Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, Transportation and Land Use Committee, Wednesday, September 20, 2023

Date: Wednesday, September 20, 2023
Place: Board Room, First Floor, Government Center, 1 Harrison Street SE, Leesburg, Virginia
Length: 1h 30m (video)
Official meeting video (county, Granicus): https://loudoun.granicus.com/player/clip/7418
Agenda (Granicus): https://loudoun.granicus.com/AgendaViewer.php?view_id=73&clip_id=7418

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 2026-10-21. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

[00:07:17] Good evening, everybody. Good evening, Loudon, and welcome to the September Transportation and Land Use Committee meeting. As always, I start off with a trivial fact that is of worth very little to everybody, which is a little bit contrarian to all the other committees in the world, but a lot of fun.

[00:07:38] September 18th was the Air Force birthday, and normally we would have a cake, and the oldest and youngest Air Force member in the room, which would be me in both counts, would cut the cake. We have to forego that tonight. I tried to offer a rendition of the Air Force song at last night's Board of Supervisors meeting.

[00:07:56] I was rudely gaveled down by the chair and not permitted to do that. I will spare you that this evening and give you this one little piece of trivial fact that a modern fighter aircraft carries more bomb tonnage on an air-to-ground mission than an entirely loaded B-17 from World War II.

[00:08:13] And with that, please join me in the pledge of allegiance. Thank you. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

[00:08:34] We have a reduced committee membership tonight, and I want to ensure that we have a quorum here because we have one action item. So I've asked that that action item be moved up to the first item, and that is an FAA community process to mitigate aircraft noise within the area of the Airport Impact Overlay District.

[00:08:54] If I can ask staff to come forward to present that item. Good evening, Mr. Chairman.

[00:09:12] Good evening. And at the appropriate time, I think we know all of you, so I don't think we need to introduce. But when we introduce the V&R team, if we could ask them to introduce themselves over the phone, that would be great. Yes, sir. Let me get set up here. Jackie? looking at me like this is news to you right so um so good evening my name is josh peters jackie marsh dusty smith from the county and on uh the um webex we do have uh jim um and jason from vionaire and uh jim and jason if i could get you to just say hello and introduce yourselves as

[00:09:52] well hey everybody jim allardyce from vionaire how you doing hi jim thanks for joining us go And it's Vionair, not Vionair, right? Yes, sir, Vionair. Vionair, got it. And good afternoon. My name is Jason Schwartz.

[00:10:08] I work with Jim at Vionair. Happy to be here tonight. Thanks, Jason. So, Mr. Chairman, is it okay if I just step through the slides? Absolutely, Ivan, you bet. Okay. So, this item, as the committee knows, is a regular update to the Transportation and Land Use Committee on staff efforts to open dialogue with the Federal Aviation Administration regarding community concerns over airport noise.

[00:10:32] This effort was initiated by the board this year while adopting amendments to the Airport Impact Overlay District, which occurred in January. This item, tonight's item, has two parts. The first one is the regular informational update summarizing staff activities since our last update to the committee on July 19th.

[00:10:51] And the second piece of it is the action item that you referred to, Mr. Chairman, to discuss and provide a recommendation to the board regarding staff's suggested approach to forming a work group, participate in the intended community process. FAA. County staff has not received a response from the FAA's community engagement officer yet. County staff has made a number of requests for a staff to staff meeting and we've asked assistance in this matter from our

[00:11:22] consultant. We will report back when we have more to share. So this slide covers the timeline and submission of county comments regarding the FAA's open comment period on noise policy and this committee and the full board endorsed a draft comment letter during previous meetings and that letter was submitted to the FAA on July 27th and so really it's the last bullet here that occurred since our last meeting it's the submittal of that comment letter that we

[00:11:57] that we discussed at a previous meeting so this is also an update but this really moves into introducing the action item so the next two slides we'll be looking at what we're asking the committee to weigh in on tonight. And this is the staff recommended approach to forming a work group to participate in the community process that the board has asked us to look into. And so on this point, before I talk about the recommended method to form the group, I'm going to ask Jim Allardyce from Vine Air to talk through and summarize

[00:12:35] the workgroup process, what that looks like, and what they'll be facilitating for us. So, Jim, if you could give your comments. Yes, sir. So, we have done a number of projects similar to this.

[00:12:51] As a matter of fact, we're actually working at all three of the Washington area airports at this point. Our recommendation to the staff has been to form a work group that gives a representative cross-section of the community so that when we make the final recommendations, as broad a comment area, you know, coverage that we could get would be representative of the entire

[00:13:28] area that may be affected by any changes that we recommend. Historically, we've been able to go in with a work group such as we're recommending here and get unanimous consent for whatever recommendations we move forward with.

[00:13:45] The importance of this is because the FAA and the airports, as a matter of fact, like to have as broad a consensus as possible. What we try to do is get consensus from the community when we go forward with the recommendation.

[00:14:04] But in the process, we also talk to the FAA, we also talk to the airport, and we get feedback from them along the way as the work group is studying and making recommendations for how we should go forward.

[00:14:19] That way, we get some kind of an idea as to whether or not what we're considering is operationally feasible and, above all, is safe. So the one thing you cannot compromise, obviously, is safety. The other thing that you usually dig into a little bit is efficiency of the airport when you're trying to come up with some kind of a solution.

[00:14:44] And when we do those things, with the broadest possible representation, the FAA and or the airport is most likely, more likely, I should say, to be able to accept the recommendations. So that's what we're hopeful to do as we form this working group, is to be able to show the FAA and the airport that we've got a broad consensus going forward. I think that we will start by approaching the airport with our plan and our group, and then we will work through

[00:15:23] the airport to discuss proposals with the FAA. So that's just kind of the long and short of it. I think when I say the broadest possible representation, I'd want to caveat that with The fact that the larger the group, you know, the more opinions you have, sometimes the slower the process, that's fine.

[00:15:47] So we want to get as broad a representation as we can with the least amount of people that we can. Usually a working group of about 10 people is ideal, but if we need to do more than that to make sure that we have adequate representation, that's fine as well. So that's just kind of an overview, and I'd be happy to answer any questions anybody has.

[00:16:06] That's a great overview, Jim. I appreciate it. Are there questions for the Vionair team off the bat? We might as well dive in for those, because I've got several already. Madam Chair, or Sue Rezglas. Thank you, Chairman Turner, and thank you for coming out here today to speak regarding this.

[00:16:26] I understand that Vionair will host countywide community meetings sometime in the coming months. Can you explain those meetings and what the status is on their scheduling? I've had a few constituents to reach out and wanted to speak with you all.

[00:16:43] Sure. We're in the process of setting all that up. Really, and I'll refer to this group, this working group, as the design team. That's just kind of generically what we do because we're designing procedures with this group. But once we get the design team formed and we get to meet with them and we can start to put together a schedule of meetings and try to find out what issues that we really have to address and accomplish, then we're going to get more of a schedule for when we can go out and do public briefings.

[00:17:22] I believe we had also discussed maybe doing kind of like a kickoff meeting for the public just to let them know and inform them, you know, what we were doing. But it would be a very high-level meeting to just basically say we're taking a look at the procedures that exist today and try to find out if there's any alternative, viable alternatives that we can recommend that are implementable.

[00:17:45] And that is the biggest single word that we use for anything that we do is whatever we recommend has to be implementable. And so when we go out to the public, we really, really want to drive that point home because what it does is it sets the expectations of what can and cannot be done.

[00:18:08] And, you know, we try to do that right up front with both the working group slash design team and the public. Once we do that kind of kickoff meeting, if that's what the staff wants us to do, we go in with the working group, the design team.

[00:18:25] We try to come up with a recommendation, and at that point, we would go back out, again, if the staff approves that, to the public and say, this is what we came up with. If there's any glaring oversights or any huge groundswell saying that, oh, what you came up with is just totally untenable, then we go back to the drawing board and try again.

[00:18:52] Most of the time, if we've done our job and we have a good enough cross-section, we will have considered the things that are most important to those communities. and hopefully the recommendation that we come up with is satisfactory in that case then we don't need to have a third meeting but if we need need to have a third meeting if we had to go back to the drawing board and come back out we can do that as well so we're very flexible on on on that

[00:19:22] thank you madam chair thank you mr chairman can we start the clock jackie thanks all right um first of all thanks for everything we do appreciate the assistance i have a couple of questions. One, when you talk about, when we look at slide number two of six, and it said the staff has not received a written email or telephone response from the FAA for our CEO, are we, have we hooked or tried to, because I tried and it didn't really work, hook in our congressional delegation to see if they could at least get us a response from the FAA, because that

[00:20:01] would be really helpful. That's my first question. My second question is, one thing you said is that you would first approach the airport can you give me the rationale for first approaching the airport since the airport has made it really clear already that they don't have power control and all they would do really is turn around and try to get a hold of the faa so are we not just losing time by approaching the airport when we know their answer already and then thirdly as i look at your map on page four or six are you aware that's that the that the when we talk about creating a large

[00:20:34] coalition and with all the HOAs, and I completely agree with that idea to create a coalition of HOAs and others, but when you look at the map that you put up, the HOAs themselves, I mean, like, so what Brambleton wants and what Willisford at the grant wants are two very different things, because if it's not over Brambleton, if the airplane noise is not over Brambleton, it might be over Willisford, and so you're creating a coalition of HOAs that want basically the opposite things in this coalition, and short of saying there

[00:21:13] would be no airplanes flying at all, I don't know how we would please everybody in this coalition that we're creating. Thank you. Sure. If the staff wants to take the first one about the congressional piece.

[00:21:32] Chair Turner. Go ahead. I'll take that item. We have purposely held back engaging the congressional delegation. We always know that is available. We know that our board members have a fantastic relationship with them, and if we call them or any of you call them, they will be quick to react.

[00:21:58] But in complete transparency on the whole topic, we're very concerned that FAA is very fragile at this point in time, In order to move to a successful outcome, we need to build good working relationships with the FAA.

[00:22:17] And if the directive rains down from congressional delegation that you shall and you must engage them, they may change their posture. The other aspect of that is until V&A finishes their work that they're getting ready to start with the work group and have some type of a proposal to even talk with the FAA about, we're kind of in a good position allowing that time to pass so they can complete their work.

[00:22:51] And when we do engage the FAA, we have we have substance to to present to them instead of just saying, hi, you know, we'd like to talk to you about this in three or four months. Thank you, Mr. Grobel. Jim, you want to tackle questions two and three?

[00:23:07] Yes, sir. So why approach the airport? The airport is really the best conduit to the FAA.

[00:23:26] The FAA basically requires third parties such as ourselves collectively to come to them via one of two ways. One is through the airport, and through the airport you can do a working group, or you can do a roundtable, or you can do direct recommendations to the airport, and the airport feeds those things back to the FAA.

[00:23:42] The other way is through the regional administrator. The regional administrator way is very cumbersome, and it is not very efficient as far as getting communications back and forth. We believe if we go to the airport and show them the plan and show them the cross-section of the community that's going to be represented and show them the task group or the working group that we have formed and say that because we're doing this public outreach on the front end

[00:24:18] And because we have an organized effort and because our intent is to come out with a solution that is implementable at the end, that they will sponsor us to the FAA because they see all the work that we will have put in on the front end.

[00:24:37] We believe that it, you know, that we have a good working relationship with the airport already. We have not specifically approached them on this project because, quite frankly, we don't have anything to approach them with yet. They do know that we're working with you all.

[00:24:54] And I think that once we get this working group established, have a couple of meetings and go to the airport and say, this is where we are, this is what we're doing, this is what we hope to accomplish, that they will be more than happy to be a conduit.

[00:25:09] And that's all they really will end up being. It is a conduit to the FAA. We can push our recommendations through the airport to the FAA, and the FAA will accept it that way. But they will always say, either go through the administrator or go through the airport, but other than that, we don't really want to talk to you.

[00:25:28] So that's why we're doing it that way. So, and the last question, I think your neighbors are a perfect example of what you said over at DCA, because you had basically two different, you know, divergent groups that wanted different things just like you do here, just like you do anywhere.

[00:25:51] And that's why we really want this broad cross-section of the community so that when we get into the working group, one of the very first things we do is we establish the design philosophy. We rank from top to bottom in importance what the working group feels is the most important issues to them.

[00:26:14] And it could be we don't want airplanes flying over schools or we don't want airplanes flying over churches or whatever it is or, you know, compatible land, you know, over highways, whatever. But we go through and get all that worked out. So what we end up doing is we end up defining what success looks like on the front end.

[00:26:35] That is unique in the business as far as I know. And when you do that, it reduces the likelihood of people coming back in the end of the project with objections because an airplane happens to be flying over their house.

[00:26:51] If it's there, they know why it's there, and they were part of the group that chose to put it there. So that's the way we worked with the folks over at DCA. And, you know, the different sides of the river had basically two different points of view and philosophy.

[00:27:10] and we were able to come out with a unanimous recommendation to the FAA. Go ahead, Madam Chair. We don't need a clock, Jackie. So thank you. Those answers are, I think, on their face, very logical and make sense to anyone who hasn't already been in this process now for months.

[00:27:31] And I got to say that I hope that you are correct. I pray that you are correct because what we have received from the airport has not been unclear. They've been very, very, very clear that they really prefer not to have a process in this, to be honest.

[00:27:51] And so, you know, if what you say is correct, that, you know, we go to them with a committee and a plan and all that, then I hope you're right. But I will tell you that has not been their stance so far. And truthfully, I compliment the airport for being very clear.

[00:28:08] They haven't been, you know, they haven't been at all unclear about what they will do and what they won't do. and so I hope that is true, and I'm a little more optimistic about, you know, the different communities and their concerns, because they are competing concerns, but I'm certainly willing to, well, not just willing, but really hoping that this idea works, and I understand that it was that something similar happened with um wash with um with reagan it was it was it was

[00:28:48] it was similar but not and and i know all i've been having this conversation now for i don't know six years and so it was it was not similar enough that i'm also not as confident as you are that the the different neighborhoods competing interests won't be the their overriding factor however i am more than willing and in fact hoping to to be a productive part of this process and and at this point i'm not sure what else to do anyway so let's see how it goes thank you thank you madam chair

[00:29:21] i've got a number of things i'd like to just point out um okay uh uh mr peters if we could this is a good map i really like this map i believe that we have a total of another 2 000 houses that are going to go in and i believe they are going to go in on the blue shaded area directly underneath Birchwood at Brambleton, just to the west of Old Ox Road.

[00:29:47] Excuse me. And I believe they're going to fill in the blue area just to the east of Arcola Center and to the west of Old Ox Road. Could we get this map updated to show in red where those new developments are going to go?

[00:30:02] I've seen a map already that has those new developments depicted on it when we were discussing the AIOD. If we could just have those new developments laid on here because it's critical to this map. The second thing I'd like to add to this map is the 1993 Airport 65 contour line.

[00:30:20] The 93-65 contour line for the proposed departure path off Runway 3-0 and the current 65 LDN for the AIOD that we just approved.

[00:30:36] And for the Vineyard folks, if you, and it's rough, but if you fill in those two blue segments with houses that have been approved based on the 93 departure path and LDN, we have at least 2,000 homes. And you will see that the 65 LDN goes right over those two communities.

[00:30:55] Now, I was out knocking doors the other, bless you, I was out knocking doors the other day, and I was in Goose Creek Preserve, which is just west of Belmont Ridge Road and just south of the Greenway. I don't even think that's on this map. And the noise was so loud, and it was the post-6 o'clock departures of the European and Southwest Asia flights.

[00:31:15] The noise was so loud, I had to stop talking on the doors, talking to people with their doors open, and the airplanes went over less than every five minutes. And that was on a depiction, not even on this map. All I could think of the whole time I was knocking doors last night, I cannot imagine living in Birchwood or living in South Riding, where the current departures are from runway 3-0 with the noise that they're having to deal with.

[00:31:37] every single day. For the Viner folks, I cannot remember, I remember about 80% of this, noise abatement departure procedure one and two. One of them, I believe, is max power to 1500 feet and then proceed on course or throttle back. And the other one is max power to 800 feet.

[00:31:59] And I think most of the airports in Europe and all the airports in the United States, I believe, if I remember correctly, except two, Dulles being one of them, use one of those procedures, and I believe it's the max power to 1,500 feet. Dulles is the only one that allows them to throttle back at 800 feet, and I believe that results in a slower climb out and therefore lower altitude with more noise. That may all be wrong. If it is, that's fine, but I would like you to include as a, just put a pin in the marker that I would like Dulles to begin to comply with noise abatement departure procedures that are the higher gradient of noise abatement as we go forward in these

[00:32:38] discussions. And the only thing to vine here I'd like to point out is these two new housing developments were approved based on the airport's projection in 1993, and their studies were not normal five to eight years out. They have insisted, MLA has insisted on conducting studies that say this is to end of life at Dulles airport. This is as far forward as we can see. And so that's the 9365 LDN overlay that'll get added to this map. And you will see that it is directly over. If you see that spike of blue right under the runway center line, that's a floodplain and overhead

[00:33:14] transmission lines that will never have houses in it. And the end of that blue section is as it goes into Briarfield Estates, I want to say is about a mile and a half out. So that's what you're going to get when you poll the community associations is you're going to get all the people in all these neighbors are going to say we don't want noise over our houses but the critical factor is you've got to you've got to grade that response from the community based on the number of people that are affected yes but also the average ambient noise that that population is living with and they should

[00:33:48] get a heavier weight on their protest than communities that are further along on that centerline departure path where the airplane is higher and possibly a lower power setting. So the weight of the housing directly underneath the current departure flight path, which is a left or right turn at the departure end of the runway, yeah, the number of people may be lower or the same or maybe even a little bit more, but the noise gradient is much, much higher than if you proceed straight ahead on runway 30 by the time you get to Williford or Bradfield Estates.

[00:34:22] So I'm going to talk to Vionair offline, and we'll get more of that out there. I just wanted that out for the public record, that there's a whole lot of things at play in here. And Vionair, I'm sure you guys will factor all this in, but those are some of the more salient ones. That was a long diatribe by me. And Vionair team or staff, do you have any questions or comments or responses?

[00:34:41] I think, depending on how you'd like to direct this discussion, I know that we need to at least outline our two action items to make clear what we're asking for votes for. And so if it's OK, I'll kind of move to those two things. So the two parts of the action item are, one, to endorse the study area, which is this blue outlined area. We're referring to it as the study area of influence. And that's an important decision point, excuse me, because it becomes the geographic basis for selecting representation. So that's point one.

[00:35:14] Point two that we're asking for your endorsement of or further discussion is our approach to grouping these communities to select the work group. We have 32 communities that are within this study area of influence.

[00:35:30] We believe that we can select nine. That's what we presented in the staff report. If we select the nine largest communities, largest is kind of a general term, but large communities that are also dispersed spatially throughout that area, that they can represent the interests of those smaller communities that adjoin them.

[00:35:51] And so this actually gets partly to Chair Randall's third question about this issue of competing interests. We're trying to establish a method here and asking for your endorsement that says we have representation that considers spatial, the spatial situation, but then also making sure that nobody's left out.

[00:36:17] Because if they don't have a seat at the table, the person right beside them has the seat at the table. So that's what we're asking for the committee's endorsement of. It's the space and then the grouping technique. Thank you. I appreciate that clarification, and I was very comfortable with both recommendations, and I'll just open it up for questions if you have any questions at all on the recommendations of staff for either the group process or the MAP.

[00:36:40] I don't have any questions, but I do agree with the recommendations that staff has, so I would be in agreement with them. Great. Madam Chair. Thank you. On pages four and five of the report, can you give me the different colors?

[00:37:01] I know what the blue is, but the light purple and the violet purple, are those where the LDN lines go? Do those have any, do the colors have any particular significance? Yeah, I think the darker purple is just, those are the parts of the communities that are within that blue marketed area, and it gets lighter when it's outside of that area.

[00:37:22] I think it's not about the LDS up with a no there there if you look there is a very faint LDA LDN lines I believe on there but they're pretty hard to see we I think they can be made more clear don't see you still I think that was the 60 the 65 is oh I see that yeah yeah yeah yeah okay okay gotcha I see them so that that's why there are two different colors purple they're really purple in general just marks what we it's a an approved rezoning all right I understand

[00:37:56] thank you anything else staff because I think we're probably ready for a motion or from the vine our team any questions on my my long monologue there no sir okay with that I think I'm gonna make a motion I move the transportation and land use committee recommend that the Board of Supervisors endorse the staff recommended study area of influence as depicted in attachment one and the community representation groupings for inclusion in the work group as set forth both within the September 20th, 2023 Transportation and Land Use Committee action item.

[00:38:34] Second by Supervisor Glass. I have no open comment. I think staff's presentation was good, and I certainly took up my time. Anyone else? Just that I kind of have all my fingers crossed for this to be a process. I'm not skeptical because of Vionaire or because of staff or because of anything, but just because we've been in this so long, and I'm skeptical, but hopeful.

[00:39:00] So thank you, everybody. Thank you, Madam Chair. And my closing comments for the motion, I just want to thank the Vine Air team. I am as tickled as I can be that you guys are in the loop here, and I really do appreciate the support. You kind of know how to navigate your way around this highly charged atmosphere of FAA and airport authority.

[00:39:20] And county staff, I know, is leaning on you heavily. We'll meet again, but I really do appreciate that you're in the mix. I mean, if we've got a chance of pulling this off, I think it's because you guys are involved, and I really appreciate it. And thank you to the staff. This is a very simple, straightforward presentation. I'm very pleased with the progress we're making, so thank you.

[00:39:37] With that, motion's been made and seconded. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? As none, that motion will pass 302 with two Supervisor Kirshner and Supervisor Buffington off the dais. Thank you all very much. Our next item is an update on the unmet housing needs strategic plan progress.

[00:39:57] If the team could come to the table, that would be great.

[00:40:09] Welcome, everybody. Thank you. Good evening, Chair Turner. Chair Randall, Supervisor Glass, and members of today's, I'm John Hall with the Department of Housing and Community Development.

[00:40:25] We are happy to be before you this evening to present both the fourth quarter report of fiscal year 23 and the annual overall report for fiscal year 23 of the Unmet Housing Needs Strategic Plan. I am joined by a couple of staffers.

[00:40:41] Christine Hillick, who is our Housing Initiatives Project Manager, will be given tonight's presentation and both Assistant Director Brian Regan and I will be available to answer questions as well at the conclusion. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Hall. Good evening, Chair Turner and members of the committee. As Mr. Hall said, my name is Christine Hillock and I'm the Housing Initiatives Project Manager with DHCD. Tonight, as Mr. Hall said, I will provide both the fourth quarter fiscal year 23 and the 2023 fiscal year annual report on the Unmet Housing Needs Strategic Plan.

[00:41:17] This is the sixth update to TLOC regarding the plan, which was approved two years ago on September 8th, 2021. During the past two years since adoption of the plan, the board and staff have taken many important steps in plan implementation, and great progress has been made towards achieving the county's attainable housing goals.

[00:41:37] Attachment 1 to tonight's item provides an update on each of the 76 key action items out of 133 total that were to be achieved in years one and two of the plan. And attachment two to tonight's item provides a comprehensive list of the 16 significant actions taken in fiscal year 2023.

[00:41:58] Next slide. The next three slides provide a brief summary of the significant plan-related actions for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 23. Below each item, you will see noted the Unmet Housing Needs Strategic Plan strategy, which is associated with each activity.

[00:42:16] First, on April 1st, 2023, the Northern Virginia Housing Expo was held at Dominion High School in Sterling. The expo is a cooperative effort of Virginia housing, the counties of Prince William, Fairfax, Arlington, and Loudoun, cities of Alexandria, Falls Church, and Manassas Park, the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors, the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, or COG, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's D.C. regional office.

[00:42:45] community members attended the event. This included 320 participants and 107 exhibitors, workshop presenters, and volunteers. That was 320 in-person participants? Correct, yes. It was an in-person event. Good job. It was the first time the expo had been held in several years in person.

[00:43:05] It had gone virtual for a couple years, so yeah, it was an experiment, and we were happy with the or not at the expo we also had 12 free workshops and 18 households received free financial counseling that day on may 10th the board approved the community development block grant 2023 to 2024 annual action plan approving funds for community service and capital projects benefiting low and moderate income persons on june 14th 2023 the board adopted the regional fair housing plan a cooperative effort with seven other jurisdictions led by COG. The plan fulfills HUD requirements

[00:43:44] and aims to increase collaboration, innovation, and effectiveness of strategies to further fair housing throughout the region. Loudon, we are proud to say, was the first jurisdiction to approve the plan, and I'm also happy to report tonight that since June, all seven of the other jurisdictions have also approved the regional fair housing plan. The plan will now go through final copy editing and then will be submitted to HUD.

[00:44:07] Next slide, please. On June 20th, 2023, the board adopted a proclamation recognizing June as Home Ownership Month. During the month of June, DHCD also hosted four webinars for the general public on the following topics. We provided an overview of Loudoun County homebuyer programs, including the ADU Purchase Program and Down Payment and Closing Cost Assistance Programs.

[00:44:29] We provided an overview of Loudoun County's Home Improvement Programs, including the Home Accessibility and Repair Program, Rental Unit Accessibility Modification Program, and the Granting Freedom Program, which benefits veterans. We provided an overview of fire safety and home escape plans in partnership with the Loudoun County Fire Marshal's Office, and we provided an overview of the Virginia Mortgage Relief Program in partnership with Virginia Housing, which operates this state-run program.

[00:44:55] Next slide. Within the plan, annual attainable goals are defined as any housing for sale or rent entering the marketplace each year affordable to households with incomes at or below 100% of the area median income. 100% of AMI for a family of four is currently $152,100 in Loudoun County.

[00:45:17] The plan sets a goal that 20% or approximately 8,200 of forecasted new homes by 2040, as projected based on land use policies in the 2019 comprehensive plan, will be attainable housing. In addition, the plan sets a goal to preserve or create access to 7,800 units for a total of 16,000 attainable units by 2040.

[00:45:43] Attainable housing can be provided directly through county programs, such as the Affordable Dwelling Unit Program, through our Affordable Multifamily Housing Loan Program, or provided indirectly through initiatives such as the Down Payment and Closing Cost Assistance Program or our Rental Subsidy Programs. The chart on this slide shows the county's attainable housing goal for each year through 2040.

[00:46:06] The top line in blue represents the total number of units to be provided for each year, and the bottom line in orange represents the number of new units that will be provided. The delta in between is what we consider access to units. For fiscal year 23, the annual goal was 500 units, of which 350 were to be new units.

[00:46:25] Next slide, please. This slide shows the number of new units added and units added through access for fourth quarter of fiscal year 23, as well as totals for the entirety of the fiscal year. In FY23, 182 access opportunities were provided, and 164 new attainable units were added to the supply. This fiscal year, the county surpassed its annual goal of providing access to units, but did not achieve its annual goal of adding new units. Overall, the county was able to provide 346 of its goal of 500 attainable units.

[00:47:00] In FY23, attainable housing opportunities were provided for programs such as the ADU program, proffered rental unit, proffered rental unmet housing needs units, and through programs that provide access, such as our state rental assistance program, the housing choice voucher program, down payment assistance, and Virginia housing mortgage allocations. More than half of the new units this year were as a result of the opening of Loudon View Senior Apartments, a 98-unit low-income housing tax credit property, which benefited from a $5.2 million loan from

[00:47:34] the county's affordable multifamily housing loan program. Next slide, please. This slide shows a summary of attainable housing goal results for fiscal years 2021, 2022, and 2023. For this three-year period, the county surpassed its goal for access to new units but did not meet goals for new units and total units. It is important to note, however, that FY23 has been the best year for both new units and access to units since approval of the plan, surpassing fiscal years 21 and 22. Next slide, please. This is my favorite slide. This final slide tonight shows some good

[00:48:13] news on the horizon. It provides a summary of county-supported attainable housing projects which are either under construction or in development. You can see that 223 new attainable units are expected to be online by late calendar year 2023, and an additional 310 units are expected to be delivered in 2025 and 2026. The annual application for the Affordable multifamily housing loan program is currently open and responses are due to dhcd by october 2nd as a result of this process it is our expectation that we will have new projects in development to report on this time next year additionally a list of certified developers as you know was approved

[00:48:52] by the board last night as part of the rental housing acquisition and preservation loan program or rhap these certified developers can access county loans through an expedited process should Should the opportunity to purchase existing multifamily developments arise throughout the year with the goal of preserving market affordable housing and rent-restricted housing at risk of conversion to market rates.

[00:49:15] And with that, we are happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you very much. Questions? Supervisor Glass. Thank you, Chair Turner. And thank you for this presentation. This is a lot of good news that we have here. I'd like to know, what is the status of studying what county land could be used to build attainable housing?

[00:49:38] I've had a couple of developers reach out to me about different county parcels, and I wanted to know what's the best process we need for exploring that use. Okay, we are currently working in collaboration with DTCI to develop and design a process.

[00:50:00] The first action item that we are working on is one specific parcel of land where we expect to do a solicitation in the very near future on one tract of publicly owned land where we will solicit to the public best uses for us to achieve our attainable housing goals.

[00:50:21] And once that is underway, we will continue to identify additional publicly owned land to solicit. I also believe that until that process is launched, we will accept unsolicited proposals. That is led by DTCI.

[00:50:39] But if it's housing related, they can send it to us at DHCD and we can coordinate with DTCI on its review. Okay, thank you. Another question that I had, last night we had a new Virginia majority to come in.

[00:50:55] and there were a number of folks that had discussed a rental assistance program that they said that they weren't able to receive the assistance with that.

[00:51:11] Can you explain to me a little bit more about that and what exactly? Mr. Turner, do you mind if I take this question? Sure. Go ahead. Okay, so I just want to take you guys out. So I had a very long conversation today with Ms. Saeed, Sophia Saeed, who's from New Virginia Majority.

[00:51:32] I gave her an update of what's going on. She knows what has to happen next. She knows that right now a meeting cannot happen with staff because of how our bidding process works.

[00:51:48] She and I had that discussion today. So if she's not already sent an e-mail, she will send an e-mail saying that they don't plan on bidding on that, on doing any bidding since she was in the pre-bid meeting for the RFP. So she and I had a long talk today, and if you need me to fill you in more offline, I can fill you in more offline about this session.

[00:52:08] Okay. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. I'm fine. Thanks. Madam Chair. All right. Let me just follow up on something Ms. Glass just asked. So I think there's been some confusion because there is a list of publicly available, of land that is public land.

[00:52:25] But all land that's public land doesn't mean it's available to be purchased to build on. And I know that there were some questions about some public land that we had that wasn't available to be built on. And so there's been some confusion. So I know that there is an effort right now to have one list of what's public land, the land that we own.

[00:52:46] And what's public land that's billable, that's sellable, and that can be billed on? So over there by the Clotmore, that's not part of the public land that will be up and would be available to bill it on. So I think that's the confusion, is that there is a list put out from somewhere of all the land that we owned versus land that we owned that possibly can be used for development, which is not that much land, because we don't land bank, and we haven't land banked in the future.

[00:53:16] So I think that's a little bit of the confusion that's happening. I know what you're talking about, and that's some of the confusion that's happening right now. And I only know that because I've been kind of digging around this issue for a while now. So, okay. I have quite a few questions, Mr. Chairman. On page four, we talk about the ADU closing cost and down payment program.

[00:53:38] You might not have some of these answers right now if you don't, or face for the slides. If you don't, that's fine, but I'd like you to get back with me later with these. When we passed a SIN tax on cigarettes, some of the money from the SIN tax was supposed to be funneled toward housing in general.

[00:53:55] Now, of course, we passed the half penny, but we also passed the SIN tax money. And I don't know where that stands right now. I don't know if that money has been directed to the closing cost and down payment program. I know it wasn't going to be a whole lot. And if a SIN tax works well, that's a tax that's decreasing as time goes on because the goal of that is that we discourage people from buying cigarettes.

[00:54:20] So I'd like to know what the status of that particular tax is. And if you don't know right now, you can just get back to me. My other question, and I'm sure you do know this right now, we talk about what it is when we say we have leveraged this much money.

[00:54:38] What does that mean exactly? When we say we use money to leverage money, can you explain to me that process so I just understand that I see the numbers, I can recite the numbers, but I'm not really with that. So sometimes I'm reciting something, I'm like, what am I reciting exactly? Because I don't really know what the process is.

[00:54:55] Also, on page six, is it possible to put more information into this chart when you explain to me what the chart is, what the blue line meant and what the orange line meant? I got it, but it's not in here as well. Can you just do a little bit more explaining on that?

[00:55:11] And to Ms. Glass's question, what we keep hearing is that even though we're meeting all these numbers, and I know that we are, and truthfully, I got to tell you, I know how hard you all are working. This is such a Herculean effort.

[00:55:26] It's a regional problem. It's a statewide problem. It's a national problem. It's an everywhere problem. And we are doing well more than anyone else is doing. And I know that, and I recognize it, not just by the numbers, but we're going to be cutting ribbons all fall long.

[00:55:43] But I still don't think that the information is hitting every community that needs to hit. And specifically to our communities that might not have English as their first language, they still are not feeling like that they are getting the information or the help.

[00:56:00] Now, it may be because a lot of the units that would be the under 30% AMI, which is the low-income housing, we're not building as many of those as we are some of the ones that are 30 to 60 or 60 to 110.

[00:56:18] And so maybe that's the reason. I'm not sure what the reason is, but I do know from the community themselves that they still don't feel like they're getting any relief. They don't see any slowing on evictions. They don't see any slowing on information or quickening of information that's coming to them.

[00:56:37] It's still the, and this may be an issue for us or a nonprofit, it's still that they are signing leases that they don't quite understand because the leases are in English and they may not read English. And so if a lease says that they can have their rent raised in the middle of their lease year every other month, they're signing that.

[00:56:58] And then when the rent's going up two or three times in a year, they can't cover that cost and they don't know what's happening, although they signed it, so it's legal what's happening, but it's, in my estimation, it's kind of immoral, but it's legal.

[00:57:15] And so having some help with that understanding of how their lease agreements work would be really, really helpful. And then my last question is the question I always ask is when we talk about the homes we have right now, what is the percentage that is for rent versus what is the percentage that is for sale?

[00:57:35] And how do we get more homes for sale that would meet the 35% to 75% AMI out there and get them ready for sale, not just for rent? I know there was a lot, but I do want to wrap it back around to how much I appreciate what you all are doing, and I absolutely recognize it.

[00:57:55] So thank you. Take your time on the answers, and, Chair Randall, if you want to ask other questions, you can. I turned the clock off, so that's a lot of questions to absorb. So if you've got to circle back and ask what that question was, feel free. Thank you. I tried to take copious notes, so I think I have them all.

[00:58:12] And responding in order. The first question was about the local tax fund dollars, cigarette tax. I believe that amount is $2.2 million that we have. It's still available to be spent, but I have been working with our budget office.

[00:58:30] We are working on a pilot initiative for adaptive reuse. and I am looking to earmark or recommend to earmark those funds that can be used in that manner. The program for adaptive reuse for the purpose of purchase?

[00:58:48] For the purpose of development. So it would take an old school. Yeah, but after development, for purchase or for rent? For rent. For rent still. Okay, thank you. The second item was what do we mean when we say leverage dollars?

[00:59:04] I'll try to give an example. we usually look at and ask developers or applicants what the total project cost is when we receive a proposal. So let's say for the sake of an example, total project cost with everything included, development, acquisition, development, soft cost, higher cost, closing fees, everything.

[00:59:25] Let's say it's a hundred million dollars for a round number. We generally liked when we underwrite, We don't like to expend of county funds more than 40%. This has been my underwriting principle toward a project. So that would be no more than $40 million toward $100 million total project costs.

[00:59:45] That means the difference of $60 million is being leveraged by other sources. So in essence, our $40 million is getting us an additional $60 million, which is 100% more than what we are investing. So when we say leverage, we usually, at least I usually speak in those terms, how are we making our dollar, what's our rate of return on our dollar that we're investing?

[01:00:08] Can you explain, so this is one of these moments where I totally understand the words you just said to me, but can you explain how we leverage the money, how we leverage our 40 percent? I understand, I understand what we're, but how does that happen? I don't, I'm sorry, I don't get it still.

[01:00:25] Okay, we usually have a sources and uses column. So we're looking at how does an applicant propose to use our funds. It depends on our funding source. So we have various funding sources with various restrictions. If we're talking federal dollars like CDBG could be limited maybe just to acquisition.

[01:00:44] Maybe we would use some of the local tax funds for actual hard cost development. But we usually aggregate the numbers. We don't usually split them out to say, you know, acquisition or development or soft costs. When we talk leverage, we usually think of it in what's the total development cost and how much did we spend and what was our rate of return for each dollar that we invested.

[01:01:07] So we usually want to try to get at least a one-to-one match, so 40, and if the total project cost was 80, we would have a one-to-one. But in this example, if it was 40 out of 60, we're getting more than that. So basically you're just saying we have a partner.

[01:01:23] Or partners, plural. Or partners who are coming in with their… To mitigate our risk, yes. Gotcha. Okay, thank you. Okay. The next question you had was on page six of the PowerPoint, and I'm going to ask if we can look at page seven because page seven gives the actual data to the graph that's on page six.

[01:01:51] And if we start at the bottom, total of the fourth quarter and the total of the fiscal year, those are, I'll use the total of the fiscal year, 23. the fiscal year 23 goal for 500, and for new was 350, and for access was 150.

[01:02:12] So the line above that gives you what we actually produced in fiscal year 23. So we had 346 units out of 500 that was our goal, and it's broken out. 164 were new and 182 had access or any type of rental assistance, down payment closing costs.

[01:02:33] But that's probably, for me, that's the way I look at the graph, and then I'm like, hard data is right there. Okay. John, can I, Mr. Hall, can I add, Brian, can you go back to that chart? So just to add to what Mr. Hall said, too. So this chart, it just shows for the entire period that the Unmet Housing Needs Strategic Plan covers our goals.

[01:02:55] So the, you know, and which of those, so it shows total units, and then which of those are new units. And, you know, I can make an offer that if it would be helpful, we can add that detail to show kind of where we've achieved over the last several years. Well, that would be because, so I get the new units, but when we talk about total units, are we saying like places that were going to go, you know, like the apartment complex in Sterling that had all the accessible rental units, but they were going to go off the market and become market price,

[01:03:33] and we kind of stepped in and did something so that they stayed rental units. Is that what you mean by, I mean? That's one category, but it also means maybe a unit is receiving rental assistance, whether the state rental assistance program or on a home ownership side, what if on our ADUs that we have given down payment closing costs assistance to help a family purchase a home, that is also being counted.

[01:04:01] Okay. Interesting. All right. I get that. I get that. Yeah. And then the big question is rentals to home ownership and how often are we helping people purchase a home? How robust is our down payment closing cost program?

[01:04:20] We are working to expand our down payment closing cost assistance program. I will defer to Mr. Regan to talk about what the current program is And he can talk about our efforts to expand. So the current households between the down payment and closing cost assistance program and the public employees grant program, which kind of work in tandem with one another, we have seen about 10 in the last year.

[01:04:45] Yes, ma'am. We also have what's called the SPARK program, which is a partnership that the county has through Virginia Housing. And that provides a percentage decrease in the interest rate of eligible loans, which we have seen tremendous success with.

[01:05:01] So for this fiscal year, the county has been allotted $6.5 million, and I think around $2 million of that has already been expended. And that's just to help them. That's not closing cost and down payment. That's to decrease their interest rates. Correct, by one percentage point. So it doesn't sound like we have a very robust closing cost down payment program.

[01:05:21] is it something we can i mean what how do we get there we have more funds available for that for that program currently we are in the process of finalizing the program design for a down payment program for households that earn between 70 and 100 percent of the area median income because the current requirements are between 30 and 70 percent of the area median income to so increasing that to households above what would typically qualify for the ADU program.

[01:05:49] Why? I'll answer that one because that was pretty much my recommendation to help our working class so that for the 70% to 100% of AMI is where we would see most of the salaries hitting with our teachers, our first responders, things of that nature.

[01:06:12] And I thought that would give us a spark or at least an increase of demand. for our program. That's a good answer. And then the second part to that is we do have a housing specialist who started, you know, when I did, the same day I did, who has been building relationships with the lenders and promoting our program availability.

[01:06:32] And so we are expecting that will bear some fruit of production here in the near future. And we will continue to do marketing and outreach. Can I ask one more question, Mr. Chairman? Why wouldn't it be um how how was the decision made for the for the i i i call it syntax i know that's probably not the right word but that's what that's you know why would why was the decision made to do the two the whole 2.2 to adaptive reuse especially given the i don't know the confusing definition of what adaptive reuse is in our zoning ordinance why could some of that not go to a closing cost

[01:07:11] down payment program wouldn't that be a a maybe not better but quicker use of that money so the entire amount has has not been well no amount has been earmarked well where the numbers are today that we we're projecting would land somewhere between 1.5 and 2 million so i just basically said okay that this is that but we do have additional resources that we're working for that are earmarked um or on my paper earmarked for down payment closing cost assistance so we have about an additional $450,000 that comes from the Belmont Trust that we need to work into this

[01:07:50] program. And that's part of the work that the staff is working to roll out here in the near future. So we are, there's some money that just hasn't been put there yet that is earmarked for closing cost down payment program. Because, and I've said this before, if you are an apartment in an apartment in Loudoun County, your apartment's not a whole lot less than a mortgage would be because apartments are not inexpensive in Loudoun County.

[01:08:14] It's not that you're getting for a reasonable mortgage and an attainable unit, so they cannot gather enough money to get their closing cost and down payment money together to purchase a home. And so the more we can get money in that fund and then really advertise it and push that money out, the faster we can maybe get people into home ownership and not just home rentals.

[01:08:36] And I know it feels the same way for you all. It just hurts my soul when people come in and say, I have been renting for 24 years. I mean, that should just, that should never happen, right? Unless they want to, that should never happen. So thank you. Absolutely. And I appreciate all y'all's work so much.

[01:08:52] I have one more question that you had. Okay. The fourth one was just information needed to hit communities. Yeah. And so we are rounding out our staffing. hillock was our community development specialist and we just hired a replacement last week who is a native spanish speaker so i am anticipating we will have more materials in spanish and more outreach that are targeted to limited english proficiency of populations in the county and then we also have a fair housing coordinator and they will be working in tandem to address

[01:09:32] issues of fair housing especially as it pertains to learning uh how to read lease agreements um part of what we're hoping will accomplish with a couple of the um procurements that we're doing is to identify a a company or a non-profit that does housing counseling that would like to expand and do business in louden because we do not currently have a hud approved housing counseling agency and with our current um request for proposal that is open to the public with the american rescue plan act dollars we're hoping we'll we'll get some responses that will will be

[01:10:09] from housing counseling agencies uh to help uh perform the actual housing counseling that is needed in our office on a daily basis we receive uh residents who are in you know dire need of resource in addition to resources guidance yes and we're not positioned to provide that guidance we we merely oversee programs and provide gap financing but we want to be of ultimate service and so that is one of the things we're looking to to and hoping that we'll have some favorable respondents that we can award some funding to help the residents who need it yeah yeah those

[01:10:46] are good answers they are um i mean i realize this is this is if you know if you're if you're looking for a home if you're being priced out of your apartment if you're being evicted it's um it's just you know we all wish the process can move faster because if you're if you're in a housing emergency but um overall these are good answers and and we have staffed up and and post up this department and you all this department in a very short amount of time so i i do appreciate all the work you're doing thank you thank you mr chairman i thank you very much I just want to echo the chair's comments.

[01:11:24] I think you guys are doing a terrific job. I'm very, very pleased with how the housing department is doing. So I have a couple of questions briefly. What's the housing trust fund balance right now? Do you know? The housing trust fund balance, the last report I received, I believe it's $31 million.

[01:11:45] Okay. What can we use the housing trust fund for? Is it just for matching money for the LIDIC program and that sort of thing? Or can we pull money out of there for adaptive reuse or down payment and closing cost assistance?

[01:12:05] What's the functional restrictions on the housing trust fund? Your question is timely because that's the very question I have out to our budget team. We're going to research the actual resolution or whatever the parameters were for that. I have been working as if the fund is limited to the low-income housing tax credit dollars, so only basically one project a year.

[01:12:29] but they were going to provide that documentation so we wouldn't know one way or the other. Okay, that's an interesting answer because that was my impression as well. So the half penny to the tax rate that we're doing every year goes straight into the Housing Trust Fund? Yes and no.

[01:12:46] I would say it's above or below the line. That is eligible for us to identify projects, to leverage. Do we have a name for that pot of money? I think budget does, and it confuses me. So I just usually call it local tax fund.

[01:13:02] Yeah, that's exactly my impression, is that we have the housing trust fund. It has a balance, but it's restricted just to light projects. And then there's this sort of fuzzy pot of other housing money floating around out there that's kind of unspecified, and I'm not sure what those uses are for.

[01:13:20] I would really like to see us solidify that other pot of money and get the board clear that that other pot of money exists And it has a whole lot more flexibility in it because I think that's the heart of the down payment and closing cost assistance source of funding going forward, which leads me to my next question.

[01:13:39] Mr. Chairman, I just want to respond to your question. And so the housing trust fund, as it was set up, is restricted in the uses that it can go towards. And I will defer to Mr. Hall and his team to come back and provide a more complete response as to what those specific programs that the housing trust fund funds can be allocated towards.

[01:14:04] The half penny that the board has allocated is set up to go to housing programs. And so there is a number of different programs that the Department of Housing and Community Development have set up, and so they are responsible for allocating that half penny on an annual basis to the various programs, which are identified and are part of the Unmet Housing Needs strategic plan.

[01:14:31] So we do allocate that annually to the different programs depending on the need. And so I don't know, Mr. Hall, if you want to talk about those programs off the fly or if you want to come back with something else.

[01:14:48] But as part of the budget process, we do share that with the board as well as the regular updates that we have like the one tonight. Yeah, and to follow up with that. I just want to make sure it's not fuzzy. It is defined as to where the money goes. Understand. When I say fuzzy, it's a fuzzy phrase. The board, Mike Turner on the board, I knew there was a housing trust fund, but I thought it was restricted. I knew there was other housing money out there, but I didn't know where it was going. Your answer that's going to various programs is fine. It would be nice during this update if I can see that other pot and where it's going within that other pot, because at least in my very next

[01:15:26] point, which is, as I look at the data, particularly I'm on the full year results here. I'm still in my pen. How do I get my pen turned off? Page eight of nine. So we're at 370.

[01:15:43] After three years, we're at 370. And this is why when I asked to have this glide slope, this 20-year glide slope in the unmet housing deeds plan when the draft came out, this is why. Because it lets us focus in on how we're doing and what we're doing right and what we're not doing so well on. So 373 out of 900 out of three years tells me we're not going to get there from here.

[01:16:02] We are not going to get there on new housing development. We're not going to meet those goals. So we need to change something. I'm not sure what it is, which leads me to my second question, anybody in the room who can clarify this. My understanding is the zoning ordinance rewrite changes the Chapter 9 requirements so that a single-family detached and single-family attached new development must provide 10% ADUs, 15% ADUs.

[01:16:28] And multifamily stacked and multifamily attached have to provide 15% ADUs. Do I have that correct? So multifamily would go from 6.25% to 10%, and the single-family attached and detached would increase from 12.5% to 15%.

[01:16:45] Correct. So I have that correct. Okay. So what I hear the development community pushing back and saying, oh, it's 20%. Well, it's 20% aggregate increase over the 20-year period that the plan envisions, and that's because we get applications that have over those 10 and 15 percent limits and they offer more affordable houses a lydic project can often throw 70 80 90 affordable units in one project which is way over the 10 or 15 percent so that's where that 20 percent comes from so when i hear a developer push back and say oh no no we got to do 20 i'm thinking to myself and now this confirms

[01:17:21] it. We're not asking you to add 20% of loss leaders to your pro forma. We're saying in the aggregate over 20 years, we're going to need to make create 20% of that total as affordable housing for new development. It's 10 and 15% going up. And the reason I'm bringing this up is I don't think those pro formas for those developers can withstand more than the 10 or 15% bogey that benchmark that we put into the zoning ordinance rewrite. And we're not making it at six and a quarter and 12 and a half over the last three years. If we're sitting here at 41.4% of new

[01:17:58] housing, we're not making it. So we got to figure out something better because I don't think we can lean any heavier on the development community for new units. We've got to come up with a better answer. The second one is the reason I like these goals is because it clearly tells me that our accessibility efforts are very successful. We're at 127% over three years. That's great. And if I'm sitting here as a layman looking at these numbers, I'm thinking, let's take whatever resources we have and funnel them down into those programs, because those programs are working great, which leads me to the, I agree with Chair Randall, let's get some more money into down payment and closing cost

[01:18:35] assistance, and all of our other access programs, because I think that's really good. We had a great meeting today with a potential deal that would create an entire community of affordable by design. I'm a big proponent of accessory dwelling units, though that raises parking issues. But I think we have tons of potential in this community on accessory dwelling units. And I think if we created accessory dwelling units, a robust program, that I think would add to that new unit number, I think, because those are actually, we're creating new units on the market that didn't exist before with an accessory dwelling unit, rather than getting people into existing units.

[01:19:15] So that's just an observation that I think is important. And then the last point I wanted to make, it's really not a question, is I absolutely understand, last night's meeting, I absolutely understand the frustration of people that see rental assistance there and can't get their hands on rental assistance. But I want to reiterate the fact that that doesn't solve the problem.

[01:19:36] giving people money for rental assistance doesn't change the paradigm it simply punts the ball down the field at some point we're going to run out of that assistance money and now we're going to have rental assistance problems again so at some point we need to figure out a way to get people that need rental assistance into a situation where they don't need the rental assistance either they have access to rental housing they can afford they have access to down payment closing cost assistance so they can buy affordable by design homes. As urgent, and I totally support the rental assistance

[01:20:10] programs, as urgent it is, we need to be realistic and understand. At some point, that cannot be the answer. That is an urgent, needed solution. I used to work at Mental Health America. We had an entire annual conference, and the theme was housing first. Get people in houses, and then we can solve their other problems. So that's really important. But I really want to stay focused in this plan on the long-term solution to the problem so that ideally nobody has problems getting into a home here in Loudoun County. I'm talking a lot tonight. I apologize. Any response, staff at all? And none

[01:20:45] is fine. No, I will follow up with you on the half cent sales tax, but I did with the listing of the activities and programs we funded, but I did want to highlight one of them that we have earmarked funds for, and that's our rental housing and acquisition preservation. So five million of those funds have been allocated. We just did not have a project that come to fruition last calendar year. And then with the 13 certified developers that was just approved last night, we're hoping we'll have more of those developers with shovel-ready projects where we can actually

[01:21:21] increase rooftops in a relatively short time span. Okay, great. And then one last thing I just remember. Go ahead, Brian. I was just going to clarify, Chair Turner, that for the housing trust, the initial rationale for that trust was for depositing ADU funds from when they sell at market.

[01:21:39] The half of the equity goes into that trust. So the beneficiaries of that trust have to earn between 30% and 70% of the area median income as opposed to somebody above those AMI. Okay, great. Thank you. And then on the chart, the page six of nine on the chart that shows the goal for new housing and the goal for total housing, If you just added a light orange line to show how we've come for the three years thus far, and a light blue line to show how we've come for the three years thus far, that'll give us a snapshot immediately shows where we should be and where we are against both charts.

[01:22:12] That's just a suggestion. Although you took my red, yellow, green light suggesting months ago, and that worked out pretty well. Noted. Happy to provide that detail. Yep. Anything else from staff? Yeah. Madam Chair. I have just one more thing. I'm sorry. so uh if you've been watching the zoning meetings over the past weeks i there have been a lot of discussions about what does adaptive reuse mean what how are we getting to that so i've i've received a couple of different well i received one explanation what adaptive reuse is which is different than the explanation in the in the definitions of our zoning manual the way i hear

[01:22:49] you all using the word adaptive reuse is the way i think about it it's kind of um you know taking a a building or an area and and reusing it or doing something different to it and so that it can be used for housing are you are you are you sticking closely to the definition that is in our books because the definition in our books in our books is repurposing of an existing structure just structure not a not like a whole strip mall say but structure to accommodate new uses while preserving the structure this often involves improving existing structures to allow for

[01:23:26] modern design and programming them for the new use, which is not the same as like the historic definition, which almost requires that you keep the same facade and that type of thing. How are you all using the term adaptive reuse? Because it sounds like you're using it how I'm using it, but I don't know if you're using it as closely tied to the definition as I've heard in planning and zoning staff. Yes, the way that we're using it is the way that you just read it the definition. We are hammering out our formal, you know, program and policy. So we'll make sure

[01:24:01] we cite that specifically. And so we're all understanding the same scope. But for me, the working definition is an existing structure, most likely not currently used or previously used for housing, but to try to adapt its original purpose so that it fits what our current needs are in the community, which is housing. And we specifically mean, and I know I'm being very nitpicky here, but I just want to make sure I have that right. We specifically mean a structure

[01:24:34] and not a, again, let's say a series of old office buildings or a strip mall. We mean a standalone, I'm trying to understand all the different definitions I hear versus what I kind of have in my head so could we under your definition do an adaptive reuse of a strip mall or or could we just do an adaptive reuse of a building in that strip mall from the research and the samples that that i've been studying i think it could be any of any of those but the key is it has to be an

[01:25:12] existing structure underutilized structure that we're trying to repurpose structure that is so just improve improve property just something on it not vacant land okay yeah so then you I tell then you and I are using okay then that yeah that's fine and that's how that's actually how I see it but when the word structure to me means a building it doesn't mean like a strip mall so that's why I'm just I'm just really trying to understand this this definition and the words of this definition because I think that this is so key to us trying to get to some of our housing

[01:25:47] goals yes and i i would i'm just thinking of some of the articles i've read recently where across the country a lot of cities are are going use an adaptive reuse to target vacant um office buildings because workers are working remotely to turn those all into residential so it but it doesn't have to be historic in the way that you're using it okay yeah an historic structure okay all right yep then yeah we're on the same page thank you very much thank you mr chairman any other questions from the committee. Yeah. I actually have one. Chair Turner, when you were talking about

[01:26:22] accessory dwelling unit, could I get like a definition? What does that look like? Well, for me, a perfect example is you own a townhome. The basement is unused and has an exterior entrance. You could easily rent that room out for five, six, $700 a month to a single person, a server in a restaurant and but there are certain as i understand it staff correct me if i'm wrong to do that would require certain kinds of permits and approvals from county staff to be able to do that um what los angeles did was instituted a program where they focused on all of those

[01:27:00] opportunities and i can't remember the time frame it was some outrageous short period of time a year or two they created 400 000 new units and they created templates for accessory dwellings so that when you went into the permitting process you could go into and say i'll do template one two or three and it was automatically fast-tracked and streamlined through the permitting process so everybody knew what you were going to do and you're committed to build it along those lines and and and create that accessory dwelling unit it has enormous potential because how many townhouses do we have with empty basements and exterior entrances right now the problem is historically

[01:27:38] we have under parked our townhouse communities so now you suddenly add an additional 150 units in a townhouse community how are you going to park them i don't know the answer to that question but let's let's tackle that but i think there's enormous potential in accessory dwelling units yeah chair turner yeah may i expand on your response please so an accessory structure could also be an individual who owns a parcel of land that has their primary dwelling on it but is also

[01:28:09] large enough that a secondary smaller dwelling could also be placed on that parcel. So you have the primary and then the accessory. So that's also, whereas your example was within the primary, a space within the primary structure, it could also be a separate detached accessory dwelling.

[01:28:38] And so far the conversation is sort of framed around we've either got to create more places to live or we've got to make it easier for people to get into the places that have already been created for us to live. What an accessory dwelling unit concept does is says, let's look at our land and let's create more places to live without necessarily having to build more places.

[01:29:01] Now, in that case, you clearly would build a place unless you had a garage sitting there. It was unused as a garage. you could outfit it and turn it into two or three apartments. That's a perfect, you haven't added any building. That's almost adaptive reuse. I just think there's a lot of opportunities that we could add to the stock.

[01:29:20] The garage is another perfect example. You could have the garage where you park your vehicles, but you could have a loft above where that would be accessory. Sure. And again, it goes back to the goals. We're not going to get there with new units. We're doing really well on access.

[01:29:37] there's some opportunity there. So that's all. Anything else from the team? That was wonderful. I appreciate the brief and the info. Not at this time. We'll follow up with the additional questions and data that you requested. Very good. Anything from the committee? I think we are done.

[01:29:54] Thank you all very much. We are adjourned. Melt burgers and wait.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Coraggio Consulting · aguyonx.com