The expedited land
development approval process, I get the idea behind it, but other than making a lot of other people
who are in line with their applications angry, I just don't know how you would do that unless you had
someone who was-- one of your planners was just dedicated to affordable housing, because
otherwise, or it was a really tiny development. I don't know. I'm just not sure how you would make that
an actionable thing.
James David: If you gave us the direction, we would evaluate the resource impact and come back
with some recommendations. I can tell you that my experience at the County, that's exactly what they
did. They staffed up and they had certain FTE that we're going to focus on the expedited housing
process as well as other housing projects.
Council Member Nacy: I think it's absolutely worth exploring. It doesn't hurt anything to go further
and just see what it would take. Gosh, the dollar signs are cha-ching. Thank you.
Page 4 1 April 10, 2023
Mayor Burk: Vice Mayor Steinberg?
Vice Mayor Neil Steinberg: I don't know who that is. Thanks. First, I need to understand some
numbers you had at the very beginning. You said something about we are allowed 120 affordable
units. Is it Town -wide?
James David: Right.
Vice Mayor Steinberg: Explain that?
James David: Sure. That 2018 MOA with the County basically said, "Hey, the Town doesn't have this
ADUAB, and it doesn't have the processes set up to administer their own Affordable Dwelling Unit
Program, so the County will hereby administer it. You can't have any more than 120 in addition to
whatever units you had in the system at the date of this agreement." They were putting a limit on how
much they wanted to administer for the Town.
Vice Mayor Steinberg: Did you say, at this point, we have a total of 80 both existing and in -process?
James David: Correct.
Vice Mayor Steinberg: We would be allowed another 120 on top of that?
James David: The 40 was the cut-off at 2018. Then I looked at what's coming down the pipeline in
terms of entitled projects, and there's 40 more, so that would leave 80 additional unrealized.
Vice Mayor Steinberg: Once we hit that 80 limit, that's it?
James David: Or we revise the agreement.
Vice Mayor Steinberg: Or we revise.
James David: Now, sometimes Affordable Dwelling Unit deed restrictions will expire after a certain
time period. There is foreseeably some that will come and go.
Vice Mayor Steinberg: Perhaps the County in its wisdom will also see the positive idea of increasing
these numbers as we need more. Okay.
James David: Exactly.
Vice Mayor Steinberg: That's to be determined. I echo the not being in favor of pay in -lieu. That
doesn't seem to create anything other than a bank account that doesn't get us anywhere close to
what we're looking for. That answers that question. Now, you're saying the State allowed us to
increase the percentages of units within any given project, is that correct? Right now, it's 12.5 and 6.5,
but those numbers can now go up. Is that --
James David: They can, yes. It used to be 12.5 and 6.25; 12.5 for single-family detached, and
attached multi -family, 6.25. That was what the County had for a long time as well. There's some new
State provisions that enable jurisdictions to change those numbers now. County is actively changing. I
think they're going to go to 10% and 15%. We'd like to look at that too as part of our rewrite.
Vice Mayor Steinberg: I agree. Good. With that, then there could be increased density bonus?
James David: That's correct. Based upon the level of voluntary construction of low-income and very
low-income. The State defines low income as does not exceed 80% of the AMI, and very low as does
not exceed 50% of the AMI.
Page 51 April 10, 2023
Vice Mayor Steinberg: If I understood you correctly, a project has to have 80% or more ADUs in
order to qualify for fee waivers?
James David: That was the concept in the memo.
Vice Mayor Steinberg: That's the concept in the memo. That would also apply. All right. I understand
fee waivers, we'd have to discuss that. What taxes would we potentially be waiving in a situation like
that?
James David: We could look into that. I think the memo was anticipating the fees. My thought was
your water and wastewater availability fees, all your zoning permit fees, your site plan fees, and if
there's any subdivision fees, which the site plan fees are actually higher than the zoning fees. Utility
fees are pretty high as well. I was staying with fees. I didn't read taxes in the memo.
Vice Mayor Steinberg: All right. The expedited review process, we might consider applying that also
to a project that offered 80% or more as opposed to each and every project.
James David: Correct. I think that was another concept in the memo. The way I read it was if it's what
we want, 80% or more affordable housing project, I think looking at ways to expedite it because timing
is pretty tight sometimes for these affordable projects based on going for State funding, there's certain
deadlines to meet and everything.
Vice Mayor Steinberg: That expedited process would also apply to the greater. Out of curiosity, and I
don't know if this is a question for the Town Attorney, if we lower parking requirements within a given
project, can we also apply parking restrictions in terms of the number of cars allowed per unit in the
development?
James David: I think the question is, can we tell the HOA or the apartment owner, you can only have
so many cars?
Christopher Spera: I think you can. I'm saying that as I try and remember a project that we did in the
city, which was 100% affordable. It was approximately 70 units. My recollection there was that the
lease had a provision limiting, you couldn't have more than a certain number of cars.
Vice Mayor Steinberg: Because I think if we were to consider that, that second part would also be
something we'd want to consider because we can immediately imagine that lowering parking
requirements in a given area would then suddenly create overflow situations into other areas. Good.
Thanks.
Mayor Burk: Mr. Cummings?
Council Member Zach Cummings: Thanks. What does the Town of Leesburg currently do to
promote affordable housing being developed in the Town?
James David: I think that we have the ADU program, and so I don't know if I would call it promoting,
but it's requiring for projects of a certain size. Then we are part of the County's housing services and
housing programs. They look at the Town, the County as one in terms of their housing program and
platform. That's about it.
Council Member Cummings: You may not know this off the top of your head and it's okay, but I'm
just curious if we know how many units have been built using low-income housing tax credits or any
Federal or State vehicle to build affordable housing within the Town limits?
James David: I don't know the answer to that one.
Council Member Cummings: It's fine. I would imagine it's zero.
Mayor Burk: I would think it could be more.
Page 6 April 10, 2023
Council Member Cummings: What are the current fees for by -right applications? If I'm a developer
and I have appraised a property and I want to build something by -right, what am I paying to the
Town?
James David: There's various site plan engineering fees. They range depending upon the scope of
the project for by -right projects. I don't have those numbers in front of me, but from what I've heard,
they can be pretty costly.
Council Member Cummings: Do the fees when they're paid, do they stay within the Planning and
Zoning Department's budget, or do they just go to the General Fund? Where are those fees going to?
James David: General Fund.
Council Member Cummings: General Fund. Okay. Thank you. Since this is my memo, I guess my
aim was, because while I respect the County's Affordable Dwelling Unit Program, I don't believe if you
talk to professionals, both in the affordable housing industry as well as in the housing industry in
general, it does not do the job of making homes more affordable. In fact, it actually raises the cost of
homes.
When a developer or a home builder builds 3 or 4 or 10 Affordable Dwelling Units that get put into the
program, they simply raise the cost or the rent on the units around them thus making homes, in
general, more expensive. I don't believe adding to the Affordable Dwelling Unit Program is an
effective tool at truly tackling affordable housing in Leesburg, especially when we have a waiting list of
over a hundred if not more.
Having actually had to try to move someone through the Affordable Dwelling Unit Program for rent
and the sheer amount of paperwork and bureaucratic red tape you have to go through to get that, a
lot of people don't do it. My aim was to truly find a way to incentivize folks who build homes, to build
affordable homes here in Leesburg.
The idea was to establish our target median income, AMI, of what we consider affordable here in
Leesburg. That's always been one of the questions. We've had this conversation multiple times is,
what's affordable mean? The aim was to establish what the AMI we want to tackle. I said 30 to 60
AMI, which at 60%, a family of four, that's making $85K a year. A single person at 30% AMI is $29K.
Those are our teachers, our firefighters, our police, our nurses, our HVAC specialists. Those are folks
who are starting out, and that's who I was trying to target in this plan.
The next aim was to, again, incentivize the folks who actually build the homes, which unfortunately,
are the developers. People aren't building their own homes anymore. To fit that AMI, and by doing
that, we would become partners with them, which is why we talked about waiving fee waivers,
potentially, for by -right applications.
That's why we talk about breaking down the regulatory barriers because all of that can go back-- The
developer can take those waived fees and the time that they saved in the process and take those
numbers back to the State or the Federal government when they apply for the LIHTC Tax Credit or
other tax credits, and use that as financial backing from the governing body.
The aim of this was to truly provide a pathway to try to build affordable housing here in the Town.
Unfortunately, the Affordable Dwelling Unit Program is not doing that. I think if you talk to anybody
who's an expert in affordable housing, when you force someone to lower the price of a unit, they
simply make the difference up by raising the prices around them, and so it's not doing the job. It's
especially not doing the job when the County has capped it, and then those units leave the program
after 15 years. I would hope that maybe we could try to salvage a few points of this, and maybe we
will, but that was the aim of this, and I appreciate your time.
Mayor Burk: Mr. Cimino -Johnson?
Page 7 1 April 10, 2023
Council Member Todd Cimino -Johnson: Thank you. The County that provides the housing service
for the Town, the ADU program, is that only the ADU program? There's nothing else?
James David: The ADU program and I think some of the social services programs as well.
Council Member Cimino -Johnson: You said social services?
James David: Yes, the Health and Social Services programs.
Council Member Cimino -Johnson: Then what about Habitat for Humanity, I don't know if they build
in Leesburg, but if they would come forward, do they go through the same process that I would go
through to build a house?
James David: I think Habitat has done some work in Leesburg.
Mayor Burk: Yes, they have a number of them here in Leesburg.
James David: They would go through the same process.
Council Member Cimino -Johnson: I think that's all I have. Thank you.
Mayor Burk: All right. The gist of it is that, from what I'm hearing, correct me if I'm wrong, if there are
four people that would be interested in the Planning Department going back or going forward with the
proposal to get more information, not to commit ourselves to anything at this point, but to get more
information with the exception of the housing in -lieu. That was very obvious that that was one that
people didn't want but the other stuff. Are there four people that want to move on with this proposal
and come back with more information on it?
Vice Mayor Steinberg: I have a couple of questions first.
Mayor Burk: Go ahead.
Vice Mayor Steinberg: Based on what Councilman Cummings just said and what his stated goals
were initially, in this conversation, is there anything we're going to do that enables us to get past what
we are basically constrained by the County's programs and the State? Is there anything we can do
above and beyond those programs if we choose?
James David: I think that we can certainly try to keep reaching out to the County. I think it's a good
sign that now I'm connected with the new Housing Director, and we can collaborate with their
implementation of the unmet housing in the Strategic Plan, which could include reevaluating that MOA
and asking why do we even have this cap if what you really want is all this housing unit production.
In fact, they told me in the email tonight they're aiming to produce 16K total units by 2040. Broken out,
8,200 of new construction and 7,800 of preserved -in -access units. I don't know why you would want to
cap the Town if you're trying to reach those numbers. That could be part of that dialogue. I think the
other thing that the memo pointed out was land banking. In my experience, that's been one of the
most successful strategies for that public -private partnership. When a jurisdiction can help with the
land costs, then the affordable housing partners can come in with the construction and other activities.
Something else to think about. I think we talked about a land acquisition position in that Council goal -
setting retreat. Certainly, we can look at the expedited approval process, because we all hear time is
money and that can perhaps help some of these housing developers, and we can look at the fee
waivers, exactly what would that mean. I do think that they have pencil -thin margins for making these
projects happen. It'll be important to define the scope. It's not necessarily just your market rate project
that's hitting the bare minimum. I think the goal is the projects that are including 80% or more of the
entire development for affordable housing.
Page 8 1 April 10, 2023
Vice Mayor Steinberg: That's my final question. I know we have, for example, a project being
proposed for a piece of land owned by the Town, and that is all affordable according to the developer.
How does a project like that then fit into these numbers that you gave us about 120 total and all of
that? Is that project doable?
James David: I think it is because from what I understand, it's senior housing, it's not necessarily
deed restricted affordable dwelling units. It wouldn't go into that program.
Vice Mayor Steinberg: All right. Thank you.
James David: Those are the units that are affordable by design, so to speak.
Mayor Burk: Do we have four people that want to have the Planning staff continue to look into this
Housing Incentive Plan with the exception of housing in -lieu. Okay. That moves forward. Thank you.
James David: Thank you.
Mayor Burk: Mr. Klusek, how is the EAC doing if you're not down there?
Richard Klusek: I don't know [unintelligible]. I'm trusting them.
Unidentified Speaker: [unintelligible].
Richard Klusek: I am very happy to be here to present to you the first ever Legacy Leesburg Annual
Report. For the Council Members that I have not yet met personally, my name is Rich Klusek. Very
happy to be working with you in the near future. First, a quick little bit of background. Legacy
Leesburg was adopted just a little over a year ago, back on March 22. This is a document that is
required by the State code. One of its key functions is to guide growth into Town.
Very importantly, that document also reflects the community's values. That's something that's going to
be a very important theme throughout this presentation, where we're looking to really keep the
document relevant, keeping in mind, of course, that this is the community's plan. The document is
intended to be very proactive.
It is also ambitious. There is a lot of things in the document that, quite frankly, might not get achieved
within the 20 -year time frame of the plan. It's also intended to be dynamic, recognizing that a lot of the
resources required to implement some of the actions are dependent upon the values of this Council
and the fact that Council Members will change over time.
The document is organized around a series of five guiding principles, Town Character and
Authenticity, Dollars and Cents, Business and the Economy, Moving Around Town, Places to Live,
and All Things Green. Of course, you have the guiding principles. Underneath those guiding
principles, you have goals, and then you have strategies, which are the specific policies and actions
that are reflected in the annual report. Those are essentially the things that we can take action on.
Looking at the annual report document itself, its purpose is to report progress in the last year, but also
to help Council prioritize any future efforts. It's also intended to relate some of the planning efforts to
the Council goals that were set forth at your retreat, and again, to keep Legacy Leesburg relevant.
The idea all along when we first started this project was for this document not to live on a bookshelf
somewhere in Town Hall, but rather for it to be used regularly so that we can revisit those priorities
and take action as needed.
In the last year, very pleased to report that Council has initiated seven major efforts in direct support
of Legacy Leesburg. We'll take a look at those in just a bit. Eighty five out of 148 strategies are
strategies that are ongoing efforts. Staff has also reviewed 18 legislative applications for compliance
with Legacy Leesburg. During those reviews, we regularly ask the development community if they're
doing anything to help us better achieve those goals. There's also four new staff recommendations to
help advance some of the goals of Legacy Leesburg. Again, we'll talk about those in just a moment.
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The annual report before you was a multi -departmental effort, where we consulted with those
departments and assigned the various strategies to different departments, and collaborated on any
very specific recommendations that we wanted to make to Council. In the document, you'll see
strategy status. There were 110 strategies in progress, zero strategies completed. That's not
something that we should take a knock on, because again, this is only the first year. We do recognize
the fact that this is an ambitious document, and there are 38 strategies that we have not yet started.
When we look at the document, there's different types of strategies. There's strategies that we
consider during legislative application review and as part of our ongoing business processes. Then
there are certain things that really require initiation by Council. Things that we need additional
resources for, for example.
When we look at that breakdown, 85 strategies out of the 148 in the document, our strategies with
ongoing implementation efforts, there's seven items that Council took initiative on in the past year to
essentially set forth a process to, hopefully, achieve the goals of that strategy. Then there are 56
additional strategies in the document that need initiation.
On that point, I want to point out that there are some things that you might see in progress that still
need Council initiation, and that's because there's some items that there's, essentially, a bit of
ongoing work with that strategy. To achieve the full scope of what is discussed in the Legacy
Leesburg document, there's additional initiation that would be necessary. I mentioned earlier the
relationship to the Council goals. There are 36 strategies in the document that have that little star next
to them that have a direct relationship to the goals that Council set forth at your retreat. Those goals
related to topics that included arts, culture and entertainment, land use policy, economic
development, environmental stewardship, and transportation.
The items that Council initiated in the past year, either through the budget work or through direct
Council initiatives, included the historic architectural survey, the Crescent District Master Plan, the
zoning ordinance rewrite, a Town -wide transportation study, looking at the capital intensity factors, as
well as a number of sustainability efforts.
Some notable achievements include the Council's recent work on setting up a pilot program for EV
charging stations, looking at the potential for solar power on the Town garage. In general, ongoing
implementation through some of the Town CIP efforts. Again, a lot of work towards the arts,
affordable housing. There were some initiatives set forth, as Mr. David just mentioned, as well as
creating additional walkable communities and a number of business -related initiatives.
As I mentioned before, there are four specific recommendations that we're providing here this
evening, primarily resulting from some of the work that we did with the public when we were first
writing Legacy Leesburg, as well as through some of the collaboration with staff and through some of
the work that the Planning Commission has set forth.
The first one is to explore opportunities to begin a streetscape improvement program along Catoctin
Circle. This primarily relates to some of Council's discussions about potentially incentivizing work in
the Crescent District, opportunities for public -private partnerships or public investment. Obviously, the
Crescent District Master Plan is an ongoing effort. You'll be hearing about that in the not -too -distant
future, so that's something that you might want to consider as we move forward.
In addition, creating a new Parks and Recreation 20 -Year Master Plan. Those of you that were a part
of the Legacy Leesburg process and with the public, we heard that there was a lot of interest in new
parks and amenities, and creating this new master plan, which is now over 20 years old, might be one
of the ways to help do that to help, potentially, identify new places for new parks as well as ways to
improve our existing parks.
Again, you keep on hearing about the community engagement. Another idea is to maintain strong
community engagement at the neighborhood level. Again, those of you that were part of the process,
you saw, and you heard a lot about the enthusiasm that was generated around that process. One of
the ideas that we had was to potentially create an ongoing outreach program where we might reach
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out to different neighborhoods or perhaps different quadrants each year and have the results of that
community input also feed into your annual reports in the future.
Finally, we keep on hearing about parking, whether that be parking in -lieu or something else. Sorry, I
won't say those words again, my mistake. There's a lot of disparate parking efforts that are taking
place, and one of the strategies in the master plan considers developing a Downtown parking master
plan to bring a lot of those separate efforts together into one document that really studies the issue
more holistically. That is what I have. Happy to take any questions. Again, just want to make it
perfectly clear that, yes, we realize that this document is very ambitious. We're presenting it to keep
these strategies before Council on a regular basis, but ultimately, the decision is yours. Thank you.
Mayor Burk: Are you asking us for any decision points tonight?
Richard Klusek: Not tonight, but to the extent that Council was interested in having staff further
explore something, we obviously all have the process for doing so.
Mayor Burk: Sure. I would say to you that community engagement is really important. Having the
community involved, going to neighborhoods at a neighborhood level, I think is a great idea. I would
most certainly in the master plan for the parks, that's well overdue. We should really get on that.
Thank you for the report. Does anybody have any questions for Mr. Klusek? Yes, Mr. Bagdasarian?
Council Member Bagdasarian: Thank you. For example, like the new Parks and Rec 20 -year
Master Plan and the Downtown Parking Master plan, both those projects, are those items that Council
needs to initiate those or what is the next step with those to get those rolling?
Richard Klusek: Yes, Council would need to initiate them. Obviously, staff would come back and
give you more detail or how that fits into our work program and what the cost might be and things of
that sort.
Council Member Bagdasarian: Do we have a work session scheduled to discuss the Downtown
Parking Master Plan or is that something that-- We already do. That's what I thought. Thank you.
Mayor Burk: Mr. Cimino -Johnson?
Council Member Cimino -Johnson: Thank you so much for your presentation. Could you send us
the breakdown at some point of the ones that are in progress and the ones you talked about that need
Council action and stuff like that?
Richard Klusek: Absolutely. I'll write a memo to the Council tomorrow.
Council Member Cimino -Johnson: Thank you.
Mayor Burk: You don't want anything from us tonight. I'm a little confused.
Richard Klusek: Not specifically. Again, the idea, more than anything, is to bring this before Council
and to help keep the document relevant, to give you an opportunity to review the strategies and
consider any future work efforts that you might be interested in.
Mayor Burk: The four things that you have recommended as priorities, are you looking for us to
confirm tonight that we would like you to continue working on those?
Richard Klusek: Not necessarily. No.
Mayor Burk: You're not making this easy for me here.
Richard Klusek: We're not looking for a Council to agree or disagree with anything specifically. This
was more intended to give Council a sense of some of the things that we've been hearing.
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Mayor Burk: If anybody wants to bring this forward, any of these individual things, they could do that
tomorrow.
Richard Klusek: Correct.
Mayor Burk: Or even tonight. Thank you. I appreciate that. Any other questions? Thank you.
Richard Klusek: Thank you so much.
Mayor Burk: I appreciate it. Get down there and herd those cats.
Richard Klusek: I will.
Council Member Nacy: [unintelligible].
Mayor Burk: Mr. Wilt, do you have any future meetings or items? No. Mr. Bagdasarian.
Council Member Bagdasarian: I do not.
Mayor Burk: Ms. Nacy?
Council Member Nacy: [inaudible].
Mayor Burk: Vice Mayor Steinberg?
Vice Mayor Steinberg: I have one. I would like Council to consider at the earliest possible meeting
the formation of a committee that will consist preferably with myself and Councilman Bagdasarian
since we've already been involved in discussions, and members of staff that would be appointed by
the Town Manager to continue the discussions of the Liberty Street Lot project.
Mayor Burk: Are there four people that want to set up a separate committee instead of having us
work on it as a whole?
Vice Mayor Steinberg: There will be meetings outside of this chamber that will have to take place
involving members of staff and the principals involved in the project. That is what we're talking about
here.
Christopher Spera: Madam Mayor, the RFP did contemplate a committee of that nature.
Mayor Burk: Okay. Are the four people that want to set up a committee to look at a particular
development?
Vice Mayor Steinberg: The Liberty Street Lot development, yes, which involves all the components
there.
Christopher Spera: This is specifically in response to the proposal that we got to the RFP. The
committee would be engaged in interim discussions and be a liaison between the proposer and the
Council and flush out from the more general proposal that we currently have before us to explore a
more specific proposal.
Mayor Burk: Mr. Dentler, do you have anything you would-- Anything you want to--
Kaj Dentler: No, I support the Council confirming a committee of Council appointees, and then I'll add
my staff, and then Council can vote in favor of that. That makes it official that this group is working
with the proposer with the expectation will bring the information back to the Council for decisions as
well.
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Mayor Burk: Are there four people that want to bring this plan forward? One, two, three and four, five.
Kaj Dentler: I'll bring something to you in two weeks for a formal vote with the staff, just to formalize
it.
Mayor Burk: All right, Mr. Cummings?
Council Member Cummings: No.
Mayor Burk: Mr. Cimino -Johnson? I have nothing at this point. Do I have a motion to adjourn?
Vice Mayor Steinberg: So, moved.
Mayor Burk: Second.
Council Member Cummings: Second.
Mayor Burk: All in favor.
Council Members: Aye.
Mayor Burk: Anybody opposed? I guess I'll bring this up tomorrow.
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