Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, Business Meeting, Tuesday, April 16, 2024

Date: Tuesday, April 16, 2024
Place: Board Room, First Floor, Government Center, 1 Harrison Street SE, Leesburg, Virginia
Length: 6h 57m (video)
Official meeting video (county, Granicus): https://loudoun.granicus.com/player/clip/7653
Agenda (Granicus): https://loudoun.granicus.com/AgendaViewer.php?view_id=73&clip_id=7653

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 2026-10-19. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:01:15] We're going to call the meeting to order. What do I do? We're going to hit the gavel and say we're going to call this meeting to order. Okay. We're going to call this meeting to order. This is on. We're going to call this meeting to order.

[00:01:41] Well, good evening, supervisors. Good evening, student supervisors. Good evening, staff. And good evening, Loudon. So the day is my favorite day of the year. It is Youth and Government Day. And we have students from all over the county.

[00:01:56] and I think even a couple from Fairfax County joining us this evening. What we're going to do first before we do anything else is have our student supervisors introduce themselves, tell their age and where they are from, what school they go to, and then we will go from there.

[00:02:12] We're going to start down here all the way to my right. I'm Elise Chang, and I'm from Heritage High School. How old are you? How old are you? Turn your light back on. I'm 60. There you go.

[00:02:31] I'm Sujay. i'm from rockbridge high school and i'm 16 i'm amelia lee i'm from freedom high school and i'm 17 i'm taylor grand i'm from woodgrove and i'm 18 i'm charles brumskin i go to potomac falls and i'm 16 i'm shivani sukumar i'm 17 and i'm from freedom high school i'm pearson lee i

[00:03:06] go to london county high school and i'm 16 i'm sonya yamin i go to broad run high school and i'm 15. I'm Nikki Shaw. I go to Briarwoods High School and I'm 16. I'm Monica Goswami. I go to Potomac Falls and I'm 15. I'm Arushi Raghavindra. I'm 16. I go to John Champ High School. My name is Hema Ravi. I'm 16 and I go to Paul VI High School. Paul VI? Well, welcome. Welcome to all our student supervisors. We love having you here. Student Chair, you are going to read us into the

[00:03:44] meeting, please. I would like to call to order the April 16th, 2024 Loudoun County Board of Supervisors business 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.

[00:04:03] Please see the clerk to request one. Thank you. Okay, pursuant to Virginia Code Sections 2.2-3708-3 and the Board of Supervisors rules of order. Supervisor Kirshner requests to participate in this meeting by electronic communications. A physical quorum of the board is present in the boardroom and the board has made arrangements for the voice of Supervisor Kirshner to be heard by all persons in the boardroom. Supervisor Kirshner made this request within the required time frame and county attorneys determined Supervisor Kirshner's request meets the qualifications to participate remotely. The board will record in its minutes that Supervisor Kirshner participated

[00:04:41] remotely from a private location in San Carlos, Mexico, for personal reasons. Supervisor Christian, can you hear us? I can, Madam Chair. Can you hear me? I can hear you just fine. What time is it there? It is 4, it's 1.04.

[00:04:59] It's 1.04. Okay. We love having you here. Thank you. Supervisor Turner, I do believe your student supervisor is going to have words of inspiration and listen to the Pledge of Allegiance. The words of wisdom today are only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile, and that's from Albert Einstein.

[00:05:25] Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. 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.

[00:05:47] Before the meeting, I warned the student chair that they are probably going to be the most busy person up here today even more busy than me because they're going to do all the work so if you don't mind please reading the consent agenda which starts right there the proposed consent agenda is as follows item r1 proclamation to recognize april 2024 as fair housing month approval and presentation item r2 proclamation to recognize april 2024 as national child abuse prevention

[00:06:20] Month. Approval and presentation. Item R3. Proclamation to recognize April 2024 as National SNEX Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month. Approval and presentation. Item R4. Resolution to recognize Small Business Week 2024. Approval and presentation. Item R5. Proclamation to recognize April 2022, 2024 as Earth Day. Approval only. Item R6. Resolution to recognize northern virginia family service 100th anniversary approval and presentation item 1a appointments and

[00:06:56] confirmations item 2 administrative items report of april 16th 2024 item 8a contract awards and architectural and engineering services for the renovation of the existing courthouse facility item 8b contract renewal and intersection improvement design services item 8c contract renewal slash day support and employment services item 8e fiscal year 2023 laden county community services board annual report item 8f resolution authorizing the issuance of appropriation backed

[00:07:31] bonds through the economic development authority of laden county virginia item 8g resolution authorizing the issuance and sale of general obligation public improvement and refunding bonds item 8h phillomont fire and rescue station alternate locations item ai licensing exemption from parks recreation and community services school-aged after school and camp programs and item 9a transit strategic plan and commuter assistance program strategic plan approvals that was absolutely amazing supervisors i'm going to make the motion to approve the carcinogen there's there a second there's a second by miss brixman discussion on the motions

[00:08:12] Ms. Bricksman. Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to thank my colleagues for supporting the Earth Day proclamation, and that will be presented at Claude Moore on Saturday when there will be some Earth Day festivities happening.

[00:08:27] I believe it's going to be presented around 11. We did put it on the FOIA calendar, so if anyone else would like to join me to present it, please join us. Thank you. Supervisor Kirshner. I'm sorry, I forgot to ask him. Ms. Kirshner, do you have any questions on the consent agenda? No, Madam Chair.

[00:08:42] All right, thank you. Supervisor Briggsman, so on Saturday at Claude Moore, we're going to be standing on pavement? Absolutely not, Chair Randall. As a matter of fact, if you want to come as a board member, you have to do a hike with me before.

[00:08:58] Yeah, well, you guys enjoy yourselves. All right, motion made by me, seconded by Supervisor Briggsman. All the people who say aye? Aye. Any opposed? That motion will pass 9-0. Supervisor, are there any additions and deletions tonight for the agenda?

[00:09:17] All right. Hearing none, I am sorry. I should have got this out before, but I thought I did get it out before. My board comments. Oh, they're over here. All right. My chair's comments today. A couple of things, everyone.

[00:09:33] So last Thursday, my office hosted a summit for the needs of people who have differing abilities, who age out of the system, and they age out of the system at age 22.

[00:09:51] What was discussed in some detail and with some passion was that these families do not believe that there are enough programs for their young adults, now young adults. These are people who probably cannot work, and so their different abilities are so severe that they can't do their activities of daily living.

[00:10:13] Sometimes they cannot feed themselves, cannot clean themselves, things like that, and they are, for the most part, fully dependent. And what came through loud and clear is that although we do have programs, we don't have enough programs for these families. And so just to give you a heads up, supervisors, I'm going to bring this whole discussion to our strategic retreat and have this as one of our strategic retreat items to find out what's available.

[00:10:42] not available where nonprofits come in where they don't i mean how how is our money we've done more money with echo but echo doesn't always do as many um beds for clients who cannot work and so i will be bringing this item to the um strategic retreat so please expect that um mvta meeting mvta has finally moved we are now in our move our new building we had our first meeting in the new building. We approved the local distribution fund of 30%, as well as the new regional revenue fund.

[00:11:14] We had the Speaker of the House appoint the two new members who would be on NVTA. They are Kerry Delaney and Luke Torian. Kerry Delaney is out of Fairfax. Luke Torian is out of mostly Prince William County. I don't know if he covers. Mr. Sands, do you know if Mr. Torian covers anything but Prince William County? Does he go into Stafford at all?

[00:11:39] I don't know. I hope he doesn't, because I don't know that the staff is actually considered in the Northern Virginia jurisdiction, but it's leucatorian. And also discussed was the Metro funding issue that this board has talked about, what the governor did or didn't do with Metro funding.

[00:12:01] NVTA has written a letter to General Assembly members, all of our General Assembly members. The letter very much mirrors the letter that the other regional bodies have put forward. In addition, the chief elected officials of Loudoun County, Alexandria, Arlington, and Fairfax wrote a letter as well.

[00:12:20] And we have signed that and it's been sent down to our general assembly members. I do know that there have been calls from general assembly members that have asked supervisors and chairs of boards to explain the Metro funding to them, which is okay.

[00:12:38] I mean, they need to understand it, but those calls are taking place, and so when they go back into the veto session tomorrow, they can actually have more depth of what they are fighting for and arguing for.

[00:12:54] And finally, supervisors, without objection, my stay at the county will be held on May 22nd here in this boardroom. That is normally a date of our full BOS meeting. The full BOS meeting will be moved to May 23rd. Supervisor Turner, you and I will need to discuss when the TLUC meeting for that would be.

[00:13:14] I'm sorry? I know, but you know the date yet? Well, I can't... Okay, well, okay, so we'll find the date, make sure the staff has the date. So, wonderful. Those are all my chair comments.

[00:13:31] My student supervisor, Amelia Lee, who is from South Writing, We'll now introduce my voice for a cause. The voice for a cause is the MLK Diversity Engagement Foundation.

[00:13:47] Their mission and vision states that the MLK Diversity Engagement Foundation is dedicated to the dream of achieving racial equality and harmony in our community and nation by promoting and disseminating the philosophy and principles of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

[00:14:04] The foundation provides community programs, aid to foundations, student scholarship, helps others and works with youth and adults on panels, and community service needs. Our attendees include Tammy Carter, and will you please introduce everyone else?

[00:14:22] Okay, we have Rizwan Jaka, Roy Myatt, Alvin Dotson, Sidney Wiggins Jr. , I mean the third, Janet Wiggins, Wendy Mitten, Mary Randolph, Peter Dunning, Valerie Austin, and Lena Hickman-Myatt.

[00:14:46] And I am Tammy Carter, chair. Thank you. And I have some questions for you. What sorts of community services and programs does the MLK Diversity Engagement Foundation offer in Loudoun? Our mission is to, excuse me, encompass a range of initiatives aimed for supporting our community, including providing scholarships to high school seniors who are demonstrating outstanding leadership and service, offering various programs and services for children, youth, and organizational panels

[00:15:21] that facilitate the intergenerational and educational dialogue. One of our key focuses is promoting literacy among K through third grade students, amplifying by our initiative to offer scholarships to Douglas preschoolers in need.

[00:15:40] Thank you. And how does the MLK Diversity Engagement Foundation work to spread Dr. King's message throughout the year, even after and beyond the annual MLK Day March and Celebration. Beyond the scholarship program, we actively engage in community outreach, activities such as canned goods, clothing drive, school supplies, educational training sessions for parents and children.

[00:16:07] Our goal is to create a collaborative and respectful society where everyone can actively participate and contribute. And how can people get involved and find out more about the MLK Diversity Engagement Foundation? For more information about upcoming activities and how you can get involved, please visit our website at mlkleesburg.org.

[00:16:31] Together, let's continue to build our community, embrace unity, understanding, and have a positive change. Thank you so much. Student Supervisor Monica Goswami, I'm going to ask you, will you take the next item?

[00:16:57] Mr. Hemstreet, do you have any comments this evening? Thank you, Madam Chair. I have four comments this afternoon. First, the Loudoun County Public Library's annual food drive begins this Saturday, April 20th.

[00:17:14] Donations of unopened, unexpired, nonperishable food items can be dropped off at any of the library branches from April 20th through April 28th. Donations will be distributed by Loudon Hunger Relief. During last year's food drive, the community donated over 6,000 pounds of food.

[00:17:34] More information about the food drive is online at library.loudon.gov. Second, Loudon County is offering new professional development opportunities for nonprofit organizations in May and June. These trainings include an introductory session about grants open to all nonprofits.

[00:17:53] There will also be a specialized series of trainings open to a maximum of five organizations. Details are online at loudon.gov slash grant training. Third, the Loudon County Treasurer's Office reminds taxpayers that personal property taxes are due May 6th.

[00:18:12] The county offers several convenient payment methods, including online and by phone. More information can be found at loudon.gov slash paytaxes. Finally, the wheels are in motion for Bikes to Work Day on Friday, May 17th.

[00:18:32] Bicycle riders of all abilities are encouraged to participate. Loudon County will again host pit stops this year in Leesburg and Sterling. Details, including a link to register for free t-shirt, can be found at loudon.gov slash bike to work.

[00:18:48] Those are all my comments, Madam Chair. Student Supervisor, well, Swami, can you ask Supervisor, Bricksman Supervisor Turner, do they plan on doing back to work for the rest of us that day?

[00:19:08] Plan on doing that for the rest of us. Absolutely, Madam Chair. Sterling, rest stop is where I'll start.

[00:19:25] And Madam Chair, I think I picked up conflict for that day. So if I am town, I absolutely commit to doing it, but I think I'm out of town. Okay, so if you can't do what Mr. Letourneau is doing it for you? I haven't talked to Mr. Lucia, but I'm certainly sure he'd be happy to. Not if you want me to actually get to work.

[00:19:46] All right, Team Supervisor Monica, next issue, please. Next item. Will staff please come to the table?

[00:20:06] For what? For the information item. For what? Which information item? Youth and Government Day. There you go. There you go. Good evening, Mr. Torpy.

[00:20:30] Supervisors and student supervisors, Youth and Government Day, I-1 and I-2. I-1 is in your package, and then the next one will be I-2. It's in your package as well. Good afternoon, Chair Randall and board members. On behalf of the PRCS staff, I would like to thank you all for the opportunity once again to provide the Youth in Government program here in Loudoun County and like to quickly provide an overview of what was done throughout the day.

[00:20:59] We had 40 students from all over the county. Every high school was represented and represented in every district as well. We started first thing this morning with an introductory time going over what the day was going to have and laid out the calendar and agenda for the students.

[00:21:18] And then we had a great welcome from Supervisor Sayings where he shared some advice and what he had learned on the importance of being involved in your community at whatever level. Also, he talked about the importance of voting and the importance of doing your own research to form your own opinion.

[00:21:37] The discussion then turned to technology and data centers, and he had us laughing with some memories of things called CDs and rotary telephones, so it was a good time, and that was followed up by a welcome by you, Chair Randall, which everyone enjoyed and very much appreciated.

[00:21:55] We then broke the students into various roles for the mock board meeting that occurred this afternoon and they did their preparation leading up to that board item, which was a redoing of the Arcola School affordable housing project that was before you most recently.

[00:22:14] We had students participating as each one of you, as a board member on the dais, as well as Mr. Hemstreet and Mr. Rogers. We had students that participated at the staff level presenting the item, and then we had students that also were the applicant.

[00:22:32] Then the remaining students participated as public speakers, and they brought forth very pertinent arguments on both sides of the project, And those discussions were very thoughtful and at times quite entertaining.

[00:22:49] But I do feel that the students got a small glimpse into what goes into making a decision to make Loudoun County community better and what staff and you all as board members face each and every day.

[00:23:06] That was followed this afternoon by a great activity, a planning activity provided by Morbin Park. We greatly appreciate that. And that brought us to this evening where after a couple of items, you all will be able to continue your discussions with these students at the dinner break. Some of you were able to share time with them at lunch today.

[00:23:25] I would be remiss if I did not thank the staff for all of the hard work that goes into this day, especially Christina Haig for her leadership in making this day as successful as it was. Samantha Wall and others with Parks and Recreation, as well as Amanda Logan from County Administration, all put a great deal of effort into this.

[00:23:47] And finally, I would like to recognize Courtney Aylward and Stu Yonkin, who have been a part of Youth in Government Day on our staff for many, many, many years. Stuart is retiring and Courtney is moving, so this is their last year participating with this event.

[00:24:03] and they have played a significant role in making it successful as it is. So with that, I give it back to you, Chair Randall, and would be happy to answer any questions, or we can go into I-2. So supervisors, obviously our student supervisors, knows what happened today, and Mr. Torby just really gave an update.

[00:24:25] I would really rather try to spend more time on our item I-2 because that's actually bigger. So I'm going to have the student chair introduce item I-2 for us, and then we're going to go into that, get that report, and then the student chair will call on everybody else in the day as if they have questions.

[00:24:48] Item I-2, Advisory Commission on Youth Report, State of Youth of Loudoun County 2024, countywide. I'll turn it over to Dr. Goldman.

[00:25:12] Thank you, Steve, and thank you to the Board of Supervisors for, again, allowing us the opportunity to speak to you all today about youth. As you know, we're volunteers in the Advisory Commission on Youth, sharing our passions, working hard for all of the youth in the county.

[00:25:29] So without further ado, I want to introduce a few of the folks here to my left. I brought two representatives from step-up teams. As you know, the competitions and the focus, there were a few that talked about mental health and various mental health issues related.

[00:25:48] So to my immediate left, I have Katerina Wardley representing the creative coping team. I'm sorry, Masa. My apologies. I thought I had the wrong. So both Katrina and Masa is here today representing the creative coping team from the high school.

[00:26:05] And I have to her immediate left, Anna Sarkar from the middle school common connections team. And then I have Griffin Cook is one of our newest members, ACOY. came up through Youth in Government Day, like yourselves, and is one of our younger members, which is a great perspective for us. And of course, you know my vice chair, Mike Rellis, who did the heavy lifting on the report that you all have. So really quickly, I don't want to talk much. I just want to spend a few minutes identifying some of the top three concerns that we want to bring to your attention. One of the biggest issues is obviously shown here about having to do with

[00:26:44] drugs, vaping, and fentanyl overdoses in the 12- to 19-year-old range. Overdosing trends are up. You can see some of the graphics on page 34. We also have an increase in the number of vape shops, like the Vape Shops Corridor.

[00:27:00] We put a picture there on page 40. Our second concern has to do with the rise in absenteeism in schools, leading to showing on-time graduation rates declining. There's a disproportionate amount of the Hispanic population that is significant in the number of absenteeism across the board.

[00:27:25] Also from LCPS's task force study, we included some information showing pockets of students from the K through 2 and grades 11 and 12 with a high amount of absenteeism. But these are students that are A and B level students that have had no disciplinary issues whatsoever showing a rise in part of that absenteeism.

[00:27:52] And our final concern I wanted to talk about, and this is, I know, important to Chair Randall, is what has been the effect from COVID on our youth? And since we're a data-driven group, we're finally having, you know, a few years post-COVID where we can see some of the data and look at some of those trends.

[00:28:11] Some things post-COVID have been good, allowing access to schools for lectures and things online or a different form of learning as a result of COVID. But some are bad. A lot of the social contact has been replaced with online contact.

[00:28:31] So I'm not all doom and gloom today. I do have some things that we can suggest what to do about these problems. On our issue of drugs and fentanyl overdoses, our number one has been education, not just students, but parents as well.

[00:28:48] The vape shops, understanding that the criminal issues and things are a state level. However, the Loudoun County Board does have ability to do things with penalties and ordinances so that vape shop selling to minor is more than just a class four misdemeanor.

[00:29:11] In the rise in absenteeism, LCPS's task force has done a phenomenal job at getting into intervention ahead of the absenteeism, meeting with students and parents before chronic absenteeism becomes a problem.

[00:29:27] And we are also a big proponent of the alternative high school options, like a Robbie. And then finally, in the COVID piece, there are still a lot of things that we don't know. A common research finding has been that COVID has actually exposed many of the problems that were already nascent in the community.

[00:29:47] Things that have to do with the absenteeism, mental health and drug uses, online bullying, and even the desire for human contact. there has been, you know, negative effects in those areas. Things that we can do, we have been conducting surveys among youth and parents as well, and noticing some disconnects between the two groups. Our efforts are for an understanding to hear from students themselves directly on what the issues are. So with that, I want to give time to Mike to highlight some of the great things that

[00:30:24] we've got in the report about youth being accomplished. Mike? Yeah, Loudoun Youth continue to be very accomplished. We opened the report with at least half a dozen examples of where Loudoun youth have excelled in public service, in athletics, in theater and performing arts.

[00:30:44] Our kids are the greatest in the country. We have a couple big wins this year that we want to thank everybody for. One Jeff mentioned is the alternative education setting, the Roby School, over sighted at Dominion High School.

[00:31:03] I have the privilege of coaching girls soccer at Dominion High School, and I see the students come and go from that program, and it's huge. It's huge. It's a great alternative learning setting. I also, this year, we, last year we recommended, and this year they delivered on training for all coaches.

[00:31:23] In the summer, they brought all the coaches together and brought mental health professionals in to tell us how to recognize signs of stress of substance use. And then most importantly, what to do when we see that. And we refer kids to better, to people who can help them, professionals who can help them. So there's been some really big action on items that we've asked for. We do still, because we're old and persistent, Jeff and I, we're still on the charge of the libraries expanding their uses. Libraries,

[00:31:59] We have amazing programming in Loudoun County, but the model is still the same, a 9 to 5 Monday through Friday model. And we think the libraries are an untapped potential place where youth could gather safely and feel like they have a place to go.

[00:32:21] Youth are going to gather either way. This would give them a good, safe place. We have a footprint across the county that could provide Friday and Saturday evening safe spaces for kids. And Jeff mentioned the vaping.

[00:32:37] We call it the vape corridor, but one of the things that's most important is to get rid of that carnival look and feel that the vape shops have. They have bright lights and welcome and come on in, look and feel. And we think it's important that in Loudoun County we dial that down, we tone that down.

[00:32:56] So those are some of the things we highlight in the report, but we're here to answer any questions on what we found with Loudoun Youth. Okay, thank you. Masa, what year are you? I'm in 11th grade.

[00:33:16] You're a junior. We get you for one more year. Okay. I've known Masa, I've known you for, well, much of your life, actually. Supervisor Kirshner, before I go to the dais, in student supervisors, you absolutely, let me, So, citizens of advisors, it is imperative that the board hears you all's voices right now.

[00:33:40] I'm not just saying you're welcome to answer questions or ask questions. I am saying it is imperative the board hears your voices right now, okay? With questions, with thoughts, with anything, ideas, we want to hear your voices right now.

[00:33:56] Mr. Kirsten, do you have any questions? Madam Chair, I don't really have any questions on this particular item, But certainly, I see Mr. Sains and Mr. Laterno, they're saying this to my student supervisor from Woodgrove. And please lean on those supervisors to ask any questions you wish.

[00:34:14] Thank you. We would do that. We would do that. Supervisors are student supervisors. Do you have any questions? Mr. Sains, you're a student supervisor? My student supervisor does, and I do as well. Okay. So regarding the vaping situation in Loudoun County, what percentage, what is the most recent data collection, like recently, what is the percentage of people that vape in Loudoun County?

[00:34:45] I don't know if I have an exact number for you about how many have tried or active using. All we can say is, you know, the rules that are in place for underage, you know, being under 18 using vaping is a crime.

[00:35:08] It's a class four misdemeanor, which is a punishment for the person selling and the person receiving, and if even a intent to distribute illegally. Compare that to, you know, underage drinking.

[00:35:25] It's a much worse misdemeanor. You know, it can be class one. The vendor can lose their license and so forth. That's at the state level. What our issue is and what we're seeing is it's good to be in the vape selling business. that's that's what we've seen and uh it's unfair to the youth in the county uh thank you for that information uh thank you madam chair uh thank you again for you know doing this and giving our present giving your presentation today um but i'll start on the harder end on the lighter note

[00:36:04] you know this is my i don't know how many team update or you know student government day which which I love, by the way, but again, it's always we need more action from the libraries regarding the hours for it to do more teen nights, which we all agree should happen and needs to happen.

[00:36:24] Unfortunately, as you know, we don't control the hours of the library. The library is ran by the library board, so again, we've been up here stating the obvious. I'm assuming you've had those conversations with the library board. They voted, I'm assuming, again, not to move forward because it's still the same hours, so again i'll press upon you to talk to mr starpy there and start again looking even though i know you wanted to do the libraries we can't control the libraries because if i did you would be in the libraries by now um looking at the the sterling community center looking at the dulles park uh

[00:36:58] community center you know looking elsewhere to see where we can have other teen nights around the county i know we have the program at the cascades library which is doing doing well but we need to start knocking on some other doors and the doors that we can control and and have partnerships to to get the more more teen nights uh up and running uh around the county so i'll pause and if you guys want to reflect on that and have one more question afterwards sure i'll just be really quick so the the library board and akoy are on the same page in terms of keeping the libraries open

[00:37:35] late uh the the goal is to have every library open late for all people that's that's where the library's stance. Our position has been to go one step further and have the after-hours team programming, which gives them a safe space to be in those hours. The part where we diverge, I think, is in controlling that safe space, having that available. So it's more than just being open late. And if there are other options, other places, we're more

[00:38:11] than happy to look at other options. We started looking at that a little bit this year for other places that students can gather. Library is just the obvious choice because it equally represented all the different districts. And please feel free to ask questions directly to our younger members here at the table who have better perspectives than Mike and I. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Glass, do you have a question? Yes, I do. So this is for the student representatives. I was wondering,

[00:38:46] Do you guys think that there's a strong link between the effects of COVID-19 that were talked about and nicotine use among the youth? And then if so, do you think there's a way to sever that link and decrease the use of nicotine? So I think that there is absolutely a strong link between COVID-19 and nicotine use among students.

[00:39:13] And I think a way to sever that is to create more student unity and give students a place where they can come together and have that social interaction that has kind of been missing since COVID happened because, you know, everyone went online.

[00:39:30] So I think revitalizing that and bringing that back is a great way to get students off of nicotine and spending more time together, being more social, and having their peer support network instead of falling back onto drugs like nicotine for support.

[00:39:48] Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Turner, do you have a question? Oh, sorry. Yes, I do. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, Madam Student Chair. And I guess I'm going off of what Supervisor Sainz had said on us not being able to, you know, have the, I won't say control, but have more say in what we do at the libraries.

[00:40:23] But when I think of, you know, having teen centers or teen programming, do you think it's better to have those facilities co-located with another use or maybe have a standalone facility for teens?

[00:40:39] So as you are aware, we've got a capital facility standard for standalone teen centers, and that's one of the things that we have been looking at lately because what we are hearing from the industry is that co-location is likely where we should be going with that simply because the teens do not, the feedback that we have seen is that the teens do not want to be separated out from other activities that's going on,

[00:41:14] which I think is one of the reasons why there's such a success at the One Library Program because it's not a separate teen center. So that is something that we have started discussions on, on how we could possibly look at that as a co-location. Thank you. Supervisor Turner, do you have a question?

[00:41:34] Yes. So this question can be answered by any of you. I was wondering, and recently we have seen the drug task force go into certain Loudoun County schools, and we see certain precautions being taken such as the dog sniffing and other things like sensors and I just wanted to ask if you believe that these precautions are working and if so what else could we implement to help it work there's two things we talk about a lot in the report perception of harm that's

[00:42:11] when a kid feels that using drugs is bad for them and perception of availability. And these task forces that are going in and showing that there's a consequence to having drug availability in schools, I think we tend to think that's a good idea. There's boundaries on that, but I think we tend to think it's a good idea, anything that pushes down on youth perception of availability. And we were really fortunate to get an opportunity to do a

[00:42:43] second poll of students and students, all youth actually, and they were very telling about what they felt availability of illicit substances and alcohol were and where they find them. And we called out some of the most telling comments they had and included it in the report. So I think it's generally a good thing within the boundaries of respecting students space and rights it does what it says to the kids is hey it's illegal this is a safe space this is a drug-free zone this is

[00:43:21] a place where you can study and socialize and grow it's not a place it's not a marketplace for illicit substances and i have a question for the youth members of acoy um i had a i was a parent of a stepson who was bullied in school, I read the report. My question is, to what extent do you see peer correction of bullying? I think the measures that you have in place for bullying are laudable, but outside of the school grounds, what's the likelihood that a peer would step in

[00:44:00] and prevent bullying off school grounds or even at school time? Is there peer prevention? Does peer involvement go on or is it left to the authorities to do something? All right, I'll take this one. So I would say from my experience, since I'm an LCPS graduate, I think from my experience in LCPS, the sort of bullying and kind of conduct that I witnessed, unfortunately, was not a whole

[00:44:32] lot of peer correction. I think definitely that's something that's definitely another avenue that we kind of need to look at because obviously, you know, the authorities and like the teachers can't be in every single place at once.

[00:44:49] But yeah, I unfortunately do think that there's, based on my lived experiences, there's a lack of peer correction at this point. Thank you. That's a really frank answer. So then I'm suggesting right away one thing we might do is start training the student population in peer intervention to prevent bullying.

[00:45:08] It's kind of see something, say something. And I think that would be a really interesting program. Thank you. Supervisors and student supervisors, if somebody runs over time, I'm giving the student chair full authority to hit that gavel and stop you.

[00:45:30] Okay, thank you. Supervisor Tacroni, do you have a question? It's about social media.

[00:45:56] Supervisor Tacroni, should we come back to you? Supervisor Tacroni, we're going to come back to you. Okay, come back to me. Mr. Hemstreet, do you or your student have a question? Yeah.

[00:46:12] So this is to anyone. Regarding the mental health issues, specifically depression, what is your plan to improve the numbers of teens experiencing it? Because I know some teens or, like anyone, they're kind of scared to ask for help, if you know what I mean.

[00:46:34] Yes, so actually the initiative that me and my partner Katarina are working on called Creative Coping, it works directly to help teens with depression while also not stigmatizing them and making them feel safe. So our initiative is expressive arts workshops held after school.

[00:46:50] And the way that we market it to students is not that if you come, you have a problem, but instead you just come to de-stress. And anyone can come to these sessions and feel relaxed and de-stressed afterwards. You don't have to come necessarily because you have depression. So this takes away the stigma and doesn't make the student feel like they're different or there's a problem with them when they come to these.

[00:47:11] Thank you. Thank you. So I wanted to add on to that by saying that one of the recommendations that we have in our report specifically pertaining to mental health is that we want to see more programming from LCPS specifically pertaining to mental health.

[00:47:33] One of the things that we specifically noted in the report was the, I believe it was in January, LCPS held a symposium on mental health, and we specifically shouted that out in the report because it demonstrates the kind of programming that kind of puts kind of mental health out in the open, the kind of nature of the programming that we'd like to see. We're good now. No, no, he is. Oh, yeah, I have a question. Yeah, sorry. This could go to anyone, but especially nowadays,

[00:48:12] especially after COVID, we see a huge rise in social media. Like most people, they're always on social media you see doom scrolling always on things and it's led to an increase in a bunch of bad things like cyber bullying i know there's a large increase in depression and also um increase in drug use and drug like making it okay like nowadays the culture of drugs is kind of more um okay now so do you guys have any um recommendations or um like ways to mitigate the effects of social

[00:48:43] media on all these issues so i believe that um social media a lot of children are able to download social media because of their parents so i believe if we target like ask the parents to think about whether their child should have social media or if they should not before allowing them to have social media um i will um add on to this um question as well um now my kind of my kind of

[00:49:21] answer um to this may be um kind of outside outside of the scope of like a county government wheelhouse um but i wanted to say like generally i think um i think generally um we need to see a lot more um a lot more just general like um a lot more general regulation and oversight um of social media from the companies themselves and um and specific also of um of the um by the um the government um because um because i feel like the current state of social media like the just

[00:49:57] inherent um anonymous nature of social media unfortunately it's um although there are some safeguards in place in terms of like content reporting systems and um things of that nature it still is unfortunately um and this is a nationwide problem it still unfortunately is um far too easy to um um spread um false um attacks on someone um or um just um denigrate someone or

[00:50:20] Also, particularly, this is not an issue that you mentioned in your question, but I think it also is, I'll bring it up because it's specifically relevant to teens, is the spread of misleading information regarding health and, like, dieting that can lead to eating disorders.

[00:50:37] Thank you. Supervisor Amistad, do you have a question? Yes, ma'am. Thank you very much. The report has a chart, a graph for emergency room visits for self-harm and suicide attempts among Loudoun County youth.

[00:50:59] That's on page 25. There was a significant jump between 2020 and 2021. There's also been a considerable jump between 2021 and 2022, although not as high a percentage increase.

[00:51:16] what do you think we're going to see for 2023 and 2024 are we going to continue to see significant increases or do you think the increases will begin to level off or we'll get to a stable situation so this this is a tough one uh the the data that we show shows the trends getting worse um now 2020 you have to take that data a little with a grain of salt because there's

[00:51:51] the issue of did that mean more went unreported or was it less seen because you were you know confined to quarters if you will so so the so if you take the 2020 data out you do show a trend and And that's a concern, whether it's self-harm, drug overdose, other types of mental health concerns that lead to some longer-term damage.

[00:52:23] So, yeah, I don't have an answer for you where we hit a leveling off. I mean, we still have a nationwide problem for mental health. Virginia is doing better than most of the nation on an average, and Loudoun County is still better than that.

[00:52:44] So as bad as it is, we're at least doing a little better than the country. So it's not very comforting, but that's what we see with the data. One follow-up question on some of our colleagues' bullying questions.

[00:53:04] We've heard a lot about the seriously negative impact of social media on young women. Are you perceiving a similar negative impact on young men these days? So based on kind of what I have observed, I don't really see.

[00:53:39] I definitely think, unfortunately, in terms of like the kind of harmful content that's shared on social media. I unfortunately think it does disproportionately impact young women. I mean, there are perhaps like some sort of kind of maybe some harmful ideas and perceptions of masculinity and mental health that are being perpetuated, spread around social media that

[00:54:11] are um particularly um um affecting men also um well also actually i can also add um um specifically um the um this is a particularly disturbing trend of um how um a lot of um bad actors on the internet um will um and this is a very um um sick thing but they will um they will um through um flirtatious messaging sort of um can this and this is um the thing that's been covered a lot in the news um they will through um messaging they will convince kids to send compromising um pictures of themselves

[00:54:49] and then use it as like um blackmail or um extortion and there has been some studies on that that that definitely has a um specific um impact on both young men and young women thank you very much thank you supervisor letourneau do you have a question um yes this is in regards to the training that you guys conducted with the coaches i was just wondering how successful has that been and do you think it would be even more successful if you could extend the program to have coaches almost train their captains or the team in general to recognize this since they interact a lot more

[00:55:27] with their teammates that that's kind of in my wheelhouse a little bit um yeah we've we've advocated and the county and the schools have responded with not just training teachers but training all county and school employees that have contact with youth on screening and brief intervention. Screening is basically seeing there's a problem and identifying it. It's more than just showing up late to practice. It might be their behaviors or something that's uncharacteristic, asking the next question of the person. And then intervening is where you help them get to

[00:56:06] treatment or get to somebody who can help them in a school professional. And the county has been great at staffing schools with mental health professionals. It seems like we're on the track, this seems to be a big win for ACOI and for the Board of Supervisors. We're on a track towards training all county professionals that have contact with students, and I think it's an amazing idea to push the coaches to train their captains or their student leaders, because the kids are listening to them more than they're listening to the coaches themselves and I think that's a great

[00:56:44] idea that we'll carry we'll carry on thank you thank you Vice Chair Brixham do you have a question so I have a question regarding the funding of libraries and is the funding the only factor that's holding back the growth of libraries or are there any other obstacles so I think the the you know the library has their own board and they decide you know what to do with with their budget

[00:57:19] The pieces that we've advocated with staying open later specifically for team programming typically would involve one or two staff full-time equivalent for the year to keep it open.

[00:57:36] And so as far as the budgeting, we can only recommend, and it's up to the library board to decide what they wish to do. Thank you. I also have a couple of comments and a question.

[00:57:55] That's okay. I don't want to run out of time. Sorry. I have a couple of comments. The chart where you're talking about opioid death, overdose deaths from VDH, that includes adults. So that's my first question. I think it includes adults. I just want to clarify that we didn't have that many that were youth.

[00:58:13] Yeah. Okay, great. And then the Cascades Library and Senior Center is in our CIP now to get renovated, and so I'd love it if ACOY and the youth YAC would be involved in those discussions when the time comes.

[00:58:31] It's a while out, but if we could just put a pin in that, that would be great. And then lastly, and I don't know if this is Mr. Torpy or who would answer this question, But how do we – I was very intrigued by the grants concept, and I'm wondering how we can accomplish that.

[00:58:48] So is it that ACOI needs to write a letter to Mr. Torpy asking for the funding, which I heard that was a process at one point in time? Or, I mean, I'll make a motion tonight to send the discussion to Fund Balance, because I think it was $10,000 is what you guys were thinking about.

[00:59:04] So that's my second question. So really quick, why we brought that up is we're a volunteer body. have no budget so I didn't know if there were any rules that have to happen to allow us to have a budget or if we should just be a line item in PRCS. One other quick comment about the the overdose chart that you mentioned. I want to emphasize that the situation the overdoses are sometimes counted a little differently by each body you know so an overdose can count as a person who has an overdose

[00:59:40] is taken to the emergency room is revived it could also be result of a death and the what we're doing great here is the the narcan training that has reduced the number of deaths deaths for loudon county versus virginia as a whole can mr torby respond to my question yeah that that is i don't think that that needs to go to a to a board um action that's something that we we would be able to do internally. Supervisors, I'm going to go back to Ms. Umstead's student

[01:00:17] supervisor. However, supervisors, students, student supervisors, you should know it's very unusual that I will go back to a supervisor. Once we pass them, we pass them. If you miss it, you miss it. I'm only going back as it's her students, so I'm going to do that, but that's not my norm, just so you know that, okay? Thank you. Do you think that in regards to training the coaches and staff that it will be more successful than a physical, like, screening instrument? Or do you think there's a balance between those and schools?

[01:00:51] There's a balance. There's a balance, but it's just, it was such an untapped opportunity to train coaches, to train librarians, to train other professionals, parks and rec staff that are holding events that have regular contact with youth but didn't know what to do when they were confronted with the signs or symptoms of either mental health problems or substance abuse.

[01:01:24] And honestly, if we got a good win last year, it was Loudoun County Public Schools picking that up and saying, hey, I'm going to pull everybody together, I'm going to make a fun day out of it for the coaches, And then I'm going to bring in some real-life, relatable mental health professionals that can tell them, when you see this, it's probably not normal.

[01:01:46] Bring them in. Help them with this next question. It's just asking the next question. It's bringing them to where they can get treatment. And just piggybacking on that, earlier you spoke about mental health professionals a little bit and what we could do.

[01:02:01] And the board is one of the biggest things for getting help for somebody is a smooth handoff, making sure that there's a county or a county funded mental health professional there when they find an issue.

[01:02:18] And our report is for the last couple of years has recommended innovative hiring strategies, making sure those FTE are filled, special pay rates, whatever it takes to get good, competent mental health professionals available. If you have somebody that presents with a problem and it takes three weeks to find them somebody to go to, those problems don't sit in abeyance for three weeks.

[01:02:43] You lose the person. And we're still advocating for, and we've seen a lot of additional resources put into filling all the mental health professionals in Loudoun County mental health. so we're appreciative of that and we want to keep a close eye on making sure there's a smooth handoff to somebody who can give treatment okay you're good you're good okay so first of all i want to thank um everyone who has put together youth in government day it really is the best day of the year for us mr wolfson i don't know where you're at but thank you so much for all that you

[01:03:23] do you are amazing i'm going to ask these questions realizing that you all are volunteers And so these questions are actually more for my colleagues and our staff to just kind of keep these things and to share these things later on with LCPS. Supervisors, go to page 36 of your chart.

[01:03:39] It is about the substance use, substances last use. We know how I say all the time we cannot just talk about one substance. We have to talk about substance use disorder. The substance last use most in LCPS is not opioids. It's actually alcohol. If you go to the next page, page 36, which substance is easiest to get?

[01:03:58] 44% of the students in LCPS says the substance easiest to get is alcohol, right? We have to discuss all substances, not a substance at a time. Alcohol is a real drug. THC, especially in the forms we see it today, those are real substances, and we cannot stop talking about every other substance because we have one that is the substance du jour of the day.

[01:04:20] It is very dangerous to do that. I want to go next to graduation numbers. Please go to page 44. If you look at our graduation numbers, Loudoun County, you're doing excellent. Every single one of our high schools, with the exception of one high school, has a graduation number above the state average.

[01:04:37] Our schools are doing very well. Having said that, we are failing our Hispanic kids. And I keep saying, I've said this like the third year in a row, Loudoun County Hispanic kids have the lowest graduation rates by over 10 points to the highest level. and much lower, even in the average.

[01:04:55] Loudoun County's absenteeism rate amongst Hispanic kids, if you go to page 47, is much higher. It's double the average everywhere else. I did have a meeting recently with members of the New Virginia majority and others in the Hispanic community to ask about why, why this is happening, and I don't know that I understand it or that I have the answer.

[01:05:16] I do know that we cannot say that our students are successful when we have one group of students who are falling off this much and this often. We've got to figure out what's going on with our just as precious, just as important, just as special Hispanic kids as we do all the other kids in our county.

[01:05:35] It is so, so important to do that. Finally, I want to remind you all, I say this again, I've said this a number of times, there is a book called The Anxious Generation, and it starts talking about when especially our young people start seeing this anxiety. And it's not depression all the time, and it's not hopelessness, it's not even dysthymia, it's anxiety and stress.

[01:05:56] And it started about 2010, and it follows right along with social media. You all are correct. The social media issues in this, well, I guess everywhere, but I can only go where I am, are making our kids more anxious, more depressed, feel like that they're not worthy and doing well.

[01:06:16] We have got to get a handle to figure out not just an LCPS, but countywide what is going on for young people. Thank you once again for being here. Thank you so much for all that you do. Mr. Wolfson, wherever you went, thank you so much.

[01:06:31] You are just fantastic. I do not allow cheering and jeering in the boardroom. I just kind of allow jazz hands. I'm going to make an exception one time and say thank you to everyone who made this day possible. Ponce, it's great seeing you.

[01:06:53] Thank you. yes point of information yes sir well this report be shared with LCPS and then will they have time to ask questions did you hear the question yes absolutely shared with LCPS shared with the county beyond the website anybody who wants it yes wonderful thank you supervisors and student supervisors it's five o'clock which means we have Earl we have this this meeting is our meeting where we have speakers who are here early or two sets one at five and one at six. We have eight speakers right now and speakers at six o'clock as well. Before the speaking

[01:07:28] session starts, I do want to correct something that's been put out that is incorrect. And I mean completely and totally, 100% factually incorrect. Loudoun County government has not considered a resolution for the crisis in the Middle East. We have not been asked by any supervisor. It has not been presented to us. I set the agenda. No supervisor has asked me one time to put a resolution on the agenda. And as a person that set the agenda, were I asked, I would not do that. So I know it went out there that we were considering it and the implication

[01:08:06] was we were going to do that. That has never been a discussion that we've had at all in any form. And before we start public speaking, I just want to make sure that that is a, that is that is purposeful disinformation that is absolutely not true okay having said that we will go to our speakers and i'm going to go on and call the speakers i'm going to call you about three in advance so that you know you're coming next when i call your name you can come to the podium closest to you you have two minutes and 30 seconds to speak when you're finished speaking if you would yield the podium to the next speaker i would appreciate it our first speaker is faye

[01:08:45] Dubinsky, followed by Lauren Law, followed by Mark Nodale. Good evening. I'm sorry. What's happening right now? Are you Ms. Lubinsky? Yes, ma'am. Stand at the podium, please. And then you can see your lights and you can see your time on that, okay? And then Ms. Law, you will be next.

[01:09:10] All right, we're ready when you are, ma'am. Hi, my name is Faye. I'm a Loudoun County resident. I'm a wife, and most importantly, I'm a Jewish mother. I'd like to adjust Julie Brickman's letter that I found not only offensive, but anti-Semitic. Julie, when you call for an immediate ceasefire, you're not only calling to sacrifice the more than 130 lives of Jewish people still being held, raped, and tortured by Hamas. You're also calling for Hamas to continue existing and to continue its stated mission to annihilate Israel, the Jewish people, and all of Western civilization. You say Israel's response isn't proportionate. What is a proportionate response

[01:09:49] to an existential threat. You also say the Netanyahu and the IDF have demonstrated a disdain for human life. This is perpetuating the same age-old blood libel of Jews spilling innocent blood for no reason. You say Israel has killed over 33,000 innocent people. Where does this number come from? Hamas. And they themselves have admitted that the number of casualties is less than 22,000. That is less than a one-to-one ratio of combatants to civilians, far below the nine-to-one ratio in typical urban warfare.

[01:10:23] Now, any loss of innocent life is a tragedy. But why only now, in the case of Israel and the Jewish people, is it called a genocide? This is a new age of anti-Semitism, where Israel and the Jewish people are expected to behave as no other country would ever behave in the face of annihilation.

[01:10:39] How backward and inappropriate it is to use your governmental position to put pressure on Israel to cease firing. The people who are trying to fight for their children's lives instead of Hamas, the people using their children's lives to fight for their sick ideology.

[01:10:56] You say you feel obligated to use your voice, but where were you after October 7th? And where have you been since then? While there's been a more than 600% increase in anti-Semitism in the U.S., with many incidents here in Loudoun County, do your Jewish constituents not matter?

[01:11:13] I ask for you to take these words to heart, to listen to a Jewish mother who cares about the future and safety of Jewish children. Do the work so that you don't fall for anti-Semitic propaganda. I believe it's incumbent upon you to send a follow-up statement apologizing to every one of us who feel unsafe as our own elected leader calls for Israel, our indigenous homeland, to stop fighting for its own survival and for ours.

[01:11:37] Thank you. Am Yisrael Chai. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. There will be no clapping, nor cheering, nor jering. There will be none. And I never allow any, ever. So this is not new. is my this is board policy it's not my policy it's the policy of the full board um miss law if you would be followed by mark nodale followed by followed by james heigl good evening chairwoman randall members of the board of supervisors thank you for the privilege of allowing me to address

[01:12:11] you recently i sent out an email to all of you regarding a tweet on on april 4th by miss briskman but only heard from Ms. Amstad, and I want to thank you for your compassionate reply. Yes, it was a tragedy that the aid workers were killed, as it is a tragedy when any casualties occur at war. It was a tragedy when we abandoned the Afghanistan people. You stated that it was unclear as to whether the IDF did this intentionally or accidentally. It was accidental, and the

[01:12:46] soldiers were disciplined. What is clear is that on October 7th, Hamas barbarically took the lives of 1,200 innocent men, women, and children, and took several hundred others as hostages. This was intentional, and it has not confirmed the number of Gazans that you, Ms. Briskman, claim have been killed. Do you remember that Hamas used some of their own people as human shields and are therefore responsible for some of these deaths.

[01:13:17] It is also intentional that Hamas decapitated the Israelis, throwing their heads around like footballs, and Zaka had to match the heads of these people in order to give them a proper burial. They cut the wounds open of pregnant women to extract the fetuses in order to kill them in front of the eyes of the mothers whom they then shot in the back.

[01:13:39] They murdered babies by putting them live in ovens and then burning them to death and taking the breasts of women, amputating them, and kicking them around like football. Hamas took the phones of these victims to video it, to show the loved ones of these victims what they did.

[01:13:56] At least the Nazis tried to hide what they did. And as Hillary Clinton said, if there is a ceasefire by Israel, it will only give Hamas a chance to reload. And we saw this this past Saturday with Iran attacking Israel.

[01:14:16] What if Israel had been disarmed? I've been bullied on Facebook by local people here. And your statement makes me feel unsafe. And I ask you to please redact it and instead to ask that the hostages be released.

[01:14:33] Thank you, Ms. Law. Randolph. Thank you, Board of Supervisors. Thank you, Ms. Law. Mark Nodell, you'll be followed by James Heuchel, followed by Howard Katz. Good evening, sir. Good evening. My name is Mark Nadell. I'm a resident of Loudoun for about 15 years. Two weeks ago, a member of the board made a public statement demanding a ceasefire in the Gaza-Israel war.

[01:14:52] I am not going to comment on the merits of the statement, which had many incorrect arguments. Instead, I'm going to say it is totally inappropriate for any supervisor to use their official title, letterhead, or the procedure of the office to address issues outside the purview and control of this board.

[01:15:08] That is what private social media accounts are for. This easily could have been a non-issue had the chair immediately come out and said that sending out such a statement on official communications is not acceptable. Our elected leaders and their capacity on the board should focus on those issues that affect all of the citizens, such as education, zoning, first responders, local housing issues, crime, safety, budget, and taxes.

[01:15:31] These statements further divide an already divided community and are irresponsible given today's climate. The board said they heard the concerns of a community in anguish. Has that member ever reached out to other communities who have also suffered an anguish, such as the Jewish community? There is also a major double standard being applied.

[01:15:48] I have not seen statements condemning China for the genocide of the Muslim Uyghurs, the murder of over 50,000 Nigerian Christians by Boko Haram, the enslavement of Africans by Arabs as documented by the African-Jewish Alliance, and the abuse and execution of the LGBT community in Iran, Gaza, or under the PA.

[01:16:07] There has been no outcry about the anti-Semitism here in Loudoun's public schools where there was intimidation and bullying of Jewish students, and just recently a rabbi here in Loudoun was accosted while shopping. Even before October 7th, there has been a need for armed private security at our synagogues, religious schools, and cultural events.

[01:16:26] This board can either be a force for unifying the community by focusing on issues affecting all Loudoun citizens and making it better for them, or it could become a force for division, focusing on issues they have no control of and pitting our citizens against each other. The choice is yours, but the community is watching you.

[01:16:43] And I'd like to also give a shout-out to Sylvia Glass, who is my supervisor. She acts as a supervisor should. She's been helping our community deal with on-the-ground issues for our community at Regency of Ashburn. So thank you, Ms. Glass. Thank you. Thank you. James Heigel, followed by Howard Katz, followed by Liv Lynn.

[01:17:03] Good evening, sir. Good afternoon. I'm Jim Heigel, a 40-year resident of Loudoun County. I'm a Vietnam veteran. I've worked professionally with the military and the governments in Lebanon, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, Saudi Arabia, India, Kenya, Japan, and others.

[01:17:26] In each government I worked with, I got the experience to see the relationship between the government and the people on the street. I witnessed unity between the government and the people in those countries.

[01:17:41] which have flourished economically and have improved the quality of life. I also saw countries, particularly in Central America, where there was no unity between the people and the government, and they have not succeeded.

[01:17:58] The unity experienced by those who succeeded started at the top and trickled down. Where they dissolved, the divisiveness started from the bottom and was condoned or aided by the government at all levels.

[01:18:14] Here in the U.S., we are experiencing events where our government has taken steps that divide the people. I never expected to see such action within Loudoun County as expressed by the tone and language of a member of this board, Julie Briskman.

[01:18:33] Yes, we are all interested and concerned about the Middle East, with Israel defending itself against Hamas and Hamas suffering severely for what they initiated. Yes, we are concerned about the humanitarian issue, but this is not a Loudoun County issue.

[01:18:54] Why must this board allow divisive opinions from its members to divide we who live here? Why should a member of the board publish biased opinions on official county letterhead about what's happening on the international stage?

[01:19:11] I would ask her, does she represent the opinion of the whole majority of her constituency? Perhaps the board or members of it need a reminder that they have a mission and a responsibility to care for the property, the infrastructure, the rule of law, but most importantly, the quality of life for those who live in this country, in this county, in unity.

[01:19:36] We don't need individual board members spreading divisive language about what's happening anywhere. Your time is up. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Let me speak. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Um, um, Howard Katz, followed by Liv Lynn, followed by Mountain Skinner.

[01:19:55] Good evening, sir. Hello. Hello, my name is Howard Katz, and my family has lived in Northern Virginia for 48 years. And thank you for the opportunity to speak about Board Member Briskman's recent comments regarding Israel and its conduct in defending the Jewish homeland.

[01:20:15] I question the propriety of this Board Member using her official position to criticize an important ally of the United States, Israel. Her statement was quick to blame Israel for the unfortunate deaths of seven World Central Kitchen personnel this month.

[01:20:36] But where was her outrage last October 7th when Hamas savagely murdered and killed 1,200-plus people and brutally abducted 130-plus people, including 30 Americans that are still unaccounted for?

[01:21:00] Where was her outrage about that? Closer to home, why didn't she attend a public town hall meeting at Sharae Shalom Synagogue in Leesburg to learn more about anti-Semitism in Loudoun public schools?

[01:21:19] Clearly, her priorities are elsewhere. In the interest of time, I will not elaborate on her errors in reporting casualty statistics in Gaza, her invalid conclusions about Israel's lack of proportionality in fighting Hamas, or her wrong assertion that Benjamin Netanyahu has a, quote, disdain for human life, end of her quote. Totally false. Totally. In the interest of time,

[01:21:52] I'm sorry, what is important now is that all board members refrain from making any more public statements that exceed the scope of their official duties and responsibilities. Sadly, Ms. Brisbane's actions achieved nothing at all, nothing, except to further divide our community.

[01:22:17] They certainly did not accomplish her stated goals, which were a ceasefire and a stop to the war in Gaza. So what should the board do about such inappropriate actions? Sir, I'm sorry, Your time is up.

[01:22:33] If you'd like to send us all your comments and email, you can, but your time is up. I left comments for each of you. Thank you. I appreciate that. Liv Lynn, followed by Madeline Skinner, followed by Joni Hunt.

[01:22:49] Good evening, ma'am. Good afternoon. My name is Liv, and I live here in Loudoun County, and I am here to speak about Ms. Supervisor Bricksman statement on April 4th regarding my country and the people of Israel. Please forgive my English because this is my second language. A little bit over 10 years ago, I became a citizen of this great country that has always stood tall as an ally of Israel, my first home. As an American, I have enjoyed the liberties, protection, and rights provided. Sadly, as of recently,

[01:23:27] I no longer feel safe as I once felt. My husband, a Marine veteran, and I have worked hard to create a safe and welcoming environment for our children here in Loudoun County. Just the other day, I saw another woman at a faculty member of my children's school wearing a black and white keffiyeh. While the keffiyeh appears for everybody to be just another scarf, many knows its true meaning is actually calling for intifada meaning arms and attack all israeli citizens including me

[01:24:02] and my children every day my children and i are exposed to these forms of statements of hate to make matter even worse to have supervisor brixman a member of my community sent out a statement containing false narrative that israel is the bad guy and comparing israel to russia attacks on Ukraine. That makes me feel very unsafe here. With Supervisor Brixman's inconsiderate statement and false information, she's siding with ongoing war between Hamas. She's actually

[01:24:37] siding with Hamas, emboldening the same terrorist responsible for the massacre on October 7 and kidnapping Israelis. Her statement bases unfounded information from that same evil terrorist organization source. Where were your statements against the massacre of October 7th?

[01:25:00] The victims, which included Americans. How about making a statement on the release of the prisoners, sorry, not prisoners of wars, but the hostages? Please remember, when you make statements as a responsible leader of this community, you should consider its effect and who they embolden.

[01:25:19] Consider your neighbors that are Jewish, your neighbors that are Israelis, seen statement of hate. Ma'am, I'm sorry. Sorry. No, you did wonderful. Your English is just fine. It's just that your time is up. Thank you for your time. Thank you so much. Madeline Skinner.

[01:25:36] I didn't see Miss Skinner here. I did not see her. Okay, so our last speaker for this time is Joni Hun. Good evening, ma'am. Hi. Hi, I'm Joni Hun. I've lived in Virginia since 1981. And 50 years ago, I was afforded a wonderful opportunity because I was a sophomore in college and I went to Israel on what it was called an ulpan.

[01:26:00] I stayed in a kibbutz and had an adopted family and I'm still in contact with them. I have a very strong connection to Israel. I am of the Jewish faith and I am also an active volunteer in the National Council of Jewish Women.

[01:26:17] I wanted to show you, this is the picture, and you'll all get one in your mailbox tomorrow, of one of the hostages, one of the female hostages remaining still in Gaza under Hamas. Every Friday night, which is when we have our Shabbat dinner, Sabbath, I put her spot at my table. I take a picture and put it on Facebook so that everybody will remember that this is someone who is still under being kidnapped and not free. People kind of tend to forget that this is a real person that these are real people. I've been told by Israelis that they think that all of these women are pregnant, and that's why they're not being released. But who knows? You know, we don't

[01:26:54] know what's happened to any of these people, really. We're told that there aren't even 40 hostages left. Well, how can that be? We know they're gone. So I just wanted to tell you that when I spoke to my honorary kibbutz sister on the phone via wonderful internet connections you can do now, just last month, and I had never spoken to her before, and she told me that her son was actually from the Kibbutz Be'ari, that their whole family happened to be at her house because it was a holiday, and they were at their house that day. But their house was burned to the ground.

[01:27:28] They were not there. But they know this woman. This woman was somebody who went to visit her family because of the holiday. So many of the members of her family were killed, but she's still gone. And I just have to tell you that when I see something from you, Ms. Briskman, and I'm almost ashamed to say that I voted for you. But I think you should step down. I'm really sorry. I'm so hurt. I am crushed. I don't feel that this anti-Semitism that has been directed, I feel personally. I have children who live here. I have a grandchild. I'm just, I think this is out of

[01:28:08] your league and you shouldn't be hit. That's all. That's all I have to say. Thank you. Thank, nope. Thank you. Thank you for everyone. That was our 5 o'clock speaking time. We're going to do one of our action items, and then we will come back and we will have a speak.

[01:28:23] Well, actually, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm wrong. I apologize. Just give me one second, please. Oh, darn. Supervisors and student supervisors, it says that our break will start at 530, but I really want the student supervisors to see an action item before we leave the dais.

[01:28:51] And so will your parents be upset if we keep you here a little bit longer? Because I'd like to do the one action item we have because it's important to see what debate looks like in the action item. So I am going to go on and do an action item and then we will take a break with the students and then we will come back and resume the meeting after that.

[01:29:10] So the action item is. We will now address the following action item. Item 7, Loudoun County land use guidance and environmental health considerations for the permanent pump and hull program countywide.

[01:29:29] Thank you. It might be helpful for our students, supervisors, and anybody else to know what a pump and hull is, because I'm not sure everybody does. I know when I started in this position, I didn't know what a pump and hull was.

[01:29:46] I do now. You don't know the pump. I do now. It is less than attractive. But I think it might be a good idea for everyone to know what we're talking about. Chair Randall, if I may, I'd just like to open the item. You want to tell me about what Pumpen Hall is? I can include the staff.

[01:30:05] I think the staff, the presentation also does probably a better job of presenting what a Pumpen Hall is. But I can briefly explain that. So I do want to open it just to say I've asked the staff to bring this item to the board because we need a little bit of guidance.

[01:30:25] So what a pump and haul is essentially is we started off mostly in the rural area or primarily in areas that are not served by a public water and sewer system. So in an area that does not serve by a public or what we consider either a public water and sewer system or a communal water and sewer system, folks need to get their drinking water from a well and then their wastewater, or what happens with the water that goes down the drain or it goes down when you flush your toilet, has to go into a system that properly disposes of that wastewater, which I'm not sure what language the health department's going to use,

[01:31:03] but it could also be called affluent or wastewater. In a regular normally functioning system, that would go into what's called a septic tank, which then treats that wastewater as it enters back into the ground. For many years, through a delegation of authority from the Commonwealth, the Board of Supervisors has had the ability to approve what we call a permanent pump and haul.

[01:31:29] And so where we have seen these primarily are on residential properties that are dependent on well and septic, but the septic system, for whatever reason, stops working or doesn't work properly. And so in those situations, to allow those folks to stay on their property, the board has approved or authorized what is called a pump and haul, where a tanker literally comes out to the tank where the wastewater is and removes it and places it into a tanker, and then it's hauled away.

[01:32:02] The other application, which is also very common, and I think the staff report will suggest that it's even more common than a residential application, is when we have perhaps a house of faith or a worship that's in a similar type of situation where they need, in order to serve the folks around them, they need to depend on a pump and haul for their wastewater purposes.

[01:32:27] Or we also have commonly small commercial applications, such as the one that was on the board agenda one or two meetings ago, where it's essential, in that case, it was a small commercial application that will be served shortly by Loudon Water, and so they're waiting for their connection.

[01:32:48] But in most cases, these are very small applications that have somewhere around 900 to 1,000 gallons a week in terms of treatment and are necessary to be pumped. That is what the board has traditionally approved.

[01:33:06] Now, under the general plan as well as under the guidance that we receive from the Virginia Department of Health, we will regularly recommend denial for those permanent pump and hauls. The board also has passed continually in the general plan for decades that we should not be recommending or bringing to you pump and haul requests for projects that are in construction or for new construction.

[01:33:33] So the examples I kind of walk through, many of them are an existing situation where the septic system stops working, or they are new construction, but they're for a defined time period and for a very limited use, or a small use that's consistent with the amount of gallons or the amount of effluent that we have seen traditionally needed for a pump and haul.

[01:33:58] However, in the past few months, what we have been seeing is requests for large commercial applications. So these would be requests to pump or remove a fluent that is in anywhere from 10 to 50 or 60,000 gallons a day just to provide a level of scale for you.

[01:34:23] One of the larger pumpers or larger tanks hold about 4,000 gallons. so we're talking about a number of of high capacity tankers that would be needed to accommodate that type of operation so when i look at this and when i've spoken with the staff about it that is that is not even close to anything that we have seen in the past nor do i believe it's it's really safe nor are we from a regulatory perspective set up to manage that or create standards or recommend standards to you at this point that would make those or pump and haul

[01:35:01] systems on that scale appropriate for the board to consider, much less authorized. So I think as I go into the presentation, our recommendation is that you don't accept those. If the board for a reason wants to accept those, then what we would really like is guidance to go back and create standards that are appropriate for such a large commercial application and then come back to you and that in the interim you not accept those types of applications for for a lot of different reasons

[01:35:38] so that's why we're here I just want to make sure the board understood that that I'm the one that pushed the staff to bring this item and again because the size and scale of the commercial pump and hauls that we're seeing really are not appropriate and the board really from my perspective should not be should not be considering them but that is not my decision it is yours so okay so this is this staff is ready to present this is just give me one second please this is an action item is that it's item number seven let me just try it this way because it may be easier to do this this way is there any supervisor who believes this should be approved mr.

[01:36:16] kirschner are you still there I'm here manager do you believe well should not be approved should not be approved to anyone who believes that i yeah so if you're talking to me i do think we probably need to review this more carefully um i'm i had some questions and and i can ask those briefly now or if you want to do with an emotion i think it's what you're driving at correct maybe or maybe i don't know yet what i'm driving at if you want the presentation we can do that i'm just trying to get a sense of the board because what mr hemstreet is just saying is he's made a recommendation and he's saying in absence of the recommendation if we do not choose

[01:36:56] recommendation he'd like some guidance and instructions so I'm just I just I don't know I don't know if there's anyone who doesn't feel like we should be accepting mr. hemstreet's recommendation and if that is the case I need to know that now and if not it makes us it makes this a much faster process to get through so that's why I'm trying to ask that question but how about we go and do the presentation and then we will come back to that question

[01:37:24] okay we're ready so um this was jointly produced by the Health Department and Planning and Zoning with me is I'm Pat Julio with the Department of Planning and Zoning also with me is Dan Galindo director of Planning and Zoning as well as Dr. Goodfriend from the Health Department and George Kahn assistant director of the Health Department we're gonna have a abbreviated presentation mr. Hemstreet covered a lot of our high points so we'll try and cut to the cut

[01:37:59] to the chase. Good evening, everyone. I thought I should flip my presentation while Mr. Hemstreet was giving his talk, because I think he did probably a better job than I would. But, you know, I have pictures. He didn't have pictures, so you can take a look at this. In order for us to talk about pump and haul, you know, let's step back a little bit and just talk about a septic system in haul. So what you're looking at here is what we would call a typical septic system, right? You have a small structure, a house in this case. The effluent that comes out of that house, we could use or sewage as well. It's collected into a septic tank. That septic tank is then connected to what

[01:38:39] we call a distribution box, and all of that flow or the liquids will then be distributed down into the drain field, which then leaches into the soil, is treated in the soil, and goes back into groundwater. This is key for you to understand because on the next slide, what we talk about here is the difference between a typical septic system and a pump and haul. So in a pump and haul, you have a similar structure. The effluent exits the structure, enters into a holding tank, but that's it. Everything stays in the holding tank until that tank is filled and it is then pumped out,

[01:39:19] usually with a pump truck. You may see them on the road, taken to a treatment facility. In order for a homeowner to know that the tank is filled and to request pumping, there's an alarm system that's set on this tank. If that alarm system fails, then you would have no idea that your tank is filled. It also puts a lot of strain on individuals that are using these types of systems because you have to be very aware of your usage. You know, if you're someone that likes to sing in the shower, a 30-minute shower could use about 100 gallons of water. These tanks are limited

[01:39:53] in capacity. Typically, they range from, you know, 750 gallons on the low end to maybe 1,500 gallons on the large end. As we dive into pump and haul, the state of Virginia recognizes three types of pump and haul. And Mr. Hemstreet mentioned some of these. There's emergency pump and haul. So an emergency pump and haul is used in scenarios where you already have an approved septic system or you have an approved system. Something is wrong with it. We need to fix it. In the interim, the health department is able to authorize an emergency pump and haul, which what would happen is you would,

[01:40:32] while a solution is being developed, you would tap or you would cap the tank and you would keep pumping it, trucking that off to a treatment facility while you fix it. These permits can be approved for up to 12 months. Secondly, are what we call temporary pump and haul. So temporary pump and hauls are issued for a period not to exceed 12 months, and they are designed or they are approved to fill a gap, as in you have a permanent solution that's coming, it's not there yet, and it's less than 12 months. The health department is authorized or has the ability to

[01:41:09] issue a temporary pump and haul. Everything outside of that falls under what we call permanent pump and haul. So in short, you're looking for a pump and haul solution for more than 12 months. It could be forever, or it could be just 13 months. In Loudoun County, authority by the Loudoun County Board of Supervisor makes the final decision on whether or not a pump and haul permit is issued.

[01:41:37] As per the Virginia Department of Health policy, and Mr. Hemstreet mentioned this, the board may adopt an ordinance or resolution for a permanent pump and haul program. As of this moment to date, the board has not adopted a permanent pump and haul ordinance. So current practice, if an applicant is submitted to the health department, that application is then presented to the board and the board would vote to make a decision on that. On September of 8, 2010, the board did delegate some authority to the county administrator, where the county administrator is able to

[01:42:15] authorize some types of pump and haul if those pump and haul meets the health department recommendation and also the county general plan. Those typically tend to be pump and haul for residential use. Looking back in time, in 1995 we had about 15 pump and haul in Loudoun County.

[01:42:42] That was the time that the general permit was put in place. Today we're looking at over 95 pump and halls within the county. Of those pump and halls, 15 are residential and over 80 of them serve commercial facilities. This is just a quick snapshot of where they're located across the county.

[01:43:03] But what are our neighbors doing? Looking at Fairfax County, Fairfax County does not allow pump and hall for any new construction period and currently they have about 12 pump and hall in the county. Prince William County only approves pump and halls to serve county-owned property and to date we're only aware of five pump and haul in Prince William County. Clark County our neighbor does not allow pump and haul for new construction and there are currently two. Remember for reference from the previous slide we have 95 in Loudoun County. What are we seeing in terms of some of

[01:43:41] these new applications or these new you know requests for pump and haul services? What you're looking at here is a design of a sewer system that will be connected eventually to Loudoun Water And it is being proposed to be capped where that sort of a black dot is and be used to hold sewer in the interim, I mean, effluent in the interim, and then be pumped.

[01:44:12] These are very unique in the way that they're designed. Sewer systems tends to be gravity. This system would be under pressure. This is not something that you typically see, and this is proposed to serve a commercial facility with very high output in the excess of 3,500 gallons per day.

[01:44:30] Also, what we're seeing are some of these, what we call like trailer tanks. So if you think of a semi-trailer, these are about the size of a typical semi-trailer. They're tanks that are designed to handle 21,000 gallons. There are operations in Loudoun County that are proposing to use these types of tanks in series to handle up to 60,000 gallons per day.

[01:44:54] And these would then be pumped out and trucked off to treatment facility. These are very unique in the way that they're designed and also in the volume that they're proposing for pump and haul services. With that, I will hand it over to Pat, who's going to talk to us a little more about the general permit.

[01:45:16] So the county's comprehensive plan for over the past 30 years and three iterations has consistently identified pump and haul as a last resort method to address existing public health issues. The policies of the 2019 General Plan anticipate that all properties within the urban, suburban, transition, and portions of the Leesburg JLMA will connect to Loudon Water's central water and wastewater treatment systems.

[01:45:40] The policies also call for Loudon Water and the Health Department to work together to ensure the timely provision of central utilities in the most efficient and effective manner in accordance with the county's land development strategies. The approval of pump and haul for new construction has the potential to encourage premature development in areas where sewage facilities do not yet exist thereby removing the incentive for individual property owners to finance and construct central utilities as part of a larger utility network to serve an area.

[01:46:08] County staff has consistently recommended that construction approval should align with the pace of utility infrastructure development to prevent new construction from outpacing infrastructure availability the large volume pump and haul applications are to serve new construction and do not address public health risk and do not support or not supported by the wastewater policies of the 2019 general plan next slide so what we've provided is a next slide what we provided is several motions for the board's consideration the The first being that staff recommends

[01:46:47] that the board adopt an interim policy and not consider pump and haul requests for new construction until further guidance is developed through a resolution or county ordinance governing pump and haul permitting. There are a series of other actions which describe continuing as we currently do, reviewing applications on a case by case basis and we're sending this to a future meeting for further discussion.

[01:47:12] However, at this point, staff is recommending that the county does take a position and develop a county ordinance in the future so that we have additional guidance in how we review these type of applications. So with that, I'll turn it over. Yep, we're finished, and we'll take any questions.

[01:47:42] Can we have the discussion in a motion, inside of a motion? Do we need to – we're going to have this discussion inside of a motion. So I'm not sure we're going to go for the motion now. I think I'm going to go with Mr. Turner for the motion because I think we're going to make the motion we need to have made here.

[01:48:00] Thank you Madam Chair. I move that the Board of Supervisors adopt an interim policy to direct staff and the county administrator to not consider any pump and haul applications for new construction until further guidance is developed through a resolution or county ordinance governing pump and haul permitting. I further move that the board direct staff to prepare a resolution or county ordinance governing pump and haul permitting to be presented at a at a future Board of Supervisors business meeting for further discussion and consideration motions made and second supervisor to crony discussion on the motion before you do that student supervisors person makes the motion the

[01:48:39] motion has to be seconded if it does not get seconded it dies for lack of a second the person that makes the motion gets to open up the conversation the debate and gets to close the debate so they have double the time that everybody else if they choose to use it also no one has to speak at all if they don't choose to you can just be quiet on any item so that we don't use time they don't need to use mr mr mr turner thank you madam chair um staff i call your attention the last sentence in the middle paragraph on page uh three of seven this is a quote because it seems conflicting to me

[01:49:18] the 80 commercial pump and haul systems have a store in in loudon county have a storage tank capacity of between 1,000 to 3,750 gallons. Then in the very next sentence it says, all of the active permanent pump and haul systems in the county are considered low volume systems, which we just, and then the next sentence says, LHD considers systems with sewage volume of less than or equal to 1,000 gallons to be low volume systems. So we've said 80 of the permanent pump and hauls have between 1,000 and 3,750 capacity, and in the very next sentence we say, except we consider low capacity a thousand gallons or less that seems in direct conflict can you explain that sure um so

[01:49:57] what we're looking at are two different things now so capacity we're looking at tank size so this is what's in the grung you know you can have multiple 1,000 gallon tanks and then when we're talking about um the volume we're talking about the flow per day so you can have tanks that are you know designed for a thousand gallons i mean you can have flow volume of a thousand gallons per day That's what we consider to be low volume.

[01:50:23] We don't typically see that in a residential. Residential is usually calculated between 60 to 75 gallons per person per day. So you may have a 3,750-gallon capacity tank, and you've established that its volume is generally 1,000 gallons. And you do that by monitoring the pump and haul operation to show that the average volume they pump and haul is 1,000 gallons?

[01:50:46] No. So part of this, pump and hauls are considered an alternative system. So an engineer would be the one that presents the calculation to the health department. And that calculation is based on the number of occupants or the number of bedrooms in that structure. And if I can add, so in that example that you're discussing of, say, a 3,700-gallon tank, they may only get pumped out once a week.

[01:51:11] It may get pumped out less frequently than once a week. So the effluent per day may be up to 1,000 per day. But it may take three days to fill up that tank to need to be pumped. Okay, my next question is related to the MAP and the 95 permanent pump and haul stations.

[01:51:28] How did we get here? If we have a very clearly enunciated policy of when you should use a permanent pump and haul, and all our surrounding comparators have 12, 15 systems, how did we get to 95? Well, we presented those to the board, and the board voted to approve them.

[01:51:49] But not this board, and not the last board, and not the board before that. Boards, many boards to go. We just did. 95. Thank you, Madam Chair. Ask a question. Mr. Kirshner.

[01:52:06] Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. So real quick, I have a question. The title of this says, Loudoun County Land Use Guidance Environmental Health Administration for a Permanent Pump and Hall, but the motion doesn't mention permanent. So I just want to make sure that the idea behind this motion is to address permanent and not the temporary ones that we spoke of earlier.

[01:52:28] on well no no yeah so well we can do a couple things if after you get the answer from the staff because i think it doesn't mention anything actually it asks us to do something and ask us develop a resolution or county ordinance of which we can put the word permanent but if that's not what we how we want to do this we can also any in the motion it says not consider any pump and haul application for new construction so you want to say not consider any permanent uh is that what you want to say yes okay unless there's a strategic reason not to do that I'm

[01:53:06] sorry unless there's a strategic reason not to do that for whatever reason so would you like to have a friendly amendment to the motion yes would you like to say the friendly amendment to the motion I wouldn't I would ask that not consider any permanent publication before I do that mr. him street did you have something you want to say on that yes so right now for new construction we still have those large commercial requests coming through and so those could be a request for

[01:53:41] temporary pump and haul which would still meaning that they will eventually hook up to loud and water i still think the board should not consider those and so what we're trying to seek from the board is guidance we've gotten to the point that we've gotten to which was a little bit humorous with supervisor turner's question in the response from mr khan however part of the reason is because we don't have an ordinance that provides us guidance and so we tend to bring these ad hoc they tend to come to the board maybe once a year you might get three in a year you might get zero in a year and so it's also something that the board isn't typically used to dealing with

[01:54:18] and they're they're coming more or less ad hoc and so I think the staff recommendation is for us to come back with an ordinance or a resolution or policy that we would recommend to you and then not consider new construction until we have that guidance from the board Okay, Mr. Kirshner, with that answer, do you still want to make a friendly?

[01:54:40] Because I have to ask the maker of the motion, the second of the motion, will they accept the friendly? Well, I understand Mr. Hemstreet's recommendation, but how long is it going to take for that ordinance to come back? I mean, I think it's a little hard for... I can remember several applications that we have had in the last year or two where temporary pumping hauls came forward.

[01:55:02] His time should be running. Run his time. I think they stopped it for Mr. Hemstreet. OK, thank you. Go on. So on those applications, there was a it was a temporary period of 12 months or less. Staff even came back with the recommendation, I think, on several of those to allow for them.

[01:55:21] I don't know what's in the pipeline, no pun intended or what's not. But I do think that perhaps putting in the temporary as the starting point, because the others are only 12 months, because then we just eliminate it all and it's going to take a year a year and a half for some sort of resolution or some sort of uh ordinance to come back that's recommended well that's a year and a half that perhaps we're not going to be reviewing any of these so that's my only concern so yes i would ask for the friendly so um mr kirschner before i go back to good friend the

[01:55:58] the question is still on the table you made a friendly and you want to keep that friendly correct i would okay hold on just one second do you accept the friendly i'd like to hear the doctors. Okay. Okay. Dr. Goodfriend. So as was mentioned earlier, temporary pump and hauls are under the authority of staff to approve or not approve. Permanent pump and hauls are under the authority to the board to approve or disapprove with a carve out as was discussed in 2010 of delegating some of that decision to county administration. From our perspective as staff,

[01:56:36] If we see a temporary pump and haul application, it would be helpful to have guidance from the board as your viewpoint as whether those should be approved in Loudoun County or not. And whether you treat that as one motion or separate motions, from our perspective, it would be helpful to know what the board's position would be on temporary pump and hauls for new construction.

[01:57:00] Mr. Turner, do you accept the friendly? May I ask Mr. Hemstreet a question? so you can know whether to accept the friendly correct it's can we can we hurry up yes we can thank you so mr hamstreet is our intent here to preemptively prohibit all pump and haul applications until we have these kids out here and a resolution for new construction so so pump and hauls for hardship for existing septic fields that go bad or existing alternative systems that go bad for residential or small low volume commercial uses would still come

[01:57:40] through because they're not new construction okay I understand that but your intent here is to preemptively stop even temporary pump and haul applications for new construction yes in that case manager I do not accept the friendly okay mr. Kirsten your friendly was not accepted would you like to make an alternate motion I'm not sure that's a great question that I don't know the

[01:58:13] answer it is doubtful that an alternate motion i guess not pass if that helps but okay you get the one actually no no no no no no no no no your time is up your time is up would you like to make an alternate motion is a yes or no question my friend there was one question i asked it was not answered madam chair would you like to make an alternate motion i'll ask that question in mind but right now i'm going to assume you don't want to make an alternate motion and i'll go back and ask my question. Then we may come back. Mr. Letourneau? Well, that's kind of crappy that

[01:58:46] the kids have to wait for dinner while we... Anyway. Every pun intended. All right, all right. But in all seriousness, so first of all, what are these big users that are coming with these massive pump and haul requests? Like, what are the actual uses? So we're seeing things like distribution centers, data centers. Oh, okay. So to answer Supervisor Turner's question, I mean, At 13 years on the board, I've seen a fair amount of these.

[01:59:14] The ones that we usually approve are pretty sympathetic applicants, churches. I remember we did one with a mosque, you know, nonprofits that don't have a lot of money. So that's why we end up approving a lot of these. And I guess my only concern is what of those type of users could get caught in this if we don't even consider these types of systems?

[01:59:36] And then kind of as a secondary question, do we have any that are currently in the pipeline where somebody has spent considerable time and resources and built something and is just waiting for an approval on a pump and haul? And do we need to look at some sort of provision where this goes into effect so that we don't hit somebody who's like midstream and about to be done, except now all of a sudden they can't bring their application?

[01:59:59] Nothing but puns. Midstream, pipeline, all of them are puns. So I think one way to answer your question, You know, when these facilities are coming to the health department, I think there is a delay.

[02:00:16] So construction is way, way ahead of schedule. That's why they're approaching us. So all of the applications that we're receiving, construction is way ahead of, you know, where Loudon Water is assuring that sewer services will be available.

[02:00:32] So you're asking about, you know, construction and a lot of money. I'm assuming that there's a lot of construction money at play here because of how far along they are in their construction project. well i'm not sure that really answers my question so i guess maybe you can't maybe it's a question for building and development but my concern with acting on this right now is i don't really know what the impact is like i don't know if there's some church or non-profit that's out there that's expecting to come for a pump and haul application which we have traditionally supported or approved that we're suddenly going to get caught because we we today decided we're going to stop even

[02:01:11] considering these i mean i would point out these are board discretion so we don't have to approve the ones that are permanent um so i would have probably preferred this just to go to teluk to to talk this through a little bit and get building development in here to actually understand what the pipeline is um we've been going this long but i see mr hempstreet's lights on so maybe you can help me mr hempstreet i think if if the concern is to for those types of applications yeah that are hardship applications that the board has approved i think we could say that new construction

[02:01:45] low volume systems for temporary pump and haul are excluded from this policy or from this motion if that's something you wanted the board wanted us to consider and that would address low volume which is what you have traditionally approved but it would be limited until we can get the ordinance or resolution done to temporary pump and haul for low volume systems so i would probably make a friendly to do that if that sounds reasonable mr i accept that mr crony do you expect Okay, that friendly has been accepted.

[02:02:18] All right. Mr. Crony. Yeah, thank you, Chair Randall. So I wish I had a joke, but I don't. Quick thing. I see that we have 95 systems, and we've gone from 15 to 95, and our comp plan says that all existing pump and all systems will connect to Loudon Water Central System for public safety and, I assume, environmental reasons.

[02:02:47] are we doing that? Are we helping get these people, are we monitoring and making sure they're getting onto central utilities or into some kind of community system if they're in the West? So again, we anticipate that a lot of these permanent pump and hauls, as the system is built out and utility infrastructure is moved forward with other construction on adjacent properties, that they will be served. And that's one of the reasons behind the board approving some of those in the past when we knew it would be there within one or two years so that's generally

[02:03:22] the situation in all these these cases in the case of some of the the ones we're looking at now that are pending it is a problem where it requires the owners of a particular property and the adjacent property owners to work together to create that full utility infrastructure that's there and that's the whole reason behind our policies in terms of encouraging central utilities to serve, you know, all of our suburban and transition policy areas as well as the urban policy area, so.

[02:03:53] Okay, yeah, I just want to make sure that there's some monitoring going on, that they're not able to, you know, keep going, because I know the health risks. I actually have an alternative system. So they really do need to be monitored, and if there's a way to hook up. So we, just to add to that, we periodically meet with Loudon Water, and what they would share with us, we share the location of all of these pumping halls, And they will map them into the extension of their infrastructure.

[02:04:22] So, for instance, if, you know, there's a couple of pump and haul in a location and they're trying to extend services, they would want that information up front so that way they can reach out to those homeowners as they're extending their infrastructure to try to connect them ahead of time. So we periodically work a lot on water to do that. Okay. And you're looking at bypass communities too, right?

[02:04:38] Correct. Some of these are bypass communities. But don't have public utilities but want them. Yes. So, yeah, that's been something I've been thinking about, a bypass community policy. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Sainz? Sorry, Madam Chair. I had a question after the friendly was made.

[02:04:54] I have a question for Mr. Hemstreet, our staff, if I may. That's fine. With the friendly that was just made, would that cover, for example, the pump and hall that we just approved a couple of meetings back, or would that be too big of a... It would not, because that was a permanent pump and hall.

[02:05:10] Permanent, okay. All right, thank you. Thank you. Student Vice Chair. Hi, I have two questions. So the director of the health department, Dr. Goodfriend, what does he think about this?

[02:05:28] And my second question is, what are the environmental impacts of pump and hauling operations? Thanks for the question. So as was mentioned earlier, pump and haul is not a preferred choice for removing effluent.

[02:05:45] It takes ongoing agreements with a contractor to pump out the system and continue costs to do that. And so it's really that fallback and why we see our neighbors typically don't use pump and haul.

[02:06:00] But where, particularly in Loudoun County historically, where that infrastructure lags behind where folks want development to be, there's a great incentive to at least temporarily do pump and haul until that infrastructure can come in.

[02:06:18] So I know we showed the map previously where you see clusters like around Route 50, where Pump and Hall went in when there was a desire to start allowing folks to build businesses and support homes around there until infrastructure can come in and scatter it around.

[02:06:38] But the challenge is when it's low flow, there's still a risk, but the risk is mitigated significantly because if an alarm fails, you may get several hundred gallons of effluent on the ground. Now as we're getting into thousands of gallons, particularly some that may be in more sensitive areas around creeks and streams, that if that alarm fails or the system fails, you may get thousands of gallons. And that's where it prompts us, as this is a new type of application coming in, to want to take a pause and get a better look and be concerned not only of

[02:07:18] how do we support development in our residents and businesses, but also protect our environment. Thank you, Dr. Goodfriend. I'm happy to support the motion. I think a lot of what staff's concerned, I believe, is that there's an administrative process to go through to do this that we don't even get to look at.

[02:07:37] And also, you know, this is an interim pause while we work on a policy. So I don't have a problem with an interim pause. I don't know if I would have supported the friendly because, you know, it's interim. We're going to be working on an ordinance moving forward to get this resolved. Thank you.

[02:07:53] So I will ask Mr. Kirshner's question, but I will say I think the best question up here has been asked by the vice student supervisor, to be honest, because he asked about the environmental impacts. You know, there are times when you have to put financial impacts aside. We are talking about, to be quite honest, hundreds, in fact, thousands of gallons of poop moving through the community that could spill.

[02:08:19] So whether or not someone or some large company might lose some money is not the first consideration I'm going to vote on right now. A lot of times the first consideration is financial, but this is, as the student vice chair suggested, could be a huge environmental hazard.

[02:08:40] And imagine the cost of the cleanup. It would be much more money, the cost of the cleanup. And then any subsequent lawsuits or whatever came because we had a huge environmental waste problem, literally. So this is not one of these times we should be penny wise and pound foolish.

[02:09:00] this is a bad idea I'm going to support the motion as friendly amended by mr. maternal should I could close him oh I'm sorry to mr. Kirsten's question mr. history how long the staff how long might this take you can't you don't know you can't well I'm gonna ask it anyway because I'm asking for my colleague so we have done some research on some other jurisdictions and as part of the ordinance we would be looking at adding additional guidance for design capacity operation of the pump and haul system so in order to get something back to you we would probably look at probably up to four to five months to get that back okay not sooner so

[02:09:35] again since we have looked at some of the other jurisdictions it may be quicker we would coordinate with obviously with the county attorney great answer do that great answer thank you would you like a closing thank you madam chair I don't want the rest of my time to go to waste and I'm I'm glad that I had the intestinal fortitude to see this through to the end the arguments here have clearly been very moving, and I don't want to poo-poo the importance of this item.

[02:10:01] So with that, I have said everything I need to say. Thank you. Yes, you did. Yes, you did. Yes, you were guilty for that. All right. The motion was made by Supervisor Turner, seconded by Supervisor LeCronio, with a friendly amendment accepted from Supervisor LeTourneau.

[02:10:19] All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? That motion will pass 9-0. Supervisors and student supervisors. Good job, student supervisors. We are going to go eat something and then we'll come back and continue the meeting. We are at recess.

[02:18:42] What are we doing?

[02:51:05] We're doing resolutions. Okay, we are back and we have resolutions and we have the second set of public speakers. Give me a second, please.

[02:51:27] By our agenda, and I did give some thought to changing the agenda and doing the speakers first, But I am pretty consistent in how I do the agenda. I don't often change it. And I'm going to go with my normal protocol, and I'm not going to change it today.

[02:51:46] So we are going to do the resolutions first, and then we're going to start with the speakers, of which we have 16 speakers. The resolutions are a proclamation to recognize Fair Housing Month. I'm going to ask Supervisor Sainz, when he comes back in, to join me down front for Fair Housing Month, Resolution to Recognize Child Abuse Prevention Month.

[02:52:09] I'm going to have Supervisor Bricksman join me down front for that, Supervisor Resolution to Recognize National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month. I will have the Vice Chair join me for that as well.

[02:52:27] Resolution to recognize small business with Supervisor Letourneau. You're going to join me down front. And Northern Virginia Family Services 100th anniversary. I believe that is only for, that's not even, that's not, is that for presentation? I think it is for presentation. I will have Supervisor Glass join me down front for that.

[02:52:46] Mr. Sains is not here yet. Mr. Letourneau, do you have your resolution on you, sir, with you? I do. All right, let's go ahead and roll yours out. Jared, I know I just told you something different, but you want to go grab your people inside, sir? Yeah, I know. Is he outside?

[02:53:05] Yeah, they can just come up. Yeah, yeah. But they're outside in the lobby, right? Is anyone inside the room for small business? There they are. Okay. Right on time.

[02:53:23] Chris, Brittany.

[02:53:53] Okay, thank you all for coming. So it is always an enjoyable time of year for us as we get towards the end of April because it is Small Business Week. And we are extremely proud in Loudoun County of all the wonderful small businesses we have.

[02:54:10] And tonight, representing our small business community, is the handmade by LMAC business. And we'll let you, after I read this, we can let you explain a little bit about your business. But thank you so much for being with us. I'm going to go ahead and read the resolution that was approved by the Board of Supervisors, recognizing Small Business Week 2024.

[02:54:26] Whereas the steady growth of Loudoun's business community has attracted and retained a diversity of quality businesses that have contributed to a vibrant, healthy economy and a successful, thriving community that has the highest rate of job growth, among the more populated counties in Virginia. And whereas approximately 86% of Loudoun's businesses have fewer than 20 employees, and small businesses are a critical component of the foundation of commerce in Loudoun County, while providing a tremendous resource to a variety of social and charitable causes that make a significant difference in the lives of Loudoun residents.

[02:55:00] And whereas the presence of high-growth companies is illustrated by the 39 Loudoun businesses currently on Inc. Magazine's annual list of fastest growing companies with 2024 marking the 10th consecutive year of more than 20 Loudoun businesses making this list and whereas the 13th annual Loudoun County Small Business Week will be held April 28th to May 4th featuring an educational summit on Tuesday April 30th with keynote speaker Jason Dorsey CEO of the Center for Generational Kinetics and whereas Loudoun County Economic Development will also promote community events taking place that week, hosted by our partners, including the Town of Leesburg Small Business

[02:55:39] Awards, and whereas Loudoun Small Business Week is sponsored by the Department of Economic Development and will include a scheduled supervisor visits to a wide variety of small businesses throughout the county. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors is proud to support and recognize the 13th annual Loudoun Small Business Week, April 28th to May 4th. Thank you so much for being with us. You want to just give us a really brief explanation of your business? Sure. My name is Veronica, and my company name is called

[02:56:13] Handmade by LMAC. LMAC stands for Local Makers, Artists, and Crafters. We have over 100 makers from the DMV area. We have two locations, one inside the Dallas Town Center, and the second one is at One London. Two of our makers are here. Chris, he's a woodworker, and Brittany, she does candles she's a candle making actually she's having a class this saturday so we're excited for that um and aside from that we have all over from glass work to jewelry to body bath uh you name it so i would love for everybody here to come and join us and see what we have and what

[02:56:51] local makers are creating today thank you so much thank you very much supervisor i'll get there a

[02:57:52] second. Supervisor Bricksman, will you come down please with me for sexual assault awareness and prevention? Who's here for this resolution? Who's coming in? Yes, there we go. Come on down. Thank you.

[02:58:21] Good to see you. Both sides. A couple of days ago, Ms. Bricksman and I attended a conference on domestic and sexual violence. And I said at that conference, like the best day we will have is the day that we don't need this conference anymore. And similarly, the best day we will have It was a day that we don't need this resolution anymore.

[02:58:49] But as we do, what you all do is amazing and saves lives every single day. So thank you very much. And now I will read the resolution. Proclamation recognizing National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month. Whereas April is National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month, calling out that freedom from all forms of violence, including sexual violence, as a basic human right.

[02:59:14] And whereas one in four adult women and one in 26 adult men have survived a rape or an attempted rape, one in four. And whereas crimes of sexual violence occur far too frequently, go underreported and unreported far too often, and leave lasting impacts.

[02:59:36] And whereas during National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month, we recommit ourselves to removing the stigma surrounding sexual violence, expanding support for survivors of sexual violence, and strengthening our response.

[02:59:51] And whereas Loudoun County partners with laws, domestic violence, and sexual assault services to support all domestic violence and sexual assault survivors, regardless of age, gender, identity, ability, and any other distinguishing features so that all Loudouners may feel free of violence.

[03:00:11] And whereas at every level, we must work together to provide necessary resources to support sexual assault survivors, to reclaim safety, hope for the future, and power over their own bodies. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors does hereby proclaim April 2024 as National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month.

[03:00:39] Thank you. Who amongst you would like to speak for the group? I guess you just said that too. If it was that, somebody could speak for the group right to you. On behalf of everyone standing up here, we are Laws, Domestic Violence, and Sexual Assault Services with community partners, our Department of Family Services, making sure that we provide safety, hope, and empowerment for survivors throughout Loudoun County, providing services that are free, that are confidential, that are without any judgment whatsoever

[03:01:18] and are always volunteering based on what the survivor or however they identify themselves, that they are in control of what happens at all times. On behalf of all of that, I am so pleased to have us recommit to recognizing National Sexual Assault and Awareness and Prevention Month.

[03:01:40] Thank you. Thank you so much. And, and we have, we have, the need has become great enough that we have other organizations to do it, to do this work as well. The Laws has been doing this work for a very long time and we appreciate it very much. All right. We're going to get a picture

[03:01:53] after I hand you that. All right. We're going to get a picture, supervisors. I don't think it's any,

[03:02:50] any surprise that sexual assault awareness month and childhood prevention, abuse prevention month or the same months, you know, when, when children watch this, these horrors it's it's it is an abusive moment just in of itself for children to watch a parent often a mom get um get abused that that in and of itself is abuse to the child so we have a proclamation for national child use child abuse and prevention month and then esmeralda you're going to speak correct all right whereas april is national childhood child abuse prevention month

[03:03:26] calling attention to our moral obligation to protect every child from harm and whereas at least one in seven children have experienced child abuse in the last year in the United States and one in four girls and one in four girls and one in 13 boys will face sexual abuse before they turn 18. Whereas the trauma of child abuse and neglect has a lasting psychological, emotional, and physical impact into adulthood, and whereas effective childhood prevention is a community effort, it succeeds because of the combined commitments among health care providers,

[03:04:06] educators, families, child welfare advocates, and other community, cultural, and faith-based organizations, and whereas Loudoun Child Advocacy Center, a program of law, domestic violence, and Sexual Assault Services calls upon all community members to promote the social and emotional well-being of children and families, protect children from harm, and foster safe, stable, nurturing environments. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors does hereby proclaim April 2024 as National Child Abuse Prevention Month in Loudoun

[03:04:44] County. I will also say having been someone who worked in jails and prisons for much of my career as a therapist, the number of people in jails and prisons who were the victims of childhood sexual assault or childhood violence is much higher than the national norm. When children experience hurt, they hurt. Hurt people, hurt people. That's how that works. And so it's so important to this work you're doing. So, Esmeralda. Thank you, Chair Randall. My name is Esmeralda. I'm

[03:05:22] the director of the Loudoun Child Advocacy Center, one of the programs at Laws, and we serve about 200 plus children every year here in Loudoun that have experienced reported sexual abuse, physical abuse, and other forms of maltreatment, and we provide them with forensic interviews, advocacy services, therapy services, and also facilitate our multidisciplinary team response in Loudoun with heroes like our friends at DFS who help make sure that there is a net of support for children after a report is made throughout investigation, prosecution, and beyond. And really, it's an honor

[03:05:59] to do this work. The children that we see are the exception. Most adults take these secrets to the grave. And so the children that we see, it's truly an honor for us to be able to help them and help them have safe and carefree childhoods here in Loudoun. Thank you. Okay. All right. Superversions,

[03:06:18] let's do it. Better? No, but there we go. Hello. Hello, Stephanie. How are you guys doing? Good to

[03:07:23] see you. Good to see you. It's like I don't see you enough. I like you very much at all. Hi. Hi. So a little bit. Um, uh, I got a basketball practice. Yes. I know. All right. This is the Northern Virginia Family Service 100th anniversary. Okay. Whereas the Northern Virginia Family Services begin in 1924 in Alexandria, Virginia, when local volunteers

[03:07:59] help families in need. The organization continues to grow its services and celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2024. And whereas North Virginia's Family Services mission is to work with individuals and families to tap into their own inherent resilience and focus on the root causes of the problems they face so they can uplift and transform their lives, the communities and those of the next generation. Whereas Northern Virginia Family Services supports more than 30,000 individuals through the transformative programs that engage a wraparound approach and respond to

[03:08:37] the community's evolving need by establishing access to affordable housing, health care, food security, workforce development, childhood education, mental health, and many other services. And whereas Northern Virginia Family Services proudly employs nearly 350 staff members, more than half of whom identify as bilingual, bicultural, and collectively speak 16 different languages, all of which are proud to serve our community. Now, therefore, be it resolved that The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors recognizes the 100-year anniversary of the Northern Virginia Family Services.

[03:09:16] Yay. I cannot tell you all how many clients over the years I sent to you all, especially when I was working with mothers who were using and then people who were leaving incarcerated settings.

[03:09:34] You all do such good work. Are you all going to have, like, a gala or a party or something on May 3rd? I don't have an invitation to that shit. Lots of parties are coming. Lots of parties are coming. Okay. Sounds wonderful. Well, and along the lines, we're opening a new center right in Ashburn to expand our child care services to up to, we'll see what licensing says, but up to 70 to 100 children to bring our Head Start programs back into a center.

[03:10:00] We've been in and out. So we'll have an open house and we'll look forward to having everybody. We'll see what the licensing, but what we anticipate, at least 50 to 75 children in the new space. So we're really excited. Really, we wanted to just, on behalf of all of us at NVFS, thank you, Chair Randall.

[03:10:16] Thank all of the supervisors here for your partnership. None of us have been here for 100 years, but all of us collectively build upon the shoulders of all who have come before, and it's truly been an incredible partnership because every organization like Northern Virginia Family Service that's serving people, it's all about the partnerships and the collaboration, and we work with the county colleagues and partners and nonprofit partners in the faith community every single day to make sure that every person in the community has the ability to thrive.

[03:10:46] Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it. I hand you that, and I'm going to put you in the middle again, and we're going to take a picture.

[03:11:35] Tonight is for the Fair Housing Month. Mr. Sains, will you join me down front, please? Anybody here for Fair Housing Month? There we go. I was the chair of Virginia's Fair Housing Board for many, many years.

[03:12:00] It was one of the most gratifying jobs I ever did. this is such an important, such an important topic. And I'm so glad that we're all talking about this, including our chambers, including our business community, including our nonprofits, including our faith-based communities. Everyone is having this conversation. And you did just fantastic at the event the other day. I was, I was really proud of you. All right. Where, you want to read this? I'm sorry. Whereas the Fair Housing Act was enacted into law on April 11th, 1968, establishing a national policy for fair housing for all who live in the

[03:12:40] United States. And whereas the Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination in housing based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, and gender identity and sexual orientation, family status or disability. And whereas the Board of Supervisors vision is that Loudoun County strives to be a prosperous, inclusive, equitable, and sustainable community where residents feel free to live, work, learn, and play, and whereas Loudoun County is committed to affirmatively furthering fair housing, removing impediments to fair housing choice, and fostering inclusive communities free

[03:13:15] from housing discrimination as supported by the 2023 Regional Fair Housing Plan, and whereas Loudoun County is committed to policies and programs that provide attainable housing and educate the public about fair housing rights, and whereas furthering fair housing in Loudoun County requires the collaborative work of government, businesses, and community partners.

[03:13:34] Now, therefore, be it resolved that Loudoun County Board of Supervisors does hereby proclaim April 2024 as Fair Housing Month in Loudoun County. And we are committed to promoting fair housing policies and practices. So, Mr. Hall, we have a few words to say.

[03:13:52] Thank you, Madam Chair and members of the board. I just wanted to thank you for your unwavering commitment to housing and fair housing in particular. This is the 56th year for the Fair Housing Act of 1968 as amended, and our work is not done.

[03:14:08] This year's theme that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has for Fair Housing Month is the Act in Action. And so at DHCD, Department of Housing and Community Development, we are putting the Act in action. We participated last week with HUD's National Capital Area Office, where we learned a lot about what's happening with property appraisal.

[03:14:32] discrimination in property appraisal and valuation equity there's a lot of work being done and HUD has actually stood up its own separate office to address the inequities there and at our department we are focused this year on choice mobility increasing access to housing all throughout the county for residents who are seeking quality affordable housing so we thank you for your continued support and we look forward to doing even greater things here in Loudoun County you guys are you guys do great work already so thank all of you

[03:15:01] All right. Let's get a picture. So cute. Okay, everyone, we're going to do our second round of speakers.

[03:16:34] Let me start before we start our second round by correcting something. There was information that was incorrectly put out that said that the Loudoun County Board was considering a resolution to speak to the crisis in the Middle East. That is not true.

[03:16:51] We have never considered that. I set the agenda. No supervisor has ever brought that to me, and if they did, I would not put it on the agenda. It was intentional misinformation, and it was stated in such a way that somebody could have very, very likely believed that it was true.

[03:17:11] So there is no resolution coming from this board on this issue. There never has been, and as long as I am chair, there will not be. Thank you. All right. I will call your name in advance.

[03:17:26] Please come to the podium closest to you. I'll call the names about three in advance so everyone knows that they're coming up next. You have two and a half minutes after your time has expired. If you yield the floor to the next speaker, I'd appreciate that. And if you would direct your comments to the board, so this direction, I'd appreciate that as well.

[03:17:44] Our first speaker is Haim Cohen, followed by Shadlin Tiffin, followed by Adam Tiffin. Good evening. good to see you again good evening god bless you all so uh they say a tale ancient jewish tale of someone who spread misinformation about a friend of theirs and they went to the rabbi and they tried repenting for it the rabbi said i have a perfect solution go home grab a feather pillow go back to the town square and beat the flagpole with the feather pillow all right weird request weird thing but he came back the next day says rabbi i did it i'm good he says whoa take the

[03:18:20] the pillowcase now and go collect all the feathers and put it back inside. So whatever damage was done, I want to talk from a bird's eye view. I think it's incumbent upon everyone here and upon those that made the statement to try to clean up as much feathers as possible.

[03:18:39] I think that Jewish tradition teaches that which means divine providence, that all of you guys up here have a divine mission, a godly mission to serve. And once you're in that position, you have all the strength of God to do the mission properly. And the Torah teaches us that when you are in that position, we got to make the right choice. I want to thank Chair Randall and Supervisor Brisbane for that meeting we had, the private meeting. And throughout the county, many were hurt and affected by what was said and the statement that came out. And as a

[03:19:14] rabbi, I ask that whatever follow-up statement needs to happen to correct inaccurate information should be done and to everyone i say thank you thank you for all your for your leadership thank you for all that you guys do for our county and god bless you all and to the world i say the jewish people are eternal people god gave us that commitment and with that i'm yisrael hi thank you all for your time i appreciate you very much thank you rabbi i appreciate you shaneen tiffin followed by adam tiffin followed by stephen uh grudman is um separate i thought yeah oh so they're

[03:19:48] online. Okay. Yes. Can you hear me? We can hear you just fine, ma'am. Okay. Great. Thank you so much. So I'd like to start. As an Iranian-American Jew and a resident of Black County, I came before you today to offer my reflections on a statement of humanitarian crisis in Gaza issued by a supervisor, Julie Bristman. I strive to set aside the direction to engage with an open mind and heart, practicing critique and introspection. Yet the one-sided undertone of your immediate release made it extremely difficult to do so. As a Loudoun County constituent, I expect local issues to be at the forefront of immediate release statements from your office, plus saying that Supervisor Bristman leaves her platform in the county's letterhead to address that particular

[03:20:27] international matter, especially when there are similar statements on foreign conflicts or humanitarian concerns are found in the archives. I'd like to address the topic of proportionality. Proportionality in conflict is an elusive ideal, in my opinion. Adhering strictly to the concept of proportionality might imply that responses to violent acts should mimic the specifics of initial aggression, which is impractical and ethically, in my opinion, quite questionable, given the intentional rape of women, the intentional burning of babies, and the sheer terror of October 7th. Such a literal interpretation of proportionality does not align with international humanitarian principles. The debate on proportionality and conflict seems to single out Israel only. It's also important to note that differing approaches to warfare

[03:21:06] risk groups aim to inflict civilian casualties, the stated objectives of nations like the United States, Canada, Israel, and other democracies purport to minimize civilian harm. This fundamental difference in objectives underlines the challenges implying the principles of proportionality. The idea protects civilians, which contrasts with the tactics attributed to a terrorist organization such as Hamas, where their own civilians are used as shields. All Israelis are targets. This is a known fact. Feel free to read their charter.

[03:21:33] You may simply Google it. When you state, I feel obligated to use my voice, then use it with nuance, critique and clarity. Bonus of protection for Gazans is on their elected leaders who are the reason for their situation. Irresponsibility and absolute resistance squarge with our lives, not only residing in unconscionable blood on all sides, but also benefiting monetarily from the death of these women and children. I say this as an Iranian. The concept of shaheed is what fuels their money machine. It fuels the IRGC, the same one in balance mentioned, which murdered Masta Amini and Kion Pir-Falek on the world stage.

[03:22:08] Where was your immediate relief statement for Iranian women and children? They were murdered by the IRGC. On one, you criticize Israel for proportionality. On another, you criticize a very successful military strike on a common enemy. The resulting death of one innocent life is too many. Yet before attacking the IGF, I ask you to consider why Gaza, which has the infrastructure to build such cross-border underground mazes, lacks any civilian bomb shelters.

[03:22:31] Why? Hamas publicly stays fighting in the class all the time. Ma'am, ma'am, ma'am, thank you so much. You can feel free to send us your comments in the email, but you are at the time. Is Adam in the home with you?

[03:22:48] Is this a family member? Because he is next. Did she go? Okay, so we have Adam Tiffin. Is he on the line also? No? Okay, all right. Stephen Grudman, followed by Brenda.

[03:23:05] Okay, now we've practiced it four times. I don't remember what it was anymore because we've practiced it four so many times. Brenda Hamicha. Hamicha, I got that? Close. Okay, all right. Hamicha. Okay. You were next, Mr. Groupman.

[03:23:21] All right, now that it's National Sexual Assault Prevention Month and Child Abuse Awareness Month, let's remember all the victims on October 7th who were raped and molested, including the children that are still held captive in Gaza, most likely dead, honestly. unfortunately. Let's be clear. Anti-Zionism is anti-Semitic. Israel, the ancestral homeland, the size of New Jersey, surrounded by dozens of larger Muslim nations, is the focus of such negativity due to anti-Semitism alone, nothing else. If Mexico sent 300 aerial artillery into

[03:23:59] Texas or slaughtered 1,200 Californians and took 250 hostages, the world would be fully supportive of the U.S. destroying the Mexican government, even if accompanied by unavoidable civilian casualties. The U.S. killed tens of thousands in Afghanistan in pursuit of the Taliban. And, Ms. Briskman, far more German civilians were killed than Allied civilians in bombing raids.

[03:24:22] Does that grant victimhood or moral superiority to Nazi Germany? Should the Allies have stopped outside of Berlin rather than finishing the job, Ms. Briskman? Of course not. The civilian death has nothing to do with moral superiority in war, and in this case, it demonstrates the truth that Israel uses its weapons to defend its citizens, and Hamas uses their civilians to defend their weapons. There is no moral equivalence. Proportionality is irrelevant. Israel does not target civilians. They regularly warn civilians to leave targeted areas. In contrast, the Hamas Interior Ministry openly threatens Gazans to remain in dangerous areas to die as martyrs so

[03:25:02] that they can gain sympathy of useful idiots in their words, like Ms. Briskman that they propagandize to around the world. Israel provides an abundance of humanitarian aid to Gazans, which Hamas steals. If you wish Gazans not to starve, Ms. Briskman, call on Hamas to surrender and stop stealing the humanitarian aid.

[03:25:23] They build their tunnels with the humanitarian aid that the United States give them. They take the pipes that are meant for infrastructure that the United States gives them, and they build rockets with them. And honestly, it's just reading your comments, reading your statement was honestly very despicable.

[03:25:40] And it showed a clear lapse of moral judgment. And I really wish you'd reconsider. I respect everyone on this board, but that very much upset me. And as a resident of Loudoun County and a proud Jew, I couldn't stay silent. Thank you. Ami Sir Ochai. Thank you, sir. Thank you.

[03:25:57] Brenda. Amitia. There we go. followed by Brian Turner, followed by Drew Bishop. Good evening, ma'am. Good evening. I stand before you today as a proud Jew.

[03:26:13] I'm here to speak for those who are no longer able to speak and with a solemn duty to address the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, a conflict that demands our attention and clear moral clarity. On October 7th, the world witnessed a brutal assault orchestrated by Hamas, an act of terrorism that shook the foundation of peace and stability in the region.

[03:26:33] On that horrific day, Hamas unleashed a barrage of rockets targeting innocent civilians in Israel, causing fear, destruction, and loss of life. The numbers speak volumes. More than 1,200 Israelis were killed. Hamas terrorists waged the deadliest attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust, slaughtering babies, raping women, burning entire families alive, and taking hundreds of innocent civilians hostage.

[03:26:56] More than six months later, we stand here calling for the immediate release of 134 men, women, and children who are still in Hamas captivity. Let us not forget to mention the toll that these attacks took on innocent families, children, and communities throughout Israel.

[03:27:13] It is critical that we recognize the vicious perpetrators of these attacks as for what they truly are. Hamas is a terrorist organization with a long history of violence and bloodshed. This is not a matter of opinion, but rather a fact acknowledged by the United States government and numerous other nations around the world.

[03:27:31] Hamas' evident disregard for human life and its use of civilians as shields and its relentless pursuit of the destruction of the state of Israel are a threat to the values of peace and security that we hold dear as Americans. Do not be fooled. Hamas' sole mission is the destruction of the state of Israel.

[03:27:49] If you don't believe me, you can read their charter. Many are calling for a ceasefire, but such calls are misguided. Israel, like every other country, has the right to defend itself against agrarious attacks. No country should be expected to sit idly by while terrorists target its citizens.

[03:28:08] The actions taken by Israel to defend its people are not only justified, but necessary. Furthermore, it is essential to acknowledge the complexities of warfare. In any conflict, innocent lives are tragically lost. However, it is critical to recognize that the IDF goes to great strengths to not cause harm to civilians, surpassing those of their adversaries.

[03:28:32] Suggestions otherwise are not only false, but disrespectful to the sacrifices made by the brave men and women of the IDF. In conclusion, I urge Loudoun County Board of Supervisors to unquivocally... Ma'am, I'm sorry. You can feel free to send your comments in, but your time is up.

[03:28:47] Thank you. Thank you very much. Everyone, you should know that after this, we will have board comments, and so I don't know. I have not spoken to Ms. Bricksman. She may or may not have comments to make, but if you'd like to, if you can, stay through board comments. It might be helpful, maybe.

[03:29:06] Brian Turner. Hi. You're followed by Drew Bishop, followed by Michael Myers. Thank you. Chair Randall and members of the Board of Supervisors, I'm Brian Turner and the general counsel to the Landstown Conservancy. On behalf of the Conservancy and its 7,000-plus residents and businesses, I want to thank you for the Board's support and intervention at the State Corporation Commission to protect our impacted citizens and to advocate for undergrounding power lines along Route 7 and elsewhere where it's feasible and appropriate.

[03:29:35] The Board's support for action runs far beyond Lansdowne and has garnered backing from residents all over our county, including our neighbors in Western Loudoun. Just as Western Loudoun Alliance has supported the board's intervention at the SEC, the Lansdowne Conservancy supports our Western Loudoun community and their efforts to place the Nextera line in an existing right-of-way.

[03:29:56] As currently proposed, the Nextera line will run through Loudoun's valued greenfields, wineries, and historic areas, and not in existing easements where they belong, aesthetically and legally. Your constituents are joining forces to demand the energy companies and regulators hear our voices.

[03:30:13] Western and Eastern Lawn are aligned in this message. Dominion must bury 500 kV lines where it's feasible to do so, and Nextera must build in locations where power lines already exist. We are in solidarity with you, and we will not sit idly by while utility companies look to the cheap, easiest paths without regard to the damage they can do to our quality of life. Board members, please keep the momentum going forward by passing the resolution opposing Nextera's proposed high voltage transmission lines through Western Lawn County. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Turner.

[03:30:45] Drew Bishop, you'll be followed by Michael Myers, and you'll be followed by Jim Hanna. Good evening, sir. Good evening. Supervisors, during the December 5th, 2023 business meeting, the board initiated abandonment for a portion of Beaverdam Bridge Road, otherwise known as Virginia Route 746, specifically the bridge crossing in public right-of-way, and a significant length of road extending north of the bridge into Catoctin District and south of the bridge into Little River District.

[03:31:21] As several members will recall, the present low-water bridge became a concern due to lack of maintenance and or repair and was closed to vehicular traffic a few years ago. Mixed efforts to restore the bridge to full service failed for lack of funding at the time. Despite this, the present right-of-way continues to serve hundreds of pedestrians, cyclists, equestrians, and active community members on a weekly basis public roads and rights of way are a valuable resource the board action to abandon this public right of way section was approved via consent

[03:31:56] agenda without public input or board discussion i personally only learned of this while searching board documents for an unrelated item if implemented as planned this action will result in conversion of a public resource to private property this evening i'm presenting a letter which requests the board of supervisors halt the road abandonment process is it is signed by a growing list of your constituents in several organizations including but not limited to piedmont foxhounds conservation philomont village foundation bike loudon snickersville turnpike

[03:32:31] association loudon 1725 gravel grinder by ex2 unison preservation society bellow pigs cycling loudon county equine alliance and friends of philomont the governor's recent signing of state bill 644 creates unique and innovative funding opportunities to reconsider this highly utilized public right-of-way through a new lens additionally this board is well aware of our efforts for a linear parks and trails system abandonment of this section of public road and its proposed proposed conversion of private property would be a step backwards in achieving this goal or other

[03:33:06] potential uses and would deprive the public of a valuable resource thank you for the opportunity to address you this evening and for your recognition of the value of this resource to all constituents of Loudoun County. Thank you. Thank you, sir. I might be giving you a call sometime soon. Thank you. Michael Myers, followed by Jim Hanna, followed by Shannon Daitling. Good evening. Hi. My name is Michael Myers, and I'm representing myself tonight. As you may know, I am moving to Lake Tahoe, and I just wanted to wish this board the best of luck. And I sincerely hope that you all do more to strive to do more to protect natural resources in

[03:33:45] Loudoun County and I want to give a shout out to the Environmental Commission which is working on some really awesome positive solutions and I was going to try to keep my comments positive and they mostly will be but it's really hard to say positive in all the light of the destruction of natural resources happening on a nearly daily basis. I mean I found out yesterday that TLUC will be discussing a trail assessment for potential equestrian uses at Banshee Weeks tomorrow. I was surprised to find that out yesterday since I have been trying my best and have inquired with PRCS as to the timeline of this without getting a response to stay informed about this topic that is of great importance to myself and my organization. So I'm going to offer

[03:34:23] a few words of caution. To be blunt, the county's public input process and park planning process is flawed and broken. The lack of inclusion of subject matter experts and substantive dialogue surrounding the importance and value of natural resources happens on a regular basis at multiple levels, and this topic and the recent Prose Board meetings and recommendation highlight that deficiency. Studying the potential impacts to a user group before access is granted is a fair and worthwhile cause to ensure natural resources are protected. However, the staff report and draft motions are so broad and vague, they offer little comfort to concerned citizens who are passionate about natural resources. I urge you all to ask the right questions and require that subject matter

[03:35:02] experts such as wildlife biologists, ecologists, soil scientists, and hydrologists are at the forefront of any analysis. In my experience, a typical PRCS contractors are great at tearing things down and paving things over in the name of recreation, and not so great at evaluating, explaining, or protecting natural resources. Some of the items for you all to ponder, what will the criteria be for assessing equestrian impacts? How will sensitive areas be prioritized? How will impacts of soils, vegetation, and wildlife be measured? And if allowed, how will impacts be monitored and or mitigated? Lauda needs more equestrian trails, and Lowney needs to protect more natural areas, which includes protecting Banshee Reeks,

[03:35:41] a nature preserve that was set aside to be used exclusively for the conservation and related limited non-intrusive educational uses. You have a lot of challenging decisions in your future, and I wish you all the best. The grass may not always be greener on the other side, but I'm pretty sure the water is gonna be bluer in Tahoe.

[03:35:57] So thank you so much for your time. - So Mr. Meyer, let me make protocol a little bit here And say that, you know, I think I at least agree with you very, very often. And when I don't, that's okay. But I have found that you have been so committed into your cause.

[03:36:16] You have helped us a lot. You've educated me a lot. You've given us books. You send us links. We do look at them and read them. You have been such a good advocate for wildlife. And, you know, I don't know if people always realize that, you know, when you all come here and send us stuff, we do read it, and we do look at it, and I think I speak for the board when I say how much I have appreciated you.

[03:36:42] It is Loudon's loss and Lake Tahoe's gain. I hope you get there, really hate all that snow, and decide to come back. That's what I actually hope. But thank you so much, and good luck. Well, thank you, and thank you all for listening and for your service. it's been an honor to live here and be a part of our civic community thank you thanks michael all right jim hannah followed followed by shanning detling followed by john ellis good evening sir good evening madam chair members of the board thank you for this chance to speak on behalf of

[03:37:15] the loudon transmission line alliance in full support of action item four a resolution opposing NextEra Energy's proposed transmission line through Western Loudoun. We very much welcome this and we're very grateful to the staff and to the board for the support that's embodied in this resolution. This proposed transmission line is a serious threat across Western Loudoun directly and indirectly to the natural, environmental, and heritage resources it has, to local businesses in

[03:37:49] the agricultural equine hospitality and tourism sectors, to national historic landmarks and national register historic districts and sites, to agriculture and forest districts, open space and conservation easements, and certainly to its many residential communities. The Loudoun Transmission Line Alliance is today composed of over 1,500 individuals and 35 local and regional organizations that have signed the declaration on the NextEra proposal.

[03:38:23] That is a declaration that has already been circulated to the Board. Accordingly, the Alliance does not oppose, but indeed supports, the overall PGM regional transmission expansion plan, aimed in particular to meet the rising power needs of the region's data center industry.

[03:38:41] The Alliance does firmly oppose NextEra's proposal for a new transmission path anywhere in western Loudoun and request NextEra to withdraw this proposal. And it calls on NextEra to select an existing right-of-way to support implementation of the PJM plan.

[03:39:02] We understand that such a right-of-way is readily available and further understand that it would effectively accelerate and not delay realization of the project at comparable costs.

[03:39:19] For NextEra, this is a commercial decision, But for Loudoun, it is existential. We request your unanimous support for the approval of this resolution before the board tonight. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Shannon Dittling, followed by John Ellis, followed by Thomas Sweeney.

[03:39:37] Good evening, sir. Hi. Good evening. Thank you very much for the opportunity to be here. I recognize that we all enjoy a great privilege to be able to provide public input and freedom in this country. I'm here to speak about the proposed Tillots View development. and thank you to those members of the board who've been willing to meet with citizens whose children will be affected by the traffic and safety impacts of this development.

[03:40:00] I live next to the site with my wife and four kids, and we've had children at Eagle Ridge Middle School for six years, and I have my youngest two who are gonna be there for four more years. Eagle Ridge is one of the four schools that are nearby along Waxpool Road.

[03:40:15] Previously, many members of the community expressed our concerns about traffic and safety impacts on Waxpool Road and other surrounding roads from adding this many homes. You heard us and on March 13th in the board meeting, the majority of the board denied the rezoning application. In advance of that meeting, it was publicly described by members of this board as a final vote of approval or denial.

[03:40:36] So I was disappointed that on March 19th, just six days later, the board so quickly decided to reconsider after the applicant proposed a 10% reduction in the number of units. Our core concern remains about the impact of traffic and safety around the schools for our children and the children who will one day live at the site when it's developed.

[03:40:54] These transportation and safety concerns have to be thoroughly studied with the most recent information. Proposed changes need to be vetted compared to the county transportation plan before the application is approved to ensure that the school children are safe on their way to and from the schools there, including the children who will move into the development.

[03:41:13] The applicant's analysis is based on observations from a single day in December of 2021. Since that study, there have been 30 accidents in the area, including one on Waxpool Road and Belmont Ridge just two weeks ago. The Loudoun County Public School memo most recently states that a closure of Belmont Ridge and Waxpool Road intersection would severely impact traffic, and it notes that the safety of vehicles and pedestrians traveling could be at risk.

[03:41:38] We already experienced that just a half a mile away near Eagle Ridge Middle School. From our home, we see long queues of cars on Waxpool Road leaving Waxpool Elementary, and we experience long queues near accidents of vehicles and child pedestrians on Waxpool Road at Eagle Ridge when we drop off our kids.

[03:41:55] We hear screeching brakes for cars coming around the blind curve on Waxpool Road and luckily stopping before hitting a child crossing the street there. The intersections right now are all worse than F and we think that there's other alternatives and safety measures that should be studied and required before any application is approved to ensure the county transportation plan is followed and to create a safe environment for all.

[03:42:15] Thank you very much. Thank you, sir. Thank you. John Ellis, followed by Thomas Sweeney, followed by Donna Wadowski. Good evening, Mr. Ellis. Good evening, everybody. It's a pleasure to be here and to be able to speak before midnight. I'm here.

[03:42:32] I'm John Ellis. I'm from the Catoctin District. I'm here to speak about the capital intensity factors. And I have to confess initially that I've been a fairly delinquent member of the Fiscal Impact Committee for the past year, and I apologize for that.

[03:42:48] But I do believe the board should not approve the CIF as currently proposed, specifically the roads factor, and it should not phase in the application of the new CIF. As currently proposed, the roads factor significantly lowballs the cost of upzone development.

[03:43:08] It does this in two ways. First, there's an inadequate data set that is the cost basis for the cost per lane mile. There's only eight examples in the data set. In that data set, half of them, half of the projects cost more than $10 million per lane mile.

[03:43:27] The current draft says the cost will be $7.5 million, so that's significantly less and potentially costing taxpayers quite a bit. Second, the roads factor sets the level of service at level of service D, and the item tonight incorrectly says that that's what the county transportation plan sets as a standard, but actually the county transportation plan sets the standard as level of service D or better.

[03:44:01] So in other words, the current CIF is maintaining the minimal possible standard. The other issue is the proposed phase-in of the CIF. A phase-in doesn't make the costs of upzoning go away.

[03:44:20] It simply transfers a burden to the taxpayers. The development industry has consistently stated that it is committed to covering the full cost to the public of upzoning. I think we should take them up on that and not phase in the cost, not defer the cost to them that otherwise our taxpayers will have to pay. There may be some who feel that we're so awash in data center revenues and that we're expecting a big surplus this year, and therefore we shouldn't have to worry about transferring the costs of upzoning to the taxpayer because the data centers will cover it.

[03:45:00] Mr. Ellis, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I know it goes quickly. Thank you so much. Thank you. Before you speak, sir, Mr. Kirshner, are you still on the line? Is he still on the line? Yes, Madam Chair, I am. Okay, thank you. I just saw that you made an ask of me, and I hadn't seen that.

[03:45:19] I apologize. Good evening, Mr. Sweeney. You will be followed by Donna Wadowski and followed by Avis Winshaw. Thank you. Good evening, supervisors. Thank you for having me here. I come to, my name is Thomas Sweeney in Catoctin District, and I came to speak on item three, the accelerated broadband update.

[03:45:38] As everybody knows, the 8,600 underserved citizens in the Western Loudoun is very important to get reliable, high-speed Internet. But this extension that you're going to get updated on should not come of a surprise. Over a year ago, you should have seen that they were getting very far behind all points broadband was.

[03:45:58] What's a little disappointing, though, is the last update I believe this board got. You basically got the blue skies and butterflies saying everything's fine. We'll get it substantially completed by July. Now, here we are about three months, four months later now, and now they're saying we need a 70% increase in the time.

[03:46:19] Like I said, it shouldn't have been a surprise. What's more a little disappointing is that the updates that the county has been given to VATI says there is no overdue milestones, at least until last January, I believe, the last one I saw. So now they've been behind at least two to three milestones now.

[03:46:39] So what I'm asking the board to do, if they could, is to maybe look at having a third-party contractor to oversee the contract with all points using the VATI funds. Last I understood is that in 17 months, if the VATI funds aren't done, I think they're gone from what I heard.

[03:46:59] I could be wrong. I don't know. So, yeah, the last update, at least in January that I got, that was put out by the county is that out of the 11,000 permits needed, they only did 3,000 permits, and it takes them half a year to get them done.

[03:47:16] So that's pretty far behind. There needs to be some more oversight to this. My next little issue would be I'm curious of which all-points broadband we're talking about here. When I started looking at this in January, I started seeing some inconsistencies of the company names.

[03:47:33] Your RFI came back with All Points Broadband, which is a fictitious name for, I believe it's Virginia Everywhere LLC. Your MOU was signed in May with All Points Broadband Partners LLC. Strange. Your VATIC application was, again, with All Points Broadband.

[03:47:50] And the contract you all signed for $12.4 million was with APB Partners Loudon LLC. Where did that come from? That wasn't a part of the RFI, wasn't a part of the application. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Donna Wadowski, followed by Avis Renshaw, followed by Gary Katz.

[03:48:09] Good evening, Ms. Wadowski. Good. Hi. Hi, Ms. Tacroni. Last night, my husband and I attended a reception in D.C. that was pro-Israel, and it included many dignitaries, to include the former ambassador of Israel, David Friedman.

[03:48:30] Ms. Brissman, let's put this situation in its proper perspective. In 2005, Israel evacuated, some forcefully, all the Jewish people from Gaza, closed synagogues, businesses, and even relocated all the dead.

[03:48:50] Israel turned over Gaza to the Palestinian Authority. In 2007, Hamas was elected in Gaza. There was never another election. Hamas immediately built an extensive tunnel system, armed themselves to the hilt and fired thousand rockets into Israel. Hamas did very little for the people of Gaza. Iran attacked Israel over the weekend, sending over 300 drones and ballistic

[03:49:22] missiles into Israel. President Biden and all the Democrats in unison said don't to Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel. I disagree with them. I say do attack the Iranians by any means possible and we will see how the Iranians fare in these attacks. When it comes to war, there's no such thing as proportionality. You either fight to win or lose. I agree with you, Ms. Bristman.

[03:49:56] Israel has a right to defend itself. However, Hamas should surrender and release the hostages what few are left without any conditions. Let's remember, there was peace on October 6th. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Avis Renshaw, followed by Gary Katz, followed by Tony Bayoulio. Good evening. Good evening, board. Virgilio. Thank you. My bad. I'm sorry. Virgilio. Good evening,

[03:50:32] Ms. Renshaw. Good evening, board. I'm Avis Renshaw, and I'm here to talk about easements a little bit. But with regard to last week's public hearing on prime soils and conservation easements, it's important that you know that proponents of prime soils are also proponents of conservation easements. We recognize the extraordinary value to society that easements provide with or without prime soils. We would be loathe to see anyone decline to pursue an easement because of the prime soils ZOAM. This is why when Mr. Van Black and Mr. Lovegrove represented the ZOAM in meetings

[03:51:08] with those who opposed it, they compromised on many design standards to make sure that even wealthy landowners would not lose monetary land value by donating it via conservation easement. They compromised on multiple current development standards to avoid reducing that prime soils percentage. They agreed to an 80% reduction in houses per cluster to enable flexibility in design. They agreed to preservation farm lot size reduction, non-preferential septic placement, and other size, location, and buffer changes, all with the goal of preserving prime soils and land values simultaneously.

[03:51:46] If Mr. Taunton's $20,000 development plat was designed with current standards, as it probably was, he has no business holding it up as an example of doom. Please verify that all the new hard-fought changes to the cluster design have been applied to that plat before judging his property as a case in point to deny this as OM.

[03:52:04] Prime soil proponents hope Taunton's complaints will thus be resolved and that he actually does pursue a conservation easement with his land. Easements were intended to be a beneficial act of largesse to society writ large starting in the 20s when the government bought land for public benefit.

[03:52:23] Since 99, Virginians have been able to not just use but also sell the tax credits issued through their conservation easements. This has enabled many less wealthy Virginians to participate in the program, many here in Loudoun. These conserved Loudoun County lands benefit all of us through cleaner water, less cost of service load, added wildlife refuge, et cetera.

[03:52:47] And because they benefit everyone, they're worth facilitating, and I encourage you to up the ante to make it possible for more people to contribute in this way. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Rindell. Gary Katz, followed by Tony Regilio and Debbie Regilio.

[03:53:04] Good evening, Mr. Katz. Good evening, Chair Randall. So, tonight, I am here as a husband, father of three, Jew, and your constituent.

[03:53:22] Let's talk like we used to before the fall, when we would occasionally speak on county issues that were of substance. Chair Randall spoke tonight at the beginning of the meeting about setting the record straight about misinformation. I couldn't agree more, actually. I think that was spot on.

[03:53:40] I would agree, not only that that's important, I'd echo Rabbi Cohen's sentiments as well, that the record needs to be set straight. It's unfortunate. It's a shame. It's a shunda, if you will, as we say, that this is even a topic on the floor of the Board of Supervisors tonight. It shouldn't be. This was completely avoidable and didn't need to happen. I'm not going to belabor this further. I think the community has spoken very clearly on the issues at the five o'clock session as well as tonight. I look forward to hearing the board comments. I'd remind the board that this shouldn't be a political issue.

[03:54:19] There are lives on both sides, families, Israeli, Palestinian, friends and family who are dying, who are being tortured, who are, I won't go into it because it's public, but you all know what's happening. So let's just fix this, make this right, not make this a topic of Loudoun County Board of Supervisors.

[03:54:41] Thank you for your time. Thank you. Tony Virgilio. And sir, you will be followed by our last speaker, Debbie Virgilio. Good evening. Good evening, Madam Chairman. And good evening, Board. And it's so nice to be here and be on your side for a change.

[03:55:00] Instead of having criticisms and comments, I'm here to talk about the transmission lines. And first, I want to tell you that the resolution before you is the right one. We just came back from the state of Florida, where, in fact, they have put multiple transmission lines down the same corridor.

[03:55:16] I don't mean one or two lines. I mean five or six lines, all in a single corridor. 500 kV lines, 750 kV lines, 345 kV lines. It looks messy, but it's only messy in one place. And we already have lines coming into the county, and we know what that looks like.

[03:55:34] It would be unfortunate to have more lines coming in. And as I've told you at previous meetings, we're not talking about just one more line or two more lines. We're talking about seven to eight, nine more lines that are required in order to be able to service all of the data centers. Not only the ones that are existing, the ones that are under construction, but also the ones that are proposed.

[03:55:53] So unless we get this under control and restrict the companies, the PJM, NextEra, we're going to have lines all over the county. And nobody's going to like the spider web of high voltage lines everywhere. The second thing I'd like to relate to you today is that both PJM and NextEra have gone the next step.

[03:56:11] They have gone ahead and filed a motion with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to eliminate the authority of the Board of Supervisors, the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the State Corporation Commission. They have filed a motion with the FERC. It's called a N-I-E-T-C.

[03:56:30] That designation allows the commission to overrule the states that reject lines proposed in a specified area. So what they are doing, both PJM and NextEra, is taking away the authority that the State Corporation Commission has and the Commonwealth of Virginia and raising this requirement up to the federal level where the federal government and the FERC can exercise eminent domain to basically allow PJM and NextEra to put those lines wherever they damn well please.

[03:56:58] And I'll tell you right now, it's not going to be where you want them. It's going to be where they want them. And if they want a line in Western Loudoun, they're going to get it. It will also eliminate the ability to be able to, in your negotiating position, with respect to putting those lines between Golden and Aspen underground, because they also will come back at you and say, look, we have Federal Energy Regulatory Commission authority to put those lines wherever we want, and every other line that comes into Loudoun County.

[03:57:24] You need to stop it. You need to get the staff energized. You need to get your legal team energized and basically stop them from doing it. Thank you, sir. Mr. Vigilio, thank you very much. Thank you very much. all right um and the last speaker is debbie virgilio good evening ma'am i don't have a very good voice put the microphone a little bit closer to you there you go um i'd like to thank all of you for this opportunity to talk to you um i'm my husband comes with the facts and the figures

[03:57:59] i come as a wife a mother and a grandmother we've lived in this i have lived in this county on and off since 1968. What's happening here is horrific. When you drive into this county now, off the toll road, you see a modernistic lines that were never here before, factories, electric plants, gas plants. You have this electric company coming and wanting to invade 100-year-old plus properties,

[03:58:34] historic properties. On the street that I live on, we have Oatlands Plantation. We have where the Rokeby, where the Independence, the Declaration of Independence was kept. And we have other lands that are within that historic. The properties are not, this line is not supposed to go up in the view shed of any historic property, as we found out, and we did all the legalities on it

[03:59:06] when we were fighting a development that is just south of Oatland's plantation. Now, this is going to happen. It's going to destroy the country. They're going to go wherever they want. They're going to tell you that it's not bad for your health. I can tell you my husband has pacemaker defibrillator. We have been told by five of his cardiologists and his cardiac surgeon that if these lines do go in and they're within two miles, it's questionable if we can stay. But if it's within a mile and a half of our house, we have to leave because they will set off his pacemaker.

[03:59:43] I can also tell you about the neighbors I had in Philadelphia that when a trash to steam plant went in, six of them died from cancer within a year after that plant went in. And the power lines went in on our street to put the power out in the rest of the county. This is just not the right thing. There are lines that are existing that they can use, but it's cheaper and easier not to.

[04:00:11] The lines in Florida were fabulous because we drove down the road. Every single line for that county is there right in front of your face on Route 95. Thank you, Mr. Giglio. That's not going happen here and you're going to destroy the county thank you thank you very much ma'am appreciate it okay supervisors thank you for everybody for coming out to speak that is all of our speakers for our six o'clock time frame we are now going to do board comments um so um don't forget to board comments includes um includes uh disclosures thank you very much um board comments mr crony

[04:00:51] Thank you, Chair Randall. And thank you to everybody who came out and spoke tonight. I'll do disclosures first. On April 4th, I met with Morgan Hadlock and Eric Swisholm of Walsh Kalushie regarding the Bayes Industrial Park ZRTD application.

[04:01:18] I want to thank Rabbi Cohen and everybody who came out. I believe the board should stick to board business and to Loudoun County issues, but my thoughts and sympathies are with all innocent civilians and with residents living in Israel and Gaza, and I really hope for an end to this conflict and a path for lasting peace.

[04:01:47] I want to also thank the residents who came out and spoke about the transmission lines. I do think that we should go with the existing right-of-way, with the Dominion existing right-of-way, and I'd love to see them buried, and I look forward to working with our state legislature to try and see what we can do to get them buried in as many places as possible, because it does impact residents' quality of life.

[04:02:15] And so my commitment is looking out for the residents of Loudoun County. I want to let everybody know that on April 18th at 6 o'clock p.m., so this Thursday, there's a meeting about Ryan Road, about the widening of Ryan Road from Evergreen Mills Road to Beaverdam Drive.

[04:02:35] It's a virtual public meeting, and this project is to widen Ryan Road to four lanes, and it also has a shared use path. So please, if you want to participate, go to the Loudoun County website under Ryan Road Widening Evergreen Mills Road, and your comments are appreciated on that.

[04:03:01] I attended Scrape for the Grape, where we scraped lanternflies at the Bluemont Vineyard, and we removed 17,000 egg masses in Leesburg, Bluemont, and Percival, which would have produced one million lanternflies.

[04:03:23] So I really enjoyed that event. I hope others will join me. It's really not disgusting. It's actually a great event. you really feel like you're making a difference. Our wineries are spectacular, and Blumont is such a fabulous location, so I hope others will join me next year.

[04:03:41] And I look forward to participating next year. So I hope Loudon Invasive, or Loudon, that Loudon Invasive Removal Alliance will do it again. And Oatlands, the National Trust took over Oatlands.

[04:03:58] I don't know if everybody's aware. So they had a grand opening at the historic property on April 6, and Oatlands is now open to the public every day from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The grounds are gorgeous. There's a beautiful garden, and you can take a tour of the historic home.

[04:04:18] Lastly, me and my staff attended the Loudoun International Summit this week with Chair Randall, And it was an opening ceremony that brings together young leaders from around the world for a week-long cross-cultural exchange.

[04:04:37] And this year's program included 70 students representing 17 schools from 12 countries. And there were six high schools who participated. We happened to go to Light Ridge High School that day. It's a fabulous opportunity for students to learn from diverse perspectives and find common ground on pressing global issues.

[04:05:02] The summit empowers all participants to make meaningful contributions to our shared world. And I think the thing that the students really loved is when we came to the library, they were giving out some of their food from their different cultures and candy. And the students really, really love that, learning about the culture and learning about the different foods and different places they wanted to visit when they got older.

[04:05:27] So I think it's a great opportunity, and I hope they do it next year, and I look forward to participating in that as well. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Crony. Ms. Umstead. Thank you, Madam Chair. No disclosures tonight.

[04:05:44] I wanted to mention that Leesburg's Flower and Garden Show is coming up this weekend on Saturday and Sunday, both days. I believe it starts at 10 a.m., and it is always a wonderful experience.

[04:06:02] I want to thank all the speakers who came out tonight, Rabbi Cohen and all the other speakers. I was informed by a friend of mine that the Fairfax Board of Supervisors today was having a discussion on the importance of remembering the Holocaust and honoring the survivors of the Holocaust.

[04:06:28] And I think it is so easy, the farther we get from a horrific series of events, it is so easy to forget exactly how horrific they were. So I deeply appreciated the speakers who addressed and reminded us of how absolutely horrible the Hamas invasion of Israel and the taking of hostages was.

[04:06:59] It was truly one of the world's most horrific events. So thank you to all of you who came out to remind us of those horrors. And that is all. Um, Ms. Glass.

[04:07:17] Thank you, Madam Chair. I have several disclosures. On Wednesday, April 3rd, I met with representatives to discuss the Belmont Innovation Campus Data Center rezoning. On Thursday, April 4th, my staff met with representatives to discuss the Tillots View residential rezoning.

[04:07:37] On Friday, April 5th, my staff met with representatives to discuss the Bayes-Dulles Industrial Park CRTD. On Monday, April 8th, my staff participated in a pre-meeting to discuss North Branch Place residential rezoning.

[04:07:53] On Wednesday, April 10th, I met with representatives from Concord to discuss the car wash special exception application. I also want to thank everyone for coming out and speaking this evening. I also want to thank Mr. Dettling from the Brodering District to come out and speak on Tilda's View.

[04:08:18] I plan on having another discussion with the community regarding that application. So I'll be sending out that information for folks who would like to come and participate. And I also was part of the Scrape the Grape.

[04:08:39] I was with... You did that? You went and scraped... You did that? I was in Leesburg. That's so super gross. Everyone else had, like, the little scrapers that looked like credit cards. I took out my eye scraper from the car. And that's how I...

[04:08:56] That's my girl. There you go. Yes. But on another serious note, I also had the honor to mention five names of those who were lost in the Holocaust.

[04:09:23] It was a Holocaust commemoration. So I had the privilege of saying those names and who they were, how old they were when they had died.

[04:09:39] It's still and where they're from. Yeah. It you know, it's even to this day, it still just gives me, you know, the chills, but an honor to be a part of of that calling out list of names.

[04:09:58] And thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you. Mr. Kirsten. Thank you, Madam Chair. A couple disclosures to start with. On April 5th, I met with the Granada Homeowners Association regarding the Clear Springs Village application and the applicant. On April 8th, I met with the Granada Homeowners Association again regarding Clear Springs Village application and the applicant.

[04:10:27] I want to address some of the comments that we're making very briefly. First, I want to thank those who came out and spoke on the power lines. We have an item coming up. I will just tell everybody that has concerns about this.

[04:10:43] This is one of our top priorities in my office. We continue to work very diligently to make sure we do everything in our power to prevent this or certainly i think more importantly re as the resolution will say tonight redirect it into where we have right away um i also want to talk a little bit to those folks who spoke tonight concerning the conflict in the middle east and the comments that were made i couldn't agree more i agree with mr crony that we as supervisors generally stick to board business that's certainly

[04:11:21] what i attempt to do here um as a member of the board and i think it would serve us well and would certainly um save us a lot of time such was an example tonight finally um just a few things going on in catocton um there are a couple things coming up including hillsborough gardens in the gap after you visit leesburg and theirs come on out to the gap then um i think that's a few weeks later april 19th through 22nd it's a four-day celebration of hillsborough's beautiful historic gardens as

[04:11:54] well as the gaps 250-year heritage uh as a hub for the whole agricultural region the event will include garden tours, presentations, plant and gardening, demonstrations, and an arts and crafts festival. There will also be a, in Percival, a music and arts festival will happen on April 27th from noon to 7 p.m., rain or shine. It's a free family-friendly event, and it is at Fireman's Field Park with 15 live music performances. Also, I'm going to make a commitment to Chair Randall that between now and the end of this term

[04:12:33] that we will get out together and scrape the grape, Chair Randall. So that is the deal from Dr. Dockton. Thank you, everyone. I will do something else to save the environment. I am not scraping. I'll do it with you. I'm not scraping. Well, you know, he'll do it for me.

[04:12:49] He won't do it with me. Thank you, Mr. Kirchner. That's fine, but you'll be there. Thank you, Mr. Kirchner. Mr. Sainz? Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you to all that came out to speak today. You could have been anywhere else and you chose to be with us to share your thoughts and concerns on issues that are near and dear to your hearts.

[04:13:08] I always appreciate the citizens taking the time to come out and do that and exercise their right in democracy. Don't have any mandatory disclosures. I'd like to share that this Saturday, April 20th from 8 a.m. to 1 o'clock p.m., the Sterling Foundation, in coordination with the Chesapeake Network.org, are hosting a Sterling stream cleanup.

[04:13:27] You can get information and still sign up if you visit my Facebook page Or if you go to the Sterling Foundation Facebook page, you can find information. There's a QR code for you to scan and then sign up for this great event and help our environment and our streams that are in our backyards in Sterling.

[04:13:44] I'd also like to point out that Sterling Playmakers, which do a great job of putting on plays here locally in Loudoun County, April 19th through the 21st, 26th through the 28th, which is Fridays and Saturdays at 7.30 p.m.

[04:14:02] And on Sundays at 5.30, they'll be doing a complete work of William Shakespeare, obviously abridged, at the theater at the Douglas Community Center here in Leesburg. So I encourage everybody to check that out. Again, Sterling Playmakers do a great job with their plays that they put on.

[04:14:19] And that is all I have. So thank you. Thank you, sir. Mr. Letourneau? Thank you, Madam Chair. Disclosure is on April 9th. I discussed the Belmont Innovation Center application with Mr. Ron Meyer.

[04:14:36] I will just update the board. As I told you, the Metro Board of Directors did not act on our budget at this point, given a little bit of uncertainty with Richmond. We may end up moving that next week. Obviously, we're waiting to see what happens this week.

[04:14:53] But we obviously need to have a budget, And we're going to need the certainty that comes with that funding, working with our jurisdictional partners. So that is ongoing. Just in terms of the discussion tonight, happy to support the resolution on the Western power lines.

[04:15:14] I will point out, of course, we have power lines throughout the county. We had some in the Dulles District that came in a number of years ago that I was not particularly pleased with either. We were able to move those a little bit. But I really can't emphasize enough the need to marry local land use with planning, utility, commitments, and requirements, and the regional picture.

[04:15:41] And the biggest problem is those pieces are all floating independently, and they're not together. They're not working together. And there's no one entity that really has that eyesight. We can do our best here to try to do it. But one of the things that I've been saying is I actually think the industry, particularly the data center industry itself, needs to help us with that because it's in everybody's interest.

[04:16:08] So we'll see where that goes. Finally, if there's one thing that I have been really consistent about for now 13 years, it's that we have a lot to do on the Board of Supervisors. We have a lot of issues that come before the county, and we really should do our best to stick to those issues here.

[04:16:30] Now, it is every supervisor's right to use this time we have right now to say whatever they want. There is not going to be rules or regulations restricting anybody's rights. We live in a free country, and we have a free board here. But that doesn't mean that we should always exercise that right on any topic.

[04:16:47] and I'm just disappointed more because this county has seen plenty of strife and plenty of negative attention and plenty of high tensions in this boardroom and the school board room and other places and we really need to move past that and one of the ways that we can move past that is by focusing on doing our jobs and not weighing in on things that are beyond that. So I'll leave it at that but I hope that we can continue that focus. We have lots of items tonight on our agenda. We have some items that we are going to, I think, pretty vehemently disagree on tonight, a few of those items. But that's what we're here for, and that's part of our

[04:17:27] process. Thank you. Mr. Turner, thank you. Mr. Turner, so is the Metro Board voting on a biennium budget or one year? No, we do an annual budget. An annual budget, and so, you know, we all know what our board wants with NVTA, NVTC, Metro, everyone. But But if what the governor has put forward is in the end, well, we just don't know.

[04:17:55] We're not going to know. So I don't imagine that whatever is going to be resolved at the General Assembly will be resolved before the Metro Board has to take a vote. So at that moment, are you all assuming that what is there already, which is the NVTC money is what you're voting on?

[04:18:14] How are you going to resolve that? I don't want to put it rudely or bluntly, but at the end of the day, Metro's fiduciary obligation for the board director is the Metro. So the decision that we have to make is this is the bill.

[04:18:30] Now, obviously, we have a compact and we have a shared commitment with jurisdictions. We don't want to just... But, Mr. Lieutenant, it's not the bill yet. What's that? It's not the bill yet. When we pass a budget, we send a bill to our subsidy partners. Oh, I see what you're saying in that way.

[04:18:45] Our job is to then make them aware this is what you owe. on this budget. We have been very transparent about what that amount is at this point. We've had a lot of discussion. From a practical standpoint, and wearing more of the local hat, I think there is sufficient funding, and the trust fund cover that. But there are implications to do that for next year, and there's a fairness issue with that, which I completely agree with. But at the end of the day, we have to continue to run this.

[04:19:12] So what I'm taking from that is that the Metro Board will make that vote with the assumption that it's the NVTC money, and that's how you vote? We will send the appropriate subsidy bills to the jurisdictions.

[04:19:30] Okay. Yeah, I don't think that this budget's going to be done for a very long time, to be honest. From what we're understanding, they're going to go back tomorrow, probably do the veto session, but not do the amendments yet, and they'll have to go back again and then do the budget amendments.

[04:19:46] So we have no idea when the budget's going to pass, which gives us a bit of a hard time, too, on this board for other reasons. Thank you. Mr. Turner. Thank you, Madam Chair. On Monday, April 8th, my staff met with Bill Junda from Gordon, Pedro Sales from BCT Design Group, Frank Palmer from Stonely Capital, Colleen Gillis and Molly Nomotny from Cure Ed Partners, as well as Aaron B. Steele and Tushar Awar from Garove Slade to discuss the application of NCC Residential.

[04:20:14] On Tuesday, April 9th, my staff and I met with Theo DeModis from Laudan Chamber and Stephen Wilson from SCG Development to discuss the application for Moorfield Station Laws. Later that day, my staff met with Aaron Swishelm from Walsh Kalusha to discuss the application for Belmont Innovation Campus.

[04:20:30] Those are all my disclosures. All day yesterday, all day today, all day tomorrow, and Thursday morning, I have been at the Data Center World Conference in D.C. at the Convention Center. This is a gathering of all data center and related data center industries in the world.

[04:20:48] First and foremost, let me tell you, this county needs to be really, really proud of Buddy Reiser. He is a world-recognized expert in this field. And I mean everybody in the room knows how much effort and understanding he has for these issues.

[04:21:05] Second, and we are really, really lucky to have Buddy on the team. Second, here are some facts about the data center world right now that exists. This is reality. the demand for data is i can't even describe how much higher the demand for data is and growing every single day than i thought it was and i thought it was almost exponential and beyond control it's way higher than that they show the picture of a street in new york uh 13 years apart and in the first street it's nothing but horses and the caption says find the car

[04:21:44] and 13 years later it's nothing but cars and says find the horse they said the data center industry right now is going through that clever of change every year that's how fast the demand for data is growing that is not going to change the demand for data is exploding right now that's fact number one fact number two the demand for power is exploding exponentially and that is not going to change for people in the county who believe you can stop all data center production right now, they were talking about rack power, which is a whole new

[04:22:22] metric that I didn't know about. What they're saying is right now, the average rack in a data center rack uses about six kilovolts. They expect it to go to 12 kilovolts within a year or two per rack. That's a double of the power usage per rack. And there were several speakers over the last two days have said they have seen plans for 60, 70, and 80 kilovolts per rack. That's the amount of energy demand that we're looking at in the future. That's fact number two. Fact number three, and this is fact and a little bit of Mike Turner opinion, the only way to stop more

[04:23:01] power lines in Loudoun County is on-site energy production. I'm not going to go any further than that, but that is the answer. If there is an increasing data demand and the power supply is not increasing, or even if it is increasing, the problem right now, and this was said in several sessions. The problem right now is not energy production, it is energy transmission, getting the energy to the site of the data center. The answer is on-site production. Now, there are a whole bunch of options, and I'll talk to anybody about, and I've seen dozens of them, about on-site production of power. But everybody needs to understand the demand for energy and

[04:23:39] data are both increasing exponentially, and we have to address that. I was able, during several of the Q&A sessions that stand up and say to the room, to the entire room and the panel, this is not your problem. This is our collective strategic challenge that we have to meet as a team. If you are in a community, it is not enough for data centers to talk to power producers and the power producers to talk to data centers. You must include local government. And several of the world-class speakers that spoke said local government is the key. If you don't have local

[04:24:18] government at the table, on the team, you will fail. They can shut you down. And that really resonated. I was the only elected official. I've been the only elected official at the conference for two days. And the fact that I'm from Ashburn and Loudoun County really resonates with them because they know us. They look to us. But the numbers are staggering. And it is a fact. On-site production is the way to stop the proliferation overhead transmission lines. We have to solve that problem, and we are better suited to solve it here than anywhere else. Thank you, Madam Chair.

[04:24:55] Ms. Brooksman. Thank you, Madam Chair. So I want to say that I appreciate all the speakers that came out this evening to talk about issues in front of us and issues not necessarily immediately in front of us. I'm not going to make any statements tonight out of, partly because I don't want to exacerbate any situation that is happening. And secondly, because I want to take

[04:25:29] time to sit with the comments that were said tonight, I want to take time to sit with and absorb a more than two-hour meeting I had with Chair Randall and seven rabbis yesterday, just yesterday at around lunchtime. You know, I could sit here and list all the things that I have done in support of the Jewish community and to combat anti-Semitism. But I think that would probably sound defensive. So I'm going to sit with everything that I've heard yesterday and today

[04:26:07] and think about how I might respond or if I do respond. But I do appreciate all the speakers and I appreciate all the rabbis who met with us yesterday. And I appreciate Madam Chair coming with me to that meeting. I want to appreciate all the students who were here today. I thought they had excellent questions i thought that they um were very very engaged they were very impressive um the acoy report was very impressive if you get a chance to look at it um a potomac falls freshman won the the congressional 10th art contest this year which was amazing um oh uh by

[04:26:45] way of disclosures um i had a phone call yesterday with amanda williams about the tillots view application um earlier this week we had a whitfield um place pedestrian safety meeting because of the death of one of my constituents near the Cascades Library.

[04:27:01] And we're working with DTCI and VDOT to figure out some maybe extra safety measures that we can do with that crosswalk there where the accident happened. The chair and I spent our morning with domestic violence nonprofits, the Commonwealth's Attorney's Office, and a number of other survivors and talking about a vision for a two-year plan to care for domestic violence survivors from the moment they escape their home all the way through to getting clothes, getting shelter,

[04:27:39] getting their resumes together, getting a job, and standing on their own two feet. It's a vision of one of our nonprofit leaders in the county, and I very much look forward to supporting that. I toured Equinix Data Center last week, which was fascinating.

[04:27:56] It's completely different than other data centers I have toured before, so I do encourage my colleagues to do that. It's a data center that is divided up in sort of smaller pockets, and because they have a number of clients that sort of lease space in there, as opposed to a data center that's just one client, and it's a huge open floor with all the computers there.

[04:28:20] So it was fascinating. I learned a lot. I spent some time on Sunday with a Cub Scout group working on their requirement for local engagement, and we got to walk around Cascades Marketplace and talk about that development that's happening there.

[04:28:40] They, again, were so engaging and asked so many important questions. Of course, data centers came up, even with the younger, they're Weeblos, they're not Cub Scouts, they were Weeblos, so even with the younger ones, they wanted to ask questions about that. I had a conversation with NACO, two committee liaisons with NACO yesterday, the CEWD, Community Economic Workforce Development Committee, and the Human Services Committee to figure out a way to work on the platform, the federal platform with NACO, to permanently put child care support in the NACO platform.

[04:29:17] So I very much look forward to bringing that to the summer conference. And as I said earlier, Saturday I will be there at the Earth Day celebrations at Claude Moor. It's from 10 to 2. I believe we're doing the proclamation resolution around 11 o'clock.

[04:29:33] Would love for my colleagues to join me. But lots of activities for children. It's free for families if you all want to come by. By way of gun violence, there have been 4,696 total gun deaths, 116 mass shootings, and 340 deaths were teens, 12 to 17, 66 were children up to age 11 that's a pretty drastic increase um since the last time i talked about that and just remember the i'm sorry madam chair i'm out of time thank you you're out of time

[04:30:03] thank you um okay um so it's been a very hard week uh i guess very hard since saturday i do want to and no kidding thank everyone who's come out to speak because um in the talking is where we will learn, learn things. I have been in this county since 1993 and I, I love this county so much. I can count on one hand how many times I've, I have called someone or said out loud that someone is racist. I am very, very, very careful about losing,

[04:30:42] using certain words. I will say something's not, something's racially insensitive. I will say something that's racially ignorant, but I'm very careful about not calling someone racist. I think that really I have been so heartened, and I don't know what the word is, just heartened, that the Jewish community's overall response was not to say, you're anti-Semitic. It was to say, can we sit down and talk? Can I share information with Ms. Bricks? When I accompanied her,

[04:31:18] as she said, because I would do that for any one of my colleagues, no matter who it was. But the discussions have all been educational and respectful and helpful and based in history and facts. And I believe that they have been really important. It is not for me to, you can't both say to me, supervisors should not talk about international issues and then say, we want you to say something about her words.

[04:31:50] Both those things don't work. So it's not for me to disavow or nothing. I'm going to leave that up to her because I should. But I will say that the absolute just outpouring of let us teach, let us join with you from the Jewish community this week has been, I think, just wonderful and heartening.

[04:32:19] I also want to say that this week something happened that put things in everything and struck perspective. There's a family in Fairfax County that last week at this time had four sons. There was a fire while both parents were at work and the grandparents were watching the boys.

[04:32:41] Two of the little boys, William Bryce, age six, and Zachariah Bryce, age three, did not make it. They were, they got so much, their lungs were so damaged that they never recovered and they never woke up.

[04:33:00] And I've been following this all weekend on Friday. No, I'm sorry, on Saturday, the parents asked for everyone to pray for their children at 3 o'clock. And I remember thinking, you know, yes, obviously, but I just, I remember thinking, you don't even, I mean, like, you don't even know what to do with that or what to pray.

[04:33:24] I remember feeling, like, so humbled to be allowed to pray for these babies, but also thinking, like, by God, why? Like, you know, why? What are we doing right now? and they didn't make it and their parents talked about what it's like to give their children back to God not that they wanted to but that they had to and what that meant for them and I gotta tell you this this week has been in so many ways just so you know there are times I I almost every day

[04:34:01] I ask myself the question am I leading well because being being a county chair and being the chair, I take it very seriously. It's a very high calling. And I ask, am I leading well? And of course, I want to lead well on land use issues and all the things we talk about. But then this week, the parents lost two of their babies. And I thought, you know, I don't know. I don't know sometime. I don't know. So it's been a really hard week for me for a lot of ways. But I will say,

[04:34:35] You know, you know, if you if you are a person that prays, the Bryce family could use your prayer. And if you don't mind, will you join me in a moment of silence for for William Bryce and Zachariah Bryce?

[04:34:55] Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right, supervisors, I think we can keep going. I don't think we need a break quite yet. We're good, right? Everybody good? Keep going.

[04:35:12] Mr. Sainz always is the one that says keep going. So we're going to do that. And we have one more information item that we didn't get to because we did an action item. It is the Broadband Implementation Plan. And so will staff please come to the table?

[04:35:46] Good evening.

[04:36:03] Good evening, Madam Chair. I'm going to kick this off for staff. Good evening, Madam Chair and members of the board. Thank you for the opportunity to bring on their latest. Oh, oh, okay. Well, that freaks me out. A little warning for us just to be really good.

[04:36:23] That just totally freaked me out just then. Thank you very much. We are now ready again. Sorry about that. Good evening, Madam Chair, members of the board. Thank you for the opportunity to provide our latest status on the county's broadband initiatives.

[04:36:38] At the table, as we were in December, staff are joined by Mr. Tom Ennis, All Points Broadband's vice president of business development, and Mr. Garrett Braun, Dominion Energy Virginia's Marketing and Communications Coordinator for Rural Broadband.

[04:36:57] They'll provide the board with the latest current status of the very project, but first, staff would like to recap the project extension decision and process. As the number of required utility pole attachments to deliver rural broadband increased, not only in Loudon, but also across the state, It became evident through meetings with our partners that the original project timelines would not be met.

[04:37:23] In response, we worked closely with All Points and Dominion to develop a new project milestone schedule. As the grant recipient, it is ours, Loudoun County's, responsibility to work with the Office of Broadband, Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development, DHCD, should any of the project timelines change.

[04:37:45] As Loudon was not the first and only county to meet an extension, the State Office of Broadband outlined their existing project extension process to staff, which Loudon County followed and submitted on April 3rd, 2024. This document is included in your packet.

[04:38:03] Following a review by the DHCD, Loudon's project extension request was granted effective April 4th of 2024. The contract extension amendment revises the original project completion date of July of 2024 to October 2025, which is a 15-month extension.

[04:38:26] This amendment is also included in your item packet. We'd like to emphasize that our partners are dedicated to having broadband service available to the first county resident in the county year 2024.

[04:38:43] What the approval of Project Extension does mean for our project is that the last of our 8,600-plus residents included in the project will have broadband service made available by October of 2025. As you'll hear from our partners, the project is progressing forward, and collectively, they remain firmly committed to completing this effort.

[04:39:05] Staff are available for questions following updates from our project partners, and thank you again for the opportunity. Let me introduce Tom Minnis, who has a couple of slides to share. Vice President from all points, Brad Pitt. Okay, we're going to keep going.

[04:39:25] We'll take his update. Mr. Kirshner, after this item, do me a favor and just hang on the line. We need to do a little housekeeping issue. So after this, please don't hang up, okay? Okay. All right, thank you.

[04:39:41] Thanks. All right, you may keep going. Madam Chair, members of the board, thank you for this opportunity to provide an update. We're going to go through a couple of quick slides here and happy to answer any questions along the way or afterwards. Go to the next slide.

[04:39:57] So a quick recap on what we're working on here in western Loudoun County. A couple of years ago, we, All Points Broadband, in partnership with the county, Dominion Energy, Virginia, and Northern Virginia Electric Co-op, sought a grant from the state broadband office of $17.75 million from the Virginia Telecommunications Initiative.

[04:40:21] On the county side, we sought a match of just under $12.5 million. This is from the American Rescue Plan Act State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund. So not local dollars, but it is federal tax dollars that are routed through the county.

[04:40:38] And then we committed to over $21 million of our own private investment. The way that the funding works is that all points goes out. We do all the engineering. We do the construction. We do the procurement. And as we meet certain milestones along the way, we are then eligible to seek reimbursement from the county or from the state broadband office.

[04:40:59] And as I note on the bottom here, that is all approved in arrears after we hit specific milestones. The next time we get any more reimbursement for our expenses is when we've built the last mile fiber and made broadband available. Dominion Energy Virginia, the folks here to my left, Dave, Chris, They participate as a partner through the utility middle mile statute, and they will talk about their partnership here.

[04:41:30] As Dave commented, we are committed to providing service in some areas in 2024, depending on some of our key dependencies, which in this case includes making poles ready for our attachment, having middle mile fiber constructed, and last mile fiber constructed.

[04:41:49] In Loudoun County and across the state, we are under an unprecedented wave of pull attachment requests. We have some more details later in our presentation in Dominions. And I also want to reiterate that all points, Dominion and NOVEC, are fully committed to this project.

[04:42:08] When I was here in December, you asked for a map of the project area I have in here. It may be hard to see in the details other than in the yellow area where we have four fiber service areas.

[04:42:24] the acronym fsa split across the western portion of the county and that hashed area within the color is where the actual broadband project is so if you are a home in that list of 8629 and you are in that hashed area then you are in our fiber project go to the next slide i also want to give an update from where we were in december to today on the left hand side this is just a screenshot from a Microsoft Dynamics view of the database that we share with electric pole owners.

[04:43:03] On the right-hand side is April. The key number here is that we have had a 16 times increase in the number of poles that have been made ready for all points to attach our fiber. You can see that in the right-hand column of each screenshot in December.

[04:43:19] We had 222 poles with a notice to proceed. When I took this screenshot maybe a week ago, it was 3,750. Today, it's 4,400. It's making a lot of progress. Right now, we have about 8,000 poles that are currently underway, engineering or make-ready construction between Dominion and Northern Virginia Electric Co-op. About 15 to 20% of those are actually in all points' queue to decide whether or not we need to pay for make-ready construction. We are about at the end of submitting

[04:43:54] those applications. We went around the county and we fielded or documented 17,000 poles that is going out, having a human being take a picture, identify everything on the pole. We then do the engineering for about 13,000 different attachments between Novec and Dominion. Based on the cost of those poles to attach to, we decide whether or not to actually make the pole ready. And then that the poll is handed back over to Dominion or Novec to continue on their work.

[04:44:26] And then the final slide here. I wanted to show you an example. This is, again, a screenshot from a database that we share with poll owners. It looks like lines, those are all individual dots.

[04:44:42] Those are individual electric utility poles. The color coding is yellow, means that either the poll owner or All Points Broadband is evaluating the engineering or the cost or actually doing the construction. to make it ready for our attachment.

[04:44:58] The blue dots have completed their electric make ready. The only thing waiting there is an existing telecommunications provider to move their attachment up or down. So this could be a pole where Comcast has a cable attached in a spot where the pole owner has said that we should be and Comcast would move their wire up or down.

[04:45:20] And then we're allowed to attach. The green dots have all of the electric make ready complete, all of the telecommunications complete and we have a what's called a notice to proceed we can go attach our our cable. The way that it works for us is we we can't release to construction until we have more green dots or in some cases blue dots in a row because we can't just go out and attach to 20 or 30 electric utility poles at once and leave either end of the cable hanging for the yellow dots to turn green so I just wanted to show you a snapshot of what it looks like on a map when we

[04:45:57] get approvals back and and the timing for those that are in process we are working with Dominion and Novec every week to prioritize to make sure we can try to get a couple of sections of fiber released to construction for us typically the way that it works is attachment requests on poles that don't require any work those come back earlier the ones that take more work take longer and we We really appreciate Dominion and Novec working with us to prioritize this process for Poll Make Ready.

[04:46:31] Okay. Are you guys done? We have some. I know Dominion's coming. Yeah, I know we have one more part. But, you know, well, let me just stop right here because that was a lot of information and a lot of information on questions that we have received.

[04:46:49] And so I especially want to, if everyone can, if they'd like to, So I especially want to see if Mr. Kirshner has any questions right now. Thank you, Madam Chair. Actually, on this item that we have right here in front of us, first of all, I want to thank, I just want to thank Chris Mullen, David Friedrich, John Bayless, and the Dominion Energy Team, Kathleen Leonard, Sean Reilly, and Garrett Braun, and Tom Ennis for all their hard work on all of this.

[04:47:16] I hope I didn't miss anybody. I know myself and my staff have been having regular monthly meetings concerning this project. And I think several months ago, we had one with Dominion when it was very apparent that the make ready aspect of these polls was going to delay or make significant, creating significant problems for the product.

[04:47:38] So I do want to thank Dominion for the game. As I understand it, you guys can correct me if I'm wrong. The increase, they've increased the resources by 20% to really get this project moving along. And I think we've surveyed over 17,000 polls, as you mentioned.

[04:47:56] in your presentation. The real quick question I have is, how did we set the original deadline for this project? And was it based on the amount of work we believe was needed for Loud Air?

[04:48:15] And can you, first of all, can you explain that? So setting the original timeline is a mix of what the work required to prepare the poles for our attachment, to have the last mile constructed, to have the middle mile constructed, and also, you know, the constraints and guidance from the way that the state's Virginia telecommunications initiative works. So for the several years preceding the year that we were awarded, you know, the program was awarding

[04:48:51] statewide maybe a million dollars, and then four million, and then 50 million, and then our year it bumped up to 750 million dollars. And by default, the timelines for all of these projects in the the state program is 18 months and to get beyond 18 months you know you needed to have an exception to the state program as you scale up the dollars that are funding these projects you know they get bigger and bigger and they are no longer taking just 18 months you know many of these projects are going to take two or three years at the time when we put this

[04:49:26] together we worked with our engineering teams we worked with inside folks and outside vendors and and we came up with 24 months. Since then, you know, the timelines for a lot of broadband projects are well beyond 18 months.

[04:49:42] The next program that the state is going to roll out, the minimum is three years for projects because they're seeing how long it actually takes to get the work done. And even in a place in Western Loudoun where you would think many companies would be incentivized to come out here and deliver broadband, it hasn't been done because it does take a significant amount of resources and time.

[04:50:03] So a couple of ways we came up with the timeline, and I think you can tell by the way that the state responded that our extension request was perfectly reasonable given the amount of work that's going on across the state.

[04:50:19] Did you help the community know of the extended timeline? I think there is frustration with the extended timeline, but I think the larger frustration, maybe not the larger, but equal frustration is people don't seem to be having the communications.

[04:50:38] Yes, ma'am. So we discussed that internally. We thought the most important thing was to not publicly announce the extension on the timeline until it became a board item. Before what? Before it became a formal board item. Before it became a formal board item.

[04:50:53] Yes, ma'am. Okay. All right. Let's keep going with the, yeah, we're ready. Good evening, Madam Chair and members of the board. Good evening.

[04:51:11] Let's see, my slide's up there. Get them up in a sec. While Chris is pulling those up, I'd like to introduce the good-looking guy on my left here. This is Mr. Jared. Jared works in our design department in the northern region, and he can speak to a lot of the make-ready work that we've been completing specifically for the All Points Broadband Body Project.

[04:51:35] Okay. Also, I'll stop here for a quick reminder. Dominion Energy is not an Internet service provider. Yes. We are installing the Middle Mile fiber. Middle Mile is the longer lines of fiber reaching out into rural areas. We are basically facilitating Internet access, but not providing Internet access to the unserved residents of Loudoun County.

[04:51:57] A progress update for us. So we do have 30 miles complete. We've been working for the past few months here in Loudoun County. You all may have seen our crews out there in the public. We do have currently 55 miles work in progress.

[04:52:18] Those are projects that are released to construction, and those actually have scheduled dates. The difference between the projects in work in progress and the projects in the construction queue is in the construction queue. We don't actually have those scheduled yet because we are waiting on the crews to complete the 55 miles in the field.

[04:52:37] In design, those projects in design are completed with the design process. that's 41 miles. A lot of those are tied up. A lot of those projects are tied up in easement negotiations as well as franchise agreement negotiations with the local towns of Loudoun County. Total miles for this project is 175. I will say as well that the work that we have available to complete, so the work in progress and the work in the construction queue will be

[04:53:08] completed this year. In 2024, of the just above 900 miles that we plan to complete across all of our counties statewide, Loudoun accounts for about 14% of that. So like Tom was saying, we do remain committed to completing this project. We do remain committed to Loudoun County, and that's backed up by the fact that we plan to complete the most mileage in Loudoun out of any other county across the state. We are working in 21 counties. So it is a significant statewide initiative.

[04:53:44] We are very, very happy to be able to help provide this essential service to our customers in the communities in which we serve. I'll add that we do have six fiber crews working in Loudoun, so we are moving right along, and we're looking forward to completing this work. If we go to the next slide there, Chris. And Jared, I'll go ahead and turn it over to you. Good evening. Good evening. So what you're looking at here is... Pull your microphone a little bit closer to your... Can you hear me now? There you go. All right, thank you. So what you're looking

[04:54:22] at here is a snapshot of the overall permitting process for Dominion Energy to attach to our poles. It's ordered from beginning to end. So of the 7,500 poles, which equates to 355 miles, We've already looked at.

[04:54:46] We have received some new applications recently. So that bullet point is a little off, but it's less than 100 at this point. Over 3,700 polls have been approved for attachment. That is also stale data at this point.

[04:55:04] I think it is up to 4,400 at this point, and that's as of yesterday. Next slide. Next slide. Indeed, it is unprecedented and exciting times for Dominion joint use.

[04:55:26] This is showing an overall of poll attachment requests for the past several years. And you can see the trend with all the government funding. Did you say this is an exciting time? Absolutely.

[04:55:42] Okay. Yeah. Dominion is invested heavily, and we've invested in contract resources to solve this problem. We have over 80 contractors helping with this. So that equates to how we're able to ramp up with these kind of numbers.

[04:56:00] Loudoun County is in a very good situation compared to some of the other counties with what's been applied for and what's been looked at. Any questions? And then after that, Supervisor, this is just the letter that Mr. Hemstreet sent in requesting the extension of the next couple of slides.

[04:56:24] And so I think you're finished now, right? So, okay, so we will do, and the response from the director of the Office of Broadband. So, questions, again, Mr. Kirshner, I will go to you first. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you for your presentation.

[04:56:45] I think most of my questions were, I think, under the bottom line, as I understand it, is the project has essentially been bumped out about a year. Is that an accurate statement? Yes. And you had mentioned, I think, in the earlier presentation that we anticipate seeing our first actual users probably going online sometime this fall.

[04:57:15] And then the last ones, did you say next fall? Is that what I understood? Yes, sir. Initially late in 2024. And then as the network is available, we'll continue to make service activated until the fall of 2025.

[04:57:36] Okay. Thank you guys very much. I know this is a big undertaking. There's a lot of coordination between a lot of folks, but really we cannot afford to fail in this project. I'm not suggesting that you are. I think you're doing everything in your power, but I know that Virginia has been off a big chunk to undertake, and a lot of them just happens to be one of those, but we thank you very much for prioritizing us and really working with us and meeting with us to get this project completed.

[04:58:15] Mr. Crony. Yeah, thank you Chair Randall. You're welcome. So and thank you staff and team. So I think the biggest thing is residents want to know when they're going to be connected. You know that at the end of the day that's what they want to know. Is there any way to give them that information like what the priority you know you mentioned that some areas are being prioritized.

[04:58:42] any way to kind of communicate that to residents what areas are prioritized first who's going to be connected first just so residents have that information we would love to be able to say who's going first and on what day but until we have enough of those approvals in a row in a contiguous fashion we don't know exactly where that first mile of construction would happen

[04:59:13] We do and we have told residents since the beginning of this project we will know about 90 days in advance and we ask them to pre-register on our website and they will get a notification 90 days in advance, an email notification. If they don't do that, they're also going to get a series of flyers based on when we think their network will be turned up in their neighborhood.

[04:59:36] So they will get a specific mailer. It's in sequence. It starts about 90 days in advance of when we think it will turn on. And they'll see yard signs and other unavoidable marketing to make sure that they know. But we won't know until about nine days out.

[04:59:51] And we'll make them very aware of when they can sign up. So we were looking at the VATI dashboard, and it's really hard to interpret. And I'm just wondering if there's a way where people could get information online, like maybe we could create a similar dashboard that's meaningful to residents so they can really see what work's being done and when they can anticipate the first customer to be connected.

[05:00:21] I'm wondering if we could do, like, a dashboard or something. Well, I can't speak to the dashboard managed by the state broadband office, but we can work with staff on a way to get some more updated visuals. Yeah, like I was thinking maybe staff or with all points broadband could come up with, like, a dashboard, some way to communicate because I think that's the frustration is residents don't know, you know, timeline you say october 25 is the last day but i know that people will be connected um yes along the way and i think i think just giving any information to residents would be helpful

[05:00:59] very useful and i know that would be useful to supervisor krishna too um because i think that's what people are looking for they don't want to hear really about the polls even though i know you guys are doing a great job but they want to know when am i going to get my internet yes ma'am That is the number one, and this is the first and last question that they ask.

[05:01:19] Yes. So, yeah, maybe we can work together. Yeah, we'll take an action item on that. Thank you, Mr. Crony. Thank you. Mr. Turner. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just really quick. So, presumably, the 15th month extension is because of unknown or hard-to-predict variables that you encountered.

[05:01:34] Now that you've encountered them, it sounds like you've got a fairly high level of confidence that the October 31st, 2025 deadline is a solid deadline based on known variables. Is that a fair statement? We're feeling much more confident, yes. Absolutely, yes.

[05:01:50] Okay, and we have to spend all the ARPA money by December 31st, 2026, so we've got a year and two months of slop in case we run into some unknown stuff. Okay, thank you, sir. All my questions have been asked and now answered by these people sitting all around me.

[05:02:07] This is an information item, so there is no motion on the item. Mr. Kirsten, did you have a motion that you wanted to put on this item? No, Madam Chair. Okay, we're good then. All right, and so now that you've done this with us, you're going to put information out, correct? Yes, ma'am.

[05:02:23] Okay, sounds good. Sounds wonderful. Thank you very much. Thank you. Supervisors, handed out to you a little while ago was a, it was a, it's an addition to the agenda that I missed before. In fact, I may do one other addition to the agenda in a minute.

[05:02:43] So without objection, so what happened was during the April 3rd board meeting, We had two supervisors who left the meeting early. Mr. Kirshner left the meeting at 8.31, and Supervisor Umstead at 9.11. Therefore, a motion is necessary to ratify the resolutions, certify in the closed session.

[05:03:05] Only the board members who were present that day can actually vote on this motion, and at that time, I was checking back. I knew Ms. LaTurner wasn't here, but I wasn't sure who else was not here. Thank you, Mr. Rogers, for checking. Mr. Sains, Ms. Bricksman, Mr. Letourneau, that's why I say it.

[05:03:23] You all were not here, so you have to, you had left by this time, Mr. Letourneau. You look confused. You had left. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, you left. So I have to, exactly. So I have to read the resolution and then read the motion for that closed session.

[05:03:42] And people who are here have to vote on it. So that's why I needed Mr. Kirshner to hang around. So I move that the closed session be adjourned, that the minutes of the meeting should reflect that no form of action was taken in the closed session, and further move that the resolution certifying the closed session be adopted and reflected in the minutes of the April 3, 2024 public hearing.

[05:04:03] Motion made and seconded by Supervisor Glass. And if you remember, that was the, yes, it was the act of violence closed session that we are talking about. Mr. Rogers? One point on this. A supervisor that wasn't present should abstain from the vote.

[05:04:20] I said that. Okay. And I said the three that were not present, Sains, Bricksman, Letourneau. Right. But if you left early, you can vote. So Sains, Bricksman, Letourneau, you all have to abstain. If you left early, you can vote. And Mr. Kirshner and Mr. Umstead left early.

[05:04:37] I'm good? Yeah. All the people who say aye. Opposed? Aye. Abstaining? So that's a 6-0-3 vote with Supervisor Sains, Bricksman, Letourneau, abstaining and everyone else voting yes all right oh i'm sorry yeah you have to affirm if you did not abstain you have to affirm affirm mr crony affirm affirm mr mr kirschner affirm okay thank you everybody supervisors the other thing is i should have didn't and don't know why i didn't

[05:05:16] put number five on consent can everyone take a look at number five real quick because i might make a motion to adjust the consent agenda unless somebody has any issues with no one no one took it off. I just didn't put it on for no good reason. Have you guys read the item? Have any questions on the item? Does anyone have any?

[05:05:38] Madam Chair, are you referring to option two? I am. Hold me going to it. I think that might be the issue because there are a couple options. I think, ah, that's the option. Staff was recommending option two. Ah, okay. Is that, no, no, no, I was. But no, I'm asking was the issue, was that the issue? That wasn't my issue. I just, I am referring to that. That wasn't my issue. I just missed doing it that's all does anyone have any concerns with mr.

[05:06:07] Hemstreet you have concerns I don't have concerns to around I was just going to respond to supervisor Letourneau's comment which is yes the staff recommendations option two the only motion in the packet would enact option two right yes yes yes I'd like to just make some comments you can do that you can do that in the consent agenda motion I can make the motion to put in the consent agenda, add it to the consent agenda, and you can do it in the consent agenda motion.

[05:06:37] Staff will have to come to the table and present and all that jazz. I don't want to take it off consent. I just want to come. You're not going to take it off consent. I'm just going to make Mr. Kirsten, would you like to, are you good? Yes, Madam Chair. Okay. So I am going to move that item number five, the floodplain zoning ordinance regulations, option number two, be placed also in the consent agenda. Discussion on the consent agenda.

[05:07:05] Mr. Turner. Thank you. One of the questions I had, you may remember when we threw a thrash about projects for sustainability and environmental projects inside the floodplain because of the nature of the Loudoun County floodplain under the federal program that each project manager has to do an engineering study to prove no rise.

[05:07:27] And my question to staff was, if we get rid of the floodplain overlay district and move it, Do we get rid of that onerous requirement for the engineering study? And the staff answer was, no, we do not. That attaches to the floodplain, not to the overlay district. So that's just a point of clarification. Thank you.

[05:07:42] Thank you for that. I appreciate that. All right, anybody else? All in favor, please say aye. Any opposed? That motion will pass 9-0. Thank you for that, supervisors. Does anyone have any appointments or nominations to make? If you do, push your light on it this time, please. Mr. Kirshner, do you have any nominations to make?

[05:08:00] No, Madam Chair. Okay. All right. Mr. Kirshner, I'm going to go on and do number four, because I'm going to try to get you off the line, and I think you wanted to see number four, correct? Yes, Madam Chair, I can stay. Oh, you can stay the whole time? Okay, all right.

[05:08:17] Well, let's go on and do item four, and then take a break, okay? Okay? Madam Chair, if I could do that from here. Okay, you can do that from here. It's fine with me. Yes? No, Leo, I need you to go to the table.

[05:08:34] Ready when you are. Before you this evening is a resolution that would oppose the preliminary route that NextEra is proposing for their Mid-Atlantic Reliability Project in Loudoun County. It also would be encouraging NextEra and utility companies to use existing right-of-way.

[05:08:55] The first attachment in your package are maps. There are two maps. One shows Nextera's project, and the other shows the project as it exists in Loudoun County. As you've heard from several of the speakers tonight, there's tremendous impacts to the county on its rural economic development, agriculture, history, the equine industry, tourism, historic structures, landmarks.

[05:09:22] And so that proposal, which would bring, Nextera's proposal, which I would say is preliminarily approved by PJM, would bring a diagonal line from the West Virginia border past Waterford, Keonian Springs, and the town of Hamilton and terminate at the Aspen substation just south of Leesburg.

[05:09:47] Our proposal would be that they use existing power lines. This is important at this point because we need to encourage NextEra and the utility companies to work together to do that. I'm working with Brian Turner and his father Woody, as well as the community, to try to get that done.

[05:10:06] And now would be a great opportunity for us to chime in. The staff will then be able to work on these projects with this board's support. So I encourage your adoption of that resolution. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. seeing how um most of the most not all um most of that part of the county is in mr kirschner's district all of it is in mind but mr kirschner's district if he'd like to i will let mr kirschner make a motion and we have we can have discussion inside the motion mr kirschner would you like to do you have the motion in front of you mr kirschner i do madam chair i'm all set up you

[05:10:43] are all set up okay well we are ready sir thank you very much uh i move that the board of supervisors adopt a resolution closing the Western Loudoun route for the proposed 500 KB electrical transmission lines and encouraging the use of existing electrical transmission right-of-way provided as attachment two to the April 16th, 2024 Board of Supervisors Business Action item.

[05:11:12] Second. You want to second that? Mr. Crony wants to second that. I'll give her the second. Discussion on the motion, Mr. Kirshner. Madam Chair, the only thing that I would really point out is how critical this is um i know my office and some others have been in regular contact with next era staff on this project um as i've been working also with delegate higgins and i'm following next era and dominion's discussions here i know primarily next era but we've been talking to dominion as well in hopes of using some of their right-of-ways this resolution sends a very important message to next era and we are a community who requests this um we are board of

[05:11:52] supervisors that request this and also we speak for the community i think it's largely unanimous throughout the community that we find the correct route which we believe in this resolution is the existing right of ways um there's just too much at stake um and i think this resolution really helps to make our voices heard as a collective group as mentioned in the item and i think also by mr rogers our historical and agricultural resources are very important to do everything

[05:12:27] we can as a board to protect and i think following paths that we are suggesting in this resolution will ultimately accomplish that and help to protect as much of those historic resources and natural resources and view sheds that we have come to enjoy in western loudest so i appreciate the chair allowing me to make this uh make this motion and i appreciate my colleagues for supporting

[05:12:56] thank you miss um um stop oh thank you madam chair i will happily support this i i'm not i'm pessimistic that uh this is going to result in what we hope it will result in uh one of the conversations that i've had with the next era folks indicates that from their perspective some of the existing transmission corridors

[05:13:31] do not have adequate room to run additional lines because of how close they already are to existing residential communities. So I think this is a worthy effort.

[05:13:48] Whether we will succeed, I think, is a whole other question, but I will support it tonight. Ms. Berksman? Thank you, Madam Chair. If I may, I have a couple questions. The resolution says, I guess the second to last, whereas existing power lines right-of-way exist and could accommodate new high-voltage transmission lines and bring electrical power to the Aspen substation.

[05:14:12] Is there any other right-of-way besides the one that goes to Daub's substation? Because that's right at River Creek. That is the primary one. That's the only one. And the Daub station would be, it would not stop at the Daub station. I know. But it would go past that. Yeah. So it's not clear to me what route it would take after that. If it were, in fact, to go to Dobbs, I don't know how it gets to Aspen after that or Golden after that without going right over River Creek and some other things to get to Route 7 and then maybe multiple power lines going down Route 7 after that.

[05:14:50] The Aspen substation is south of Leesburg around Cochran Mill Road, and there is right-of-way going across the Potomac, down past River Creek, which has towers on it right now.

[05:15:06] It would be maximizing the use of those towers, as you heard from a speaker here tonight. But it's only going to Aspen? It's going to the Aspen substation, that's all. And not to Golden? That's correct. Okay. And you're saying there's already the 500, I'm sorry, I don't know the term, but there's already 500 kilowatts line going that exact route?

[05:15:31] There are 230 and 500 kV lines that are running in that route, and maximization of those towers could account for the power that NextEra wants to bring to Loudoun County. It's 7,500 kilowatts, which is basically a multiplication of the volts times the amps.

[05:15:51] So the thought is they wouldn't need new towers, they just would need to put new lines on the existing towers? They may need new towers, as some of the towers would have to have double circuits on them, and that's probably the solution.

[05:16:07] Right. So another set of towers where we already have a set of towers for the 200 and a set of towers for the 500. And maybe a replacement of the towers that are there with newer, modern towers that can carry two circuits. Okay. I'm just thinking if they go that route, we're going to get just as much community pushback, honestly, if they go the route of the existing, where the existing right-of-ways are, if they do decide they have room.

[05:16:36] I will say that PJM, which is the 13-state cooperative plus the District of Columbia, has approved the Mid-Atlantic Resiliency Project. And so the power is going to get here. The question is, how is it going to get here? Okay. And that, as we're seeing, is probably the least impactful route, as there are already towers and a right-of-way in that area.

[05:16:57] Okay, thank you. Thank you. First of all, I want to thank Brian Turner and Woody Turner and the Lansdowne Conservancy for all the work they continue to do on this. They don't have to do this. That's not even in their portfolio at this point. They just seem to have taken this on as their own cause celeb, and they're doing it.

[05:17:15] So thank you. Staff, Mr. Rogers, you know, so first of all, my computer is stuck, and so on my way out, because we're going to take a break, I'm going to hand my computer to Chris and have him do some magic to it before I walk back in the room.

[05:17:32] I'll be there in a second. But, you know, what Ms. Bricksman just said is correct. You know, this almost feels very Robin and Peter to pay Paul, because it's going to go somewhere, something's going to happen.

[05:17:47] You think that's not correct? I would like to have, do you believe it's helpful or we're at the place that we need to actually have, I don't know if I would say community input because it's very possible that sometimes when the community does input, they think that they can control or we can control what happens, which is not always the case, but at least community communication.

[05:18:10] I think the one thing that's happened really very well in Lansdowne is that there's been so, I'm not going to go back to you, there's been so much communication around what was happening with the power lines on Route 7, and now that we're having these other discussions, I don't know if we're having as much communication.

[05:18:27] And that doesn't mean that, you know, you promise things that you can't do that we have no control over. That doesn't mean we, you know, we even know what's possible. But I do think that as we have these discussions, if we do not loop in the community, they're going to feel very soon like, you know, like things are happening to them.

[05:18:46] And it might happen to them anyway, but I do think we have conversations. Do you think we're there yet? I absolutely agree that that needs to occur. I don't think we're at that point right now. Okay, so let's talk about when you think we might get to that point then, okay?

[05:19:02] There has to be, I'm aware of discussions that are ongoing between NextEra and the utility providers in Maryland and Virginia. They're looking at existing right-of-way that these lines could go in to bring that power to northern Virginia.

[05:19:19] So it's going to be what right-of-way is it, what are the towers going to look like, what are the circuits going to be. once we have that information then we'll have something to go back to the community with okay all right sounds good all right mr kirschner would you like a closing no madam chair i just want to say um it looks like was your support and i appreciate everybody's support works in a wonderful wonderful okay mr kirschner made the motion mr crony second the motion all in people to say aye aye aye any opposed that motion will pass 9-0 supervisors um we're going to take a

[05:19:56] break we're going to do we're going to go I think we can probably do both closed sessions in in no kidding 20 minutes they will be quick they would be very quick take a break um and also because I can't see my computer so we're going to take a break for those two reasons we're going to go into closed session Ms. Bricksman where you're going because you're going to read us in the closed session no we're going to go to closed session there's two closed sessions there's two closed sessions there are two closed sessions you can only have one in your package madam chair you only have one item in your package we have two closed sessions so now we only have we only actually

[05:20:36] have we have no items in the package but we have two closed sessions we're doing together no the there's backup for one of the items there's no backup for the second i wish i can i can't even say because i can't get my computer i know but i still but we it's still two closed sessions so okay so you one doesn't have an attachment that's fine but there's still two closed sessions okay once again let me say this do not help me unless you're going to be helpful

[05:21:12] do not disagree with me all right miss brixman will you read us into both closed sessions please yes madam chair i move that the board of supervisors recess this public meeting and enter into a closed session pursuant to section 2.2-3711a1 of the code of virginia to consider a personnel matter involving the annual performance review of the county attorney I further move that the Board of Supervisors recess this public meeting and enter into a closed session pursuant to section 2.2-3711A7 of the Code of Virginia

[05:21:49] to consult with legal counsel pertaining to actual or probable litigation and section 202-3711A8 of the Code of Virginia to consult with legal counsel employed or retained by a public body regarding a specific legal matter requiring the provision of legal advice by such counsel pertaining to FOIA.

[05:22:13] FOIA. FOIA. Okay. Motion made and seconded. All the people who say aye. Aye. Any opposed? We can do one first because it's not going to take that long. We can do one first. And I don't need, I mean, no one will be in the first one but us.

[05:22:33] And I was going to say I don't need you, but I wasn't going to say it like that. The supervisors, we're going to go into the first closed session by ourselves. When that one is over, we'll come back for the second. We'll grab Mr. Rogers and Mr. Hempstead for the second. And Mr. Kirshner will not be participating in the closed session. Okay, Mr. Kirshner, you're dropping off? Okay.

[05:22:49] Yes, Madam Chair, at least for closed session. Thank you.

[05:34:15] Two in the heart.

[05:51:19] Okay, we are back, and Ms. Bricksman, will you please read us out of closed session? I move that the closed session be adjourned, that the Board of Supervisors reconvene this public meeting, that the minutes of the public meeting shall reflect that no formal action was taken in closed session, and I further move that the resolution certifying the closed session be adopted and reflected in the minutes of this public meeting.

[05:51:50] Motion made, second by Supervisor LeTerno, discussion on the motion. Will everybody please affirm Ms. Glass? Affirm. I affirm as well.

[05:52:06] All on the table, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? That motion will pass 801. If you do remember, Mr. Kirshner did not read us into closed session with us, and so we do not have to do anything different later on. Okay, we have two more items. Now, we haven't actually had a break yet.

[05:52:24] Superbusters, are you good to keep going? Because we actually haven't had a break yet. You cool? Okay, let's keep going. I've got to go back in and open my thing up again. Thank God for paper.

[05:52:48] Okay. We're going to item number six, the planning and zoning DPZ work plan. Staff, please come to the table.

[05:53:22] Okay. Okay. I have paper. Good evening. Good evening. At the pleasure of the board, I can go item by item, but there's not really any truly significant updates for the most part.

[05:53:45] We can focus on items you have the most interest in. Happy to proceed at your preference. I don't think there are any motions on the dais that will pull anything out or anything.

[05:54:00] I don't think there are. And so I don't know. The supervisors, how are you doing with this? We have seen this. What do you all need? Do you need them to go out and buy them? Do you need the presentation? What do you need? No. No? Everyone look at the presentation?

[05:54:17] Yes? Mr. Turner, as chair of T-Luck, would you like to make a motion? And, by the way, I can't because I can't still not. I don't. That's fine if he wants to make a motion. Thank you.

[05:54:39] I move the Board of Supervisors approve the current list of projects listed in Tables 1, 2, and 3 on the Department of Planning and Zoning Work Plan as identified at the April 16, 2024 Board of Supervisors Business Meeting Action Act. Second. Motion made and seconded by Supervisor DeCroney.

[05:54:54] Discussion on the motion, Mr. Turner. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just very briefly, we voted down the request for two of the three requests for FTEs to work on the PDR program. We had a long discussion today, multiple sources, and there was a lot of crosstalk in different ways where we kind of talked over each other, I think, inadvertently.

[05:55:17] The purpose here is approve this item, leave the PDR program on to be determined as we will. And then I'm a little unclear now, getting late, on how we're going to get a discussion on the PDR program at TELUC.

[05:55:36] Do we have a separate motion on that somewhere? Because right now we're just approving the plan that makes it TBD. Is there a motion going to come forward to talk about the PDR program in TELUC somewhere? Can I make her friendly? No. I've lost the bubble on this. Right now the motion is to approve the DPZ work plan, which includes the PDR program, and I'm okay with that.

[05:55:56] At some point I would like the staff to be able to present the work they did on the PDR program to the TELUC program. because we have some refinements. How to do that, I don't know. We don't have to do it tonight. But this keeps it in the work plan. And at some point, I would like to elect to review the PDR program and make a few tweaks to it without any commitment to do the program, without any request for more bodies to staff the program, none of that.

[05:56:20] But as far as this motion goes, I don't have anything else that I need to offer. Okay. So, Mr. Crony, I don't, well, of course you can make it friendly, but I don't know that the friendly would pass depending on what's going on.

[05:56:38] We have had lots of discussions, a lot of discussion, and we have kind of talked around and over each other on this item. Mr. Carney, do you have something that you're trying to do, something in mind right now? So staff has told us that the draft ordinance and the property ranking scale is done, is complete at least to review um at t lock i think is what um supervisor turner and i talked

[05:57:11] about um one thing that we talked about during um the discussion of the fy 2025 budget uh was that you know we don't have a draft ordinance why are we adding staff to implement pdr so i heard that loud and clear but my understanding is that staff has done um a draft i mean we've been working on this for like four years. So we have a draft, and I haven't seen it, and Supervisor Turner hasn't seen it. So the idea would be to send it to TLUC and take a look at it. I think we could do it in

[05:57:44] one meeting, you know, based on our knowledge of TDR. And some things that I'd want to see in it is public access being a priority, and then income requirements. Okay, let me help you maybe.

[05:58:01] Let me help you. So what you're saying is you plan on voting to approve this whole item tonight. Yes. With the data center CPAM, I mean, I'm sorry, the personal developer right CPAM still being in TBD mode.

[05:58:20] And you're asking Mr. Turner to put on a TLUC item to give an update on where the personal developer right program stopped at the moment that we put it in TBD mode.

[05:58:37] Is that correct? Yeah, and kind of it did stop. You know, we had, I think, a 2024 date to implement it. Am I correct, Dan? Yeah. So just kind of to bring it to give us an update and to show us the documents that have been completed.

[05:58:57] I don't know that we need to do anything in a motion for that. And if I'm incorrect, somebody correct me, because you're not doing anything with this motion. You're just saying at some point, can the PDR program from where it stopped be bought to Chile for a briefing? But I don't believe that that requires a motion today to do anything different or friendly.

[05:59:18] Mr. Hemstreet, we thought. The GDR program was referred to the board by the board to finance. So if the board wants to now send it to TLUC, then it would be appropriate to send it there by consensus. And with the limitation of just presenting what was presented to finance.

[05:59:38] Otherwise, it takes some staff effort in order to make any changes, to do anything else. So if it's simply taking what was presented to finance and the board making the decision to move it from finance to TLUC, we would just need at least the consensus of the board to do that.

[05:59:57] But we're not putting any staff effort towards it other than to just present what was taken to finance. Because that was then brought to the board. I've got to amend my own motion, Madam Chair. I don't know that we need to amend the motion. I don't know that we do.

[06:00:12] That's why I keep you guys. I think you just said we need a motion to send it to TLUC. He didn't say, he didn't say, did you say a motion or did you, I need something at least by consensus because right now the board sent this to Finance, so right now it's with Finance, so the board needs to redirect.

[06:00:29] I'll come back to you if I need to. I'll come back to you. Question. Well, you've already had. You can come back. I just have a question. Okay. Well, okay. Mr. Letourneau. Okay. First of all, I would not object if T-Luck wants the same briefing that Finance had, but I don't support the motion.

[06:00:45] i support motion two so whether i mean i assume that's an opposite motion madam chair and you you want to dispense a motion one first otherwise i would make it as a substitute so and i've been pretty upfront about it um the the reality is we're leaving staff in limbo which is not a good place to be they don't know if they're supposed to work on it or not work on it if the board's going to want to pick it up at some time i do not believe there is majority support on the board at least based on the budget to pick up the program right now and the real question is, when it comes time to fund the program, which was supposed to be during fund

[06:01:22] balance, staff was going to include at least $6 million to do that. And that's where I don't believe, at least for me, I would support that. So I think we, it is true. We authorized a look at it. I have no problem with the outcome of that being here, but I don't think it should be in the DPZ work plan at this point until or unless the board's actually going to take it up and want to do it which is not where we are based on the budget vote because we didn't give them any staff to do it so they can't so to me motion two is makes a lot more sense and let's get this out of

[06:02:01] the work plan process and again i don't have an objection if it goes to tluck for a discussion uh you know sort of a wrap-up of the work that was done but i don't think it should be part of the work plan so however you wish for that to proceed okay that was fine all right miss brixman madam chair who's that i'm still on hi hi mr kirschner yeah sure hi we're ready sure we're gonna miss me

[06:02:42] how can yes mr kirschner thank you madam chair so i'm gonna turn my volume down so i don't hear my repeat here all right so madam chair i and in board members i think we um what i what i think we need to do is keep it in the future work plan but let tluck work with staff to maybe refine it a little bit and i think there is enough support on the board to let at least let us do that at this point i understand that we were not able to fund it during our last

[06:03:21] session that i believe it was a vote of five to four but i've talked to several of you who would be potentially open to um a pdr program that um had some some positive things in it that would work for the county but until we receive a presentation or have some opportunity to kick around and make it you know really have an opportunity to look at it i don't think you really know what you're voting for or are not voting for so i kind of disagree with supervisor lakano on the fact that there is not enough support for edr program maybe not this time but

[06:04:00] there very well could be next budget session if indeed we have time to some opportunity to refine this and i think at least we need an opportunity to discuss it in tluck and to ask a number of questions which have really not had the opportunity to flesh out so i think this is probably the proper motion if mr hemstreet needs more then perhaps um someone can make a friendly or i think Mr. Turner wanted to make a friendly to his own to maybe allow for discussion in TLOC and allow staff time for that.

[06:04:32] And then perhaps when we come around for the next Department of Planning and Zoning work plan, we can discuss whether or not we keep it in the plan at that point. But I think that would be only fair to this and a significant portion of the residents in the western land who at least like to see how the plan would be laid out.

[06:04:49] Thank you, Madam Chair. Okay. Mr. Sains. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just to clarify for me. So Purchase Rice Development Program, you're hearing from our supervisor colleagues that staff has continued to work on it since we made it TBD in January or whenever we last discussed this.

[06:05:06] Would that be accurate to say? We made it TBD with the intention that it would be taken up during the board's discussion for the budget, which it was, and we made those decisions about the positions themselves, but not about the additional work we've done to this point. So even when we made it TBD, staff was still working on it?

[06:05:24] No, it's been essentially sitting here since January. Let me ask this question, then, because we have community-scale solar, source water protection, TBD. Is staff doing any work on those? No. So, and correct me if I'm wrong, so before we made it TBD, staff was working on the item.

[06:05:46] Yes. And actually, to be honest with you, I don't remember getting the briefing and finance, or it's been so long ago, I don't remember it anymore. But staff was working on it up until that point when we last made the change in January. So pretty much staff is asking at this point, either put it on the shelf and leave it alone.

[06:06:05] We're not moving forward, or you're asking either move forward with it or not, is pretty much what you're looking for at this point. Yes, ideally. Okay. All right, that's my question.

[06:06:23] Thank you. Ms. Brooksman? Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm having, like, deja vu back to collective bargaining right now. I feel like we had to vote on collective bargaining, like, six times before, you know, we actually finally said we, you know, made it clear that we want to do collective bargaining.

[06:06:45] I actually don't really understand why this is back in front of us and why we have to vote on it again. We put it in TBD. We've had a number of items in TBD. I just expected it to go to the bottom of the list, and at some point we might pick it up. I don't understand why we're being asked to, again, reaffirm what we already did in putting this at TBD.

[06:07:08] I don't understand why this is even in front of us or we're voting on it. It makes no sense to me. I don't support sending it to TLUC because I believe that if we send it to TLUC... Well, let me ask this question. If it were sent to TLUC and, you know, the members of TLUC wanted to refine the program or kind of like dig into it, it would require staff time, yes?

[06:07:32] Yes. Yes, okay. So we have made it clear we want it in TBD and no staff time spent on it, and we did not fund the two positions for it. So I'm with Supervisor Letourneau that motion two seems more appropriate to me.

[06:07:49] I was willing to go with motion one just to leave it in TBD, but I'm not willing to send it to TLUC. So I will be voting no on this motion that includes sending it to TLUC. And I think that's all I have to say about it.

[06:08:08] Thank you. You know, my deja vu is this. When this was put in TBD, I literally said, so you guys are killing it. I literally said that at the moment, and I got a snarky response from one of my colleagues here about how are we killing this, are we killing this, are we killing this? No, we're not killing it.

[06:08:23] You were killing it. You did kill it. No, you killed it by turning to TBD, and now you want to do motion two, takes it out completely. You were killing it then. Slow death, fast death, you were still killing it, and you knew that from the beginning. So do not tell me about how you're so confused when, truthfully, TBD doesn't mean it's dead.

[06:08:42] It means to be determined. We're at this point determining, so don't be surprised that the people who wanted to talk about it more actually took you up on your TBD when I said you're trying to kill it then, and you all denied that. That's exactly what happened during the budget cycle.

[06:08:59] Exactly. It is exactly what happened during the budget cycle. Listen, I have many times where I have not agreed with the will of the board, but I respect the will of the board, and I always have, and I will this time too, But I do not like the, oh, my gosh, we're so surprised moment because you knew what you were doing.

[06:09:18] We did that. And and it is amazing to me that the people who cover any parts of Western Loudoun County want to see something happen here. And everyone who covers what Eastern Loudoun County doesn't.

[06:09:35] And there is no kind of especially and I'm going to say a name for you, Miss Bricksman, who scream to the hilltops. If somebody steps a foot in the Algonquin and doesn't tell you they're there, you're like, you're in my district. But now, when this is about this issue, you know, no discussion with the Western Loudoun County supervisors at all.

[06:10:01] And my second, oh, by the way, is when we go back to starting to discuss the prime farming soil issue, if we don't have a PDR program and we don't have a prime farming soil program at all, however that might look, and I don't know because I'm still working on it, then what you just might as well say is let's just not have West O'Neill County at all.

[06:10:24] Let's not have rural down county at all. Because that is where we're headed for because we're not doing anything. We're not putting anything in place to protect those areas. So next time that I come to the Algonquian district, I'm going to walk all around and do all kinds of stuff. I'm not going to call you at all, because you will lose your mind if someone comes in your district.

[06:10:44] So TBD, when you put it there, you were trying to kill it, and now tonight's his final knife? Fine, but let's not act like that's not what it was. Mr. Turner? Thank you, Madam Chair. There are four ways to protect farmland in western Loudoun County.

[06:11:02] TDRs, transfer development rights, PDRs, conservation easements, and the zoning ordinance that we're trying to pass right now, which could include down zoning. which it doesn't because we know the legal hassle of that. TDRs is not viable. We're not going to increase density in the east, save density in the west at the expense of the east.

[06:11:20] That's never going to happen. Conservation easements, we lost 12,000 acres of farmland in Loudoun County from 2017 to 2022. The conservation easement program is said by many in the west even, it's working great. It's working great because one individual has done about 90% of the conservation easement work in the last five years in western Loudoun County.

[06:11:40] And that individual has said if we pass the cluster ordinance, there's not going to be any more conservation that he's going to be working with. So the conservation easement program is in peril. The ordinance can get changed by any future board. Now, all of these probably ought to work marginally to save Western Loudoun land.

[06:11:58] But if you kill the PDR program and you don't enhance the conservation easement grant program and you vote against the cluster ordinance, just come out and say you're not interested in saving farmland in Western Loudoun. just be honest about what you're doing. All we want to do in TLUC is, and if we can't change it, then we can't change it. I want to send it to TLUC so we can take a look at it. The two major objections are, if you do a PDR, does that land have public access? Fine, we can make that part of the program. We'll make sure every PDR is required to have public access if we can legally do that. And the other objection on the PDR program is it doesn't benefit the East. We have

[06:12:37] identified already three projects that a PDR program would have a substantive benefit to people in the East. So we think we've addressed those objections. We'd like an opportunity to talk to staff and say, can we tweak the plan that you've already done and finished, relatively, we think, minor fixes, and get a different program that is responsive to the objections from the board, and then bring it back to the board and have a look at it. And then if you don't like the program then, and we can vote it down and move on. But if we vote this down, this motion that's on you, Now, we go to the alternate motion, and we take it off the TB deal list.

[06:13:10] We are killing the PDR program. We're killing it. Let's just be honest about what we're doing. We're killing the PDR program. Fine. If that's the consensus of the board, then let's go ahead and do that. But let's stop tiptoeing around here and pretending we're doing what we're not doing. If we vote and approve the second motion, we're killing the PDR program.

[06:13:29] And let's just stop talking about it. But I think we can address the objections that have been brought up about PDR program. I think it's a viable tool. i think we need to keep it alive take the time i don't think it's going to take a whole lot of extra staff time we're not going to implement it we're going to go back to the board and say we've recommended these fine-tuning tweaks it we'll find out how much staff time if it's excessive then we'll put it off to another day but let's at least look at it address the objections and then vote on it so i really urge you to vote for this motion thank you okay motion was made madam chair point of clarification i just want to make sure i understand what the friendly is There was no friendly.

[06:14:06] Oh, there was no friendly? No, there was no friendly. There's no friendly. This is just motion one. Oh, this is just motion one to keep it TBD. There's no friendly to send it to TLAC. Then what about the TLAC discussion, Madam Chair? Because there's clearly no consensus on the board. I'll do that in a second.

[06:14:22] Oh, that would be a different motion. Yeah, although consensus motion, but okay. But there's no friendly right now, no. Okay, okay, thank you. All right, motion was made by Supervisor Turner, seconded by Supervisor Tacroni. All in favor, please say aye.

[06:14:38] Aye. Aye. Opposed? All right, so that motion will pass 7-2 with Supervisors Laterno and Umstead being against the motion. Mr. Turner, would you like to make another motion?

[06:14:54] Yes, Madam Chair, thank you. I move that the Board forward to TLUC for consideration the work already done and to receive the presentation made at the Finance Committee for the Purchase of Development Rights Program. Second.

[06:15:11] Motion's made and seconded by, I'm going to give that one to Mr. Crony. Discussion on the motion, Mr. Turner. I'm not, I think I've said everything I need to say. The purpose is to get this to TLAC, review what the staff has already done on the PDR program, and possibly recommend some fine-tuning what I think are going to be tweaks, and then see what staff's reaction is to that and how much work that would involve, and then potentially vote it out of TLAC with a recommendation of the board.

[06:15:37] Thank you. Okay. Mr. Letourneau. What Supervisor Turner just said is not the motion. The motion was simply to get the presentation from the finance committee. But he just stated the intent to work on the item, which does involve staff time, and then to vote on the item again.

[06:15:53] So that is a different thing, and that is the issue. So simply getting the presentation, which, frankly, you could pull up on your iPad is one thing, but actually working on it in TLUC is another, and I think kind of violates the spirit of the TBD in terms of what we're doing because it it it puts staff to work on this item which is what i think we were trying not to do for a lot of reasons mine is yes i am let me shout it from the rooftops i don't i don't think i've ever been unclear about the fact that i don't like the pdr program and yes i'm trying to kill it so that's i'm not trying to be at all i'm not sure what that's coming from i've been pretty transparent

[06:16:29] about that i i was arguing that we the the time to do that was in the budget and i believe it was and we did. So, okay. But in any event, and let's not have the hysteria on this either, because I could just as easily turn around and say, you want to do PDRs in Eastern Loudoun County?

[06:16:45] You don't care about affordable housing then, do you? You don't want to build more houses. That's silly. It's just as like it's silly saying if you don't support the wealth transfer, you know why Supervisor Brisbane feels that way? Because who's paying for it? We are. Eastern Loudoun transferring money to Western Loudoun. That's why. That's why, let's just say it. Let's be honest. That's why.

[06:17:04] that's why right so and i don't see much benefit to it i don't think it's going to work and one of the reasons it's not going to work is the amount of money it would take is so massive to make any kind of difference you know we use it losing 1200 acres of farmland a year it's six million isn't going to cut it it's going to have to be many many times that so let's just be honest about it that's that's the issue and this isn't a new issue it's been around 20 years in this county we've talked about this back then talked about it in the between talked about it now and it's never it wasn't particularly successful because the scale at which it had to be done was so massive to make a difference that it just didn't make any sense. So that's where I'm coming from on it. It's not

[06:17:44] because I want to pave over the West. We have zoning protections. Yes, there's really interesting discussion on this cluster ag farmland thing, and there's two competing points of view about what that's going to do. But let's not tie everything together. This is, to me, it's a financial thing and yes there's savings of course from preventing development if you believe it actually works and that's where the chair and I disagree because I don't think it works it's not because I disagree with her about the cost of development it's because I don't think it works period so anyway back to the motion the motion is to work on it in TLUC I don't think we want to

[06:18:21] do that at this point therefore I'm not going to support it. Ms. Umstead. Thank you Madam Chair I think it was Vice Chair Briskman who at an earlier meeting expressed a concern about the PDR program because, and she'll correct me if I'm wrong, but because if there was no public access to these lands that the board put taxpayer money into protecting from development,

[06:18:56] than that lessened the logic of spending taxpayer money because the taxpayers could never use those lands. And the problem is I just can't see a landowner who wants the county to buy his or her development rights going along with allowing the public to access their lands.

[06:19:26] I don't think that's why a landowner would... would enter into the program. And I cannot imagine that they would want public access to their land. So I think that premise probably is not going to be realistic. For many of the same reasons, Supervisor Letourneau spoke to this.

[06:19:46] I will be opposing this as well. When the PDR program was first promoted, and this was over 20 years ago, it was to save, in the long run, save the taxpayers' money because those lands would not develop, and therefore there would not be the school costs, the road costs, library costs, et cetera.

[06:20:11] And I think Supervisor Letourneau is right. We would be putting far more money into buying those development rights than we would see in savings. So I think the way this program is naturally going to develop, if it does, is going to be a net cost to the taxpayers, not a net savings.

[06:20:37] Mr. Kirshner? Thank you, Madam Chair. All right, so there's been a lot of statements that have been made here, and quite frankly, there's a lot of guessing going on. And this is not a win-all, end-all. The PDR program is not a win-all, end-all, win-all. This is simply one small tool, and I think the proposal, and really the decision on this should quite frankly in large part be made when we go to fund it, whether we fund it at all.

[06:21:03] All I'm simply asking, and I think what Supervisor Turner is asking, we've never even really got a presentation on this. The staff has been working on this for a long time, and we're ready to actually roll it out. So you're actually asking to kill this and not allow T-Luck to actually do some of yours, hear the presentation, talk about it, ask a bunch of questions, maybe go back to our colleagues, such as those who voted no on this tonight and explain what we're trying to do or not do.

[06:21:31] And then we can bring it back to the board and vote it on them. But literally, staff has done a ton of work and you're basically saying, you guys can't even hear about it, talk about it, make suggestions about it.

[06:21:56] And I think that's just wrong. And to Supervisor Letourneau's point where this is not going to make a dent, yeah, I agree with you. By itself, it's not. And I think to Supervisor Unstead's point that this is going to be a net loss, we don't know that. As a matter of fact, we haven't even had an opportunity to sit down with staff in a TLX session and kick these ideas and concepts around. If you look at our neighboring counties, Bakir, Clarke, they've had PDR programs that have been very successful. You look at Fairfax and conservation use of the program, by the way. You look at Fairfax and Prince William, haven't done so well because they haven't implemented those things. So if you really like, and because Supervisor Turner is 100% right, unless we really start focusing on ways to ensure

[06:22:32] preservation of the West, and it has to be multiple tools, we will lose the West. There's no ands, ifs, or buts about it. You all know that the desire to develop is too strong. It is going to happen.

[06:22:48] And that's why I have been fighting, and I've been on both sides of this area, both the PDR, the prime ag. I am desperately concerned that we are going to go the wrong way in all of these directions, and that ultimately Western Latin, which we've grown to love and which is an important aspect of our economy which really uniquely sets us apart of our different land use areas is going to be gone and lost forever. So at least let us look at this, hear the presentation, talk about it, ask questions, and see where we get from there. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Brixman?

[06:23:27] I think there's a couple other lights on to your left, Madam. Oh, I'm sorry. You just turned your light on. No, I had my light on. Not you. You. Her. Her. You. Mr. Crony. Okay. Thank you, Randall. So I agree with Supervisor Kirshner. You know, we really haven't had a chance to look at the item.

[06:23:49] I actually haven't seen the draft ordinance or the draft property ranking system. So I think going to teluc gives us an opportunity to look at it um you make make a few tweaks i don't think it'll take a lot of staff time um you know just to just to look at it we heard during again during the budget process that oh we don't have an ordinance well at least we'll have an opportunity to look at it and to make some comments on it i do want to make the rest of my board members aware that there's money, grant money, that we're leaving on the table.

[06:24:25] Clark County and Fauquier County use grants for 50% of the PDR program. There's $875,000 that can be used to assist with funding PDRs from the state and a 50% cost share administered by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.

[06:24:46] So this isn't just going to be county taxpayer dollars that we're using. it is also grants. And I do think it's a worthwhile down payment on open space and on trails. In Eastern Loudoun, we need these gaps filled for the Signature Trail, for the LPAT Trail. And I do think Eastern Loudoun landowners, they don't know about PDR. We haven't educated them about pdr i do think there will be interest um you know a lot of people like their land and

[06:25:23] and i don't i don't see a competition of housing versus open space there needs to be balance in the east as well we can't fill the east with all the houses and and them and not include open space and parks in the east they want parks and open space too and so i see the pdr program as a down payment for the for a future potential park open space that the county could get a right of first refusal on down the future so i do see it as a great opportunity for eastern louden county and western louden county i want to make it clear i see it countywide as being a huge tool

[06:26:02] for meeting our open space and our trail and our park goals so i hope um the board my colleagues will support this because it's an opportunity just to take a look at it. I've been working on PDR since I worked with Chair Randall. You know, it's been about eight years, Chair Randall, right?

[06:26:22] So, I mean, and I haven't even seen the ordinance. So this will give us an opportunity just to take a look at it and make some tweaks. But I do think it's a worthwhile program to take a look at. Thank you. Ms. Glass. Thank you, Madam Chair. I think I'm a little confused on what's going on with the motion.

[06:26:42] It sounds like, well, the motion to me sounded like it was going to go to TLUC and we were going to look at it because it's regarding land use. So, yes, I think we should look at it. But now it sounds like that we're adding on to what we're going to do with it.

[06:27:01] And so if we're adding on, that means we're going to have to have staff involved with this. Would you like to ask staff that? Yes. Yes. For what you heard Mr. Turner say, which I think he was kind of making it up on the spot because he didn't have a motion in front of him, what was your response?

[06:27:21] So we could prepare an item that would present the documents that have been prepared already and essentially recycle much of the presentation we used at Finance previously without a significant amount of staff time being spent on it. The concern would be if there are numerous things that TLUC would want to recommend, that gets us to where it will involve more staff time.

[06:27:46] So potentially, if I make a recommendation, if the board wants to have TLUC listen to staff and then create a list of ideas that come back to the board that staff does not do anything with, that might be one option, then the board can sign off or not on what those are.

[06:28:09] Staff does not have to do any additional work beyond that unless the board directs it. Does that answer your question? Yes, and I would agree with that, that we would take a look at it, and if staff has some things to say, but not to add additional work to them, because I believe we do have a whole lot of stuff that we're doing right now.

[06:28:31] So thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Mr. Sains? Thank you, Madam Chair, and if I ask a question to staff. Sure. Technically, staff or our board colleagues can go into their packet, pull up the item in finance whenever it's presented.

[06:28:47] I don't know if you remember the date or the month, and they can look at it that way. Would that be correct? Yes. And then, in theory, once they do review it on their own, if they have ideas, then they can talk amongst themselves or whatever, and then possibly come back and say, oh, I have this idea, I have this idea, board staff, board, let's talk about it, and then make decisions.

[06:29:10] Is that an option, possibly? Yes. without sending it to delug yes so that's one possible option for this whole thing um it was mentioned earlier that we really only have three or four ways to quote unquote preserve the west that's not 100 accurate now we've been loudoun county for various reasons we only look at or talk about three or four uh ways to preserve the west or preserve land there's a whole lot of other ways we're not the only county in the country that have this issue um i found a list

[06:29:48] some of the things that we've been talking about are on the list i'm just going to run down the list to let you know there are alternatives some of these things you yes we might have to go get general assembly of permission for because we're a dylan rule state but other states are doing a lot of different things to preserve land in various areas where they want to preserve land so yes you have conservation easements yes zoning and land use planning purchase of development rights is on the list agricultural land preservation programs I don't even know if we do that here land trusts we do that community-based incentives I don't know if we do that sustainability our agricultural

[06:30:27] practices don't know if we do that obviously educational awareness government policies and incentives land stewardship and restoration I don't even know if we do that so that's just a quick list on the quick Google that is done in other locate localities to preserve land in areas where they don't want a lot of development and housing so I would encourage folks to look at all these different ways that are being done in other locations and let's bring some new initiatives and ideas to Loudoun to preserve land in certain areas so that's

[06:31:02] all I have thank you miss Berksman thank you madam chair so I won't be supporting this because I believe it's going to require staff time and I apologize if this is a repeat of what supervisor Sains asked I was taking some notes but um could any office ask for a briefing on this yes okay okay that's that's what i thought um you know i i'm i'm not going to support it because it's going to require staff time and also because of what you know supervisor overall overarching supervisor um said did accurately

[06:31:40] state some of my concerns about doing pdrs and not having public access to the land but i also agree with um supervisor letourneau and to me this is in in many ways protecting my constituents from having their tax dollars be spent to protect land they may never see they may never step foot on um and that they probably aren't even thinking about and i just don't think that's fair i just don't think it's fair my my gut tells me that and my core values tell me that that's just not fair

[06:32:15] And the hyperbole that those of us that don't support PDRs want to pave over the West is really not fair either. It tends toward disinformation and assumes my intentions. So I would appreciate it if folks would stop saying that about people who don't support PDRs or people who don't support Primag soils.

[06:32:41] I'm actually leaning toward supporting Primag soils. Two things can be true. I want to support Prime Ag soils, most likely, but I don't believe in making taxpayers' money, using taxpayers' money to purchase development rights in another area of the county.

[06:32:57] I just don't. So I agree. We already have a general plan that has value statements and policy statements in it that we want to preserve Western Loudoun. We want to preserve the economy.

[06:33:13] We want to preserve the rural character. There are protections there for it. So, I just take a little bit of offense to someone saying that if I don't support this, I just want to pave over the West.

[06:33:31] That is absolutely not true. Thank you, Madam Chair. So, a couple questions. One, first of all, let me say this again. And if you want to take offense, that is your prerogative because I absolutely will say the same things over again. And I just particularly do not care, to be honest.

[06:33:48] I don't. Because you either want to do something or you figure out ways not to do it. And if we don't figure out ways not to do it, you can say you don't want to, but the upshot will be it will be paved. That is the upshot. Whether you say you want to or not, that will be the upshot.

[06:34:05] Somebody please tell me why we have to spend millions and millions of dollars to widen Route 15. We've had all these zoning laws in place and all these zonings in place all this time, but we still have to widen Route 15, right? Please tell me why in the comprehensive plan we literally had to go on and move plots of land into the TPA because so much development had happened and so much encroachment had happened on the RPA that those plots of land were no longer rural.

[06:34:37] So it made no sense to leave them there and not allow those people to have water and sewer. And by the way, all that zoning was in place when we did that. If all those things worked, we wouldn't be having these conversations right now. We just would not. We are going to cost ourselves much more money by not figuring out how to proactively protect the West.

[06:34:58] And we are not figuring that out right now. We're just we're absolutely not. And I'm sorry. What we did in and at during budget was a bait and switch because it was let's put it in the to be determined. And I said, you're killing this. And now you're saying, yeah, we're killing this.

[06:35:22] Just like I said, then that we weren't being honest. Then that was a bait and switch. And no one wanted to talk about that then. But that's what you actually did. It is just absolutely what you did. So, you know, listen, there is evidence that shows that what we have in place has not worked. Mr. Sains, all the things you mentioned, go do some research on those things. Those things also are going to cost tax dollars.

[06:35:45] Everything you mentioned, with the exception of education, is going to cost tax dollars. Go do some research on them. That would help. And the idea that people would say, you know, Western, Eastern Loudoun County has to pay, we are one county.

[06:36:02] And the benefits of this county in the west accrue to the east, and the benefits of this county in the east accrue to the west. We are one county. It's why we don't shut the school system down in the west and not the east during the snowstorm, because we're one county.

[06:36:17] The problems, the challenges, the benefits, the issues, we're one county. And that may have been maybe the most offensive thing that I've heard tonight. Please email them, not me.

[06:36:35] Mr. Turner. Thank you, Madam Chair. I don't think I've ever heard anyone on the board say, we want this to go to the committee, but we specifically don't want the committee to do what it's legally allowed and supposed to do, which is recommend any changes and do any votes.

[06:36:53] We'll let you look at the report, but all you can do is look at the report, and we're telling you you can't do anything else with it. I've never heard that before. I'm the chair of the TLUC committee, and if it comes to TLUC, I'm going to do what I darn well please. And if I get three votes out of five, we're going to do exactly that.

[06:37:10] So whatever you think and whatever you want, you go for it. But I'm a little offended that members of this board would say, you can look at it, but you can't do anything, Mr. Chair of TLUC. Sorry, doesn't work that way. However, I think Mr. Glindo's recommendation that, and I will take this on not as part of the motion, but as the chair of TLUC, to come up with a list of recommended changes to tweak the PDR program is an excellent idea.

[06:37:36] And that's, I think, how we're going to approach it in TLUC. You do the presentation. All you have to do is the presentation. Yes, we could go back and read it in finance. You're absolutely right. But I want to have the discussion after the presentation, just the same as was afforded the courtesy to finance. And then we'll talk about it.

[06:37:53] And if we see things that we recommend the program be changed, then we'll make those recommendations. And we'll figure out how we're going to go forward from there. We make forward those recommendations on the board for action to modify the PDR program. And then the board can vote that up or down. But on this notion of, okay, T-Luck, you can look at it, but you can't do anything about it.

[06:38:13] That's just laughable. Thank you. Okay, Supervisor, I don't know who made the motion anymore. Supervisor Turner made the motion. Supervisor, the Crowne Supervisor Kirshner. Who seconded the motion? It's a Crowne seconded the motion. All in favor, please say aye.

[06:38:29] Aye. Opposed. Opposed. Abstaining. Did you say something, Ms. Glass? You said aye. Okay, why didn't I hear you down there? I think that passes 5-4 with Supervisors, with these people over here voting against it.

[06:38:52] Even like that. these people open people to my to my right but yeah exactly and no one on t look exactly point made people exactly by the way supervisors you know what we took number three off uh consent we took number three off consent yeah we did we did we did so we got we got a bit more to do still because we haven't done that is it the last one is it the last one thank you very much everybody, thank you, appreciate it.

[06:39:29] 8D. Item 3 and then 8D. We have 8D, yeah. That's what I thought, we have 8D. Alright, let's then go back to item number 3.

[06:39:45] It's the staff here that you guys just figured out. We didn't call you, so you're going to go home. My chief of staff was watching the meeting, sent me a text, like, how about item 3? We have a 20-slide presentation if you would like us to.

[06:40:04] You got to sit here with us, too, though, if you did. You're with us, too. yes item 3 is the capital intensity factor just as a reminder at the second board meeting in March the board passed a motion to direct staff to go back in and revise the attachments to 5 and 7 to accommodate the changes that you made during the meeting to the capital intensity factor so the item that is before you tonight is just the it's the same thing with some new attachments in here correct correct updated attachments consistent with the motion you passed

[06:40:42] last month. Yeah, that's what I thought. So can we do this in a motion? There is a motion in the item. No, no, I'm not. That wasn't to you. I'm saying we can have the discussion within the motion. Mr. Turner, I'm going to go to you again because aren't you the staff, the supervisor on the CAK? Yeah. I move the Board of Supervisors adopt the 2023 capital intensity factors including the by-size differential as shown in attachments 2, 5, and 7 of the April 16, 2024 Board of supervisor's business meeting action item. The 60% level shall take effect on July 1st, 2024 for any

[06:41:20] legislative applications that have not yet been officially accepted for review in accordance with applicable Loudoun County ordinances and policies prior to that date. The 80% level shall take effect on July 1st, 2025 for any legislative applications that have not yet been officially accepted for review in accordance with applicable Loudoun County ordinances and policies prior to that date.

[06:41:39] The 100% level should take effect on July 1st, 2026 for any legislative applications that have not been officially accepted for review in accordance with the applicable Loudoun County ordinances and policies prior to that date. I further move that credits provided against capital facilities contributions should be adjusted down to 60 or 80 percent for those applications subject to the 60 and 80 percent implementation levels, respectively.

[06:42:01] Wow, that was a lot. The motion was made, seconded by Supervisor Letourneau. discussion. On the motion, was it the attachments two, five, and seven that weren't in the package before? Yeah. They were changed during the meeting to represent the phasing. Okay. Oh, okay. Okay.

[06:42:25] I'm sorry, only two and five. Two and five. Okay. All right. I thought I saw them. Mr. Turner, would you like to do an opening? Thank you, Madam Chair. There was a request, and I won't go into the details of it. But effectively, it was to selectively apply the credits to only certain capital intensity factor adjustments. And I asked Ms. Burke to look at that. I had spoke with Supervisor Letourneau, and we all agreed that the added language was not the intent of why we established the 60 and 80 percent phase-in process, and therefore we wouldn't support it.

[06:43:05] I'll let whoever took this off consent and explain their position as to why and how they feel about that. But I think this language in this motion effectively captures what we're trying to do, which is, and I thought we went, we were pretty accommodating. The development industry was getting hit pretty hard with the new capital intensity factors, and we said, all right, we'll phase it in over two years, and I think that's a reasonable approach.

[06:43:28] The added language created quite a bit of confusion, and so we're happy to stay with this language. Thank you. I lost you halfway through, Ms. Umstead. Thank you, Madam Chair.

[06:43:45] I'm not going to belabor the point, but I ask that this be taken off because I'm not going to support it and did not support this approach earlier. The development industry, understandably, would prefer a gradual phasing in, but already

[06:44:09] They are not paying the full cost of development, and this just extends that period of time when the taxpayers are having to bear a larger share of that cost than I think they should have to.

[06:44:28] So, for that reason, I will be voting no. Mr. Letourneau? I was just going to say on this one, Supervisor Turner and I agree. let's see it goes much more smoothly um but to his point um we uh we did get that request and and i we had the same opinion which is that the essentially we're giving front end relief to this um through the the sort of phase-in approach um and that's that's more than sufficient i think and fair given uh where we were in fact we're hearing some criticism because we're giving that

[06:45:07] gradient approach, but it's really about just trying to make sure we understand the consequences of what the impacts of this are going to be. But I will support the motion. Mr. Crony?

[06:45:23] So I won't be supporting this approach. I think it should have been updated in 2019 and again in 2021. And, you know, FIC was, I thought Supervisor Sains said it great the last meeting that, you know, members of the development community were part of FIC, and they gave input into the formula to justify the cost behind the contributions.

[06:45:49] We are giving, and I voted to support the interim policy that the tax rate will absorb the impacts of new attainable housing units on capital facilities, regional roads, and transit services, so the developer is getting a credit on attainable housing, which I absolutely support. And of course, there's no CIF on buy-write development. So what we're talking about is market rate units. I also don't support decreasing the regional road contribution, which I know will not be phased. And the reason it won't be phased is because it was lowered. So the new methodology

[06:46:24] in calculating the roads contribution lowered it to $1,100 to $3,900, depending on the housing type, from $6,000 per dwelling unit, and that was in 2014. That's been the rate since 2014.

[06:46:43] So we all know road cross have increased, right-of-way costs have increased. Since 2014, I believe the road CIF needs to increase so that the cost burden is not on the taxpayer for improvements that are needed to support additional vehicle trips in a development application. So I wish I could support this, but I do think that the development industry had input into this process. They actually helped develop the methodology, and we are behind. We should

[06:47:21] have increased the CIF in 2019 and 2021. So thank you. Thank you, Mr. Crony. Mr. Kirshner. So, Madam Chair, obviously, when you put something this large together, there's going to be some things you don't like or do like.

[06:47:38] I think as a whole, as a reasonably good job, I would certainly change some things, but I'm going to support it as is. I think that's reasonable. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Would you like a closing? All right. This motion was made by Supervisor Turner, seconded by Supervisor LeTurneau.

[06:47:54] All in favor who say aye. Aye. Opposed? Nay. That motion will pass, if I'm hearing that right, 6-3 with Supervisor Sains, Umstead, and to Crony, voting against the motion. Is that right?

[06:48:11] That was right? Yes. Okay. We have one more item. Supervisor 8. Supervisor 8D. I'm tired. Item number 8D was the Conservation Easement Assistance Program item. This one.

[06:48:32] This one's going to be another one. It's the same thing. Good evening, Chair. Good evening. How are y'all doing? As good as we can do right now. Thank you, George.

[06:48:49] No, I appreciate you, Aranda. Ready when you are. Aranda and members of the boards, I have to my right Dr. Megan Cox. At the pleasure of the board, we can answer questions or we can go through the slide brief.

[06:49:06] So we've seen this. Well, most of us have seen it. Who needs the presentation? Mr. Kirsten, do you need the presentation? No, ma'am, sir. Okay, I think this was a three, two vote, is that right?

[06:49:30] Okay, and you didn't, and this came out of, and you didn't want to make the motion yourself in finance, right? I'd be happy to make a motion if my item came up. But this happened a very difficult night.

[06:49:46] Would any, well, were you in finance either? Whether somebody from finance make the motion, actually. - I got it. Would you make the motion, please, Mr. Sains? It's cool. Yes, I move the recommendation of the Finance Government Operations Economic Development Committee that the Board of Supervisors direct staff to include family partnerships such as general partners, family LLPs, and family LPs in the list of eligible entities to receive conservation easement assistance program funds.

[06:50:14] I further move that the top earner in such partnerships may be eliminated to qualify for the program. Motions made, seconded by Supervisor DeCrony. Discussion on the motion, Mr. Thanks. Sure, yeah, this motion passed out of Finance 3-2.

[06:50:32] It wasn't unanimous. That's why it was not on the consent agenda. Again, as we talked about, tools in the toolkit to preserve land, certain land in certain areas. This is a program that we're already working on and already been active in the county.

[06:50:47] It's working. Just going to add some other entities to the program to keep it going. that's it. Thank you. Mr. Kirshner? Yeah, Madam Chair, I think this is a perfect example. Hold on just a second. There we go. I got to turn myself down. I think this is a perfect example of one of our land use items. Again, this is a very small amount of money that we put into the program and this is just a little tweaking of the program that we currently have that allows, I think, a greater base of people to participate and receive a little bit of assistance to put their

[06:51:25] land in the conservation easement. Again, this is part of our general plan policy to support voluntary easements, and it's a great way for the council to put a tiny, tiny bit of effort into large land preservation options. Again, this is just one tool, but I think it's a very small thing that we can do, and I appreciate my fellow supervisor's support.

[06:51:54] Mr. Crony. Yeah, thank you, Chair Randall.

[06:52:14] I will be supporting this. I think the board has been working to make conservation easements more accessible to residents since 2021. And we really only receive two to five applications for conservation easements a year. I believe we've only had a total of 14 since 2019 that have gone through this program, right? Is that correct? 12. 12. Okay, even less. So there are landowners, you know, who may not be able to afford the upfront costs of placing their land into conservation easement, and this program supports more landowners, and I believe the county should expand the eligibility to allow more opportunities

[06:52:46] for conservation easements. Thank you. Mr. Letourneau? Okay, so comment was just made. This is for people who can't afford the upfront costs. So if that is the case, then why are we removing the top earner from the LLC? So this is a program in which we give, on average, about $25,000 of taxpayer dollars to somebody to help to basically pay for some of the process that they go through for conservation easements. But by removing the top earner from the LLC, the net worth of somebody could be $30 million, and we're still going to give them the $25,000 of taxpayer money to do this.

[06:53:26] You cannot tell me that that person could not afford to do this, and that's the reason they haven't done it is because the county hasn't given them $25,000 to do it. So let's be real about that. I did not object as well to the individual income limit of $500,000 because, again, this is supposed to be for people who genuinely couldn't afford to do something, and that's what's preventing them from doing it. But it's hard for me to justify to anybody else out there who's a taxpayer that, hey, we're going to give your money to somebody who's earning a half a million dollars to do this. And then in the case of this motion, we're going to give your money to an LLC that has

[06:54:06] a top earner of $30 million to do this. And I get a little tired. We wrap everything in. We got to do this to preserve the West. Well, sure, there's things we should do to preserve the West, but that doesn't mean the details of every program can't be objected to because they're going to fund with taxpayer dollars, somebody who's worth millions of dollars. So that's where I'm coming from on this.

[06:54:27] And it's not a dissimilar conversation to the PDR one, but you don't have to attack my motives for it. That's, it is what it is. It's just because I don't think it's right to give that kind of money to somebody who is not income limited and who is not income challenged and who could potentially be worth millions and millions of dollars. So for that reason, and that particular part of this program, I'm going to vote no. I actually do think it's different, to be honest, than the last one.

[06:54:51] Ms. Umstead. Thank you, Madam Chair. Supervisor Letourneau makes a very good point on eliminating the top earner. But I wanted to focus on something a little bit different in this.

[06:55:10] George and Megan, please correct me if I'm wrong. I seem to remember when we discussed this at finance that we had had applicants who were in these new categories come to us to put their land in conservation easement and we had to turn them away because they fell into these partnership categories. My recollection is because we had to turn them away

[06:55:43] that was something like 100 or 120 acres that we could not facilitate going into a conservation easement at that time. Am I right? That is absolutely correct. Okay. For that reason, I will support it. But certainly, if someone made an amendment to keep in the highest earner, I would support it with that provision as well. Do you concur with Mr. Letourneau's statement

[06:56:18] about the highest order? Is that how you all see this as well? So we do limit the LLC, LP, and other partnerships to family trusts, LLCs. So we are looking at by blood, marriage, or other legal means, real persons, and looking at the income of all persons in that partnership. So it is feasible that a person with 30 million dollars could be excluded from a family partnership that is the the land trust's responsibility to review their tax information from the llc's and

[06:56:58] provide us with a legal affidavit that says that they have met the criteria for income ah okay okay all right then i'm i'm fine that's a great answer thank you very much and do you need a Cops are out. All right.

[06:57:16] Mr. Sains, would you like to close? I think we're good. Okay. Mr. Sains, make the motion. Mr. Crony, second the motion. All people who say aye. Aye. Opposed? Aye. This motion will pass 7-2.

[06:57:34] Supervisors, Turner and Rickspin, voting against the motion. I think that's all. I think that's it. Yes, I think that's it. Thank you. We are adjourned.

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