Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, Finance/Government Operations and Economic Development Committee, Tuesday, April 11, 2023

Date: Tuesday, April 11, 2023
Place: Board Room, First Floor, Government Center, 1 Harrison Street SE, Leesburg, Virginia
Length: 1h 45m (video)
Official meeting video (county, Granicus): https://loudoun.granicus.com/player/clip/7244
Agenda (Granicus): https://loudoun.granicus.com/AgendaViewer.php?view_id=73&clip_id=7244

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.

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[00:06:04] All right. Are we on? Yes, we are. Okay. I would like to call to order the April 11th, 2023 Loudoun

[00:10:11] 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. If you need a headset, we have those available as well. Please see the clerk to request one. Pursuant to Virginia Code Section 2.2-3708.2 and the Board's Rules of Order, Supervisor Letourneau requested to participate in this meeting by electronic communication and is participating remotely from Chantilly, Virginia. A physical quorum of the Finance, Government

[00:10:50] Operations, and Economic Development Committee is present in the boardroom, and the committee has made arrangements for the voice of Supervisor Letourneau to be heard by all persons in the boardroom. Supervisor Letourneau has made this request within the required time frame and the county attorney has determined that Supervisor Letourneau meets the qualifications to participate remotely. The committee will record that Supervisor Letourneau participated remotely from a private location in Chantilly, Virginia, due to illness. Vice Chair Sains is not going to be with us

[00:11:27] tonight. He had to work late, as I understand it. Committee members will have three minutes to ask questions for all items with as many rounds as we need. The proposed consent agenda is as follows.

[00:11:42] Item four, quarterly report, upcoming contracts, fourth quarter FY 2023. Item six, award authority increase automatic external defibrillators, AED, and accessories. Item seven, award authority increase public safety and emergency preparedness equipment and related services.

[00:12:04] Item eight, contract renewal, public safety two-way radios and related equipment. Item 9, Contract Renewal, Intersection Improvement Design Services. Item 10, Contract Renewal, Day Support, and Employment Services.

[00:12:20] Item 11, Resolution Authorizing the Issuance of Appropriation-Backed Bonds through the Economic Development Authority of Loudoun County, Virginia. Item 12, Resolution Authorizing the Issuance and Sale of General Obligation Public Improvement and Refunding Bonds.

[00:12:37] I will move the consent agenda. Is there a second? Give that to Chair Randall. So the consent agenda was moved by myself and seconded by Chair Randall. Any discussion on the consent agenda? All those in favor, please say aye.

[00:12:56] Any opposed, say nay. Chair will vote aye. The motion, oh, Supervisor Letourneau, how do you vote? Aye. Aye. The motion will pass 4-0-1 with Vice Chair Sains off the dais.

[00:13:12] We now move to the information items. The first information item is the monthly Department of Economic Development report. We have Buddy and Colleen and Kendra. Who else do we have? All right. Welcome.

[00:13:33] Good evening. Thank you all for having us tonight. A few items to note in your packet, you have the updated information from the latest economic conditions. I wanted to dig a little bit into some of that.

[00:13:48] Data show labor market conditions continue to be tight, with employment continuing to trend up in leisure and hospitality, government, professional, business services, and health care, according to the latest jobs report. National unemployment was little changed at 3.5 in March.

[00:14:05] January, the most recent month for local unemployment data. In January, the rate was 2.7 for Loudoun County, 3.2 for Virginia. 2,000, 36,000 jobs were created in March. Nationally, the U.S. economy has now added more than a million jobs this year.

[00:14:24] However, U.S. companies have slashed more than 270,000 jobs this year, a 396 increase from last year. Close to 90,000 layoffs were announced last month, a roughly 15 percent increase from February, while the planned hiring slowed in March.

[00:14:40] Layoffs have been led by tech firms, which account for nearly 40 percent of all the job cuts this year, followed by the financial companies at about 11 percent. We have not seen significant layoffs in Loudoun thus far. A lot of the tech layoffs that you were seeing is more probably right sizing.

[00:14:58] A lot of the tech companies really hired up during COVID, and now they're figuring out what their normal should be. The Loudon Farms.org website underwent a full rebuild and relaunched at the end of March. The redesigned site features all new photo and video assets and provides information on our farming economy.

[00:15:19] The site contains an upgraded marketplace to lead buyers directly to the preferred e-commerce platforms of our farms and rural businesses. You might remember that we launched the Loudon Made Loudon Grove marketplace during COVID to help our industry, and it's really made a big difference for them.

[00:15:38] Also new is the Loudon Farm Exchange, an online classified directory developed by DED to facilitate ongoing business-to-business connections within the rural community. The launch of the platform took place at an in-person Loudon Farm Exchange event on March 28th at Harmony Hall.

[00:15:55] It was a really good event, and we think that this is going to be something that's going to be very special for our rural community. In honor of Loudoun's 10th Small Business Week celebration, the Department of Economic Development is hosting an educational summit on Tuesday, May 2nd, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Claude Moore Recreational Center in Sterling.

[00:16:15] The goal of the summit is to connect and provide resources for small businesses from all industries who are looking to start or scale their concept or current plan. We're excited to announce that our keynote speaker for the event is entrepreneur and television star Marcus Limonis, who you may know as the business turnaround king and star of CNBC's primetime reality series The Prophet.

[00:16:38] He's also the chairman and CEO of Camping World, the nation's largest RV and outdoor retailer, and Good Sam, the world's largest RV owner organization. The registration is open now, and tickets are going fast. We do encourage people to register as soon as possible. You can find more at biz.loudon.gov, Small Business Summit.

[00:16:58] There's going to be a lot of exciting things coming in the world of small business and entrepreneurship and minority-owned business support, and we look forward to sharing more of that with you in the first week of May. And with that, I'm happy to turn it over to EDAC. In your packet, you have their report on small and minority-owned business and the ad hoc that they put together.

[00:17:20] I want to compliment the committee and EDAC for their great work on this report. They have provided us with invaluable insights and direction as we have built what we think is going to be a game-changing business asset for our small businesses and minority-owned businesses in Loudoun.

[00:17:37] And with that, I will turn it over to the EDAC representatives here tonight. Thank you, buddy. Good afternoon, good evening. I'm Tim Schimbar, the Chief Technology Officer at the Association for Manufacturing Technology, and I currently serve on the Executive Committee for EDAC.

[00:17:53] I'm here to represent Siobhan and Dana, as they are actually out traveling, so they couldn't be here tonight. I wanted to convey some excitement personally about the work that the EDAC has done and the contributions and hard work to help the county launch this program.

[00:18:09] It's really important, and we're happy to see that that was happening in this last cycle. We also see that this ad hoc is going to, the deliverables are going to help the DED as they go to improve the platform to help out small businesses and entrepreneurs, and particularly to diversify Loudoun's economic participation in that.

[00:18:31] That's all I wanted to say up front, and I would like to turn it over now to Ms. Kendra Dion, who has the ad hoc report that she's going to brief as the chair. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much, and thank you so much for having us today. I am super excited about the work of this committee and or ad hoc committee.

[00:18:48] And I will say, as a small business owner and a minority small business owner here in the Loudoun County area, it really did my heart good to see the efforts that the county is putting forward. Because it's one thing to be a small business, but to recognize the specific challenges that minority businesses have globally, but here in Loudoun County specifically, was awesome.

[00:19:08] I'd also like to take a moment to publicly acknowledge the efforts of one of our fellow ad hoc members, Nancy Finley Barber, who passed during our work, but her contributions were invaluable to the committee. She's always been an advocate for the small business and minority community here in Loudoun County, so I just wanted to take a moment to publicly acknowledge the work that Nancy did for us.

[00:19:28] I also want to acknowledge all of the members of the ad hoc who came to join us in the audience. We have Angela Mitchell, we have Stacey, we have Tony, and we have Scott, who are here supporting us in our work.

[00:19:44] Our committee was very robust, and we are grateful for our work. In the package we have before you, it outlines our outcomes, the things that we were able to pull from our work. What we did for our ad hoc, which was a little unique, we decided that in our first couple of meetings, We would break up because our committee, our ad hoc, was made up of so many subject matter experts who had experience in all of the areas that we were looking to research.

[00:20:09] So we took those into miniature think tanks to really get deep into our core goals, which were researching best practices. What does the county already do well? What do we already have? And how can we use that better to further the mission of this particular group, working with small and minority businesses?

[00:20:28] WE ALSO CONDUCTED A SERVICES INVENTORY TO JUST SEE WHAT'S AVAILABLE, WHERE CAN WE COLLABORATE, WHERE CAN WE PARTNER, AND WHERE CAN WE INFUSE ADDITIONAL RESOURCES TO HELP MAKE SURE THAT OUR SERVICES ARE EXPANDING. FOR OUR NEEDS ASSESSMENT, WHICH WAS ONE OF OUR THIRD GOALS, WE DID CONDUCT A NEEDS ASSESSMENT.

[00:20:46] WE KEPT IT OPEN FOR A LITTLE OVER 30 DAYS, AND YOU'LL SEE THE OUTPUTS OF THAT NEEDS ASSESSMENT. SO IT IS A REPRESENTATIVE SAMPLE. WE WOULD HAVE LIKED MORE PARTICIPATION, BUT THAT'S THE FIRST OF MANY TO COME. We want to continue to get input from the business community and the small business community to make sure that we're meeting their needs as they are ever-changing.

[00:21:06] And then the last goal that we had was to recommend a programming matrix, and I'm grateful that the summit that we have coming up on the second is the first of many programming efforts that we will be doing to make sure that we address the needs of the committee. I am here to answer any questions that you may have specifically about our work, But, again, thank you for the opportunity to allow us to do this work and also what you supplied the department with so we can get the right people in position to help the small and minority business community in Loudoun County to continue to grow.

[00:21:37] Thank you. Are you guys ready to go to questions? Yes, sir. All right. Questions, Supervisor Briskman? Thank you, and thank you so much for all of your work and taking the time out of what I know is a very busy schedule, Ms. Dionne, to participate and lead this committee.

[00:21:56] We really appreciate it. Can you tell me a little bit? First of all, I'm super excited about the event at Claude Moor. I can't wait. It's going to be awesome. Can you talk to us a little bit about sort of after the event, what are some of the things that I hope that I can assume the committee will continue?

[00:22:16] work. So can you tell us a little bit about what you might do moving forward after the event on May 2nd? Yes, ma'am. Thank you for your question. Ideally, what we would like to gather from this event is not only data points to help us identify who the businesses are, what types of needs that they have, so that the newly hired positions, both the minority and small business specialists that will be coming on board and the director of that program, will have the information that they need and a repository, if you will, of people that we can connect with.

[00:22:46] We also would like to launch an additional needs assessment to make sure that we can continue to work with those folks and add programming throughout the year. But we want to get input to see what we're doing well and to see how we can continuously improve the quality of our program and the services going forward.

[00:23:02] So this initial event is just the beginning of what we hope to be a lot more work to come. And should we get approval to continue the work of the ad hoc, And we definitely want to continue to be that branch to feed information and resources as a liaison between the community and the department.

[00:23:18] That's phenomenal. My time didn't start, but I'll just ask one. Oh, go ahead. If I may, while the ad hoc may or may not continue, it's going to be very important that we continue to receive the input from EDAC throughout our normal processes.

[00:23:36] In each of our verticals in our department, we have an EDAC rep who is specifically assigned to work with our cluster managers. So however it works out, we will continue to get the valuable input from EDAC because it has been, again, I can't speak highly enough about the input and the amount of time and the amount of efforts and expertise they have brought to the table.

[00:24:03] it is going to be critical that we continue to get that input from EDAC in whatever form that it looks like going forward. That's awesome. And Ms. Dionne, are you seeing, as a small business owner and somebody who started her business before these resources and counseling were available, are you seeing some things like, I wish I would have had that, and we need to make sure to have this?

[00:24:28] Yes, ma'am, absolutely. What I have noticed is as a products business, I have a wine company and a services business, my consulting firm, there are a lot more resources that are coming down the pipeline. And through our work with this ad hoc, we were researching what other communities nearby and across the United States were doing so that we can create similar programs or partner to bring those amenities and resources here into our county to serve the business community.

[00:24:55] And it has been phenomenal. I mean, me personally, I've been able to leverage some of the things that we've learned from our work to apply it right away. But it is my sincere hope that we are able to take advantage of some of those to include a regional partnership with an organization called the Virginia Black Business Directory, for example.

[00:25:14] They're based out of Fredericksburg, but they started out covering the entire state of Virginia, and now they're covering the region. They offer incredible programs, and they wanted an opportunity to work with Loudoun County. And through the efforts of the department, we now have a relationship with that organization to continue to offer those services here in the county.

[00:25:31] That's awesome. Thank you so much. Absolutely. Thank you. Chair Randall. Thank you, Madam Chair. So I just want to first say that Nancy Finley Barber was my friend. She was my sorority sister. She was my campaign treasurer. I've known Nancy for years.

[00:25:47] I've known her husband, Paul, and her daughter, Lindsay. The day I got a phone call from Lori Pinhunter that Nancy was in the hospital and it looked like she wasn't going to make it, I just thought, you know, it's one of those moments you just think, well, you know what? God cannot ask for anybody better to come join him than Nancy Finley Barber.

[00:26:04] The fact that you all did this in her name, really, it just took my breath away when I saw it. And I cannot wait to make sure Paul and Lindsay know it. So thank you very much for that. I have so many questions that I can't ask them all in this setting. And so I'll be reaching out to, I know everybody on this list just about, so I'll be reaching out to a lot of people.

[00:26:25] So, but a couple of my questions, and Ms. Dionne, you may be the perfect person to answer my first question. We use the term minority and women-owned as one term all the time. Are there different challenges between minority-owned businesses and women-owned business and minority-women-owned businesses?

[00:26:44] Because I have the sense that they're not always the same thing and that we started talking about them in the same way Because, of course, women, when they first started having their own businesses, they were the minority gender. That's not maybe true anymore, but minority by other means is still true.

[00:27:03] So how does that work when we say minority women on business? Is it the same thing? Are there different challenges? And if so, can we weave those out for the purpose of kind of hyper-focusing on those different cohorts separately to get them what they need? Absolutely.

[00:27:19] Wonderful question. Thank you so much, Madam Chair, for asking it. If you look in our report and on page number one in our introduction, that is one of the first things that we address is small businesses, minority and minority woman-owned small businesses.

[00:27:36] While we all face similar challenges, our needs are uniquely different. I literally underline that. Yeah, our goal with the work of this ad hoc was to make sure that when we made recommendations for programming, if, for example, it was a programming on small and minority business finance, we recognize that we all need funding and access to capital.

[00:27:58] But the challenges that each group, the minority group, different sectors of the minority group, black businesses, Arab-owned businesses, Asian businesses, Hispanic, Latino, pick a category, we all face a unique set of challenges.

[00:28:14] And while we can't offer a blanket approach, we recognize that there are specific needs that each individual group will have to have addressed in order to access the resources and overcome their own unique challenge set. So our recommendation as an ad hoc to the department in going forward is if you offer services, make sure that there are additional resources available to meet specific needs, like the needs of a woman-owned business, or a Latino-owned woman business, or a black-owned woman business, or whatever the case might be.

[00:28:48] So we do recognize that, and we address that in our report. Okay, I'll have a follow-up. Certainly. All right. Thank you. Supervisor Letourneau, do you have any questions or comments? No, thanks, Madam Chair. All right. Thank you.

[00:29:04] Supervisor Kirshner, did you have? Yeah, briefly, I just had a couple of questions, comments. First of all, thank you for coming. I don't get to sit on finance as much as I did, but it's always fun to get back and hear you all present and tell what's going on. It's always exciting to see a new web page come up like the landfarms.org.

[00:29:21] I'm looking at it now for the first, well, not the first time, but really more in detail. And I know it launched the end of March, if I recall. and I think, Buddy, you mentioned, and you can kind of hand this off. First of all, it's a great layout. I love it. I think the look is really new.

[00:29:36] It's good. I'm very excited because, obviously, this is very important to monetize our land for purposes of farming as much as we can in the West, and otherwise it goes to other things, and we want to see our rural policy area really flourish the way we have envisioned it since back in 2002, 2003 under the general plan.

[00:29:54] But what kind of feedback? I mean, I know you said you're getting good feedback, but are we hearing from some of the farmers? And also the second question is, what kind of feedback? The second question is, are we working in collaboration with those who are visiting Loudoun? And obviously the residents, we want them to utilize these farms and these products as much as possible.

[00:30:13] But obviously our B&B, we just did that zoning ordinance amendment. It occurred to me, are we encouraging those within the B&Bs to really promote our products within their B&Bs? Because that is a kind of a market that would really help, I think, a lot of our economics of the farming out there.

[00:30:30] Sure. A couple of points in there that are very good points. Thank you. The first one being that loudonfarms.org is actually a consumer-facing website. You know, unlike our website that is more focused to businesses, starting your business, growing your business, and those kinds of things, But loudonfarms.org is actually consumer-facing to sell products, to promote products.

[00:30:54] And we have a very broad network that we leverage as part of that. Certainly, all of our tourism industry is a big part of that, including the B&Bs. But it also is something that we think needs to be more driven by pictures and more driven by video and more driven.

[00:31:16] And that's why we've taken the layout that we have, because when you're selling food, you know, you want it to look as appetizing and appealing as possible. So we've kind of taken a different direction on that, and I think it's worked out pretty well. I think the other thing is that we do look at this as an entire ecosystem, to your last point.

[00:31:37] It is important that all of the pieces of the rural economy work together, support each other, and creating those opportunities to build on that ecosystem is central to our mission and central to the goals that we have set forward.

[00:31:54] So I think that each piece that you see, you know, the marketplace and the exchange and all of the things that we've tried to put together is to support the entire infrastructure around our rural businesses and to support the board's vision for that.

[00:32:12] Supervisor Krishna, if I could add, these programs are all connected to each other. And a great example of that is we're working with a woman-owned, black-owned business who makes products, and we are connecting her to Loudoun Farms so she can buy local Loudoun products to put into what she manufactures in Sterling.

[00:32:31] Right. So putting these sites together and working on these programs with the ad hoc and all of this is meant to bring all of this together, but bring it to those businesses and to those consumers in the way that they want to receive it. So that's just one example. But we we have several of those of companies who have come to us on one side of the house and we've been able to connect them to farms for their local products and keep that ecosystem thriving.

[00:32:57] That's great. I'm really appreciative. Thank you for all your hard work on this. Chair Randall, follow-up. Thank you. I'm going to go back to that paragraph. It's actually underlying the paragraphs you're talking about. While information is universal, the experience in accessing and engaging support from these topic areas varies greatly, particularly for minority-owned businesses.

[00:33:15] I read that, and I thought, well, how do they do this? How are they going to do this? And then I turned over to page four, the mind mapping page, which is fascinating. Every part of that is fascinating. And I know that can't all be done because it's just, I mean, you can take any piece of this and make like a half day's, you know, seminar on any part of that mind mapping page.

[00:33:37] But I have two questions. One, how are you going to use the mind mapping page overall? And the first thing in the description is learn from communities where small businesses and minority-owned businesses accelerate. What communities have you looked at already? Do you have any in mind that you can learn from?

[00:33:54] because there's a lot of stuff on this page, and you can't do it all. It's impossible, but what might work best, and who might you be able to learn from? My only last question is, do you have anybody who you're talking to who is a late-stage millennial or a Gen Zer?

[00:34:15] Thank you. So I definitely fit the late-stage millennial, right? We call it geriatric millennial in my community. That is me. To answer your question about the mind map, we do recognize that this is a heavy lift and it is going to take the entire village or the entire community to make this happen.

[00:34:36] We also recognize the power in partnering with existing programs like our Chamber of Commerce, the Northern Virginia Black Chamber of Commerce, Asian Chamber of Commerce, all of the specific chambers of commerce that already have additional programming. we want to collaborate with those organizations to get a lot of the programming done.

[00:34:56] One of the things that we found when we started doing needs assessment and talking to the business community because something our ad hoc took very seriously was not leaning on our own knowledge and understanding, but actually getting out and talking to the businesses who this work was being done for.

[00:35:13] And one of the things that we found is that a lot of the people were leaving the county to access the resources and programs that we needed. So we tapped into those organizations to bring those organizations into the county so that it would multiply the efforts of the two new people or three people in the program of the department that will be working on this program specifically.

[00:35:34] It will multiply their efforts and that through the work of EDAC and the other programs that we're going to partner with is going to help us to expand our offerings. So, working with small business programs and centers to make sure that we have the right topics or workshops on the schedule and itinerary to meet the needs of our community as they address them.

[00:35:54] So, that is the goal with that. I hope that answers your question. Magnificently. Okay. Thank you very much. And if I could just tag on to that. I mean, the thing that I think EDAC has done very well, in addition to what you see in the report, is helping us prioritize.

[00:36:10] At the end of the day, we're going to have three people who's specifically working to execute the program. So we can't do everything day one. We can't probably do everything in day 365. But what we can do is hit the pain points that are most important as identified by the ad hoc group.

[00:36:30] And so that has really helped us shape not only what day one looks like, but what day 365 and what day 1,000 and what day 3,000 look like. And I think we have a pretty good plan, and we will continue to lean on the members of the EDAC throughout the process as we get into the execution mode.

[00:36:49] Thank you so much. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Supervisor Letourneau, any follow-up? No, thank you. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you all very, very much, and thank you for bringing your fan base in the audience. We appreciate seeing everyone from the chamber and the business community.

[00:37:09] Thanks. All right, we're going to move on now to item two, update on Town of Percival projects. So we have Nancy coming down, we have Mark, Scott, and Jim.

[00:37:28] Good evening, committee members. As we've done in the past, we will sort of pick up where we left off last month. And when we were last here, we were talking about how the town council had approved the Western Alondon Park and Ride legislative applications.

[00:37:56] And the same night that we were here talking with you, they then rescinded the approvals. And so in some respects, that has now ended what I'll call the legislative phase of our projects in the town.

[00:38:13] And unfortunately, we now know that the fate of the park and ride has been denied and is not moving forward within the town. The board has acted to move the proposed athletic fields that were associated with Fields Farm Park to the property under contract just west of the town.

[00:38:35] And at the 18th, the April 18th board meeting, there will be an AIR item to transfer the funding for Fields Farm Park Road to Loudoun County Public Schools for the schools to develop that road. So essentially, all the projects that were on the county-owned property that also include Woodgrove High School and Mountain View Elementary are no longer active within DTCI.

[00:39:04] as i'd like to say sort of the fate of those three projects have have been concluded and if i might i need to clarify and i'm getting over a case of laryngitis from last weekend but i do have a voice now so that's an improvement from the last couple of days and no sore throat just the loss of voice that's it um so just to clarify um we are actually still seeking clarification from the town of Percival on the recension of the approvals and have not heard any of that clarification.

[00:39:35] It did seem as if that was their intent, but we have not received that clarification. All right. Thank you all very much. Anything else before we go to questions? So that is the legislative side of the project.

[00:39:51] So essentially, three of the projects that we've been working on in the town, you know, pending this clarification, are no longer active projects within the town limits. So I'm going to turn our focus now over to the interchange project at Route 7 and 690.

[00:40:08] So there have been a few things that have occurred within the last month on that particular project. we had another public meeting within the town on the 24th of march that was well attended and it included several members of the catoctin meadows home hunters association which is the the property owner that we're working with for the ramp at the southwest quadrant of the

[00:40:43] interchange on the same day march 24th we mailed out our formal offer to acquire the land from the catoctin meadows hoa as of as of today we have not received a response from them but we have officially mailed the offer to them i also want to mention that there was an effort not an effort there was several meetings of the Town of Percival Planning Commission looking at the interchange project

[00:41:18] and specifically looking at the land development application associated with our plat for acquiring that Catoctin Meadows land. And coming out of that series of meetings, the Planning Commission passed a resolution that recommended that the council deny the project and or condition the project to satisfy the council's desires.

[00:41:48] Now, that resolution, not quite sure what that accomplishes because there are no legislative applications associated with this project, so there are no pending issues before the council regarding that project.

[00:42:06] But I just wanted to make you aware that that action was taken by the Planning Commission. At the meeting, they actually did massage the language in the resolution, and we have still not received the final verbiage of that resolution.

[00:42:22] We're waiting for the town to publish that, just to make you aware of that situation. And that is, at least right now, our update, and we're open for any questions. Okay, thank you very much. Questions? Chair Randall? First of all, I'm so sorry that Percival made you lose your voice.

[00:42:40] That's just absolutely terrible. I think we've all lost our voice a little bit dealing with Percival over the past couple of years. Isn't there a limit or a deadline by which they have to clarify what they meant when they took that vote?

[00:42:59] The vote to defer it. Isn't there a limit, and have we not hit that limit yet? If I may, Madam Chair. So because we do not know the actual outcome of what their action meant.

[00:43:18] But that's what I'm asking. Isn't there a limit by which they have to say? Because we've asked them what they're trying to say. If we had received a clear denial, then there's a time clock that starts in terms of they need to provide us the grounds for that denial, and then there's a period of time that we have to act.

[00:43:39] But at this point, it was approved, and then there was a recension of that. We have asked for clarification on what a recension of that action means, whether that actually means a denial or not. Well, let me ask this differently, if you don't mind, Madam Chair.

[00:43:56] Okay, so if they come back to us and they say the recension didn't mean denial, that was the intent, when does the clock start for that? Because it is a denial or has it run out? I believe the answer to that question is when they provide us the grounds for that denial.

[00:44:14] The actual clarification that it is a denial and the reasons under which they... And how long have we been asking them for the clarification of what they were actually trying to do? Because it seems to me we've been asking for the clarification for, I don't know, a month at least now?

[00:44:37] Is that correct? So we're just conferring on when we sent the letter. So I believe I sent the letter on March 15th or 16th. The recension was on the 14th of March. Okay, so not quite a month yet.

[00:44:55] And you received nothing back to say one way or the other what they're trying to do. So I sent that letter, and about a week to 10 days afterward, I received a letter from the town saying, just making me aware of the recension officially, but no clarification on what it meant.

[00:45:13] Okay, okay, thank you. Supervisor Brisbane. Thank you. Just to clarify, the Route 7 and 690 interchange project is moving forward?

[00:45:31] Mm-mm. It is? Okay. Yes. All right. I just wanted to make sure, and there's no decisions that we're waiting on from the Percival Town Council to ensure that that moves forward? I will try to speak to that.

[00:45:48] So we have an application that has been in process for quite a while to essentially get a PLAT approved. Part of that plat, which will need an associated deed at some point, includes the vacation of a portion of a floodplain easement in which the town itself has an interest.

[00:46:19] so at some point in time we do need the town to uh well that's administrative but there needs to be a public hearing for the town to ultimately take that action and we have requested the town to schedule a public hearing quite a while ago and that has not occurred yet so that is the one thing that technically we are still waiting for from the town okay if i may madam chair ask either erin or or um sorry ms mcclellan or mr hemstreet the finance committee tonight is recommending the

[00:46:57] full board recommending to the full board an issuance of go bonds in relation to the interchange work so say for some reason something happens and we're not able to do the interchange what happens with the go bonds so thank you uh manager the uh where we are is we have direction from the board to proceed with the Route 7690 interchange project.

[00:47:25] The options that are in front of us essentially is we need to make a decision on the eastbound off-ramp of Route 7 onto 690. So the location of the floodplain easement that, I'm sorry, Mark was talking about, Mr.

[00:47:43] Hoffman, sorry, Mr. Hoffman was talking about is where that floodplain is located, or floodplain easement is located. So at some point, we need to make a decision as to whether or not we think we can work with the town and the town is going to release that easement, in which case we can build the interchange as it is currently designed and permitted.

[00:48:07] Or if they are not going to do that, then we have the option of removing that off-ramp and then proceeding with the interchange without the off-ramp. Now, to Mr. Hoffman's commentary regarding the Planning Commission action, the Towns Planning Commission action, the recommendation coming out of the Planning Commission was, of course, to not for the Town Council to not support the project,

[00:48:37] but if they do, to address certain drainage elements that are related to that eastbound off-ramp and how high the floodplain would be. So we have proposed to do those improvements, and we are just waiting for a time as to when the town is willing to talk to us.

[00:49:00] Okay. It sounds like we can work around it, basically, if we have to. Thank you. Supervisor Letourneau, any questions? Not really. I will just make the observation that we may not need a monthly update anymore, given that we're down to one project.

[00:49:18] And it sounds like there's not necessarily a lot happening until or unless we, other than the one decision point that we have to make, which is really seems like it's out of our control. So. Very, very good. Okay.

[00:49:35] Supervisor Kirchner. Sure. So thank you guys for all your work on this. And I'm sorry that kind of are where we are in some of this, but we're moving forward. We want to make sure this is great for the people of Percival. And it's my understanding that most of the issues surrounding the Planning Commission in Purseville is the exit-bound ramp going east.

[00:49:56] Is that correct, or is it also the ramp coming in? Can you just clarify that for me? So really the only issue in play is the exit ramp from eastbound Route 7 on to Route 690, again, in the southwest quadrant of the interchange.

[00:50:17] So on the other side, there's not any specific issues? Yeah, on the other ramp going from 690 to eastbound, Route 7 is actually proposed within existing right away. Okay. So there's no need to acquire any land. Okay, okay. So let's say there are issues that arise that for some reason, for whatever, that this project kind of stalls.

[00:50:42] I did read in the item, and I know this has kind of been an issue for a while, that our work at 7 and 287 could be impacted and the improvements that we are working on there. Could you speak to that a little bit as to, because I'm assuming the volumes are going to change, because now those coming further down who would be using the rent, am I accurate about that?

[00:51:04] You are. So the issue is that the improvements at the Route 7-287 interchange are predicated on the Route 7690 interchange being built. And so we have done some, I will call them very preliminary, traffic modeling.

[00:51:26] And the Route 7-287 interchange does function at an acceptable level of service until the mid-2030s. And at that, if the Route 769 interchange is not operational, but then once you get into the later 2030s, it starts to fail.

[00:51:50] So, I mean, and again, that's very preliminary type analysis, but at least gives a feel for the effect of needing the Route 7690 interchange in conjunction with the 7287 interchange.

[00:52:07] And that's as 287 is operating now? The interchange of 7287 is operating now, or as if it would? As it would with the improvements. With the improvements. That are planned. Planned for that intersection. Correct. because it's not operating real well right now.

[00:52:23] I mean, it's operating okay. It's just a lot of traffic. It's, yeah. It's a little rough. Okay. That's very helpful. Appreciate it. I appreciate it. Having consulted with Aaron at the suggestion of Supervisor Letourneau with the concurrence of Supervisor Briskman, let me ask Chair Randall if there would be a consensus on the committee to suspend these monthly updates with the understanding that staff will come back to us if something changes that we need to know about.

[00:52:58] I want to talk about Percival every single day. It's absolutely fine. Madam Chair, I will schedule a briefing on your calendar. Good one. Please do. We will miss you guys so much.

[00:53:14] all right it looks like we have uh consensus on the committee that you guys don't have to keep coming back um so thank you you you've been real troopers throughout all of this we appreciate it all right we are going to now move on to item three quarterly report capital improvement projects third quarter fy 2023 and i know nancy and scott are staying yep the full team staying here okay great all right so yeah good evening members of committee uh we are here to present the quarter

[00:53:51] report for capital improvement project for the third quarter fiscal year 2023 and yeah along with me nancy boyd jim zeller and mark hoffman to answer any questions you may have um as with previous quarters i'll highlight the current market conditions and for this quarter there does not appear to be much change from last quarter material prices remain high but appear be steady over the last few months. In general, we are seeing stable prices for steel and plastic components, but notably we are still seeing long delays for electrical equipment such as transformers, switch gears, and low voltage panels. As an update from last quarter, the reclassification of the

[00:54:30] northern long-eared bat from threatened to endangered went into effect on April 1st. What that means for us is that for certain projects we are unable to clear trees between April 1st and November 14th. For projects such as the Lovitzville Fire and Rescue Station, we were able to start early enough to get the trees down before last week, so we avoided any issues on that project.

[00:54:56] For other projects, we'll continue to track this and try to mitigate this before it becomes an issue, but at this current time, we don't see any major impacts. Lastly, we've had one update since this report was put together, and I can happily report that for the Aldi Fire and Rescue Station project, The construction bid was issued at the end of March, and we expect those bids in in May.

[00:55:19] With that, we're happy to take any questions you may have for us. Wonderful. Thank you. Any questions from the committee? Supervisor Briskman. Thank you. Under Project Milestones, Potomac View Road and Cascades Parkway intersection improvements.

[00:55:36] Do you happen to know what those intersection improvements are? So I think the bulk of those improvements are putting in curb ramps and crosswalks. Okay. I would have to go look at the details of exactly, but it's related to just the conductivity through the intersection, and it would also involve any signal modifications for pedestrian signals on those particular signals.

[00:56:04] Okay, okay. It's not my district, but I would imagine that crosswalks there would not be worthy if there wasn't a sidewalk in front of Claude Moor Park on the west side of Cascades Parkway, but I'm assuming that's in the missing links.

[00:56:23] Yeah, I believe that one is a little bit further behind in the priority rank, but it is not significantly behind. Okay, good. Obviously, these programs, we have way more projects than we have funding.

[00:56:42] I know. Oh, I know. So we try to address them kind of in a sequence so that we can... And then I was a little bit confused about project delays on the shared use path, Route 7 pedestrian improvements and crossings. And there was something in there about Signal Hill Plaza property, that there might be a realignment along the Signal Hill in front of like, you know, where the Lazy Boy is and George Mason.

[00:57:10] Correct. So in the natural progression of the project, we have now started working with that property owner on that, putting the trail along the frontage of his property. And in those discussions, he has suggested some alignment options that actually could potentially save us money in construction.

[00:57:38] So due to that potential dividend, we are going to take a little extra time to review that option and see if we can come to a happy medium with the property owner to realign the trail so that we can save money on the construction side and it could also serve his purposes of accessing his building a little bit better than the than the previous uh alignment of the trail okay i might like to see those options at some point okay yeah um and then

[00:58:12] is everything cleared for the the shared use path in front of nova now is that all done and ready to so going west so they're they're they're well aware of it and we've been working with them uh we are now just working through some details with okay with nova uh specifically there's going to be a retaining wall uh along that's you may be aware that there is a a small little cemetery grave site on that property and and you know our ordinances require that we maintain a specific

[00:58:48] buffer between that and any improvements so just because of that buffer requirement we do need to put in a retaining wall so that we don't disturb that area i think it's like a 50 foot offset so we're just working with the community college on the detailing of that wall what kind of what kind of surface is going to be what kind of texture is going to be so they've been in touch with us they're reviewing the options that we've submitted to them and okay and working through that but

[00:59:22] what i can say is is is they've been a a good partner in in the process i mean they obviously have their own processes they have to follow and sometimes that takes a little bit of time but um but the wall is not going to be like the length of the it's just going to be to protect that one thing correct okay all right thank you all right awesome thanks thank you supervisor letourneau any questions? Just one. The Croson Lane project says that it's delayed a year because there's a new traffic study that says that we don't need to go to four lanes. Do you want to just maybe

[01:00:01] elaborate a little bit on what kind of has transpired on that? Sure. So the Croson Lane project. It goes from Claiborne Parkway over to Old Ryan Road and in the process of going through the preliminary design on that project we had some interaction with VDOT Traffic Engineering specifically on the section between Moorview Parkway and Old Ryan Road and we went through a couple different iterations of traffic

[01:00:40] analyses on that and The outcome of that is there really is not a need to go to four lanes on that particular section due to the volumes. And so what we have done is we've re-scoped the project to narrow that section of the improvements down to two through lanes, but there are going to be turning lanes to assist in the turning movements that will bring the cost of the project down.

[01:01:10] And, you know, that's obviously a benefit to us. So in the process of having to re-scope that, and we also went through our own verification through our traffic modeling to ensure that that would still meet the demand requirements.

[01:01:27] And our own staff did concur that that would work. So is the whole project delayed a year or just that segment? So, what I would say is the design schedule that was initially established for the project has been delayed.

[01:01:48] Due to when the funding comes in for construction, the actual construction is not delayed at all. It's just, you know, in the quarterly report, we report on phases. So the design phase is coming in a little bit later than we originally scheduled, but that should not affect the ultimate timing of construction.

[01:02:08] So we're still looking at the same kind of completion date that we were prior to making this change. Okay. All right. Got it. Thank you. Thanks. Supervisor Kirshner. Oh, my. Thank you, Madam Chair.

[01:02:24] I'm not going to go into a lot. I first just want to thank you guys because I know I periodically ask for an update on certain projects. You guys are so great at meeting with me and getting through those. I know we met the other day about Route 15 and just the advance you make. I'm really excited to hear that we are 100% designed in Phase 1 of Route 15.

[01:02:42] Way to go. That's awesome. Every time I see a milestone, I kind of rejoice and get excited about it, and that we are moving along in that design on Phase 2 up to Montessor, and that we've made some progress on some of the other aspects of the different phases going through there.

[01:02:58] So it's such an important and critical project to travel in that part of the county that I want to really stay on top of it. And I know you guys, it's a big project, so thank you. Just a couple real quick questions on the Lovettsville pedestrian improvements.

[01:03:14] I looked here. It says that construction will begin in early spring. Is that this spring? I'm assuming that is this spring. So that is the town of Lovettsville pedestrian improvements on South Church Street and East Pennsylvania Avenue, town of Lovettsville.

[01:03:33] If you don't know that, that's okay. Yeah, I believe that's a town project, the town in that, and I don't have enough. So they're actually the ones managing. Okay, thank you. I appreciate that. I can check with them and find that out. I definitely have pretty good connections there. And so thank you. That's all I wanted to say, really.

[01:03:49] I wanted to be here to hear what you had to say, and I got plenty of updates on the 287 and Route 9 interchange. Oh, the one other question I had was the extension from 9 to 287 to the Greenway, I guess.

[01:04:07] You're talking about Route 7? Yes, on Route 7, right, the widening, I guess, of Route 7. Where are we on that project? So we are procuring a design consultant for that particular project. Okay. This one has taken a little bit of time because we have adjusted the procurement so it will be federally eligible if in the future we have an opportunity to put any federal money on it.

[01:04:37] So we wanted to take advantage of that potential opportunity. So that's where we are. And we've been working with VIDA to get the DBE goal. I used to remember what that stood for. Disadvantaged business enterprise goal.

[01:04:56] So we're real close to getting that so we can then advertise the procurement on that. And wasn't there, like, not a phase one or phase two, but two aspects of that that have now been combined? So previously in the CIP, before the 24 CIP, previously it was, I think it was phased into sections.

[01:05:16] And what has now been, I guess, recategorized or relabeled in the FY24 CIP as short-term and long-term. Gotcha. The short term is more of an acceleration ramp lengthening from Route 9 going eastbound, Route 7 up the hill, so that there's enough length there.

[01:05:38] That will help a lot. Vehicles, yes, exactly. I get off that every morning. So that's the short term, and then the long term is everything else. So we're working on everything else, and actually VDOT has done a lot of work already on that short term. Tremendous. Okay, thank you very much.

[01:05:55] Thank you all. We are going to move on to item number five, the Loudoun County Government Support Services Space Strategy Update of the Southern Service Center. Nancy, I see you're stuck here.

[01:06:13] I am. We appreciate having you. Yep. All right. And we've got Rosario. Well, and I'm going to kick us off while Rosario sits down. All right. So I'm very pleased to share with you that Rosario and his group, the Renovation and Space Planning Group, has moved to DTCI from the Department of General Services as of this past week.

[01:06:40] So Rosario is the newest assistant director here at DTCI. And, of course, here we have our very first item before the board on this topic that we're here to present to you. But I wanted to introduce Rosario to you because while each of you may have met him, maybe perhaps individually, this is his first time presenting to a committee or of the board.

[01:07:01] And so he's really nervous, but he's ready. Rosario joined Loudoun County last year, so he's been with us just less than a year and has brought a lot of professionalism in his field to this very needed area of our work.

[01:07:18] And so I guess I'm just gonna cut it short due to my voice, and so you don't have to listen to this, and go ahead and ask Rosario to take it away. Welcome, Rosario. It's good to have you here. Thank you. Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here. So good evening, Madam Chair and members of the committee. It is a pleasure to be here today, and thank you for giving me the chance to give an update on this topic. As you know, at the November 21, 2019 meeting of Finance, Government Operations, and Economic Development, the board voted to endorse the Government Support Service Space Strategy decision points, which included

[01:07:55] the Southern Service Center. The board directed staff to identify suitable spaces within the Southern Loudoun, Dallas South area for a future service center. In the FY2022 CIP work session, Supervisor Letourneau requested this facility to be added as a CIP project for future development.

[01:08:16] This project now appears in the CIP for future fiscal years. Today, I'm here to give the committee an update on the various options staff is taking to deliver the Loudoun County Government Southern Service Center. The previously proposed Southern Service Center program includes the programmatic elements listed on this slide.

[01:08:38] The ideal property for the service center would need to have ample square footage to accommodate the full range of services like those offered at the Eastern Service Center, which include human services, taxpayer services, and the Board of Supervisors space.

[01:08:55] This initial programming has been used as a general guide for staff to evaluate potential spaces in the 30,000 to 50,000 square feet. We have been in contact with multiple brokers and developers to search for a viable option that would fit the Southern Service Center program and have similar attributes to our current service center.

[01:09:17] Since the addition of the Southern Service Center to the space strategy, staff has explored the multiple possible ways of delivering this facility. As such, staff generally look for opportunities that fall into four categories. Anchor tenant with a build-to-suit approach, a lease of existing building, a purchase of an existing building, and a land acquisition with new construction.

[01:09:40] The first option staff is exploring is creating a partnership with a developer to be an anchor tenant in a new build or build-to-suit arrangement. In this type of arrangement, the county could partner with a developer before a building is constructed, which would allow for collaboration and input on the design to ensure that space meets county needs.

[01:10:02] Currently, staff is in preliminary discussion with the developer and may be bringing an opportunity to the board in the near term. The second option is the lease of an existing building that has the available square footage and similar attributes of a service center, using the Eastern Service Center as a baseline concept.

[01:10:23] This approach would include the lease costs of the facility, as well as any renovation and construction costs associated with meeting the programming requirements. This type of project would have a quicker turnaround time as compared to other approaches. The third option is to purchase an existing building that has the available square footage and similar attributes of the service center.

[01:10:47] In addition to a due diligence report, a property condition assessment will need to be performed. Renovation and construction would be required to meet programming needs, as existing buildings set up for both office and public uses, as the county requires, are unique.

[01:11:03] While it is generally in the county's interest to own facilities through which service will be delivered long term, there are a limited number of properties in the desired area available. As properties become available, staff will engage with the seller to do our due diligence.

[01:11:23] The fourth option will be for the county to acquire land and construct a new facility. The biggest benefit of this approach is that the county would own the land and the facility and have flexibility to design and build to match the needs as well as plan for future growth.

[01:11:40] Acquiring land and constructing a new facility would have the longest lead time as compared to other options. The next steps we foresee for this project is to continue our due diligence by analyzing property opportunities consistent with the four options just discussed, work on a financial model to determine short-term and long-term financial and operational benefits for each option, work with the Office of Management and Budget to bring forward the project funding strategy for budget development, and bring opportunities to the board if they become actionable projects that fit the county's needs.

[01:12:16] At this time, staff will be happy to take any questions the committee may have. Thank you. Thank you very much. Any questions from the committee? Chair Randall. Thank you, Madam Chair. Are you really nervous? Yeah, a bit. Okay.

[01:12:40] As you all are having these conversations, it strikes me that what I did read, and if I missed it, let me know, is what other amenities this would be located by. And in my head, you know, we have been talking about building kind of a nonprofit campus somewhere that people can kind of go for one-stop services if they need it.

[01:13:06] Is there any thoughts of other services that somebody might use that would be near this facility as well? Have you thought about that at all? And then if you go with the fourth option, I think the fourth option has a lot of pros and a lot of cons.

[01:13:27] You're right. The pros is that we own the land and we own the building. I think the fourth option, the hardest part of that, is finding the land itself. It's just tough to do. And then thirdly, I know that the towns, specifically Leedsburg, if that's an option you're looking at, no matter if you're buying land or if you're putting this in some place that's there, has been really worried about what tax implications it would have on the town of Leedsburg or on a town since the county wouldn't pay taxes to the town.

[01:14:05] So those are my three thoughts, and if you want to respond to the thoughts at all. Yeah, I can try to shed some light over there, Madam Chair. So, you know, in terms of the first question, I think that, you know, having a vibrant, you know, set up around the building would be opportunistic.

[01:14:28] I think that having transit next to it would also help benefit, you know, the space. So that's really what we're looking into. I think the anchor tenant might be the best, probably, option for that because they typically, you know, they tend to develop next to, you know, other facilities and, you know, commercial development.

[01:14:49] So that will be kind of like that first approach. You know, we're looking for front-facing type of buildings, you know, just to welcome the customer because of the taxpayer attributes that this program has. And yeah, so I hope that answers the first question.

[01:15:09] It does. Okay, thank you. For the land acquisition, I mean, it is very hard. There's not much out there. We're continuously doing research. We are talking to a lot of people to make sure that, you know, if something comes available, you know, we can bring it.

[01:15:28] Did anyone tell you it's your job specifically to go find the land? No, I mean, it's a team's effort. Yeah, it's a team's effort. Yep, yep. Sorry. Staff, yes. But, yes, you know, we are working on it all together.

[01:15:48] Right now we don't have, you know, a liable solution, but we're looking for it. Thank you. You're very welcome, Madame. Supervisor Briskman. Thank you, Madam Chair. It sounds to me like staff is recommending either option one or option two as the top options.

[01:16:07] Did I read that correctly in the item? We're not currently recommending any options. We have a lot of data to gather. Okay. We'll come to a later time. And the option we have at Ridgetop Circle is leasing, right? Correct. Okay. And we have that entire building now, don't we?

[01:16:24] Correct. Okay. okay um i i would agree with with um chair randall that locating it where there's other things around i think would be helpful so it's not like in the kind of in a desert where nobody can get anything else done if they have to go there to get services i think we definitely need this in the county um madam chair i was a little bit confused because i don't think it can be in leesburg it can't it's it's the south eastern quadrant of the county where we're looking at So I was a little bit confused, but yeah, I think that I will look forward to the results.

[01:17:01] I'm sure Supervisor Letourne will be excited to have this as well. My last question, a little bit unrelated. Do we actually have now supervisor space in Ridgetop? We do. Are you talking about just the conference rooms? Correct.

[01:17:18] Okay, okay, but we don't have like office space. We just have like big conference rooms we can use if we want. That's correct. We don't have dedicated district offices. we have that conference room for use in our space plan the board has this direction to start to locate district offices so we do have some future options we're looking at um in the eastern area of the county for some district offices that's great and and i've used that boardroom now a couple times and so i really appreciate it saves me a lot of gas so thanks thank you supervisor

[01:17:52] Leturto. This is in your bailiwick. It is, and we've been at this a lot longer even than what the item discusses. It goes way back, and yes, this is a southern, so really the core kind of central south riding is sort of the area we're discussing here, a facility that can serve parts Brambleton and some of the growth that's occurring out the Braddock Corridor and the 50 Corridor.

[01:18:20] I would like to have an offline discussion with staff about some of the specific development opportunities here. We were scheduled to do that prior to this item, and then our schedules did not permit, and I got sick, so we didn't do that. But there are several developments that are either about to come to the board or recently approved that there are interested parties to work with the county on.

[01:18:46] I think to answer the chair's question, this part of the county is becoming a major medical area with Stone Springs Hospital and with some potential future development that's occurring in the Avonlea area.

[01:19:03] So I think there's some good synergy there with the county. I guess the one thing we didn't really discuss in this item that really was the thing that was holding up this moving forward was a scope out of exactly what services are needed.

[01:19:21] So the last time that we had this discussion with Ernie, and by the way, I will congratulate the team for not having Ernie as their boss anymore. But what was supposed to come back to us was an analysis after talking to all the different county departments as to what the needs were in this area.

[01:19:46] And then that was supposed to drive how much space was needed. And so when I brought this up during the budget work session, I sort of said I've been waiting for that analysis for quite a while. It hasn't come. So I'm still, you know, interested in that discussion of what services we think are needed here because I think to some extent that does drive how much space is needed, and then that could drive what type of facility we need.

[01:20:15] So let me pause there to see if I can get kind of a reaction to that. I think, Supervisor Letourneau, we need to do some work on that with staff, but happy to come back and brief you on the updates on that detail.

[01:20:33] Madam Chair. Madam Chair. As an action item, yeah. If I may. So to Supervisor Letourneau's question about programming, staff had a loose programming concept that was originally in the space strategy update when this service center concept model was introduced.

[01:20:58] If you look back at previous items, it actually produced fairly specific square footage. Since that time, staff has worked through several issues. For example, one of the things that we thought might be useful at a service center in this part of the county would be some yard and storage space for PRCS.

[01:21:21] That is not compatible with most of the buildings that are there. We've kind of evolved past that issue as staff and have other ways to address that. And I know that's not specifically what Supervisor Letourneau is talking about, but as an example, over the past several years that this concept has been in place, we've kind of been working to refine what that would be.

[01:21:44] The Eastern Service Center, the evolution of the Eastern Service Center, has also helped us kind of refine what kind of services are actually in demand, even though that's a different part of the county. in general what kind of forward-facing services are useful to have not in the the central hub so we do need to do some more work on that one of the things that's driving us in the dull south area again is we want to have a somewhat of a sense of the type of area we're going to go into

[01:22:17] as well when we do that final programming we do believe that it's going to be human services and taxpayer services based as the kind of the anchor because that's what is really working well for us in the eastern part of the county so we're going to do some refinement on that as we bring forward options to to for the facility to actually deliver it very good supervisor letourneau did you need

[01:22:48] any follow-up questions um yes please just just briefly um yeah and i i appreciate that aaron and I agree. I think, obviously, the human services stuff is where I think we're going to have a lot of demand. And it's difficult for some of those populations to get to any other county facility, given how far away it is.

[01:23:10] So I think having something here is really important. Yeah, let me circle back with staff to discuss some specific sites that we're aware of and maybe to share some intelligence about what's happening with development in the area and the compatibility for the county.

[01:23:28] Very good. Thank you. Thank you all. Rosario, it's been an absolute delight. Nancy's always a delight. Now she's got you. So this has been wonderful. Thank you so much. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thanks. We have one action item, item 13.

[01:23:46] Does anyone on the dais need food, or should we just go through? All right, we're just going to continue. So we will take up item 13, the Community Development Block Grant funding recommendations.

[01:24:05] And we have Mr. Hall and Ms. Powell. And Ms. Powell, Mr. Hall speaks very highly of you, so it's a joy to have you here. And Brian, welcome.

[01:24:32] Good evening, Committee Chair Umstead, Madam Chair Randall, members of the board. I'm John Hall, and on behalf of the Department of Housing and Community Development, come before you this evening to present the department's third year annual action plan to be submitted to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

[01:24:54] As you may know, we are an entitlement community, meaning that we receive an annual allocation of community development block grant funds in the amount of roughly a million dollars per year. In order to receive these funds, we have to draft a consolidated plan.

[01:25:14] This is a five-year plan that outlines to the federal government how we intend to use the dollars. Each year within that five-year consolidated plan, we have to submit an annual action plan that basically tells HUD how we're going to spend our funding for that specific program year.

[01:25:35] We are about to enter the third year of our five-year consolidated plan, And so these are the proposed funding strategies and activities that we will submit or propose to submit to HUD with your endorsement.

[01:25:51] Some of the high priority activities that were listed in the consolidated plan back in 2021 included home ownership, rehabilitation, fair housing outreach, permanent supportive housing, homeless prevention, rapid rehousing, as well as additional activities with infrastructure, accessibility, and community facilities.

[01:26:15] This year's proposed third-year plan will have to be submitted to HUD no later than 45 days prior to the commencement of our fiscal year, which is July 1st. We will need to have a public comment period, a 30-day public comment period that will embark until May 10th with proposed board action on that particular day so that we can submit our plan to HUD within that week.

[01:26:46] A little bit about the review process that occurred as we lead up to the fiscal year 24 recommendations. Last fall, from October to November, the department advertised a request for proposals to the public.

[01:27:03] Various pre-proposal meetings were offered with the application deadline occurring in November. A review committee was formed with members from the Housing Advisory Board and county staff as well. actually reviewed, ranked, and scored applications. And then the Housing Advisory Board made its recommendations last week to move forward. Part of the gap from December's time frame to April was the fact that staff and I, Ms. Powell in particular, was onboarded right after the holiday

[01:27:41] and we needed to evaluate our grantees' performance before endorsing the review committee's proposed funding. And in those reviews, we found that some grantees had not drawn money to date.

[01:27:59] The next slide will show funding, proposed funding for fiscal year 24. HUD actually increased our allocation by roughly $100,000. This year, we're at $1.4 million, whereas last year we were at $1.3 million. There are some prior year funds of $36,000 that are being rolled into this amount to give us a total dollar amount of $1,441,396. The Housing Advisory Board recommended funding our allocation

[01:28:35] among four categories. Public service activities, this particular line item is limited by federal regulation to 15% of our annual allocation. So 15% of our $1.4 million is $216,000. Capital projects is another line item to fund $822,000. And then staff proposes to have a consolidated request for proposals that would also include affordable housing activities. $121,718 is

[01:29:11] recommended by the Housing Advisory Board. And the final line item is administrative to actually carry out the functions of the program itself. We are capped by federal regulations of 20% of our annual allocation. The first category, which is public service dollars, this slide shows exactly what the Housing Advisory Board recommends for funding. Three grantees. You'll see in one column the requested amount from the applicant, and then the recommended column is what the Housing

[01:29:47] Advisory Board recommends. Again, all three of the lines total $216,209. The next funding category pertains to capital projects. There are two proposed funding categories with our capital dollars. One for $22,406. This would be for a bathroom upgrade for ADA compliance at one of

[01:30:20] the nonprofits, and the other is to fund $800,000 for rehabilitation of a single-family dwelling. The additional funds round out the consolidated request for proposals for housing affordable activities, as well as the program administration function. The staff diverges from the Housing Advisory Board's recommendations in two key areas. One is to reduce the capital projects to $172,000

[01:30:55] dollars and increase the request for proposals up to 771,000. What this would effectuate is the reduction of eight hundred thousand dollars for the Habitat for Humanity, reducing their proposed allocation down to one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. They currently have six hundred and fifty thousand dollars that has not been drawn this current fiscal year and the proposed plan is to amend that particular contract and allow that to run through March 31st of 2024,

[01:31:33] adding the $150,000 to add up to $800,000 to give them more time to find adequate properties to purchase. That is the key difference in the staff's recommended funding proposal. So the last slide is just outlining the time, the next steps for the timeline. The public comment period will run through May 10th and we would come back to the board for a public hearing on May 10th and our

[01:32:06] submittal is due to HUD the following week. At this time, staff and I are available for questions that you may have. Thank you so much, Mr. Hall. Questions, Supervisor Briskman and then Chair Randall. Thank you. On the Habitat for Humanity, what are they trying to do with the then total $800,000? The grant for this current year is to rehab, to provide substantial rehabilitation for

[01:32:39] an improved house or dilapidated house structure. The challenge, according to the officials there, has been a couple of things. One, they historically have purchased using their own funds versus using our CDBG dollars for purchase and for acquisition. So they have had some challenges with getting their private funding, their bridge financing in place. And then secondarily, the properties that they are looking for are higher than what they anticipated.

[01:33:17] That's what I was thinking. I don't even know if you can buy a dilapidated house in Loudoun County and then have enough money to upgrade it with a total of $800,000. Could you go back, please, to slide Crossroads Jobs on it?

[01:33:44] My question was really about the dental grant for the dental services, and I'm just curious what that organization does, and I'm not remembering the name of the organization. Sorry, that's why I wanted to go back to the slide. Yes.

[01:34:03] This particular grant is to provide free dental assistance to community members. As I understand it, this is a consortium of dentists who donate time to provide to the community, and they have serviced up to about 270 individuals this past program year.

[01:34:28] Okay, but we don't know exactly where in the county they do it. The reason I'm getting at this is because I ran into three family liaison officers at a recent event from Meadowland, Dominion High School, and one other school over in my district.

[01:34:44] And they said that the students are in desperate need of dental care, but it's very difficult for them to get any, you know, with working two jobs and kids in school all day. They're having a lot of difficulty finding, you know, a place where they can get it done at a very, very low cost or for free within the means that they have to travel.

[01:35:08] And so I was just curious about that organization. Maybe I can find a way to contact them or talk to them about. I can follow up and provide you the locations. My understanding is that since this is a public service activity with our community development block grant dollars, that this service is in what we call a low-mod area.

[01:35:31] So it would have to have beneficiaries that have at least 51% of, I guess, no more than 80% of the area median income. So at least 51% of the clientele. So we may have designated that as a low-mod area within the county.

[01:35:50] But we'll follow up and give you... I would absolutely love to follow up on that. Thank you. Chair Randall. Thank you, Madam Chair. First of all, thank you for all this very hard work. I'm a little confused about the Habitat for Humanity because, first of all, the amount of money in Western London County, which is usually where the Habitat homes are purchased, will definitely buy maybe even a site for two homes.

[01:36:13] And Habitat usually does what's called sweat equity. And so if you know what equity is, you know that's plenty, that's enough money. That's why I'm confused. So are they saying they didn't spend it because they couldn't find land?

[01:36:32] Because the other thing Habitat does is purchase homes and then refurbishes or redo them. This is a lot of money for Habitat not to be using. And tell me one more time how you're going to handle that, because we're not trying to claw it back.

[01:36:50] We're trying to tell me one more time how you're going to handle the fact that they didn't spend this down. I'm confused about the Habitat money. Okay, not a problem. Let me start first by relaying what Habitat's official chief executive officer relayed to me in our conversation.

[01:37:11] So primarily the reason why the money has not been drawn or spent to date is because Habitat has historically used their own funding to purchase property. And they have had some challenges with their lender in getting access to private capital.

[01:37:33] They thought that the issue would have been worked out by now. But she, Ms. Cashin, stated that she felt that they could draw the money down by June 30th. That's the primary reason. And then the secondary reason, she stated, is that they've been getting outbid in some of the properties that they have attempted to purchase.

[01:37:56] Okay. So that's kind of the one-two punch with that challenge. All right. Now, the plan of action is to simply, so all of our grantees' grant agreements expire. They only go the fiscal year, from July 1st to June 30th.

[01:38:13] So all of them expire on June 30th. So with this particular grant, what we would propose to do is to merely amend and extend their contract from June 30th until March 31st of 2024, giving them an additional nine months to find a property increasing by $150,000 that will basically add up to the $800,000 that the committee recommended for this next program year.

[01:38:42] Hopefully that additional $150,000 coupled with the $650,000 would be enough so that they're not outbid. Then we would also work with them where we could provide our funding at closing, so they won't need a private bridge loan.

[01:38:59] We can actually just fund our dollars in escrow. She was not aware of that until I spoke with her. Oh, interesting. I have a follow-up, Madam Chair. You have a follow-up? All right. Supervisor Letourneau questions. No, no. Okay Chair Randall round two. Um, yeah, so the second part of the Habitat question was are they looking to do any refurbishing of homes versus buying new homes and then my next question is on

[01:39:34] On page 10 on the chart number three. What is what is housing affordable affordable activities? That's a good little chunk of money on that and I don't quite know what that means Okay. First question on Habitat, their grant is for purchase to do- So only for new build? It's not for rehabilitation?

[01:39:59] No, for rehabilitation. So we can't use CDBG for new construction. So this is only for rehabilitation. So they would buy a house that needs substantial repairs. They believe that they can buy one, maybe two, coupled with their line of credit that they have. That's my understanding.

[01:40:22] So can you do me a favor? Can we talk about this tomorrow? Because it's going to take more time than I have right now. And I really, I understand what you're saying to me, but it's just, you're not, I've been involved with Habitat before. I've, you know, done some homes with them.

[01:40:39] And this just, it's just not gelling in my mind. So let's talk tomorrow about this, okay? It's not, it really is not you. I'm sure I'm fairly tired tonight. And so I just want to make sure that I understand what you're saying to me. So we can talk tomorrow. But then number three, if you don't mind.

[01:40:57] So the proposed consolidated request for proposals for affordable housing activities. What I envision in doing with this activity, it will be bundled with some other resources that we have. For example, we're getting the Home Investment Partnerships grant for fiscal year 24, and we have local dollars.

[01:41:18] Oh, okay. So it will be consolidated into one RFP. So we're kind of leveraging this money. all right that makes sense that makes sense and and what i relate to habitat as well is they would have the opportunity to apply for that pot of funds as well in case they yeah that would be that yeah that makes that makes perfect sense and then lastly the the laws money um is that to help laws find a new facility on their own or for help to help laws and that's on page nine to help their clients find housing.

[01:41:53] That's on page 9, number 3 on page 9. My understanding from the conversations with laws is that it would be for programming and to help carry over for salaries with staff that they hired using some of our CARES Act dollars that they were providing.

[01:42:15] And this money can be used for that then? Some of that admin, this is okay to use this CDBG money for that? Yes. Okay. All right. Wonderful. That's wonderful. Thank you very much. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. We do have a motion, and the staff recommended motion is draft motion number one, I believe.

[01:42:37] All right. I'm going to make that motion now. I move that the Finance, Government Operations, and Economic Development Committee recommend that the Board of Supervisors, one, support the proposed CDBG funding recommendations as shown in Attachment 3 to the April 11, 2023 Finance, Government Operations, and Economic Development Committee's action item, except that the recommendation to Habitat for Humanity be reduced from $800,000 to $150,000 and increase the recommendation to the RFP for affordable housing activities

[01:43:16] from $121,718.35 to $771,718.35 sense and to direct staff to hold a public hearing on may 10 2023 is there a second okay thank you second by chair randall any discussion all right uh anything supervisor letourneau uh nope nothing for me i'll support the motion okay all in favor please say aye and supervisor letourneau thank you

[01:43:55] And I vote aye, so that will pass 4-0-1 with Vice Chair Saines off the dais. Thank you all very, very much. And without any further business to conduct, I call this Finance Government Operations and Economic Development Committee meeting adjourned.

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