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HomeMy Public PortalAbout2023_tcmin1024COUNCIL MEETING October 24, 2023 Council Chamber, 25 West Market Street, 7:00 p.m. Vice Mayor Neil Steinberg presiding. Council Members Present: Ara Bagdasarian, Zach Cummings, Kari Nacy, Vice Mayor Neil Steinberg, and Patrick Wilt. Council Members Absent: Mayor Kelly Burk and Council Member Cimino -Johnson. Staff Present; Town Manager Kaj Dentler, Town Attorney Christopher Spera, Deputy Town Manager Keith Markel, Assistant Town Manager Kate Trask, Director of Public Works and Capital Projects Renee LaFollette, Director of Economic Development Russell Seymour, Deputy Town Attorney Christine Newton, Assistant Director of Economic Development Melanie Scoggins and Clerk of Council Eileen Boeing. AGENDA ITEMS 1. CALL TO ORDER 2. INVOCATION was given by Council Member Wilt. 3. SALUTE TO THE FLAG was led by Council Member Nacy. 4. ROLL CALL Mayor Burk and Council Member Cimino -Johnson absent. 5. MINUTES a. Work Session Minutes of September 25, 2023 Vice Mayor Steinberg was absent from the September 25, 2023, meeting and abstained from voting. MOTION2023-169 On a motion by Council Member Nacy, seconded by Council Member Bagdasarian, the September 11, 2023, Work Session minutes were moved for approval. The motion was approved by the following vote: Aye: Bagdasarian, Cummings, Nacy and Wilt Nay: None Vote: 4-0-1-2 (Vice Mayor Steinberg abstain, Mayor Burk and Cimino -Johnson absent) b. Regular Session Minutes of September 26, 2023 MOTION2023-170 On a motion by Council Member Nacy, seconded by Council Member Cummings, the September 26, 2023, Regular Session minutes were moved for approval. The motion was approved by the following vote: Aye: Bagdasarian, Cummings, Nacy, Vice Mayor Steinberg and Wilt Nay: None Vote: 5-0-2 (Mayor Burk and Cimino -Johnson absent) 1 I Page COUNCIL MEETING October 24, 2023 c. Regular Session Minutes of October 3, 2023 Council Member Bagdasarian was absent from the October 3, 2023, meeting and abstained from voting. MOTION 2023-171 On a motion by Council Member Nary, seconded by Council Member Cummings, the October 3, 2023, Work Session minutes were moved for approval. The motion was approved by the following vote: Aye: Cummings, Nary, Vice Mayor Steinberg and Wilt Nay: None Vote: 4-0-1-2 (Bagdasarian abstain, Mayor Burk and Cimino -Johnson absent) 6. ADOPTING THE MEETING AGENDA MOTION 2023-172 On a motion by Council Member Nary, seconded by Council Member Cu agenda was moved for approval. The motion was approved by the following vote: Aye: Bagdasarian, Cummings, Nacy, Vice Mayor Steinberg and Wilt Nay: None Vote: 5-0-2 (Mayor Burk and Cimino -Johnson absent) ngs, the meeting Vice Mayor Steinberg requested item 13.a — Special Event Fee Waiver for the 2023 Downtown Trick or Treating Event be moved to the Consent Agenda. MOTION2023-173 On a motion by Vice Mayor Steinberg, seconded by Council Member Nacy, the following was proposed: Move agenda item 13.a. — Special Event Fee Waiver for the 2023 Downtown Trick or Treating Event to the Consent Agenda. The motion was approved by the following vote: Aye: Bagdasarian, Cummings, Nacy, Vice Mayor Steinberg and Wilt Nay: None Vote: 5-0-2 (Mayor Burk and Cimino -Johnson absent) 7. CERTIFICATES OF RECOGNITION a. None. 8. PRESENTATION OF PROCLAMATIONS a. None. 9. PRESENTATIONS a. None. 21 Page COUNCIL MEETING October 24, 2023 10. REGIONAL COMMISSION REPORTS a. None. 11. PETITIONERS The Petitioners Section opened at 7:05 p.m. There were no Petitioners wishing to address Council. The Petitioner's Section closed at 7:05 p.m. 12. APPROVAL OF THE CONSENT AGENDA Item 13.a. - Special Event Fee Waiver for the 2023 Downtown Trick or Treating Event was moved to the consent agenda. MOTION2023-174 On a motion by Council Member Nacy, seconded by Council Member Cummings, the following consent agenda was proposed: a. Fiscal Year 2024 Snow and Ice Removal Services Contract Award RESOLUTION2023-140 Awarding Fiscal Year 2024 Snow and Ice Removal Services Contracts to Arthur Construction Company, Inc., North Construction, Inc., Perfect Landscapes, LLC and T & J Carpentry, LLC b. Virginia Department of Transportation Fiscal Year 2025 Highway Safety Improvement Program Applications RESOLUTION2023-141 Endorse the Application for the Virginia Department of Transportation Fiscal Year 2025 Highway Safety Improvement Program Funding for Conversion of Left Turn Traffic Signal Heads to Flashing Yellow Arrows and RESOLUTION2023-142 Endorse the Application for the Virginia Department of Transportation Fiscal Year 2025 Highway Safety Improvement Program Funding for Installation of High Visibility Signal Backplates at Selected Intersections c. Encroachment Agreement for Residential Deck Installation - 734 Hunton Place RESOLUTION 2023-143 Authorizing Encroachment Agreement for Residential Property Located at 734 Hunton Place 3IPage COUNCIL MEETING October 24, 2023 d. Appointment to the Airport Commission — Travis Gunnells RESOLUTION2023-144 Appointing Travis Gunnells to the Airport Commission e. Appointment to the Thomas Balch Library Commission — Anthony Barnard RESOLUTION 2023-145 Appointing Anthony Barnard to the Thomas Balch Library Commission f. Supplemental Appropriations for the Compass Creek Annexation and Proiet Aviation LLC Matter RESOLUTION 2023146 Approving Supplemental Appropriations for the Compass Creek Annexation and Projet Aviation, LLC Matter g. Special Event Fee Waiver for the 2023 Downtown Trick or Treating Event RESOLUTION2023-147 Waiving Special Event Fees for the 2023 Downtown Trick or Treating Event The consent agenda was approved by the following vote: Aye: Bagdasarian, Cimino -Johnson, Cummings, Nacy, Vice Mayor Steinberg, Wilt and Mayor Burk Nay: None Vote: 7-0 13. RESOLUTIONS /ORDINANCES / MOTIONS a. Economic Development and Tourism Plan Mr. Russell Seymour introduced Mr. Jason Godfrey, CEO of Better City. Better City is the consulting fum hired by the Town to develop an Economic Development and Tourism Plan. Mr. Godfrey discussed the plan and recommendations for economic opportunities and tourism potential. Council, staff and Mr. Godfrey discussed the plan. MOTION2023-175 On a motion by Council Member Cummings, seconded by Council Member Nacy, the following was proposed: RESOLUTION 2023448 Adopting the Town of Leesburg Economic Development and Tounsm Strategic Plan The motion as approved by the following vote: Aye: Bagdasarian, Cummings, Nacy, Vice Mayor Steinberg and Wilt Nay: None Vote: 5-0-2 (Mayor Burk and Cimino -Johnson absent) 4I Page COUNCIL MEETING October 24, 2023 14. PUBLIC HEARINGS a. None. 15. UNFINISHED BUSINESS a. None. 16. NEW BUSINESS a. None. 17. COUNCIL DISCLOSURES AND COMMENTS / ADDITIONS TO FUTURE MEETINGS Council Member Cummings noted he talked with Mayor Burk earlier in the day and relayed she was not in attendance because she was taking care of an ill family member. 18. MAYOR DISCLOSURES AND COMMENTS / ADDITIONS TO FUTURE MEETINGS a. None. 19. TOWN MANAGER COMMENTS a. None. 20. CLOSED SESSION a. None. 21. ADJOURNMENT On a motion by Council Member Nacy, seconded by Council Member Bagdasarian, the meeting was adjourned at 7:51 p. m. KellytBurk, yor Town of Leesburg ATTEST: ) Cle c U 2023 tcmin1024 51 Page October 24, 2023— Leesburg Town Council Meeting or Leesburg Town Council Work Session (Note: This is a transcript prepared by a Town contractor based on the video of the meeting. It may not be entirely accurate. For greater accuracy, we encourage you to review the video of the meeting that is on the Town's Web site — www.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.) Vice Mayor Neil Steinberg: This October -- thank you, October 24th, 2023 meeting of the Leesburg Town Council. If anyone in the room needs hearing assistance, please see the Clerk. Council Member Wilt will give the invocation this evening. Council Member Cimino -Johnson will not be here. Would someone like to volunteer for the Pledge of Allegiance? Council Member Nacy will do that. Thank you. Council Member Patrick Wilt: Thank you, Vice Mayor. Please, let's lower our heads in a moment of silent reflection on behalf of the people of Israel who were horrifically attacked and murdered two weeks ago. [silence] Council Member Wilt: Thank you. Council Member Kari Nacy: Please join me in the pledge. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Thank you. Let the record reflect that we have five Council Members this evening. Unfortunately, Mayor Burk could not be with us and Council Member Cimino -Johnson is not feeling well. If you'll give me a moment, this is my first time, I just want to be sure I'm not missing anything. We are going to go to the minutes now and approve several sets of minutes from previous meetings. The first set is the work session, minutes of September 2501. Do I have a motion to approve those minutes? Council Member Nacy: So moved. Council Member Ara Bagdasarian: So moved. Since you're there -- Vice Mayor Steinberg: You guys fight it out. A second, please? Council Member Bagdasarian: 1'11 second. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Okay, 1 will not be voting because 1 was absent for that meeting. All in favor? Members: Aye. Vice Mayor Steinberg: All opposed? None. Okay, that passes 4-0-1-2. Now we have regular session minutes from September 26th. Motion, please? Council Member Nacy: So moved. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Second? Council Member Zach Cummings: Second. Vice Mayor Steinberg: All in favor? Members: Aye. Vice Mayor Steinberg: None opposed. That will be 5-0-2. Now we have regular session meetings of October 3rd. Council Member Bagdasarian was absent for that. Excuse me, a motion for that, please? Page 1l October 24, 2023 Council Member Nacy: So moved. Vice Mayor Steinberg: A second? Council Member Cummings: Second. Vice Mayor Steinberg: All in favor? Member: Aye. Vice Mayor Steinberg: No opposed. Again, that will be 4-0-1-2. Okay. We want to adopt the meeting agenda. Are there any amendments or deletions? I'm going to suggest, and tell me if I'm wrong here. We want to move one item to the consent agenda. Is that going to come later? Do we do that now? Chris Spera: We are going to see if anyone objects. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Okay, so we're going to adopt the agenda first Any amendments or deletions from anyone? All in favor, aye? Council Member Nacy: So moved. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Oh, there we go. Thank you. A second for that? Council Member Cummings: Second Vice Mayor Steinberg: All in favor? Members: Aye. Vice Mayor Steinberg: None opposed. Again, 5-0-2 for that. We have no certificates of recognition. Chris Spare: [inaudible] Vice Mayor Steinberg: You want me to do that now? Okay. I'm going to propose that we move the funding for the-- Let me look that. It's on item 13, so that we move the Special Event Fee Waiver under item 13 into the consent agenda without objection. All in favor? Members: Aye. Council Member Nacy: Second. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Second. Thank you. All in favor? Members: Aye. Vice Mayor Steinberg: None opposed. Again, 5-0-2. Thank you. No certificates of recognition. We do have one proclamation, but I don't think we have a representative here from LAWS. No, so we will put that aside. I don't need to read it in their absence, or do I? No, okay, so we're going to put that aside. Thank you. Anybody have regional commission reports? Seeing none. Then, excuse me, I have to skip on down. That takes us to the petitioners' 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. 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 purposes of closed captioning. In the interest of fairness, we also ask that you observe the three -minute time limit. The green light on the timer will turn yellow when 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 of Page 2FOctober24, 2023 order adopted by this Council, the time limit applies to all. We have no petitioners signed up, and I assume we don't have any online. Is there anyone in the audience who wishes to speak in the petitioners' section? Seeing none, we will close the petitioners' section. That is going to take us to the approval of the consent agenda. 1'11 read the headings of each one, and then if anybody wishes to remove anything from the consent agenda, please let us know. Item A, Fiscal Year 2024 Snow and Ice Removal Services Contract Award. Item B, Virginia Department of Transportation Fiscal Year 2025 Highway Safety Improvement Program Applications. Item C, Encroachment Agreement for Residential Deck Installation at 734 Hunton Place. Item D, Appointment to the Airport Commission of Travis Gunnels, who is in the audience this evening. Item E, Appointment to the Thomas Balch Library Commission, Anthony Barnard. Is Anthony available this evening? No. Then finally, item F, Supplemental Appropriations of the Compass Creek Annexation and Projet Aviation LLC Mailer with the addition then of the Special Event Fee Waiver for the 2023 Downtown Trick -or -Treat Event. Is there any item anyone wishes to pull and discuss? No. Motion to pass the consent agenda, please. Council Member Nacy: So moved. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Second from someone? Council Member Cummings: Second. Vice Mayor Steinberg: All in favor, aye. Members: Aye. Vice Mayor Steinberg: None opposed. That passes 5-0-1. That takes us to -- Council Member Nacy: 5-0-2. Vice Mayor Steinberg: 5-0-2, thank you. To 13 resolutions, ordinances, and motions. We've already moved the Special Event Fee Waiver, so that takes us to Economic Development and Tourism Plan. I believe we have a presentation, and there's been a request for 20 minutes. Mr. Seymour. Russell Seymour: Yes, Vice Mayor. Mr. Vice Mayor, Members of Council, good evening. I wanted to be very brief this evening so that I could give the time to where the time needs to be, and that's certainly not here for me. It is my pleasure to introduce Jason Godfrey with Better City. Better City is a consulting firm that was hired in January by the Town to complete our Economic Development and Tourism strategy. Over the past seven months, Jason and his team have met with the local business owners, developers, residents, high school students, Town department heads, and outside organizations. They also met several times with the EDC, and as a group, they met with the EDC in July, and in some cases, individually with individual members. Better City again met with EDC on October 101h, and after having the opportunity to share some additional thoughts, the EDC unanimously supported moving forward the proposal that you have before you this evening to Council. Wih that, I will turn it over to Mr. Godfrey. Jason Godfrey: Vice Mayor, Members of Council, it's a real privilege to be here. I'm not going to lie, it's with the sense of melancholy, actually, that I approach you tonight because this is the end of our engagement here and it has been amazing. I was so excited when I saw this RFP because I'm kind of a history nut. George Marshall, Balls Bluff, Arthur Godfrey, where do I sign? What I found coming here was, although those things are really interesting and important, that's just scratching the surface of all that's Leesburg. This is just an amazing community and we've really enjoyed getting to know the people here and seeing what you have going. It's also been a pleasure to work with Russ and his team, Russ, Melanie and Allison. They are spectacular objectively. We do this for a living, we meet with people across the country, and the economic development team you have here is just top-notch. They're fantastic and Page 3lOctober 24, 2023 really, it's been an honor to work with them. To be honest, it's been a pain, and let me explain that. I was telling Mr. Dentler that its easy when you go into a community and they're not doing anything right because anything would be a movement in the right direction. In this case, y'all are hitting on all cylinders and there's so much that's impressive. It's like coming into a playoff team and saying, "How can we improve you?" Versus someone who hasn't seen the playoffs in 20 years. That's what we've been faced with. Another challenge is we'd come up with recommendations, and wed say, "Hey, Russ, we think about this," and he'd say, "Oh, yes, I've got to tell you, were working on that. We've already got it done." This is a team and a community that really moves forward rapidly and has done a lot and it's moving quickly. Let's use the clicker. The overview today is I'm going to go over the project and spend actually most of the time talking about the themes from the communities, what was important to them, and also the role of the Economic Development Department, and then we'll go rather quickly on recommendations. The rationale there is, really, the themes from the community and the role of the department are really the principles, and that's what deserves the most time today is to understand the principles and evolving roles. Then the execution, it's just kind of the details of how to execute on those principles. Project overview, this is the first Economic Development Strategy and Tourism Strategic Plan for the Town. It builds on the Legacy Leesburg Plan. It's really important to note that. There's not much in this proposal that's just like our shadowing, we really do, and the reason is they're twofold, A is because you've got a great team that's already doing all the basics and doing a great job, but secondly, the Legacy Leesburg Plan is phenomenal, that's an exceptional plan. Obviously, y'all put a lot of effort and time into it. We looked at that said, "Well, that's the baseline, let's work on executing to that." Most of what you're going to see you should be really familiar because you've already got the plan in place with your Legacy Leesburg. The question is how to implement it, how to move it forward. We looked at past studies. By the way, we've got chapter verse throughout the strategic plan, citing the Town Plan. We looked at past studies, we've done lots of analysis of demographics, et cetera, we got a dashboard. A lot of that's in the appendix, and we talked to 63 people, including a group at the high school, business owners, just to cast the net really broadly and try to get a lot of interaction. The key themes that emerged from those conversations with the community members, number one, easily, was the sense of community and the small town feel. People are here intentionally, and you know this, this is not new to you, but people want to live in Leesburg because even though you've got proximity to the metropolitan area and all the amenities, it still retains that hometown feel, and that is so critical to everything that everybody said. We want to grow, we want to progress, however, we need to make sure we maintain what makes Leesburg so special. The second point is analogous to that, and that's that downtown is also hypercritical to everyone. It is interesting that when we met with a bunch of tourism people, Brooke and Kylie from the Outlet Mall and Mitra from ION both were strong advocates for downtown. You'd think, "Why do they care?" They understand. Everyone understands the centrality of having a downtown that's reflective of something that's unique, that's organic to the community, and that's your building block. That's what makes you special. There's universal understanding that the downtown is your identity. A lot of the business community said were moving, were passionate, we want to move forward. However, it doesn't feel like were all rolling in the same direction. The coordination and cooperation with the businesses was a key theme. I must say that this is one of those things where the conversations in February and March are very different in August, September, and October. Because of the progress of Main Street and a lot of the efforts that Allison and Melanie have done, there's always a great progress there. Tourism was a key. That's something that the community was interested in. How do we leverage tourism more, and especially the day trip component of that. We'II talk about that later. The permitting process. Now, you have to take this with a grain of salt. I've never talked to a developer who says, "I love the permitting process. It works so smoothly." It's just anathema to the way it works. No one's happy with it. The question is, are there real challenges? One thing we noticed that was interesting is Page 4lOctober 24, 2023 people outside of the development community were also had anecdotes and issues about that, so that'll feed into some of the recommendations. The land use planning was central because of the scarcity. They're saying, "Gosh, we only have so much land left. Lets make sure we use it well." Finally, the less advantaged. There were a lot of really heartfelt conversations, especially with some of you, about the plight of the disadvantaged and the fact that the community is 40% minority. While the median incomes are fantastic, there is a segment of society that's actually living a little different reality. That was a concern that was voiced often and often passionately. To be honest a lot of it's societal, and so there's some things here that do make a difference that will help those individuals in those constituencies. A lot of it's just the realities of working or living in an ecosystem that's really geared towards the higher end. The role of Economic Development Department, and this is the key takeaway from the strategic plan. Like I say, all the things we go through which are the key recommendations, that's really about how to execute on these principles. We're highlighting these today because they represent what we are advocating and suggesting are changes, an evolving role for the Department of Economic Development to lead into the next phase of Leesburg's progress. The first one is leading the narrative and really storytelling. Leesburg is a very special place, and it's got phenomenal assets and phenomenal charm. There's so much about it, but who is it that's telling the story, and who's bringing that together and telling a cohesive story? I would suggest that storytelling and having a narrative is important for the outside, it's equally important inside, so your community members, your constituents, yourselves, staff, should all have the same shared dialogue, the same shared language when talking about the community, because that's powerful in creating inertia and creating a shared experience and communicating that. That's going to be a key role for the department going forward is to help drive that narrative and help drive that storytelling, externally to businesses and developers, but also internally. The second is the information hub. We talked to businesses, especially small business owners, they said, "There's stuff going on, but I'm not sure its all being shared effectively that we're all aware of what's going on" There seems to be an opportunity to be a hub for resources, for events, information about that, and also as businesses come in, they know there's a one -stop shop where they can receive help. Related to that is the development ombudsman. There are certain key projects that are strategic to the community that would merit extra help in shepherding them through the process of permitting and helping get their entitlement and so forth. In those key projects, it would behoove you to have an ombudsman to help shepherd the process. It's pretty common, and it's a best practice to, again, not every project, but anything that's strategic facilitate those. Development catalyst. We'II talk about this in a minute but, the easy lifting's done, the low hanging fruit is largely picked. As you move forward, it's not going to be as much about greenfield development. It is about redevelopment, about how to transform what you've got and improve it. Those kinds of things, you can't just wait for someone to knock on the door. You have to go drive it. You have to be the catalyst. The role of economic development going forward will be much more intentional, much more strategic in saying, "Look on this plot of land, here's what we want to do, and it might require redevelopment" The same applies for industry. At some point, a lot of communities say, "Hey, we answer the phone, people call us, we answer the phone. Help them locate here." You're not in that position. We'll talk about that later, but it's more about hunting. It's about being intentional about what businesses to bring in. That's a really different role that they're very well adapted to play. Finding tourism. We need to be careful about lanes here. There's a County tourism entity that does tourism, but that's geared towards hotel nights, but there's a gap where it comes to day trips. We've talked with them, they say, "Yes, we don't really work with day trip stuff." Really that's the opportunity, is bringing people here from the drive, from metropolitan area to enjoy what they have, what's here, and make sure it becomes an accelerator for other things. Page 51October 24, 2023 Now 1 ' 1 1 move to the specific recommendations. Under economic opportunity, there's four recommendations. We split it in economic opportunity and tourism. The first one is target industry recruitment. Now, typically, when you talk about industry recruitment, you're saying bring in jobs, but I would argue with your median incomes where you're at, with your unemployment, as low as it is, bringing in jobs is not the target per se. What is the objective? The objective is to improve the quality of life. You have 44% of your residents who commute over a half hour per day, and 12% commute more than 60 minutes. There's an extremely significant quality of life component to saying, "How can we get those jobs back here locally?" By the way, how can we get them to eat downtown, and spend more of their time and money in our community? When we look at target industries, you're looking at quality of life and also economic resilience. Things are good now, but how do you diversify your economy to make sure that if there's a certain sector that's impacted, you have other irons in the fire in different industries? The ones you see here, aviation, technology and education, you're like, "That's easy," but there's actually a lot of research behind that We looked at what your workforce looks like, what the skill sets are, the education level. We're talking about 54% of your workforce have bachelor's degree and above. That's just not normal. That's exceptional. Frankly, that was reflected in our interviews. We could not believe how many smart people we talked to. You just get done with an interview, like, "That's another smart person." It's just a really capable community, and so how do you leverage that? The education one's kind of fun because you have a community full of potential adjunct professors. You just got people of that quality and that intellect. What these three sectors really bring to you is branding and positioning. That's the key, is how do you position Leesburg going forward? These are having a research institution here or an educational center here helps to position the community the way you want it to. The permitting process. They said there's the grain of salt with the permitting, but we did drill down, and there are some opportunities, especially for complicated projects to make some improvements. We would suggest a process review. You're, obviously, undergoing the review for the zoning, but also look at the permitting process and get some best practices, and then have KPIs. How long does it take on average to get a review done? How many reviews on average and so forth? At some level, that's really helpful because you say, "No, our permit process is fine. Here's our metrics," Without that, you don't really have the argument. Then finding the ombudsman role that we talked about. Now, if someone wants to do a housing development, they can go through the process, unless it's strategic. If it's a strategic investment that's going to have catalytic impact on the community, then we would advocate for the Department of Economic Development to play an ombudsman role and be empowered to help that developer move through the process and say, "This is strategically important. How can we move this forward? With the land use planning, I think you're probably already headed down this path with what you're doing with the zoning rewrite and the changes there, but the zoning of the past is all about uses and carving out things and being specific. As you look forward, it's more about what are we trying to accomplish with this parcel, this area, and you set outcomes. You're saying, "This is the outcome we want to achieve here." Then frankly, if a developer wants to do something above and beyond that, so that plus, that's a benefit. Instead of looking at how can we restrict and put development boxes, you say, "Look, as long as you meet these criteria, if you want to density or do something creative, that's great. That's a plus, a benefit" You have to look at eliminating proffering out uses and just saying, "We're more about hitting these target objectives and less about being specific about what can and can't be there." Then finally, we suggest that for variances, when someone wants a zoning variance, that they be required to do a highest and best use analysis. Typically in the real estate world, that means what's the highest return on my money? In this case, were saying, let's do it from a societal standpoint. What is the highest and best use of that parcel for the Town of Leesburg and its residents? Prove to us empirically that what you're proposing will actually benefit the community, and put the onus back on them to say, "This is something that you're going to benefit from." Page 6[October 24, 2023 The next one is tech incubators and accelerators. I was really loathed to do this. This recommendation seems so cookie cutter, and we never recommend this because they typically fail, to be honest, they're not very successful, because what you need is, A, do you have entrepreneurs in your community? B, do you have the ability to bring people from the community to help them, and then can you have partners that'll make it move forward? The answer is yes, you've done it, that you had an accelerator. It was actually really successful. It was disbanded because it became a shared workspace, but that doesn't negate the fact that you had an accelerator or an incubator that actually worked, so you've done it and it's been successful. If you can pull it off, it's important to do it, because again, it's positioning. We're the kind of community that supports entrepreneurs. We have an incubator, and it really positions you as a community that supports its entrepreneurs. Now the tourism recommendations. This one is, if you're looking for something unusual, this would be it. 1 was talking to Serra about the Town. She says, "I don't think it has a town square, a center, a gathering place." I'm like, "Yes, it does. It's right there." Then I got looking at it and I say, "Actually, you're right" Because you do have a town square, but the problem is there's a physical barrier. Its the fence, because your town square is the courthouse, and it was initially built-- All town squares historically had some public space. That was the way it was originally intended. With the erection of the fence, you create a physical and a psychological barrier. Since she made that comment, we noticed as we go by, virtually no one utilizes that space, even though it's open to the public. That should be your heart and soul. Every town needs a town square. It needs a gathering place, somewhere you can go and meet people. We would advocate for a little Reagan moment and tear down this fence and look at reconfiguring that. 1'11 go through the last three more quickly. We talked about being the event and information hub, so as part of the tourism, making sure there's shared promotion of events. We looked at some technologies to make that possible. That's part of the recommendation there. Some developments that drive visitation. We've done market studies, and there is a really significant opportunity for a boutique hotel in downtown that would be catalytic with the downtown, and then also multi -use facility. We looked at a multi -use facility and a performing arts center, did a white paper on that, and the multi- use facility has better impact for what you're looking for. Then finally, cross visitation. Just briefly, we did studies of visitations from outside the 25 mile radius, and only 10% of people that go to the Villages at Leesburg go downtown. Only 10% of the people that go to the outlet malls go downtown. If you could do something to change that arithmetic, they're here anyway, just get them to visit more places, that would really lift the economy. That concludes our presentation. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Thank you very much. Thanks for the presentation, and now we'll pose questions, I presume, starting with Council Member Wilt, if he has any. Council Member Wilt: No specific questions. I like the presentation. There's some good ideas for thought there. I hope we can follow up on some of those. Jason Godfrey: I appreciate it. I'm confident that's the case. You've got a great team in place. We worked hand -in -hand with them on developing those recommendations, so I'm confident that's the case. Council Member Wilt: Good, I appreciate the outcome. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Council Member Bagdasarian. Council Member Bagdasarian: I do have a few questions this evening. I prepared my list, thank you very much. No, thank you very much for the presentation. It's been a long time. I think that the last plan was in 2003, the business development strategy in 2003. Just curious, what has changed or what has evolved since the 2003 plan? It's been 20 years. Page 7JOctober 24, 2023 Jason Godfrey: Everything. We were talking about the downtown. If you look at pictures of downtown in 2003 to today, it's almost unrecognizable. You look at the developments that's happened since then, and so I would argue that the primary difference is in 2003, you're looking at growth. Like, 'Hey, we want to grow, we want to get bigger in scale." In 2023, the argument or the focus should be around strategic and being selective, because you have somewhere around 1,600 acres that are undeveloped at this point. That's not much, and that's all you got. Once that's done, then the development's over. It's a completely different focus, I would argue from, "Hey, wed like to grow" To, "We want to strategically invest in certain types of growth." Council Member Bagdasarian: I'm just looking at the attachment earlier. It was very much about potential in 2003, all this potential with downtown and everything, and realizing that potential. When it comes to targeted industry, so what led to the determination of those aviation, research, and development? Specifically, avialionly, do we have a critical mass currently in that sector that there's future development potential? Jason Godfrey: Fantastic question. There's two things that drove it. One is location -based, so do you have land that is amenable to this? Okay, were not going to put a nuclear power plant or a smelting factory or something like that. that's just not appropriate use. You have physical limitations or things that fit better than others. That was one. The second one is, do you have strategic advantages that pertain to that specific one? If you go to-- 1'11 go back up there. The aviation one's super interesting because that airport is just not normal. I think it's the biggest or one of the busiest airports of that kind in the country. The stuff that they're doing out there is really exceptional. We met with Scott, the Manager out there. He's a bright guy, lots of great ideas, and were thinking, "This is an asset." A, he's an asset and this airport is an asset, and, oh, by the way, you have land right across from it that's designated by the FAA, it has to be adjacent industries. You put all that together, that seems like it could fit. Council Member Bagdasarian: You mentioned land use planning, obviously, we're going through a zoning rewrite right now, so what role does this strategy have with the whole zoning rewrite process? Jason Godfrey: The role of economic development needs to be, say, we're trying to attract these kinds of businesses for these kinds of reasons, where would they be? Technology and innovation is important to us for these reasons because it fits well with our workforce because most of the people that are commuting are in those industries. If you want to re -home them, then you need to have those industries here, where are we going to put them? I think those kinds of considerations drive a lot of it, so that should be an important input in the process. Also, as you look at your zoning, we talked about intentional use, but also opening up to things that are being serendipitous and saying that plus. I think that's another key component. Council Member Bagdasarian: Am I on a timer here by the way? No. I just have a couple more questions. A couple more questions. As far as the incubator, so yes, we partnered with George Mason and the County for the last decade, and we walked away from that recently. Where do you see the role of an incubator, and do you see the necessity of having education partners in that process? What is the path forward for an incubator based on where we are today? Jason Godfrey: Spectacular questions, I got to say. Yes, 100% it should be with an education partner. That's the way we blow it off, like, who's going to run this thing? How are you going to make this happen? As we start talking about this, Russell said, "Oh, by the way, I've got these contacts. I've been talking about this with these educational institutions" It's already in place for a Phase 2 to take another stab at it. Because you have such great resources just in the area in terms of educational institutions, and because those connections are already there, it seems like a real high potential recommendation. Council Member Bagdasarian: The tough thing is I was a big advocate for the enterprise center, the initial conception of the whole concept, but I'm also not an advocate for having something just to have an incubator, just to have something because we should. We really need to justify that and look for the gaps that are not being met right now. Then the last question, 1 '11 trim my things down. I'm just looking at the old to 2003 plan, and I was the chair of the Economic Development Commission back Page 8 October 24, 2023 then. What role do you see the Economic Development Commission playing in the implementation of this new strategy moving forward? Jason Godfrey: An Economic Development Commission is really critical to bringing the community voice and to sharing insights from a community perspective. I hope that they would, as the team, the Economic Development Department team reports out to them and says, "Here's where were at on these." That they have the opportunity to say, "Okay, look, but here's how things have changed based on my perspectives." There's an accountability factor there and just-- not accountability so much as where are we at and here's how that fits with our current paradigm, so consultative role. Council Member Bagdasarian: Obviously more of an advisory capacity? Jason Godfrey: Yes. Council Member Bagdasarian: Okay. Thank you. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Council Member Nacy. Council Member Nacy: I think Council Member Bagdasarian covered it. I don't have any questions, but just wanted to thank you. Appreciate the presentation and the executive briefing on all the hard work on this. Thank you. Jason Godfrey: Oh, it's our pleasure. Thank you. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Council Member Cummings. Council Member Cummings: I was just going to defer my time to Council Member Bagdasarian. No, thank you for the presentation. really appreciate all of the work and effort that you all put into this, as well as the folks from around Town that you spoke with. I wanted to see if you could quickly just unpack a little bit more of the permitting process revisions, the KPIs and just anything else that we can put in motion here at the Council level to help facilitate this? Jason Godfrey: I would love to, yes. Again, going back, it's easy enough to say, "Oh, your permitting process is broken based on some input." We dug deeper and said, "All right, what are some real issues?" We went back to the development community and said, "Give us specifics, not just complaints, give specifics." We looked at those kinds of things. Then we did some best practices and talked to professionals in the industry and bounce some ideas. That was where we said there are actually some opportunities here perhaps to address some of these. To be honest, a lot of the times the problem is with the development community in that they turn it over to an engineer and say, "Okay, you shepherd the process." The engineer gets paid by the hour. There's a lot that can be done just with the communication saying, "Here's what we need from you upfront so we don't have to do five revisions." Being a little more proactive and waiting for it to come to you, but actually working upstream. In some cases it's not necessary, but when you start, as you move towards much more difficult, challenging developments, so a boutique hotel downtown, that's not going to be easy. Especially if it involves any redevelopment, that's a heavy lift. The standard process might take three years. You've got to have a way to compress that timeline because that's cost, especially at 8% or 9% interest rates right? Council Member Cummings: Okay, perfect. Then, one thing that you had mentioned, tourism and we actually-- the Mayor this morning had, and Council Member Steinberg and I were there, a meeting with local downtown small business owners. One of the things that we heard were a lot of the customers coming in to buy books or eat at restaurants, they're from outside of the Town, whether that's Maryland, DC, or Ashburn outside of Leesburg. Did you hear anything about marketing Leesburg to Leesburg or anything in your conversations about how to not just market to the outside world, but market to our neighbors and friends here in Town? Jason Godfrey: That's a really great insight. The numbers are down -- Page 9lOctober 24, 2023 Council Member Cummings: I only give great insights. Jason Godfrey: That's what you get paid for, I'm sure. Council Member Cummings: No, I'm just kidding. Jason Godfrey: Downtown, it's like, 500,000 a year come to downtown. Serra's got that. We did the research. There's an astonishing number that do come downtown from outside that 25 -mile radius. Yes, it's not a secret outside, but the key to the businesses downtown, especially during the weekdays, because weekends, they all say, We're good. The weekends are fantastic. The weekdays are they're tight. The key is to get the local traffic there. Yes, they mentioned it, and I think when you talk about that internal communication that messaging piece, I think sometimes no one realizes how cool their own community is. I think there's an element of that, that the people don't really realize you've got a really good thing here and invest in it more. I think that messaging piece will be critical for that. Council Member Cummings: Perfect. Thank you again so much. Thank you for all your [inaudible]. Thank you. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Well, thank you. I have a couple of questions. Getting back to your idea of an ombudsman, shepherd, what have you. How do you do that without appearing to play favorites amongst your applications? Jason Godfrey: That's a great question. Yes, that's actually a great question, and it really devolves around your-- you have to have a trust level with your Department of Economic Development because they should be the gatekeepers on which are strategic investments and which are not. It shouldn't be driven by the development community, because obviously, every single project they do is a priority. It's got to be, no, this is catalytic. It's not just a cool project or something that will bring jobs or benefits, but there's something specific about it that inures to the benefit of the community as a whole. I think you just have to have criteria around what would constitute a catalytic or strategic project. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Well, I thank you. If I were to pose that question to the Town Attorney and say, how could we work that into our process? Chris Spera: I think as long as you had a-- Lets put it this way, catalytic is an adjective. We need more identifiable standards. Perhaps it's of a certain size or perhaps it's of a-- generates a certain number of jobs or a certain level of projected tax revenue. It seems to me you could develop an objective criteria for what qualifies as a catalytic project. I think that would be the challenge to make it survive legal muster, is that you have an objective standard rather than a descriptive standard. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Is that something we would want to see become part of the zoning rewrite then? Chris Spore: I'd be certainly interested in having that discussion with the consultants that are working on that. Sure. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Okay. All right. Thank you. Kaj Dentler: Mr. Vice Mayor. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Yes, sir. Kaj Dentler: On that note, at their joint meeting last Thursday, that was one of the recommendations of the Zoning Ordinance consultant to have an ombudsman. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Okay. Thank you. Kaj Dentler: I don't know if they use that exact term, but -- Page f 0lOctober 24, 2023 Jason Godfrey: We were first, right? Kaj Dentler: Exactly the same thing, so you were first. [laughter] Vice Mayor Steinberg: Very good. Now, as a Council Member Cummings said, we had a meeting this morning. It's the Mayors listening session. I don't want to get into great detail. I'm just wondering, in your conversations, what you may have heard in terms of specifics from the downtown business community. Jason Godfrey: Yes, rd like to add just one more thing to what Mr. Spera said, and that's that those criteria should-- the jobs are great. The median incomes, they'll bring those kinds of things, but also redevelopment. If it addresses blight, or if it's part of your Town redevelopment is in the Crescent area, for example, then that might be a criteria as well. Anyway, so the downtown business owners were pretty unified. We heard the same themes over and over. Events, they love the events. They will serve more. They love blocking off the downtown streets. They felt like they weren't unified. This person's promoting this, the city is promoting that, and obviously, the Town or the County is promoting that. They didn't feel like there's synergy among them. They didnt feel like they're working together so much. They felt like there's a strategic potential in becoming more unified. Like I said, 1 think the Main Street is addressing that to a large extent, but that was clearly a theme. Then the other theme was the weekdays versus the weekends. Just what can you do to help us on the weekdays, because we almost can't justify having employees on the weekdays, but the weekends are great. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Okay. Now, interesting, you mentioned the Town square, and there have been conversations about that fence, which unfortunately, belongs to the County. I was wondering if you're looking at that if you have any ideas. Jason Godfrey: That's what we came up with the Reagan analogy. It is challenging, but we're not naive to the fact that were making a recommendation that no one here has the power to implement, but it's so important. You can imagine transforming that into a place where there's places to sit and visit and meet. We've done some concerts there. Better facilities for that, and public art. You can just imagine what a great place that could be. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Okay. That will be a work in progress, I'm sure. Now, did I understand you to say that some venue would be a great idea for the Town? Were you indicating that it would be best served if it were in the downtown area or somewhere in close proximity? Jason Godfrey: I want to be clear about this. This recommendation is twofold. There's, A, boutique hotel, and B, a multi -use event center. We're of the opinion, based on our conversations with the downtown folks that it would be very beneficial to have a boutique hotel downtown that's walkable to that area. Our recommendation is pretty strong, and you'd really like that downtown and realize there's not a lot of parcels available. It might require some redevelopment, but that would be really catalytic. Any boutique hotel anywhere, it would be great. Any hotel anywhere would be great. That'd be a positive. A boutique hotel downtown would be transformational, potentially. That's A. B, the multi -use event center is, again, something that brings people in, conferences, bar mitzvahs, quinceafieras, whatever. They use traffic. That's really the sweet spot. That can be anywhere. It would be great if it were walkable to downtown, but realistically, anywhere in the Town would be fantastic. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Well, it's funny you bring that up as well. We do actually have a boutique hotel that has been approved. That's currently in some farm of progress. We have a second project, which were still kicking around. It's going to be including, by the way, an event center, but we are going to have to see what comes with those last two things. Out of curiosity, in your conversation, again, focusing on the downtown, were there any conversations about parking, because we keep floating around that topic as well? Page 11 lOctober 24, 2023 Jason Godfrey: The challenge with parking is, and I don't mean to minimize the pain of those who express this, but there's a bit of a problem. We've created a problem with the '50s and '60s and 70s with the development pattern. That's that, if I cannot park within five feet of the front door, there's a parking issue. Now, it gets backwards when you think about Walmart. I don't mind parking two blocks away and walk into the Walmart store, but as long as I'm in the parking lot, it's okay. If I have to walk that same two blocks down the street from the parking, it's absolutely unacceptable. A lot of it is perception. The developed, and developed, I mean the development community has created this expectation that I should build a park right in front of wherever I'm going. In our analysis, it seems like parking is not the biggest issue, to be honest because you've got two public parking lots that are right convenient. That's why we looked at this is, how can you look forward? Because our commutes and our driving in 10 years is going to look nothing like today. If you look at technology and what driverless taxis are going to do and innovation, it's going to be a very different paradigm. We're loathe to recommend spending a lot of money, a lot of resources on things that can be very different. It's kind of like in 1910s in New York, saying, "We need more hitching posts" We need ways to get hay downtown. Well, no, there's this guy called Henry Ford, this guy changed the paradigm. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Okay, I understand, so it's going to be an educational process. Anybody want to offer a hitching post topic for the future meeting? No? Okay. Thank you very much for your presentation. I wasn't sure if Mr. Seymour had any further additions at this point? Russell Seymour: No, sir. Vice Mayor Steinberg: No. Russell Seymour: I believe he's covered everything that in the items that you have before you this evening. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Okay. Thank you very much. I'm sorry, Mr. Bagdasarian, did you have another? Council Member Bagdasarian: Is that is that a long way to describe the concept of a trolley or something? Trolley or some other sort of - Vice Mayor Steinberg: Okay, thank you. We have a resolution then to adopt the Town of Leesburg Economic Development and Tourism Strategic Plan. Do we have a specific motion that needs to be formulated or we just need to move? Would someone like to offer a motion to adopt the Town of Leesburg Economic Development and Tourism Strategic Plan? Council Member Cummings: I move that we adopt the Town of Leesburg Economic Development and Tourism Strategic Plan. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Brilliantly put, and do we have a second? Council Member Nacy: Second. Vice Mayor Steinberg: All right. All in favor? Members: Aye Vice Mayor Steinberg: None opposed I see, and so my vote is 5-0-2, I do believe. All righty. Well, we have no public hearings, we have no unfinished business, is there any new business? No. That takes us to Council disclosures and comments. Mr. Wilt? Council Member Wilt: None. Vice Mayor Steinberg: None. Mr. Bagdasarian? Page 121October 24, 2023 Council Member Bagdasarian: None. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Ms. Nacy? Council Member Nacy: None. Thank you. Vice Mayor Steinberg: And Mr. Cummings? Council Member Cummings: No disclosures. I spoke to Mayor Burk earlier today, and I want to just to relay for her that she's not here tonight because she's at home taking care of an ill family member. She just wanted to let the public know that she's busy at home taking care of an ill -feeling family member. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Okay. I'm sure it's well warranted. This is very unusual for her to miss a meeting. I have no disclosures or future meeting items. Mr. Town Manager? Kaj Dentler: No comments. Vice Mayor Steinberg: No comments. Okay. We survived my brief tenure, the Town still exists. Do I have a motion to adjourn? Council Member Nacy: So moved. Vice Mayor Steinberg: And a second, please? Council Member Bagdasarian: Second. Vice Mayor Steinberg: All in favor? Members: Aye. Vice Mayor Steinberg: None opposed and we are done. Thank you. Page 131October 24, 2023