Coraggio Consulting Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, Finance/Government Operations and Economic Development Committee, Tuesday, January 10, 2023 Date: Tuesday, January 10, 2023 Place: Board Room, First Floor, Government Center, 1 Harrison Street SE, Leesburg, Virginia Length: 1h 56m (video) Official meeting video (county, Granicus): https://loudoun.granicus.com/player/clip/7158 Agenda (Granicus): https://loudoun.granicus.com/AgendaViewer.php?view_id=73&clip_id=7158 Machine transcript (speech-to-text) produced by Coraggio Consulting. Not an official county record. Names and numbers may be misspelled; check the video at the timestamp before quoting. Speech-to-text: whisper.cpp, model large-v3-turbo. Produced 2026-10-22. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [00:06:19] I would like to call to order the January 10th, 2023 Loudoun County Board of Supervisors Finance, Government Operations, and Economic Development Committee meeting. This room has a hearing loop. If you need hearing assistance, switch your hearing aids to telecoil mode. [00:06:37] If you need a headset, we have those available as well. And please see the clerk to request one. committee members will have three minutes to ask questions for all items with as many rounds as we need before i go to adoption of the consent agenda i would like to make a motion to suspend the rules to enable us to vote on a vice chair for the committee so i move that we suspend the rules is there a second second second by chair randall um any discussion all in favor please say aye [00:07:12] aye any opposed say nay the motion to suspend the rules will pass 5-0 I would like to move that the vice chair of this committee be supervisor Matt Letourneau is there a second second thank you any discussion I have some discussion yes ma'am Mr. Letourneau owns me so owes me some pom-poms from the from the metro and I haven't got that yet and so I'm pretty pretty sure I'm chair i actually did try to get pumped oh i'm not i'm not sure if you are my vote for this [00:07:48] i'm barely or my vote thank you madam chair any any other discussion all right um all in favor please say hi hi any opposed say nay and that will pass five zero congratulations mr letourneau uh the proposed consent agenda is as follows item six contract award architectural and engineering services for general government office building phase one item seven contract award job order contract for general construction item eight contract award mobile data computers item nine [00:08:26] award authority increase information technology data center and public safety radio system redundant master prime site co-location services item 10 contract renewal roadway and transportation Design Services. Item 12, Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy Program. Item 13, Review of Affordable Multi-Family Housing Loan Application for Avonlea Senior Apartments. [00:08:53] And item 15, Calendar Year 2023, Utility Allowances for the Housing Choice Voucher Program. I will move the consent agenda. Is there a second? Second by Supervisor briskman is there any discussion on the consent agenda chair randall i'm sure um did you mean to say item um 13 yes i sent out an email earlier email okay um supervisor letourneau had had the [00:09:31] time to research it and agreed that it could go on consent all right that's fine that's fine okay All right. Any other discussion? All in favor of the consent agenda, please say aye. Any opposed, say nay. And that will pass 5-0. [00:09:51] Information items. All right. Our favorite, item number one, monthly Department of Economic Development report. And we have Buddy Reiser. Welcome back. Thank you. I appreciate it. As we start the second half of this fiscal year, we're happy to report over 100 wins, almost 4,000 jobs, and over $7.5 billion in commercial investment. Despite the scary macroeconomic conditions, FY23 is shaping up to be one of the biggest years on record for commercial investment in Loudoun. I call your attention to the monthly report in your packet where we've started to give a graphic representation [00:10:29] of the economic diversity of our wins. I believe the chart shows good diversity in the companies coming to or growing in Loudoun, as well as the job creation and retention. Although, admittedly, a large portion of the investment number continues to be from data centers, which provide significantly more tax revenue per square foot. [00:10:52] Overall, there were 223,000 jobs added to the U.S. economy last month, while unemployment rate fell to 3.5%. The most recent month for state and local data in November showed 2.5 unemployment for Loudon and 2.8 for Virginia. [00:11:09] Job openings held nearly steady at historically high levels in November, about 10.5 million, adding to evidence that the labor market retained its strong market heading into 2023 despite rising interest rates and concerns about the slowdown. [00:11:25] The report also showed layoffs stayed low and a large share of workers quit their jobs in November. That is a sign that Americans still overall are confident in their employment prospects. This continues to be a solid labor market, even as some well-known companies have been announcing layoffs. [00:11:44] For commercial real estate in Loudoun for the second half of the calendar year 2022, there was a slight decrease in vacancy for office and retail, but there was also a decrease in average rents on the other hand flex and industrial properties witnessed a slight increase in vacancy but it had a fairly large increase in average rents according to dar sales and pending sales were down in November of 22 but the median sales prices up year over year to six hundred thirty seven thousand five hundred an increase of about thirty eight [00:12:19] $8,000 compared to the same time last year. And with that, I'm happy to take any questions you might have. Thank you very much. Any questions for Buddy? Madam Chair. Thank you, Madam Chair. So welcome, Buddy, and Happy New Year. So there was a lot to be happy about in this report, but some things to be pretty concerned about. I was real pleased with the retail sales that are up because that's been lagging post-COVID. I was equally as happy with the significant [00:12:48] increase in hotel revenue. I'm sure Ms. Erickson will be happy with that as well. However, I was and I continue to be very, very concerned about the commercial building permits and the outsized number that is data centers. [00:13:12] It is feeling like, I do see that you have all the wins up there and I recognize that and I appreciate what you just said, but when you look at that number, it feels like, it's feeling like data centers are just pushing out everything else, probably, possibly, because they can just afford the land, right? And so they're paying enormous amounts for land, which other companies cannot pay. [00:13:31] But I am maybe even more concerned, even looking at the diversity wins, even more concerned that we are so, we are over-reliant on data centers. And perhaps there's just nothing we can do about that if data centers are going to be, If they can just afford to pay so much more for land than anybody else can, maybe there's nothing we can do about that. [00:13:55] But, you know, I guess I'll ask you, is there something we can do to try to get this back in the balance? And I want to be really clear. Obviously, we appreciate the city community very much, not just for the tax revenue, but for what they do in the community. However, it's just never good to be this reliant on one income source. [00:14:14] Let me try to take a run at that. In today's market, there are very little asset classes where financing is readily available. Multifamily housing, transportation and logistics and data centers are primarily where that is. [00:14:31] I think that we've done a lot to try to long-term restrict the growth of the data center industry in places where we don't want it. But I think that that has also had an effect on accelerating some of the projects that were already in the pipeline, trying to get projects ahead, even with them knowing that they're several years out for power. [00:14:59] So they're trying to get to market. And are they trying to find how they're going to answer that? Because what I've heard is that they're talking about having generators, diesel generators. Is that realistic? Have you heard how they're going to get the power? [00:15:16] Yeah, I think, you know, by 2026, which is, you know, if we wait another six to eight months, I mean, that's on a normal development cycle. There are people talking about on-site generation, not diesel generators, but other hydrogen. [00:15:34] Mr. Sains will be happy to know there's a pilot program with hydrogen. um also some some gas generators that will be providing gap power um but but really the solution isn't until really the southern line the uh wishing start of mars line is complete will be will they be completely whole i am concerned and i appreciate your answers thank you and thank you madam chair thank you um supervisor letourneau i think you may have just hit on something i was going to ask which is if we're just being blunt there is a bit of a perception in the industry that the board doesn't want a lot of data center growth? [00:16:12] And do you think that that accelerated data center growth in the period before the board has taken any action on land use? I do. I think that it's accelerated and I think it's also driven up prices because they want to get into land that is already entitled. [00:16:29] Before the perception is that the board or if the board does adopt land use changes, that would make it harder in some areas to do that. Yes. So it's created sort of a rush in the marketplace. I was going to just commend you for the investment piece that's been added to this. [00:16:46] Do you want to just walk us through what each of those icons are? The first four are obvious, but the ICT in green. Sure. What does that stand for? And I print it in black and white to save it. Oh, perfect. You know, obviously rural retail and health, mostly health IT. [00:17:06] ICT is largely platform computing app companies, web developers. What does the acronym stand for? Information Communications Technology. Okay. All right. And HSM means highly specialized manufacturing. [00:17:24] Ah, okay. Those were the two that I didn't figure out the rest. Thanks for the helpful little picture. I thought the one in green had something to do with cloud computing, but I wasn't sure what ICT did for it. so it's applications mostly so of the uh this does this total up to 83 um i'm not going to do yeah the math but i i think it probably does so yeah the 20 other is the biggest category anything stand out in that category well those are things like usta and and other projects that [00:17:58] don't really fit into we would call that non-cluster wins okay okay great thank you Happy New Year. You too. Buddy, anybody else? Buddy, thank you very much. [00:18:14] As you know, I tend to be very relieved when data centers are locating in Loudoun County. And I think the problem with there's always a positive to diversification of the economy. [00:18:32] There's no doubt about it. But we relied perhaps too heavily before the recession on housing. And then when values plummeted, we saw a major decrease in revenues from that source. [00:18:49] Back in the, I think, early, well, in the late 1900s, early 2000s, Arlington had the lowest tax rate in the region, significantly. But it was the lowest. [00:19:05] And the reason was all the federal facilities and commercial enterprise that were drawn by them to Arlington. Then the base relocation and closure, or reallocation and closure, happened when the federal government began moving its office space to more secure facilities. [00:19:28] And Arlington saw a huge negative impact to its tax revenue. So you can build up any base in a county and have causes beyond your control heavily impact that base. [00:19:49] I think the data centers have been one of our most reliable generators of tax revenue, and I expect they'll continue to be that going forward. And I know we always put you in a difficult position because we have different views on different issues on the board. [00:20:07] But I appreciate the data centers greatly, and I appreciate the chair indicating that she also understood the importance of them to our economy. But thank you very much. Yes, and if I may, we are always constantly focused on economic diversity. [00:20:25] And I think that the number of wins in other clusters show that. It's just you have to get so many of those wins in other categories to level out the amount of revenue per square foot that we get. [00:20:43] So it's a ship that isn't going to turn in a day, but it is something we are completely focused on as a department. Thank you very much. Thank you. Take care. All right, item two, update on the Town of Percival projects. [00:20:59] We have Mark Hoffman, Nancy Boyd, Jim Zeller. Scott is here as well. [00:21:18] Good evening. As we go through and summarize the activities that have occurred in the Town of Percival since the last finance committee meeting on December 13th, let me outline how I'm going to go through this just so you have an idea of how this is going to proceed. [00:21:36] I'm going to first talk about the legislative applications, the events that have occurred since December 13th, as well as the issues associated with that. And then I'll go into and talk about specifically the Route 7690 interchange project. [00:21:55] Again, events that have occurred and then the issues associated with that. I'm going to talk about many of the issues that are in the written item, but there may be some of the smaller details that I'm not going to specifically talk about in the discussion here. [00:22:11] And obviously, if there's any questions, please let us know. So starting with the legislative applications, which are specifically for the Western Loudoun Park and Ride, as well as the Fields Farm Park projects. [00:22:31] At the same time the Finance Committee was meeting here on December 13th, there was also a Town Council meeting that occurred. And at that Town Council meeting, it was scheduled to be a public hearing for those two projects. [00:22:50] During the meeting, the Town Council decided to cancel the public hearing, and they decided to remand the applications back to the Planning Commission. [00:23:00] And the explanation that was provided at the meeting was that the updates that the county had provided the town council at their request at their November 30th meeting were never viewed by the Planning Commission because they made the recommendation back in October and they felt that it should go back to the Planning Commission since they did not see the updated plan. [00:23:30] So as a result of that, we went to the next Planning Commission meeting, which occurred on January the 5th last week, and the updated concept plans were presented to the Planning Commission. [00:23:49] They have not made any recommendations yet. They have not voted on their recommendations for that application. There is a meeting scheduled for Thursday for additional discussion on those applications. [00:24:08] And their goal is to have a recommendation to the town council by December 19th. Sorry, January 19th. During the discussion that took place last week, like I said, there was no recommendations made, But there were several comments that were kind of themes that we heard. [00:24:35] One is they did appreciate the revisions we made to the concept plans, meaning that we did hear them and we were trying to address their concerns. But at the same time, they still expressed concern about the scale of the projects. [00:24:51] They still felt they were too large for the rural character of Percival. And they also were just concerned that it didn't meet or it didn't provide the benefit to the citizens of Percival. [00:25:13] Specifically, their concerns had to do with they still feel the park and ride lot is too large and they feel that the proposed athletic field lighting, the hours are too long and they would like to have that cut back. [00:25:30] and some even suggested have no lights at all. So those are still going to be issues. And, again, we don't know how they're going to ultimately recommend, but it's both our opinion and Parks and Rec opinion that there's a very good chance that the athletic field lighting will not be what we would generally need for a Loudoun County Parks and Rec facility. [00:25:59] And we'll see how that plays out. Moving on to, and let me move on to the questions they had on the park and ride facility. They expressed a concern about the size of the park and ride facility, which is proposed to have approximately 250 spaces. [00:26:21] Some of the town council members did, sorry, some of the planning commissioners did note that they're not seeing park and ride usage of that volume post-COVID. And that is accurate. [00:26:41] We did note in the item that currently for the existing Percival Park and Ride as well as the Harmony Park and Ride lots, right now the combined usage of those is less than 100 vehicles right now. [00:26:58] Now, in the future, it is expected that that demand will increase, but the timing associated with that is not easy to predict, given we're in a sort of unprecedented time right now. [00:27:14] So those are the issues that we heard regarding the park and ride as well as the Fields Farm Park. Moving to the 7690 interchange project, the town council also discussed that specific project at their December 13th meeting. [00:27:42] Even though the actual design plans are approved, we are in the process of trying to get a plat approved for some construction easements, as well as to obtain some right-of-way for one of the ramps associated with the interchange. [00:28:02] As part of that particular application, there is also a need to vacate an existing floodplain easement because that existing easement will ultimately be in the ramp lane. So as part of our obligation under VDOT procedures, we need to clear the right-of-way so that we can then get authorization to perform construction for the project. [00:28:31] So that is what the particular issue is with 7690. It is not actually getting the plans approved. It is getting a plat approved. So the issues that are noted in the item associated with that particular project is, one, these projects are all interrelated. [00:28:57] So impact to the 7690 project, if it were delayed or there be an extensive delay, that affects access to the Western Loudoun Park and Ride, which makes it much less effective, as well as it impacts traffic operations at the Route 7, 287 interchange, which is another smart scale project. [00:29:24] So what is mentioned in the issues section of the item is that, one, the issues that the town is bringing up regarding the floodplain adjacent to the 7690 interchange is independent of the actual project. [00:29:45] As mentioned previously, the project plans have all been approved, and we're just attempting to get a PLAT approved. And through that review process, it was realized by the town that the floodplain in that area is still under old, it's mapped using old data that dates back to the 70s. [00:30:13] And that for the section of the project that is within the county's limits, we, as required by the county FSM, did an updated floodplain study. And as part of that study, we utilized newer methodology and the mapping of that floodplain, the existing condition floodplain pre-construction expanded because conditions have changed. [00:30:43] The town then asked us to take a look at what would happen in the town. And indeed, the floodplain modeled would be expanded beyond what is currently mapped from the late 70s information. In our floodplain alteration studies, we have documented that the project itself does not create any rise in the floodplain. [00:31:08] This is just an existing condition that's based on new information and new conditions. So that is what is really causing a lot of this concern, and it really is independent of the project. The last thing I just want to note is I mentioned how any effects on the 7-690 project also could potentially impact the 7-287 project. [00:31:35] So if, for whatever reason, the 7-690 project were to be extensively delayed, the traffic operations at the 7-287 interchange would be impacted. [00:31:53] And what our consultant modeled, at least using some preliminary data, is that opening date, the 7287 interchange would still work, but somewhere in the 2030s, it would start to fail and not meet the level of service requirements. [00:32:11] And the way the project is currently scoped, our design year is 2044, and that interchange would not operate at an acceptable level in 2044 if the 7690 interchange is not in operation. [00:32:28] So that's sort of a summary of what has occurred and what are the impacts, and we're open to any questions you might have. Great. Thank you so much. Supervisor Briskman? Thank you. Thank you for that update. [00:32:45] starting to feel like Groundhog Day, quite frankly. So the road projects are the ones that we are under a timeline with and potentially losing federal funding if it's not approved, correct? Yeah, the smart scale projects are the two interchanges and the Western London Park and Ride. Okay, but the parks and the park and ride projects, those are county initiated and not [00:33:17] reliant on federal or state funding the park and ride is it is the park is not that is county funded okay and what is the investment we're looking at for the park um i don't know the exact dollars in my head but it's in the 25 to 30 million range 25 to 30 million okay and for the park and ride lot do you know roughly five to seven million okay so i have no interest in spending [00:33:52] 25 to 30 million dollars on a park if that cannot be fully utilized and have lighted fields we have so many families in this county spending and and supervisor letourneau can attest to this as can i and probably chair randall and anyone else who's a parent in this county can attest to the number of miles we put on our cars and the time we spend trying to get to fields because we have a don't have enough fields in this county so i'm just gonna put that right there and i might be willing [00:34:25] to cut our losses on this one if they're not gonna approve lighting those fields um same goes for swim lanes i we're doing swim team right now and the number of times i've had to drive down to Dulles no offense but it's 40 minutes from my district um sorry yeah you know I mean you know I mean and now I'm looking at the same thing for Martin Luther King Day because there's no lanes at Claude Moore for any swim practices um so we need to be investing in these facilities and I have no interest in investing unless they can be used to their full capacity and the other thing [00:35:04] I'll say about the park and ride, we also get criticized for too much traffic. And this is planning ahead. That is our job to plan ahead. And I know I'm probably preaching to the choir, but I just want to put this on the record. We get criticized for not planning ahead. We know we need those spots. And we know that that's going to take cars off the road. So again, if we can't do it to the capacity that we are trying to plan to do it, I'm just not sure I'm that interested. But thank you for the briefing thank you uh chair randall and then supervisor letourneau thank you madam [00:35:42] chair um first of all i have been been told by so many people that our staff has done a great job when you go to those meetings i've been following it very closely so i appreciate you and all that you're doing a couple of questions how close are the fields to homes i mean you know i'm surprised they don't want lit fields especially because for a myriad of reasons but what is their rationale Now, are the fields close to homes and they believe that they will have the light spill over? [00:36:08] What is the issue with the lights? So we have documented in all our plans that we meet all the zoning ordinance requirements for lighting. The zero-foot candles reading levels are way inside on the county property and do not come close to the property line of the residential properties. [00:36:35] I will say that we have about a little bit less than one-foot candle on the diamond fields, which are down by the industrial area of that area. And the Planning Commission and Town Council have mentioned that they aren't concerned about the diamond fields. [00:36:56] They're concerned about the rectangular fields. Well, the rectangular fields would make no difference either if they're not close to homes. Okay. You said that the parking ride lots are using about 100 proposed spaces right now. I mean, they're using about 100 spaces. 100 of how many proposed spaces? [00:37:11] So it's mentioned in the item that the existing Percival lot is approximately 230 spaces, and the existing Harmony lot is approximately 250 spaces. [00:37:30] And currently right now, you know, most current data is a little bit less than 100 vehicles are currently using those facilities. So about 460 spaces, about 100 vehicles are using those spaces right now. Is that about correct? [00:37:46] Yes. Okay. If we go to page 7 of the item down to the fiscal impact area, I actually am very concerned that it is very hard for Northern Virginia and Loudoun County to get SmartScale money, although SmartScale is supposed to be a completely nonpartisan, nonpolitical process. [00:38:09] It has not been, and there's a lot of assumptions that because we're Loudoun County, Northern Virginia won't need SmartScale money. And so if we were able to get SmartScale money in this county that we're not going to use, then I would just as soon give that back and not kind of drag this on because I don't want to harm our chances of getting it in the future. [00:38:31] And if they have to claw it back or take it back because the project is not being completed on time, then it will cast against us in the future when we're trying to get SmartScale money. And so I'm at the, and I know I'm at the time, and I'll go again because I have more questions. [00:38:48] I'm at the get-it-moving-or-get-it-over-with place at this point, and I'm not one to keep doing this and risk not getting smart-scale money in the future. I'll come back, Madam Chair. Thank you. Supervisor LeTurneau. Thank you. I was just going to say that I agree with the sentiment expressed by Supervisor Brissman. [00:39:08] Look, I know that us sitting up here and getting angry at Percival Town Council is not going to solve the issue, And I know that that has not been the approach that staff has taken and that you have been very much committed to finding solutions and problem solving. [00:39:26] But there becomes a point where it feels like it's sort of a square peg and round hole type of situation, and it just may not be possible to get to that point. And the same of it for the county is that we serve the residents of Percival as county residents, but also residents who are outside of Percival for whom Percival is the closest location to have some of these type of amenities. [00:39:53] And I think when we take that broader view, then the county has been completely justified in trying to pursue the projects that we have to ensure equal access to our facilities. It is quite clear that there are some in the town that simply don't want what we've proposed. [00:40:11] And so at some point, the funding just is going to have to be reallocated because it's not fair on a couple of different levels. If we're going to make an investment in a project, we have to be able to fully utilize it. And I've made this argument on other projects, and this board has also rejected some lighting that I think is unfortunate at times. [00:40:32] So this isn't to cast complete aspersions only on Percival. happens frequently but at this point given our resources and our field deficit we have to be able to fully utilize those and we have to be able to do transportation projects according to what we think the demand is whether that's the interchange or the parking right lot and we're you know we're in a complicated situation because of the different funding sources and what the implications are so at what point is staff going to come back to us and make the recommendation that we not pursue these projects is that something that you could answer is that a tim question or an erin question [00:41:09] perhaps erin thank you madam chair uh so i would say we're we're still on the track that we've been mentioning to you at the last several updates which is that we were going to kind of see this through january um you know the town council um sending some of these back to the planning commission you know although that was not preferable that is still working on it and staff has continued to work with Percival staff on trying to resolve the issues that we can um there's a lot [00:41:43] that's going to happen in the balance of January and into February so I think at the staff level if we don't see significant movement we don't see a way forward we're likely coming back in February to do exactly what's been suggested and that we return the smart scale funds. [00:42:01] You know, there are a finite number of issues listed here. Those issues, if they don't get resolved and we don't have a way forward, that would probably be our recommendation in February. Very good. Chair Randall, second round. [00:42:18] Thank you. Yeah, I'm pretty well at the Fisher cut bait place too. And to be honest and to be respectful to the citizens of Percival, They just had an election, and the people that were elected ran on this agenda of what they don't want to see. [00:42:36] And so, you know, before the election, I was ready to kind of keep, you know, see what happens. But literally, they ran on a slate, and the slate that won, all but one person said, basically, we don't want these things. And so, you know, as much as I'm scratching my head of what they don't want and they've given back money and such, You know, at this point, you can't force progress on people who don't believe that progress is needed. [00:43:05] And so, you know, I think our staff has done, you all have done an amazing job, a very heavy lift. But I don't know if the juice is worth the squeeze at this point. My only question would be, besides the, you know, they want a smaller parking ride and they want a non-lighter fit, which I wouldn't do that either. [00:43:22] What do they want? Because we're hearing a lot of what they don't want. What do they want? Silence has happened right here. They did ask for pickleball, of course. Oh, well, then okay. That is just good. [00:43:41] We provided. Pickleball. Well, pickleball just fixes the world, I guess, right now. Great shots. But to also answer that question, [00:43:55] Some of the comments that we've heard is, and this comes in also as part of the citizen comment periods they have before these meetings, is the residents adjacent to the proposed park and park and ride have expressed that they like the open field decks to their development, and they feel that these proposals will damage their view to the Blue Ridge Mountains. [00:44:24] Oh, it's the viewshed issue. I see. We've never heard the viewshed issue on this board before. And the other issue also that they have expressed is where there is lights, there is also noise, and they're concerned about noise. Now, I will also say they are adjacent to Woodgrove High School, and there are numerous sports events at Woodgrove High School. [00:44:45] All right. Well, thank you, and thank you all for all you've done. Appreciate you. Thank you very much, Aaron. This probably is for you. Should we expect to have on our February Finance Committee meeting pulling the plug on at least the two projects that have federal funds? [00:45:07] The staff recommendation would be that we maintain the update on Town of Percival projects, and if we need to suggest as we move forward with the creation of that item that it become an action item, Madam Chair, that we would bring that to you. I think the staff is still, as I said, trying to work through those last issues and will be attending town council and planning commission meetings in the hopes that our projects can gain approval. [00:45:35] If they can't, we will ask for your permission to make that an action item. Very good. Steve Torpy is here. I have a question on the fields. [00:45:52] Mr. Torpy, could you give your sense of whether unlighted fields are better than no fields or if we should take Supervisor Briskman's proposed approach of just stopping that whole project on the fields? [00:46:11] Sure, and one of the things that we've been sharing with the Percival Town Council and the Planning Commission is that our standard for a while had switched to trying to light every ball field that we can. And simply because it was mentioned this evening about the deficit that we do experience and we do get quite a bit more use out of being able to extend the day. [00:46:38] That's particularly an issue in the West when you have travel time to get out to the West for games as well. I think earlier we had mentioned on some discussions with lighted fields some of the issues that we're running up against with Franklin Park, who has a very limited lighting time frame, particularly when you get into the fall, whereas you're not able to finish games. [00:47:04] You're not able to get nearly the use out of those fields as we would like. And so that's why we changed our standard. Any new field should be lighted or at least attempt to be lit. kill it or have unlighted fields so i would say we are working through the process with the town and we are hopeful that we are going to be able to work through those issues good luck okay thank you very much oh aaron i was just going to add to what mr torpey said i think staff is going to be [00:47:42] in a much better position in february to answer the question based on the feedback we get from the Planning Commission and the Town Council about the lights and that because there are multiple views some want no lights some want to have kind of a cascading hour of turnoff for the lights and those are depending on where they land if they land somewhere we can then give you a better recommendation on what to do on that okay thank you very much thank you all very [00:48:15] much all right we're going to move to item number three quarterly report capital improvement project second quarter fy 23 scott's here nancy's here jim and mark and good evening uh yeah we're here to talk about the quarterly report for the second uh quarter of fiscal year 2023 um and we do have a couple issues i'd like to highlight before uh we answer some questions if that's all right with you sure first I like to talk about the market conditions and and not much has changed in the [00:48:52] market compared to last quarter material prices do remain high but it is often the materials that are are difficult to obtain that are still causing us issues on our projects and it's tough to tell what those will be on on any given project it's been varying and that remains true in general we're still seeing high prices in steel and plastic components and specifically we are seeing long delays in electrical equipment like transformer switchgear and low voltage panels which are causing some delays on our projects. Fuels were high towards the end of last quarter but have since [00:49:29] come down to a moderate level. However asphalt and paving materials have not really fallen down much but they do look to be steady and not increasing. And lastly lumber appears to be steadily falling over the last several quarters from a high of I think February or March of last year so that's been encouraging. I will note that we did not have any bids come in this quarter so we don't really have any real life examples of comparing current market conditions to what our previous estimates were. One other issue I'd like to highlight is the reclassification of the northern long-eared [00:50:07] bat from threatened to endangered which could have impacts on our projects but we are still gathering information on the issue uh u.s fish and wildlife was going to have a q a in december that was postponed and we look look forward to uh having that uh discussion um when they reschedule as far as impacts the projects excuse me uh it looks like um what that means to our projects is we won't be able to clear uh trees between april 1st and november 14th um obviously that's a large part of the year and we're gonna need to navigate around this based on the start [00:50:44] of our projects. To get around this we would need to either conduct a survey to show that there are no bats in the trees that we're looking to clear or potentially clear before that period but that may cause an issue because we don't have our contractors on site we'll need to work with procurement on getting some contracts in place for that potentially and as I said we're still gathering information on that and once we know the full issue we'll have an impact on what our projects with the impact to our actual projects and what that looks like so with that we're happy [00:51:17] to answer any questions very good uh supervisor briskman thank you is that county-wide from april to november we can't do do any tree clearing yeah it is but i think there's some maybe you know it's Larger stands of trees, I believe. [00:51:38] Correct. It's more the clearing of woods, wooded areas, as opposed to, say, like more built-up areas where you may have just like individual stands of trees or clumps of trees. [00:51:56] The bats seem to want to live where you have kind of almost like forest as opposed to the types of plantings that you would see around like in a typical neighborhood. [00:52:13] Is private industry impacted by this as well? Certainly. I mean, all of our capital projects are subject to this. But it's our capital projects are subject to this because we have a policy against endangered species, but it would only be if the private industry has the same policy that they would be delayed on their projects? [00:52:36] Because we see, you may not know the answer to that question. So it's any project that is subject to the federal oversight. So I don't have a good answer for you on individual private developers, but these are the sort of environmental review is what triggers us to have to follow this. [00:53:00] And that would also apply to, again, We need to investigate exactly what this means, but it could potentially also apply to any private developments where they need to obtain federal permits, such as a Corps of Engineers permit or any of those type of environmental permits. [00:53:22] Wow. Okay. And then Bless Park had a delay. Is it related to this? I don't think we're taking down a lot of... No, almost no trees in that. No trees are really coming down there. That delay is related to an archaeological survey that came out of the special exceptions that that archaeological survey is taking longer than we had expected. [00:53:41] Okay. Okay. All right. Boy, I haven't been bored for one second in this job. I'll tell you. I mean, seriously, thank you. Before Chair Randall jumps up and offers to help be part of the team searching for the bats in the trees, we'll go to Vice Chair Sains. [00:54:00] Thank you. Let me know when that's taking place. We've got to document that. That was to happen. For the Sterling Fire and Rescue Station, number 11 replacement, see here we're having some delays due to the contractor performance. [00:54:18] Can you elaborate on that here? If not, we can talk offline, like to get some more information about that. Yeah, we're not seeing the progress that we were hoping for, and certainly the schedule's pushing. The delay's also related to an extended move-in period that wasn't in the contractor's schedule, but after talking with the volunteers and fire and rescue, we realize we need a little more time to transfer from that temporary station into the current facility. [00:54:43] We are having weekly meetings with the contractor. They are progressing, albeit slower than we were hoping, but they are continuing to make progress, so we are encouraged that hopefully this timeline now stays. [00:54:59] Is it the same type of issues that we're having with the contractor for the community center, or is it different? Different. I think it's a subcontractor issue for them. trying to get the manpower out for them is, is, is proving to be difficult. Okay. If you'd like to reach out to my office, I'd like to talk some more about it if possible. [00:55:17] And then what is the rough timeline for move in if things continue? Yeah. So I think we're now expecting completion in March of 23. [00:55:36] So I think that would be when the new facility is done and then the move in period from there. Okay. Very good. Believe okay. That is it for me. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Anyone else? All right. Thank you all very very much move on now to item four quarterly report upcoming contracts third quarter FY 23 Cheryl Middleton John Sandy Christopher Bresley [00:56:07] Good evening committee members the item before you provides information on contracts that it may exceed one million dollars and will require action Potentially by this board or by staff in the next two quarters Specifically attachment one provides information on contracts or require action during the third quarter and attachment to provides The list of contracts that will require action during the fourth quarter of the year with that being said [00:56:45] I'd be glad to either walk through the contracts that are listed in the attachment or address any specific questions that you may have unless committee members want explanation, we could go to questions. Supervisor Briskman. Thank you. I was confused by the operation of the youth shelter, because it sounds like we closed the youth shelter, but then we're, do you mind if Ina comes down? No, if you need someone, Ina. So it said that we closed the youth [00:57:23] shelter in 21, but then we extended the contract for a year, and now we're talking about extending the contract for another year but i'm confused as to why we would have closed um the shelter because on the on the other side i hear mobile hope thinks that we don't have enough places for youth to go so i think i can answer those questions maybe if you don't mind i can't thank you i may be wrong so i know fernandez director of department of family services we have not closed [00:58:00] the shelter, we closed the youth group home. Okay. Because it had a census of zero. Okay. And it was not the one, it was not the best use of funding. There are different philosophies now with how we shelter youth. So the youth shelter is still up and running. Okay. Okay. And so this contract is to operate the youth shelter, not the group home. Correct. And we have divested ourselves of the group home we have okay okay um i i'm not going to get into the philosophies behind why but we can talk about this some other time thank you for clarifying that for me i just felt like maybe we [00:58:37] were doing a contract for not having something that was open so thank you all right very good thank you both very much item number five loud and water annual update charles yad good evening committee chair omstant and committee members here with carla burleson and mark koblos the [00:59:12] the Loudon Water Board. Carla is the general manager and she's going to present the annual update and I will be here if there's any questions for county staff. Thank you. Great. Good evening. [00:59:29] Thank you very much for having us here to give our annual update on Loudon Water finances and activities. We're going to keep to the agenda as we've done in the past to cover our financial condition. Also any assistance that we are providing to our customers as they go through these difficult times. We want to hit on some major projects that we have whereby we are investing in the future of Loudoun County to ensure that we have adequate capacity to serve. We also want to [01:00:06] highlight our education and outreach programs to include our industry connections and our community partnerships. And then finally, I want to hit on the collaboration with county staff on some critical initiatives. With respect to financial condition, I'm happy to say that Loudoun Water has a strong financial position at the end of 2022. We maintain our AAA credit ratings and stable outlook from all three rating agencies. We were issued an unmodified or clean opinion on [01:00:44] our 2021 financial audit. We are managing a very robust capital program totaling $670 million over the next five years, and we'll highlight some of the major projects that are part of that program, all while keeping our rates and charges comparable to our neighbors. So back in December of 2021, our board approved three-year rate increases, three-year increase each year for [01:01:20] 2022 through 2024 for our user rates, availability charges, and then some other ancillary fees. And these rate adjustments really allow us to continue to meet our financial goals with respect to our cash balance, our debt coverage ratios, and of course, we always try to stay on top of keeping in line to keep those AAA credit ratings. [01:01:46] And again, we have a goal of remaining comparable to surrounding utilities, which we're going to highlight on the next couple slides. So this slide is showing our user rates in comparison to our neighbors. [01:02:03] And again, this is for a residential quarterly bill, and assumes 21,000 gallons of usage, or about 7,000 gallons a month. And as you can see, even with our 3% increase on January 1st of this year, we're still lower than our neighbors. [01:02:22] The next slide we will show our, next slide, thank you. This is our residential availability charge, and we are at the high end of the scale when you look at these charges, but that is really indicative of a fairly young system that is still growing and in need of critical infrastructure to meet the expansion needs. [01:02:52] Thank you. So if you recall, during the pandemic, we had stopped assessing late fees on our customers and also had stopped any disconnection efforts to try to help them get on their feet. [01:03:12] We did resume normal bill collection activities in May of 2022. However, we do continue to still offer payment plans to anyone who requests one. And if they're experiencing financial difficulties, They can call in to us, and we help them in any way that we can. [01:03:30] Also, we are participating in the Low Income Household Water Assistance Program. This is funding that was made available from the federal government to Virginia to residential customers only who had past due balances and who meet certain income requirements, and they can get assistance to help pay their water and wastewater bills. [01:03:55] And that program has really just kicked off for us. we provided notification in early November, and customers are going through a third party that was procured from the Virginia Department of Social Services. They go through Promise, which is the vendor, and they then can get funding, and the money comes back to Loudon Water, and they are no longer past due. So they won't fall into those normal collection activities. [01:04:27] So the projects I'm going to highlight this evening are very familiar to you. They're the same projects that we've covered for the last couple years, so we're going to give an update on where we are with those. We are currently in the process of expanding our broad-run water reclamation facility from 10 million gallons per day to 15 million gallons per day. We are over two years into the construction of that expansion, and we expect completion sometime next year. In addition, we have already jump-started the planning and design for phase three [01:05:04] for Broad Run, where we will get to 30 million gallons per day of capacity. So we're definitely in a construction mode at Loudoun Water. The Milestone Reservoir Project, which as you recall, is the conversion of a retired quarry into a raw water storage facility is moving along. [01:05:31] Design was at 60% at the end of last year, and that project is expected to be complete sometime in 2027. At that time, the Milestone Reservoir will hold 1.25 billion gallons of raw water storage for use by our customers. [01:05:51] With respect to the Leesburg Joint Land Management Area, we continue to move forward with that, making progress from design to construction through various developer and Loudon Water-led projects. [01:06:07] Construction of some initial projects actually began late last year, and we expect that most Phase I projects will be under construction sometime this year. So that is moving along. And at this point, I have some kudos for the end, but at this point, I did just want to mention that there has just been a tremendous collaboration between Loudon Water and members of the Planning and Zoning Department and the Building and Development Division here at the county to really keep these projects moving forward. [01:06:41] So I just wanted to give them a shout out. Something very important to Loudon Water is our education and outreach programs, and Reservoir Park at Beaver Dam is a real highlight of those efforts. [01:06:57] As you know, the park is the result of a partnership between Loudon Water and Nova Parks, and I'm happy to say that construction of the park started in October. Water access is currently closed because we did have to reduce the level of the reservoir for construction purposes, but we do anticipate that it will be back open in the spring. [01:07:26] And, of course, trails near a portion of the construction project will also be closed for safety purposes. And keeping in mind that everything we're doing here at the park is really designed with source water protection in mind. This is, first and foremost, a drinking water reservoir for our customers, and so we're really designing everything around that. [01:07:51] And mark your calendars because we expect a grand opening in spring or summer of 2024. Also, as part of our education and outreach, we are proud to continue our partnership with Loudoun County Public Schools and various community groups. [01:08:17] We continue to use live web-based formats to grow our educational programs. We work with various groups such as the Science Center and the Global Inheritance Leading Ladies Initiative and collaborate on things like career day, job for a day, I guess, which is really the same thing, and then STEM internships and after-school programs. [01:08:47] And we are an executive council member of Loudoun County School and Business Partnership, and we really value that role. We also continue to participate in community events. You'll see us out at things like Sterling Fest and the Cloudmore Fall Festival. [01:09:03] And then finally, we also, as part of our outreach, we continue to collaborate with industry groups like VDOT and the schools to facilitate and coordinate our development activities. And finally, I wanted to touch on something that is very important to me, and that is our collaboration with Loudoun County Government. [01:09:28] We are working on a number of water and wastewater projects to address water and sewer issues in the county. Two of those predate the county's formal water and wastewater program. [01:09:44] The first of those is Howardsville, which I know is very near and dear to Chair Randall's heart. And I'm happy to say that phase one of that project was completed in 2022, and properties are now able to connect to the system. So we're very happy about that. Broad-run farms, sewer, I mean, excuse me, water service, and if you recall, that's a two-part project. [01:10:07] There's the EPA portion of the project, which will provide Loudoun Water service to about 124 homes in the community that were impacted by the contamination of the hidden landfill. The remaining lots in the community are going to be served through the county's approval of that project, and Loudoun Water is taking the lead on the design and construction of that. [01:10:36] and the design is is close to done on the county project we're still working with EPA and because we need to line these projects up we can't get ahead of them so but when they're ready we're ready and we'll be pulling the trigger on that as well and then we also have three projects that have come through the water and wastewater program we're working on peonian springs waterford and unison um and with this effort um at the risk of of leaving someone out um i do want to mention [01:11:14] ernie brown and scott fincham with general services their collaboration and coordination with loud and water staff has has been incredible to get these projects moving keep them moving meet with the community and explain um all the steps and so i did want to give a shout out to them and then finally of course none of those kudos would be happening without Charles who serves as our liaison and I have to say that our solid working relationship with you has really been beneficial and and very helpful in moving things forward so I just wanted to give him a [01:11:51] shout out as well so I'm happy to answer any questions that you have thank you so much any questions chair ran thank you john chair i i literally can't say enough about loud and water and the organization you all have become it is you're just fantastic and you know i want to you you have been very modest if we if we go to page five of the presentation you you kept saying that we're in line with other jurisdictions we're not in line even with the increase we'll still have the lowest water rate in the area by a good little amount. [01:12:28] And so I think that in line means somewhere in the middle, but it's not. We're still running lower, and I think that should be said. You know, I remember, Carla, the day when, you know, I called you about COVID and was asking would we be willing to, you know, not charge any late fees and things like that. [01:12:50] And, of course, at that point we thought, well, how long could this last, right? It's going to last two weeks or two months at the outside. And then two years later, we're still doing that. And Loud and Water was my first call. And you took the call, and you, I mean, immediately, it was like, we're going to figure this out and work with it. [01:13:09] And you have, and you have all the way through. And that is, it is incredible. It's incredible what you've done. You kind of went quickly through Howardsville when you said now people, properties can connect to the system. [01:13:25] And what that means is properties are now moving from, what, 1930 to 2023 all of a sudden because we had people who were using outhouses and didn't have running water in their homes and were literally getting up at night to go outside to use an out, well, I guess it's not called an out, it's some other word that's a really nice word. [01:13:46] Privy. A privy. It was in the privies. What you all have done in Howardsville in, what is it, two and a half years? It's been two and a half years? It's life-changing. I mean, if you look at the residents now, it's life-changing to let somebody have the dignity of being able to use the facilities and run the water in their house. [01:14:07] It's not just a connection. It is a change in life that gives them just a dignity that I can't describe and that they can't describe. And I know that this was kind of a heavy lift, and you put it on your back, and you did this for Howardsville. [01:14:22] And I am so appreciative of Loudoun Water and all you all do. I just cannot say enough, and I am very proud of you all. So thank you. Thank you so much. And thank you for being good county partners. And Mr. Yed, you know, thank you, sir. [01:14:40] Thank you. Thank you all very, very much for everything you've been doing. Thank you. And we, does any member, we have finished now with the information items. We have, I believe, two action items. [01:14:57] One probably will go fairly quickly. Another may, will have some discussion. Does anyone need food? Has everybody gotten food? Are you, all right, we will continue then. [01:15:18] All right. item 11 affirmation of personal property tax rates for tax year 2023 good evening madam chair and board members hello mr wurtz how are you tonight good how are you i was going to say i could could have brought snacks for folks if they need some you know i like beer nuts from dollar tree one of my favorites yes we wouldn't want to deprive you of your favorite snacks i can [01:15:57] bring extra. I can bring extra. I appreciate you continuing on with the meeting. Thank you very much. Thank you. This is an annual item to establish personal property tax rates. New this year is a provision to set a separate rate on personal use, cars, trucks, motorcycles, campers, and recreational vehicles. You now have that authority this year. Also, given the elevated vehicle values, I'm going [01:16:31] to recommend the use of an assessment ratio to temper unusual increases in values due to ongoing supply chain issues. It's going to be included in the personal property tax relief item in March. [01:16:47] We do not yet have NADA values yet on vehicles. We expect to get those at the end of this month. Table one in your item has revenue by class and per penny, as well as the rates on the various classes of property. Included in the item is a draft motion to affirm the rates as noted on attachment two, and it incorporates the previous direction to lower the rate on the general class [01:17:19] of property from $4.20 per 100 of assessed value to $4.15. The very last day that the board can set tax rates for personal property purposes for 2023 is your first meeting in march and i'm happy to answer any questions you might have thank you very much any questions mr letourneau so bob the used car market has been really fluttering all around and has been kind of on a nosedive the the values [01:17:55] that we use are january 1 right that's correct so is it possible that we're going to see a more significant drop in value than what we thought? I think we're going to see that they are not as elevated as they were last year, but they are still historically elevated. We're still trying to monitor that information. And like I said, we haven't gotten the information from NADA yet to get a handle on it. Yeah. All right. So we're setting the rate that we're moving forward with [01:18:30] is 415 which is where we were last year um and if if the rate if if the values end up being lower then it's really a problem for tim because of his budget it was 420 last year we're talking well yes but we depending on whether you're talking about calendar or tax year i'm talking tax yes tax but then we signaled our desire to go down to 450 so i was just saying that if if the values are much lower then it's it's kind of your problem because i'm going to be working with the budget office regarding the assessment ratio as well so we're trying to get well yeah you could because we [01:19:07] could go instead of doing 80 we could do 90 or something like that or up to 100 if if it is that's correct yeah yep okay thanks um when when does the decision on the assessment ratio have to be made the same time as the tax rate march 7th march 7th okay thank you and i think that's all and you're free to go thank you so much were you going to take any action tonight regarding yes we are okay all right thank you if you want around for that if you want we we have a we have a draft [01:19:44] motion thank you i move that the finance government operations and economic development committee recommend that the board of supervisors affirm the 2023 personal property tax rates as shown in attachment two to the january 10 2023 finance government operations and economic development committee action item as part of the fy 2024 budget is there a second second by supervisor letourneau any comments seeing none all in favor please say aye aye any opposed say nay and that [01:20:19] will pass unanimously thank you very much have a good evening good evening too all right uh the final item is item 14 update on recommended uses of the american rescue plan act funding for fy 2023 preservation of affordable housing and displacement services welcome almarie mr hall thank you good evening committee chair um start and committee supervisors on behalf of the department of housing [01:20:57] and community development i'd like to present to you this evening our proposed recommendations for program funding using the American Rescue Plan Act. If you recall, in April of last year, the Board of Supervisors obligated $12 million to the department for preservation of affordable housing and displacement services. Staff, since that time, staff has been working with public engagement activities as well as looking at what the state is doing, what is needed in Loudoun county to come up with these proposed recommendations that you'll hear shortly there have been some [01:21:35] material changes since last april's meeting the first happened in june of 22 we were notified that our housing management system software package would be sunsetting in june of this year and then later in october the state's rent rent relief program ended they exhausted their funding So these two material changes basically modified our approach to some of the programs that we'll recommend to this evening. [01:22:06] So there are four funding categories that I'd like to discuss with you. The first proposal is for displacement services at $2,750,000. This particular item will have an A and a B part, basically. [01:22:21] So the A part of this would be to provide navigational services for residents who are living at mobile home parks in Loudoun County. There are some possibilities that transfers of physical assets may occur, and we want to ensure that we have resources available to assist with relocation efforts that may be necessary. [01:22:45] We would outsource this funding for a third-party contractor to actually work with affected or impacted households to assess their needs for their particular families and to help them navigate toward identifying and finding alternative housing. [01:23:04] So this particular activity could include security deposits, moving expenses, utility allowances for security deposits that may be necessary to effectuate a permanent move. [01:23:20] The second component to this particular category is to extend, voluntarily extension of affordability restrictions for some of our landlords who are participating in our Affordable Dwelling We have 76 units that will be expiring this year, I think 50 of those this year, and 20 next year, and 24. [01:23:47] And so what we would propose is to work with those landlords to extend the affordability restrictions so that we can preserve housing stability for households that are participating. The second recommended use of funds is to create a rental assistance program that will mimic the state's program that ended in October. [01:24:13] We would like to devise a rental assistance program that relieves cost burden for households that are earning up to 80% of the area median income, which is currently $113,850 for a household of four. This program, too, would include third-party case management and provide direct payment to landlords. [01:24:37] We also would look to provide outreach to our participants who are on the waiting list for our Affordable Dwelling Unit program. We currently have 135 people in the county who we would reach out to to let them know about this rental assistance availability. [01:24:56] And then also our Housing Towards Voucher Program, which is a tenant-based rental assistance program. We have 160 families that we do expect to call them in this calendar year of 23 for completion of a housing, a formal housing application. [01:25:14] But we, too, would let them be aware that these funds would be available immediately for their leveraging their current financial conditions. The next funding proposal pertains to housing preservation of households with eviction filings, and we're proposing $1.5 million. [01:25:33] There has been an uptick in eviction filings in calendar year 22, and we had just under 500, actually 492 eviction filings the first three quarters of calendar year 22. [01:25:49] And out of the 492 eviction filings, 189 of those actually households were evicted. So that's a 38% rate of eviction. With that in mind, we would like to help households. [01:26:06] We propose helping households who have received an eviction filing. Again, we would have a case manager, a third-party contractor, to provide these coordinated services to work with the households, but to also work with the litigation that is happening with these eviction filings to ensure that hopefully the legal action would go away once the financial cure could happen so that it is not impacting a household's ability to find rental places in the future because they may have a judgment as a result of this eviction filing. [01:26:42] So in this manner, we would look to have this third-party contractor work with households to provide funding if and only if that household can demonstrate that they have the financial ability to maintain their housing after this cure has happened. [01:27:00] If they do not demonstrate that they have the financial stability, we would still work with them, but this case manager would actually start to work with them to identify alternative housing that could provide a longer-term, stable housing environment for them. [01:27:17] That's an additional component that runs through all of these services, with displacement services, the rental assistance program, and the eviction filings. The fourth item that we seek authorization is to help with our housing management system that is sunset this June. [01:27:37] We would conduct a procurement to retain our housing management items such as basic information such as name, social security numbers, things of that sort. But to meet our federal compliance reporting requirements, we will need a software system program in place fairly quickly. [01:27:59] These are the four funding recommendations that staff have devised to use our ARPA dollars that you've obligated to the department. We are available for questions at this time. Thank you very much. Questions. I saw Supervisor Brisbane, then I saw Chair Randall, then I saw Matt Letourneau, and then I saw Karan. [01:28:21] I might need a second round as well. All right. And thank you so much for all your hard work on this and for briefing my staff and I on it yesterday. The one thing that is of grave concern to me, there's some statistics you shared yesterday, are the increased evictions and eviction notices in the county. [01:28:44] Can you share that data real quick? Yes. I have the first three quarters for calendar year 22. So the first quarter, we had 73 evictions. The second quarter, we had 140 evictions. [01:29:01] The third quarter, we had 279 evictions for a total of 492 through the first three quarters. So they've been doubling is the trend. And how does that compare to previous years? Do we know? From the data that I've received from Legal Services of Northern Virginia a month or so ago, basically we were at double. [01:29:23] The 492, we only anticipated having about 250. So we're about double what was anticipated. Do you have any idea if these increased evictions are because the moratorium on evictions lapsed, the COVID moratorium lapsed, and or because the state ran out of ARPA money? [01:29:49] Are either of those two things factors in the doubling of evictions in Loudoun County? I cannot make that correlation tonight. I've had those same discussions and questions with legal services in Northern Virginia, and they're working with the data to try to extrapolate where correlations may exist. [01:30:09] An additional item that we will be looking at as well, because these numbers are aggregate, so they include market rate evictions, is to extrapolate the 80% area median income and below households, too, so we have a better field of the data. Okay, interesting. [01:30:25] And we had this discussion, I think, yesterday that, you know, the state approved people for ARPA money and then ran out of ARPA money. So we had households that were expecting to receive assistance and didn't receive assistance. And so I'm considering, and I don't know where the state fund balance discussion is, but the state has an extraordinary fund balance. [01:30:52] and I don't understand why they didn't fulfill their obligation for folks that were approved for assistance. So that's just something that I might be taking up at VACO or in VACO Finance Steering. The other thing that I don't know if we can do anything about this now. [01:31:09] We talked about it briefly yesterday. The $2 million for the computer system seems to me would have been a perfect one-time expenditure for fund balance. And I sort of wish I had known this list before we had our fund balance discussion because I feel as if we could have used that $2 million out of fund balance and then save this. [01:31:32] Could we not have saved this $2 million to help more people? Could we have done that? Supervisor, I mean, we could have done it. We looked at it from a perspective of that it was housing-related, and it is eligible under the ARPA funding. [01:31:53] So that's why we made the recommendation that it come from this pot of money. I found one more quick sentence. I assume that it's allowed under ARPA because you guys would never put it in there if it wasn't allowed under ARPA. But that's just sort of, as we were discussing fund balance, I sort of wish I would have had this list and known this was a clear one-time expense. [01:32:12] I think Tim has a comment. Thank you. Chair Randall. Thank you, Madam Chair. And I would definitely need another round. So this has been, I know, first of all, thank you all for your work because there's just limited amounts of money and so many needs. And I know that we're doing all that we can with what we have. [01:32:29] I'm going to ask some questions just because I want these questions, quite frankly, on the record. So I'll have to come back a second time. There's been a lot of discussion about a buy-down program and very good reasons for a buy-down program, if you understand rental assistance versus a buy-down program. [01:32:52] Can you tell me, can you walk me through the rationale of why you went with rental assistance and not the buy-down program? Yes, absolutely. So the reason why we landed with the rental assistance program versus a buy-down program, which is also a tenant-based rental assistance program is because we currently administer the housing towards voucher program, which is a tenant-based rental assistance program or rent buy-down. We actually have a waiting list of 160 households that have been on that list [01:33:27] waiting and anticipating their opportunity to be called to receive this type of permanent rental assistance. The regular or what I call regular or the temporary rental assistance that we're proposing is one time it's envisioned to help families that have had a life event whether that's health care or loss of job or a combination of both or something happened that prevented them from paying their rent and they just need some help getting back on their feet that I call rapid rehousing and then they can they will be able to demonstrate that they can carry their rent going [01:34:04] forward uh if it had not been for this life event so those are the funds that literally one time just one time yes okay so we're recommending a period up to six months the state's program provided three months of assistance we we wanted to go one time but up to six months yes got it okay okay and and so that's that's what where we landed with the differences okay um your rental assistance, it's up to 80% of AMI. Up to 80% seems kind of high. Why did you choose that number and [01:34:39] not go with a different and possibly lower AMI? Okay, for a couple of reasons. One, we're mimicking the state's rent relief program, and they went up to 80% area median income. And secondarily, when we look at the programs that are available that we administer, the Housing Choice Voucher program goes up to 50% AMI. Our low-income housing tax credit programs go up to 60% AMI. [01:35:03] So there is a missed area that's 60 to 80% AMI that we felt that we would be able to help some of our households who are just getting started. I was thinking more of the workforce housing population that are just getting started. Thank you. Madam Chair, I will have more questions. [01:35:23] Kim, Ms. Fernandez, come down for some of my other questions. Is that okay? Okay. Okay. Thank you. Sorry. Tim, did you have a response to Julie's question? [01:35:40] I did, if that's okay. Yeah. I was just going to respond that just for full disclosure and for just the committee's information, Supervisor Brisman, during her fund balance and budget briefings, did raise the question, and we actually, I think, prepared a motion for you that you ended up not using that would have moved $2 million out of the capital contingency that was sent through the fund balance item on your January 3rd motion to one of these categories. [01:36:14] I don't remember which. I need to defer to Ms. Turner or Mr. Hall as to which one it was going to be moved to. However, you know, the board could still do that if that's what you want to do, but I wouldn't wait past your January 17th meeting. [01:36:31] All right. Thank you. Supervisor Letourneau. Thank you. So on the displacement services, we have $1.5 million specifically set aside for the mobile home park housing navigation. Do we have an indication that we may end up needing that? I mean, there were parties working toward a resolution, but... [01:36:53] So there are two potential sites where we may need it. So one site has already had a transfer of physical asset, and we're not certain what will happen in the long term. The other has 75 residents, as I'm aware, and there was an initial notice file with the state of, I forget the exact terminology, notice of offer to sell. [01:37:19] That's the first of two steps, so the second step has not occurred yet, and we're watching that and anticipating and wanting to have some resources available to help the households if it comes to the need. So I guess my question is, though, do we have to be this specific in creating a line item specifically for mobile park housing navigation? [01:37:44] Or could we simply have a category for displacement services that are available to all displaced residents? Because for whatever reason, maybe we don't end up needing it for the mobile home park, but then you've created a budget line item specifically for that purpose. [01:38:03] I definitely follow your logic there. Probably the other side of the coin would be when the Leesburg property came up for potential displacement, we didn't have any resources allocated specifically to address the situation. [01:38:21] So we felt that allocating a specific line item to have just in case would position us better to help. We can, you know, do whatever you see fit. We can have one general. Can you reallocate? I mean, so we're using money that's coming from another source. [01:38:40] So can you, what happens if you don't expend that money? Right. We can definitely reallocate. In the future. Yes. No timeline here. Right. We only have to expend the funds by December 31st, 2026. Okay. I mean, I still think if we created, you know, the same amount of money and made it for displacement And then, you know, the board mentioned that this could, you know, the mobile home park could be one of the recipients that probably would still cover it. [01:39:13] But, you know, I'll see what others think. Just because I think there could be others that may need it as well. And I'm not sure, you know, why we should have a set-aside specific for one particular project or parcel, even though it may end up being mostly for that purpose. [01:39:33] But my time's up. advice to your sayings. Thank you, Madam Chair. So let me get, before I get into my comment, let me get to do a point of clarification to supervise the attorney if I can. So you're saying, right now it's saying mobile home park, which I'm reading as it could be the mobile home that was in question or it could be the mobile home that was, that's in Luckettsville. You're saying to make it more general, just. If I may through the chair, I would almost just take the [01:40:06] the words mobile home park and just say housing navigation you know and if we wanted to could even say including potential mobile home but i just wouldn't limit it just to that gotcha so what staff right now with the saying mobile home park your would you feel you'd be just only to to a mobile home and not to another property that might be displaced sorry sir can you repeat with it reading right now mobile home park housing navigation do you just that would staff interpret that only for mobile home parks so the one in leesburg the one in luckettsville and then that's [01:40:46] it but say if we had um an apartment in sterling or leesburg that you know those um residents were displaced you wouldn't be able to use that funds for the for that apartment building so the intent as presented was to encompass the two mobile home parks that we have and only the two that we have in loudon county to ensure that we had resources available if gotcha needed okay so yeah so my example say if they was an apartment building in leesburg or sterling that caught fire and we need to help those residents you would not be able to help with that funding it would be in category two the second second okay if somebody wants to make a motion i might be in favor of that [01:41:22] and then i'll get to my motion everybody's solved my alternate motion uh for my getting my briefing yesterday with staff um i just came to the conclusion that you know six months is a decent time frame but say if they're still working with a resident that just needs a little bit more time in the program I felt by allowing them the the option to have additional three months to make an additional recommendation for that family to help them in their time of need I thought that would be a good good gesture from the county and talking to staff that didn't seem like they that gave them that much heartburn about the idea this would not and correct me if wrong it's not going [01:42:00] to displace anybody that's already in the in the program and as it's updated in there it says if the funding is available so would you if you want to talk about the the motion and your thoughts on it supervisor says I agree with with your revised motion to extend from six months to nine months an additional three months if needed for families that we're working with who demonstrate financial hardship subject to funding availability there's no programmatic issue or challenge with it again [01:42:37] And we were just mimicking a bit the state's program, which only provided three months. So we wanted to do six months. So there was no magic number. All right. Thank you. Very good. All right. We're going to round two, starting with Supervisor Briskman. [01:42:54] Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. And just to clarify on the fund balance discussion there, my motion would have been just to send it to rental assistance. And I didn't really, and I'm not throwing shade or anything. I just didn't really realize there was a clear, like, one-time expense for a computer system that we were going to be using our ARPA funds for. [01:43:16] So I'll mull over the idea of having, trying to get a change, but that might be kind of a heavy lift to get all the votes that I need and all that. But I do appreciate staff help with that when the time, you know, writing that motion and everything at the time. [01:43:32] This might be a little bit of a repeat of Chair Randall's question. So the buy-down program, we decided not to do that. And what you're saying is that would perhaps have displaced folks. I think you said we had 160 folks in line for Section 8. [01:43:50] And so staff believes that a buy-down program, as suggested by our grassroots organizations, could potentially displace those folks, if I'm restating that correctly. Fairly correctly. [01:44:05] I would say instead of displaced, I would say probably leapfrog, which is probably not the better word. That is what you said yesterday. You thought that they would kind of get in front of folks that have been waiting. Right, so it becomes a fairness and equity issue with our administrator and our program. [01:44:23] Okay, okay. The displacement services that we may or may not be calling for mobile home residents, those, and we're calling it navigational, that's not just counseling. Bless you. That's not just counseling services. Could you enumerate, and we discussed this yesterday, what are the other types of services? So my concern, as I said yesterday with that, was that's just, in my mind, the way it's written, it could just be someone sitting across the table from somebody else. [01:44:59] But you said it's actually assistance. Could you enumerate a couple of those things that you mentioned to me yesterday. Exactly. So for this line item, we would outsource for a third party to actually administer services for residents who are impacted with displacement. Part of the services would be one to work with each household for a needs assessment to figure out what exactly are the needs of that household. When the time is right, when they would work with them to identify [01:45:33] alternative housing. What comes with that is, you know, transportation related costs to go view places, also utility, not utility bills, but utility deposits that would be necessary to get moved in the security deposits of the actual place that they identify first and last month's rent usually. So those and the actual move in expenses. So those are examples of expenditures that would be incurred and eligible with this third party working with those households directly. [01:46:09] Okay, so that's actual more sort of, let me, I mean, not soft services, but benefits. I'll come back to you after I've gone to Chair Randall. Thank you, Madam Chair. Ms. Latrano makes a good point. I think if we did something different in here, I would want to see a motion that's allowed for anyone to use it. [01:46:31] But knowing that the Luckett's mobile home is very likely going to be so very fairly soon, maybe make a preference for that, even if it could be others as well. And we do not believe that there's going to be the situation that happened in Leesburg mobile home park, which I will say I very much appreciated the buyer in the Leesburg mobile home park. [01:46:58] We don't believe that's going to happen in Luckett's having tried to, you know, to do some outreach to reach the buyer and such. It's very just possible that's not going to happen. And, yeah, we can talk about that more offline if you'd like to. Ms. Fernandez, you know, there has been a lot of very valid discussions around kind of eviction prevention programs [01:47:25] And the fact that, and everyone is correct when they say, in an addiction prevention program, we need to make sure that the landowner, the homeowner, the landlord, whatever you want to call him, is made whole and gets their funds. And they're not kind of just left holding the bag. [01:47:41] That's absolutely true. Having said that, can you talk about how much it costs when a family does get evicted versus how much it would cost to help them stay in their home through an addiction prevention program? certainly thanks for the question why i'm not going to give specific numbers but i can give you scenarios so eviction prevention will allow folks to stay in their home so that one if they lose their home then they will be most looking be looking for shelter services if they lose their [01:48:14] home they are children um are it's more difficult for them to go to school which is starting very very early affects their lifelong trajectory. It also affects being able to get to work, which then brings in money to the household. So all these layers and compounding issues make it that much harder for somebody to make it. And then, as you heard earlier, once somebody is evicted, they have that on their record, which is going to make it even more difficult for them to get another place, another abode, another place to live, whether [01:48:50] it's mortgage, rent, etc. So there's compounding interest, so to speak, in a negative way. If we can spend a little bit up front, it's cheaper in the long run than to spend it all the way down the line. And not only just in raw dollars, but in socioeconomic and health and wellness and education, etc. All those compounding factors for either a child, an adult, etc. [01:49:17] Right. Thank you so much. And I think I've had enough of my other questions answered that I feel fine with this motion and whatever amendments may be made to the motion. Thank you, Madam Chair. Sure. Supervisor Brisbane, did you have a follow-up? I realize I can ask my question in the motion that Vice Chair Sains is going to make. My question was about the six versus nine months, so I can ask it then. [01:49:39] All right. I just want to clarify, sure. I just want to clarify that under supervisor saying substitute motion, which I think staff has reviewed, staff is comfortable that this would not in any way undermine the existing waiting list that people have been on for a year at least. [01:50:04] That is correct. All right. Very good. And then the other question, since we had a discussion on another possible amendment, which would be to generalize the mobile home park housing navigation, and I guess remove the words mobile home park, would that in any way undermine an existing waiting list? [01:50:34] That is correct. So it would not? It would not. It would not. All right. So, Supervisor Sains, would you like to make your substitute motion as the main motion? Sure, thank you. [01:50:50] I move that the Finance, Government, Operations, Economic Development Committee recommend that the Board of Supervisors approve the proposed activities and funding allocations for the preservation of affordable housing and displacement services as shown in Table 1 of the January 10, 2023 Finance, Government, Operations, Economic Development Committee action item. [01:51:09] with further direction for staff to create a hardship extension for the rental assistance program subject to the availability of funds. The hardship extension is intended to allow households to qualify on the grounds of continuing in significant financial difficulties to remain in their rental assistance program for an additional three months upon expiration of the standard six-month program term. [01:51:30] Second. Supervisor Sainz, opening? No, I talked within my questions. I think it's pretty clear, so hopefully we can support it. All right. Chair Randall, and then I'll go to Supervisor Letourneau and then Supervisor Briskman. [01:51:51] To the motion that has been made, can you all talk a little bit about what the term, if the term hardship means something, you know, if you transpose that to legalese or to the ease of housing, is there an AMI that denotes hardship or is it, you know, when you see it or what does that mean? [01:52:11] So, for me as a housing practitioner, financial hardship would really be the third-party contractor working with the household for that six months worth of resources. If they make the recommendation that, you know, this household is on the cusp of being able to make it or they had extenuating circumstances, you know, again, health-related or just, you know, loss of job all of a sudden, but they're able to move forward, but for these resources. [01:52:41] That would be an example of basically an exception to policy. So then to be clear, a hardship would not be connected to an AMI. It's about a circumstance, and that person would need to show much in the rental assistance discussion that what they are facing is temporary in nature, and that you know that by extending this, their issue is being mitigated in the future. [01:53:14] Is that correct? That's correct. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Supervisor Letourneau. Yeah. Can I just go ahead then, Supervisor Saints, and make a friendly amendment to the recommended use of funding on your motion and just take care of it? Okay. [01:53:30] So my friendly amendment would just simply be to replace under displacement services to word that line item as housing navigation to include but not limited to mobile home parks. [01:53:47] Chair Randall? Could we do something to prioritize mobile home park in there, or do you all think that's needed? So I understand exactly what you're trying to do, Mr. Attorney, but I wonder if we're trying to, you know, prioritize but not limited to mobile home park, something like that. [01:54:13] Right. The preference would be to give that preference for the mobile home park that we feel that will need the resources. Yeah, so could we say to prioritize but not limit to mobile home park? Yeah, I think we can say that. Okay, all right, that's fine then. [01:54:29] Then I will accept that as a friendly amendment. All right, okay, that's been accepted. Supervisor Briskman. Thank you. I'm generally supportive. Did you say earlier that the state also does three months Before their funds were exhausted, their program did three months, the rent relief program. [01:54:53] Before the funds were exhausted? Yes. Okay, so the max someone could get is nine months here? Yes. Okay. And then in the evaluation that you were talking about when they're looking at the circumstances of the home, does the evaluation include an analysis of the amount of money the home is spending on housing? [01:55:16] So our grassroots groups are very concerned about homes that are spending 30% or more on rent and housing. So is that part of the evaluation? Absolutely. The program is predicated upon households being a rent burden. Okay. Thank you. [01:55:32] I'm good. Thank you. Closing, Supervisor Sains. All right. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed, say nay. And that will pass unanimously, 5-0. Good work. Really good work. [01:55:48] Val Marie, Ina, Mr. Hall, Mr. Reagan, really, really good work. Thank you. We have no further business to conduct, and I call this, in fact, was my mic off? [01:56:05] That passed 5-0. I call this Finance, Government Operations, and Economic Development Committee meeting adjourned. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Coraggio Consulting ยท aguyonx.com