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HomeMy Public PortalAbout2024_tcwsmin0311Council Work Session March 11, 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 7:03 p.m.), Vice Mayor Neil Steinberg, and Mayor Kelly Burk. Council Members Absent: Patrick Wilt. Staff Present: Town Manager Kaj Dentler, Town Attomey Christopher Spera, Deputy Town Manager Keith Markel, Assistant Town Manager Kate Trask, Airport Director Scott Coffman, Community Development Director James David, Economic Development Director Russell Seymour, Parks and Recreation Director Rich Williams, Public Works and Capital Projects Director Renee LaFollette, Utilities Director Amy Wyks, Leesburg Police Major Vanessa Grigsby, Community Development Chief Engineer William Ackman, Public Works and Capital Projects Deputy Director Chris Kohr, Capital Projects Assistant Director Douglas Wagner, Finance Deputy Director/Treasurer Lisa Haley, Management and Budget Officer Cole Fazenbaker, Deputy Management and Budget Officer Tamara Keesecker, Senior Management Analyst Betsy Arnett, Community Development Sustainability Manager Deb Moran, Parks and Recreation Events and Outreach Manager Linda Fountain, Management and Budget Analyst Liz Weaver and Clerk of Council Eileen Boeing. Minutes prepared by Deputy Clerk of Council Lyndon Gonzalez. AGENDA 1. Items for Discussion a. Energy Efficiency Conversation Strategy (EECS) Ms. Deb Moran presented Council with an update on the Energy Efficiency Conversation Strategy (EECS) for the Town. The EECS establishes goals to reduce energy use in the Town's operations. By establishing the EECS the Town would be eligible to receive a Federal grant in the amount of $76,000. ITEMS Council and staff discussed the item. It was the consensus of Council to move the item to the March 12, 2024, Consent Agenda. b. Leesburg Service Line Compliance Camoaipn Ms. Amy Wyks presented Council with an update on the Lead and Copper Rule revisions required by the Environmental Protection Agency, and previewed the Town's Service Line Compliance Campaign that will be sent out to residents to help Utilities gather the necessary information to comply with the October inventory deadline. Council and staff discussed the item. No further action is required for this item. liPage Council Work Session March 11, 2024 c. Proposed Budget for Fiscal Year 2025 — Boards & Commissions, Leesburg Movement, Utilities Fund, and Initial Mark -Up Session Mr. Cole Fazenbaker presented Council with the proposed budget for the Boards and Commissions. Mr. Kaj Denier presented Council with the Leesburg Movement's request to add Saturday night street closures during the summer and the effect that would have on the budget. Ms. Wyks gave an overview of the Utilities budget for Fiscal Year 2025. Council and staff discussed the items. Council added and discussed the following items but deferred a straw vote on whether to include these items in the proposed budget. • double the Planning Commission, Board of Zoning Appeals, and the Board of Architectural Review stipends • add $3,000 for the Commission on Public Art • add $4,650 for the Diversity Commission • add a one-time $25,000 donation to LAWS Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Services using Unassigned Fund Balance for the construction ofa new facility • remove the $10,000 facilitator fee for the Council Retreat • direct any amount collected above $500,000 from speed cameras to address safety improvements in particular areas where the revenue was collected • use unassigned fund balance to study Catoctin Circle and East Market Street (traffic calming and safety improvements) • add a Performing Arts Commission starting in FY2025 • add $6,000 for Parks & Recreation Advisory Commission "Park Day" It was the consensus of Council to provide additional direction during the Council meeting public hearing on March 12, 2024, or at the final mark-up session on March 18, 2024. The budget adoption is scheduled for March 19, 2024. d. Zoning Ordinance Rewrite: Progress Report on Articles 1 through 4 Mr. James David presented Council with an update on Articles 1 through 4 of the Zoning Ordinance Rewrite. Council and staff discussed the item. It was the consensus of Council for staff to incorporate data centers as a special exception in the Zoning Ordinance rewrite. 2. Additions to Future Council Meetings a. Proclamation Requests i. A proclamation request was received to proclaim April Keep Leesburg Beautiful Month at the March 19, 2024, Council Meeting. 21Page Council Work Session March 11, 2024 It was the consensus of Council to add this proclamation to the March 19, 2024, Council Meeting agenda. ii. A proclamation request was received to proclaim May 5 — 11, 2024, Drinking Water Week in the Town of Leesburg at the April 23, 2024, Council Meeting. It was the consensus of Council to add this proclamation to the April 23, 2024, Council Meeting agenda. iii. Mayor Burk requested a proclamation for Leesburg Police Officer Victor Bendezu who responded to the scene of the house explosion in Sterling while serving as a Volunteer Firefighter for the Town be presented at the March 19, 2024, Council Meeting. It was the consensus of Council to add this proclamation to the March 19, 2024, Council Meeting agenda. iv. Mayor Burk requested a proclamation for the Ida Lee Park Recreation Center staff and patron for their heroic efforts in saving the life of a resident at the Ida Lee Park Recreation Center be presented at the March 19, 2024, Council Meeting. It was the consensus of Council to add this proclamation to the March 19, 2024, Council Meeting agenda. b. Future Council Meeting and Agenda Topics Mayor Burk requested a joint work session with the Airport Commission to discuss the planning for the 40 acres at the Airport. It was the consensus of Council to add this as a separate future joint Council/Ai o Commission work session. Council Member Cummings requested a work session to discuss Airport Landing Fees. It was the consensus of staff to add this to a future work session. Council Member Cimino -Johnson requested a joint work session with Leesburg Movement to discuss their plans for the next several years. It was the consensus of Council to add this as a separate future work session. 3IPage Council Work Session March 11, 2024 3. Adjournment On a motion by Vice Mayor Steinberg, seconded by Council Member Bagdasarian, the meeting was adjourned at 9:05 p.m. Clerk of Council 2024_wsmin0311 41Page March 11, 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: Tonight's Town Hall, Town Council Work Session of March 11th, 2024. Our first item for discussion tonight is the Energy Efficiency Conservation Strategy. Hello. Deb Moran: Hi, everyone. [inaudible] and I am the Sustainability Manager for the Town. I haven't seen you all since October, so I just don't want you to forget who I was. Today were going to be talking about our Energy Efficiency Conservation Strategy. I'm really quickly going to go over why were here and why we're talking about this now, what the goals are as drafted by the sustainability committee, and then really what they actually mean. Then we'll go forward with recommendations and have time for questions. The Energy Efficiency Conservation Strategy establishes goals and targets to reduce energy use in Town operations. It directly aligns with chapter five of the Town Plan. I do want to note that setting these goals doesn't mean that were going to be in any trouble if we don't hit them. That's what we mean by non -binding. The reason were talking about the Energy Efficiency Conservation Strategy and associated goals now is because it is a requirement to receive Federal grant funding. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 established what they're referring to as the Energy Efficiency Conservation Block Grant Fund, which is formula funding that allocates $76,000 for the Town of Leesburg to use for energy efficiency and alternative fuel initiatives. Again, in order to receive that funding, we have to have goals established. The benefit is that, while were establishing these goals specifically for this funding, having goals tends 10 be a requirement for most grant applications anyway, so it puts us in a good spot. Here are the draft goals, and I'm going highlight some key phrases, and then we'll get a little bit deeper into what they mean. So we established, we identified the goals and we put them in two different categories. You may recall from our presentation in October that wastewater and water treatment operations, our Utilities team, they use the biggest chunk of energy and they are the hardest to get energy reduction initiatives done for. We wanted to separate those, that amount of energy from the rest of Town operations so that we wouldn't lose the good stories and the good benefits from all the other work that we're doing, getting them swallowed up in that big number. For Town operations, our goal is a 50% reduction in purchased energy. I want to stop and highlight, purchased energy refers to anything that were getting from the utility. If we were to generate our owl renewable energy, it would count towards that reduction. 50% reduction in purchased energy from government operations, from the business -as - usual projections, and I think this is what we might lose some people. The business -as -usual projection is making the assumption that we did absolutely nothing to be more energy efficient, but we still have more people to serve and more things to do in that nature. We got to that through a standard calculation. We'll talk a little bit about that when we get to that particular slide. It's a 50% reduction in purchased energy for government operations from a business -as -usual projection by 2050. Our second goal for Town government operations is a 40% alternative fuel vehicle adoption for our non -emergency response vehicles. We defined, I'm going to read this one so I don't mess it up, emergency response vehicles as those needed to function for a continuous 24 -hour period in prevention or response to emergency situations. This is going to talk about our police vehicles, our on -call maintenance vehicles, things that we use in emergency operations. Then our wastewater and water treatment operations goals include a 10% reduction in purchased energy, again, going back to purchase energy for our utility's operations from that business -as -usual projection by 2050. There also have goals to upgrade our existing SCADA systems with remote Page 11March 11, 2024 telemetry to more efficiently operate our water and wastewater operations. Then were going to prioritize energy -efficient products for utilities equipment replacements, improved pumps, and motor efficiency by correcting pump sizing, upgrading to premium efficiency motors and variable frequency drives. That was a lot of words. We'll get into what those actually mean now. This is where I'm hoping I don't lose any of you. This is what our business -as -usual projection looks like. I'm going to, hopefully, be able to draw on this. This line right here, is our baseline of energy use. That is the amount of energy, actual energy, we used in calendar year 2021. That's what we shared with you in the progress report that we presented in October. This number or this line represented with the blue coloring is what we anticipate our business -as - usual energy use to be with the continued growth in the community. This number comes from standards provided by ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability and the methodology that they use based on population growth. That's what we anticipate if we did absolutely nothing to be greener, what we would be using in terms of energy. Our goal being a 50% reduction, puts us down to here, which is where our energy efficiency conservation goal is. That is a 25% reduction from where the baseline is but a 50% reduction overall. I'm not seeing too many shaking heads, I think I might have you with me, which is very exciting. [chuckles] We understand that this is not going to be a perfect straight line up or this might not be a straight line down. It might look more like this, but it is just giving us a better idea of where we want to be and what we think is achievable. Our next goal is related to fleet vehicle use. Our fleet team has identified 35 vehicles as being non - emergency vehicles that could transition to alternative fuels. This is one thing that we wanted to highlight as a cost-effective solution for the Town because we are eligible for a clean vehicle elective pay, that's $7,500 per vehicle. We've also partnered with Virginia Clean Cities Coalition to get money back for the cost difference between an internal combustion engine and a brand-new EV. This is a great program that we've gotten a chance to take advantage of. [crosstalk] Mayor Burk: Excuse me for interrupting you. You said 35 non -- Deb Moran: Non -emergency vehicles. Mayor Burk: But only 14 of them are using alternative energy now. Deb Moran: That's the goal, 40% so 35, 14. Mayor Burk: 14. We're trying to get 14 of the 35, using -- Deb Moran: Yes. Mayor Burk: Okay. I thought you misspoke but now I understand. Deb Moran: Nice. [chuckles] Going back to this chart, this business -as -usual projection and goal chart, this would be for utilities, and this is representing a 10% reduction from the business -as -usual. The business -as -usual, is represented by this red line. This accounts for increasing usage by more population and stricter standards that might be coming in terms of how we have to treat the water. That's why we're looking at this 10% reduction right here and that is acknowledging that there may be a growth in energy use over time for that particular area. Then our last two goals are much easier to talk about and much easier to understand. By 2026 or FY 2026, we want to be using remote telemetry for more efficient operations, which basically means we want to be able to monitor our pump stations in our different wastewater utility operations tools remotely so that we don't have to drive out to them to see what's going on, and then prioritizing more energy efficient products to improve pump and motor efficiencies. Again, just putting energy efficiency at the forefront of the things that we are hoping to do. Page 21March 11, 2024 With that, because staff drafted it, of course, staff recommend the approval of the energy efficiency conservation strategy to establish goals and targets for reducing energy consumption in government operations. The Environmental Advisory Commission does endorse this goal. With that, I finished earlier than 10 minutes, which I'm very excited about- [laughs] Mayor Burk: [crosstalk] Deb Moran: -I'm happy to take any questions. Mayor Burk: Are there any questions on this? Vice Mayor? Vice Mayor Neil Steinberg: Thanks, Deb, for the presentation. What is a realistic approach then for this 50% reduction? Now that I see that its actually a 50% reduction of what we might expect to be doing by 2050 as opposed to what were doing now, so that's less aggressive. 1'11 put it that way. Deb Moran: Yes, it's less aggressive for sure. [laughs] Vice Mayor Steinberg: What are realistic approaches then to achieve that 50%? Deb Moran: It's twofold. One thing that's really going to tell us how were going to get there is how were planning on spending this Federal grant allocation of 76,000. We're planning to use it for energy audits that will tell us exactly what we need to do and what those reductions will be. They'll also give us return on investments for doing those types of activities so we'll get a better idea. Also, there's a lot of solar potential in different areas and because we have that purchased energy caveat, we could definitely make 2 kilowatt hours of energy produced there. It's a two -pronged approach. Vice Mayor Steinberg: That where it gets to my second question, which was 76,000 is not a lot of money in this area. Deb Moran: Correct. [laughs] Vice Mayor Steinberg: The question was how would we anticipate spending those dollars and what you're saying is we would use them to audit? Deb Moran: To do what's called the energy audit, and that would help us understand how to best allocate funding for future projects. Those energy audits all come with an ROI for the particular project that you do, so well know we can present to you, "Hey, this is going to take us five years to get our money back. This is going to take 25 years. Maybe we don't take this approach at that point" Vice Mayor Steinberg: We might anticipate alternative fuel vehicles will come at a much higher cost, solar projects at a much higher cost and so -- Deb Moran: Yes. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Okay. And how would, in terms of the utilities, would we hope to see the majority of that reduction coming from non -purchase energy uses? Is that what we- or more efficient pumps I guess as well [crosstalk] Deb Moran: Yes, the more efficient pumps and getting a better understanding of exactly what's being the biggest energy hogs and seeing how we can be more efficient, but we do have quite some time to figure out exactly the best way to do that in terms of 2050 being the ultimate. Vice Mayor Steinberg: When do we have to have formulated some sort of program in order to qualify for the funds? Deb Moran: The Energy Efficiency Conservation Strategy, once we submit that, we are going to get our $76,000 because were submitting it, saying were going to use it for energy audits to help expand our Energy Efficiency Conservation Strategy. We'll get it as soon as we do that. [laughs] Page 3IMarch 11, 2024 Vice Mayor Steinberg: Thank you. Mayor Burk: My question center around the fact that perhaps I don't understand exactly what you're talking about because it doesn't seem like-- Are you going to do a study of this building? Deb Moran: An energy audit would cover all of the buildings, so it helps us get a better understanding of what's going on in each building and what needs to be upgraded in order to achieve the most energy efficiency. Mayor Burk: So, if they said, if they came back and said, your windows, the windows need to be replaced there, that would be one of the considerations? Deb Moran: Yes, they'll probably talk about things like HVAC systems. HVAC systems are very expensive to replace. They would tell us replacing this HVAC system will result in this much energy savings over this period of time. Mayor Burk: Okay. 2050 seems awfully far away. Deb Moran: Yes. [laughs] When we were building the Energy Efficiency Conservation Strategy, we took the goals or the suggested goals from the Federal government's draft strategy for us. That's where the year 2050 came from. You'll know in the fleet vehicle goal is the only one that we modified because our number of fleet vehicles was relatively low. We made that goal based on our asset replacement cycle with a little bit of buffer built in. Mayor Burk: Okay. Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Bagdasarian, [crosstalk] I didn't see that you had your light on. [laughter] Council Member Ara Bagdasarian: Yes. [inaudible] like I am not even here. I understand how it works. Mayor Burk: I'm so excited to ask questions. Council Member Bagdasarian: Man, I'll tell you. I appreciate this. The one question I do have is as far as the technologies to reduce the purchase energy by 50%, I mean, is the primary approach utilizing solar or are there any other emerging technologies? What role does solar have in this whole strategy? Deb Moran: Yes, solar can be a very significant opportunity. I don't think I got to meet you in October. [laughs] We talked a lot about some of this solar potential for the Town, but we're also looking at things like geothermal or biogas, being able to take some of our waste products to see if we can turn them into energy back at Wastewater and Utilities. There's a lot of different opportunities there and emerging technologies, and solar are going to be very important. Council Member Bagdasarian: Great. Thank you. Mayor Burk: All right. Are there four people that would like to see this on the consent agenda for tomorrow? Everybody. All right. Thank you very much and keep that up, being brief. [chuckles] Our next item is the Leesburg Service Line Compliance Campaign. [background conversation] Amy Wyks: About halfway through the presentation, anticipation. Goad evening, Madam Mayor, Vice Mayor, Members of Council. My name is Amy Wyks, Director of Utilities, and tonight I'm here to give you an update on the Lead and Copper Rule revisions and the Town's Service Line Compliance Campaign that is required from the Environmental Protection Agency, otherwise known as the EPA. Back in 1991, the EPA published what was called the Lead and Copper Rule. The goal at that time was to control lead and copper in the drinking water. In 2021, they did a Lead and Copper Rule Page 4IMarch 11, 2024 revisions, which are now known as LCRR. There is a deadline that all Utilities are required to meet October of this year. As part of the deadline, we have to do three things. We have to submit our service line material inventory for the system, provide a replacement plan in the event that there is lead, and then also submit a sampling and monitoring water program plan. The objective of the rule revisions from EPA is to require the Utilities to have a service line inventory, know what's out there. Identify the lead service lines in the event that there are lead service lines to have a replacement plan. Increase sampling and monitoring, for the last, since 1991, when it was originally proposed, about every three years we've been doing sampling for lead and copper. This is enhancing the sampling. Adding daycares in schools, were going to continue public education and outreach. Then corrosion control we're already addressing at the water treatment facility. What is a service line? A service line is the water line that's from the Town's water main to the house. We have the utility side, so the Town owns from the water main until the water meter, and then from the water meter across the properly into the interior of the home is the customer side. You have two sides related to the service line, so we need to know the material on both sides. From the service line inventory standpoint, we need to establish and obtain a comprehensive and accurate inventory of all water lines in the Town from both the public side and the private side. From the public side, we're able to look within the meter box itself and to see what materials in there, but obviously from the private side, that's where were going to need our customers. Then were going to classify in three different ways. It's either going to be lead, non -lead, or galvanized. Galvanized is going to be similar to lead that it will potentially need to be replaced. So with that, we started with an inventory of over 17,000 of our accounts and then we were able to classify 15,196 of those. We classified them through Loudoun County plumbing records, building permits. Pretty much around the time of 1979 is when they stopped using lead. That was a cutoff, so we looked at houses built before 1979 and after, and then again building records and permits. With that we've been able to narrow down just under 2,000 service lines that have an unknown material classification at this time. What we're kicking off tonight with Council is our Service Line Compliance Campaign. We've developed this campaign in order to request our customers to help us comply with the inventory deadline. We've created a logo and a little signature there. We have a web site that will be kicked on, launched off tomorrow. We have a survey and then public outreach documents. That's what I've provided with you in front of you tonight. In the event that the packet that you received has your name with your physical mailing address, that means we need your compliance. You were one of those 1,900 that we need to hear from. In the event you do not have your physical mailing address and where you reside, then that means your house has been built after 1979 and we've been able to classify your material. Wth that, in step one, were going to start sending letters to those that we need assistance with. Again, if you look at this map here, this concentrates where were looking at. Obviously, this is some of the older areas in Town, Downtown, Country Club, and those subdivisions there. Again, were going to send a letter explaining to the customers that we need their help. We're doing this as part of an Environmental Protection Agency requirement so that the Town is in compliance. We need to hear from them. There's an insert, a glossy insert in there, that's front and back that helps them to understand what we need from them. We're also going to send a postcard in a couple weeks after we send the original letter to get their attention. Again, were trying to make it easy with the OR code. Then tomorrow we will be launching on the web site the ability for them to complete the survey and more information about the survey. The survey is GIS based, so again, they'll zoom in to find their address and then what they'll see is that if there's a blue dot at their address, that means we need them to complete the survey. In the event that it's a green dot, green means good to go. Staff is available to assist customers with completing the surveys as needed. With that, we have a short little video here that will be posted also on the webpage that helps our customers, in order to comply and support us. Page 5JMarch 11, 2024 [silence] Unidentified Speaker: Can you hear it? Amy Wyks: No. Unidentified Speaker: There it is. Amy Wyks: [laughter] Mayor Burk: While we're waiting, can I ask questions of you? [laughs] Voiceover: Thank you for participating in the Town of Leesburg Service Line Compliance Campaign. We're here to show you how to locate your service line [inaudible] Mayor Burk: We can't hear that. Voiceover: Thank you for participating in the Town of Leesburg Service Line Compliance Campaign. We're here to show you how to locate your service line, identify the material, report the findings, and submit the data to us. [crosstalk] If your home or business is built 1979, Kaj Dentler: Mayor, we'll provide, by email link, we'll provide you this video so you can watch it because none of us can really hear this tonight but it's good for you to get this information. We'll make sure we get it to you. Mayor Burk: Okay. Amy Wyks: It's part of the campaign. It'll be on the campaign webpage tomorrow. Mayor Burk: Okay. Amy Wyks: Again, I stated that there's a deadline for October 16th where were required to submit three things to the Virginia Department of Health. The service line inventory with the most up-to-date information on what we know, a replacement plan, and then the water sampling and monitoring plan. I want to highlight some additional future actions. Even after the compliance deadline of October, were going to continue to reach to the customers and educate those accounts that were unknown material. The EPA mid -year of this year, they're going to announce instead of having LCRR, they're going to introduce the Lead and Copper Rule Improvements. Well have to understand what the LCRI is going to require and report back at that point. We're going to continue compliance testing. The next round will start in January of 2025 with those additional sites, including schools and daycares. Then there's the implementation of the replacement program for any lead service lines. We will be coming back to Council related to any potential funding options and sources related to private lines. Wth that, I also, tonight, have Russell Chambers with me, the Water Supply Manager at the wastewater or at the water facility in the event you have any questions for him. Mayor Burk: Russell gives great tours for the Mayor for the Day. [laughs] Amy Wyks: Mayor of the day. [chuckles] Mayor Burk: I have a couple-- Well, go ahead, Mr. Cummings. Council Member Zach Cummings: Are you sure? I just have one question. If a resident is testing those of us who got our address on the envelope and it comes back that it's a lead line from the street to the home, who's in charge of taking care of replacing that line? Amy Wyks: That will be part of what were going to look at with the replacement plan as we understand the inventory. We will be corning back to the council to understand what that looks like from that standpoint. Differentjurisdictions are doing different things, so were evaluating and understanding that. Page 6IMarch 11, 2024 Mayor Burk: 1 '11 get back to you in just a second. To continue with that line of questioning, do you anticipate that residents will have to pay to replace that line from the street to the house? Amy Wyks: The line from the meter to the house is private properly. Again, that will be something we'll be coming back to the council with as we understand what that looks like and looking for your input and determination on how that will be handled. Mayor Burk: For some people that could be quite burdensome to be having to do that Vice Mayor? Vice Mayor Steinberg: For the very first slide, it says lead and copper. To what degree are we concerned about copper lines then since most contemporary construction involves copper lines in the house? Amy Wyks: Yes, it still has lead and copper related to the rule from the EPA but this is focusing on lead and galvanized for this particular time. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Okay. Amy Wyks: Do you want to add? Russell Chambers: I can expand a little bit on that. Copper levels are very easily controlled through the treatment process. Some of the things we do with the water plant suppress that corrosion. I would say generally that copper is not an issue for most waterworks, including ours. Our levels are going to be well below the standards. Copper is an essential element. I think if you take a multivitamin, its probably got copper in it. Its just staying below that set that MCL, maximum contaminant level, and we're well below that. Lead is the bigger concern from the health standpoint. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Since we weren't able to take advantage of the, well, I'm sure its a spectacular video, how do you determine if you have a lead line from the meter to your house? Amy Wyks: The video does address that and lets the customer know how to find, because some people may have it in their basement. Its usually they're going to want them to go where their water shut-off valve is. In some cases, it could be in the crawl space. That's part of what the video's showing them. Its letting them know that having a coin and a magnet available in order to do the test and to complete that. Its part of the video, as well as the insert, the two two -page glossy that was provided here. It outlines it also and says if the magnet's sticking, then it's this and that type thing outlines that for the customer. We are available for any questions. Vice Mayor Steinberg: All right. Even though my address is on here, I don't have to leave now and go test. That [crosstalk] Amy Wyks: You don't have to do it right now. Vice Mayor Steinberg: [laughs] Thanks. Mayor Burk: I do have to say thank you. I forgot to take my vitamins so that reminded me. Thank you. All right. We all look forward to hearing more information. Oh, I'm sorry. Council Member Cimino - Johnson. Council Member Todd Cimino -Johnson: Thank you, Madam Mayor. Thank you, Amy, for your presentation. I just do have one question. If I don't know what a QR code is and I don't have an email, what do l do? Amy Wyks: There's a phone number on there both in English and Spanish that they can reach out to us and we'll support them. Council Member Cimino -Johnson: Okay. You'll do it for them. Okay. Thank you. Page 7IMarch 11, 2024 Mayor Burk: Thank you. Our next item for discussion is the proposed Budget for Fiscal Year 2025 - Boards and Commissions, Leesburg Movement, Utility Fund, and Initial Mark -Up Session. Kaj Dentler: Madam Mayor as staff is coming up. On the Boards and Commissions, there's really four parts to the discussion tonight. First is on Board and Commissions, items that I included in the proposed budget, items that I did not include in the budget. Just for clarity's sake, the reason some of the items that I don't include in the budget for Boards and Commissions if there are new requests, generally, I feel that's your decision since the Board and Commissions work for you. The second Rem is to address the request from Leesburg Movement, closing Downtown on Saturday nights. The third item is Utility Fund. Everything in the Utility Fund is consistent with what you already approved in the guidelines. There's nothing new. There's no deviations from that. It's exactly what you approved just a few weeks, short weeks ago. The fourth part is your initial mark-up, if anything you want to add or delete, reduce as part of the budget, since the budget schedule is set for final approval next Tuesday. Due to the spring break week, we've moved things up. Anything you can tell us tonight is only helpful for us to be able to get it done in a very short timeframe, to meet all of our deadlines. The way we've set it up for tonight, if you're comfortable with is go through each section, go through the Boards and Commissions, stop, see if you have questions. It's easier and I think it'll be more compact for you to be able to make good decisions. That's up to you if that's how you wish to do it. Mayor Burk: Sure, that's fine. Kaj Dentler: Okay. Cole? Cole Fazenbaker: Good evening, Madam Mayor, Council Members, members of the public. My name is Cole Fazenbaker. I'm the Management and Budget Officer for the Town. Tonight, we're going over the second budget work session for the 2025 budget. As the Town Manager mentioned that we have three different sections, the Boards and Commissions, the Extended Sidewalk Dining, and then the Utilities fund, and then our first Mark-up Session. There are 13 Boards and Commissions that are funded in the proposed 2025 budget at approximately $205,000, which is an increase of $11,000. That $11,000 is comprised of $7,500 increase in the Planning Commission. That is for required training related to the State code. It's historically been absorbed by the Department of Community Development, but this budget it's explicitly budgeted in the Planning Commission. Then, also, a $3,500 increase in Board of Architectural Review. That's also for required training as outlined by the BAR bylaws and it's historically been absorbed in other lines. Again, that's just explicitly budgeted in the '25 proposed budget. What's not included in the proposed budget as the Town Manager just mentioned are Commission things related that are new and also stipend increase. The Planning Commission is requesting a 33.75% increase, and that's really just tracking with the CPI. Also, the last adjustment was in 2013. The Town also has two other legislative bodies, the BAR, the Board of Architectural Review, and the Board of Zoning Appeals. If those were increased by the same percentage, they would have $9,211 fiscal impact for BAR, and then for BZA, it would be $2,180. Also, not included in the proposed budget is $3,000 for Commission on Public Arts, and that's for more art projects, and about $500 more to the calendar project. $4,650 for the Diversity Commission, and that's for web site language support. Then $6,000 for the Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission, and that's for a Park Day, which would be for all Commission Members and their guests, as well as Council for an event similar to an employee picnic. Wth that, 1'1 1 close the first section for questions and discussions. Mayor Burk: Anyone have any questions at this point? I do. [laughs] Anyone else at this-- Thank you. Clarify for me so that I make sure that I understand. The staff recommends that the Boards and Commissions receive the amounts that you stated? Cole Fazenbaker: Correct. Page 8]March 11, 2024 Mayor Burk: That's included in the budget at this point? Cole Fazenbaker: That is not included in the proposed budget. The only two things that are included in the proposed budget are the staff training or the Commission training. Mayor Burk: Which is required. Yes. Cole Fazenbaker: The stipend increase is not included in the current proposed budget. Mayor Burk: The Diversity Commission $4,600, that's not included? Cole Fazenbaker: That's not included. Mayor Burk: The Planning Commission hasn't had an increase since 2013. Your proposing, they're proposing a 33% increase. When I looked at this, I was thinking more in terms of more of a 50% increase. The amount of time and effort that they put into their review of all these projects, to me, is a very high burden for them to attend all these meetings, to go through the process, to understand the plan, to make sure that they're applying it. When they're done, they have brought forward proposals, projects that are really very well done, very worked up for us so that we don't have to go into the weeds as much as they do, which I really and truly appreciate. I do think expecting them to do all of that for $3,750 for the Chair and $3,600 for the Commissioners is not sufficient anymore. I would like to see that it be moved up to a 50%. They would go up to-- well I'm not going to add it up right now, but it would increase more than you're asking. Cole Fazenbaker: We can include that in the mark-up session if you'd like - Mayor Burk: Wait till then. Cole Fazenbaker: -at the end. Mayor Burk: Do you know how much? I guess, I'll wait till the mark-up session because you're going to include all these amounts in there. Cole Fazenbaker: Yes, we can do that. Mayor Burk: Okay. Kaj Dentler: Can I ask a procedural question? Cole is Tamara, are you loading that item into the calculator now so that when we get to the mark-up, you have everything so they see the impact? Cole Fazenbaker: Yes. I have a backup slide. That was part of the budget packet question, so we did do that math already. We have all that impacts already for the-- Kaj Dentler: Okay, but I was looking more if you're adding it now, they just can't see it until we get to the— No, okay. All right. As long as you're keeping a tally of what they're bringing up, we can add it in quickly, so we don't get tied down into trying to type in the information mark. Mayor Burk: That's important [laughs] because we most certainly want to be efficient as possible. Mr. Bagdasarian? Council Member Bagdasarian: Yes. I think that does make sense. I can't wait to see that in our spreadsheet, to look at that whole impact because it's been a long time. Could you just explain a little bit more what the idea behind the Park Day is, or what the thought is behind that? Kaj Dentler: The Park Day, has been described to me, and the intent, is to basically have another type of networking event that would be more of a picnic or outdoor affair for Boards and Commission Members, Council as well, similar to what we do in April, but less more of a fellowship or opportunity to be together versus specific meeting function. Page 9IMarch 11, 2024 The reason you see at the bottom of that point under the Parks Commission, staff impact, staff has no opposition to the event. You'll hear the same theme in the next topic, is if staff is being asked to put on another event, we feel that you are impacting our ability to continue to provide that as things continue to cumulatively pile up, putting myself in a position that eventually were going to have to ask for more staff to do it. It's a great idea. We're not opposed to the money, but if the Parks Commission or someone else is going to put the event on, staff is not opposed, if the direction is for us to do the event, we'll do it, but in the future, based on how things are piling up, I'm going to have to ask for more resources. It isn't just about the money. It is about the people. Council Member Bagdasarian: Right. Exactly. The human resources behind that. How would we be able to gauge the impact on staff resources when evaluating this? Kaj Dentler: How can we gauge the -- Council Member Bagdasarian: How do we evaluate the staff impact on this request or any other request? Kaj Dentler: First off, it's like any type of event planning. What's the project? What's it going to take to put it on? What's the pre -planning? What's the planning the day before? What's the amount of work that you have to do during the event, the setup, the event management, the cleanup? Staff is very good at being able to project out what that impact is. It's a little sketchy in the sense of, at this point, of what is the event. How many are we talking to our event. What's the amenities? It's really a Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission question of what is their intent. I'm describing to you as best I understand the request. Council Member Bagdasarian: Yes. I think it'd be obviously useful to have an actual proposal that outlines what are the costs, what are the staff impacts from a time perspective, how this will impact everything else as an overall proposal for any request like that. Thanks. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Couple follow-up, Madam Mayor. Mayor Burk: Oh, yes. I'm sorry. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Same topic. Did the Commission in any way indicate that they were prepared to or could they actually be prepared to or could they actually be prepared to put on this event on their own or would we absolutely require staff in the end? Rich Williams: When the Commission brought this topic up and discussions for it, I made it clear to them that this would be an event that they would have to run, they would have to produce. We could provide some minimal logistical support, supplying chairs, tables, et cetera, but this would be on them to plan. I would process the financials for them, but this would be on them to plan, and to implement, and to wrap up. There would be, if all that goes as planned, knock on wood that it would, but it would only at that point, involve day of staff supervision other than the logistics of bringing over the tables and chairs. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Okay. Thank you. Rich Williams: The key is that they indeed do the planning and do the implementation of the event. Mayor Burk: Interesting. Okay. Cole Fazenbaker: The next section is the Extended Dining request. Kaj Dentler: I'm going to ask Kate if she'll move the slides for me, but 1'11 do most of the presenting an this one. This is a request for Leesburg Movement to close the streets on Saturday nights during the summer. As you know, we've done that in the past and were already closed on Friday nights. Last year, Council had this discussion and it was decided to remain with Friday nights only based on the data and the amount of usership that was occurring. Page 10IMarch 11, 2024 Obviously, last year we did not have a Saturday, and so the staff recommends that we remain on the Friday, versus extending it to Saturday. There's really four main points, a little bit of a common theme. One is that we just had that discussion again, and last year at this, we decided to stay with Friday nights. We also think that Leesburg Movement should be considering something that is an alternative for programming on Saturdays versus doing the same thing both Fridays and Saturdays. The idea being increase the market in the draw to Downtown by doing something different versus doing the same thing two nights in a row through the summer. The impact to the staff is significant, and 111 show you a slide on that later. Obviously, it costs and it has an impact, but it's really our staff resources. We haven't been increasing the staff, but we are increasing the amount of events and responsibilities that we have. The third point really is, my opinion, the Town and Leesburg Movement are going to have to have some strategic conversations. We all support the Main Street Program, we want to see that happen and be successful. They're doing some really good things, and there's a great future ahead. If the arrangement to be is going to require or need the Town to be the backbone to make some of these things happen in the sense of setup, clean up, operations, et cetera, even the pre -planning, there is a significant financial cost to the Town that we've got to process. Every event is a little bit different, but some of the events that we work with takes significant amount of administrative time long before this event ever seen by the public. Discussion on what's the relationship and the expectations. If we want to make an investment great, but just continuing to do it piecemeal is a concern to us. The next slide, what am I talking about? This gives you some idea of the growth of events, and activities that are occurring in the Town. Again, this is not one singular event. It's a cumulative effect, and we see more and more coming. It's a great thing. That's part of what makes us successful. We're trying to make these events and activities happen with the same resources. You can only pay someone so much in overtime before they say, "No more. I don't want to do it. I can't do it," et cetera. Want to mention in the bottom left almost about Leesburg Movement St. Patrick's Day, that's not happening, but the amount of administrative time that staff has already spent to discuss that program and work on that program has been completed. It takes away from the staff's core responsibilities of our own events. Just process how that-- we still have our own jobs to get done, our core functions, and there are more great events that are being looked at. Some of these things occur every year. Some are smaller. Some are bigger. Some every other year type of thing, but this is intended to show you a significant amount of growth and activities in our quality life, again, a great thing, but a challenge. The next slide, I believe shows the cost. Kate, correct me if I say this wrong. Option number 1 is the proposal for Leesburg Movement to have both Fridays and Saturdays. The extra cost is $21,500. We've already anticipated doing the Friday night so that's- but the total cost is $37, 800. The new cost if we approve the Saturdays is an additional $21,000, all in overtime. Council Member Cimino - Johnson asked a question, one of his budget questions that he forwarded to us was, "Does it really take for people to run the event the night of?" The answer is, yes. We've all seen incidents that have occurred on public events. We've seen cars driving through barricades, saw horses in reality. It doesn't take much for a person to do some significant damage. The best practices of events and street festivals have completely changed over time. There are two Officers that are stationed there. Public Works employee and Parks Recreation employee. We have to prevent someone from driving through but we also have to be able to open the roads quickly should there be a fire if rescue has to come through. Parks Recreation staff are there to be able to manage the events, customer service issues, communications with the businesses, the public, et cetera. To provide it in a safe environment, the answer is, yes, we do need those staff, but those are all overtime dollars. Again, it adds on to the core responsibilities. At some point, staff burnout occurs. Our staff will make this work is the short story. If the Council wants to do it, we will make it work. I'm going into a position where I'm being pushed if I'm going to have to ask for more staff. Council has expressed a desire to keep the tax rate the same, some want to reduce it. We have staff that make things happen or make the quality of life important. That's why I put the compensation package forward to you for their performance evaluation and a COLA and I hope the Council will Page 111March 11, 2024 approve that because it is the staff who are the ones who are making this work. It should not be discarded in what we're doing. We have concerns. We're not opposed to it if you want to do it, but we think it should be something different. If you want to do the same thing, that's fine. We also need a strategic discussion with Leesburg Movement of where are we going and how much is the Town going to put in to the game to make things work. Just bringing that to your attention. I think that is the core presentation on this particular item. I'm happy to answer any questions that you have. Mayor Burk: Anyone have any questions at this point? Really? St. Patrick's Day Festival, we couldn't get going? [laughs] Kaj Dentler: I don't think it's quite ready for prime time. [laughter] Mayor Burk: We think that would be up on top, first-- Kaj Dentler: Yes. Mayor Burk: Okay. Mr. Bagdasarian. Council Member Bagdasarian: We do our own St. Patrick's Day Festival. Even the prior requests, what rubric or mechanism do we have to evaluate the proposals or events that require either financial commitment or staffing involvement? Is there a way that there's some format or some valuation tool that exists that we can use to evaluate proposals? Kate Trask: Certainly. Any event that comes to the Town fills out an event application to get a permit. We take that based on what that event organizer is looking to hold. Is it a street closure? Does it have alcohol that requires perhaps additional security? Is it an overnight event? We get that. Linda Fountain, the Event Manager, basically walks event organizers through this application process so that we can get as many details as possible from the event organizer. That tells us how many staff we need, and then we can price it out from there. It sounds rather simple, but we bring the whole community events committee together, Public Works, PD, Zoning, the Park staff, Economic Development, and our PIOs all sit and review applications. We make sure that we've covered all of our bases, and then we give that proposed cost to an event organizer. Some events won't have a cost because they're on private property, but that goes to the point that there's administrative services that we do so that, for instance, the Village might put on, say, their Ice Sculptor Festival. That's on private property, but Linda still does that work to make sure that all of the needed zoning permits or fire marshal permits are needed. Is it a high -risk activity that we might need to engage our police in? There's definitely a vetting process. Kaj Dentler: I think it's important to note that a lot of the potential event organizers who want to do an activity big or small often don't know what they're doing. They have a great idea and they want to do something special --[laughter] Council Member Bagdasarian: Are you pointing your finger at me? Kaj Dentler: Not you, of course. Council Member Bagdasarian: What are you doing? [laughter] Kaj Dentler: They don't understand the process. They don't understand how fire and rescue has to get through, how it impacts the businesses or the churches, the community, et cetera. It takes often a lot of time from staff to walk through that process to realize as Council Member Bagdasarian you'd Page 12IMarch 11, 2024 recognize with Crossroads just closing the street to set up the Courthouse lawn was a significant discussion that was required and logistics to be worked out. There are challenges with that, and that may eat up a lot of the staff time that ends up with no event or with another event. I know there is one event that's been proposed for a marathon in Town. If you can imagine a marathon running through Leesburg or most of Leesburg, that's a pretty significant manpower/womanpower event that we may not be able to make happen, but we go through the process, and that eats up a lot of administrative time. Council Member Bagdasarian: I'd love to see Leesburg Movement where this fits into an overall plan. Actually, this is closing the streets on Saturday, part of this broader integrated approach for the Downtown driving traffic to the Downtown. I think that would help in that whole decision -making process. Thanks. Mayor Burk: Vice Mayor. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Yes. As we know, we did have this discussion already, and based on data available, we determined that it really wasn't effective to have street closings beyond the number we finally decided on. I'm just curious, does the Loudoun Movement or even the EDC have additional data upon which they're basing this request or is this just something they think might be a nice thing to do in effect? I don't know if Russell has any comments about that if he knows what they base their decision on. Kaj Dentler: I have not seen any data presented from Leesburg Movement or anyone else, EDC included, that has challenged the data and observations that staff has had for the last couple of years on the Friday/Saturday. Am I correct? Kate Trask: The only data that I believe John Papp, when he petitioned the Council to consider this request, that the Leesburg Movement had the street closure survey that they had done that they provided to Council, it's not necessarily data what the Saturday impact is, it's more about the overall feeling of businesses and their-- It's both positive and negative comments are in there, but that was more about their feeling of whether it helps their business or not, but not hard data. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Okay. If I understand what the Town Manager said, even if for example, as has happened in the past where private interests were footing the bill, it's still a burden on staff. Regardless of the actual cost for certain things regarding the event, the staff time comes in no matter what. Is that correct? Kaj Dentler: Correct. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Okay. Thanks. Kaj Dentler: One event that has shown great success, I believe, is the Halloween event in Downtown. It's grown and grown and grown. We didn't use to close the streets, but because of safety concerns, now we do. That's a staff impact. It's great for the Town, and we're happy to do it, but there is a cost. Cumulative again, these pile up. The number of staff are not increasing. We keep going to the same well, and so that's really the concern. Really, our recommendation is let's get engaged with proactive communication with the Leesburg Movement. Lets begin to talk about the things they want to do that we can do and how do we work together. Mayor Burk: Okay. Mr. Cummings? Council Member Cummings: I just want to make sure I'm using the right number. The amount that for just the Friday evening that we already have anticipated, where is that money coming from? Kaj Dentler: The money that we've already budgeted? Council Member Cummings: Yes. Page 13lMarch 11, 2024 Kaj Dentler: That's through general fund cost. It goes into their personnel accounts for overtime costs. Council Member Cummings: If we were to add both Friday and Saturday at that additional $21,000, do we have a sense of where we would pull that from to do that? Kaj Dentler: Council would have to add --You would have choices. You would have to add the 21.5 to the budget because it's not programmed in, or you'd have to make reductions somewhere of 21.5. Council Member Cummings: Okay. Mayor Burk: Okay. I'm not quite sure why the Saturday thing has come up again. Only because we looked at it previously, and as Vice Mayor made the comment about, we looked at the data. I live close enough that I walk Downtown on the weekends. I can tell you that the Saturdays diminished and there was many less people coming to the Saturday. It was almost like people were tired of it. I would be reluctant to put back on the Saturday night. We've done it it didn't work particularly well. I know that there's a lot of ideas out there. Maybe there could be something else that was done, but I think it goes back to your discussion. It's the whole thing about there has to be a really serious discussion with the Leesburg Movement group to find out where is it going to go. We do have in the budget for them to have a part-time Director, correct? Kaj Dentler: Correct. There's $30,000 in the proposed budget for part-time staff. I have always anticipated that I will propose, as soon as the Leesburg Movement is ready, to propose funding a full- time Executive Director. We have office space that we have ready for them when they are ready, and then whatever else we're looking to do. I think beyond that, when we get into the events, is really what do both sides want to get done, and how do we help them, and make sure Council understands what your costs are, that what is your investment? Mayor Burk: What are you asking of us tonight in regard to this? Kaj Dentler: I'm presenting to you the request that Leesburg Movement has made to close Saturday nights, which would be, to do that you would have to add $21,500 to the budget or make reductions of equivalent amount. Our staff recommendation is not to do that, and to engage in a conversation with Leesburg Movement, looking further ahead of how we work together, what other things could we do, and then recognize, let's define the cost, and come back to Council. We don't have to wait till next year's budget process. We can, but we can engage in that right away and come back to Council at the appropriate time to have a discussion, amend the budgets if that is something that you're ready to do, but certainly no later than next budget year. Mayor Burk: Okay. All right. Anyone else have any questions? No. All right, thank you. The next item is Utilities. You are lucky you get it twice. Amy Wyks: Two for one tonight. Good evening again. Amy Wyks, Director of Utilities, here to give an overview of the Utilities Fund proposed budget for fiscal year '25. The utility system provides water and sanitary sewer system for our customers, includes water treatment, the distribution, collection, as well as wastewater treatment. From a budget standpoint, we're funded solely through availability and user fees and charges. As you know, the General Fund revenue (taxes) are not used to fund the utility system. Our proposed FY25 budget consists of approximately $31 million in operation. That does include debt service; and approximately $14.5 million for our capital projects. This chart here shows the difference from 2024 adopted to 2025 proposed. As you know, on January 6th of this year, Town Council adopted the five-year rate plan. This will be the first year of the five-year rate plan with fees effective as of July 1 of 2024. The average is a 4.1% rate increase across water and sewer. We do have one proposed enhanced position related to a Water Treatment Plant Operator. The focus of the utility rate study was to continue high quality of service, comply with Federal and State environmental regulations, and to have a sustainable long-term financial plan. The proposed Page 14IMarch 11, 2024 Fiscal' 25 through 2030 Utilities CIP, which is a six -year CIP, is just over $80 million with 16 projects. There are two new projects in there. We talked previously about the Lead and Copper Rules. We did have $3 million in there related to that, and we've talked about at the Water Pollution Control Facility needing to do nutrient and liquid processing improvements related to our solids. For just' 25 of that, it's $14.5 million. This shows a breakdown of the 14 and a half and the various projects. Wth that, the questions and answers for Utilities. Mayor Burk: Okay. Thank you. Anyone have any questions on this one? Yes, sir. Council Member Cummings: The Water Treatment Plant Operator, the enhanced position, just because I'm curious, and I don't know, is there multiple operators and this is just another operator to add into the mix, or is this a new position that we haven't had before in the past? Amy Wyks: We have Water Plant Operators today. [crosstalk] It's an additional. Yes, it's our first one. No, it is an additional full-time equivalent position that would be a Water Plant Operator. Typically, we hire as a trainee, and then as they progress through, they earn their Iicensure insured in order to get to be a Class 1 operator. It's an additional operator. Wth data centers, in the summer, we will be needing to go to 24 -hour operations at the plant. That helps with the shift schedule and making certain that we have the coverage 24 hours a day. Council Member Cummings: Thank you. Mayor Burk: Okay. I do want to compliment you. The other day, we had a meeting, Ridgeland, Mississippi came, and they wanted to know about how did we deal with data centers and water usage and sewer usage and all of that. It was two guys, engineer types, I guess, but you handled yourself so well and you were so full of knowledge that they were just blown away. I want to thank you and commend you for doing that because it was really very impressive to see you. They'd throw a question at you and you would just give it right back. It was really impressive. Thank you. All right. So now-- Kaj Dentler: We've added on the items for the Planning Commission, the BAR, and the BZA. If you wish to proceed with those, at least you have an idea of the impact that has. Mayor Burk: Is this on our computer at all or do we have to look at the screen? Kaj Dentler: You have to look on the screen because they're doing it live. Mayor Burk: Okay. The Planning Commission, the Board of Architectural Review, and the Board of Zoning. How does that impact the tax rate? Kaj Dentler: If all three of those were approved, you go from 17.74 to 17.79. Mayor Burk: This is not a one-time occurrence, so this is not something that could be taken out of leftover funding or something. Kaj Dentler: Correct. Its a recurring cost. Mayor Burk: Okay. Forgive me for forgetting the process of this, but we can't vote on this tonight. Kaj Dentler: No. Anything that you were to do would just be straw votes at most, nothing binding, no formal votes. What this does for us is gives us an idea of where you're going so we can begin to prepare the numbers if we need to get you more information, to make your decision, also all the final legislation that we have to get done between now and your vote on Tuesday night. Mayor Burk: Okay. Mr. Cummings. Page 15IMarch 11, 2024 Council Member Cummings: You asked my question. Can someone add those for me? What is that total? Around 60? Tamara Keesecker: 61.03 Council Member Cummings: 61? Okay. Thank you. Mayor Burk: Is there anything else anybody would like to have put on there, taken off? We had requests from the different Commissions. Anybody interested in adding those on? Mr. Dentler, the request for those, could those be taken out of leftover funding because those would be one-time items? Kaj Dentler: I'm just looking at the list. COPA has asked for $3,000. Mayor Burk: Correct. Kaj Dentler: Diversity Commission $4,650, Parks Commission is $6,000. Unless I'm wrong, staff, Council could use Unassigned Fund Balance for that $13,000 since at this point they're a one-time cost, but I think you can also expect that the COPA events and calendar for $3,000 is going to continue. They're probably not going go backwards. The Diversity Commission Web site is going to be recurring. The $6,000 for Parks Recreation is an unknown. I think it would be safer to say that the $7,650 for COPA and the Diversity Commission are recurring costs, based on the way I see it. Mayor Burk: I don't know that I agree with you on that. Kaj Dentler: Otherwise, you'll have to fund it next year. Just looking at what they're requesting, the Diversity -- Mayor Burk: I fear they may not. There may be something different that they're interested in doing or something not interested in doing. Kaj Dentler: It's possible, but they'll have to come back. COPA is related to the calendar and Diversity's Web site is probably not going away or backing up, but you can manage it for one year and see where it goes. Yes, you can do that. Vice Mayor Steinberg: The web site should be a one-time expense. This is writing code basically to make the web site, if I understand it correctly, more user-friendly from a language standpoint. Kaj Dentler: Fair point. Let's use that. Is that a one-time add, or is it an ongoing cost? Do you know that? Cole Fazenbaker: I don't know. Kaj Dentler: Okay. You may be right on that. Its a fair question. I may be wrong on that. We can find that out. Vice Mayor Steinberg: I wouldn't mind putting those items up with the exception of the Loudoun Movement, just so they can be there and then we can consider. Kaj Dentler: You want to add it in related to the tax rate or Unassigned Fund Balance? Vice Mayor Steinberg: I'm sorry? Kaj Dentler: Would you want all that to be General Fund or Unassigned Fund Balance? Vice Mayor Steinberg: I assume that the web site thing would be unassigned. Of course, the calendar, that would be an ongoing thing. What's the third item? I forget. Kaj Dentler: It's the Park Day for $6,000. Page 16IMarch 11, 2024 Mayor Burk: To me, that seems like an awful lot of money for a Park Day. I'm not sure where they're coming up with that particular amount of money. Council Member Cummings: Trip to Disney. Mayor Burk: A trip to Disney. Kaj Dentler: I haven't seen any of the information of what that consists of. We could try to find that out between now and then. Vice Mayor Steinberg: ,at I'm thinking is if we could just park it here for now so that we don't have to try to dig back through here and figure out what we want to do. Kaj Dentler: Sure. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Okay. Thanks. Mayor Burk: Does everybody agree that they want that information up there now? I just want to make sure everybody's comfortable with that. Okay. Mr. Cummings. Council Member Cummings: I just had a question because we didn't really touch on it yet in public. Does budget staff have an idea of what our anticipated Unassigned Fund Balance will be heading into fiscal year' 25 or in fiscal year' 25, obviously beyond that 20% fiscal policy? Cole Fazenbaker: We may have answered it in one of the budget packets, but it's approximately $10 million. Mayor Burk: $10 million? Cole Fazenbaker: Yes, but with the caveat, that could change because it's a formula. Depending on how much we spend at the end of fiscal year 2024, that's basically a denominator for the next year's calculation. That's a good ballpark number to use. Council Member Cummings: Then I had one question not related to this if that's okay. Is that okay? I want to -- Mayor Burk: That do you mean its not related to [crosstalk] Council Member Cummings: It's not related to any of those items, but it may have to go on there. So I wanted to ask. We have the speed camera revenue already going to the General Fund. I wanted to see-- I know we talked about this in our one-on-one budget meeting, and I appreciate your answer, but I wanted to talk about if it's possible this fiscal year, 2025, to redirect that to be used for reengineering and road work on the road that the revenue was captured at, because my aim is to ensure that these speed cameras and everything we're hearing is the most, biggest bulk of the revenue is coming in the first year. I want to make sure that were using that revenue from those speed cameras to go to engineering our roads to make them safer for when those cameras aren't operating but children, adults, and pets are crossing the road, and we need to slow cars down then as well. I don't know if that's possible tonight or if that's a longer conversation. Cole Fazenbaker: Going back to our previous conversation. That $500,000 is budgeted to support the recurring expenditures in the FY25 budget, but anything above and beyond that $500,000 is not spoken for. That could be used for those engineering projects. Council Member Cummings: 1 don't know how to do this [inaudible] the procedure to do this, but I would like to see any amount above the already budgeted revenue from the speed cameras to go to Public Works for reengineering of the road or roads that they were captured upon. Page 17lMarch 11, 2024 Mayor Burk: So, so that won't -- Cole Fazenbaker: That won't have a tax rate impact, but that's something that we can put in legislation. [crosstalk] Kaj Dentler: Correct me if you have a better idea, but I think to move your idea along, you really probably, should provide study money or design money that you can use out of this Unassigned Fund Balance to help get that project started, and then anything over the $500,000, you could basically send back to offset that. My point being, I think if you're waiting for us to hit that threshold, you may only have a little bit of money to work with, and it may take years to be able to move that project. My advice is, if you wish to do that, which is worthy, then use your Unassigned Fund Balance to help get that started and what that looks like. Council Member Cummings: I'm trying to remember. I feel like the last meeting the Vice Mayor brought up Catoctin Circle and East Market from Mom's Apple Pie to the overpass there. Is that, where are we with that? Kaj Dentler: We have definitely looked at that, I believe, Renee can correct me if I'm wrong, and begin to establish some funding that could be done for that. That's why I think Council can consider that. Renee, if you can, or you or Doug can. I know Renee's voice is challenged. I think the goal would be to get that project started and provide funding, possibly from the Unassigned Fund Balance or other source that you approve as part of the budget this time so we can start that because I don't think that waiting for the overage over 500 will take you too long possibly to make any progress for years. Council Member Cummings: I guess fll throw up to piggyback on the Vice Mayor's suggestion at our last meeting to go ahead and use this Unassigned Fund Balance for whatever amount we feel is needed for a study for Catoctin Circle and to study traffic calming and reengineering to make safer Catoctin Circle and East Market. Kaj Dentler: I believe Mr. David has some information on what those costs would be for what you're looking at, useful in that. James David: Thank you. James David, Director of Community Development. The area that the Vice Mayor and Council Member Cummings have brought up is a part of the Crescent District Master Plan. The Town Plan supports streetscape improvements, as does the update that were working on right now. We took a look at it, and for those segments you're talking about, potentially looking at design, surveying, and other planning work could be upwards of a total of around $315,000 per road segment. For that segment of Market Street from Mom's Apple Pie to the overpass would be one, and then the other would be Catoctin Circle pretty much from King all the way over to Market. The surveying would be around 120, design 175, and then $20,000 for community outreach. If the Council did wish to consider it, I think putting funding to the amount of $630,000 in the CIP somewhere would be a great start at moving towards that policy and that goal. Council Member Cummings: Okay. Mayor Burk: Has that accomplished that? James David: Yes, ma'am. Working with Stantec, who's our consultant working on the Crescent District Master Plan update, their planning and engineering, those were numbers that they gave to us as estimates to get things rolling. Mayor Burk: Okay. Thank you. Council Member Cummings: Perfect. Mayor Burk: Is that done? Okay. I'm still struggling on the Parks and Rec Day. When we get our Boards and Commissions together in April, I'm not quite sure what the purpose and the reason for the Parks and Rec Day is. I might struggle with that one a little bit. Anyone else have anything at this Page 181March 11, 2024 point that they want to add on/delete? The calendar for this is very shortened. It's on the back -- tonight we've done our first mark-up and the final mark-up is next week. Kaj Dentler: It will be Monday and then vote on Tuesday because we've moved everything up due to the spring break conflict. Mayor Burk: Okay. Mr. Cummings. Council Member Cummings: I just have one comment and I had a long conversation with myself today about whether I was going to bring this up. I noticed in the budget we have $10,000 and again, its not a lot of money, but it could go to find a way to pay for a salary increase for our very hardworking Planning Commission. We have $10,000 in for the Council Retreat, for the facilitator. As much as I've enjoyed the two Council Retreats, I've sat through, really am not quite sure that if were in a lean budget if that $10,000 is really necessary. Again, I'm coming from my point of view is that I feel like what is created from that Retreat is like a workflow. I'm not sure that couldn't be achieved at a early work session with staff and Council and the new Council Members talking through what their priorities are. The idea for me of a facilitator is more someone who can push the dialogue and big picture items, big conversations about the 20, 30, 40 years down the road for the Town. The last two that I've sat in, at least from my perspective, it's much more a work plan for the Council of the next two years. I'd rather see that $10,000 go towards our Planning Commission and getting them some more salary for all the hard work they're doing. Mayor Burk: That sounded like that was a good conversation you had.[laughter] I hope you agreed with yourself. Okay, so that's up there. That would be a minus because you'd be taking that off. All right. Anything else at this point? Yes, Mr. -- sorry Dr. Cimino -Johnson. Council Member Cimino -Johnson: Thank you, Madam Mayor. I'd like to look at adding a Performing Arts Commission starting in 2024 because I know that the Parks and Rec this is an area they've talked about, but its not an area that they really are experts in. I'd like us to really see us add this and I come up with around $11,000 for that. I'm spending your money, Zach. Mayor Burk: AM right. Did you want us to do straw poll on this when were done tonight? Kaj Dentler: You can if you'd like. It's entirely up to what you want to do. I was just going to ask, is the 11,000 that he asked, is that consistent with the Commission's stipend, so that amount? Okay. Mayor Burk: Well, let me ask you all, do you want to go through this tonight and go through each one line by line and see if we have four people that are interested in it? Council Member Cimino -Johnson: I'd like to wait on the items that we added at the top, just so I can look at it a little bit more. The Parks, the Park Day. Council Member Bagdasarian: Yes, I would like to also have some discussions on some of these prior to straw polling it tonight. Mayor Burk: Okay. Then we need to have the discussion tonight because we've only got tomorrow and one more day. Council Member Bagdasarian: Okay. Mayor Burk: Can we have the discussion tonight? Council Member Bagdasarian: We can. Mayor Burk: Are you trying to postpone it for another night? Page 191March 11, 2024 Council Member Bagdasarian: No, no. Well, for example, I'm all for a Performing Arts Commission but I'm just wondering if that would fit in with the current Commission on Public Arts as far as modifying their charter specifically? No. Mayor Burk: Logically you would think it would in that you're talking about art, but I guess it's different types of art that you're talking about. Council Member Bagdasarian: Well it is, and I know COPA has traditionally been more visual art, but it doesn't really specify that in the charter. That's why I'm wondering if it would make sense to be a part of that. Mayor Burk: Commission on Public Art? What would a Commission on the Performing Arts do if we don't have a performing arts component yet? What would it do? What would you envision that it would do? Council Member Cimino -Johnson: What was your question? I'm sorry. Mayor Burk: If we don't have a performing arts, the Town itself doesn't have a performing arts component to it, what would a Performing Arts Commission do at this point? That would you envision they do? Council Member Cimino -Johnson: Well, that's the starting point, is to create it Once we create this Commission, then they set out to bring us performing arts to the Town, because right now we don't have a Commission dedicated to that. Mayor Burk: Excuse me, I just want to make sure I understand. You're saying that they would manage, they would get groups here, they would get entertainment — Council Member Cimino -Johnson: Events. Yes. Mayor Burk: Okay. Does everybody understand that aspect of it? Council Member Cimino -Johnson: I know that COPA has had members with backgrounds in performing arts and they don't seem to stick around because their mission really is public art, displays of art. Mayor Burk: I guess my concern would be that I don't, and I've said this publicly before, I don't believe the Town should be running or managing a public art component. I just don't think that's the role that the Town should be playing, but that's my personal opinion. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Well, if everyone paid attention to the conversation we had with the Liberty Street project, an important part of that, an important component of that would be a management company. The Town would not, I don't believe, and Councilman Bagdasarian can back me up on this, that our intent is to have the Town running a performing arts center. This would be outside management that would be professional and would be plugged into regional performing arts, as well as trying to also schedule for the various local groups who also need a place to play, so to speak. I appreciate the sentiment, but I'm not sure were there yet in terms of establishing a Performing Arts Commission. I would worry that it might at some point become somewhat redundant if we've got professional management companies that are actually, should we ever get a performing arts center that are actually managing that. I'm still not quite sure how we would employ it. Mayor Burk: Okay. Kari, Ms. Nacy. Council Member Kari Nacy: I was just going to add one more thing if I could. Mayor Burk: Can we come back to you? Let's finish this discussion since it was brought up and then we'll-- Mr. Bagdasarian. Page 20IMarch 11, 2024 Council Member Bagdasarian: I'm wondering, since we do have this initiative underway with the Liberty Street project, I'm wondering if it would make sense to have additional representation in that group from performing arts organizations because there is that-- for one thing, I'm all for performing arts, obviously in the Town. The question is how best to equip the Town and citizens to participate in that whole process. If there's a charter that you have in mind specifically, that's something that we could certainly explore. I'd be completely open to looking into that if there's a clear charter for this organization, but I'm just wondering if it would make sense to increase the circle a bit with the Liberty Street project because that is all about a performing arts center. Very much about it. Council Member Cimino -Johnson: What you also brought up in the past about the amphitheater, so there's something else that we talk about wanting performing arts, but here we are teetering on the edge of, "Well, but do we really?" So, it's show me your budget and 111 show you your values. If you don't want a Performing Arts Commission in this budget, then please stop telling me that you want a performing arts center, you want anything in this Town because what I'm hearing is quite the opposite. Council Member Bagdasarian: I guess the part that I'm not crystal clear on is the charter for the organization. Council Member Cimino -Johnson: That's why I wanted to take this offline, do research outside of this, send emails, figure out what we're talking about each of these because I don't know if we have enough information to vote on all of these. Council Member Bagdasarian: I agree. That's where I am with this too because I would like to have a greater understanding of what the actual mission, purpose, and charter of this organization is before voting on it. Mayor Burk: You don't want to talk about it tonight then? Council Member Bagdasarian: Oh, we are. Mayor Burk: [laughs] No, we don't have to. Council Member Bagdasarian: Well, not completely because this is really -- Mayor Burk: If you want to wait and talk about it, are there four of you that would like to wait and talk about it? Are you looking to talk about it tomorrow or are you looking at talking about it the final night of the budget? Council Member Cimino -Johnson: Next Monday, right? Kaj Dentler: Right. Tomorrow night is a public hearing on the budget, so you can talk about it again. Monday is your final mark-up session on the budget. All direction you provide us at that point or by then will load into a final legislation for Tuesday. You could still make adjustments, on the fly, but allows finance staff to have opportunity to get the numbers right when you make the final vote next Tuesday. Mayor Burk: Do people want to wait? I'm getting back to you; I haven't forgotten. Is it that we want to wait? Are there four people that want to wait? Council Member Cimino -Johnson: Yes. Mayor Burk: AM right. Ms. Nacy. Council Member Nacy: Thank you. I would like to add a one-time thing. It would come from Unassigned Fund Balance, a $25,000 donation to LAWS to help build their new location in Leesburg. Mayor Burk: All right. $25,000 donation. Page 21March 11, 2024 Council Member Nacy: 11 doesn't have to be that number, but we can just talk about it. I do think that I would like Council to make some sort of donation for them to actually build the shelter. We've done what we needed to do to support them when it came to zoning and that sort of thing, but the long pole in the tent for them obviously is getting the money to build the location. If our residents are going to be users of it, I think it would be a good display of support. Mayor Burk: One thing I want to caution, having gone through this previously before, if you are doing that now for one nonprofit, you are going to get requests from other nonprofits and you will have no reason to say no. Keep that in mind. If you're going to do this, you're opening the door to all the nonprofits that are involved in Leesburg, which are many, many, many. Council Member Nacy: That makes sense and just something for us to put up there and talk about next Monday. Mayor Burk: All right. Keep that in mind. Council Member Nacy: You can mull it over. Mayor Burk: Because that was the most painful thing experience. We used to put a certain amount of money for non -profits and then they would come in and they would beg for their part of it. You had to say no and you had to say yes. It was very painful. We ended up realizing that we were not doing a great service to the community because we were supporting some and not supporting others. Then we ended up with the County taking over a huge portion of it and they do it. Just keep that in mind. Anything else anybody wants-- yes, sir. Council Member Cummings: I just had a question kind of piggybacking off of what Council Member Nacy brought up, and I think Director James is here, so that'd be helpful. When, and if they come -- they will need to come to us with an application to build the shelter, right? James David: The zoning changes the Council adopted, it would be a buy -right use. Council Member Cummings: They'll still have to file some paperwork and pay a fee, right? James David: Correct. Site plan. Council Member Cummings: I'm hearing what the Mayor says. Are we legally allowed to allow them to pay us those fees and then refund the fees to them as a donation to help offset the cost of building the shelter? James David: If you recall fee waivers came up as a topic when we were discussing affordable housing, we would have to make some changes to the Town Code in order to enable fee waivers. Kaj Dentler: Maybe you can rephrase it. Could the Town pay the fees on behalf of LAWS through your on -a -side fund balance versus a fee waiver? James David: Mr. Spera. Chris Spera: There would not be a legal prohibition. Council Member Cummings: Perfect. Maybe a way to help and protect us and make the County be the bad guys. Mayor Burk: Mr. Bagdasarian. Council Member Bagdasarian: Oh. Mayor Burk: Dr. Cimino -Johnson. Council Member Cimino -Johnson: That's a mistake. Page 22IMarch 11, 2024 Mayor Burk: All right. Are we done with the budget discussion? You all are going to discuss further among yourselves, get some more research, and find out where you want to go. All right, so this will come up Monday. Kaj Dentler: We'll have this tomorrow night in case there's a question. Well have it in your packet for Monday as well. Well also see if we can get any more information on the Park Day for you in between. You may get some yourself faster but thank you. Mayor Burk: All right, the next one is the Zoning Ordinance Rewrite. Mr. Markel, it went from being very cold to being very hot. [laughs][crosstalk] Kaj Dentler: You have 10 minutes. I think Mr. David has asked for 15, but he thought he'd get done in 10.1s that right, Mr. David? James David: I 'll try my best. There is quite a few slides. I'm going to zip through them. Good evening. Tonight's item is a progress report on the Zoning Ordinance Rewrite and more specifically drafts Articles 1-4. The project budget is on budget, so 1 won't be asking for any additional dollars for zoning tonight. Just a lot of information. Today, we've held a total of 12 public outreach meetings. I wanted to emphasize that we've gotten onto the community. We've had nine focus groups with residents and workers who use the Ordinance on a regular basis. We've had three general public open-door meetings. We got about 50 people total at those three meetings and all of that feedback was attached to your item tonight. If you want to review it and take a look at what the community's saying about zoning. The consultants also completed a Code audit that's available on our project webpage, leesburgva.gov/zoning ordinance rewrite. The consultant has delivered drafts Articles 1-4. What is Articles 1-4? Article 1 is General Provisions, that is your jurisdiction authority measurements, allowances. Article 2, zoning districts, and dimensional standards. That's the zoning map and accompanying regulations for residential, non-residential mixed -use, special purpose, et cetera. Article 3 is your use regulations or how we categorize land uses the structure of the use table and any standards associated with those uses. Article 4 is your development standards where we talk about buildings, architectural control, district parking, loading, tree preservation, landscaping, buffering, el cetera.The consultant's approach has been to be as simple as possible to try and balance the vision of the Town Plan with the market -driven realities of Leesburg to create value where we can find it, such as streamlining review processes and procedures, and also realizing that we need to look at this through the Leesburg lens. It's not a one -size -fits -all approach. The goals of this project, just as a reminder, to implement your new Town Plan, to revise that Crescent District, streamline cleanup, and modernize the Ordinance. What do I mean by that? What we've already begun to reorganize, we've cut from 18 articles to 9. As far as streamlining processes, were looking at ways we can codify standards so that they're in the Code rather than needing to go through a legislative process. There's also some cleanup where were doing internal consistency cleanup as well as removing excess regulation and then modernizing according to best practices. As I mentioned, were engaging the public throughout. A reminder that we're also moving to a new online zoning platform. This will be more interactive, like a web site for your Zoning Ordinance. It'll have hyperlinks and it'll have pop-up definitions. In fact, the Leesburg site is already constructed. We've already built out the existing Zoning Ordinance. That's your landing page right there. In the back end is where we are making our edits and revisions and commenting on the draft text. A little bit deeper into each article, and I did not have the text delivered tonight. The text is not quite ready, but the purpose is just to give you a little more meat on what were doing and see if were rowing in the right direction. See if you have any feedback. Not much changing in Article 1. As! mentioned, this is your basic legalese. We're cleaning up a little bit there, adding some more graphics, looking at the allowances section. Zoning districts, Article 2, is where we begin to make some key changes from the existing Ordinance. We're looking at aligning our zoning districts based on the new Town Plan character areas. Page 23IMarch 11, 2024 That includes a new descriptive naming convention that I'll gel to in a second. We're looking at trying to be consistent in terms of format, and were adding minimum requirements for community amenity and open space. That was something that was very strong in the Legacy Leesburg Town Plan. Proposed to go from 16 to 14 base zoning districts, and across the top is our zoning designations currently. Across the bottom is what we are proposing in terms of consolidation or getting rid of some districts or creating some new ones. I won't go into all those acronyms, but just know that the idea is to move away from the arbitrary numbers and go more towards descriptive naming conventions that match the character areas. For example, MU is Mixed -use, IC is Innovation Center, RU is Residential Urban, RM is Residential Mixed, CN Community Neighborhood, DT Downtown. We're also making some changes to the Ordinance in terms of adding graphics. This is just an example of how you can visualize the standards through graphics. Here, you can see how we're using graphics now to illustrate topics, like setbacks, building height, density, lot area. I mentioned community amenities. This is a new add to the Ordinance where were looking at requiring minimum requirements of percentages of the project that go towards amenities or open space. We're expanding what we mean by amenities or open space, not just your typical green open space, but also things that could include site improvements like enhanced parking lot landscaping, greenways and linear parks, and squares. Adding some regulation but then also adding alternatives for how you can meet that new regulation in terms of amenities and open space. Use regulations. Here, were entertaining the new idea of use categories. We've heard a lot from Council and others that we need a little bit more flexibility. I think you have seen in my tenure here, we've brought forth many zoning amendments where were adding one use because it didn't exactly say that use in the zoning code. By moving to use categories, what we can do here is, as you can see on this slide, down the left, is the use category. You can say okay, well, if it's an office and it meets the characteristics described in the use category as evidenced by maybe some examples there, then the Zoning Administrator has the ability to make that call. It doesn't have to specifically say financial institution. If it's close enough to the use category of office and it has the same impacts and characteristics, then we could allow it in that zone. A different way of organizing and thinking about your land uses. The other change in terms of use regulation is being more explicit about what a primary and accessory use is and also introducing a feature known as limited uses. Again, looking at ways to streamline process, a limited use would be something where if they met the standards or criteria of that use, it wouldn't necessarily need to go through a legislative process for approval. The idea is you're codifying standards, removing some of the process, removing some of that legislative, as long as they meet the intent of the limited use. Okay, development standards. This is Article 4. Key changes here is trying to make it easier, so consolidating what's applicable. If I'm a Developer or a person looking to a build, then I come to this new table, I see what type of development I am, and then I go across the table, and I can see, okay, what applies from the different divisions of the standards? Do I need to go to the sign section, outdoor lighting, building design, et cetera? Just different ways that the consultant is introducing more usability. The other thing you'll see there on the third bullet is were adding standards for bicycle parking. The Town doesn't have that right now, and we are looking at haw can we add some minimum requirements where it makes sense, maybe in mixed -use projects, maybe in certain non-residential projects where we have the bike parking infrastructure. Just one step towards that multi -model goal that we heard a lot of in the Town Plan. Trying to make buffer yards and landscaping a little simpler, as well as incorporating a sustainability index. Let me go to that right now. This is the bike standards, but looking at the landscaped and buffer yards, introducing more of a typology system with a table where you can easily read when a certain type of buffer is required, this what it means. X number of medium canopy trees, X number of evergreen trees X, number of shrubs, adding some graphics. Again, just trying to achieve that landscaping goal with a little more certainty. Then the sustainability index is a really interesting concept. Page 241March 11, 2024 We talk a lot about sustainability, and we are looking for ways to incorporate that into the Zoning Ordinance. Now, in the State of Virginia, it's difficult just to come out and require people to use green building practices, but you can incentivize them. The concept here is if a project introduces sustainable features, such as green roofs, low -impact stormwater management, eaves, working shutters, et cetera, they can get some points for those items that they put into their development and a certain number of points could equate to some sort of incentive, such a density bonus, such an increase in coverage ratio. Maybe even looking at some other commonly asked for modifications, turning those into incentives for something the Town desires. Another example of how we're trying to clean up the Sign Ordinance here by using again graphics and letters that really speak to what it is the Town is hoping to achieve. Those are the first four articles in 10 minutes or less. To recap and for our discussion tonight, Madam Mayor, the key changes are reorganization of process and standards reformatting, re -configuring districts, incentivizing community amenity space. We're also looking at accessory uses, bike parking and then sustainability index for the purpose of discussion tonight if the Council so chooses, we could go through each of these what I've labeled new directions, talk about whether or not we are in support, talk about whether or not we have concerns or if we should just keep on keeping on. I've categorized them according to some of the big topics or if there's not too much concem with that list, we can speak in general terms about these four topics. Now, it would be a great time if it's been something that's burning about Zoning when it comes to uses, development standards, districts, general provisions, wed love to hear about it. Final slide is just revisiting the schedule. As I mentioned, we are on budget, we are on time, we're right here in the middle of Ordinance and drafting. Pretty soon, well be getting Articles 5-9 from the consultant, and that would be the second hai of the Ordinance. It takes a while. Once we get that draft text for staff to look it over, there's a feedback loop going back and forth, then we hope to be presenting that first draft to the public in September 2024. Our idea is to use a two - month -long comment period using that new online platform. It'll appear and track changes, public can log on, provide their comments, we get them in real time, we can spit out reports about what the public is saying, we could respond to those comments. Once that 60 -day review period goes through, it's Planning Commission times where they're going to dig into the weeds of the text, take their time through the end of 2024 and early 2025, and then to the Council where were getting into the meat of the text in Spring 2025. With that, any questions? Mayor Burk: Dr. Cimino -Johnson. Council Member Cimino -Johnson: Yes, thank you, Mr. David, for your presentation. I do have a question about uses. How are the uses going to change for current property today once this is adopted? James David: Current property, if they're already a permitted use, then they're good. If there is anything that changed in the Zoning Ordinance, they might turn into a grandfather status if, for whatever reason, that change to the Zoning Ordinance affected that use. We're not looking to create non -conformities. We're looking to just make things a little bit easier and more flexible. Council Member Cimino -Johnson: Will this make the process easier for individuals who buy property that has a use? Today, I don't know what I'm thinking. The furniture store out here along Route 15, how would that change that property? James David: We would look at the zoning district that underlies that furniture store. Lets say it's 6-1 now. Maybe that turns to DT, Downtown zoning district. Depending on what they're proposing, lets say they wanted to change it to an office use, it would be a little bit easier for us to make a judgment call if it didn't specifically say the type of office in our Zoning Ordinance. It would fall into that office use category, and we could make a judgment call on whether or not that meets the characteristics of that category. Page 25IMarch 11, 2024 Council Member Cimino -Johnson: Okay, so they wouldn't have to come to us for a rezoning at that point? James David: Not necessarily. If an office use is a permitted use in the B-1 zoning district, then that's by right. Council Member Cimino -Johnson: Okay, excellent, thank you. Mayor Burk: Cummings. Council Member Cummings: Yes. One question I had was in the new language, and it were not in that article yet, I apologize. Are we looking to clear up any confusion on some of our properties that fall into multiple layers of districts, whether you're in the Crescent Design, but you're also in the district as you drive into Town, and you have to figure out which rules you follow and they don't always speak the same language? Have we looked into trying to clarify that and either, I would be fine with looking to use the word eliminate, that's a little extreme, but make it just easier for folks to understand. Are we looking at that in this rewrite? James David: Absolutely, and this is the appropriate time. That's Article 2, zoning districts and overlays. As an example, we've realized that the sign regulations in the Crescent District are different than the baseline regulations in the zoning, so why not make them consistent, if possible? We're looking for ways to enhance that consistency, and certainly, if there's an overlay district where you can accomplish what is needed in the base district, then there's no need for that overlay, so we're looking at that as well. Council Member Cummings: Yes, and then one thing I remember when we were talking about the Town Plan, there was some confusion with the public and property owners and applicants on a graphic looked one way, but it didn't really, that wasn't 100% of what it needed to look like, but I designed this based on your graphic and your Town Plan. Are we ensuring that these graphics reflect what the Zoning Ordinance actually says, and is crystal clear in that were not going to have to deal with the— well, I did it to this, 1 didn't read the language, but I looked at the picture and designed it this way. James David: That's a great question. I think in a Town Plan document, it's very visionary, and oftentimes you include illusiratives that give what you're hoping for but doesn't say it doesn't have to be exactly like that. Wth zoning, it's more prescriptive. If you noticed in some of these images, a lot of them had a key where it says A, B, C, D around the graphic, and then there's text that corresponds to those letters that reinforces that yes, you need to build it to, or create it exactly as the graphic shows. Council Member Cummings: Right, perfect. Then finally, a big picture question on the process of getting to approving the new Zoning Ordinance, or the Amended Zoning Ordinance, not the new one. I'm looking at your schedule. It's very colorful. My concern is, it's going to be a lot. There's a lot to digest. Even though I applaud breaking it down almost in half for the articles. I think that's still going to create a lot of reading and understanding. My question is, does staff have an opinion, and I've been noodling this over since our initial joint meeting with the Planning Commission on this topic. I know we talked about it. We decided to venture off on our own path with the Planning Commission doing their own public hearings and then the Council doing our public hearings. Has staff had any thought or with the consultants about maybe discussing doing joint public hearings to ensure that were, one, getting -- it's a lot to cover, it's a lot for staff, it's a lot for the Planning Commission, it's a lot for our Council Members. What's the old saying, two heads are better than one. Has there been any discussion at the staff level on trying to streamline the process as well? James David: Certainly. Our original project plan, we envisioned a couple of different joint sessions with the Council and the Planning Commission. I think two heads are better than one, and also it gives the Commission an understanding of some, where the Council wants to head in terms of directional items. Now, we had our first session and I think we decided to be more of a linear process, but that's always open for discussion. In terms of streamlining how you get there, it is a considerable amount of information. Page 261March 11, 2024 If we get this done by May' 25, I think wed be ahead of the curve. What's going to help us get there is that online platform. Even though it says Council, you're not looking at this until May 2025, you could actually look at that first draft when it comes out in September '24 because its going to be public and online and I would encourage you all to dig in early if you have questions and comments, you can send it to us and then we can be responding, as long as it's FOIA, not in conflict with FOIA, but I think that that's one way to keep it streamlined, is that digital draft and then keeping the comments and responses flowing. Council Member Cummings: One final comment. My Commissioner, Mr. McAfee, I think had a great idea of, and I'm going to steal it from him, so if he's watching I'm stealing your idea, Brian. Is incorporating Al into this whole process where you can upload our entire Zoning Ordinance and then just ask questions? How tall can a building be in Downtown Leesburg? The Al will only search the Leesburg Zoning Ordinance to be able to figure out and spit out those questions. 1 don't know, something to think about. James David: Well, weren't quite there yet, but the system has — Mayor Burk: Doesn't Google do that now [laughs] James David: -- has a really strong search feature. You use those Boolean search logic and it will pull up everything according to that search term that you put in, which is already ahead of where we are right now. Council Member Cummings: Yes, perfect. Thank you. Mayor Burk: Vice Mayor? Vice Mayor Steinberg: Thanks. Well, I would offer that those of us sitting up here, there's not one of us who's actually gone through the process of even a small development and other than the shed I built that required a permit and some drawings. That's about the extent of my interaction with this whole process. Would it be possible for the consultant to create, as we go through this, a hypothetical? Here's a hypothetical project, and here's how it would filter through this process to get to an approval so that we have a clearer understanding of all of the areas that get touched along the way. James David: Sure. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Is that a possibility? James David: Yes, absolutely. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Okay. Then I know it has been floated with the data center conversation that we might consider making data centers anywhere in Town special exceptions. Now, I suspect that wouldn't affect certain projects that are already underway, but certainly could affect other parcels down the road. Is that something that's in this conversation or something that we can actually consider doing, and is the consultant actually looking at that by direction, or is that something we have to strongly suggest? James David: I think it would be really important to hear it from the majority of Council. As of right now, yes, that's on the table in terms of the permissibility of uses. When we consolidate into that single -use matrix, we also look at the different land uses where they're permitted or by special exception or maybe a limited use. Then we evaluate the Town Plan and say, okay, is there any changes needed based on that new Town Plan direction. If the majority of the Council directed staff, hey, we think we want to put data centers as a special exception use wherever they are currently permitted, that would be good for us to hear. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Okay. Are you saying that we would need to give you that direction this evening, or is that something--? Page 27IMarch 11, 2024 James David: Well, it's a long process, so if you're not ready to give it to us tonight, that's fine, but at some point, I think signaling that to staff would be a good thing. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Okay. Well, would the Mayor have any objection to us taking a straw poll to see if that's a direction we might want to go in? Mayor Burk: Does everybody have enough information to make that decision? Council Member Bagdasarian: Mr. Vice Mayor, would you please mind just clarifying the request? Vice Mayor Steinberg: Well, I guess in its simplest form, it would be to make the data center a special exception in every zoning district. I think that's pretty straightforward, yes, other than the ones - James David: Every zoning district, they're currently allowed in. Council Member Bagdasarian: That's the part that went through. Mayor Burk: [inaudible] James David: Data centers are-- They're permitted by right in the 1-1, which is Industrial Research part zoning district, and they're permissible in the Planned Employment Center District, but remember, you need to rezone to get to PEC. I think what the Vice Mayor's saying is, do we want to change those P's to S's in those two districts? Vice Mayor Steinberg: I think so, yes. Mayor Burk: Yes, sir. Council Member Cummings: I just have a question. The special exception is great, but is there anything stronger than a special exception to deter development in the Town? Do we have any tools stronger to deter development? Mayor Burk: A no vote. James David: Well, you could take it out of those zoning districts altogether. Council Member Cummings: Yes. Okay. Thanks. James David: But we don't have a next level of beyond the special exception. [chuckles] Mayor Burk: Are there four people that would like to require that data centers be a special exception? [chuckles] Council Member Bagdasarian: [inaudible] Mayor Burk: Yes. James David: Okay, so well put it in the draft. You'll get another chance to look at it. It doesn't have to be decided, or voted on tonight, but thank you for that direction. Mayor Burk: Now, my concern is around the sustainability development. James David: Sure. Mayor Burk: I've seen this in different locations, especially in the county, and it doesn't always work very well. The example you gave was height. Someone does a green roof, and we give them another floor. They can make a building a little bit higher. Well, but that's not what's appropriate for that area. It's Downtown. There's not six-- I guess Downtown is four levels. Page 28 March 11, 2024 James David: Four to five, yes, for the most part. Mayor Burk: We're going to end up giving them the opportunity to go up even higher, when it's really is not appropriate for it to be there. That kind of stuff really concerns me. James David: Okay. We could certainly take incremental steps, and only implement this where we would feel comfortable potentially giving building height, or it doesn't have to be building height as the as the carrot for the incentive. It could be another development standard, but the concept would be to urge construction techniques that are more environmentally friendly. Then there's a give and take. Mayor Burk: I understand that, but you know -- James David: Maybe building heights off the table. Mayor Burk: A green roof doesn't equate to another whole floor, or - James David: Certainly. Mayor Burk: -additional levels. The trade-off hasn't always been equitable or fair in my opinion. I'm just concerned about that. I don't want to end up, we end up making this change in places where it's really not appropriate. Well, we did the green roof, we did this sustainability thing, so you have to give us this incentive. That would be where my concerns are. James David: Okay. Thank you. Mayor Burk: All right. Anyone else at this point? All right, thank you very much. Council Member Cummings: Can I just add one comment? Mayor Burk: One comment. Council Member Cummings: Just one quick comment, and this is my concern with the process. Not to sound like that person, but this is my concern with the process with exactly what the Mayor brought up. That's like a very specific conversation. If were talking about five or six articles in one night, it gets of lost in that discussion. My hope is, as we plan the future work that we maybe look at, pulling out some of the higher conversation articles, and doing public hearings or doing meetings on those individually rather than trying to jam three or four together. Mayor Burk: I didn't understand what you just said. Council Member Cummings: I just was saying, that's a very important conversation to have about all of those incentives and everything. I just want to make sure whenever we have the kind of near -final conversation about this, that we have the opportunity to really get down in the weeds on those issues. If we would do that with a one article meeting rather than four or five articles in the same meeting, it might be easier to have those conversations. Mayor Burk: Oh, okay. James David: We can certainly do that when we get to the draft text. Mayor Burk: Okay. Thank you, James. Appreciate that. We have some proclamation requests that I will need motions for. The Environmental Advisory Commission Chair, Paul Sheaffer has asked for a proclamation on Keep Leesburg Beautiful, which is coming up in April. Do I have four votes? Well, I can't vote, how do I do that? [crosstalk] Four head nods, okay. That people would be interested in doing that proclamation. Okay. We have one from the Director of Utilities, Amy Wyks, for National Drinking Water Week, May 5'h to the 11Th. Do we have four people that would be interested in doing that one? Okay. We have a request from a resident to recognize and honor, firefighter-- I'm going to -- No, this is firefighter, B -E -N -D -E -Z -U. He is a Volunteer Firefighter, but he's also one of our Police Officers. I don't know how to say his name. Ben, Ben --I don't want to mess it up. Page 29IMarch 11, 2024 Anyway. Is that you? [laughter] Do you know who I'm talking about? Do you know how to say his name? Unidentified Speaker: I believe it's Bendezu. Mayor Burk: Bendezu. Thank you. Unidentified Speaker: (inaudible] Mayor Burk: He was --1'd like to thank firefighter Bendezu for his commitment heroic action on February 16th at the Sterling tragedy. The firefighter was assigned to truck crew T620 and did not hesitate to risk his own life to save others that night, along with his Town-- teammates. He is a Leesburg Police Officer. Are there four people that would be supportive of doing a proclamation for this gentleman? Okay. The next one is a proclamation. I'm sure that we remember reading recently, we had a gentleman that was playing basketball at Ida Lee and had a heart situation, had some sort of medical situation. The Ida Lee staff was instrumental in saving this gentleman's life. The Emergency Doctor called me and told me that without the work that our staff at Ida Lee did, this gentleman would not have survived. I would like to take the opportunity to acknowledge those staff people and Mr. Dentler, you know who they are? Kaj Dentler: Yes. Mayor Burk: Thank them for their quick action and their bravery of being able to help keep someone from a terrible situation. Everybody on that one? Okay. Then I have a last one. It's not a proclamation. I'll wait till we go through the other stuff. Does anybody have anything else proclamation -wise? No? Okay. How about future meetings or agenda topics? Yes, sir. Council Member Cummings: Just one future agenda topic. As we're in the budget season, not for fiscal year '25, but maybe the future, have a discussion with our Airport Commission around airport landing fees for a period of time to help offset the cost of the tower. Mayor Burk: I would not be supporting that, Mr. Cummings. That has been brought up in the past. One of the effects of it was that the airplanes left. It made an impact on-- because the other airports are not charging it. When you start to charge it, the airplanes go to the other airports. Council Member Cummings: Okay, but I'm just asking for a discussion on it. We're asking the taxpayers to shoulder 10 million, which will probably end up being 12 million for a control tower. I'd like just to have a discussion about how we can help offset those funds. Mayor Burk: Okay. Anyone else have-- Yes. Are there four people that would like to have that discussion? Vice Mayor Steinberg: Before we get there, I was wondering if we've had any input from the Commission about this particular topic. Council Member Cummings: I've spoken with the Chair of the Commission and a Member of the Commission who both were open to the discussion. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Okay. Mayor Burk: Good. Oh, okay, wait a minute. I'm just tying into that. I knew there was a point I was trying to make. Tying into that, I would like very much for us to set up a separate meeting with the Airport Commission and the Airport staff, and the Council, not on a work day but have a separate day to have this discussion about what do we envision, the 40 acres being used for at the Airport. We keep getting requests about it, there are people that are interested. We don't really have an answer because we haven't decided what is it that we want. Do we want to keep it for the future? Do we want to do something different with it? I think it's important that we have that discussion when there is a level of interest in what were going to do with those 40 acres. Vice Mayor Steinberg: This is a special meeting for the Council and the Airport Commission. Page 30IMarch 11, 2024 Mayor Burk: Right, and it doesn't have to be tomorrow or anything like that. It's not something that has to be right away, but it's something that we should be doing. I would like to see us do in the not - too -distant future. Are there four people that would be willing to do that discussion? Okay. All right. And Dr. Cimino -Johnson? Council Member Cimino -Johnson: Yes, Madam Mayor, I'd like to ask that we have a discussion with the Leesburg Movement either during a work session or a special meeting where we discuss what they plan to do in the next couple of years and then our expectations around how much manpower we can provide if they're going to keep asking for events in the Town. Mayor Burk: All right. Mr. Dentler, is that okay? You weren't talking about staff to staff, you were talking about us. Kaj Dentler: Correct. I believe that's an appropriate thing for Council to do on the larger picture, how do we make this partnership work for everybody? Mayor Burk: Okay, great. All right. Are there four people willing to do that? Vice Mayor Steinberg: Are we looking for a special meeting or are we looking for the Leesburg Movement to come and give us a presentation during a work session? What are we looking for? Council Member Cimino -Johnson: I'll look to the Mayor to guide us. Mayor Burk: Probably, it would be better to have a discussion than just have them do a presentation, I think. Kaj Dentler: Yes. I would recommend that, I know you may not want a special meeting, but I think when you can have a special meeting in a different environment than this room, I think you can have more collaboration and working together than what this room can create. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Yes, I agree. Mayor Burk: Four people willing to do that? Okay. That moves forward. Anyone else? Is there a motion to adjourn? Vice Mayor Steinberg: Moved. Mayor Burk: Seconded by Mr. Bagdasarian. All in favor? Members: Aye. Mayor Burk: Opposed? That passes. Page 311March 11, 2024