HomeMy Public PortalAbout2024_tcwsmin0226Council Work Session February 26, 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, Vice Mayor Neil Steinberg, Patrick Wilt, and Mayor Kelly Burk.
Council Members Absent: None.
Staff Present: Town Manager Kaj Denier, Town Attorney Christopher Spera, Deputy
Town Manager Keith Markel, Director of Finance and Administrative Services Clark Case,
Assistant Town Manager Kate Trask, Airport Director Scott Coffman, Director of
Community Development James David, Director of Economic Development Russell
Seymour, Director of Parks and Recreation Rich Williams, Director of Public Works and
Capital Projects Renee LaFollette, Leesburg Police Captain Dave Smith, Leesburg Police
Captain Jaime Sanford, Community Development Chief Engineer William Ackman,
Deputy Director of Public Works and Capital Projects Chris Kohr, Finance and
Administrative Services Deputy Director/Treasurer Lisa Haley, Management and Budget
Officer Cole Fazenbaker, Deputy Management and Budget Officer Tamara Keesecker,
Community Development Land Use Manager Richard Klusek, Stormwater and
Environmental Manager Chad Minnick, Management and Budget Analyst Liz Weaver,
Clerk of Council Eileen Boeing.
Minutes prepared by Deputy Clerk of Council Lyndon Gonzalez.
AGENDA ITEMS
1. Items for Discussion
Mayor Burk requested that item 1.c. Liberty Lot Public Private Partnership Work
Group Report be moved forward on the agenda. There were no objections.
c. Liberty Lot Public Private Partnership Work Group Report
Mr. Keith Markel, staff, and other members of the Liberty Lot Work Group
presented Council with the current proposal for the use of the Town's former dump
site known as Liberty Lot. The current proposal adds the concept of a privately
owned 75 -room hotel and restaurant on the site. The concept of a performing arts
center and events space, affordable housing and parking remain in the proposal.
Council, staff and members of the work group discussed the item.
It was the consensus of Council to have the work group continue to work on the
proposal and report back to Council at a future date.
a. 2023 Legacy Leesburg Annual Report
Mr. Richard Klusek presented Council with an update on the progress in
achieving the Town Plan strategies since adoption in March 2022.
Council and staff discussed the item.
No further action is required for this item.
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Council Work Session February 26, 2024
b. Proposed Budget for Fiscal Year 2025 — General Fund Kev Enhancements and
Capital Projects
Ms. Renee LaFollette presented the proposed Capital Improvements Program, and
Mr. Cole Fazenbaker presented the proposed General Fund key enhancements.
Council and staff discussed the item.
No further action is required for this item.
2. Additions to Future Council Meetings
a. Proclamation Requests
i. Mayor Burk requested a proclamation for the former Mayor James E.
Clem be presented to his family at the February 27, 2024, Council
meeting.
It was the consensus of Council to add this proclamation to the February 27,
2024, Council Meeting agenda.
ii. A proclamation request was received to declare March 21, 2024, Save
Soil Day to be presented at the March 12, 2024, Council Meeting.
It was the consensus of Council to add this proclamation to the March 12,
2024, Council Meeting agenda
b. Future Council Meeting and Agenda Topics
Mayor Burk requested staff to review the traffic patterns leaving Cornerstone
Church as it exits onto Sycolin Road.
Ms. Renee LaFollette will check the traffic signal timings to determine if any
adjustments are needed and report back to Council.
Vice Mayor Steinberg requested funding for a study to improve E. Market
Street from Catoctin Circle to Mom's Apple Pie be included as part of the budget
discussions.
Mr. Dentler confirmed that staff will include this request in the budget discussions.
3. Adjournment
On a motion by Vice Mayor Steinberg, seconded by Council Member Cummings, the meeting
was adjourned at 8:23 p.m.
-- Clerk of Council b
2024_¢wsmin0226
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February 26, 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: I'd like to open tonight's Town Council Work Session of February 26th. If it is okay
with the Members of Council, I would like to move up item C to have that presented first. We have
some partnerships here who aren't feeling so good. We want to be able to let them give their
presentation and head home. [laughs] Liberty Lot Public Private Partnership Work Group, Mr. Markel.
Keith Markel: Good evening, Madam Mayor and Council. I'll start things off, and then I will share the
podium with the proposing team here that you're all familiar with. We'll get into this. I thought rd start
out and give --
Mayor Burk: I do have to ask, they have asked for 20 minutes. Does anybody have an objection if it
takes them 20 minutes? All right, go ahead.
Keith Markel: I'll go with 20. Thank you. I'll try to be quick and save a lot of time for the proposing
team here. Wanted to start out with just a little refresher for everyone and for those who might be
watching who are new to this project. We're talking about the Liberty Street Parking Lot, which is an
existing Town parking lot within the historic district of Downtown here. It's about 2 acres in size. It's
got 120 free parking spaces and 11 metered parking spaces. It also has some satellite operations for
our Public Works Department as well.
As we all know, it's built on top of the former Town dump site, which has created a number of
challenges for us as we've looked at how we might reenvision this space. Visually, to depict this here
for you, you can see it sits in the southwest quadrant of the Town, south of Royal Street, west of Wirt
Street, it abuts the Town Branch. Across that is the MOD Trail. It's close to Georgetown Park, and
just to the west are the Chesterfield Square Townhomes.
Here are some images of what the site looked like in the 1950s when this was the Town's dump site.
You can see the material being loaded into here. Then over the years, it has been redeveloped, and
capped, and covered with asphalt. Now, it's used as a parking facility for the Town. The Town has
been talking about this site for a while. We've had some unsolicited proposals over the past several
years.
A few have looked at different opportunities on the site. That got the Town thinking, "Is this an
appropriate location for a public -private partnership for the Town?" Back in May of '21, that
conversation happened. Long story short, we get into 2021, further into the year in November staff
was directed to develop and issue an RFP. That was issued in April of '22. We received one
response. That's going to be the group that you're going to be hearing from this evening. In May, we
received that proposal.
The request for proposal as the Town had envisioned it. Laid out some options here. One was the
Town to sell or gift Liberty Street Parking Lot to a developer. In turn, the developer then take that site
and develops something on it. We called out that we do need to still maintain parking in that area.
That 120 spaces, give or take, would need to be maintained in some form or fashion.
We also envision commercial development happening on the site with the potential for residential on
the upper floors. If residential was proposed, there was going to be favorable consideration given to a
project that would include affordable housing. Here's the image you'll remember from a while back
when you first saw this. This is the proposal from the proposing firm that's here again this evening.
Initially, it was a 450 -seat performing arts center with some flex space. A 4000 -square -foot restaurant.
It had 65 units of senior affordable housing constructed on the westem portion of the site. It was going
to be a fee -simple purchase of Town land. The revenue from that sale would go towards the site
remediation. There would be parking facilities underneath the performing arts center beneath the
Page 1 February 26, 2024
affordable housing component that will be shared both from their uses on -site as well as the needs for
that offsite parking. The public garage and the performing arts center would be owned and operated
by the Town.
Council accepted this proposal for further consideration. You allocated $30,000 in study funding for
the work group to move forward. A work group was formed. That was made up of the proposing team,
that was Peter Burnett, Kim Hart, Don Knutson, all here this evening. Town Council Members, Vice
Mayor Neil Steinberg, Councilman Patrick wilt served for a time. Then was followed by Ara
Bagdasarian. Then Town staff. I was part of that team, as was Russell Seymour and James David
who are here tonight as well to share their perspectives if you have questions.
The work group objectives: we were to begin meeting, really explore their proposal in detail. Talk with
industry experts. Evaluate it, look at the challenges and opportunities of the site, and really dig in to
what could truly be fit on the site, as well as what the potential cost would be for doing such a
development. Really to refine the proposal down and bring it back so that we could have this
conversation here this evening. The current proposal, as it's been modified and discussed, and we
can talk about all the iterations of it in the discussion this evening, but essentially, it boils down to this,
a 40,000 square -foot performing arts and events space, flexible space, 500 -seat auditorium that
would be publicly owned. A hotel and restaurant is a new component to the project, which was not
part of the initial proposal to you. It would be roughly a 75 -room, upscale hotel in the Downtown, with
a privately owned and operated hotel and restaurant as part of that. The parking garage, the spaces
are going to vary depending on the type of uses and how much parking has to be accommodated.
Looking in that 350 to 400 to maybe over 400 spaces, publicly owned and operated. It would also
serve the needs of whatever's built on the site and the hotel, as well as those other uses in the
Downtown that still need that public parking lot.
Then the senior affordable housing has moderated in size. Maybe it's 50 units, 65 units, something in
that range, privately owned and operated, privately funded. As we got started into this exploring in
greater detail what this site might look like and what their proposal looks like, we engaged the
services of Louise Stevens, who runs a company called ArtsMarket. She is not a stranger to
Leesburg. She performed a study back in 2009 for the Town. A similar study and design. She is a
huge wealth of knowledge when it comes to performing arts and venue spaces.
Really understands the market, understands what is needed, right down to the very minute detail.
Don't have time to get into all of her study findings this evening, but that is included in your packet.
You can refer to that. It does have a lot of great deal that's very important. She did stress the
importance of the flexible use, and that's something you'll hear from our Economic Development staff,
as well as Visit Loudoun. They all commented on having that flexibility of performance space, as well
as flexible space for events and other needs is a big attraction, and really make sure that you can use
the performance hall throughout the year and throughout the week.
You want to make it large enough to attract regional performers. That's why you saw the number of
seats increase up to that 500, which has really been seen as the floor for what you'd want to have
proceeding in a performance arts space. The hotel is an extremely compatible use. We understand
that there's a great symbiotic relationship there between a hotel and the performance arts event
spaces. There are staffing needs, obviously, they have to be looked at. If the Town were to go down
this path, we're looking at staffing this. We're hiring outside firm to take care of the staffing, but
definitely, great many employees to run the operation.
Then she also developed a list of potential user groups. Building in a hypothetical calendar and what
revenues you might see from that. Again, trying to find that balance between the local groups that will
benefit because that's something that will just benefit the quality of life in Leesburg, but then also
looking at those large national and regional touring acts, the ones that actually pay the bills and
generate the revenue for the site.
As part of her study, she developed a great portfolio of different other facilities throughout the nation
that we could use as examples. One that really stood out to us and to her was the Fields Arts and
Events Center out in Port Angeles, Washington. That's another similar -sized facility. One that was
built very recently and just opened 500 seats, events, multi -use space, along with gallery space. It's a
good example of what could be done here in Leesburg. The second example that really stood out to
Page 2IFebruary 26, 2024
us was the Great Lakes Center for the Arts. This is in Michigan. It's a little over what we're proposing,
525 seats, 33,000 total square feet. This is really pulled out as an example of one that has a strong
endowment and a strong educational component to it.
Then, the third example that really caught our attention was the Nashua Center for the Arts in
Nashua, New Hampshire. This is a 750 -seat auditorium. It's in an urban environment. It's got that
more Downtown feel. It's infill within existing urban structures. It has retractable sealing, which is an
element that's being proposed in this scenario here in Leesburg, which allows that greater flexibility of
flat floor space, as well as tiered stadium seating. This is a publicly owned facility, but it's privately
managed.
Beyond the meetings that we had with her and that detailed report that she developed for us, we had
numerous conversations with industry experts including David Rose who you all know from Davenport
to talk to us about the financial obligations of what borrowing that amount of money would look like
and the different mechanisms for that. We talked with Peter Lally. He's the events venue operations
person. He was the founder and operator of the firm that runs the facility in Nashua, New Hampshire,
as well as a number of other facilities throughout the New England states.
Beth Erickson with Visit Loudoun sat down and met with us, shared with us the study reports that they
had done, looking at what visitor interests are, what the trends are and the value of quality hotel and
event space needs in Leesburg and the greater Leesburg area, which is something that we are sorely
lacking. Victoria Dietz with the Curtis Group talked with us about private fundraising which that would
have to be a substantial part of how we can make this thing financially viable. How do you attract
financial donations from the private sector?
Saul Ramirez is a grants expert who's worked in the Federal government for many years and met with
us preliminarily to talk about different Federal grant opportunities and what might be available to the
Town. We also met with Town staff, we met with Bill Ackman and Niraja, our Traffic Engineer, to talk
about traffic and stormwater issues. All key things when you're looking at an infill project within the
very tight confines of a historic Downtown. Definitely issues that would have to be addressed.
We then had our second contract, with the money that you allocated, was contract with RCLCO. This
company helped us put together a fiscal impact analysis. RCLCO has worked for the Town over the
years with different projects with financial impact models. They looked at what the revenue off of a
proposed performing arts space, along with the hotel and the meals, the meals tax, the transit
occupancy tax, what that could potentially generate.
The long and short of it is its revenue positive, over $500,000 in revenue coming from new money.
These are new tax revenue sources. That could be used to help offset the operational subsidies that
the Town would likely be covering for such a use. What their study looked at was what taxes would be
generated. It did not look at the actual operating and capital costs. It's not looking at debt financing,
its not looking at the operational aspects of the performing arts center.
When we look at the public financial capital investments, which is something that obviously we've
been concerned about as staff and something that you all have had questions about. These are just
big ballpark numbers, and the proposing team can talk in greater detail. Essentially, we're looking at a
performing arts center, event center, roughly, the order of magnitude is about a $30 million
construction project. The parking garage is somewhere in the neighborhood of $13 million. Site
remediation, we had the study done a few months ago, telling us what it would take to clear that site
of all the existing trash and debris that's buried. On the high side of that, we're looking at about $16
million if you're doing full of remediation.
Some of the plans you'll see tonight do not require remediation, that you'd be building on top of the
existing dump, and you would just encapsulate what is currently there. We also have off -site
infrastructure needs that would most likely need to be accommodated. You're looking at traffic signals,
road widenings, turn lanes, relocating of utilities, upsizing water and sewer lines, perhaps listings. We
haven't gotten into in great detail on. That price tag is unknown. You can expect several million dollars
at least of those sorts of costs as well.
Page 3IFebruary 26, 2024
Obviously, the site considerations you really have to think about are the landfill issues there that can
be dealt with, but it comes at a cost. The site could be built up and not down to reduce some of those
costs, those traffic and infrastructure improvements, the neighborhood improvements. Looking at how
do the adjacent neighbors see this facility fitting in with the existing neighborhood. Then we also have,
as again, I mentioned those floodplain constraints.
Here are just a few shots just to refresh us on what the access is primarily off of South Street. You
can see from the South Street Georgetown Park, looking west, you'll see the rise. We do have some
topography there because of the dump facility. Then you'll see that gravel out there just to the east of
our parking facility across Wirt Street. That is the site proposed for the hotel venue as it currently
stands. Wth that, I will turn it over to Peter Burnett, who has been the lead from the proposing team to
walk you through some of the key discussed points, and then we'll go from there with any questions.
Peter Bumett: You'll be pleased to know I'm looking very closely at the clock. Because we got the
experts right here with us, I'm not going to take any more time, and other than to say that I've served
on a lot of committees in the County and the Town over the last several decades. I really believe this
is as good a group of people as I've ever worked with on such a difficult project. I think that we think
we have more work to do, but I think that we have just all focused on getting the very best information
that will let you all make the very best decision, whatever that turns out to be. With that, I'll turn it over
to Kim.
Kim Hart: I have to ditto what Peter said. I've never had a chance to work with both staff and the
elected officials on a project before I had to throw it over the transom. I have to say, I hope this really
pays off as well as I think it is because its a model that we should follow. I'm not going to keep you
very long. What did I do for the last 10 months with a couple of you and a couple of you, we looked for
deal killers. Is this not going to fly for any particular reason? I'd like to just run through quickly what we
talked about.
First of all, the landfill, we finally got it defined. It's bigger and worse than we thought. $17 million is a
lot of money. It's up to you whether we leave it or remove it. We've tried to come up with options. We
can go either way depending on how you make that decision. I like the four components of the
project. As to the structured parking, the good news is we think we can park all of this and still have
120 or 125 spaces left over we need for the public. Took us a long time to figure that out.
The performing arts center, thank you for Louise Stevens. One of the best people I've ever worked
with. She helped us actually define what we're talking about 5o we're not flailing around. 500 seats for
an auditorium and 400 seats for convention. Sounds right for Leesburg. Sounds right for the market. It
has been confirmed by the performing arts specialists that we talk to that manages these things. Age -
restricted attainable housing, there's no doubt the Town needs that. You've heard me go on about
that mercilessly. The only thing is if you decide to leave the dump in place, I can't build over the top of
that. I'm not allowed to build over a brownfield site. That's where you're going to see some options
tonight where I go to a different place still within the project. I hope you'll hear me say that we're trying
to find a way to do that.
As to the hotel, you know I couldn't be happier that we've got a hotel come to the table. I've admired
Don Knutson's work for years. Again, hats off to Town staff, especially your traffic folks, and James
David's shop for doing that. We looked at the traffic impacts. What I learned from all of that is there's a
big difference between the performing arts center and the convention center. Performing arts center
gets out late in the evening. It's all at once, not unlike a church.
Churches on Sunday figured out how to do it. You get a cop or two paid by the church or by us, and
that's not a big problem. The problem is more of the convention center. When does that traffic lead
out or in? That's more during peak traffic hours. That has to be studied a great deal more. What we're
hearing is convention start a little or their start is a little more mixed, their end is a little more mixed.
That may be a doable fix with known traffic solutions.
Fiscal impact on the Town. Hey, you guys know that all better than I do, but the best news to me was
that I heard that the RCLCO who you use, who I use, who gave us the number that there might be
over half a million in this annually for you guys, that was nice to hear. That's only the tax to you. That's
Page 4IFebruary 26, 2024
not all the other benefits to the other folks in Town that are getting nights of stays and food and drink
sales.
That does come awfully close to the expert that we talked to about what it would cost to run this
facility for you guys under a guaranteed contract at no risk. Long story short, do we find a deal killer?
Not yet. We're not done looking and we're not going to have an opportunity to ask you the real
questions until we get a financial analysis. Before we spend all that time and energy, we need to hear
from you guys if you want us to keep going. Thank you. Great, great team.
Council Member Ara Bagdasarian: You might have to advance the slides too, by the way.
Keith Markel: Just right here.
Don Knutson: Thanks, okay perfect. Hello, Madam Mayor, Members of Council. I'm Don Knutson.
I'm actually a resident of Leesburg. I would echo the comments from Peter and Kim. It really has been
rewarding working on a team, on a project, in my backyard. I walk by the site all the time. I think the
Town planners in the Legacy Leesburg report, if you take a look at this quickly, got it right. This is an
important site.
The plan today calls for Legacy Leesburg, mixed -use hotel, residential, public parking, the opportunity
to really capitalize on old Georgetown Park and make it more than it is today. Last but not least, the
opportunity perhaps, to execute on a public parking strategy to add more parking to the Downtown as
a part of this project. That Al and I are going to do-- Al Storm of DBI--
Alan Storm: I live in the County since 1964. Leesburg is my Town. That's where I go through every
day. We do a lot of work here. This feels like home. I appreciate all the efforts you guys have done for
the last 6 to 10 months, basically, to establish what I consider a good program moving forward. It
really took us a while to get to that. Our first option here will basically show that program.
Don Knutson: Here's just a quick slide from the Legacy Leesburg plan. If you squint you might be
able to see a performing arts center at the end of South Street. We're going to show you four options.
I'm going to let Al go first and talk about-- this is really the original plan, plus the hotel. 1'11 talk about
the hotel in a minute.
Alan Storm: Notice the nice colors, but those aren't going to be used. We're just blocking the space
out so you can see how this area can basically be used. I think we've already talked about this
enough. Like I said, the best part about this whole thing is we went through the process, we looked at
how big a performing arts center should be, and we looked at how much an event center should be,
and then we basically established the parking accordingly.
Don Knutson: I entered the picture after I heard about the game plan for a performing arts center. I'm
the contract purchaser of the lot which is where the white building is shown at the corner of Wirt and
South. I have an under -contract owner is John Zacharias. Been talking to him constantly. He's aware
of everything. My idea was that a hotel would have great synergy with a performing arts center. If you
read Louise Stevens' report, she pointed that out and actually, I think from the original proposal, we're
now calling it a performing arts and event center. It's gotten a little bigger. I think originally, it was
25,000 square feet. Based upon our study, we've expanded it to 40,000, which means it can
accommodate not only 500 people in a theater setting. There would be retractable seating so that the
theater area could accommodate groups and we could also accommodate up to 400 people in events
or conventions.
One of the keys to the economics of this is to use it a lot. When you have more uses associated with
it, conferences, conventions, educational events, it gets more use, and it will become more
economically viable. The hotel we show here is a-- Are we done?
Mayor Burk: [laughs) Your 20 minutes is up. Can you sum it up in the next five minutes?
Don Knutson: All right, 1'11 sum it up. We looked at three other options, real quickly here because,
clearly, $17 million is tough. This option just builds the performing arts center on top of the Liberty Lot.
Moves the affordable housing out so you now have parking underneath. Next option, performing arts
Page 5JFebruary 26, 2024
center on top of the Liberty Lot with a structured precast garage behind it. Hotel to the left and future
development to the right.
The last option, and again, I think this is just the spirit in which we looked at this thing, says, "What if
the Town just did the parking garage, expanded the parking on the Liberty Lot?" Took it from 120
spaces to-- I think this drawing has 420, and moved the performing arts center down onto the Wirt
and South Street location. Very pedestrian -oriented. The future development, hotels, affordable
housing, it'll happen in the rest of the site. This is a solution which you don't have to remediate the
dump, you can build, satisfy the public parking, get a performing arts center and event center. Those
are our four options. I'm done.
Mayor Burk: [chuckles] Do we have any questions at this point? Council Member Cimino -Johnson,
any questions? Council Member Wilt?
Council Member Patrick Wilt: This is very high level. This is going to be a high-level question. On
the capital investment estimates -
Mayor Burk: Thank you.
Council Member Wilt: -were talking $50 million from the Town. There's a public investment. Is that
the number?
Peter Burnett: I think you are at 43, 30 plus 13.
Keith Markel: Depending on the site [crosstalk]
Peter Bumett: Just depending. When we say public, we're also including -
Mayor Burk: You have to go to the mic, please.
Peter Bumett: Sorry, I apologize.
Mayor Burk: That's all right.
Peter Bumett: When we say public, were including what our consultant said we could raise from
private sector and corporate sector. That could be as much as another $10 million, maybe more.
Council Member Wilt: The breakdown I'm looking at is $30 million for the center, $13 million for the
parking garage, $16 million for the site remediation. $59 million?
Peter Bumett: If you include that, yes.
Council Member Wilt: $30, $43. Actually, $59 million were talking as the investment Am I in the
right ballpark?
Peter Bumett: Ves.
Council Member Wilt: Then I didn't quite understand the $500,000. Was that tax revenue?
Peter Bumett: Ves.
Council Member Wilt: What's the total turnover and operating cost to picture? Do we have any
sense? We're not talking about the $500,000 profit.
Peter Burnett: Mr. Lally, who consulted -
Mayor Burk: You need to-- Thank you.
Page Webruary 26, 2024
Peter Burnett: -with us from the Nashua and other operations he has in New England, estimated that
if he were to guarantee a break-even to the Town, his fee to run the operation per year would be
between $200,000 and $400,000. I would invite anybody who was at that meeting to correct me.
That's because what we learned is the operators have to guarantee ticket sales to the national
operations. If ticket sales don't show up, they have to make them up themselves. They obviously try
and avoid that, but that can be an exposure of up to $2 million a year. What they do for that $200,000
to $400,000 is sell tickets, clean the bathrooms, seat people, take care of everything beginning to the
end.
Council Member Wilt: I guess I'm still just a little slow to follow here.
Kim Hart: Would you mind if I took a shot at it?
Council Member Wilt: Sure, Kim. Thanks.
Kim Hart: I like to break it up into pieces. First is the performing arts and events center. Total
construction is about $30 million. The good news is that on the donor side, we've talked to both
professional fundraising company and what I know from my own history, our estimate is that
somewhere between 8 to 10 if not more than that could come from the community to support the art
side. We're a little short on what we can get on the convention side of that because donors don't
support convention centers. What we need to do in our financial analysis is still go see what we can
find from other State, Federal sources to do that. We have not had the time to do that yet. We owe
you that as the financial analysis.
When it comes to the parking garage, we believe that that can be done by a parking authority. The
ability to do that, I think is just working its way through the State legislature right now, and we think -
Mayor Burk: That's for tomorrow.
Kim Hart: -it's on the governor's desk. Well done, you guys. You have some poll. If that goes forward,
those can be done with bonds which were told do not compromise the Town's ability or bonding
ability at all. The only part that you still have to talk about is are you going to allow charging for
parking to help pay for those bonds? Certainly, long-term leases are something that's very popular in
the Town. I think that's good. Second of all, you've got the opportunity to have some overflow parking
leases for myself and Mr. Knutson if we need it. Finally, you have to decide if you're going to charge
for public parking in order to make the deal work.
We don't have the fine-tuning on that yet, but we believe that the parking garage can pay for itself. If
you choose not to mitigate the dump at all, you save yourself $17 million which is why we looked at
that most seriously. All in, were hoping the Town's contribution would be a good deal less than the
$20 million that's left over. We still have to do some homework, but we think you're less than 20,
hopefully not more than 12 or 15. In terms of your question about operations, the performing arts
center and convention center has to be operated by anybody.
We think we talked to one of the best operators in the nation who runs the Nashua, New Hampshire
site. He spent about an hour and a half on the phone with me and about another hour and a half on
the phone with our committee. From that, I came away saying that he felt that a Town like Leesburg
with national acts to support it that he knows he would be able to do a contract, run the whole thing
for $200,000 to $400,000 a year. That would be guaranteed and part of your annual budget and no
risk to the Town, which I thought was really quite something to hear. I feared it was going to be a lot
worse. That was the deal killer t feared the most. It didn't kill me yet.
Council Member Wilt: Okay.
Kim Hart: Is that clear?
Council Member Wilt: I think so. The budget expense, ongoing budget expense commitment from
the Town, would be effectively $400,000 with no risk of going north of that.
Page 7IFebruary 26, 2024
Kim Hart: $200,000 to $400,000 with no risk, yes. The good news is that at least the computation of
RCLCO was that the direct tax revenue to the Town would exceed that.
Council Member Wilt: The source of the tax revenues?
Kim Hart: Oh, please. [inaudible]
Council Member Wilt: Just a big one or two.
Keith Markel: Transit occupancy and meals.
Council Member Wilt: Secondary taxes from?
Keith Markel: From the hotel.
Council Member Wilt: From the hotel. Okay, all right. Thanks.
Mayor Burk: Are you done, Mr. Wilt? Council Member Cummings?
Council Member Zach Cummings: Thank you, everyone, for all of your efforts. Just a couple quick
questions. For staff, are there any-- obviously, I know we're in the early, early, early stages of this. Are
there any concerns from a height standpoint for the historic district of putting on top of the current
Liberty Street tot at its height, a parking deck or the performing arts center?
James David: Thanks for the question. James David from Community Development. Certainly, this is
still conceptual, a high-level review, but building height, especially in this area of Downtown where the
topography slopes down towards the creek, can be a little bit taller than your average building height.
Your average building height in Downtown is about 45 feet. In some instances, you've seen some
buildings down near the branch, go a little taller, but the zoning would require that to step back as it
goes higher. Compatibility is on our mind. It's obviously quite a bit of a proposal nestled in there.
Council Member Cummings: On the public --the performing arts center, it's publicly owned so would
the Town --in your discussions with other communities, would the Town be required to maintain --
Excuse me. Sorry. I don't know why I'm having such a hard time getting this out. Would the Town be
required to cover the maintenance of the building?
Keith Markel: Yes.
Council Member Cummings: That's what I thought.
Keith Markel: All the capital infrastructure would be the Town's responsibility. The best model we
found is where you bring in an operator to run the day-to-day operations and the basic cleaning and
maintenance of that sort.
Council Member Cummings: If the window needs to be replaced, that's Town staff.
Keith Markel: Roof. All the stuff.
Council Member Cummings: Roof. That's Town. On the affordable housing piece with, Mr. Hart,
does the Town have a commitment for funding a portion or any of that part of this project?
Kim Hart: The way I build affordable housing is that I start with long-term housing tax credits which
usually cover about half of the money needed. I then scare up every State and Federal low-income
loan that I can find. At the end of the day, I usually have to come up with about 10% or 15% from a
local jurisdiction. Normally, I would be standing here with my hat in my hand for that from you guys,
but you have the great benefit of being within the greatest jurisdiction of the Loudoun County Housing
Trust Fund, and they've already said that I can come to them for that needed money.
Page 8 February 26, 2024
I've never, frankly, seen a jurisdiction hit it that well that they would be willing to cover that. They've
already said they would. I think this is a rare opportunity for the Town to get affordable housing
through that.
Council Member Cummings: Thanks. Then I guess my final question is just to anybody. I saw, I
think, four options. Are there any options that include just the parking deck and the affordable housing
piece?
Alan Storm: We have not shown that.
Mayor Burk: Council Member Bagdasarian.
Council Member Bagdasarian: Thank you. I just need to echo the comments from the group. It's
been considered to be an exploratory mission, if you will, and that's why we've looked at so many
different models and approaches and what's most viable on the site, what will work given the
infrastructure and everything. For clarification, the proposal, the proposed way forward is to not move
forward with remediation, correct? That's about $15 million off the top of the project. That was a major
concern. That was something that we took off. ,at are the advantages of locating the art center on
Wirt Street --South Street on top of the landfill?
Alan Storm: There's a couple of advantages of two options. Since having the art center on top of the
landfill itself, that would be option number two. We'd look at that primarily where were keeping a low
level. Two levels of garage. That's included with the fine arts on top of it. It encapsulates everything
you have that has to do with the Town. In a way, it's nice because its all on one site.
Council Member Bagdasarian: Got it. Thank you.
Alan Storm: All three options, I might say, work pretty well, in relationship to the original concept. I
think the nice part about it is the reason I handed that out to you is because we didn't have much time
tonight, and we put a lot of detail in the back sections of the book there. You can go in there and you
can see from the plans and other details. Certainly, if there's any questions, you can certainly call us.
We'll be glad to answer.
Council Member Bagdasarian: Thank you.
Mayor Burk: Sir. Excuse me. You didn't identify yourself previously.
Alan Storm: I'm sorry. Alan Storm.
Mayor Burk: You're from?
Alan Storm: I'm from Loudoun County.
Mayor Burk: Thank you. Ms. Nacy, Council Member Nacy?
Council Member Kari Nacy: Thank you. Mr. Hart, I think you mentioned something briefly where one
of the options, you can't put the affordable housing over the landfill. I think you mentioned. Could you
give a little more background on that? Option one wouldn't work basically.
Kim Hart: At the time we started, the original plan was to remove the dump. That made it possible for
me to be there and even buy the ground. Unfortunately, when you decide to leave the brownfeld
there, there are two problems with that. My principal funding agency, Virginia Housing, doesn't like
that. That, in their eyes, creates liabilities for them they don't want to get into.
Then, second of all, I have to go to the investors, the low-income housing tax credit investors. They're
highly risk averse. I'm not saying that anything would go wrong, but there are bad people in the world
who will take advantage of anything. God forbid, should somebody in my apartment get sick living on
top of that, they would, of course, know what that cause was, whether it was true or not.
Page 9IFebruary 26, 2024
Council Member Nacy: That makes sense. Thank you. That was it. Thank you.
Mayor Burk: Okay. Vice Mayor?
Vice Mayor Neil Steinberg: Thanks. Thanks for the presentation. It's been some 10 months since we
embarked on this study and this journey. One of the things I've discovered is how much I absolutely
don't know about this whole process.
[laughter]
Its been great to have all these professionals in the room both on their own dime or a couple that
we've paid for their levels of expertise. I think the example of our seeing different iterations of this
thing demonstrates just how complex and fluid this process has been, and were not there yet. We've
heard a variety of options, one of which involves not remediating the landfill. We could certainly
choose to do that or we may decide, "We're going to go ahead and remediate the landfill." We don't
know yet but that comes as a pretty hefty price tag, we do know that.
The question for us at this point is, do we feel, does Council have the desire, the will, to allow us to
continue the conversation to see where we can go and what the possibilities are, and how many of
these components we can maintain, and where in the end they wind up on the site? It's been, for me,
a very exciting process. I think there's probably enough interest in the community, especially the
donating community, that if we manage to put together a project that's attractive, that we could find
substantial dollars from the private sector.
If we speak to our Economic Development, we might hear how exciting it would be to have a
convention/meeting space Downtown which is something we've heard from a variety of the local
businesses that, for example, the Birkby House which is booked all the time people come and do
weddings, but there's no place to stay in the Downtown area. Parts of this project could fulfill that. We
also then understand how the tax dollars that would be created through these ancillary uses would
benefit the Downtown.
The point is we've got a ways to go yet, and it will be up to the Council to decide if we want to keep
pursuing this. I recognize that we're not precisely where the original RFP was, and the Town's
financial commitment could be larger than we originally anticipated, but is this something that we see
as a vision for the Downtown and the residents of the Town in general? Thanks.
Mayor Burk: Well, I've got quite a few questions here [chuckles]. First off, I want to thank you all very
much. I know it's been a work of love, and that all of you have visions much more, much more
stronger than I. I'm more of a doer. You guys have the visions to figure this out, and I'm very
impressed with that. Thank you very much for doing that. I don't disagree that a performing arts place
would be-- a center would be a great thing to have. My concern, and this is not new, this is what I
have expressed over and over and over again. My concern centers around the Town owning the
performing arts center. That gives me pause.
The thought that the Town would be responsible for managing it in any way, yes we'd hire somebody
out to do it, hopefully, that causes me also-- I have to really pause and think about this. I'm trying to
keep a very open mind about this whole thing because I think having a performing arts center would
be a very interesting and exciting thing to have Downtown. I think the 55 and older affordable housing
would be very exciting. Its something that we don't have any of in Leesburg. That most certainly
would be something that would be well worthwhile to have.
When I look at your maps, they're very creative. You've tried to solve problems. They're very intense
and I'm thinking of the neighborhood where they are, and what will be the ramifications to that
neighborhood. If you're talking about a convention center -type thing, and I realize it's going to be
smaller convention center. It's not going to be like the convention center in Downtown Richmond.
There will be traffic ramifications to it, to those neighborhoods. I would really have to know what those
traffic ramifications are going to be in the impact to those neighborhoods. I feel like not having to
empty the old landfill is to our advantage if we can keep the 55 and older also in this project down
underneath.
Page 10IFebruary 26, 2024
I also have a question about-- this is a 75 -room hotel. We're right now having one that's being built
that's a 40 -room hotel right down street from it. Is there enough demand to be able to maintain two
hotels so close to each other? That would be a question that I would have. I did talk to a former
Council Member from Arlington. They had a performing arts center that was smaller than this. It
included a lot of art and a lot of separate rooms, add-on rooms that people could do things. They
ended up putting a great deal of money into it, the locality, put a great deal of money into it, and they
ended up closing it. It was such a drain on their budget.
This Council Member cautioned me to be careful about what we agreed to. Maybe we could make it
work when Arlington couldn't. Arlington also has other facilities that they have put money into. Maybe
it was just this one just didn't work. Wasn't managed the way it needed to be. I'm not picking on
Arlington because they have lots of other alternatives and have a real dedication to the performing
arts.
I'm not ready to pull the plug on this by any manner of means, but I want you to understand my
concerns, al least, of what I'm concerned about. When we put the RFP out, my original thought was
we were going to give the piece of property to the developer and that would be it, and that would be
our responsibility. We would empty the landfill, and that would be it.
The proposals we have before us are quite different than that thinking. I have to take some time to
think about this and try to weigh what it is, how it works, and is it worth the effort that were asking you
to put in to? I think the traffic study, I think the staffing study, I think we got to know-- were going to
have to build the parking lot now. It just gives me some hesitation. As I said, I'm not necessarily
asking for us to pull ft at this point. This is very high level. I'd like to see some more details, but I do
have concerns. I don't know where we go from here. Is there something that you all want from us at
this point?
Peter Burnett: I think this group of talented, committed people getting together, that we all have
similar idea of what you said, is that it's very high level, and it's time for us to break down into the
really minutia, particularly the economic side of it. We do still have $10,000 or so from the original
$30,000 budget. It may be, and we've talked about this a little bit, that it would be wise to use some or
all of that for a Financial Sourcing Advisor, if you will.
My notion is that we should be looking at every other source, every other than the Town's tax dollars,
and let's see what the fill-in at the end has to be from the Town. We don't know that yet. I think to your
concerns, they're perfectly legitimate, and that we need to go to that next step and look much more
closely so that we have solid information upon which to make decisions.
Mayor Burk: Did you want an indication tonight from us tonight that we would like you to continue on
with this?
Peter Burnett: If you'd all stand up and cheer, that'd be great.
[laughter]
Mayor Burk: One, two, three, no. Do we have four people that would be interested in continuing with
this project and moving forward?
Council Member Cummings: [inaudible]
Mayor Burk: I think you have -
Peter Bumett: Thank you.
Mayor Burk: -just about everybody. [laughs] Thank you. Again, thank you all very much. Truly
appreciate your efforts and the fact that you're interested in this and that you're excited to make
Leesburg a place where people would like to come and see art for the value of art. Thank you.
Kim Hart: Thank you, (inaudible]. Thanks for getting me out of here early.
Page 11 February 26, 2024
Mayor Burk: Okay. I hope you all feel better.
Kim Hart: I was eager to be home in bed.
Mayor Burk: Thank you very much for coming, and most certainly I hope you feel better. Okay. Next
item, the 2023 Legacy Leesburg Annual Report.
Richard Klusek: Madam Mayor, Members of Council, good evening. Rich Klusek here to present to
you the 2023 Legacy Leesburg Annual Report. By way of background, Legacy Leesburg, the Town
plan, was first adopted on March 22, 2022. It is a document that is required by State Code. It guides
growth in the Town, but most importantly, it reflects the community values and it reflects the various
strategies intended to achieve those community values.
Our goal this evening is to present that annual report to you to essentially keep the document fresh.
Your first annual report was actually presented on April 10, 2023. We are trying to move this annual
report presentation forward so that it can also be a component of your CIP and budget discussions
moving forward. The document itself is proactive, meaning it's intended to put the Town in the driver's
seat to implement a lot of the strategies that you see. It's also ambitious with many strategies.
In fact, many strategies that probably we'll never see come to completion, because there are so many
and there are so many different things that we can do, and it's also intended to be dynamic to respond
to the various changes that we see in the economy and life in Leesburg in general. You'll recall that
the plan is organized around five guiding principles dealing with Town character and authenticity,
business and the economy, transportation mobility, enhancing neighborhoods and improving home
choices, and parks, open spaces, greenways, and natural resources.
The policy framework for this document revolves, again, around those five guiding principles which
serve as the foundation for decision -making, followed by a series of goals and initiatives to set the
overall direction, and specific policies and actions in the form of strategies that the Council can
implement. The 2023 annual report, again, is intended to report on progress in the last year. It's
intended to help Council prioritize future efforts, to relate the planning efforts to the Council goals, and
most importantly to keep Legacy Leesburg relevant.
A couple of key highlights, Council initiated several major efforts in 2022 that are ongoing. 94 out of
the 148 total strategies are in progress. Staff continues to review legislative applications and make
recommendations to advance the goals of Legacy Leesburg, and there are four staff
recommendations from 2022 that have been carried forward. This is a multi -departmental effort where
people from various departments have contributed to report on progress made with various strategies
for Planning and Zoning, Public Works, Parks and Recreation, Economic Development, Utilities, as
well as the Town Manager's office.
Again, looking at those strategies, there are 117 in progress, 31 that have not been started, and this
year there are zero strategies that are completed. I think that in the spirit of always trying to improve,
we can expect that these strategies or full implementation of the plan will in fact never be completed.
There's always more to do. The plan has two different types of strategies. Strategies that revolve
around legislative application review and ongoing business processes, and strategies that really
revolve around council -initiated efforts.
When we look at where Council action is needed, there are 52 strategies that need Council initiation,
there are two efforts that are in 2023 were initiated by Town Council, and there are 94 strategies with
ongoing implementation efforts. You might recall based on your previous retreat, there were a number
of Council goals that were identified. 36 of the strategies in Legacy Leesburg are in direct support of
those goals. Those goals focused on arts, culture, and entertainment, land use policy, economic
development, environmental stewardship, and transportation.
Council has initiated several items related to these goals, including the Historic and Architectural
Survey, the Crescent District Master Plan, the Zoning Ordinance Rewrite, a Town -wide Transportation
Study, Capital Intensity Factors, as well as numerous sustainability efforts. Other notable
achievements, again, we have some major land use studies in progress, including the Zoning
Ordinance Rewrite, the Crescent District Master Plan, and amendments to the Zoning Ordinance to
Page 121February 26, 2024
allow continuing care facilities. We have ongoing implementation of the Capital Improvements Plan.
We have Veterans Park in progress now, which is a major new parkland for the Town. We have a
number of sustainability efforts looking at solar power as well as expansion of the Town's EV fleet We
have continued efforts in the arts. In terms of transportation, we now have a Downtown Transportation
Study in progress as well as a central rebuilding of the Town's transportation model.
We have ongoing economic development efforts, including the Leesburg Economic Development
Strategic Plan, which was recently adopted. We have a number of environmental efforts related to
preserving and enhancing the tree canopy. We have a number of efforts ongoing related to parking
and improving parking in the Downtown. That was a brief overview of some of the things that we have
accomplished in the last year, and again, happy to answer any questions that you might have.
Mayor Burk: Thank you. Very exciting. Does anybody have any questions on this? Mr. Cummings.
Council Member Cummings: Yes, just a few. You talked about there are 90, give or take, initiatives
happening right now, and that there are 52 that need Council's initiation. What is staffs capacity?
Where are you all at on capacity to handle Council initiated efforts or any of the efforts, just because
we don't want to overload you and --
Richard Klusek: In terms of Planning and Zoning specifically, obviously there are a number of major
efforts going on right now, most notably the Zoning Ordinance Rewrite and the Crescent District
Master Plan. These strategies touch a wide number of different departments and would really be
dependent on the specific ask.
Council Member Cummings: Mike, I had a question specifically on, I think its 4.3.8, which is the
charging stations. Sorry, I'm just trying to pull it up here. It says that the Town is exploring options of
adding charging stations and charging stations have been ordered. You may not know, but someone
can get back to me. Do you know which company we've ordered those charging stations from, and,
also what the voltage is at those stations?
Richard Klusek: James David apparently knows the answer to that.
James David: Partial answer. A lot of jurisdictions use that charge point technology, and I think that's
what we were looking at initially. We ran into a few snags, when we tried to convert that to a public -
facing charging infrastructure so you could actually charge patrons for the time they're using the
charging stations. Going back to the drawing board on which company to use to interface well with the
Town's credit card strategy. We're going to implement those first four that we ordered in Town
operational facilities.
Council Member Cummings: One company that I would recommend talking to, because they're a
Loudoun based company actually, is Electrify America. They actually were started in Herndon, moved
their offices to Sterling. Maybe we can get them to move them even farther west to Leesburg. I've
talked to them, and they're very interested in working and partnering with local governments,
especially with all of the additional Federal funds that are available through President Biden's Build
Back Better Plan, whatever one of those it was, the infrastructure plan. Something just to think about
and put on our radar, because they're here in Loudoun and willing to work with local governments.
James David: Excellent. Good timing because we're looking for additional vendor opportunities.
Council Member Cummings: The one comment I would make is the quicker charger, so it's more
power, more electric is what I would recommend for public chargers, especially if you're going to
charge for them, because you make more money off of the higher voltage.
Council Member Todd Cimino -Johnson: Level 3.
Council Member Cummings: The level 3 charger.
James David: Thank you.
Council Member Cummings: Thank you.
Page 13IFebruary 26, 2024
Mayor Burk: That from the two gentlemen that have electric cars, so they know what they're talking
about.
Council Member Cummings: Sometimes I don't feel like I know what I'm talking about with my car,
but --
Mayor Burk: Maybe, I gave you a little more credit.
Council Member Cummings: Yes. The only other thing that I saw that I wanted to just highlight, one
of the needing of Council initiated items is a streetscape improvement projects along Catoctin Circle.
One of the things I will be doing later, either tonight or in a future budget discussion is asking for us to
look at either a work session to discuss a study of that or if we can find the revenue and the budget
for fiscal year' 25 is to go ahead and just begin the process of redesigning Catoctin Circle, because it
really is needed for safety, especially.
James David: Thank you for that. I think you'll see that recommendation coming from the Planning
Commission as well, and then you'll see more of that as we come back with the Crescent District
Master Plan update.
Mayor Burk: Anyone else? All right. Thank you very much. We appreciate the update.
Richard Klusek: Thank you. Sure. Have a good evening.
Mayor Burk: Thank you. Okay. Our next item for discussion is the Proposed Budget for Fiscal Year
2025 General Fund Key Enhancements and Capital Projects. Pardon me.
Eileen Boeing: [inaudible]
Mayor Burk: Pardon me — I still didn't hear you. 10 minutes. Yeah. [laughter] Are we ready?
Renee LaFollette: Ready.
Mayor Burk: Okay.
Renee LaFollette: Good evening, Madam Mayor, Members of Council. For the budget presentation
tonight, first up is the Capital Improvement Program. In the proposed 25 to 30 CIP, there are 75
projects with a value of approximately $308.6 million. That includes 11 new projects, nine of which are
general government and two are in utilities. For fiscal year 25, there are 41 projects for a total of $45 1
million and utility funds projects account for approximately 32% of the fiscal year 2025 funding, and
streets makes up approximately 53% of the budget for 2025. I'll make mention that there's one project
that is skewing that number very high, which is the interchange project at the bypass Edwards Ferry
in Fort Evans. That's a $200 million project, so that is skewing the number slightly.
Our CIP trends over the last 10 years are one of growth, not only in the number of projects, but also in
the complexity of projects and the dollar value that goes along with the complexity of the projects. If
we look at just by project number versus dollar value, Streets has about 29% of the projects, and
Utilities has approximately 27% just by number of projects, not by dollar value. The project budget
changes reflect updated estimates and follow the construction cost index that's reported by the
engineering news record.
The CCI is applied in the Fiscal Year that is draft, so your 25 budget, we use these values and then
we use 3% in 26 through 30 to the midpoint of construction. This year we use 6% for design based on
that index, where last year design was at 4%. Construction this year, the horizontal came down to 3%,
where last year it was running at 6%. Vertical stayed the same at 11%. Land acquisition this year
based on assessments and values of properties sold, we use 7.5%, where last year it was closer to
16%.
We added 11 new projects to the CIP, one at Parks and Rec, which Rich Williams talked to Council
about, which is the outdoor volleyball court. For Streets, we added two for traffic signals. One, traffic
signal replacements, where we have poles that are aging out, but some of which have been in the
Page 14IFebruary 26, 2024
ground for 30 years and are in need of replacement. The other one, we requested highway
improvement, safety highway improvement funding from VDOT to do yellow flashing arrows at
strategic intersections and that project will move forward if we get that funding from VDOT.
Storm Drainage, we added four projects and most of those are tied directly to our Chesapeake Bay
total maximum daily load reduction of nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment. Airport, we have two
projects that we added and Utilities we added two as well. Other key CIP projects that were added are
all in process, in progress in some points, from the Police Station expansion, which is under
construction now. Our Town Shop expansion, which is in design. We have playground surface and
equipment replacements that are ongoing.
Streets and Highways, Evergreen Mill Road widening, we are just about ready to go into land
acquisition phase on that project Morven Park Road sidewalk, we have one property, Virginia Tech,
that we need to get a letter of permission from. That one will be advertised this spring for construction.
Then we have our Stormwater Drainage, stormwater project, Lawson Road pedestrian crossing. We
finally got our FEMA approval on that one, so we'll be moving to land acquisition on that project as
well. Miscellaneous storm drainage is a lot of maintenance and repair of items that we have found in
the last couple of years. Our Town Branch Stream Channel at Mosby in design, working with
residents and answering questions on that one.
The Air Traffic Control Tower Siting Study, they had a site visit last week on that. Then we have two
Utilities projects, the waterline improvements and repairs. That one ties to a lot of our capital. Other
capital projects where they replaced water and sewer line before or during our construction projects
and in other areas as well. Then the Water Pollution Control Facility, solids processing improvements,
that one's a mouthful.
The one proposed key enhancement for the Capital Projects Fund is an additional Construction
Manager, and that is due to the workload and the complexity of the projects that we're dealing with
now in the Capital Program. That is as you can see, the numbers on screen here for salary, benefits,
and vehicle and equipment. With that, I will answer questions on the CIP.
Mayor Burk: All right. Anyone have any questions? Yes, Mr. Cummings?
Council Member Cummings: Sorry. I will, I have a couple Airport questions. I'll wait for Scott to get
up. Scott, the purchase of the FBO hangar, which is in the -- looks like back stretched out to 2030 for
$2.4 million give or take. Just confused. Why would we purchase that hangar?
Scott Coffman: That lease that started almost 40 years ago, has a buyout clause at the end of it, so
either we put it out for bid and the public can bid and buy it out or the Town can buy it out. The idea of
it being more advantageous to have the Town own it and then for the next 40 years instead of just
doing another land lease and having somebody else own it, the financial benefits to the Town would
be better if we owned it.
Council Member Cummings: Then we would rent it back to the FBO?
Scott Coffman: Then we'd rent it back.
Council Member Cummings: Then the parking lot expansion, I'm just curious if there's- have we
done a study on this or is there-- Not that I want to do another study, but is there a need for it?
Scott Coffman: My personal study of parking there every day is that the parking lot is often 80% to
90% full, sometimes 100% full with people parking in the grass. Got to remember, our airport has
increased traffic by 60% since 2019, the past five years, so we're watching the parking lot fill up as
well. We had some relief during COVID when-- There's an FAA tenant there that has 65 employees. A
lot of those people have come back to work, so we have to provide parking for them. This project
would be funded by the State. We've already talked to the State and they're really trying to-- they
have a lot of money right now, at least in that pot.
Mayor Burk: Take it, take it.
Page 15IFebruary 26, 2024
Scott Coffman: They're trying to get us to do projects.
Council Member Cummings: All right. Perfect. Then my last airport one is not really a— I'll give a
quick comment. We talked about-- there's a CIP entry for the west side development and some funds
to be spent in the future. My opinion on that is, I think as a Council we need to determine how we
want to see that used before we put any money into developing it, and we need to do our due
diligence and have our conversations earlier before so we can craft a plan for that west side. Then my
final question is on the W&OD trail lighting. Obviously, we've gotten some— I've heard from residents
on this, and I know we've spent some money already and at least sent letters out to the residents
along the trail. Can you just walk me through what we've done up to this point?
Renee LaFollette: So, what we've done up to this point is sent those letters and signed a task order
with our Design Engineering Firm to begin the survey work. The first step in the process is to fully
determine what land rights we have with Nova Parks and determine the layout of the lights, so that's
the first thing we have to do is that survey work. Once we get to that point, then like I said, start
looking at the layout of the lights, what type of lights, how far from the trail. There's going to be a lot of
meetings between the Town, Dominion, Nova Parks, and we will also be having meetings with the
residents to inform them of what the project exactly is, what the spacing and the layout of the lighting
will be, what the options for lighting are. This project was initially framed after what Reston and
Herndon have done along the W&OD Trail. We'd requested money from Senator Wexton and Bucco.
We have an earmark of $500,000 of Federal money on this project. If we get an approved budget out
of DC, potentially get that. We have options. We haven't done a whole lot of work on this project yet.
Council Member Cummings: My hope would be that we would spend time early on talking with the
residents to determine, one, what their appetite is for the lighting, and really make sure that they
understand what type of lighting we're looking at. I think personally, what I've heard from my
neighbors, I've talked to my neighbors who back to their homes front the trail, so they back to the trail,
a lower to the ground light would be something that they would be happier with, rather than a taller
light. Like we saw in the examples from Herndon, Reston, wherever we looked at. I don't know if its
possible to have the order be, talk with the public, get their ideas, get their input before we spend a lot
more money to embark upon this just because it is affecting folks' properties. Thank you.
Mayor Burk: Ironic that you made brought that up, because yesterday, Renee met me on a Sunday
and walked the trail with me on that very question. Then I went to Herndon, and I have pictures of the
lights at Herndon. I came back and talked to her about that we really need to have that discussion
with the public. Then I went to an event that night in Nova Parks, or Algonkian, and they had those
bollards, low lights that did very well. There's options there. I do appreciate you meeting me on a
Sunday to walk with your dog.
Renee LaFollette: You're welcome.
Mayor Burk: Mr. Bagdasarian.
Council Member Bagdasarian: So, I was thinking more of a line of stadium lighting, very bright
lights.
Mayor Burk: Shiny in your house.
Council Member Bagdasarian: Exactly. Oh, yes. Just away from my house. Also, a couple things. I
have an Airport question. As far as the Evergreen Mill Road expansion, please refresh my memory on
that. That includes a sidewalk, correct?
Renee LaFollette: Yes, that includes a sidewalk on one side and a trail on the other. The sidewalk
would be on what would be the west side of the road, and the trail is on the east side, so Heritage
High School, Freedom Park, and the middle school side will be the trail, and the opposite side will be
the sidewalk.
Council Member Bagdasarian: Great.
Renee LaFollette: For the full length.
Page 16IFebruary 26, 2024
Council Member Bagdasarian: Got it. Thank you. I also think we need to, when it comes to the
Airport, look at the expansion, the west side of that, where we see things happening in the future with
the Airport. If you also wouldn't mind refreshing my memory, you mentioned that the Airport has
grown by about 60% since 2019. What would you attribute most of that growth to?
Mayor Burk: Schools.
Scott Coffman: During COVID, a lot of people turned to private general aviation, so all of our flight
schools started booming. They were buying new airplanes. All of our hangers and our parking spots
build up, and that growth continues to today.
Council Member Bagdasarian: Thank you.
Mayor Burk: I thought you had more questions. Sorry. I have just a couple of short questions. One of
them is Streets and Highways, which one did you see you had to get easement from Virginia Tech
from?
Renee LaFollette: Virginia Tech, For Morven Park, we need to do a change on the sanitary sewer.
They're in agreement. They just have to sign a letter of permission.
Mayor Burk: It's not expanding the sidewalk to Morven Park?
Renee LaFollette: No, it's just a sanitary sewer tie-in.
Mayor Burk: Do we have any plans of going on dry Mill Road, providing some sort of trail to the
Morven Park entrance?
Renee LaFollette: Yes, there is a project in the CIP to include a trail from the parking lot on the
backside of Ida Lee to the pedestrian entrance to Morven Park.
Mayor Burk: Great. The Lawson Road pedestrian crossings, that will done, that will be started when?
Renee LaFollette: We will be doing land acquisition shortly and hope to have that project out to bid
this summer to be completed this time next year.
Mayor Burk: Shoot, another whole year. Wow.
Renee LaFollette: It depends on weather. We're working across the creek, so it'll be very weather
dependent.
Mayor Burk: Those people have been waiting a long time, so I know they're very anxious. Because
there are times when you try to go across that creek and you're really taking chances on it. When do
we hope to have the police expansion completed?
Renee LaFollette: Right now, it looks like we'll be mid late fall to early winter of 2025 for the final
completion date.
Mayor Burk: Then my last question was just the playground surfaces and equipment replacement.
Are we going to publicize which playgrounds will be replaced?
Renee LaFollette: I have not talked to Parks and Recreation about that, but I will follow up with them
on that.
Mayor Burk: It would be good if we could make sure that those neighbors know that that's going on,
moving forward. All right. Thank you.
Renee LaFollette: You're welcome.
Mayor Burk: Our next budget discussion will be-- Yes?
Page 171February 26, 2024
Kaj Dentler: You have a quick discussion remaining tonight on the two enhancements for the
General Fund.
Mayor Burk: That's right. I am sorry. You put them together, and that just confused me. Sorry.
Cole Fazenbaker: It was confusing for sure. I have one whole slide, and its on our General Fund
proposed key enhancements. Just for the public, my name's Cole Fazenbaker. I'm the Management
Budget Officer for the Town. Our first General Fund Enhancement is a contribution to the Leesburg
Movement, and it's a Council approved Main Street program. We're using $30,000 of Unassigned
Fund Balance for that in the Fiscal Year 2025 budget. Then the second enhancement is the school
zone speed cameras. There will be two locations yet to be identified. Then the related expenditures is
about $90,000, and that's for part-time staff to really monitor the cameras and review the footage and
implement the tickets. It does have a net positive budget impact to the General Fund.
Mayor Burk: Is there any way that certain Members up here could push for Catoctin School to be one
of the schools that would get the cameras? You don't need to answer that. All right, is there any
questions on this? I think that's straightforward. We've all wanted to get the Leesburg Main Street
program going and the speed cameras were an opportunity to make the school areas safer. All right.
Mr. Dentler, tomorrow we have the Personal Property Tax Rate public hearing. That's not the final
discussion on the budget.
Kaj Dentler: No, that's just one task that's got to get done to finalize the budget.
Mayor Burk: All right, and then our next budget work session will be Monday the 111h.
Kaj Dentler: Correct. Your schedule is to have the budget approved and completed on the 19th of
March.
Mayor Burk: Does anybody have any agenda items they want to bring forward at this point? Vice
Mayor?
Vice Mayor Steinberg: Yes, thank you. Well, I want to echo comments that were made in the earlier
discussion regarding planning for Catoctin Circle and include in that section of East Market basically
from the flyover on the east end to Mom's Apple Pie. I think we need to look at both of these sections
of Town and see if we can start talking about more comprehensive designs and whether or not the
Town, in its best interest, should consider public investment to be recovered from the private sector
as development advances in the future. I would like to have a discussion about that, about planning
for Catoctin Circle and Market Street.
Mayor Burk: Yes, did you have a question? Oh, you were just saying? Are there four people that
want to have that, a work session on that?
Council Member Nacy: I think so.
Council Member Bagdasarian: I've got a question. I think so. Would that be outside the Crescent
District Master Plan? This is a very specific discussion.
Vice Mayor Steinberg: I think this is more specific than the Crescent District Master Plan. We're
talking about Catoctin Circle from South King to Market, and were talking about Market Street from
Mom's Apple Pie east to the flyover. Those two areas.
Mayor Burk: Got it.
Vice Mayor Steinberg: In terms of a grander vision for those two.
Council Member Nacy: [inaudible] we took a long way around getting there.
[laughter]
Page 18IFebruary 26, 2024
Vice Mayor Steinberg: I can be more circular if you'd like. Also, I know the Planning Commission is
going to come to us with an idea --
Mayor Burk: Well, wait a minute. Wait, don't --
Vice Mayor Steinberg: Oh, I thought we had that done.
Kaj Dentler: Madam Mayor, I just want to confirm, are you looking, Mr. Vice Mayor, for this to be part
of our budget discussion or totally outside? Because ultimately, you'll need funds to -
Vice Mayor Steinberg: yes, of course.
Kaj Dentler: -analyze and design options. I didn't know if you wanted to incorporate it into the budget
for funding, which you could use from the Unassigned Fund Balance, should you choose to go
forward. That would be the easiest way. Then we can start a process for deeper conversation. Or we
just have an internal conversation, and I'll do it with our staff until you figure out what you may or may
not want to do.
Vice Mayor Steinberg: We might be better served if we let the budget process play out and then
figure out how we want to approach this conversation. I assume we could always assign funds after
the fact if we need to.
Kaj Dentler: Yes, you may. I think if you know that you ultimately, if you want to do it, if there's a
majority, you would want to consider adding study funds to the budget. As you know, I took out
$500,000 of the budget, so there are no study funds in the proposed budget. If this is an important
item for you, you'd want to add money into the budget.
Vice Mayor Steinberg: We would need that as an enhancement.
Kaj Dentler: I think you might want to consider incorporating into the budget, so we have something
to work with, and then a future discussion.
Vice Mayor Steinberg: Better still. Okay. Thank you.
Mayor Burk: Are there four people that want to do that? What you just said. Yes. [chuckles[ All right.
Anyone else? Okay. I have two things. One, a former Mayor Jim Clem passed away a couple of
weeks ago and I would like to present his family with a proclamation at the next meeting. Do I have
four people that would be in favor of that? Okay, everybody. Then the next one came from a group of
people that live over off of Sycolin Road. They are concerned about the exit that comes out of the
Cornerstone Church on Sycolin Road.
Like the intersection or the exit that comes out of the church onto Battlefield, there are Police Officers
there that the church pays for and these residents on Sycolin and Tolbert are asking that if we could
please ask the Cornerstone Church to do the same thing on that exit. That it blocks them from getting
out for an extended period of time. It's a very popular church and there's lots of cars that are coming
in and out of there.
One of them told me they missed their opportunity to get to church on time. They were hoping that we
would ask the church if they would be considerate of their neighbors and do the same thing at their
Sycolin exit. Do we have four people that would be willing to do that? Thank you. Yes? You look
confused.
Council Member Cimino -Johnson: I was about to ask a question. You answered it.
Council Member Wilt: Can I ask you a question on that?
Mayor Burk: Yes, sure.
Page 19IFebruary 26, 2024
Council Member Wilt: When there are special events or regular events such as this, are there
zoning or traffic requirements that drive the use of Police Officers for traffic control? Or is this a
voluntary effort in all cases?
Kaj Dentler: I'm going to ask, first off, if Renee and Captain Smith will come forward. When
Cornerstone was built, I know that the Council, I don't know what well call it, agreement for approval
was that they would monitor the traffic coming in and out of the facility off of Battlefield. I thought there
was a traffic light at Tolbert and Sycolin. Anyway, these two can address it in further detail.
Renee LaFollette: When Cornerstone did their expansion, the access onto Battlefield, there was an
agreement with Cornerstone that they would provide police presence, whether its LPD or Sheriff for
that entrance and exit, but with the traffic signal at Sycolin and Tolbert, there was no request or
agreement that they provide additional officers at that location.
Mayor Burk: I'm assuming these people live in the townhouses and they're trying to get out. I'm not
familiar enough to know where they're coming out.
Renee LaFollette: The traffic signal would give priority to Sycolin Road, and then the cross street
would be by the loop on Tolbert on both sides for that traffic signal. We could probably look at the
timing of the traffic signal for when church services let out, but [inaudible]
Mayor Burk: Can we at least do that much to see, because I'm not familiar enough with the area to
know exactly where they're coming out of and where they're getting stuck. It was a group of people
that stopped me.
Renee LaFollette: It would be right at Sycolin Road. All of those townhouses come out to Miller Drive
and then either go to Battlefield or over to Tolbert and then Tolbert to Sycolin. Then the Cornerstone
Chapel comes into the cul-de-sac and their parking lot comes off of the opposite side to that traffic
signal.
Council Member Wilt: The request was there's an automatic signal that were talking about, and the
request was to have Police Officers temporarily there direct traffic and override the traffic signal.
Mayor Burk: That was the request. They didn't talk about the traffic signal.
Council Member Wilt: I think if our signal is not doing what we need it to do, let's get it to do that first.
Renee LaFollette: I would have us monitor the video to see what we can do from a timing
perspective before we put an officer out there.
Mayor Burk: All right. They did specify that it was something they felt that the church should pay for,
not the Town, just to be on -- anyway, thank you. That's all I have. Is there --
Chris Spera: [inaudible] one additional request.
Mayor Burk: Oh, thank you. I have it here somewhere. I thought I had it here somewhere. Did (--
Chris Spera: [inaudible].
Mayor Burk: Thank you. There is a request from Allison Callaway of Conscious Planet. She would
like to have March 21 •', 2024, proclaimed as Save Soil Day. The date of the presentation she would
like to be March 12'^. Are there four people that would be okay with doing a proclamation for Save Soil
Day? Okay. Everyone. The second one is the proclamation from me, requester is me. We just need to
do the top one? Okay, thank you. Hand it back to her. I don't know where it went to Eileen. Do I have
a motion at this point?
Vice Mayor Steinberg: So moved.
Council Member Cumming: Second.
Page 20IFebruary 26, 2024
Mayor Burk: All in favor?
Members: Aye
Mayor Burk: Opposed? We are done.
Page 21 (February 26, 2024