Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, Transportation and Land Use Committee, Wednesday, July 19, 2023

Date: Wednesday, July 19, 2023
Place: Board Room, First Floor, Government Center, 1 Harrison Street SE, Leesburg, Virginia
Length: 1h 43m (video)
Official meeting video (county, Granicus): https://loudoun.granicus.com/player/clip/7355
Agenda (Granicus): https://loudoun.granicus.com/AgendaViewer.php?view_id=73&clip_id=7355

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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[00:08:12] Good evening all. Supervisor Buffington will not be able to attend tonight and Supervisor Kirshner informed me about 30 minutes ago that he's got a personal family emergency that he has to take care of. So our quorum is three. So as soon as Jay Reynolds gets back, we will get started.

[00:08:26] Thank you. Good evening. I'd like to call order the July 19th, 2023 Transportation and Lane Use

[00:10:41] 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 um our piece of useless information tonight to start our meeting uh winston churchill is one of my favorite states persons here are a number a number of pithy quotes by winston churchill as prime minister of great britain uh he was at a dinner party one night with lady astor and she looked at him and said winston if i were your wife i'd poison your coffee and he immediately replied nancy if i were your husband i'd drink it um at the white house uh frank and roosevelt

[00:11:18] wheeled in one day and caught Churchill completely naked. Winston smiled and said, the Prime Minister of Great Britain has nothing to hide from the President of the United States. And in a cabinet meeting ranting about needlessly long reports, staff, listen to this carefully, quote, this paper by its very length defends itself against the risk of being read.

[00:11:40] Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. I am sorry. I am so sorry. Congratulations to the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

[00:12:03] Our first item is an information item on the Airport Impact Overlay District and our efforts to work with the FAA and MWA to change the departure procedure for Renoir 3-0. So if we could ask that team to come to the table, please. Good evening, Mr. Chairman. Good evening, committee members.

[00:12:26] Good evening. The floor is yours. Thank you, sir. So for the record, my name is Josh Peters, joined by our director, Daniel Galindo. This item is the, I believe, the fourth in a series of monthly updates that have been requested by you, sir, on staff efforts to engage with the FAA in a community process regarding noise concerns in the area of Dulles Airport.

[00:12:55] So this update, this month's update, really is looking at the couple of things that have occurred since our last monthly update, which was July 19th. Staff continues to work on making contact with the FAA. We've not yet been successful to this point, but we have a meeting scheduled with our consultants, and we will

[00:13:26] continue to explore strategies and options with our consultant. At the committee's June 21st meeting, this committee endorsed a draft letter for the board's approval to be sent to the FAA in response to their open comment period on civil aviation noise policy.

[00:13:47] At the board business meeting, which was just held yesterday, the board approved that letter. And so the letter has been printed on the board's letterhead and prepared for a signature by Chair Randall. Once we receive a signed letter, staff will ensure that the letter is submitted before the original FAA deadline, which is July 31st. So that is the deadline for the open comment period.

[00:14:14] In response to significant feedback on the noise policy comment period, the FAA has announced that they've extended the deadline to submit comments an additional 60 days. So it looks like there's a significant amount of interest on this policy, as we know that to be true here locally.

[00:14:34] Sorry, bear with me here. With regard to the consulting services that we have reported on, and so our consultant is by an air.

[00:14:52] They have advised that their estimated timeline to complete their baseline and departure rule modification proposal modeling is approximately 180 days. This timeline has started, and following review of that work, they will need an additional 90 days to prepare a written report to be ready for submission to the Federal Aviation Administration.

[00:15:15] The information gained from their report will be the primary basis of our conversations with the FAA, And also, we anticipate the community engagement process occurring in the fall, as we did previously mention, possibly September to November timeframe. So we will share more definitive information once Vionair reports back to us, indicating they are ready for community feedback.

[00:15:38] So the project is entering a phase where the staff needs to allow a consultant to progress their work, developing the computerized noise and flight models. Practically all of this work will occur within the consultant's offices at this phase.

[00:15:58] So staff is seeking guidance from the committee to consider modifying our reporting interval before the committee to a bimonthly presentation for the next six months while the consultant does their technical work. Should bi-monthly reporting be acceptable to the committee, the board's August break would fit into that schedule, and staff would return to the committee in September, November, January, and then back to a monthly presentation and reporting.

[00:16:28] So that's what that bi-monthly schedule would look like, September, November, January. It should go without saying, but if we experience a break through with reaching the FAA, if we receive correspondence from the FAA or another unforeseen issue were to develop, the staff will bring that issue to the committee at earliest opportunity, not waiting for that next bi-monthly meeting.

[00:16:51] And so that wraps up the staff update for this month, and happy to take any questions. Thank you very much, Mr. Peters. I had an email and then a call with the Bramilton HOA president who expressed some concern that we're communicating a lack of urgency if we drop to a bi-monthly meeting.

[00:17:09] And I called him up to assure him a couple of things. First, if anything happens that changes the landscape, we will immediately roll it into the next TLUC meeting to report out on it. So that's first. If something changes to the status quo, then we will report out on it.

[00:17:28] Secondly, there is a great deal. I called him and talked to him at length about this. There is a great deal of work going on behind the scenes right now. It's technical work. It's work with a consultant. And so that is ongoing. And we think a bimonthly schedule makes the most sense right now, given where we are with the FAA and with EMMA and with the work that's going on behind the scenes.

[00:17:54] So those are the two things I really want to assure everybody of, is that we will come back if anything changes in the status quo with the very next TLUC meeting. Other than that, a bi-monthly meeting really does facilitate a lot of our behind-the-scenes work that's going on. And with that, I'll open up for questions, Madam Chair. So I just have a, well, I do have questions and comments, but I also just have to say I've never understood these words like bi-monthly because bi means two and monthly means month, so bi-monthly should mean twice a month instead of it actually means every other month.

[00:18:24] I have never understood that, just never. just that's just my commentary um okay now to to the issue at hand um so how long is the um period staying open for for people to make comments on the noise policy the it's it's an additional 60 days and so the original deadline was july 31st and so that would go to the the new deadline would go to the end of uh september was that extended i'm glad it was extended were we not getting comments in? I mean, I know the county has shared it on your page. I've shared it on my social media

[00:19:03] page. Do you think we're getting that information out in every way possible to let people know that this is the time to make comments to the FAA? I think it's really, really important that we do that because truthfully, the FAA is not responding to us. And what we've been told by EMWA is that they have to hear from the community. And so I really want the community to be as engaged as possible. Madam Chair if I could respond to that. So this is information that we just learned of today. Our public affairs office contacted us and we wanted to dovetail it into the presentation to bring it out to the public and we can certainly

[00:19:42] work with public affairs to message that just like they did when the comment period opened up and we'll reiterate that that extension has been extended. Did they extend because they weren't getting a lot of comments? I'm glad they extended.

[00:19:58] Do we know what happened? All I can say is I fact-checked the information I got from PAC and looked on their website, and they simply say something to the character of, based on overwhelming request for an extension. Oh, that's good then, actually.

[00:20:14] That's actually good. The FAA has agreed to a 60-day extension. Yeah, that's a good reason. My last question, Josh, is so our contractor, which you said was when when the FAA contacts them, is is is it are you assuming that that they're going to that the FAA is going to respond to them?

[00:20:31] I mean, what happens if they don't? Well, let me try to take the first question first. So when we had our initial meeting with the consultant, we were we indicated we were having some difficulty making breakthroughs with the FAA. We asked if that was something that they could realistically help with, and they outlined for us that they had a number of contacts within the FAA, and they went on to describe the various offices of the FAA that they do engage with.

[00:20:59] So we left that meeting believing that this consultant would be able to kind of open the door where we've not yet been successful. I'm only asking, I mean, we have asked our both United States senators and our congresswoman, and they have not responded to them either.

[00:21:16] I mean, we have tried in every way we know how. So if this consultant can do that, that's wonderful. I think we are hopeful. I think we also continue to acknowledge their situation at the top with the lack of a permanent appointee and the pending retirement of the current head.

[00:21:36] So I think just working in an organization myself, I know that that can make it difficult to make a command decision. And so that's how I understand our situation. But I think bringing in a consultant where there are professional connections already established, I think it's realistic to think that that would be effective.

[00:21:54] Mr. Chairman, may I ask one more question? Sure. Are we having somebody in EMWA also make these connections or ask these questions to the FAA? We have had dialogue with MOA.

[00:22:10] They have offered their assistance when we need it, but they have repeatedly indicated to us that our issue is between them, us, and the FAA, because they determined the flight rules. But, again, the door is open to reach out to them whenever we feel we need them, you know, for their support, their advice, or to participate in a meeting.

[00:22:38] Okay, all right, thank you. Our meeting, I'm not sure if Josh mentioned it, but our meeting is tomorrow. So it's imminent, and the schedule was selected around Mr. Hemstreet's schedule because he very much wants to participate in that meeting, so it will be.

[00:22:58] Okay, all right, thank you. Mr. Chairman, just so you know, my mom's calling me. I don't know why. Okay. So if she calls me again, let me have to step off the dais and take it. Thank you. I would just like to clarify. I'm pretty sure I understand this correctly, but I just want to clarify for the public.

[00:23:14] There are two tracks, and they're essentially unrelated. There is our efforts to contact the FAA regarding the Airport Impact Overlay District and the departure procedures for Normandy 3-0, and I work with a consultant that deals with noise, but that is a Loudoun County initiative dealing with the FAA on Loudoun County issues.

[00:23:33] Clendipitously, as this process was going on, the FAA announced nationwide they are opening up for comments to look at noise policies nationwide. It has nothing to do with Loudoun County. It is just a request for information about noise to the FAA, and that's what the FAA, I believe, is unilaterally extended 60 days to receive national comments on noise policy for the FAA, completely unrelated to Loudoun's issue.

[00:24:02] So I just want to make sure everybody's aware of that. Any other questions? Thank you all very much. We appreciate it. Next up, our first action item is the Environmental Commission Annual Report. If you could come to the table, that'd be great.

[00:24:28] Well, good evening, Committee Chair Turner, Chair Randall, Supervisor Glass. We're here this evening really for two items. We split them up just for ensuring we got some bite-sized solutions there and didn't add too much information at one time.

[00:24:48] But we are genuinely pleased to present both these items to you tonight, item number two and item number three item number two is the environment commission annual report and your environmental commission chair uh uh jim mcgalli is uh bengal i knew i was going to do it um um is here tonight to present that for you and and then we will transition over pending uh your indulgence to the actual work plan and uh mr marcovini will present that as well so if you uh If you're okay with that, we'll turn it over to Jim.

[00:25:24] Chair Turner and, oh, sorry. Chair Turner and DLUK members, thank you for the opportunity to present the Environmental Commission's second annual report to you today. I'm joined here by several commission members I'll ask to stand when I call their names to recognize them as well.

[00:25:42] Dr. Miriam Westervelt, Dr. Emily Southgate, Michael Myers, Kathleen Leonard, and Scott Emery. So you could say this is the standing committee. I'm just saying.

[00:26:00] I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. Thank you. While not all of our members could be here this evening due to work, timing, and other conflicts, our annual report has the unanimous support of the full commission. So we can, thank you, we continued to work at a fast pace in our second year with members committed to providing high-quality input to the Board of Supervisors.

[00:26:28] We had 18 full commission meetings, 10 of our standing committees, and 5 of our public forum ad hoc meetings for a total of 34. So what does that all mean in terms of what we accomplished?

[00:26:47] We continue at our retreat, excuse me, besides our internal focus. We heard about the conservation work being done at Banshee Reeks Nature Preserve and had a presentation from LCPS staff about their solar installation projects.

[00:27:03] It's exciting to know that school solar projects can generate more power than those schools are using, which means it's a net positive contribution to the grid, and that was great to learn about. We've provided extensive input for the county energy strategy that you all as a board endorsed earlier this year.

[00:27:25] We spoke at the budget hearings and provided budget priorities memo that's included in your attachments. We're grateful for the strong support that the board has provided for staff and county environmental projects. And we're hopeful that the energy manager position will be filled soon to monitor and provide guidance for county energy projects.

[00:27:47] On the natural resources side, we spent time reviewing the county's two watershed management plans and evaluated potential projects for action. As for our public engagement initiatives, significant time and effort went into devising the first environmental education excellence, excuse me, not education, excellence awards, and developing a plan for our first environment and energy public forum this past spring.

[00:28:18] Attached to the staff report, you will see the results of the survey that we conducted. We spent a lot of time considering what to include in the survey besides feedback on our work plan. We wanted to get a good sense of what people care about, what they know about county environmental actions, what they themselves are doing or not doing and why, and we also requested feedback on what we might do better with the forum in the future.

[00:28:44] So I wanted to share a few useful feedback points from the survey. Protecting trees and managing our lands more effectively to protect ecosystems and water quality are a top priority, followed closely by interest in what the county's plans are to manage energy and address solar power generation. The top five steps people said that they would consider taking to reduce their carbon footprint were to increase energy efficiency at home, change their food-related practices, including eating less meat, choosing local food, and composting their waste

[00:29:23] food, planting native trees and other plants, reducing their transportation carbon footprint, both by using electric vehicles and reducing their vehicle miles traveled, and using renewable energy. Many expressed interest in installing solar panels but either face obstacles or don't know where to start.

[00:29:46] Large-scale solar was generally supported with the inclusion of appropriate regulation and siting considerations to protect and preserve our natural resources. People are clearly interested in what's happening in our local environment, what the county is doing for the environment, what the status of the environment is in Loudoun and in the area around their homes in particular, and then what actions they could be taking.

[00:30:13] We want to thank the Board for hosting the Environmental Excellence Awards. We look forward to tweaking the program and our outreach to connect with and invite a wider, more diverse audience and promote applicants in every category this time.

[00:30:30] Next time. Over 100 people were at Loudon's first ever Energy and Environment Forum. The feedback we've received has us percolating ideas to better respond to the interests that were expressed and, again, to appeal to a broader cross-section of our community so that we can boast attendance for next year.

[00:30:50] Now, looking forward, I'll turn to the goals we have set for ourselves, and then you'll hear from Mr. Avini about the work plan for what is and will happen on the ground. On the sustainable energy side, we will develop a position regarding commercial solar zoning throughout the entire county, including industrial and institutional uses that balances renewable energy generation with natural resource protection and report our findings to you.

[00:31:20] We will explore a concept for a data center partnership to balance data center energy demand with clean energy supply, and we'll gather information on emerging clean energy trends to recommend topics for future consideration and development, like a green bank or a hydrogen hub, and offer guidance on implementing the energy strategy.

[00:31:45] On the natural resources side, we'll provide guidance on a tree canopy baseline study and expand public engagement in tree protection efforts. We'll provide recommendations from the Virginia Wildlife Corridor Action Plan to improve habitat connectivity and reduce wildlife vehicle collisions, and we will continue to offer guidance on existing and new watershed management plans.

[00:32:12] We'll also develop a concept and propose next steps for the county to create a natural resources Strategy as a companion to the County Energy Strategy with a framework to realize the vision outlined in the 2019 plan and to enhance existing natural resource programs. For our public information and engagement goals, we will give input on developing the online information hub to make existing county information more readily available to the public. And as I mentioned

[00:32:47] earlier, we will work to improve participation in the 2024 Environmental Excellence Awards program. And as the survey responses made clear, there is much to be done to improve public education and outreach. We will make recommendations for county actions and determine what we can do to encourage more public involvement and partnerships to accomplish the county's and the commission's goal and meet the public's needs so they can take individual and collective action.

[00:33:17] Lastly, for an effective county environmental program, we'll explore what an optimal organizational structure might be to best manage communications and coordinate action to accomplish the 2019 Comp Plan goals to support your open space and environmental strategic plan and support the five initiatives in our work plan.

[00:33:42] So now I'll pass it to Mr. Avani. So, Committee Chair, Turner, you're close. What we would like to do is kind of pause a little bit here and see if there's any questions for Jim or issues related to the annual report itself.

[00:34:03] An element in the annual report, you'll see a slate of committee members also in there. As a part of the bylaws for the Environmental Commission, the board's required to endorse and adopt those every year. And so they have worked very, very hard to fill the vast majority of these positions.

[00:34:25] And as you may recall, when the bylaws were being built, there was a lot of effort put into by the board and ensuring that there was an equitable and broad representation on your commission. So I would like to applaud the commission and staff in developing what we would consider a very positive and effective slate moving forward into this next year.

[00:34:47] So that is also an element of the ask for TELUC tonight, but also for the board. So the action item that is in front of you for item number two is that we are requesting, in partnership with the commission, that TELUC recommend to the board the endorsement of the Environmental Commission's annual report and the approval of the nominated slate of candidates for the natural resources, sustainable energy, and public engagement committees as listed in therein.

[00:35:13] Very good. Thank you. I'm going to go right to a motion here in a second, but I want to do one quick round of questions or comments. anything? Yeah, Supervisor Glass. Thank you, Chair Turner. First, I want to thank the committee members for just being a part of this. This is very important. We talk about our environment. I'm part of Clean Air Partners, and what we do is that we try to let the community know what they can do to help alleviate

[00:35:50] air pollution. So I know one thing is that we are working with teachers or educators to see what they can do to inform students in helping with our environment. So I think I want to talk to one of you to have a discussion on that. But I also want to just, again, just thank you for the work, and I really appreciate all that you do. Thank you.

[00:36:24] Thank you. Madam Chair. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'll try to do this, but I don't, I, if I may go longer than just one round. First of all, I would associate myself with Supervisor Glass's comments and thank you very much because it's amazingly good work, amazingly hard work, and I learned so much.

[00:36:41] You know, you think just because you care and, you know, you believe in global climate change, you believe in, that you know everything, and then you start reading these things and you realize how much you really don't know. And so it's important and fascinating reading. Just a couple of things. When we put in place the plastic bag tax in Loudoun County, 0.5 cents for plastic bags, that money is to be used for two things, primarily environmental initiatives. The other thing is there's some money there for the WIC program, the Women, Infant, and Children's program, but it's primarily for environmental initiatives.

[00:37:19] Were you all aware of that, first of all? And do we need to, I guess there may be a question for you, either one of you, because it's been more than a year, is access to that money for these reasons coming to you yet?

[00:37:35] Because there may be something that the board needs to do to make sure that happens. Okay, Chair, may I respond? So thank you, Madam Chair. This is a perfect, perfect question. Last year was actually a larger amount than we anticipated to receive for that. And the board saw a list of types of activities that those funds would be utilized for.

[00:37:57] We specifically structured it to augment existing programs and not create new programs. Because ideally, if that tax works, it'll be a diminishing fund, correct? So you don't want to create new programs that are relying upon those.

[00:38:13] So what we've structured that is through the litter campaigns, through cycling programs, through tree planting operations, a suite of different type of environmental programs that would greatly benefit from those resources to expand them but not create new programs.

[00:38:31] Yes, you're so right. You know, I'm both happy and sad that you have money to work with. I'm happy that you have money and sad that you have more than you expected because that means that, you know, not enough people are still using reusable bags. But, you know, I wouldn't say I've noticed a lot that as I go to the store right now, I see more reusable bags walking into stores than I did before, and so I'm really happy about that, and that is exactly what we put that in place for.

[00:39:00] The other concern we had was that a lot of, you know, other concerns I've heard, not so much I've had, but I've heard, So a lot of the efforts for the commission wouldn't all go to the west, but they would be spread throughout the county.

[00:39:16] Do you think that's happening, that the benefits of the commission is county-wide? And I think the concern from people is because so many of our, you know, environmentally sensitive, well, that's actually not true. We have a lot of environmentally sensitive areas in the east, but people, I think in their head, think that our environmental sensitive areas, our resources are all in the west, which is really not true.

[00:39:40] So are you seeing that this work is being done countywide? - So Madam Chair, that's a very good question as well. And in fact, you will see that most of the organizations are the soil and water conservation district, the extension services, the commission, and our operations internally as it relates to energy and environment.

[00:40:00] There's a significant invested effort to address issues in the east 'cause the urbanized areas, in fact, can have the greatest impact on moderating our greenhouse gas emissions. um our flooding concerns our stormwater issues so while there are uh precious gems in the west and i live there and i greatly value them there are also precious gems in the east that we need to sustain but there's also a great opportunity for uh moderating our current footprint working in the east so yeah i believe that's a fair statement that it is very active in both areas

[00:40:34] wonderful i will have two more questions mr chairman um really quickly um i want to point out to the public the work schedule for this committee. This has got to be one of the most active committees or committees we have in the county. 18 meetings. That's amazing. And they're meeting bi-monthly. But that really is amazing. You're doing terrific work. I'm very, very proud of the work of this committee. You guys are doing a great job. I have a request, and without objection, we'll call it a committee request. If there's questions or objections, please say so.

[00:41:11] Last night, we saw the floodplain overlay district report from the consultant. Could the commission take a look at that? What I gleaned from that is that unless the county was going to remap the floodplains in the county, there's really no option for us to plant or do any structures in the flood fringe without an engineering analysis.

[00:41:36] We can't back up. I think that's correct, and I got the impression that the best we can do is establish our best management practices to kind of reduce the engineering costs. But I would like the commission to just look and kind of give their stamp of approval, yeah, that's really all we can do.

[00:41:52] If there's anything else we can do that you can see, there was some allusion to you can plant a few trees in a riparian buffer, but it wouldn't be enough to make a difference. Well, we don't know how many trees that is. So just something from the commission says, based on what we're reading here in the report, this is what we think the county can do while I guess we're waiting for FEMA to remap the floodplains if they do that in a few years, which is probably going to be a while.

[00:42:17] I noticed in the report that the data center seat is open. How long has that seat been open? Supervisor Turner, it's been open about two months. Oh, really? Okay. I can't emphasize enough how important it is to have that seat filled.

[00:42:37] So I will reach out to Josh Levy at the next opportunity and ask him if they can get that seat filled. That's really important. Along those lines, I know I mentioned it at the forum. This is just my own personal opinion. I think the world is losing the climate change battle.

[00:42:55] If this summer is any indication, we're just losing the battle. I don't think we're going to get enough solar and enough anything else fast enough to be able to make an appreciable difference. And I really think that we're going to end up heading towards nuclear. And I understand that creates long-term waste problems.

[00:43:12] I get all that. But regarding the data center industry, I just have to believe that small modular reactors are right around the corner. It's just that is the cutting edge. Maybe within the next five years, possibly within the next three years, I would really like the commission to take a look at that um and find out what are the implications what do we need to worry about how are we going to handle that so we are we are way out in front of the bow wave on that movement if it hits us because like everything else in the data centers industry these days it's going to hit us fast and without with little warning so i'd like to have us kind of examine that and see if that's possible i know for a fact that um one company is already planning uh somewhere

[00:43:52] gosh, down south in Virginia, an entire campus with a small modular reactor has already been planned for that campus. And I think that's all the questions I had. Chair Rindle. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I know this, I'm almost embarrassed to ask this question because I think, I feel like I should know this and I don't. And I've, you know, I've tried to figure it out myself, but I don't know the answer to this question. You talked about solar and how we're producing

[00:44:24] more than we're than we are using and so that's good I don't know how the collection of solar happens and then how the disbursement of solar no how does this collection of solar energy happens and then how it is dispersed out I kind of get how it's dispersed I did do some reading but I don't really get how solar I don't even know if I'm saying the right words when when so you have you know a solar grid or a solar farm or a solar array how do you collect that energy how is that

[00:44:59] done walk me through what that is i i i swear i know kitty read it and i went okay well that was a good read and then i walked away because i was like but i do not understand it can somebody help me understand the process of what what that is certainly and you are not alone uh it is um i'm sorry Jim you're not alone in the in that that reality because it's net metering is is a tool that you they use you've heard that term net metering before and Jim probably can do a better job than I will so if I if I flub it up I'm gonna pitch to you the photovoltaic sales cells will

[00:45:36] receive as essentially as much energy from the Sun as they can and so during the daytime hours if it's optimal uh they will they will provide the necessary energy to that building and then whatever is excess flows back into the grid right so that that's the way they're these uh these systems are set up so it's a it's like basically a switch um a switch gear on it that receives it from one power generator generating station which is the the solar panels feeds the house and when that is excess beyond what the house needs it then switches it back to the the grid dominion does

[00:46:11] this all over the state. And NOVAC does as well within their region. And so that's from the daytime hours. So they're pushing electricity back into the grid. The overflow, it's like you're filling up a cup of water, right? And it fills up, then it spills out of the cup. So they collect that and they push it back into the grid. At nighttime, the house will certainly have to receive power from the grid. But the amount that they generated during the day far exceeded what they needed at nighttime so it's a net positive i can tell by the look i didn't do a good enough job so no the look

[00:46:50] is not about no so pushing push it back into the grid i mean the water analogy doesn't work because because i hate to sound like a complete idiot but i can see water i can feel water i can touch water right this you can't i don't i don't understand how this is working what we can do for you is we can actually put together a presentation on that. Like a middle school presentation or something.

[00:47:18] I'm sorry, but I don't. Your words made perfect sense. Don't get your words made perfect sense to me. I understood your words. Each individual word made sense. Put them all together. And I'm like, and I really, really, really want to understand this. And I want to understand it for a couple of reasons. One, and we've had this discussion before. In 2019, a group of people came to me and they said, please put solar arrays in the comprehensive plans. We can put solar arrays all over, you know, especially Western Northern County. We really want to have that option. I was like, fantastic. Made a motion, put solar arrays in there. The next year, 2020, that same group came

[00:47:56] back to me and said, we don't want solar arrays all over Western Northern County because they just look bad. And I'm like, but I am confused. And they also say, but we want to use the solar power that's been collected. And I don't know how, like, I want to know how this works and what we can do with it, because there's lots of energy sources, and I think we are going to, you know, be looking at nuclear. I agree with that. Okay, I'm sorry, but I do want to, I under, I've done a lot of reading, and I think I understand everything else. All the other energy sources, I got those. This one, I'm having trouble just understanding it, so come talk to me. Yes, ma'am. How's that sound? Thank you.

[00:48:33] Thank you, Chair Turner. Earlier you had talked about protecting trees and how important that is. It's one of the top things that you were discussing in that you're going to have a tree canopy baseline study.

[00:48:50] So my question is, for the study, are you going to be, because I'm thinking about the eastern part of Loudoun, where we have more HOAs. So are you going to look into those areas as well about, you know, how big of a canopy that certain HOAs or certain developments have?

[00:49:10] And then also into consideration that there is a lot of development that's being built as well. So, you know, maybe that canopy may not be there. Supervisor Glass, we'll talk about that a little bit in the second presentation when we get into the work plan.

[00:49:27] But, yes, we are going to address some of those issues. Okay. Thank you. Without objection, I'm going to go into a motion, and then we'll wrap this up. I move that the Transportation and Land Use Committee recommend the Board of Supervisors endorse the FY 2023 Environmental Commission Annual Report and approve the full nominated slate of candidates for all assignments in the Natural Resources, Sustainable Energy, and Public Engagement Standing Committees, as listed in Table 1.

[00:49:50] Second. That's a second by Chair Rendell. I have no opening comments other than to say you guys are just doing phenomenal work. You're just the all-stars of the committee world. I think, in London County. Thank you very much for all your great efforts. Any other comments, Chair Randall?

[00:50:06] I would associate myself with those comments. I think this is one of the two hardest-working commissions that we have and one that has produced the most in the shortest amount of time. So thank you all very much. And it's all full of doctors and brilliant people over there, so thank you very much.

[00:50:24] Seeing no other comments, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? A motion will pass 3-0-2. And next item? Yes, sir. With your permission, we'll have Mr. Avini go into item number three.

[00:50:39] Absolutely. Thank you, Chair Turner, Chair Randall, and Supervisor Glass. So very happy to present to you the environment and energy work plan overview for this coming fiscal year. If you recall, last year, actually in July, we did the first environment and energy summit, and the board approved the work plan that we did.

[00:50:59] And then further, in the 24 budget, you established a baseline program for natural resource and energy sustainability efforts in Loudoun County. And we're going to report on that today and the good work that we're going to do with your support. We do have an updated work plan that is in the attachment.

[00:51:16] It contains a lot more details than I'll be able to cover in this short plan. And I've seen Supervisor Turner actually carry it around, so it does have a lot of good details in it that we will refer to as we move forward. I am very happy to say that this work plan involves multiple departments, some of which are here tonight: Housing and Community Development, Building Development, Department of Transportation and Capital Infrastructure, Economic Development, non-profits such as Habitat for Humanity, Community Housing Partners, the Chamber of Commerce, HOAs.

[00:51:53] So there is truly a community effort to do this work, and as well it should be because this involves energy and environment throughout the county. The Environmental Commission, as you've seen, has been very involved in this plan and public input through the forum and other venues has had extensive input. So we're just very happy about how this has turned out. If you recall from last year, we ordered things around the five initiatives that you see there before you, and I'm going to update you on all five of these initiatives tonight and where we are.

[00:52:25] So starting with our first initiative, sustainable energy, we have a lot going on. The county energy strategy in particular, which was approved by this board back in February, has been very helpful to us as a guiding document. And I'm going to go into that and all the other ones in great detail.

[00:52:43] I will say that the number has grown. When we met with you last year, we had 17 items. That has now grown to 20 items. So it keeps growing. But all these, you'll see the word new there, the data center partnership, which I'll talk about a little bit, and some other efforts as well.

[00:52:58] So the first slide is the county energy strategy, which this board approved back in February. It has three goal areas that truly touch all of the community, leading by example in our government operations, supporting clean energy development, which the chair was just asking about, and then stimulating community-wide action.

[00:53:16] I will say that having a county energy strategy has been instrumental in being able to access federal grants, such as the recent grant that we received for the 37 compressed natural gas buses. Many organizations want to see that you have a strategy you're working from, so that's been very helpful to us.

[00:53:36] And the three goal areas include 10 strategies and 31 different action items. All of those things taken together will reduce our greenhouse gas emissions in Loudoun County by over 50%. So we're very happy to report on that.

[00:53:52] And as was mentioned earlier, the first item is the energy manager for Loudoun County, which I'm pleased to say closes tomorrow. So we'll be looking forward to seeing those resumes and getting that person on staff very quickly. A lot of things happening in sustainable energy.

[00:54:09] The first is power purchase agreements. And this kind of goes to Chair Randall's comment. So we actually have a request for proposal out on the street right now for a vendor to come in and look at putting solar or other renewable energy sources on our Loudoun County buildings.

[00:54:28] Similar to what the schools did, this would generally is considered to be solar, and this would allow us to get that renewable energy, use it to power our buildings, and then, to your point, store it in a battery or something like that and use it somewhere else. So if we gathered it on this building, we could possibly use it in another Loudoun County building.

[00:54:47] So we're very excited, and the proposals are due August 15th. We're very much interested to see what vendors are proposing so that we can get some clean energy in Loudoun County. The board last night approved on Consent Agenda the Beneficial Use of Landfill Gas Feasibility Study.

[00:55:03] We will be looking at the landfill methane gas and whether we can turn that into a clean energy source. feasibility study will be done within six months and then we will bring the results back to the board and look and see if that's something we want to consider doing. Again, another clean energy source, another reduction in our greenhouse gas emissions. Green banks, we've talked a little bit about those and as a source of capital for entrepreneurs and others to do a lot of these sustainable energy things that most banks won't particularly support. Fairfax County has just

[00:55:38] established a green bank. Washington, D.C. has a green bank. The board has given us some money in the budget to look at this, and we're going to see how we could possibly collaborate with our regional partners to develop this a little bit better. Data Center Partnerships, very happy to report that we've been working with the Data Center Coalition, as well as the Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Lab. This is a first-class organization that is looking at renewable energy throughout the United States. And they're very interested in partnering with us here in Loudoun County to look at how we can get some better accounting of greenhouse gas

[00:56:14] emissions from our data center partners. As you know, many of our data centers on their corporate websites state that they are procuring renewable energy from outside of the county. We don't have a way to account for that. So we want to look at a way to account for that. We also want to look at the potential for some clean energy sources other than diesel generators, which run as backup. So We're very excited to partner with NREL, National Renewable Energy Laboratory for Sustainable Energy.

[00:56:41] We talked about solar regulations. We're following our friends in planning and zoning on this. I know this issue is currently before the board, and so we are watching this with great interest and see how it can work to support the goals of our energy strategy. Energy equity.

[00:56:58] Energy equity is looking at how we can reduce the burden of paying for keeping your house warm, for cooling your house on those that may not have, you know, the full income resources that we have. And we actually have a two-pronged approach that we're looking at that we're very pleased with.

[00:57:17] And our partners here, I was talking today with Housing and Community Development on a joint energy audit weatherization program for owner-occupied homes in Loudoun County that meet a certain criteria. We would work with a partner such as community housing partners, as well as housing and community development to do audits of homes. Based on those audits, we'd go in and do some weatherization.

[00:57:40] Think of Habitat for Humanity type programs, new windows, new appliances, energy efficient. A lot of these are available at little to no cost through the federal government. So we would rehab those houses and allow those residents to start saving money on their energy bills. In addition, we are looking at an overall county energy equity plan and we'd like to present the board with that plan we're going to work with the equity officer and the consultant that he's using to develop a more expansive program that looks at the full county and how we might do energy equity and get a little public input we'd like to come back to you on that but the exciting thing here is that we've got two

[00:58:19] approaches both short term for weatherization and long term for an energy equity plan that we're looking at. And then, of course, we have natural resources, and we have a lot of items that were on our work plan that we're going to talk about in a little more detail. And so the first item is watershed management plans existing. If you recall, when we met with the board last July, we had some watershed management plans that had been done, and they weren't publicly available. Well, we appreciate very much the help of our friends in building and development. Those documents are all now publicly available. Furthermore, with the

[00:58:54] Board's resources in FY24, we're going to look to implement some of the recommendations in those plans in neighborhoods. This would be working with HOAs to do things such as tree planting, buffer, petway stations, all things which are good for the environment and good for water quality.

[00:59:12] We're looking to partner with our Soil and Water Conservation District to accelerate these water quality projects in neighborhoods. In addition, we're going to do a new watershed management plan. This would be a new effort in a new watershed, and it would be based on lessons learned. My partner here to my right, Keira Moore, who I should have recognized at the very beginning, has been instrumental in all of this, and she's going to lead this effort.

[00:59:33] So we're very excited to do a new watershed management plan for the county. We mentioned engineering analysis for floodplain projects. I know you received a report last night on floodplain, and we're working with our partners in building and development to develop some standard BMPs that can mitigate the need for having to do individual engineering plans. Tree canopy, I know that was a question from Supervisor Glass. We are also going to work with our partners in B&D to do a tree canopy baseline study. This will give us a baseline of our tree canopy in Loudoun County, total Loudoun County, not just one district. And that

[01:00:09] will allow us to understand what resources we have and when we make decisions on development and others how we're impacting those so we're looking forward to doing that and we're going to work with the urban forester in building and development and a consultant to do that and then lastly wildlife corridors i mentioned before that loudon is number one in virginia for deer vehicle crashes this is obviously a great safety issue we've talked with uh with the state we've talked with vdot we've talked with our friends in transportation and capital improvement on doing some wildlife corridors in Loudoun County.

[01:00:44] We're currently looking at the data where the hotspots are in the county where these crashes occur. And if possible, with a new road plan, could we put a wildlife corridor in to guide the wildlife under a road? Typically, what you see are tall fences that go back some distance from the road.

[01:01:01] And the wildlife, mainly deer, tend to follow that fence and go underneath the road and pass underneath rather than crossing the road. So we're looking, again, with the money provided by the board on how we might do some projects right here in Loudoun County. Environmental justice, our third initiative, we're going to work with the equity officer on what this looks like for the county.

[01:01:22] We need to obviously coordinate and do some needs assessments and work with a consultant. The board has provided us funds to do that, and we will do that and come back to the board with a plan, but we don't have that right now. Our fourth initiative is public engagement. You heard from our chair, Jim Bingle, about the Environmental Excellence Awards and the public forum, both, which were very successful.

[01:01:45] We appreciate Supervisor Turner being there and giving some good comments. Cara is working very hard with our partners in Office of Mapping on getting a GeoHub information hub, where we have a lot of information that is available to people very easily.

[01:02:00] And Omagi is already beginning to put that together, so we're very excited to be able to provide that to the community on the website. And last, but certainly not least, government by example. A lot of things happening in this area. So we have completed an energy audit, actually, of this building right here.

[01:02:21] And based on that audit, we're looking at renovations for things such as new windows, LED lights, temperature settings, et cetera, that would reduce our energy use in this building. We're looking at that as part of our building renovation plan. We have plans to look at all county buildings through this audit and make a recommendation for what renovations we could do.

[01:02:42] This will not only save us money, save us energy, but will also make the buildings more comfortable. So we're very excited about that effort. We're working with our friends in transportation and capital infrastructure on new buildings. And when we do a new building, can we look at things like geothermal or solar as a standard so that we can further reduce our energy use?

[01:03:03] sustainable landfill operations. I mentioned our greenhouse gas emissions and feasibility study that we're doing at the landfill. And then one of my favorite things is Employee Energy Conservation Committee, or E2C2. County employees are very interested in energy conservation. They are a great source of ideas for energy conservation. We are starting a committee with county employees throughout the organization who will meet on a regular basis, give us ideas for energy conservation, perhaps do some training for all employees as well. So we're very excited about that effort. And then electric vehicles. I know the board has approved electric and plug-in hybrid

[01:03:42] fleet plan and EV charging stations at county facilities. We are looking at that to increase, obviously, our electric vehicles in the fleet and reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and vehicle miles traveled. So all in all, we have a lot of things going on. We appreciate very much the budget that establishes going forward a base program for environment and energy in the county and that's significant and we we have the board and the environmental commission and the public to thank for that i do want to brag just a little bit if i could uh chair um we're exceeding all

[01:04:16] expectations i get requests once a month from fairfax from arlington from cog from nvrc tell us how this commission does it tell us how you do this tell us how you work with the board tell us how all these things tell us how you got a million dollars after just one year to do this work and obviously you know we're beating fairfax we're beating fairfax yes ma'am and and we're very i'm very proud to give those presentations in fact i've got one next month um that i'm doing to cog um and so it works it works the the committee structure the bylaws that you all set up are working very well and it is really quite an honor to be part of that and work through that so

[01:04:54] thank you for that just to get a little personal um at that i'm going to stop and see if there's any questions um from the committee and then um see if you'll endorse our work plan going forward so i stand ready to answer any questions chair thank you mr vinney uh questions supervisor glass yes thank you chair turner um i wow that was a lot of really good information um so i know there are a lot of things that you did that that we're doing and then you just mentioned that um you know different jurisdictions are asking you questions about um you know what they can do better are we

[01:05:32] working with the region regarding um you know the environment climate change that sort of thing absolutely supervisor glass i am a co-chair of a cog committee on energy and the environment and we are very involved cog was very involved in our energy strategy uh we meet in fact i'm meeting tomorrow uh meeting friday with northern virginia regional commission and other energy managers so we're very coordinated um with with the region on energy yes absolutely and environment

[01:06:04] absolutely madam chair thank you um first of all i the entire government by example discussion is was my ideal and i'm so excited for it because i don't think it's realistic to go out and ask other businesses and such to do things without us doing it first and leading in that area So I am thrilled with how much we've done.

[01:06:28] Well, I'm thrilled with all of this, but thrilled with how much we've done under government by example. I've talked to a lot of data centers and asked them about solar panels on their roofs, not so much to power a data center, because I know that there's not enough there to power a data center, and it would be stored and used somewhere else.

[01:06:47] And they've told me the number one reason I hear no from them is because they said they'd have to retrofit their roofs to put solar panels on them. Having said that, if we're going to be putting them on a lot of our county buildings, do we need to put it in like a cap budget, put it in part of our future budgets to have the money there to retrofit roofs to put solar panels on them for county facilities?

[01:07:13] So, Madam Chair, that is certainly something that we would look at. There's certainly a difference between warehousing roof structures and conventional building roof structures. So they're not really able to handle the weight on many of the data centers.

[01:07:31] Traditional buildings that you'll see at the schools, for example, they have a much stronger structure that I'm sure Mr. Krova is much more familiar with that as an engineer. But bottom line is a lot of our schools are also built as bomb shelters, so they have the ability.

[01:07:47] to carry that and most public buildings have the same capacity so I'm not saying that we wouldn't have to put in the budget put in the budget to modify those but most of the buildings that we would be looking at especially for the PPPA process we would be looking at existing facilities that can actually handle that all right that's important enough because I don't want to get to that place and then and then we have to wait two more years because the buildings themselves were not able and we have to put in the budget for us for out years so deer crashes we're number one in Virginia for deer crashes is it why and what yeah why I would say one of the reasons that's often

[01:08:26] given is we've got a lot of windy roads especially the western part of the county we've got a lot of windy roads hills a lot of deer large deer population in Loudoun County very close to West Virginia West Virginia I believe is the number one state for deer vehicle crashes so there's just a lot of deer, a lot of roads, twisty, windy roads, and a lot of places where those kind of crashes can happen. I've always said that Eastern Loudoun County deer and Western Loudoun County deer are different. Western Loudoun, Eastern Loudoun County deer will like just wait till the traffic goes by and teach their little children how to cross the street. Western Loudoun County deer just run out into the street and, you know, commit hairy-cary. It's just, it's amazing

[01:09:04] how different the deer are depending on if you've got, they've gotten used to having people. I mean, I've literally seen deer wait to cross the street in eastern Loudoun County. It's amazing and kind of scary, but I've seen that happen. But number one in deer crashes, it's a problem because that's really dangerous for everybody.

[01:09:25] So thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Happy to support this, thrilled to support this. Thank you, Madam Chair. I just, before we vote on this, I just want to commend Mr. Aveni and Ms. Bingle for being a fantastic, dynamic duo on this committee.

[01:09:42] You are both doing phenomenal work. Great, great leadership. And on behalf of the county, thank you for all your efforts. You are both doing terrific work. I really appreciate it. If Fairfax County has a green bank and D.C. has a green bank, why would Loudoun County need to create a green bank?

[01:09:58] Are there investments only for residents of those counties, or can any nearby county also avail themselves of the assets available under the green bank? As I understand it, Chair, the Washington, D.C. Green Bank is for Washington, D.C. only.

[01:10:14] Now, Fairfax, which is looking to adopt a Green Bank ordinance, they do not have it yet. They are asking questions about if it could be regional, and certainly a regional approach might make sense. So part of the thing we're going to look at in this fiscal year is, does it make sense for Loudoun to partner with Fairfax on a Green Bank?

[01:10:32] I was going to say, I know the Green Bank makes a whole lot of sense to me. And we're already talking about the entire electric bus infrastructure sort of mirroring. Was it Alexandria that's going all electric? I think they have. And they're learning a lot. I said at NVTC, share the wealth.

[01:10:48] Tell us what you're learning because we're all going down that path. Okay. Equity in energy for lower-income housing. The RPACE program, the residential property-assessed clean energy program, is specifically designed to address equity in sustainable energy.

[01:11:12] That's one of its key features. Now, it got started in California, and unfortunately it was rife with corruption and bad news stories of how that program went. But they've isolated that, and they've corrected a lot of that. I tried last, not last session, but the previous session with Delegate Reed.

[01:11:30] He just championed it. And we actually had a committee put together for six months down in Richmond looking at RPACE. And the conclusion of the committee was maybe, but not yet. It's not ready for prime time for Virginia. But if you want to talk about equity and people having access to sustainable energy improvements, windows and doors and HVAC and all those other things, RPACE can fund it through the Green Bank. And it's got a lot of synergy there.

[01:12:00] And then, Mr. Vinny, have you had any requests from any counties outside the D.C. metro area for best practices for what we're doing? Frederick County, Maryland, sir. Okay. Because I took our energy plan and funneled it into the NACO.

[01:12:18] I'm the energy subcommittee chair for NACO, and I submitted the plan and said I would like before the end of my term for all the counties that have best practices across the board related to energy to please submit it. So we've got a repository, a library of these things, and I put our plan in as the first one.

[01:12:36] And so I'm just – it's Frederick County. It's probably locally. Actually, now that you mentioned it, I did get a call from Michigan, a county in Michigan. Great. Yes, and they asked for a copy as well. Very good. Then that's where that's coming from. Yes. I wondered how they heard about it. Thank you. Yep, very good.

[01:12:53] Other questions? Okay, great. I'm going to make a motion. I move that the Transportation Land Use Committee recommend that the Board of Supervisors endorse the FY2024 environment and energy work plan and direct the Department of General Services to implement it as provided an attachment one to this July 19th 2023 action item second second by chair Randall I have no opening statements it's a great plan let's get it get it going and get it approved by the board any other comments she'll write a glass yes I just want to make one comment chair Randall I would agree with you with the deer on my way home from lands

[01:13:31] down there was a family of deer that was that was walking within the crosswalk i took a picture of that because i was really i'm thrilled that you're coming to cog i cannot wait for that to happen that's wonderful i understand mr turner's desire to partner with other counties around and that's fine but it is always my goal to beat fairfax county every time and so if we don't partner that's okay too as long as we just keep winning duly noted thank you good job seriously no kidding good job everyone i really really appreciate this and on that small note of petty

[01:14:10] infighting i have no closing comments all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye any opposed that motion will pass 302 thank you all very much thank you our next our next item is a report from on the from the Housing Advisory Board annual report if you

[01:14:35] could all come on up thank you all very much mr. Regan worse good evening chair

[01:15:10] Turner miss a thanks for being here and you guys are on you have the floor thank you sir good evening chair Turner committee members good to see you all this evening my name is Brian Regan assistant director of the Department of Housing and Community Development and I also serve as the staff liaison to the Housing Advisory Board and I'm pleased to introduce miss Nicole Gore Hayes who is the chair of the housing advisory board or hab this year miss sasha brower serves as vice chair but she was not able to attend this evening the purpose of tonight's item is to present the housing advisory board's fiscal year 2023 annual report to tluck and it is having staff's hope that tluck

[01:15:48] to recommend the board endorse the annual report at its regular meeting on june 14th the hab approved the plan with a recommendation of endorsement by the board of supervisors over the last 12 months the hab convened 14 times to further the purpose of supporting and promoting a full range of diverse housing opportunities in loudon county of particular importance on april 4th 2023 based on recommendations from the ad hoc committee on advisory boards commissions and committees the board of supervisors adopted the habs revised bylaws and updated its membership to better support the implementation of the unmet housing needs strategic plan the hab has since

[01:16:26] broadened its membership to include representation by community-wide housing stakeholders to include the Continuum of Care, the Disability Services Board, the Family Services Advisory Board, etc., to ensure an inclusive and comprehensive perspective on housing issues. Major activities accomplished by HAB over the last year include a keen involvement in the Zoning Ordinance Rewrite as it pertains to the Attainable Housing Chapter. On July 13, 2022, the HAB drafted comments and provided them into the county's ENCODE Plus system.

[01:16:56] On November 9th, the HAB drafted a letter to the Planning Commission with an overall emphasis on generating more applications with additional attainable units, fostering innovative solutions to the housing crisis, and meeting the goals set forth as part of the Unmet Housing Needs Strategic Plan. Since the Department of Housing and Community Development became a stand-alone department, the obligation for making funding recommendations for the Community Development Block Grant Program was transferred from the Family Services Advisory Board to the Housing Advisory Board.

[01:17:23] On October 12, 2022, the HAB conducted a required public hearing to gather input on addressing housing and community development needs. And subsequently, on April 5, 2023, the HAB made its CDBG funding recommendations to the Board of Supervisors for allocating CDBG funds to propose projects for program year 2023 and 2024.

[01:17:43] During the last year, the HAB also heard a variety of informational items and provided input on several board-approved programs, including the Affordable Housing Land Development Application and Development Permit Fee Waiver, the 2022-2023 Certified Developers for the Rental Housing Acquisition and Preservation Loan Program, and provided input on the county's 2023 legislative program.

[01:18:06] The HAB also heard quarterly updates to the Unmet Housing E Strategic Plan and provided valuable input. The HAB continues to proudly serve the board and its mission to support the full continuum of housing opportunities in the county. Additionally, as a result of the revised bylaws, the HAB will continue to undertake activities that support the implementation of the Unmet Housing Needs Strategic Plan.

[01:18:28] At this time, and since it is her board, I will ask Ms. Gore-Hayes to provide any additional comments that she may have, and then we'll be more than happy to take any questions. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, Brian. Chair Turner, Chair Randall, Supervisor Glass, I just wanted to say it is an absolute pleasure to sit before you this evening, and I'm humbled to serve as the chair of the Housing Advisory Board addressing Loudoun's unmet housing need.

[01:18:58] The board members and I have deep, thoughtful conversations at every meeting. We look at every different perspective of the housing, unmet housing need. Led by the housing staff, Brian has been absolutely wonderful. We search for feasible, data-driven solutions that can augment existing programs, federal, state, or county programs, when and where possible, to present solutions for your consideration.

[01:19:26] In a few cases, we hope to introduce some innovative ideas, but even those would be with evidence-based framework and with the support of existing county goals and programs. In sum, our goal is to collaborate across the county with stakeholders, both public and private, to more efficiently use existing resources to make impactful change in addressing the unmet housing need.

[01:19:51] So, again, I thank you for this opportunity and look forward to meeting with each of you individually over the next fiscal year to get you updated, or keep you updated, rather, and to get your input individually as we move forward. Thank you again for this opportunity.

[01:20:06] Thank you, Ms. Gorace. Any questions? Supervisor Glass. I don't have any questions right now. I just want to say welcome and thank you for the invitation, because I do look forward to speaking with you.

[01:20:23] housing I think most everyone knows that that is something that I'm very concerned about and it's it's it's a problem that's all over but I think what we can do in our area in our county you know we're going to to try to do the best that we can for our for our community thank you thank you thank you Mr. Chairman, thank you both.

[01:20:54] Thank you, Ms. Hayes. I appreciate it. You know, it's interesting because, Mr. Regan, you actually said that this board, that this committee serves the board, and they do, but I think they serve the county more. And I will also say it's interesting because they serve people who are not even here yet, right, which is really, really important.

[01:21:16] So this past weekend, the COG, the Council of Governments, had its annual retreat, And the whole second day was spent on housing and housing issues. And it was really both very concerning and very important. It said that the number one reason that people leave this area is a lack of housing.

[01:21:36] It's not jobs. It's not taxes. It's not anything people think about. It's a lack of housing. And I was really surprised that people are going to Texas, I think it was Texas, Seattle, Georgia, in that order. People are going for housing. Oftentimes they love being in the area, they love living here, but they're just leaving for that reason.

[01:21:58] One thing was said by an economist from Mason that really just made me very, very sad. He said this knowing that I was in the room. He said, in Loudoun County, you will get kind of reelected if you tell every citizen when they move there, they're gonna build a moat around Loudoun County so nobody else can live there and they're gonna do a drawbridge.

[01:22:24] And I just said, that's not really true anymore, but I understand where that came from, which leads to my question. And this may be a question for this item and the next item, so y'all get ready for the next item. I have long thought that one of the things that we battle is just not understanding why we need attainable housing.

[01:22:43] And Brian, you used other words I liked, you know, the diverse housing options. I like that term. It is still such a stigma around needing more attainable housing, affordable housing. Just last term, one of my colleagues used to always call it welfare housing.

[01:23:01] He used to make me just like stop saying that. And so I am always, as just an elected official and the chair of the county, you know, trying to figure out how to have a discussion with people that, you know, you want, we need people to be able to live here.

[01:23:17] The people who serve us, our firefighters, our sheriff's deputies, our waitstaff, our nurses, our teachers need to be able to live here. So do you have any thoughts on do you think the stigma is getting less? And if so, how should we keep doing that?

[01:23:33] And if not, is there something we should be doing? Because I think that this issue of stigmatizing the need for attainable housing is one of the issues that have plagued the county and the region for a really long time. So thank you. I hate to say it, but I don't think the stigma will ever go away.

[01:23:50] I think that's one of the constants that will be there regardless. And that's not just a Loudoun County issue. That's really anywhere. However, I'm happy to report that one of the subcommittees that was established in the HABs bylaws is advocacy. So we're really hopeful that moving over the next fiscal year or so, that HAB will have a more robust opportunity to do exactly what you were saying, Chair Randall.

[01:24:13] That is wonderful. If I can chime in on that one. So, Chair Randall, you're so astute, obviously. I see this as a two-pronged question, right? This issue, I think, has to be taken on.

[01:24:28] So there is a communications piece. There is almost like an advertising campaign that needs to happen, right, a branding campaign that needs to happen. Because in Loudoun County, attainable housing, if we're talking about 80, 90, 100 percent of AMI, which is still, you know, within the range of HUD's affordable housing, we're talking, you know, Brian has the exact numbers, but like somewhere around $120,000 a year.

[01:24:55] That's a lot of money for, you know, a regular working person, you know. And so we have to communicate that more effectively. And we have, you know, when I was talking about using the apparatus we have within government already, we need to communicate that through our existing channels.

[01:25:17] So we have, you know, county public affairs offices. We have public information officers within the county government. We need to link up with those resources and communicate those messages through other channels. So I think that's a piece of it.

[01:25:33] that's not the whole thing, but I think that's a part of what we need to do. I mean, you've clearly already thought about this, but I'm hoping that we, this board, can be a part of the apparatus to implement some of the things you've already thought about in that way, right? So that's a part of your answer. And then the other thing you mentioned, that we serve, you know, a group that's not here. In my mind, my biggest fear is that I will put my kids through Loudoun County Public Schools K through 12, and then they will graduate and move very far away, and I won't see my grand

[01:26:11] baby. And it's a horrible thing. Yeah. Yes, no, that is a valid fear, girl. I am living that life right now. And because they can't afford to buy, you know, and then before I know it, they've put down roots and, and become attached to another community and I never get them back. And this is the kind of thing, this is the kind of phenomenon that happens in very poor communities, in rust belt communities. When, you know, factories go away, when industry goes away, that's not Loudoun County. And I'm hopeful we can get ahead of this trend in a way where we start to carve out. It's

[01:26:48] not a set aside it's not discrimination but showing a preference for the people who live here were born here um and being able to have programs where we house the people who were already here i think that makes sense because those people are invested in this community and we stop the brain drain of everything that we've done to educate those people here that get those people invested in this community. They know the culture of this community. There's so many synergies that happen

[01:27:22] when the people who were born here, live here, and are invested here, you know, continue to stay here and raise families here. And so that's one of the projects that the board is working on, is trying to figure out ways to, you know, I'll use the term incentivize home ownership for Loudoun County residents um so point taken about that but it's also about housing security for loud and existing loud and populations right the people who are here also get those people to stay here uh and so

[01:28:01] yes what you said is is there's some people there's some people who won't move here but i think a part of that too is the people that that we brought here or people who were born here getting those people to stay um so you get my point no thank you yeah okay thank you thank you madam chair um i just have a quick question i thought it was a question but i think i've actually discerned the answer in in your answers um i was going to ask the difference between the housing advisory board and adwa but but i think the answer is the housing advisory board deals with

[01:28:38] the larger macro policy issues around affordable and attainable housing whereas the adwa sits down of developers says how much can you charge for an adu and how does it affect the market is that essentially that is exactly it so whereas you know the housing advisory board has specific guidance um for kind of that overarching policy work and the unmet housing needs strategic plan the adu focus or the adwab focus is specific on the adu program and dealing with builders and developers like you said okay great uh i have nothing else i'm going to go to a motion uh anything else from the panel no okay i move that the transportation lane use committee recommend

[01:29:15] that the board of supervisors endorse the fy 2023 housing advisory board annual report included as attachment one to the july 19 2023 action item second moved and seconded by chair randall um oh i'm sorry miss glass uh i was wondering when you were going to get in on a second um again thank you for the presentation you all doing great work um and um ms gore hayes is this the start of your term or how does it work where are you in your term so the chair and vice chair elected in january of every year so halfway through okay okay great well you're doing great

[01:29:51] work both of you and the whole the whole committee thank you all very much i was real impressed with the report and uh we really do appreciate it all those in favor please say aye aye any opposed that motion will carry 302 with two members off the dais thank you both very much and our final item of the evening is the affordable dwelling unit advisory board annual report and you are

[01:30:28] clear to proceed thank you sir uh still brian regan and i am very pleased to introduce with me mr doug wagner who serves as the chair of the affordable dwelling unit advisory board or adwab mr ben miller is the vice chair and he was unfortunately unable to attend this evening the purpose of tonight's item similar to the housing advisory board is to present the affordable Dwelling Unit Advisory Board's fiscal year 2023 annual report to TLUC. At the regular meeting on June 13th, the full ADWAB approved the plan with a recommendation of endorsement by the board.

[01:31:00] The ADWAB has been diligently working over the last 12 months. The ADWAB and its committees met a total of 20 times. On May 16th, 2023, based on recommendations from the ad hoc committee on advisory boards, commissions, and committees, the ADWAB's bylaws were converted to the template with no substantive changes and approved. Previously, the ADWAB was taking its responsibilities straight from Article 7 of the county's zoning ordinance. To give you an idea as to the importance of the county's ADU program and the ADWAB's purpose of determining and approving the sales control prices of ADUs, let me provide you with two data points. First, the average ADU sales

[01:31:35] price in fiscal year 2023 was $189,188. Compared to the market, according to the Dulles Area Association of Realtors, the median sales price in May of this year in Loudoun County was $710,000. In short, ADUs are being sold for approximately one quarter of the price of a market unit and serving households that so desperately need affordable, attainable housing in the county.

[01:32:00] One of the major activities accomplished by AWOB over the last year include, on June 14, 2022, providing comments as part of the zoning ordinance rewrite as it pertains to the affordable housing chapter. The AWOB Builders Committee met nine times during the year, with an emphasis on on the methodology used to price ADUs.

[01:32:17] It was agreed during the year that additional research was needed to be completed to determine the best method of pricing ADUs moving forward. The Builders Committee met to better identify a more fair and efficient manner to pricing ADUs. This updated pricing methodology ties the pricing of ADUs strictly to the area median income and no longer uses outdated construction costs as the basis for pricing.

[01:32:38] Although not in fiscal year '23, the ADWAB approved this new methodology at their meeting this month in July. Finally, during the past year, the AWOB focused on the following items to potentially offset the costs and incentivize the provision of affordable housing in Loudoun County. And these include property tax abatement, density bonuses, support of local and state funding, and fee waivers, particularly tap fees from Loudoun Water.

[01:33:02] At this time, I will ask Mr. Wagner if he has any additional comments to make, and then we'll be more than happy to take any questions. Thanks, Brian. And thanks, Chair Turner, Chair Randall, and Supervisor Glass for an opportunity to speak in front of you. I've been on A-DWAB for the last several years, have been chair for the last two, and am honored to have the ability to work with county staff on items such as providing more affordable dwelling units to Loudoun County, working through the zoning ordinance rewrite, and working on fee reductions so that we can continue to provide more affordable dwelling units

[01:33:41] and at cheaper rates for our community. Thank you for the opportunity. Thank you very much. Questions? Again, I don't have any questions, but thank you for your work. I would think, well, personally, I think this is one of the most important boards to have.

[01:34:05] You know, if you don't have a home, you know, you need a home to feel like you, you know, you have a place that you come to and have your family and feel like you're a part of the community.

[01:34:22] It's really important. So thank you for all that you do. Thank you, Ms. Chairman. Thank you. Again, I'm associating myself with Ms. Glass's comments. I've got a couple of things. I recently was invited to a meeting with the New Virginia Majority, which is a group that almost exclusively advocates for immigrant rights in the state.

[01:34:52] And they have been very, very, very focused on housing in every type of way. I thought that the meeting would have, because I've been to previous New Beijing majority meetings, I thought that I'd walk in and there'd be 15 people, maybe 20. The place was absolutely packed, absolutely packed.

[01:35:11] And they were aware of the, I think, really good work that is being done at the county level and, you know, that our offices are doing. But they said something that I thought was really interesting. They said that they don't know that what is being even offered is reaching their communities.

[01:35:31] Now, you know, I'm not sure how to take that. Some of it was, you know, if there are some things that can and can't be done for certain communities, depending on documentation status. But there's other ways to help those communities. So I had asked you this before, Brian.

[01:35:50] One, what do you think we need to do to make sure that every community that needs to know what we have to offer knows? Should we put things out in different languages? Should we go, you know, do more community outreach? Will we go to their meetings? I know you've met with them quite a few times, but I was a little more discouraged than I thought I would be when I walked out because there were so many people who just did not, who knows that we're trying, but we're just not reaching all of them. That's the first thing. The second thing is this. If you've heard me have these discussions, I've said so many times that housing for rental

[01:36:29] is fantastic because people need a place to live, but oftentimes in Loudoun County, a place to rent is not much more than a mortgage. The problem is people cannot pull together a closing cost and down payment so they can move into a place to purchase a property. Can you talk to me a little bit about the efforts to have attainable homes for purchase and not just attainable homes for rental? And again, thank you so much for what you're doing. Sure. So Chair Randall, the first question in terms of outreach, there's always a little bit of room to do additional outreach

[01:37:04] when necessary. As it is specific to the ADU program, we have heard similar concerns. We now offer most of our documents for the ADU program in Spanish, and we also have a staff member who works specifically with the ADU program that is bilingual. So there is that opportunity for those that want to speak to a staff member in their native tongue. They're able to do that. They're able to look at some of the application materials that are in spanish and have been translated so that the application process is just a little bit easier for those particular households

[01:37:36] okay thank you thank you and then in terms of the your second question so the county does offer a down payment and closing cost assistance program those are being offered to households that are between 30 and 70 percent of the area median income there is also a public employees grant program so that is a forgivable loan over five years again for households that earn between 30 and 70 percent of the area median income the department of housing and community development is currently looking into expanding those programs up to 100 percent of the area median income and should be implementing that over the next several months can i have a mask a follow-up

[01:38:13] question mr chairman so you know you know if we expanding it to people who are 85 to 100 of the AMI. I don't mind that it's sitting where it's sitting right now, maybe a little more, maybe a little higher, maybe to 75, but I don't mind that it's sitting where it's sitting right now in the AMI. That's not, do we know what that fund looks like? How much money is in it? How often is it used? Is it full closing cost and down payment? Is it a part of closing cost and down payment? Is it, do they have to pay it back? Can you just give me a little bit more information

[01:38:49] on that button? Sure. So the down payment closing cost program is up to $25,000 or 10% of the sales price, whatever is less. And that essentially acts as a second trust. So right to your mortgage. And what we've seen is that we have a lot of households that pair that program along with the affordable dwelling unit program. Because like you said, Chair Randall, a lot of the time, the biggest obstacle is having that down payment to put up front. So for an additional monthly payment it's worth getting you know a loan paying back the county for 30 years for the public employee grant program it's a $10,000 grant forgivable over five years available to those

[01:39:27] in Loudoun County government public schools and the constitutional offices so if that household is able to obtain funds as long as they stay in the Loudoun County position and in the household that is totally forgiven after five years they don't have to pay a single cent what's that AMI That is 30% to 70%.

[01:39:44] That's 30% to 70%. Yes, ma'am. Okay. I may have a question after this. Just go ahead. How well are these, how do you get this out to the employee program? Is that something people get when they're coming through orientation?

[01:40:01] How do people know that? So we have various outreach opportunities. We have, in the past, gone to the new teacher orientation at Loudoun County Public Schools to make sure that they are aware. Uh, we have gone to orientation sessions for the sheriff's office for new recruits. So we try to get out there as much as we possibly can, uh, and are willing to do as, as much outreach as we need to, to make sure that everybody, you know, what I'm, what I find sometimes we have great programs that are, that are fantastic, but I, I've had people, employees ask me about the very thing you just told me we have, I literally have.

[01:40:33] And so I always, I always say that, you know, sometimes, um, work of supervisors, because We have, you know, my newsletter or whatever hits a lot of people I'll put up on my page. But we loved getting that really important information out.

[01:40:50] So if you all send us things, we would just stick it in a newsletter and send it out because it's really, really important that, you know, we have all these possibilities to help people get and remain housed is put out. I also do know how much work you have done with the New Virginia majority, how often you've talked to them and met with them.

[01:41:12] I do want to express that they've said that as well, that you've met with them quite a few times, talked to them quite a few times, and have been very receptive to answering the questions. So I want to say that part as well. Understood. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Madam Chair.

[01:41:28] I just have one comment. I read, I can't remember what caused me to read it, but there was a report on the Los Angeles housing market that really aggressively streamlined the permitting process for accessory dwelling units.

[01:41:45] They created templates for the county, like three or four templates of best practices for how to create and design an accessory dwelling unit in your home. And in a fairly short order, they generated 400,000 affordable units in the Los Angeles area through the Accessory Dwelling Unit Program.

[01:42:05] Is there any discussion either on the Housing Advisory Board or A-DWAB about a more robust Accessory Dwelling Unit Program in Loudoun County? Has it ever been brought up or talked about? As far as I know, Chair Turner, no. And I think the – so there was a Housing Affordability Zoning Ordinance Amendment that was done that stated that accessory dwelling units are allowed in any of the residential zoning districts, which is fine.

[01:42:28] But I think what may deter Loudoun County, per se, is the presence of HOAs. And if their governing documents state that you cannot build an accessory dwelling unit, then that's the law of the land. So we've seen that in Loudoun County that seems to be an obstacle.

[01:42:46] That's an interesting reply because that tells me that maybe we create some sort of a forum or a dialogue with the HOAs and invite them to participate and see if we can't come to some kind of an agreement. That's the starting point. Very good. That's a good answer.

[01:43:02] Thank you very much. I have nothing else. Anything else? All right. I move that the Transportation Lane News Committee recommend that the Board of Supervisors endorse the FY 2023 Affordable Dwelling Unit Advisory Board AWOB annual report included as attachment one to the July 19th, 2023 action item.

[01:43:20] Seconded by Chair Randall. I have no further comments other than great, great work, as always. And all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion will pass 302. Thank you both very much. We appreciate it.

[01:43:35] And seeing no other business, we are adjourned.

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