HomeMy Public PortalAbout2024_tcwsmin0122Council Work Session ' January 22, 2024
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 (arrived at 7:01 p.m.), 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, Director of Public Works and Capital Projects Renee
LaFollette, Deputy Director of Community Development Brian Boucher, Deputy Director
of Community Development/Chief Engineer William Ackman, Assistant Director of Public
Works and Capital Projects Douglas Wagner, Senior Project Engineer with Capital Projects
Karin Franklin, Transportation Engineer Niraja Chandrapu, Clerk of Council Eileen Boeing
Minutes prepared by Deputy Clerk of Council Lyndon Gonzalez.
AGENDA ' - ITEMS
1. Items for Discussion
a. • Battlefield Parkway and Route 15 Bypass Interchange Project
Ms. Karin Franklin presented Council with an update on the status of the
Battlefield Parkway/Route 15 Bypass Interchange Project and asked for their
endorsement of the Interchange Access Report. Ms. Renee LaFollette answered
questions on the timeline and funding for the project.
Council and staff discussed the item.
It was the consensus of Council to move the item to the January 23, 2024, Consent
Agenda.
b. Parking Lot Standards in the 11-1, Overlay, Old and Historic District
Mr. Brian Boucher presented Council with possible amendments to the
Zoning Ordinance that would add options to reduce dimensional and landscaping
standards for required in -site parking in the Downtown. He discussed options with
Council to start with the B-1 Community (Downtown) Business' District before the
entire H-1 Old and Historic Overlay District.
Council and staff discussed the item.
It was the consensus of Council to move the item to the January 23, 2024, Consent
Agenda.
2. Additions to Future Council Meetings
a. ' Proclamation Requests
Mayor Burk requested Council consensus for a Certificate of Appreciation for
Outstanding Service to the Friends of Ball's Bluff proclamation for Patrick Mountain
and Tom Hutt. Proclamations are requested to be read at the February 13 Council
Meeting and later presented to the recipients at a Friends of Ball's Bluff event.
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Council Work Session
January 22, 2024
It was the consensus of Council to add both proclamations to the February 13, 2024
Council Agenda.
3. Adjournment
On a motion by Vice Mayor Steinberg, seconded by Council Member Bagdasarian, the meeting
was adjourned at 7:•34 p.m.
Clerk of Council
2024 tcwsminol22
2 Page
January 22, 2024 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.)
Mayor Kelly Burk: Let's get to get. Let's start the meeting.
Vice Mayor Neil Steinberg: Okay.
Mayor Burk: Our first item for discussion tonight is the Battlefield Parkway and Route 15 Bypass
Interchange project. Hello.
Karin Franklin: I'm here to ask you for endorsement of the Interchange Access Report for the
Battlefield Parkway and Route 15 Bypass Interchange. This is the first major milestone for this project.
We will have multiple additional stages to go before we get to construction. We have received $2
million in funding from the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority for this project, this first phase.
Just a little background. If you look on the slide, you can see where the project location is, up in the
corner.
Hang on. There we go. Up there in the corner that yellow highlighted area is the project area. We've
got Battlefield Parkway running across and Route 15 Bypass running up and down. This interchange
has been planned since the mid -1980s. The land was acquired in 1987. Developing the Interchange
Access Report or IAR is the first step in construction of an interchange.
The project elements include the grade -separated interchange with a 10 -foot shared -use path on one
side and.a five-foot sidewalk on the other side. It does also involves removing access from Route 15
Bypass to the unimproved sections of Dry Hollow Road and Old Balls Bluff Road. The project goals
are to reduce intersection congestion, improve pedestrian and bicycle access across Route 15
Bypass, and remove the last signalized intersection on the Route 15 Bypass.
We've accomplished a lot with thisproject alreadyand that's shown in the blue. In November of 2022,
Council did endorse the selection of the double roundabout with at -grade pedestrian crossings. Since
then, we have refined the alternative, held a third public meeting, and drafted the Interchange Access
Report.
Now we're back to you to receive endorsement of the final Interchange Access Report. Then we'll.
take it to VDOT for their approval. We're going to utilize the remaining funds to forward the design in
preparation for final scoping which includes completing this IAR effort, do some additional design
work to develop a detailed cost estimate, and complete public outreach before moving into the
detailed design later on.
Just a little bit about the preferred alternative. Stakeholders from Loudoun County, VDOT, and the
Town Staff, including the Police Department met, reviewed all the alternatives, and narrowed the
alternatives to four options. Those four options were refined and presented to the public for their input
and then we brought them to you for your discussion. On November 15, 2022, Town Council
endorsed the double roundabouts with at -grade pedestrian crossings as your preferred alternative.
The main elements of this alternative involve Battlefield Parkway running across this way, Route 15
running up and down, Route 15 Bypass stays at grade and the Battlefield comes up, goes across the
bridge. The ramps from Route 15 come up to the roundabouts that are at the same grade as a bridge.
The main benefits of this alternative include being the highest -ranked alternative on public surveys. It
does encourage traffic calming, it provides steadier traffic flow with no signals. It's expected to reduce
the number and severity of crashes based on input or data collected on other roundabouts in other
areas. It- has the smallest bridge deck which will reduce the construction costs and maintenance cost.
It provides a direct pedestrian route and provides sufficient intersection separation to accommodate
future signals at Balls Bluff Road and/or Fieldstone Drive if needed.
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Here's a rendering of the preferred alternative. Again, we have Battlefield Route 15 Bypass running
at -grade and then the ramps from 15 coming up to this roundabouts with Battlefield coming up to the
roundabout and going across the bridge. There are several adjacent projects to this project location.
You can see here, here's our project location right there. We have two projects to the north that
Loudoun County are managing that will widen Route 15 to the north.
The orange projects should be occurring first. They're well into design with that project and it's
expected that that project will be completed before this interchange project will be completed. In
addition, there are three interchanges within Leesburg to the south, so you've got the Edwards Ferry
Road one showing here and then the seven one is down here. Those were included in the Northern
Virginia Transportation Authority's TransAction 2040 Plan and were prioritized with the Battlefield
Parkway Route 7.interchanges the highest priority. Of course, we've already gotten that one done.
Route 15 Bypass Edwards Ferry Road/Fort Evans Road interchanges as the second priority and
we're into detailed design for that project. Then the third priority would be this project, the Battlefield
Parkway Route 15 Bypass interchange. What's next for this project? Hopefully, you guys are going to
endorse the IAR and we can send that to VDOT and get final approval and then we're going to do a
little bit more engineering with the remaining funds we have which will get us information we can
utilize for future funding applications.
Then once we have the funding, we complete the detailed design, complete the land acquisition and
utility relocation and ultimately construct the interchange. It's important to note that this project will not
move forward until the Route 15 Bypass Edwards Ferry Road/Fort Evans Road Interchange Project is
fully funded. We won't be asking for money on this one until we have that project fully funded and the
construction is not expected to begin until after that priority interchange is completed.
Again, tonight we're asking Town Council to endorse the interchange access report for the Battlefield
Parkway and Route 15 Bypass Interchange Project with double roundabouts with at -grade pedestrian
crossings. Boy, that's a mouthful. We provided this suggested recommended motion for you. With
that, I'll open it up for questions.
Mayor Burk: Thank you, Ms. Franklin. I appreciate the information. Is there anybody at thispoint that
does have a question on this? Yes, Council Member Bagdasarian.
Council Member Ara Bagdasarian: Thank you very much. I, know it's difficult to predict at this point
since there are other projects that are preceding this but are we looking at within the next 20 years, is
this pretty far out as far as the actual breaking ground on the project at this point?
Karin. Franklin: 20 years. I think it could happen before 20 years. Renee, do you want to say
anything on that?
Renee LaFollette: With the prioritization of Bypass Edwards Ferry/Fort Evans Road ahead of this
one, we have a significant hill to climb on getting the funding for that project since that's about $188
plus million project, so we have to find funding for that project before we move this project forward.
With the project to the north that Loudoun County is doing, that's anticipated to move the backup that
we currently have at this intersection to the north and out of the Town by widening that. That'll pick up
a lot of the traffic volume that we can't handle on our road, it'll get us through Loudoun County. I
would hope that we can fundraise to get that first one going, but so far we have not been successful
with our funding applications. 20 years is probably realistic, 15 to 20 on this one.
Council Member Bagdasarian: This goes back to the mid -'80s. You see the word roundabout, I'm
thinking yes, but that was '70s. Thank you very much, that's all I needed.
Mayor Burk: Council Member Cummings.
Council Member Zach Cummings: Just one question on, we know that the County is working to
expand 15 north of where we're talking but do we think that one, the push from the County or in VDOT
will be to expand the bypass within the Town limits. If so, are we building this in a way that we could
expand 15 or are we just going to move forward with that being a four -lane road?
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Karin Franklin: I'm going to turn this one over to Renee.
Renee LaFollette: Right now, VDOT and the County have no plans to widen this section of the
bypass. They do have and have done a star study from West Market Street around to East Market
Street and onto Route 9. They're in the preliminary design phases that you heard about at your last
Council meeting for the widening of the bypass from the Greenway west towards Route 9. Right now,
there are no plans in any of the forecasted documents for widening this section of the bypass.
Council Member Cummings: Thank you. Then, you hit on this in your last answer, but the $59.4
million, do we have any of that funded at this point? I'm just curious where we would look to try to
come up with those funds?
Karin Franklin: We received $2 million from Northern Virginia Transportation Authority for this IAR
and we are going to use as much of that as we can. After that, we don't have any more funding
provided for this project at this time, and that $59 million is going to get adjusted once we finish this
additional work, we're going to do with the remaining funding available. We'll have a much better
estimate to be able to plug into the CIP next year.
We're going to be applying for whatever funding we can from wherever we can get it. VDOT and
NVTA, wherever else we can find it eventually. We'll have found them all, all the sources for the Ed's
Ferry project because we're having to turn over all the stones to try to find the funding for that. I think
we'll be in good shape at that point to know where the funding sources are.
Mayor Burk: Vice Mayor Steinberg.
Vice Mayor Steinberg: Yes. Thank you, Karin. I just wanted to clarify the timeframe for that short
section from Battlefield up to Montresor. Where's the County on that?
Karin Franklin: They are in final design. They're still working on some of our comments. I know they
may be working on other comments as well, but they're still working on some of our comments for the
Town to actually agree to the plans that they've put together. Last I spoke with them a couple months
ago, they were indicating that they hope to move into land acquisition this summer, and then
construction perhaps would start next summer.
The orange section that I was showing you has been broken down into several stages now because I
think there's some funding shortfall perhaps to do the whole thing at once. You can get on their
website and get the latest and greatest information, which is what I would recommend.
Vice Mayor Steinberg: Thank you.
Mayor Burk: I just have a question about the storm water ponds. Are they going to be dry ponds?
Because in this rendering, you don't have them at all. Do you have any idea what they would?
Karin Franklin: Right now, we're showing them as storm water ponds, so if that's the case, they
would be dry ponds. We're going to do a little bit more work with the additional funds that we have
remaining to better understand what those might be. Ultimately, the decision may not be made
completely until we get into the final design phases, the detailed design.
Mayor Burk: Certainly, some of the wet ponds, there's unique problems associated with them. If we
could avoid them, that would not be bad. Thank you for your report. Appreciate the information. Is
there anybody that would object if we put this item on the consent agenda for tomorrow? Nobody. Mr.
Manager, you can put it on the consent agenda. Thank you.
Karin Franklin: Thank you very much.
Mayor Burk: Our next item is for parking lot standards in the H-1, Overlay, Old and Historic District.
Brian Boucher: Madam Mayor and Members of Council.
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Mayor Burk: My favorite topic.
Brian Boucher: Oh, it's certainly my favorite topic.
Mayor Burk: Oh, I'm sure.
Brian Boucher: That is the topic, parking lot standards in the H-1 District. Purpose of tonight would
be, discuss potential amendments to those standards. Of course, you have the right to initiate
amendments to the Zoning Ordinance when you think it's for the public good. Back on November 13th
of 2023, a work session to discuss this was requested. We have had property owner interest over the
years for properties, particularly along King Street, located in the B1 Downtown Community Business
District. That's what I want to talk about first. The item is entitled the H-1 Overlay District Possible
Changesinthe Parking.
If you look at the map that's up there, that is our H-1 District outlined in white. It's an overlay district,
so it overlays other districts. Actually, it's got eight different districts in it. Some of them are like the
R8, the. R6. These things are very residential. Then we've got some outliers like Greenway Farm
down 15. The discussion that staff had had before and the concerns about changing parking
standards were all located in the Downtown area, the more commercial area. We've got some
residential too, but the mixed -use area.
Staff is just saying, from our standpoint, we think it would be wiser if we are going to consider
changes in standards rather than get into the residential districts or that it just be confined to what's
the B1 district, which on the map is about half of the Downtown area and again, the commercial area.
That's what it's showing.
If you want to talk a little bit about our Zoning Ordinance standards, parking lot standards, we
consider consisting of the dimensional requirements, so that's how big a parking space is, how wide,
how long. Then also there's parking aisles. That's how you get in, the aisles that run around the
parking and width is the issue there, typically. Also, you've got entrance and exit widths, how big is the
access onto the public road to get into these private parking lots.
Then last is landscaping. We have interior parking lot landscaping and perimeter parking lot
landscaping that applies to parking lots Downtown. There is a little bit of a mechanism to modify that.
We'll talk about that later, but that's one of the other, I think, elements of this. When it comes to the
number of spaces required, the Ordinance has a lot of ways you can deal with that. You can buy them
through pay in lieu. You can do shared parking. You can do offsite parking, et cetera.
We didn't think this from a staff standpoint was really dealing with a number of parking spaces. It's
more those dimensional requirements. The reason I've got that little picture in there, you can inset,
you can look at it and see this is off of Loudoun Street heading east, up near the top. You've got
parking lots that are completely gravel because they've historically been gravel since before we
actually created any parking standards and then you've got some over by some newer buildings or
buildings that were renovated that are trying to comply with our current parking standards.
Again, those standards, what's not modifiable today? One is the parking spaces. In the Town of
Leesburg, if you're going to build a parking space today, it's going to be 9 by 18. It's got to be 9 feet
wide, 18 feet long, parallel space, 9 feet by 22 feet. Except in the Crescent District, we have given
some standard parking spaces. For example, a parallel space can be 8 feet wide but those don't
reflect anywhere else in Town other than the Crescent District.
The other issue is the parking aisles. I've taken a table just right out of the Zoning Ordinance so you
can see. When you're going into a private parking lot coming off of a public road, how wide the travel
aisle for the car is depends on whether it's one-way or two-way traffic for the lane, and is there
parking next to it? Because if there's parking next to it, it's going to have to be wider. It gets wider
depending on the angle of that parking.
You can see the most we've gotten the Ordinances for a two-way traffic lane aisle in a private parking
lot you have to have 24 feet for that aisle. Then again, aisle widths, if you had no adjacent parking,
you could go down as little as 12 feet. If it's two-way traffic, the least you're going to get is 20 feet but
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then we also have to deal with the requirements of the Fire Marshal, which go up to 26 feet for a two-
lane travel within certain situations. Whatever we consider doing, that's somethingwe'll have to take
into consideration and talk about.
There are some standards where we have limited modification today. One is interior parking lot
landscaping. The Land Development Official, which is really the Planning Director, given some
circumstances, can reduce that and then also the entrance and exit widths. It actually says the
Director of Plan Review has the authority. Of course, we don't have that now. We're one department,
there is no Director of Plan Review.
We need to clean that up a little bit, but we also thought it would be wise to take a look at it. That is
your standard commercial width Downtown is 30 feet. It can be wider, sometimes it can be less. This
gives a little authority to the Director who did to decrease that a bit. We thought we might want to look
at that again. If we're looking at parking lot standards, how you get in off the public street, the width of
that should be something we take a look at if the Council desires us to go forward.
We go to staff findings. If you turn to the Town Plan, the policy supports evaluating Downtown parking
standards because we're always looking to put the standards that will achieve a better use of
available land Downtown. At the same time, we want standards that don't compromise the historic
character of Downtown or safety so we took that into consideration.
The recommendation we would make to you tonight is the limit the potential parking standard
changes if you're going to initiate something to the B1 District instead of the entire H-1 Overlay District
because that's really where the discussion has centered in the past. Also, if you were going to initiate
changes, they would be to parking space dimensions, traveling standards, entrance and exit
standards, and parking lot landscaping standards. That's interior and perimeter. With. that, I close my
presentation. I'II try to answer any questions you all may have.
Mayor Burk: Thank you, Mr. Boucher. Appreciate it. Are there questions on this at this point? Mr.
Cummings, Council Member Cummings.
Council Member Cummings: Thank you. I want to just make sure I understand the Zoning
Ordinance correctly here. According to the Ordinance, a parking lot let's say for instance at a big box
store like Best Buy, Target, Costco, those folks have to develop those with the same dimensions for
parking as in the old and historic district. I just want to make sure I understood that correctly.
Brian Boucher: We apply the same standards except for the Crescent District has a few minor width
changes but otherwise in Town it's the same.
Council Member Cummings: Then if we were to make these adjustments, we're not looking at
reducing the number of parking spots, we're just looking at adjusting the length I guess of parking and
width of parking spots and egresses and ingresses, correct?
Brian Boucher: Yes, that's correct. The staff isn't suggesting anything. This would authorize anything
to change the number because it's dealt with elsewhere in the ordinance. We were just the standards
themselves for what if you have a parking space, how wide it has to be, how long it has to be and
what's the width of the aisles that gets your cars to it and out.
Council Member Cummings: Making these adjustments still have to take into consideration the
safety with the fire and emergency services.
Brian Boucher: You know what VDOT and of course there's the Fire Marshal someone we have to
deal with in Town. Because they have some of their own access standards for getting around
buildings even if they're in the Downtown.
Council Member Cummings: It sounds to me like what we're looking for is just some flexibility in
folks who are investing in the old and historic district to be able to keep the ample parking that they
need but do it in a way that reflects more of the smaller lots and the smaller size of spaces.
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Brian Boucher: I think that's at least the intention. That's how staff understood it and also it's worth
looking: at some of these things because again, we have had some modifications for entrance we've
been in there a long time. How practical is it? Are there other things we can do? We thought if you're
going to look at the standards, we might as well pull those things in as well.
Council Member Cummings: Perfect. Thank you.
Brian Boucher: Yes.
Mayor Burk: Council Member Wilt.
Council Member Patrick Wilt: Thank you. Hi, Brian. I was just wondering about the background of
the Crescent District. What's unique about the vehicle traffic or the vehicles in the Crescent District
that they have smaller standards?
Brian Boucher: Particularly when it comes to this, there's a lot of parking on the sides of streets in
the Crescent District. It was found that a lot of places particularly in urban areas, will reduce that to
eight feet. For example, they're nine feet in Town everywhere. When we were going through the
Crescent District looking to apply different standards that might at the same time be practical for the
width of a parallel parking space, eight feet was good enough. Now, if you're parking in a standard
space and a lot, it's still nine feet. It didn't go that far but there are some differences from the rest of
the Town.
Council Member Wilt: Have we found that eight feet is working in the Crescent District?
Brian Boucher: We've got some projects that are actually under site planning review now that will
have this. We don't really have eight feet wide parking spaces. What it was based on was other urban
areas though where this is common. Our belief is that once you have them and given the traffic flow
that they should be adequate. The length is still the same, still need those 22 feet.
Council Member Wilt: Within that practice, I wonder why if, however We decide that something is
workable, why would we be inconsistent in the application of the Zoning Ordinances?
Brian Boucher: I think that's one of the things here. If there is an inconsistency there we're going to
study and see if it works to apply it elsewhere. I think particularly in urban areas because where we
have that difference, the Crescent Districts considered the densities-- it's fairly dense compared to the
rest of Town. It's not the more suburban area. We were looking to streetscapes, better streetscapes,
but also hopefully more urban. I'll use that word style parking standards.
Council Member Wilt: The B1 probably falls into that description.
Brian Boucher: The B1, the Crescent District, a lot of districts are mixed -use and that's. where that's
been applied. Or where they will be built and here Downtown is clearly mixed use mostly commercial,
so they. thought it was appropriate to take a look at it.
Council Member Wilt: I think that's insightful what Council Member Cummings brought up, the
historic district, which was not designed recently is not really comparable to a Costco, Greenfield
development.
Brian Boucher: No. You'd have to tear down a lot of buildings if you're going to build that but one
thing and I'll just say it, you hear it a. lot. Back in the day, the spaces in the parking garage, a lot of
them were seven -and -a -half feet wide. We used to have compact parking in the Town and you could
do it in a lot of places. You go down there Miller Drive and look the County made them wider but they
had a lot of seven -and -a -half feet wide spaces.
It's to look at what's practical today, what the width might be today that's more practical, and try to just
examine those standards and see if there's something different we can do.
Council Member Wilt: I want to check on something, on terms of the standards because another
business owner told me this, and I don't know if it's correct, we have in terms of two-way traffic aisle
6fJanuary 22, 2024
width up to 24 feet on private parking lots. Where you're driving a couple of miles an hour trying to get
into a parking spot, and so this business owner told me that South King Street, the two-waydrive aisle
is 21 feet. Isthat correct?
Brian Boucher: I don't know, but it might be true. I used to live on South King Street and yes South
King Street where I live on the south side in the historic district on the south side of the W&OD trail.
That road gets more traffic than any of the cul-de-sacs get in Town where the roads are wide.
Council Member Wilt: In that case, for example, that's what would be considered a major artery
through Leesburg, where we have a posted limit of 20 and 25 miles an hour. I don't know any parking
lot drive aisle that anyone drives up to 25 miles an hour through that we would need a wider width on
this very valuable land that we're trying to use than King Street. That seems an inconsistency that we
could learn from.
Brian Boucher: One of the things staff will look at is other jurisdictions, what's allowed, what we think
the State of Virginia will allow because again, a lot of this will tie into safety. I can't tell you yet that we
can have travel aisles on private lots that are less than we have. It's certainly something we're going
to examine more. I've looked at some and we'll look at more because it's a legitimate question and we
think we. need to at least if we can't change it,. understand why we can't change it.
Council. Member Wilt: I think this is a good effort because I think some of these kinds of, which might
not be entirely logical zoning restrictions, I think some of them do .restrict the goal of the Town plan to
make the B1 arts, culture and entertainment destination. Because it makes it more difficult to operate
and build here. I think this is a good effort. Thanks, Brian.
Mayor Burk: Council Member Bagdasarian.
Council Member Bagdasarian: Yes, thank you. [clears throat] The points already made, and I've
said this many times. We need to be careful of applying suburban standards to a historic district..
That's what makes Leesburg so charming. It's the smaller scale, the little crevices, the smaller.
alleyways, and all the aspects that make it charming. I don't think we want to turn that into a
suburban -type development a much larger, like the parking.
I think Iknow what you're talking about as far as the entrance of the parking lot. I think that's an
important thing. When people talk, how do we describe the charm? Why is Leesburg so charming?
Because it's narrow sidewalks. This is not part of this discussion, but parking lots are not historic. If
we talk about historic, and so we look at opportunities for infill development in the future. It's not part
of this discussion. Just to be clear, if we pass this resolution tomorrow, it basically gives the Town
more flexibility to look at perhaps making width eight feet versus nine feet.
Brian Boucher: We would look at these things, obviously, we'd go through the Planning Commission,
but we would come back to Council with what ourinvestigation showed on each of these topics and
give you, again, if we recommend a change, we'll tell you why. If we think we can't make a change in
some standard we have, we will tell you why.
Council Member Bagdasarian: Last question. When it comes to determining widths for entrances
and exits, is the Fire Marshal have the final say on that?
Brian Boucher: Some of these the Fire Marshal does, we say right in our DCSM or Design and
Construction Standards Manual that will follow the International Fire Code and the Loudoun County
Fire Code and some of these areas. In some of those cases, they will trump us. What we'll do we'll
certainly figure out what those cases are and see if there's any leeway.
Council Member Bagdasarian: Great. Thank you.
Mayor Burk: Yes. Vice Mayor.
Vice Mayor Steinberg: Thanks for the presentation, Brian. I don't have any questions. Just to
comment to say that I think limiting these changes to the one district and allowing us to therefore
7(January-22, 2024
gather data and see how it's going to work and possibly work in other districts, it's probably a good
start. Doesn't cause us any problems. We can always make changes later. Thanks.
Mayor Burk: My concern is cars are not getting any smaller. I can't tell you how many times I come in
the Town garage and there's one of those big trucks that I can't get around without almost hitting the
car across from it. I'll be very interested to see how you deal with those. Because, I curse at them
every time I drive by. [laughs]
Brian Boucher: We haven't seen as many smart cars as I thought we would by now. Definitely true.,
Mayor Burk: This will be interesting. I think the Fire Marshal is going to have something to say about
some of -these issues.
Brian Boucher: Particularly when it comes to the travel lanes. We want to have, it'd be good to have
that discussion.
Mayor Burk: Right. I'm just asking you to think in terms of we get the idea that, yes, it's very valuable
land. It's expensive land but safety is the utmost of importance. To make sure that someone coming
off the street into a parking lot has enough room to do it, that it doesn't end up stopping and causing
accidents, and that sort of thing.
Brian Boucher: I'll say that's foremost in this discussion and that's often why some of these
standards are here. We want to see if in an area like Downtown Leesburg we can get different
standards, but safety's always there. Remember we have rules in there. You can't back out onto a
public street in the historic district. Some car goes in your lot, it's going to be able to turn around and
come out. We're not looking to change those types of safety standards, but we're just looking to see if
the on lot stuff can be a little more flexible.
Mayor Burk: I don't know if it'll make a difference to people. I think it would be better when they're
smaller that they'll be less likely to hit your door [laughs] because it'll be harder to open it. I look
forward to you coming back with these, I think this is something worth looking at, so thank youvery
much. Does anybody have any objection if we put this on the consent agenda for tomorrow? All right.
Thank you.
Brian Boucher: Thank you all.
Mayor Burk: All right. That takes us to proclamation requests and I have a couple here if I can find a
paper. Oh. I just need four head nods to say that you would support. The Friends of Ball's Bluff have
asked for a proclamation for a Patrick Mountain and Tom Hutt. Patrick is a Leesburg resident. Tom
Hutt is from Purcellville. It's a certificate of appreciation for outstanding service to the Friends of Ball's
Bluff.
DoI have four people that would support that and then I will take it to their meeting and present it
there so we will not be presenting it here at Town Hall? [crosstalk] We'll read it here, but we will end
up taking it there. I think that was everybody that wanted that one. Is there anything for future? It's not
on here, but future items for the agenda? Anybody tonight? All right.
The only thing I have is we had a request from Potomac Crossing HOA. I'm not sure if the Residential
Traffic Committee dealt with it tonight, but they were asking if we could come up with a plan to help
them when. the Veterans Park opens because already with Ball's Bluff, they have some parking issues
and some issues with speeding and more traffic.
When the Veterans Park opens, they're concerned that that will have an impact. They were asking if
we could at least look at it and come up with a plan to, what would we do to help with the speeding
issue and any parking issue that might come up. Is that--
Kaj Dentler: Madam Mayor, I can tell you that it's already been placed on a future agenda for
Residential Traffic Commission.
Mayor Burk: Okay. Never mind. [laughs] In that case, is there any a motion to adjourn?
8panuary 22, 2024
Vice Mayor Steinberg: So moved.
Mayor Burk: Is there a second?
Council Member Bagdasarian: Second.
Mayor Burk: All in favor?
Council Members: Aye.
Mayor Burk: Any opposed? All right.
9IJanuary 22, 2024