Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, Business Meeting, Thursday, May 23, 2024

Date: Thursday, May 23, 2024
Place: Board Room, First Floor, Government Center, 1 Harrison Street SE, Leesburg, Virginia
Length: 5h 39m (video)
Official meeting video (county, Granicus): https://loudoun.granicus.com/player/clip/7678
Agenda (Granicus): https://loudoun.granicus.com/AgendaViewer.php?view_id=73&clip_id=7678

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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[00:17:12] won't even be in the time zone can we clear the dais please i'm going to hit the gavel good evening

[00:19:39] supervisors good evening staff and good evening loudon i'd like to call to order the may 23rd 2024 loudon county board supervisors business meeting this room has a hearing loop if you need if you need hearing assistance please switch your hearing aid to the telecoil mode if you need a headset we have those available as well please see the clerk to uh to um request one uh vice Chair Bricksman. No, that's me today, and I'm actually not at all ready to do words of inspiration or anything else, because I am just not ready yet, so I'm going to go on to the Pledge of

[00:20:16] Allegiance, and we'll push me to do that next week, okay? Would anybody please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag. I got another. I do believe there is addition or a deletion to the agenda before we do the consent agenda and I do believe that is

[00:20:56] coming from, is that you Ms. Bricksman? It is Madam Chair. Okay, you want to do that right now? Yes ma'am. I would like to withdraw my nomination of Forrest Jones as the at-large local fixed system rider representative on the transit advisory board. He was not confirmed, he was just a nominee? Okay, we don't need to vote on that then. Alright, wonderful. Any other additions or deletions. All right, then. The consent agenda is as follows. Item R1, proclamation declaring Loudoun's foster parents of the year. That's for approval and presentation. I will be doing that

[00:21:32] in place of Mr. Kirshner, who regrets that he cannot be here. Mr. Crony will be joining me because the foster parent resolution normally comes to the Council of Governments, and Mr. Mr. Crony is my partner in COG. Item two, proclamation to declare May 2024 as Jewish American Heritage Month.

[00:21:53] Mr. Crony and I will also do that one together. Proclamation R3, proclamation to recognize Labor Day weekend as charitable giving weekend in Loudoun County. That is for approval only. Proclamation R4, recognition to recognize Pride Month in Loudoun County, also for approval only.

[00:22:10] R5, resolution of accommodation for the Eagle Scout, Grant Clinesmith, that's for approval only. R6, resolution of accommodation for Eagle Scout, Jordan Quinn-Levine, that's for approval only. And R7, resolution to recognize high school students united with NASA to create hardware competition finals, that is for approval only as well.

[00:22:36] And of course, 1A has been withdrawn. Item two, administrative items report for May 23rd, 2024. Item three, proposed amendments for the Board of Supervisors' Rules of Order to implement a change to the public hearing notice requirements, yay. Item five, board member initiative, Whitefield Place Crossing improvements.

[00:22:58] Item six, board member initiative, proposed speed study in the village of Philomont. That is a revised motion that has been placed in the dais for everyone to, I'm sorry, in your folders at the desk, everyone can take a look at that. Item 7A, and it's a very, very minor change.

[00:23:16] It's just, it's actually almost, the change is to go investigate versus to approve. So that's just so you know, that's for Mr. Kirshner. I support that one. Item 7A, award authority to increase information technology consulting services.

[00:23:33] Item 7B, Award Authority Increase Oracle Hosting Services. Item 7C, Contract Renewal, Public Safety, Radio System Maintenance and Support Services. Item 7D, Contract Award, Construction of the Landfill Entrance Infrastructure.

[00:23:51] Item 7E, Contract Award, Fire and Rescue Station 04, Round Hill Station Replacement. Item 7F, Raver on an Affordable Multifamily Housing Loan Program Requirement for an application submitted by Good Works LP and Green Street Housing LLC in the 2023-2024 program year.

[00:24:12] Item 7G, 2023 Disability Services Annual Report. We'll talk about that in a second. Item 7H, utilization of federal and state aides assets forfeiture funds for the Sheriff's Office. These are items that came out of finance, by the way.

[00:24:29] Item 7J, FY25 Human Services Nonprofit Grant Recommendations. Item 7I, County-wide LED Streetlight Program. 7M, Flood Assessment and Mitigation Program. And 9A, 2024 Schedule of Meetings.

[00:24:49] I will make a motion to approve the consent agenda. Is there a second on the motion? Madam Chair? Yes. Excuse me. Would you like to include the confirmations? There was a removal of only one of the items, but the rest could still be on it. Oh, I thought I did. Did I not do that? I think you said you were going to remove that based on vice chair.

[00:25:07] No, no, no, I didn't say, no. It is on consent. Yeah, I said that, yeah, yeah, but thank you. Motion made and seconded by Supervisor Brixman. Discussion on the motion. Supervisor Turner. We've done that right now on track to go from the initial application to final approval in seven months, and that's just an amazing breakthrough.

[00:25:45] This waiver is one more way we've expedited that process, so I commend county staff and the applicant for putting this through. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Glass? Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to thank my colleagues for approving this year's Pride Month Proclamation on the Consent Agenda.

[00:26:02] The proclamation presentation will occur at the Loudoun Pride Festival on Sunday, June 2nd at 2 o'clock at the Clodmore Park in Sterling. If you want more information, go on Loudoun's Pride celebration.

[00:26:19] Visit eqloco.com slash pride. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Ms. Brixman. Thank you, Madam Chair. Congratulations to the Eagle Scouts. I will proudly be joining my colleagues at the Loudoun Pride Festival on June 2nd to present the Pride Month proclamation and honor the diversity of our community and those organizations that work so hard to support families and individuals from the LGBTQ plus community.

[00:26:44] I thank my colleagues for supporting the Whitfield crosswalk improvements. That was consent item number five. We did have a pedestrian death right there across as someone was trying to cross the street over from Cascades Marketplace to the senior center and library area.

[00:27:05] And he was unfortunately struck by a car that was really not speeding. He just wasn't seen. And we've been working with VDOT, DTCI, and the Senior Center to work out ways that we can improve pedestrian safety there, maybe a raised crosswalk, maybe a bump out, signs and those sorts of things.

[00:27:26] And it's not only critically important because of Mr. Mao's passing away. He was beloved in the community, a longtime volunteer at the Senior Center. But also, as we revitalize Cascades Marketplace, we are going to have a lot more pedestrians accessing those public facilities just across the street.

[00:27:43] So thank you to my colleagues for that. And thank you, yay, for the changes in the rules of order. Thanks, Madam Chair. Thank you. Yes, yes. Rules of order change. Thank you. And we're going to really encourage our colleagues in the General Assembly to maybe have discussions with us before they make any other changes.

[00:28:05] That changes our entire policy of how we advertise, and we're glad that they are changing it back. I do want to say on item 7G, the Disability Services Board Annual Report, please go read that. It's very important. I've said this twice already from the dais, but I'm going to say it one more time.

[00:28:23] When we have our strategic plan meeting this year, later in June, when we discuss all the things we want to work on for the rest of our term, One of the things I'm going to bring, I want to bring on that is the discussion on how to have more day treatment programs for our adults who have differing abilities, who are severe enough that they can't work, and they are aging out of the school system.

[00:28:48] Right now, there are almost no programs for people who cannot work but will no longer be in the school system, which is causing, you know, no matter what your differing ability is, you need to be stimulated.

[00:29:05] You need to have people around you. You need to have interaction. You need to do all this. And sometimes when a parent has to work during the day or can't be there, the person with the differing ability is sitting upon the TV all day. They're not getting stimulation.

[00:29:21] They're not getting that interaction. We need to have increased the number of programs that we have. And so I know that this is a tough thing to do, but somebody has said that we do hard things in Loudoun County.

[00:29:36] and it's really important that we take care of all of our residents and so I'm saying this for the third time I am going to bring this to our strategic plan update and I and and I I I would hope I I I don't say the words I hope my colleagues can support I think I've said that five times since I've been this board I don't say that every time we have a motion but on this one I'm going to say I'm I I'm I I want you all support to do this because it is so important to that population to the parents to the families to the people that love them and we need to we need to take care of all of our citizens so

[00:30:13] that's I'll leave that for later well I guess I didn't leave it for later but you know what I mean all in favor oh by the way mr. Sains is running late mr. the Turner said he's running late and mr. Kirshner is not able to be with us this evening. So all in favor to say aye.

[00:30:31] Any opposed? That motion will pass 6023. All right, the only organizational update I have today, or update from state or federal bodies, is that today, Mr. Turner and I had a meeting with representatives from HUD, from Housing and Urban Development, to discuss housing in Loudoun County, most especially Whatever words you want to use, attainable housing, affordable housing, workforce housing, disability housing, veterans housing, whatever, all the different houses, housing types.

[00:31:10] We started today, Mr. Turner and I, at the Chamber of Commerce at 745 this morning having this discussion, and then we went on to the HUD meeting. And really, what the HUD meeting was, and it was led by John Hall from our housing department, is really for them to let us know some of the things that they are doing in HUD to try to help get funding, federal funding, for more housing options, and for us to tell them what we have done with that money that has been coming through to us already, whether whether it be housing choice vouchers or CDBG funds, what we're doing with that money.

[00:31:50] There was a long discussion on the fact that if we want to try to decrease homelessness, the best way to decrease homelessness is, well, they actually said there's two ways. One, build more homes with a shock. And the other way they said is to prevent evictions.

[00:32:08] And so there was a lot of discussion on eviction prevention and rapid rehousing if somebody does get evicted, rapid rehousing, which is very important. And the way the HUD representative said, he said, you know, if somebody becomes homeless, you want them to, his words was, bounce off the system so fast that they get rehoused very quickly.

[00:32:31] Because once you are homeless for a period of time, it is much harder, and homelessness in and of itself costs much more money for someone to be homeless than it is for someone to be helped, for us to help someone be housed. And so it was a really important discussion from our federal representatives on the HUD funds that came.

[00:32:52] and I do want to thank our staff from the Housing and Community Services Department for that and thank Mr. Turner for joining me in that meeting and this morning as well. Okay, my only other thing is last night was the State of the County Address, and I want to thank everyone who attended.

[00:33:11] I want to thank the Talent TDC Dance Group. I want to thank the person who sang the HECA, the National Anthem, Indy McKezo, And thank you to everyone who assisted in making the stay of the county happen.

[00:33:28] I hope people learn something, and I hope that you enjoyed yourself while learning some more about the county. All right. My voice for a cause today is the Nova Diaper Bank. The Nova Diaper Bank was formed and founded in 2017 and is dedicated to the distribution of free diapers to families in crisis in northern Virginia.

[00:33:52] Knowing that the inadequate supply of diapers puts families with babies and young children at an increased worth for health problems and complications, the Nova Diaper Bank is committed to supporting families in need. To date, Nova Diaper Bank has delivered over one million diapers through it since it opened and started operating.

[00:34:15] Casey Childress, president of the board of the Nova Diaper Bank, is here with us today. Thank you for coming in. Thank you for having me, Chair Randall. Okay, so tell me what challenges Nova Diaper Bank had to face, especially in how did you overcome those challenges over the past couple of years?

[00:34:31] Well, the biggest challenge during COVID and coming out of COVID is that about 50% of our diapers come from individual diaper drives. So you can imagine during COVID, those diaper drives weren't happening. And so we were having to look for other areas where we could reach out through social media, where we could reach out to potential grant opportunities, et cetera, so that we could buy diapers.

[00:34:56] But now the biggest challenge that we're facing is inflation. So many businesses that, for example, grocery stores that would do diaper drives before, are not doing them now because they say the diapers are just too expensive and people won't buy them. At the same time, we're looking at a lot of individual citizens drop off diapers at our diaper drop off locations.

[00:35:18] And everybody's feeling the pinch. So we're seeing less diapers coming in. Currently, we have about 67,000 diapers. How fast will you go through those? We go through about 25,000 a month. And of those 67,000, 62,000 are size two.

[00:35:34] Are size two. Is that, I don't know what that means. It means that we are desperately short on the larger sizes, which is what most people need of the size four, fives, and six. So you know what? There's a question I'm going to ask you that's not on the paper. You weren't told you were going to be asked that, so I apologize.

[00:35:51] But this, something that I just read was pretty impactful. I had never put together lack of diapers leads to health problems for babies. Absolutely. Can you talk about that a little bit? Sure. So what we find is that the average child is diapered about 12 times a day.

[00:36:07] Families who can't afford diapers ration diapers and will diaper their child maybe one or two times a day. What that leads to is urinary tract infections and painful diaper rashes, which obviously are directly impacting the health of the child.

[00:36:24] But what that also leads to is developmental delays. Because if you think about it, when you're diapering a baby, you're playing with their legs, you're kissing their belly, you're smiling at them and making eye contact. And their little brains need that interaction to actually develop appropriately.

[00:36:40] So there are a lot of issues when you can't diaper your child consistently. The other thing is that children who have UTIs and painful diaper rashes, because they're in pain, cry more. And these parents who are already stressed out because they're desperately trying to support their children become more stressed, more anxious, and it can lead to problems in the home.

[00:37:03] Wow, wow, wow. You know what, putting all that together, well, thank you for what you're doing. Okay, and you talked about two of these things. Tell me about how people get the diapers to you, how people help give you diapers.

[00:37:20] So we have diaper drop-off locations throughout Loudoun County. We also take donations through our social media, through PayPal. And we get them through nonprofits. We get them through local organizations, local businesses, local churches, et cetera, who donate.

[00:37:37] All right. What's the best way for people to learn more about your organization and get a hold of you? They can reach us online at novadiaperbank.org. Or they can go on to Instagram or Facebook at Northern Virginia Diaper Bank. And we have active platforms there.

[00:37:53] Okay. Well, you know what? Thank you so much, Ms. Childress, for what you're doing. Sometimes you don't even think of a need when that need hasn't hit you in many years. And so what you're doing is so important for all the reasons you just talked about. So thank you very much.

[00:38:09] Thank you. Thank you so much for having us. Absolutely. Ms. McClellan, do you have any remarks this evening? Thank you, Madam Chair. I do. I have four remarks for this evening. You can have more if you want to. I'll just stick to four.

[00:38:26] I think I can manage that. First off, with experts predicting that the Atlantic hurricane season will be one of the busiest on record, Loudoun's emergency management officials encourage everyone to prepare now for hurricanes and tropical storms that could affect Loudoun.

[00:38:42] Tropical weather events can have significant impacts hundreds of miles inland, including extensive flooding, damaging winds, and even tornadoes. The season begins June 1st and continues through November 30th. Make sure you have multiple ways of receiving forecasts and alerts and know what to do before, during, and after a storm.

[00:39:00] Find out more at loudon.gov forward slash hurricane. Secondly, dozens of local employers, including the Loudoun County Government, will be participating in the next Loudoun Job Fair, scheduled for Wednesday, June 12th from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Dulles South Recreation and Community Center.

[00:39:18] Job seekers will be able to meet representatives of employers in a wide variety of fields who have full-time, part-time, and seasonal job openings. Details are online at loudoun.gov forward slash job fair. Third, local landlords and property managers are encouraged to register for an upcoming workshop hosted by Loudoun County and the Housing Choice Voucher and Rapid Rehousing Programs.

[00:39:40] The June 13th workshop at Russ Library in Leesburg will feature representatives from Housing and Community Development, Family Services, and the Loudoun Continuum of Care. Registration is required. Details are online at loudoun.gov forward slash housing workshop. And finally, as a follow-up to last week's very successful Energy and Environment Forum, members of the community are encouraged to provide their feedback on energy and environmental-related issues in Loudoun through an online survey.

[00:40:09] The survey results will help inform the Environmental Commission's recommendations to the board on a number of topics. The survey will be online through May 31st. You can find it at loudoun.gov forward slash environmental survey. Those are all my comments, Madam Chair. Thank you, ma'am. Appreciate that. Supervisors, we don't have any information items tonight. We're going to go into our action items and try to keep this meeting moving along. So if you have an appointment or nomination, I'm sorry, that you'd like to make, please put your light on. Mr. Turner.

[00:40:45] Thank you Madam Chair. I nominate Joshua Reynolds to the Advisory Plans Examiner Board to fill the at-large professional engineer seat. And I nominate Shamika Page to the Housing Choice Voucher Resident Advisory Board to fill an at-large representative seat.

[00:41:02] Wonderful. Mr. Crony. Thank you Chair Randall. I nominate Matthew Charlesworth to the Affordable Dwelling Unit Advisory Board as the ADU program participant. Wonderful. And anybody else?

[00:41:18] All right, seeing none, we will keep moving on. Let's do the item on the sanitary district, which is item 7K. Let's go on and get that item done. Good evening, Mr. Letourneau.

[00:41:40] Chair Randall.

[00:41:55] Yes, sir. On this district, we did have a split vote at finance. Supervisor Sanz and I were not of the same opinion. So I don't know with him not being here. Oh, you want me to hold a vote because somebody's not in the dais? Really? Oh, isn't that interesting? That's fine.

[00:42:13] I'm happy to do that every time. I'm always happy to hold a vote when one of my colleagues is not in the dais. Never an issue. I'm sorry to have you all come down. Can you come back? All right, well, then we will go to item four, which is the Dulles North High School and Elementary School CPMT item.

[00:42:38] Now, there is an alternate motion on the dais for this item. Is that staff in the room? you are. The man that didn't want to stand up yesterday, I hear. Hmm. Galindo, how are you? I'm good.

[00:43:00] Good to see you. We're ready when you are. Thank you. Good evening. Good evening. My name is Allison Britton. I'm with the Department of Planning and Zoning, and I'm here today to present the application for Dulles North High School and Elementary School. I'm sorry, I said the wrong thing. Everyone, that's item four, and the reason

[00:43:37] it's not on consent is because mr crony has a motion on the day is for this item okay thank you so much i apologize you're ready since publication of the staff report we've received 11 additional public comments opposed to this application recommending a fence between the proposal and the willisford community the subject property is 172.91 acres located south of red hill road and west of evergreen mills road in the little river election district this property is primarily zoned Agricultural Residential 1, AR, or 3, sorry, Agricultural Residential 3, A3. It's partially

[00:44:14] zoned Transitional Residential 3 and is located in the transition policy area in the transition large lot neighborhood place type. This site is currently the site of Watson Mountain Middle School, also known as MS-14. The applicant is requesting a commission permit to develop a 350,000 square foot public high school to accommodate up to 2,100 students and a 120,000 square foot public elementary school to accommodate up to 960 students including associated recreational

[00:44:46] amenities with both and an expanded stadium with capacity for 5,000 spectators. Here on the west side of the property is the extent of the proposed high school and on the easter side is the proposed elementary school each also containing associated parking facilities. A commission permit is required to develop a public facility such as a school and may be permitted if it's found the proposals in substantial accord with the general location character and extent envisioned in the 2019 general plan. Co-location of the proposed schools with the existing middle school provides an

[00:45:25] opportunity for efficient use of public resources such as sharing outdoor fields and amenities. It's also located proximate to the residential communities it's intended to serve and as proposed this application has been designed in a manner consistent with the transition large lot neighborhood place type staff support ratification this application as it's generally found to be consistent with the location character and extent envisioned in the loudon county 2019 general plan and staff are happy to answer any questions i also have marie fam from dtci here available as well i'm sorry who's here with you as well marie fam from dtci she's on the she's on the she's in the

[00:46:02] room oh okay okay wonderful thank you very much madam chair yes point of clarification is there anyone here from LCPS? We do also have LCPS here. I think, okay, maybe this would help. Hi, Ms. Tate, how you doing? Should I like to come to the table, please? Okay, this is in Mr. Crony's district, and she actually has the alternate motion, and so I will go to her first, Mr. Crony.

[00:46:36] Would you like me to make the motion, or should I ask some questions? Well, do you, do you think you can ask, have your questions asked and answered within the motion, Or do you have more questions than that will require? I do. I do. I have more questions. Okay.

[00:46:51] Well, I'm more worried about Mr. Crony. I know you are. I might have you do that and then still go to a motion because we can do everything else within a motion. But I know that this is something you've been working on for. Yeah, absolutely. But yes, Mr. Crony, I want to ask your question. So we've gotten a lot of questions and input from residents surrounding the property.

[00:47:14] And my question is, would Loudoun County Public Schools be willing to do the fence at the property line adjacent to the Willowsford community? Thank you for the question, Mr. Carney. I'm Jefferson Miller.

[00:47:29] I'm the Land Management Supervisor for LCPS. We've looked at the idea of putting a fence around, and I will say that typically LCPS does not provide fencing along our property boundaries. Will you find fencing on our property? Sure. Typically, they're around ball fields for spectator and player safety, as well as to keep people safe from roadways.

[00:47:47] But typically, there is an additional fencing provided along the property boundary. In the case of this property boundary that this question is about, we've provided a tree conservation area that extends almost the entire length of the property boundary. To put a fence in there would be very difficult. We'd have to take out a large number of trees to maintain and even get access to the area the fence would need to go.

[00:48:10] could you put it um not like i i don't support taking down trees could you could would you be willing to put it on on cut the willowsford property if it's beyond the tree line i mean is that is that an option so we couldn't actually put something on someone else's property if they would like to erect a fence on their property that would be to their own discretion but would loudon county public schools consider that helping helping support that we've done that before like with substations that have come before the board where, you know, they put trees on somebody else's property. I mean, would you consider that working to put the fence where you're not having

[00:48:50] to take down the tree conservation area? So right now there's also a trail on their property line that follows almost the length of that property. There's a bridge that crosses a stream that may or may not be on LCPS property. So if we were to add a fence, it would actually restrict the use of that trail so it's a very complicated answer it's not just a simple yes or no i will say that willard um middle school does have a fence um so i think that's the example that they're looking at and it's not around like ball fields it is a fence that um is along you know their their adjacent

[00:49:27] property yes ma'am you are correct yes so that's what they're looking at that's what they're asking for. Yeah. Okay. And then does the expanded gymnasium need to be located with an enhanced stadium or can they be located at different high schools? The stadium and the gymnasium are planned with ASAS 14 because of the student capacity of the building. The student capacity of the building is planned to be 2100. That's larger than the typical 1800 student capacity building. So the enhanced stadium and gymnasium are for the home use of the school. The gymnasium in particular is

[00:50:06] being built with the main gym and the auxiliary gym directly adjacent to one another with a retractable wall in between. So you could remove or retract the wall and then have one large expanded space. So my question was that they could... Oh, your time's up, ma'am. My time's up.

[00:50:23] Appreciate it. Appreciate it. Thank you. Ms. Bricksman. Mr. Letourneau. Thank you. So I thought that the primary purpose of the stadium was really so that we could host regional events for state tournaments and things like that more so than home use so and that might have been my fault and a miscommunication and the perception that's out there but that's not actually the case oh um the case is for the home field of hs14 um we have many but okay but i mean i support this to be clear so i'm not i'm not trying to play gotcha here but i don't know what you need to have double the capacity of a

[00:50:58] football stadium just for an additional 300 student capacity right but when we add a second school of 2,000 folks their friends their families other dignitaries what's the second school of 2,000 so to host a game you'd have two schools so you'd have one so take independence yeah NHS 14 you have two student bodies of 2,000 yeah you have faculty you have families yeah you have friends you have staff you have other people in the community that want to go there's occasions where we have games between, say, Broad Run and Stone Ridge, where it's standing room only, and that's a 2700.

[00:51:33] So are there issues with using SEGRA for those? I know we did that once for the Battle of the Burn, but... So good question, and we've only done it once because it is a challenge. It's a soccer field. It's not a football field. Yeah, and that conversion back and forth is kind of what the issue is?

[00:51:50] Yes, sir. Because, I mean, I will say when we built SEGRA, our intent was for it to be used for some school events at times, maybe not necessarily football game, but you know graduations those kind of things and i haven't seen a lot of that happening so i mean i would like to explore a little bit how we can make sure that that's utilized but um there's looks like there's two distinct exits areas so talk to me a little bit about traffic management and then also in case i run out of time um are there why this school is it sounds like it's really being driven by the capacity but there it seems to me anyway that there probably aren't another

[00:52:26] a lot of other opportunities to do a larger facility like this out there the only other high school that's under construction is Parkview which is a very constrained site so but just walk us through that a little bit those two two things traffic management which may be a DTCI question too and you know kind of the opportunity here versus others so yes sir so thank you for the question I'll try to answer first with the traffic so there's three proposed traffic entrances for the site. So there's one now off of Red Hill Road that was approved with the middle school, right? There's a second entrance that'll be just north of Fleetwood Farm and Nursery, which is planned to be a right-in-right-out on Evergreen Mills

[00:53:06] Road. There's in the third entrance is an extension of Steeplechase Loop Drive. That's an internal road within the school property that's planned to be put into the Virginia Department of Transportation System, and it will connect to Evergreen at a traffic light with turn lanes. So with that all together you have three total entrances and exits and as part of the traffic study we submitted a traffic demand management plan and so that speaks to these larger events and mr. Ferry here from athletics can speak to how they come to the idea of a case-by-case idea of handling the events in terms of the number of people involved and how that's handled in terms of opportunities to put

[00:53:45] a stadium of this size listed like I said before the stadium is being driven by the capacity, and there's not a future opportunity at this point to have another school of this capacity. We would need to find land for that first and have a need. You are correct about Parkview.

[00:54:01] Parkview is an extremely constrained site. Just to add the additional parking that's required by zoning really compacts the overall site, and it really makes it not possible to put a stadium of this size at that location.

[00:54:18] - Ms. Berksman, were her lights not on? Ms. Berksman? - Yeah, okay. Thank you, Madam Chair. - Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't see your light. So in reading the staff item, the implication from the staff or what I inferred from the staff item is that Evergreen Mills Road and now, since we're talking about it, Red Hill Road will be prepared to handle the capacity when the high school is built and the elementary school is built.

[00:54:42] Is that a correct statement? That is, I will, I'll let the applicants speak to it, I guess. Thank you, Alice. Yes, that is correct. So we, LCPS, voluntarily provided the traffic study with the commission permit. It's not typically required because we knew the road and transportation would be a huge conversation piece.

[00:55:00] And so through that review process, DTCI let LCPS know that when we come in with our future construction plans for the school, the school is going to be required to provide road improvements. And LCPS is prepared to incorporate those road improvements as part of our HS14 project.

[00:55:17] And those road improvements include Red Hill Road to handle that load as well? Red Hill Road is being improved to its condition as part of the middle school. There wasn't additional road improvements that were part of the traffic study for HS14. The traffic study focused on the widening of Evergreen Mills Road to its awesome condition, which is four lanes, median divided with turn lanes at particular intersections.

[00:55:42] So you'll improve the road in front of the facility, but the gap between there and Clear Springs, which we just approved, will still be a two-lane Evergreen Mills Road, correct? - Heading north from the Ryan Road intersection, yes. But just to be clear, for the road improvements for Evergreen, they include Ryan Road all the way down to Creighton with the high school.

[00:56:01] So there's a little bit of gap there between that's not school frontage. So I just wanted to be clear. - And Ryan Road is due to be improved if we approve the Arcola Farms application. - We have Marie Pham here. She might be able to answer that question.

[00:56:17] - Yes, Arcola Farms has committed to improve Ryan Road. This is also still in the county CIP. to be improved as well. So if for any reason Arcola Farms did not do that improvement, the county would still step in and do it. Okay, so let me restate this and make sure I'm correct in my 52 seconds here.

[00:56:34] So we're going to improve Ryan Road. The private contractor is going to improve Ryan Road from Beaver Dam Drive all the way down to Evergreen Mills. We're going to improve when we build the high school Evergreen Mills in front of the high school up to Creighton Road. Is that right? And then Red Hill will be built to handle the middle school capacity.

[00:56:54] It is. It's been constructed as part of the middle school. Okay. And the middle school opens this year. Okay, I think that's all I have. Thank you. Listen, people. Sorry, Madam Chair. Thank you, Ms. Glass.

[00:57:11] Thank you, Madam Chair. So, well, I was starting to think what Supervisor Turner was saying. So you were talking about the improvements. When we talk about 5,000-seat stadium, will those improvements be able to support, you know, all of the, you know, the cars that will be going to these different games and that sort of thing?

[00:57:39] Or are we going to have to look, you know, look to have even, you know, expand the road or have more improvements regarding the road or for the, you know, regarding the schools?

[00:57:55] That's where we would expect the management plan to come into play, where you may have a sheriff's office out there directing traffic. The traffic study does not account for an event with 5,000 people attending. It does look at the high school, the elementary school, and the middle school being fully occupied, in which case with the improvements that they have committed to, we are reaching an acceptable level of service.

[00:58:21] So your traffic management plan then would come in and ensure that for larger events, that that traffic is accommodated. Okay. So, okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair.

[00:58:39] A lot of my questions were answered. It sounds like the roads are going to be built to their capacity in time for the school to be built. I also had a question about whether we would be constrained in trying to put this size of a stadium at another property, and it sounds like, I mean, this is 170 acres, so it makes sense to me that if we were going to do a larger facility, it makes sense to do it when we have this property, and property is really hard to come by.

[00:59:08] Is it true, so I had a conversation with my planning commissioner about this today, is it true that this is a class six school, and so that at a class six school, this size of a stadium is basically standard for a class six school? I'll need to defer to Mr. Ferry on the second part, but when the school opens, we're anticipating that it'll be on the cusp of a class six.

[00:59:32] Class 6 is typically when you add together 9 through 11 grades, and then there's a standard for that in terms of the standard size of the stadium. So for the standard size of a stadium, so most of your Class 6 schools, I just went through the Virginia High School League directory, and there's 91 schools with a stadium of 4,500 seating capacity or greater all the way up to a stadium that seats 12,000.

[00:59:59] Okay, so it's typical for a Class 6 school to have this size of a stadium, I guess is what I'm getting at correct typically most of your school divisions will take your student enrollment and double it and that should be the seating capacity of your stadium and the large the large events as I read in the item the large events part of the reason why they weren't anticipated in that traffic study is because the larger events will be occurring probably at night like a football game or on the weekend with the graduation so you don't anticipate there's going to be the daily traffic the daily melee when these larger events happen correct that is a correct

[01:00:35] statement okay that's what i thought i read and then um to get to the um the lighting because we have heard some concerns about the lighting we've dealt with that on trying to light ball fields in other areas of the county it's my understanding the lighting is going to be basically focused down so there's not a lot of spillage and also the configuration of the field versus the other buildings are really protecting the surrounding neighborhoods from any lights or noise because it's behind the school correct yes ma'am so we're held to the same standards for lighting just like

[01:01:14] a county facility would be and so we're going to meet those requirements the lights are inward downward they can only be a certain height they can only be on during certain times and so we're doing our best to be good neighbors right and the late do we have a time as to when the latest the lights would actually be on the zoning ordinance requires them to be turned off by 11 p.m by 11 okay perfect um i i think those are all my questions thank you thank you um what is the next largest field we have to with this one would be is it tuscarora seating 2700 stadium

[01:01:47] tuscarora is at 4 000 4 000 so we have a stadium at 4 000 already i am that's that's a that's a that's a five school when we opened it was a class five school up until uh 2019 and since then enrollment has dropped a little to their class four right okay i i because of i i often go to games i go to games all the time i have some friends who have kids tuscarora last year they were going to state i i went to those games those stadiums were not full even at those times and And this is a stadium that states 4,000 people.

[01:02:27] And they weren't full. There were a couple of games where they were close, but there were never a moment where like this stadium is just packed full. That just didn't happen. And even when they had big games, they may have been close, but that was once or twice. So you're telling me that we need a 5,000-person stadium because we're adding 300 more kids to a school when we have 4,000-person stadiums that are not filled yet.

[01:02:54] The stadium, the field itself is no larger. It's just more bleachers, but the field itself is not any larger. It feels the same size no matter what, right? So, you know, now I could be a little biased because truthfully I come from a place where school system, Denver Public School System, lots and lots of schools, has one or two stadiums for the entire school system.

[01:03:21] Every school having their own stadium blows me away anyway. And I never know that I think that's required, nor do I think those stadiums are used very much, to be honest, beyond the main football season.

[01:03:40] So I just don't see doing this. I don't see adding another 5,000, another 1,000 seats because you have another 300 kids. Because we have stadiums right now that are not used at their capacity, and they're smaller with great games and all that.

[01:03:59] So, you know, it's very few times I don't support something that LCPS brings before. It's very few times. But I just don't see the need for this with due respect. So I don't know if this is going to pass or not. I haven't had any discussions with anybody about this.

[01:04:16] But I just don't see the need for this one. But thank you very much anyway. Mr. Crony, you have a motion, correct? Do you? Thank you, Chair Randall. So I move that the Board of Supervisors overrule in part and ratify in part the Planning Commission's approval of LEGIE 2023-0078, Dulles High School and Elementary School Commission Permit 2023-006 as follows.

[01:04:47] Overrule commission permit for the expanded stadium proposed for Dulles North High School HS14 based on the following findings for denial. Darn it. Hold up just a second. Don't make the motion. Don't finish the motion. Supervisors, we're moving fast tonight only because we don't have any information items.

[01:05:07] There are about three people at our six o'clock time who want to speak on this item. Yes, our six o'clock time won't speak on this item. i am very uncomfortable knowing people want to speak on an item um who in going on and voting on the issue before they get here to speak so i apologize but you know what i'm going to do i'm gonna i'm going to um i'm going to hold this item until our our speakers and then we don't have to do anything else we can go straight to mr crony's motion when we come back but i'm looking at my

[01:05:41] speaker sheet for 6 o'clock, and I'm seeing, I think, two or three people that want to speak on this item, and I just don't think that would be very respectful of us to vote on the item, knowing people will come to speak on it.

[01:05:58] So we will not do all this again. We won't need another presentation. We won't have another run of questions. We'll go straight to her motion, but I don't want to do that to people who want to speak, want to speak, and I apologize. So we're going to hold this item for until after the public comments are complete.

[01:06:17] Okay? Thank you. Okay, Ms. Crony? Okay, thank you. Sorry. Supervisors, let's go back to item number 7, K, the sanitary district item, since Mr. Sains has joined us on the dais.

[01:06:42] Good evening. Good evening, Sharon Randall and board members.

[01:06:58] How y'all doing today? Okay. So in response to a board member initiative on the sanitary district, the Department of Finance and Procurement procured services from PFM Consultant to perform a cost model study that looked at full cost and an alternative subsidized cost recovery.

[01:07:30] And so we're here to, if need be, present the results of that. Staff recommended that the board approve local tax funding for the initial sanitary district startup costs and apply cost recovery strategy for recurring service costs and forward a request to the fiscal year 2026 budget process to provide funding for the initial startup costs of the sanitary district program.

[01:07:55] So at the pleasure of the board, we're ready to answer any questions or walk through the full briefing. Before I go to questions, and just for the general public, I don't know if everyone who would be watching this knows what a sanitary district is. Can you just do that before we go to questions? Thank you, Madam Chair.

[01:08:15] So a sanitary district is a provision allowed by Virginia law that localities can institute an area, a district, where waste, municipal solid waste, can be collected within that area, and they can bill those residents for those services.

[01:08:34] That provision allows for consistency of the service and the consistency of the provider in those areas that is managed by the locality. And there's two ways to do it. The locality can either self-perform it, meaning buy the trucks, hire the drivers, and perform it, or they can contract out.

[01:08:54] This provision is contracting out that service very much like many other jurisdictions. Fairfax does both of those to provide that service to their communities. In late terms, we're talking about trash pickup. Trash pickup. Okay, there we go. Sorry. There we go. Thank you very much.

[01:09:12] All right. Supervisors, if you have questions on this item, please put your light on. I believe, isn't this your item, Mr. Sainz? You have no questions? Okay. Mr. Letourneau? Yeah, so when we originally had this discussion, it was during a time period where some of the trash collection services had stopped, and particularly citizens that were not part of HOA really were stuck because they had no kind of organizing force to help prevent that. So is it fair to say that one of the benefits of a sanitary district is that sort of stopgap measure and kind

[01:09:49] of the weight of the county as an organizing entity to ensure that service continues and there's a quality to it? Yes, sir. That's actually one of the primary benefits of that is it provides consistent service that's reliable and dependable and has the enforceability of a contract from the county to the provider.

[01:10:08] Right. Yes, sir. And you would get that whether or not it was subsidized. That is correct. Right. And so on table four is the sliding scale of the subsidy scenario, break-even rate, and then table two is just the break-even rate.

[01:10:24] So the two motions that are in the packet are really those two options, correct? One of them is subsidized and one of them is not? That's correct. and the subsidized sanitary districts would only be in non-HOA areas, correct? So the whole proposal is in non-HOA areas, yes, sir.

[01:10:44] So only those residents would be receiving. Okay, thank you. Thank you. Mr. Crony? Thank you, Chair Randall. Let me get to my question. Okay, so a lot of my residents in the Little River District, primarily in the TPA and RPA, are not part of an HOA.

[01:11:07] Are there limitations to the size of the district in relation to the land area? In other words, could it be spread out over many miles? So the service district can be sized by acreage to whatever the residents desire.

[01:11:23] The minimum is 50 residents that would be served by the district. Okay, but it could be spread out. Okay. And will the outreach campaign include all areas in Loudoun without HOAs? In other words, not just Sterling, but all areas.

[01:11:39] So as proposed, it would be a countywide media outreach that we would work with public affairs because it is not specifically defined as a geographic area. But that, as currently proposed, it would be through that media campaign, it would be for non-HOA areas.

[01:11:57] Okay, great. Include them all. Yes, ma'am. Okay, thank you. Okay. Is there a motion on the day, as anyone would like to make? Yes, ma'am. I move that the Board of Supervisors approve local tax funding for initial sanitation district startup cost and that a cost recovery strategy for recurring services cost be approved.

[01:12:18] I further move that the Board of Supervisors direct staff to forward a request to the fiscal year 2026 budget process to provide funding for the initial startup cost of the sanitation district program. Second. Motion made and seconded by Supervisor Bricksman. Discussion on the motion, Mr. Sains.

[01:12:34] Thank you. So this is a quality of life issue. yes this came about from not just only service interruptions that particularly happened in my district over a period of time but also complaints from residents that say you know i'm just going to use an example sit here on the day i save if i refer all neighbors my trash pickup is on monday and wednesday mr loturno might be on tuesday and thursday miss briggsman might be some other day and we were all paying different prices because again we don't have the collective negotiating power of an HOA. It's all depending on the individual resident at the time when they're

[01:13:12] calling trash companies to negotiate pricing. Some might be good at negotiating prices. Some might not. There might be a special going on when you might call to set up a service. There might not be a special pricing going on when you call to do a service. So at any time, again, we might have different pricing, different pickup dates. So there's instances in Sterling right now where there's neighborhoods where literally every single day there's a different trash company running on a different day to pick up trash every single day. So just imagine in the morning these folks come around what 6 30 7 o'clock 8 o'clock in the morning. So imagine every single day having different services come at different hours in the morning to collect service in one neighborhood and we're

[01:13:51] all playing different pricing. Where if you're in HOA you have collective power to negotiate better pricing and and have better service. So what this program is just have the county backing to help negotiate, organize better service, better pricing for our residents. And as it was just mentioned earlier, this is for not just Sterling, but it's open county-wide to non-HOA areas. And again, residents need to reach out and talk to your neighbors if this is approved, and then you can come back to the county and the county staff will work with you to set up an appropriate district.

[01:14:21] I think this is a good program and a win-win for our non-HOA residents in regards to quality of noise pollution, and getting better pricing and service in their areas for sanitation, trash, recycling, pickup, and reuse. So I hope I can have my colleagues' support on it. Thank you.

[01:14:38] Thank you, sir. Ms. Umstead. Thank you, Madam Chair. If I could ask Supervisor Sains through the chair just to repeat which approach he's going for. are you going for the approach in option number one or in option number two, two being full cost recovery, one being to direct staff to come up with a cost recovery strategy? Mr. Sainz?

[01:15:11] Thank you. I want to do the approach where the cost is being taken up by the county. Picked up by the county without payment by the- Well, there'll still be a payment by the residents, but we're not going to be charging him on the back end for all the setup costs, the initial setup cost.

[01:15:31] Very good. Thank you very much. Madam Chair, can I clarify with staff? Did I make this? Nope. You have a closing. Go ahead. Go ahead. Okay. Mr. Sainz. I mean, I'm sorry, Mr. Letourneau? Yeah. So the question here, I think every argument that Supervisor Sainz made in his statement, I agree with.

[01:15:49] So if this motion fails, which I hope it does, I will make motion two, which will still establish the sanitary districts and still provide every one of those arguments that he just made. The question in front of the board is, do you want to subsidize the sanitary district or not to the tune of $400,000?

[01:16:05] I don't have a logical reason why we would subsidize for one group of residents and not for anybody else in the county. The argument could be made that the others are in an HOA and they may get better rates. That may or may not be true. There is not good data or analysis on that.

[01:16:21] It depends entirely on the HOA, how big the HOA is. It could be a small HOA. Some of them have good contracts right now. Some of them have very bad ones that were done at the peak where there's no service, and they're paying a lot. So if you go to Table 2, that is the sliding scale of the break-even rate of a fee ranging from $51 per month down to $40 per month.

[01:16:43] Instead, what Supervisor Sains' motion is on Table 4 is to subsidize that down to 42, down to 36. There is not a huge amount of difference for the residents between those two things. I could understand a subsidy if it was truly unaffordable to not have one.

[01:17:01] But I think spending $400,000 to subsidize the startup costs and all this and not simply move them on to the sanitary district, which i thought was the original intent is not fair to everybody else in the county and i would encourage us to not support motion one and instead support motion two so therefore to vote down motion one unless madam chair you'd rather me make a substitute um i would consider that motion in the opposite motion i agree so let's i would i would say please reject motion one and then we can do motion two which i would make that gets all the benefit of the sanitary district which

[01:17:38] includes the things that I was talking to staff about. We have issues out there now with no quality control. We have things like Supervisor Sainz said where they're coming on different days of the week and all that. We would solve all that still. It just is a question of subsidy or not subsidy. Finance Committee was split down the middle, 2-2 on this issue. We moved it to the board with no recommendation for that reason. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Turner. Thank you, Madam Chair, I want to try and make sure I have this clear, if I can ask some questions of staff, Madam Chair.

[01:18:12] Absolutely. So we're saying there are 10 sanitary districts proposed at 50 homes each, so there's a total of 500 homes that will be affected by this sanitary district that are not in HOAs. There's a total of 500 homes in Loudoun County that are not in HOAs.

[01:18:29] We use that as a model, but we haven't identified any specific communities that are 10 distinct communities. We had to model it. We haven't done the outreach yet. Each community would have to opt into the program.

[01:18:46] This would not. It would have to be promoted by the members. It would have to have 50% of the qualified voters within that community, and 55% of the property owners in that community would have to support it.

[01:19:03] So it would be driven by the communities themselves that would come to the county to seek to become a sanitary district. So we don't know how many sanitary districts it will be, number one. And number two, the key sticking point to Supervisor Alterno's point is the key question is if we establish this, our alternatives are the county subsidizes whatever districts are formed to the tune of $400,000, which raises another question, how we know it's going to cost $400,000 if we don't know how many sanitary districts we're going to be.

[01:19:35] So we modeled what it would cost the county to set up 10 sanitary districts with 50 properties in each district. We used that as the basis for that model. So that $400,000 is notional. We don't know what the county, what we're voting on is should we subsidize or shouldn't we subsidize.

[01:19:55] We used a model based on 10 districts. That would be about $400,000, but it could be any number. The key piece here is philosophically, should we be subsidizing the sanitary districts or not? That's the crux of the issue. Yes, sir. And the way the motion is written and the way the work was done, it says up to that amount.

[01:20:15] It's $380,000. So we're using $400,000 as a rounded number. Well, that raises another interesting question in 47 seconds. How do we decide if the sanitary district count comes in well over our modeling of 10 districts and $400,000, and we've capped ourselves at $400,000.

[01:20:34] How do we decide who gets the $400,000 and who doesn't? Or is that a silly question? Well, you're looking at each other, so it can't be that silly. Yeah, no, I mean, we would then have to, having that much participation in the program would be beneficial to the program because we could achieve some efficiencies at that point, but we would have to come back to the board to request more funding.

[01:20:58] Okay. I am persuaded by Supervisor Letourneau's argument, frankly. Thank you. Ms. Brixman? Thank you, Madam Chair. Just one quick question. In this scenario, roughly $400,000 is a one-time cost to set up up to 10 sanitary districts? Yes, that's correct. Okay, okay. I'm going to support the motion. You know, HOAs were set up or are set up largely to, well, I won't say 100%, but they are set up in a way that allows jurisdictions not to have to pay for services that jurisdictions

[01:21:37] often have to pay for, such as sanitary pickup, which, you know, if you're in New York City or Chicago or something like that, that happens as part of, you know, you paying your taxes. But what happens in effect is some of those areas of our county, often the less well-off areas, are left in the lurch, fighting for themselves, even home-to-home fighting for themselves, trying to get a reasonable price on trash collection.

[01:22:05] I am very comfortable with the county spending and investing a one-time cost of $400,000 to set up maybe 10 sanitary districts. And if you read through the item, it's not that tough. I mean, it's not that easy to actually set up a sanitary district.

[01:22:22] I mean, it is a long, drawn-out process, and it would effectively take a community like an HOA probably to get it done, if you read through what it takes. So this is a hypothetical. It's up to a one-time cost of $400,000 to get this accomplished, see how it goes.

[01:22:39] I imagine if it's over $400,000, staff will come to us and say, hey, you told us you wanted to do this, but it's going to cost us another $50,000, and then we'll take a vote if it costs us another $50,000. but I'm definitely going to support the motion. I think it's a unique solution that Supervisor Sains has come up with for something that's a problem, largely in his district, a little bit in my district, and maybe in some other smaller areas of the county.

[01:23:03] But I think it's the least that we can do for our residents that are not covered by an HOA. Thank you. So, for me, it's not the subsidy issue. I can have that discussion in a second. For me, it's, so what if you do this, And 50% or 55% or even 60% of people say they want it, but the other 40% or so don't want it.

[01:23:28] They're forced to have it no matter they want it or not, right? So that's my issue. My issue is forcing people to do things that they don't want to do that actually may end up costing them more money because it would probably cost more money than they're paying right now.

[01:23:44] I mean, somebody can choose if they wanted to. If I'm a single person, I may put my trash out once every two weeks. I'm not making that much. I don't have that much trash. And so my trash pickup may not be that often, and I may not be paying that much money for it.

[01:24:01] So what you're telling me is I have to be part of this whether I want to or not, whether I need it or not, and it's going to cost me more money. So I don't mind subsidizing things if I think it needs to happen.

[01:24:17] And that's never been a, I think there is sometimes a greater good that helps people. So that's not my issue. But I do mind telling somebody you have to use this service whether you want to or not. You have to pay for this service whether you want to or not.

[01:24:33] And the service is going to cost you more money than you're paying right now. Am I wrong that it could cost them more money than they're paying right now? No, you're not wrong. That's correct. It could cost them money than they're paying right now. So that's my unrest, telling people that they have to do something with their money that they may not want to do and that they didn't ask for, even if it's, you know, I get that it has to be 50%, but 50% is not everybody.

[01:25:03] And so I don't really feel comfortable, you know, telling people what to do with their money and or their trash. So with respect to my friend and colleague, I won't be supporting this motion. Mr. Sam, do you like a closing? Thank you. I'd just like to go to staff.

[01:25:18] On your presentation, page number four, it says issues continue. It says private haulers typically charge individual property owners more than HOA members. So clarify it again. So if I'm in an HOA, that statement says, if I'm non-HOA, am I paying more or less than the HOA member?

[01:25:35] So that was based on outreach that PFM did to private haulers to ask them what their rates were to private individuals versus what their rates that the haulers charge to HOAs. And it is correct that the individuals are charged more by those haulers that were contacted than HOA members are charged.

[01:25:58] So currently right now, if you're a non-HOA member paying trash service, you're paying more than an HOA member, right? So again, in the spirit of this, again, is getting a collective to be able to bargain with a trash hauler as an HOA to get that HOA pricing or even lower than the HOA pricing, correct?

[01:26:18] It is to bring them in line with that purchasing power offered to HOA. So then in theory, they might be able to get the same pricing as a HOA member or even probably less than the HOA member possibly. Is that correct? Yes. Okay. So then what we just heard is not accurate then by saying if you participate in this, then your pricing is going to go up even further. Yeah. I mean, in general, yes. Okay. Thank you. And then also to Madam Chair's point with respect, if you're only putting your trash out one day a week, there is no price point. There there is no difference if you're only using the trash one day to two days or three days you're

[01:26:58] paying the exact same price i said every two weeks well even every two weeks you're paying the exact same price that your your neighbor's paying if they put it out every day or you know whatever your trash comes two or three times a week you're paying the exact same price as if somebody's putting out every two weeks or every other week or something so so that i i i'm not following that that that logic there but um at the end of the day i believe this is better for our residents who are in a non-HOA, and it was just mentioned that, you know, again, the scenario for 50 residents and 10 districts, those are hypotheticals that staff use as a model. You know, yes, we might be able to get to that number. We might not be able to get to that number. I personally feel we

[01:27:37] won't even get to that many districts, to be quite honest with you, in my opinion. So I don't even think the startup costs will get up to that high of $400,000 also. But if it does, we have the stopgap measure that staff will come back to us and say hey we're almost at that cap number or we're at that cap number what do you want us to do and I feel comfortable with staff coming back to us and then we can have that discussion as was mentioned earlier to vote up or down to move forward with continuing with subsidies or not do it if we get to that to that magical number so again I encourage my resident my colleagues to vote for mr. Sainz in your thank you in your last seconds can I ask you a question sure did your did

[01:28:14] your constituents ask you to do this? Yes. They ask for help in regards to trash. Yes. This is one of the options that we found when we looked at other localities. Okay. Thank you. All right. So Mr. Sains made the motion. Ms. Brickspin seconded the motion. I have no idea. All in favor to say aye. Opposed. And I'm going to abstain because I just don't

[01:28:48] know but I think that motion fails anyway so I think that I'm pretty sure that motion was only two people that said aye if you said I please raise your hand so that was a three one two three four one so yeah that motion would fail anyway with mr. Sains miss Brixman and miss thank you last voting against the motion and I am abstaining on the motion mr. um the turner which like to make another motion. Yes, please. The board, I move the board of supervisors approve a full cost recovery

[01:29:27] approach that in both, and that both initial startup costs and reoccurring service costs be incorporated into the sanitary district fee assessed to property owners within the established sanitary districts. Further move the board of supervisors direct staff to forward the request to the FY26 budget process to provide funding for the initial startup costs of the sanitary district program to be recovered as part of the future fees assessed on property owners within in the sanitary districts.

[01:29:50] - Motions made, seconded by Ms. Umstad, discussion on the motion. - Yeah, I don't know that we need to rehash the whole discussion, but I think this is a safer approach for the county. It doesn't put as much money on the line. Obviously, yes, it's up to 400,000, but in the other approach, as is pointed out, we really have no idea what it's gonna end up being and whether once we start doing some of them, we can't very well stop and say we're not gonna do more.

[01:30:13] I question a little bit what the PFM study showed on HOA members being charged because this is so incredibly volatile and it's changing constantly. So I think those numbers are getting pushed up. I think what the benefit of the sanitary district is, is yes, purchasing power, but also quality control, some regulation about when and how things are happening.

[01:30:37] And then obviously it will be up to the members of the sanitary district to decide whether they wanna do it or not. And I understand Chair Randall's point, for folks who have like virtually no trash, they may not want this at all. and that would be something that they'd have to sort of discuss within themselves. But I think this would be a better approach to doing this if we're going to do it.

[01:30:56] Mr. Turner. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a point of clarification. I'm not sure Supervisor Le Turner read the last sentence in that motion. You want to read it again just for the record? Sure. Wait, or maybe you did.

[01:31:15] I moved, yeah. It's on the, it's one, yeah, it's the second one. Yeah, the second thing, I further move the Board of Suburbs direct staff to forward a request to FY26 budget process to provide funding for the initial startup costs of the sanitary district program to be recovered as part of future fees assessed on property owners within the sanitary districts.

[01:31:30] Yeah, I think that was right, actually. So I actually, I'm actually now, I'm still, I'm unlikely to support this for the same reason I didn't support the first one, but I still have the same, it's the same question. Again, my issue is not the subsidy part. My issue is, because with due respect, I think Mr. Sains and I just got two literally opposite answers to the same question.

[01:31:52] So if somebody signs on to this, they go and say 55% of the residents want it. Is it possible, and even more often than not, that a person will be paying more if they enter the sanitary district, if we do the sanitary district, than what they're doing right now?

[01:32:16] I mean, I do not believe I can tell someone who may not want to do this that they're going to be paying more. Secondly, I'm having a hard time believing if I'm getting my trash picked up twice a month, it's the same exact cause if I'm having my trash getting picked up twice a week or three times a week.

[01:32:35] I don't think that's, can you help me with that? So, Chair Randall, just as a point of clarification, the studies indicate on average what those costs are. To your specific question, I take my trash every two weeks to the landfill, it costs me $7 every time I go there, $14 a week.

[01:32:52] So if somebody in that taxing service district is doing that exact same thing, they're paying $14 a month right now, they will see an increase because they will have to subscribe to this service. So to frame the question that I believe you're asking, it is entirely possible that someone will actually be paying more for a better service than they will be receiving.

[01:33:18] and a more consistent service that they would be receiving. But it would be just like we do with all of our service districts, and that is the process that the state allows us to use to address some of these community issues. I'm not calling on you because I don't do that.

[01:33:40] I'm going to go back to the maker of the motion. Nothing's changed. Nothing's changed. You jumped right on in after the motion. You didn't put your light on? Okay. So let me just say this. If I am wrong, tell me I'm wrong.

[01:33:55] 55% of the people say they want this. 45% of the people don't sign on to it. All the people have to do it, whether or not, and all the people will be charged for it. Some of those people might be paying less. Some of them might be paying more. Pretty much right?

[01:34:15] Yes, ma'am. Those are the scenarios that could play out. Okay. I understand. Thank you. I'm going back to making a moment. Would you like a closing, Mr. Letourneau? I don't think we need one at this point. All right. Um, Mr. Letourne make the motion. Mr. Ms. Umstead second the motion.

[01:34:32] All the people say aye. All opposed. Nay. All right. Uh, that motion will pass. One, two, three, four. We have on here six. Who's just one person missing? Seven, uh, eight, zero one. Yes, that's right. No, eight, one, seven, one, one, but Mr. Kirshner not being on the dais. All right. Thank you very much.

[01:35:04] OK, it's time for. OK, we have people who are speaking at the five o'clock speaking time. And so we're going to go into public speakers and then we're going to do resolutions. If if Mr. Kirshner's office can hear me, I'm happy to do his resolution.

[01:35:24] I need you guys to get it down to me within the next couple of minutes, please. Thank you very much. OK, five o'clock speakers. I'm going to call your names. It's just three people. Beth Garver, followed by Christine Loser, followed by John Fraga. Ready when you are.

[01:35:44] I'll be much quicker. Okay. So, hi, everybody.

[01:35:59] My name is Beth Garver, and I'm one of the founders of the Loudoun County Aviation Noise Mitigation Committee. I live in Birchwood in Brambleton, and my spouse was a person who, well, he's also on the committee, created maps for the supervisors during the AIOD process.

[01:36:17] He's a partner manager at Esri. Esri is one of the largest, probably is the largest, mapping and geospatial global companies in the world. He'd be here, but he's traveling for work. So I'm speaking on behalf of both of us. We support the motion of the board to vote on mitigating aviation noise, aviation aircraft noise, countywide.

[01:36:42] Unfortunately, we are moving in three weeks, partly due to huge jets, sometimes at 900 feet, flying over our house. We didn't know that when we moved in. We didn't have that information, but it's really loud.

[01:37:00] If you're outside the house, you certainly can't talk to your neighbors. When I go for a run, it blows my ears out. So quality of life has been impacted. Health has been probably impacted. So, unfortunately, you know, we love our neighbors, we love our neighborhood, but we sold our home and we'll be moving.

[01:37:19] But I want you to know how important this is to us, that our neighbors have some type of resolution. We'd really like to get this resolved for them. So that's all I have to say on that front.

[01:37:36] On another note, and I'm leaving and not that it matters, but I do support the proclamation for Jewish Heritage Month and also Pride Month. So Jewish Heritage Month would be May, to recognize contributions and influence of members of the Jewish community to history and culture in the United States, and Pride Month, which would be in June.

[01:38:02] So thank you so much for listening. I appreciate it, and I have nothing more to say. Thank you so much, and we're sad you're leaving our county. Christine Loeser, followed by John Fraga.

[01:38:18] Good evening. Good evening. My name is Christine Lozier, and I live in Birchwood at Brambleton. The last time I was here was concerning the change in our zoning, and Birchwood residents appreciate the efforts you made to resolve that situation.

[01:38:39] As a founding member of LANMC, the Loudon Anti-Noise Mitigation Committee, I attended numerous meetings and had the opportunity at that time to speak with many of you individually and as a group. I'm sure you realize that the underlying issue for our efforts that started two years ago has not resolved.

[01:39:00] Sadly, the zoning changes had little to do with the noise issues that impact Birchwood every single day. I'm sure you are relieved to no longer see the large Birchwood contingency in the audience, but I assure you they continue to support the efforts of LANMC and the TELUC proposal.

[01:39:21] Aircraft noise remains a prime issue affecting Birchwood. We are awakened as early as 6 a.m. with low-flying aircraft over our heads. Even more annoying are the low, loud aircraft at 1045 to 1115 every single night.

[01:39:37] I encourage you to vote for the TILUC proposal to fund the efforts to examine the use of Runway 30 at Dulles Airport. Thank you for this opportunity. Thank you. And our last speaker for this moment is John Fraga.

[01:39:54] Good evening, sir. Good evening. My name is John Fraga. I appreciate the opportunity to be here tonight. My wife and I reside within the Birchwood community, and we're very grateful that this board has listened to the community and is taking the issue of aviation noise seriously.

[01:40:14] My wife and I support the pending proposal from the Transportation and Light and Land Use Committee to mitigate noise from the Dulles Airport Runway 30. Please vote for it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[01:40:31] Loudon, that's how all the public comments should be, just like that. It's perfect. Okay, so we're going to go on and do the proclamations, the ones that are going to be presented, which is just two of them, including the one for Jewish Heritage American Month.

[01:40:50] Who has that right now? Because I passed it down for them to be signed. Where is it? Okay, Ms. Glass has been having that the entire time, so just give us a second for it to be signed.

[01:41:02] i believe yes but i don't know where the result the ones that are being presented tonight are

[01:42:23] for the foster parents foster parents of the year and jewish american heritage month so those are the ones that have to be signed right now thank you very much is mr kirschner's office here if you are in the building can because he is saying to me via text that you are here i mean

[01:42:48] I'm sure I have it in my...

[01:43:09] Yes, the family is here, which I'm kind of... Mr. Kirshner, come on, man. You guys good? You got them?

[01:43:30] Would you please hand them back to me so I can get the show on the road? Thank you so much. There is one.

[01:44:00] I would prefer we not leave the days when we're about to do proclamations.

[01:46:00] It's okay. It's still the same month. On the same topic, there is a big celebration at Gessler Jewish Day School tonight for their annual... Oh, it's tonight.

[01:46:16] Okay. And they do draw from both Fairfax and Gallagher. I know, I've been there before. I have been there before. I have been there a couple times, in fact. Yes, so that and a few other things prevented others from joining me. Well, welcome back anyway. Welcome back anyway. And you would take this to them and tell them we had it.

[01:46:32] Okay. We have a proclamation for Jewish American Heritage Month, and I appreciate Mr. Crony joining me. I will read this, and then you can say anything that you would like to say. Okay? All right. Whereas, from our nation's beginning, Jewish people, a people defined by shared ethnicity, tradition, culture, religion, and ancestry homeland, have been a critical part of the American story.

[01:47:00] And whereas, as we celebrate the rich heritage of our Jewish American community, we recognize that throughout our nation's history, American Jewish people have contributed to building a strong communities and work to protect and strengthen religious freedom and civil rights, joining people of all faiths and backgrounds to teach understanding and kindness and root out hatred wherever it exists.

[01:47:30] And whereas Jewish people in America have greatly contributed to every facet of the American experience, including in the fields of science, music, art, education, business, government, medicine, and numerous others, and work to strengthen the belief in library and liberty and human dignity for all, and continue to teach us empathy, compassion, and values inspired by the lessons of their families and faith.

[01:47:59] And whereas, Jewish American Heritage Month is an opportunity to celebrate the vibrancy and importance of Loudoun's Jewish American citizens whose accomplishments and contributions strengthen and enrich culture, the economy, education, governance, and all aspects of community life in the county. And whereas during Jewish American Heritage Month, Loudoun County residents and agencies are encouraged to commemorate and celebrate the essential contributions, sacrifices, and accomplishments that Jewish Americans have made and continue to make to the nation, the Commonwealth, and the county.

[01:48:33] Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors joins the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington in celebrating May 2024 as Jewish American Heritage Month in recognition of the many contributions Jewish Americans have made to our society.

[01:48:57] Thank you for coming in. On behalf of the Jewish Community Relations Council and the Loudoun County Jewish community, I want to thank you for recognizing this and celebrating Jewish American heritage with us. It's been a difficult year for us, to say the least, and continues to be, and to have opportunities to celebrate our heritage, our faith, our families, what we've contributed to the greater county, to the greater commonwealth, to the greater country, the greater world is wonderful.

[01:49:27] And thank you for giving us the opportunity. Absolutely. It has been a difficult month for you. um would you like to talk about anything that the community at large can do to be supportive um i think primarily reach out to your jewish friends um ask them how they're doing um listen to their stories um we're a small community um i don't think people necessarily recognize our connection um here to what happened on october 7th but most jews in america either know somebody who was directly impacted on october 7th or know somebody who knows somebody and it doesn't go

[01:50:03] further than that. And so just reaching out to your Jewish neighbors is really pretty significant. Absolutely is. Thank you very much. And we're going to take a picture.

[01:51:15] Can you bring down the resolution? Can we bring that resolution, please? For you bought it where? Okay, can I have the resolution? I don't know. It certainly is. The Loudoun County Foster Parents of the year resolution can you all please come down thank you jonathan appreciate it everybody

[01:51:51] come on down you can just just pick up yep just move it yeah come on down both sides hi how you doing i'm well say that say that name for me ladies yeah okay everybody on both sides

[01:52:23] both sides both sides where the parents stand right by me right here the bite by me kids. There you go. Here we go. And the name is Alasia. Yes? Hello. Hello, sweetie pie. Okay.

[01:52:50] Are we ready? So normally, I'm just going to turn my back on you just for a second. Normally, we will have you all come to the Council of Governments because every locality in the COG region, so Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Virginia has our Foster Parents of the Year.

[01:53:09] So these are the Foster Parents of the Year for Loudoun County as recognized by the full Council of Governments. This is a big deal. You have a video, and we will make sure you get that. But so that's one that everybody didn't know that this is not just somebody from Loudoun. It's like the entire region has elected you all. And so it's a, yeah, no, the entire metropolitan region.

[01:53:30] So it's a really big deal. So congratulations, and let's read your proclamation. whereas it's whereas joseph and eliza coney became approved for foster parents within the loudon county department of family services on april 7 2021 and since their approval has served as foster parents for seven children and adolescents have adopted one young adult and are in the process of adopting two youth while they continue to foster the care for other children

[01:54:02] And whereas Mr. and Mrs. Coney value permanently and want to be a forever family connection to the children and youth that enter their home. And whereas Mr. and Mrs. Coney appreciates the uniqueness of each child they care for and adopt to meet each of their specific and special needs.

[01:54:23] and whereas the Metropolitan Council of Governments has recognized Mr. and Mrs. Coney and honored them for the commitment to the children of Loudoun County. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors does hereby proclaim Joseph and Alaysia Coney as Loudoun County's Foster Parents of the Year.

[01:54:49] Which one of you would like to speak? I'm going to let you guys speak last because you guys will take the best for last. I'm going to have the staff speak first. I just want to say how fortunate we are to have the Coney family fostering children here in our Loudoun community.

[01:55:12] They are incredible advocates for the children that they serve. They immediately welcome children into their home. They become a part of their family. And we are just so thankful, and we celebrate them. Okay.

[01:55:28] Which one of you or both of you? Okay. I'm going to be quick because my kids are antsy. just thank you especially to Loudon because you guys have given us so much support with each kid that we've had in our home but also you've given us kids that are now permanent in our home and I guess just we're just going to keep doing what we do best and just helping each kid that you guys give it's amazing that you would thank Loudon after you are doing this it's absolutely amazing I guess that speaks to who you all are so thank you thank you so much and the kids are

[01:56:04] beautiful they're all so beautiful so who am i handing this to so you can take a picture you want you want to hold that you want when the kids to hold it danny danny danny okay danny how

[01:56:20] about you come over here then i'm going to trade places how's that um wishes he could be here today

[01:57:02] for you um you live in his district and he asked me to offer you his thanks and congratulations

[01:57:24] Hi.

[01:57:38] Okay, so we are a little early for our 6 o'clock speakers.

[01:58:31] So what I'm going to do is this. I'm going to start calling the names of our 6 o'clock speakers. If you're here, you can come on and speak now. If you're not, I will circle back to you when it's after 6 o'clock just to make sure we get everybody. But I do know that some of our speakers for 6 o'clock are here, and so there's no reason to make them wait if they're here already.

[01:58:49] And, again, if they're not here, I will circle back when 6 o'clock hits. Okay? So the first person we have at 6 o'clock is Roy Ellen Ray, followed by Skip Edgemon, followed by Frank Blackstone. Mr. Ray, Rose Ellen May, I'm sorry. Ms. Ray, are you here?

[01:59:07] Not yet. Okay. Mr. Edgemon, are you here? Not yet. Mr. Blackstone, followed by Charles Lamb. Mr. Blackstone, are you here? I thought so. How are you doing, sir? I see you, Mr. Edgemon.

[01:59:25] Okay, we'll go back to him. Okay. Yeah. Good evening. My name is Frank Blackstone, and with my wife, Allison, we've resided on Homestead Landing Court in the Little River District since November 2015. I appreciate your service on the board.

[01:59:42] I've spoken before you previously on issues I consider to be important, and I have a story for you tonight and a small request. As the Willisford HOA board designee and also as a concerned citizen and resident living next to the LCPS Dulles North site, I want you to imagine this.

[02:00:00] You buy your house in Loudoun in 2015 on a residential street, knowing that there is a farm and conservancy property located behind the cul-de-sac at the end of your street. In 2020, the farm property is sold, and your new neighbor says they want to build kind of a big structure on it, a $99 million one.

[02:00:21] Construction starts in 2022 and continues all day, every day, five to six days a week, blasting and construction noise through today. It may not be for your neighborhood's benefit, but it's for the public good. In 2023, your new neighbor says they're going to start building numerous new structures on the property, up to a total of $271 million or more, including a stadium to seat up to 5,000 people.

[02:00:51] And the construction will now continue for another four to five years every day. But remember, it's for the public good. You and your current neighbors politely request the new neighbor for some reasonable accommodations to lessen the massive impact of the construction on your house, some of which the new neighbor reluctantly agrees to, but they don't agree to a safety, security, and privacy one.

[02:01:17] A fence along the boundary with the new neighbor, whose states they, quote, don't typically provide fencing, unquote. You do a little research and you find that they've indeed placed numerous fences next to their other properties in the county, which I've attached in my written statement, which makes their statement very disingenuous.

[02:01:38] So how do you feel about your new neighbor now? Along with dozens and dozens of other voters and written statements on this issue during the application's pendency, because of the new neighbor's proposed 5,000-seat stadium, numerous fields and courts, day-to-day activities of thousands of students, we respectfully request this board to require the site plan to include and be directed to install, at their expense, a fence along the southern border.

[02:02:05] Mr. Blackstone? Thank you for your consideration. Thank you. It's a small ask. I do have a question. Sure. Are you speaking on behalf of the Willisford HOA? I am. I've been asked to be their designated. You have been asked to speak on behalf of the HOA. Okay. Thank you very much. Does that give me any extra time?

[02:02:22] No, sir. But it just clarifies some things for me. Thanks so much. Thank you very much. Charles Lamb, followed by Georgina Mingle. Are you here yet? No? And I'll go back to Skip Edgerman or Roselle and Ray.

[02:02:39] Are you here yet? Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. Come on up. Good evening. I'm Georgina Latibingo, residing in 23621 Wilshire Square, Ashburn, Virginia, 2014.

[02:03:05] And I'm here to support Mr. Sane of his proposal for the $1.7 million in APA funds to fund an economic mobility program.

[02:03:25] I, for one, I'm a widow, 77 years old widow, and I find it difficult to pay my rent. I'm not talking for my loan, I'm talking for everybody. And we are grateful that you have considered to help us, to be able to help us to pay our rent or give us our economic listing.

[02:03:47] So I'm very grateful if things will go on as it is And maybe we'll get more help, more assistance for our programs, for our rent, electricity, gas, and everything.

[02:04:03] Because I, for one, my rent is $1,150. I get Social Street $852. I have to borrow money from friends to be able to pay for my rent and other things.

[02:04:19] And it's very discouraging when you see that you cannot get it and people will give you. But I have done it before for people, so that's why I'm able to get it. But now, if the Lauderdale County is ready to help us, we'll be very grateful for your help.

[02:04:37] And we thank you for your effort to help us in doing what you are doing. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you very much. Thank you. Juliette Mantina, are you here?

[02:04:58] Good evening. Good evening. My name is Juliette Rasua Mantina. I come from Madagascar. I am here for 10 years ago. I am a member of New Virginia Majority.

[02:05:18] I am here to support the supervisor's proposal to use $1.5 million in ARPA funds to fund an economic mobility program.

[02:05:33] I am used to work. It's not possible for me to work anymore because I have a problem of knees, shoulders, hips, everything like that. I am reiterated. I have a limited income. It's not possible for me to rent my house because it's too much.

[02:05:56] I need something else to provide for expensive to pay something else for my health. In order to that, I have must to borrow some money for another people. I am very stressed about this situation.

[02:06:15] I like living here in London County because I know it's very good for my life. I want to be able to keep living here, but I need to support and any other people like me.

[02:06:33] A program that provides cash support to world-class people, elderly people, People have disabilities, to limit income, help us for more stability and less stress about our finances because it's too much less.

[02:06:55] I hope we can count on each of you to vote yes to create an economic mobility program in London country. Thank you for listening.

[02:07:12] Thank you, Bill. Thank you very much. Maria Rojas is the next speaker. She will come with a translator. So can we adjust the clock, please? Good evening.

[02:07:34] Buenas tardes. Buenas tardes. Soy María Rojas, residente de Lisboa, y rento un apartamento en los Minor Apartments. Actualmente, debo pagar $2,100 al mes, más viles por encima de nuestra renta de $90 por un servicio de internet no esencial al mes y estamos sufriendo los altos costos en renta cada vez que renovamos contratos.

[02:08:07] Venimos saliendo del invierno y aún tenemos bajas de horas en nuestros trabajos. Como pueden ver, soy una persona de la tercera edad que vive con sobrecargos de costos. Estamos aquí el día de hoy abogando por el presupuesto del Programa de Movilidad Económica, Expansión de los Fondos ARPA, donde queremos que continúen apoyando los programas y que los puedan hacer permanente, ya que la necesidad en los altos costos de la renta son demasiadamente elevadas

[02:08:47] en las necesidades de las familias más vulnerables. Esto daría una esperanza a que los fondos puedan expandirse y lograr ayudar a las comunidades de este condado. Agradecemos que ya se están dando los primeros pasos y abrieron el programa de asistencia de la renta, pero mi preocupación es que el programa llegue a finalizar sus fondos.

[02:09:16] Es por eso que pido que apoyen y aprueben el programa de movilidad económica expansión que proporcionaría un ingreso universal básico para que pueda continuar ayudando futuramente a todas las comunidades y pedirles que siempre tomen en cuenta nuestra comunidad inmigrante y que sean más flexibles en los requisitos para tener facilidad en ser elegibles en los programas de ayuda de asistencia de la renta. Muchas gracias.

[02:09:49] Muchas gracias. Okay, we have an interpreter. Good evening. Good evening. My name is Maria Rojas, and I'm a resident of Leesburg. I rent an apartment at the Manor Apartments. I currently have to pay $2,100 a month plus bills above our rent, including $90 for non-essential internet service each month. And we are suffering from high rent costs every time we renew our lease. We're coming out of winter and we still have reduced hours in our jobs. As you can see, I'm an elderly person who lives with housing cost

[02:10:25] burden. We are here today advocating for the ARPA Economic Mobility Program. We would like you to continue supporting these programs and make them permanent, since there is a great need in the community due to excessively high rents for our most vulnerable families. This proposal gives us hope that the funds can expand and help more communities in this county. We appreciate that the first steps are already being taken and that the rental assistance program has opened, but my concern is that the program will run out of funds, which is why I ask that you support and approve the Economic Mobility Program, which would provide a basic universal income so that we can

[02:11:02] continue to help all communities in the future. Additionally, we ask you to always take into account our immigrant community and to be more flexible in the requirements to facilitate eligibility for income assistance programs. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, we're going to go back to some of the names that I previously had previously called. Is Rose Ellen Ray in the building?

[02:11:25] Wonderful, and Skip Edgemon in here. Okay, you will be next, sir. Thank you. Good evening, ma'am. Y'all need to have one of these handouts? You can give them, too. You can give them, yes. You can give them, yeah. Thank you.

[02:11:41] Thank you. Supervisors, thank you for letting me speak tonight. I'm here for only one reason, to save Loudoun taxpayers a lot of money. How? Loudoun doesn't need to reduce carbon dioxide CO2 emissions from fossil fuel use. You don't need to promote pricey, inefficient, land-hungry renewables at our expense.

[02:12:00] No green bank, no subsidies, no programs. We would all die without CO2. More CO2 would make the planet greater since it is plant food. CO2's tiny presence in the atmosphere is less than one-half of 1%.

[02:12:16] Even 1,600 scientists, including two Nobel laureates, physicists have signed a document declaring there is no climate emergency. I've given you a document. It looks like this. An essay brilliantly argued that CO2 cannot warm or change the climate of the planet.

[02:12:37] It is written by scientist James T. Moody. That's E-Y. Everyone needs to read his empirical and scientific proof. This is real science. He tested carbon dioxide's ability to trap or retain heat and found it cannot.

[02:12:53] It's really an enjoyable read. I kind of like the elephant and the mouse. Anyway, there is more scientific, not theoretical, evidence. CO2 levels rose during two recent declines in fossil fuel use after the 2008 financial crisis and during COVID lockdowns.

[02:13:15] CO2 levels should have declined, according to prevailing theory. A leading solar physicist remarked, humans are not powerful enough to compete with the sun. Therefore, carbon dioxide emissions should not be a concern of yours.

[02:13:33] In fact, we need fossil fuels to survive economically. Just check out Sri Lanka, and they try to do net zero. Don't waste our money on needless CO2 reduction efforts. Money is our scarcest resource, as you could hear, and could be better spent elsewhere.

[02:13:50] Now, since I've got a couple seconds left, I would love for students to read this. This is a scientific process, and he's a brilliant writer and scientist in a very specialized area, and I really hope you read it. We hope to get it in the school systems.

[02:14:07] I thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Skip Edgemont, followed by Charles Lamb. Good evening, sir. Good evening. My name is Skip Edgemont, and I'm with Fleetwood Farms Winery. Our address is 23075 Evergreen Mills Road.

[02:14:27] I would like to talk about the new stadium proposed on HS14. I have no concerns about the new schools coming to our community except the large Super Stadium, the largest in Loudoun County's school system.

[02:14:45] Loudoun County is a great place to live and work. New schools are a byproduct of growth. But this is the wrong location for this Super Stadium. The area, in my opinion, will not have the proper infrastructure ever to accommodate the amount of cars coming to our community.

[02:15:08] Evergreen Mills Road has had many accidents, and on Tuesday, we had an SUV and a school bus collide. Thankfully, no major injuries happened. This is just the beginning of more issues to come.

[02:15:26] In my opinion, the school has not shown a need for this complex. A want, not a need. Once the stadium has been constructed, there is no looking back. Thoughtful consideration is needed.

[02:15:44] Approve the school. Ask the school to revise the plans for a standard-sized stadium. This situation, this stadium, excuse me, this stadium is out of place. Thank you. Thank you.

[02:15:59] We're going to take up this issue as soon as we finish with the public comments, so we'll be with this issue in just a second. Yes, thank you very much. Charles Lamb. Good evening, sir.

[02:16:15] Good evening. My name is Charles Lamb, a resident of the Hamilton Little River District. On behalf of myself and as co-founder of the Loudoun County Aircraft Noise Mitigation Committee, I would like to acknowledge full support of the Transportation and Land Use Committee's proposal to minimize the noise from aircraft flyovers of planes

[02:16:45] departing runway 30 of Dulles International Airport. Though TLUC's proposal may not in the end fully resolve the neighborhood aircraft noise pollution problem or may take a considerable amount of time to do so, the proposal is a profound, successful example of county government working together with multiple other federal, professional, commercial, and community stakeholders

[02:17:21] to address the concerns of its citizens and constituents. As co-founder of the Loudoun Aircraft Noise Mitigation Committee, I am proud to have contributed in some small way and to vehemently support passage of this proposal.

[02:17:43] Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you. That is all of our speakers for the 6 o'clock time. So I thank everyone for coming to speak, and I'm going to ask the staff on this item, the stadium item, come back to the table, please. Would the school staff like to come

[02:18:19] back to, if you do not mind, come back to the table as well? Thank you so much. I am sorry we had to stop you for our apologies, but I did want to make sure people were able to speak. And what we're going to do right now is go straight to Mr. Crony's motion.

[02:18:36] Mr. Crony, would you like to make a motion, please, on this item? thank you chair randall i move that the board of supervisors overrule in part and ratify in part the planning commission's approval of legy 2023-0078 dulles north high school and elementary school commission permit 2023-006 as follows overrule commission permit approval for the expanded stadium proposed for dulles north high school hs14 based on the following findings for denial. The extent of the proposed expanded stadium is inconsistent with

[02:19:14] the transition policy of the Loudoun County 2019 general plan. The proposed location of an expanded stadium within the transition policy area lacks adequate infrastructure. Ratify commission permit approval for Dulles North High School HS 14 including a standard stadium and the proposed elementary school subject to the commission permit plat dated March 4th 2024 and based on the findings for approval provided as attachments one and two to the May 23rd 2024 Board of Supervisors business meet meeting action

[02:19:53] item motions made and I will second that motion motion's made and sure miss class could second that motion discussion the motion mr. Crony thank you chair Randall the expanded stadium and gymnasium capacities are first of their kind for Loudoun County Public Schools and are planned to host future regional events.

[02:20:18] The size of this enhanced stadium is not needed for the 2100 student capacity at HS14. I believe the scope and size of the larger capacity stadium is more appropriate within the suburban Polis area in a centralized location that serves larger population centers and where there is a robust roadway network to serve the additional traffic. The property is zoned Rural Agricultural A3 and Red Hill Road is a gravel road and borders the site to the north and west. It is also a co-located

[02:20:53] site with three schools that would generate significant traffic without the enhanced stadium events. There will also be traffic impacts due to the proximity of Independence High School, Brambleton Middle School, Madison's Trust Elementary School, and Howland-Bertie Hanson Regional Park with their school and park activities off Evergreen Mills Road. The stadium is only anticipated to be fully utilized at three Virginia High School League events, and that is only if Loudoun County Public Schools get selected to host the regional event. These events require hotels

[02:21:28] and restaurants to accommodate out-of-town guests, and this area lacks these amenities. I believe Tuscarora High School or Segra Field in Leesburg could support three regional events. And I think that I hope that my colleagues support a standard stadium at HS14. I also want to bring up the parking. So this facility would require more parking than is typical. Usually parking for a

[02:21:58] 2100 high school would require 875 parking spots. This is asking for 1,228 plus 241 grass spaces as overflow. So given the amount of infrastructure that's required for the enhanced stadium, I believe that a standard stadium would be a better fit in this area. Thank you.

[02:22:25] Thank you very much. Mr. Sainz. Thank you, Madam Chair. Apologies I wasn't here for the discussion earlier, so I'm going to ask some questions that might have been asked already and answered, but my apologies. How far is the property to the closest residence? Is this Waterford, I guess?

[02:22:44] Willitsford, excuse me, Willitsford. Like the softball, and then you have parking, and then you have the tennis courts, and then there's parking. There's over 1,000 feet from any property line containing a residence from the stadium.

[02:23:01] Okay. And then Mr. Crony mentioned there, so I guess we're looking to do regional and maybe state competitions. So what would be those events? Because if I understand it's just the football stadium. So it's football, soccer, maybe track, anything, I guess, lacrosse.

[02:23:18] Would that also be in consideration or field hockey? Are those the attempts by the school system to get those type of events or those regional? I would defer to the applicant. Thank you. So if possible, if the school was doing well enough in those sports, we could potentially host a regional event like that.

[02:23:38] But it's typical for the football or the spring track jubilee to possibly be hosted at that location. Before you were here, I mentioned that the reason for the stadium is really the capacity of the school. And if there's any misperception out there, that might be my fault.

[02:23:57] So, okay, so the capacity of schools being proposed bigger than anything else that we have for? Yes, sir. Okay, and that's why I'm asking. Okay, and then to Mr. Crony's point, she suggested looking at another school facility in the urban or suburban area.

[02:24:14] Do we have any new schools online or coming to accommodate that request possibly? Not high schools, no, sir. We mentioned Parkview High School earlier, and due to the parking required and the constrained site, it would be very difficult to put there.

[02:24:33] In terms of potentially relocating it to another site, I don't know if that's possible. Now, could we do a parking garage at Parkview to accommodate? Did we think of that, or I don't know if that's an option. I don't believe that was as part of the scope of the project, but I would need to get back to you on that.

[02:24:56] The next public meeting for Parkview is June 6th. Yeah, yeah. Okay. All right, thank you. and then why couldn't we use, why couldn't LCPS go to, say, SEGRA and see if they could use that for the bigger, like the invitationals or the regional or state competitions?

[02:25:16] Thank you for the question. So we have used it before for the Battle of the Burn a few years ago. It is designed to be a soccer field, a soccer pitch, not a football stadium. There's no goalposts, so there's a lot of extra coordination that would need to go to facilitate that event, as well as the ticket booths are a giant revenue drive for the schools.

[02:25:35] And that would not be at the school anymore. It would be at Secker Field. There's a cost to use Secker Field. There's a lot of other factors that make it not an ideal location. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Umstead. Thank you, Madam Chair. This is a difficult decision for me.

[02:26:00] On your side of the argument is the statement that you have a larger school, so you're going to need a larger stadium. But on the other side of the argument is just because you have a larger school doesn't mean you have more football players on the team.

[02:26:24] You've still got the same number of players on the team, same number of parents coming out to watch them. so i guess i'm not persuaded that you need this extra space um is there anything you can say to persuade me thank you for the opportunity commissioner umset so i would say that there are times at our schools that are very prevalent in high school football where it's standing room only right and for safety and security you want everyone to have a seat and that happens occasionally at our at our fields and if there was such an event and everyone did not have a seat that could cause a problem.

[02:27:01] And so there are reasons beyond just it being the home field. There's safety and security. There's the unique situation at the site to build part of the one tier on the home stand into the slope of the existing space and then have a second tier above that.

[02:27:20] And so to the chair's point earlier, we're not changing the size of the field. We're not changing the size of the track. It's simply expanding the bleacher sections on the away side and the home side. In terms of needing the expanded space and whether or not we could work it with a standard stadium size, I would have to defer to county admin and the county attorney's office on whether you could condition a commission permit.

[02:27:45] It was my understanding that you couldn't add a condition to a commission permit, and I might be wrong. Well, that's something that we would want our county attorney to weigh in on, I would think. Mr. LeBron, just do you have anything you want to say about that?

[02:28:03] There's not a condition that's being placed. The motion that's being approved is saying a facility of one size is acceptable and meets the comp plan. The larger facility would not. So that's not a condition. Thank you.

[02:28:19] Mr. Letourneau? Thank you. I will not support the motion, and I hope the board does not. First of all, we shouldn't be talking about a standard stadium because it's not a standard school. It's a larger school than a normal school is. So we're going to start off with a stadium that's the wrong size for the school if we require a standard-sized stadium.

[02:28:38] Jare Randall said she went to Tuscarora. It has a 4,000-seat stadium, and it wasn't quite full on a few occasions that she was there. Tuscarora has an enrollment of 1,442. The point is not the size of the football team. It's the community around it and all the student body and all the parents and supporters and boosters who come out to the games.

[02:28:58] This school will open at 2,100 students. We'll be lucky if it only opens at 2,100 students. Every application that's come in here in the last six months has been in this area, and we've all been talking about this school. So this is going to be a very crowded school. It's next door to several other schools.

[02:29:16] There are obvious natural rivalries that will take place, basically across the street from Independence, which is another overcrowded school with 2,000 students. So it's a fair point. I bet you if Independence plays whatever we're calling this school in football, They're going to need 5,000 seats because all of Bramilton is going to come out to that game.

[02:29:34] So, and if they don't need 5,000 seats, then what's the harm with this request? If we have a situation where this thing's not full, then guess what? None of those negative impacts that people are concerned about are going to take place. If this is just a standard soccer game in the fall where there's not a lot of community interest, then there's some extra seating capacity and that's it.

[02:29:55] That's really no negative impact. This is a unique site. When we purchased this site, and I have this history, and I don't know if everybody up here does. We bought a much larger site than normal and then what we needed partly because we knew we could do some extra things on it for the school system because they had had long-standing requests like this to be able to do some of these things here. This is one of the only sites I can think of that we actually would have room for extra parking on. We wouldn't be able to cram this into an existing Freedom High School or Briar Woods or someplace where it's already built into the neighborhood and you don't have the room. So we have an opportunity here to do it.

[02:30:31] Now, I was very interested and sympathetic on the fence discussion we had. I wish the residents were here when we had that back and forth because you can see there's an illustrative back into the application here which shows the tree line that would have to be taken out, which I don't think makes a lot of sense.

[02:30:48] I do think if there's some way moving forward on the other side of the property, maybe you could work with Willisford. I know you said there's a trail and a bridge here. To do something like that just to help smooth things over, I think you should try to do that. But I'm not going to vote to deny the commission permit at this stage because I think this makes a lot of sense.

[02:31:06] It's a very large school. It makes sense for it to have a larger stadium. And I think sometimes we overthink things, but it's really as simple as that. There is a traffic management plan that would have to be in place for large events, and that would be true, I think, even with a little smaller event here. So I think the schools have done a good job on this, and I went from a little skeptical to being convinced.

[02:31:25] Thank you. Mr. Turner? Thank you, Madam Chair. A small point that was mentioned earlier by one of the speakers. that all or part of this land that we're building these schools on was in conservation easement. I kind of did a double-take when I heard that. Can you confirm or deny it?

[02:31:41] It is not. I don't think he's... I didn't think so either, but... I don't think he said that. I think he said the land next to this, not the land... I don't think he said that. Okay, well, this land is not in conservation. The school property is not in conservation. And to reinforce Supervisor LeTerno's point, For this size school, the 5,000-seat stadium is appropriate for this size school, correct?

[02:32:05] Yes, we agree, sir. So if we make the decision to build this high school, then the stadium sort of comes with it part and parcel? Yes. Okay. I was very much opposed to this until we had the road improvements to support this school infrastructure. And I'm confident, based on your answers to me earlier in the evening, that we will, in fact, have the road infrastructure to support this school complex.

[02:32:28] and so i can i can i will not support this motion but i can support the larger stadium thank you miss bruxman thank you i just one quick question um have has lcps had to turn down opportunities to host um like regional or state level events because we don't have the capacity at a stadium or i don't believe so okay because we haven't been able to apply all right i'm not going to support the motion um lcps obviously went through a process to decide i mean this has been

[02:33:03] long, ongoing process to decide where to build a school, buy the land, what size the school is going to have to be. LCPS is projecting the size of a school because of the capacity they know is coming. And so, you know, there have been times when we couldn't build schools fast enough because all our schools are way overcrowded. And I feel like, hey, we're building a school for once that can take all the people that it needs to take. Traffic studies show that the roads are going to be able to handle this. The upgrades of the roads are going to be complete by the time the school

[02:33:37] is finished. This was supported by staff and by the planning commission with no issues. We have constrained, we have land constraints otherwise in other places, and this is 172 acres purchased for this reason. It's a class six school, one of our bigger schools that we're going to have.

[02:33:58] The lighting and the configuration and the buffering reduces the impact on the neighbors. I mean, there's going to be hundreds of feet, a thousand feet, according to the last question, between the neighborhoods and the stadium and on other areas. I think I read it was at least 600 feet of space between the residents and the facilities.

[02:34:19] Voting against this facility, voting and downsizing this stadium would be cutting off our nose to spite our face. we know these kids are coming we know it's going to have 2100 students in there with the matching families and community support and then other schools probably the same size they may be in a different division because they're a different school and those schools are going to be really big too coming to play sports or other events doing other events with it with this school i don't know why we would purposefully build facilities that are too small for the population

[02:34:58] that we know is coming i feel like loudon county has lived with that for a while having schools and facilities that are too small because we grew so we grow we grew so fast for once we're like hey we're ready we're going to build something that we know can handle what's coming down the pike so i will not be supporting this motion thank you okay so first of all it is not true that there was no issues on the planning commission.

[02:35:24] Both planning commissioners who represent this area, being the planning commission from the little district and the chair of the planning commission, we at least oppose this. So that statement is not true. Secondly, the true, but that doesn't mean that your statement was still not true.

[02:35:40] Secondly, there's 300 more kids. We're acting like we have another 1,000 kids. 300 more kids for a stadium that's 1,000 more people. And I honestly don't understand, even if you can make the case to me and I don't buy the case that on the home side it needs to be larger.

[02:35:56] The visitor side needing to be larger doesn't make any sense to me because no more people are going to come to this school on the visitor side than comes to any other school game on the visitor side just because this school has 300 more kids. That doesn't even, that just defies logic.

[02:36:15] Secondly, we don't know what's coming. The school population has actually been decreasing, and as fast as we say no to housing developments, I'm not sure we do know what's coming, to be quite honest. I just, I don't buy that either. And I'm sorry.

[02:36:31] Listen, we have stadiums that are 4,000-seat stadiums. Is Tuscarora the only 4,000-seat stadium? Yes, ma'am. They are. Okay, well, and they've lost. And by the way, what he said was Tuscarora lost population. So, again, we don't, you know, what was projected for Tuscarora did not come to be true.

[02:36:51] So to say we know what's coming, no, we don't. I think you do your best trying to figure it out, but I don't think we know, which is why our schools have lost population and have not recovered that population even since COVID. So I just don't see these 300 more students needing this stadium that is this large.

[02:37:11] I don't also understand the whole discussion of the fence period because it couldn't be a noise issue because a fence wouldn't stop that. So I'm a little confused by the whole noise fence discussion at all. It's not like a noise-stopping wall, so I don't even know what that is.

[02:37:30] But I am going to support the district supervisor. I'm going to support the district planning commissioner. And I think, so what would you do if you didn't do this? 4,000? 4,000 seats? So if it's being conditioned as a standard stadium, the standard condition is 2,700.

[02:37:50] So what did you do? How did you get Tuscarora to 4,000? So at the time when Tuscarora was built, it was a Class 5, and that's why it was built larger. Right now, you're right, it has decreased, and the enrollment would support more of a Class 4, which it is now. At this school, the enrollment we're projecting would be at the 2100.

[02:38:08] That's why we're going for that number. At the time the school opens, there will be three other schools, that will be Class 6, that will have this standard-sized stadium. And they will have their own stadiums, though, correct? Say that again? Those three other schools will have their own stadiums, correct? They would. Okay. We'll get that 2700 number.

[02:38:23] All right. Well, we'll see what happens when we come back, but I'm going to support Mr. Crony on this one right now. Would you like to have a closing? Yeah, thank you, Chair Randall. So Light Ridge and Independence are at about 2100, and they have a 2700 stadium, correct?

[02:38:43] So they have the standard stadium. And I want to remind my colleagues here that those are two new schools. Those were two newer schools in Tuscarora, and they have a large student enrollment in there.

[02:39:00] They have 2,100. So, you know, this school would be the same. H.S. 14 is projected to be the same, and therefore it should be at the 2,700, similar to Light Ridge and Independence. In the staff report, it states this stadium is an enhanced stadium.

[02:39:18] It's not a standard stadium. So there has to be a reason for it beyond just that the stadium is driven by capacity at the school. In my view, it's a stadium for regional events. And I think Supervisor Letourneau is correct that back when we brought the property, we were looking at regional events, and I think it is the wrong location.

[02:39:39] I don't think that the road infrastructure is enough to support this. Evergreen Mills Road will only be expanded in front of this property. The rest of it will be four lanes. Red Hill Road is a gravel road. There are a bunch of agricultural farms along Red Hill Road.

[02:39:57] I would encourage my colleagues to go out there and drive Red Hill Road. Yeah, it will be improved in front of the property, but the rest of it is ag. So I do think this is going to cause a lot of traffic congestion. I think it's the wrong location. And I also think that the population that's going to go to this school is very similar to Light Ridge and Independence, and their stadiums are 2,700.

[02:40:22] I go to Light Ridge events all the time, and the stadium is not full. My daughter goes to Light Ridge. So I don't know how you would fill a 5,000-seat stadium in an event because Light Ridge is going to be the same size as HS14.

[02:40:38] All three of them are bigger schools. I would also say that you had a Class 6 state tournament game at Freedom and John Champ recently, and they were able to accommodate the Class 6 state tournament game, whatever their stadium is.

[02:40:55] They were able to accommodate that, and they have a much smaller stadium. I would ask based on our speakers tonight that we do look at a fence with Willowsford it doesn't have to be in their tree conservation area but I think Loudoun County Public Schools could be a good neighbor and work with Willowsford and try and figure out where this fence could go that would help the neighbors to be a good neighbor I would encourage Loudoun County Public Schools to do that. Thank you. Okay, Mr. Crony made the motion. Ms. Glass, second at the motion. So the motion is

[02:41:33] to deny part of it. And so, yeah, so just so you know, it's kind of one of those pink moments where you're kind of voting backwards. Point of clarification, Madam Chair. Yes, sir. If this motion passes, it will be a high school with no stadium. The way the motion is written, there is no stadium. It doesn't say that anywhere in there. I think that, okay, I'm pretty sure I asked that question, what would happen, and they said it would be a standard stadium, okay? All right, I know, and I asked

[02:42:09] them as well. All right, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. All opposed? Okay, if you are in favor, because I can get a count, raise your hand. Okay, that, is your hand up or down? Your hand's down.

[02:42:26] So that's a 4-4-1, so that motion will fail. All right, so do we need a new motion? Madam Chair? Yes, sir. I move the Board of Supervisors ratify LEGIE 2023-0078 Dulles North High School and Elementary School Commission Permit 2023-0006 subject to the Commission Permit Platt dated March 4, 2024 and based on the findings for approval provided as attachments 1 and 2 to the May 23, 2024 Board of Supervisors Business Meeting Action Item. Motions made and seconded.

[02:42:55] Discussion on the motion? Well, I think we just had the debate on this essentially. This is the opposite motion, which is to approve this commission permit as it was presented by the school system again I would just reiterate in the instances where the larger stadium is not needed then I don't understand what the harm is on having the larger stadium it just means it won't be full so the traffic impacts the noise impacts all the impacts that there would be concern about about having a larger stadium would not occur so the argument that it's not needed to me I don't really

[02:43:31] follow obviously there could be instances where it is needed and that's where we've had some discussion about a traffic management plan and so on so I would urge approval of this this is a badly needed high school I'm not going to get into all the you know intricacies of the LCPS projections but I would point out we have we have approved several applications in this immediate area recently in fact I believe there's only one application the board hasn't approved recently and that was not feeding this particular area and we have

[02:44:08] approved other applications that are a feeding adjacent area with an overcrowded school district in the John Champ High School Zone so those students I am hopeful some of them will move to this area that are closer to this new school will be than they are to John Champ to create capacity there.

[02:44:24] So I hope that we don't slow this all down. I hope that we're able to move it forward this evening. I want to remind you that we do have a colleague off the dais, and so no matter how this goes, if he chose to do something like bring it back, he could. I think he can bring anything back, can't he?

[02:44:41] If he off the dais, he can bring the motion back. He could. As a person that's not here, I would say that there's a timeline for this. If the board does not overrule the planning commission within that period of time, then it could not be brought back. Okay, yeah, but if it was that period of time, he could.

[02:44:57] That is correct. What is the period of time? The commission permit will expire June 10th. Oh, so he would have time then. Okay. Mr. Sains. Point of information, if I can ask staff a question. Sure. Out of, going off your memory, because I don't know if you have that information with you for your notes, of the housing applications, recent housing applications than maybe the last six months or whatever, I don't know.

[02:45:26] How many of those developments could you, if, again, if you know the answer, would be possibly students might be sent to this school? I don't have that answer, but I can try to look into it. There are two active applications for residential located proximate.

[02:45:46] Oh, that a current right now? Active. Which one, do you know the names of those? Arcola Farms and Fleetwood North. And how many residents were for Arcola Farms? That I'm not quite sure of off the top of my head. All right, thank you. Thank you. Did you make the motion?

[02:46:06] No, Mr. Crony. Okay, thank you, Chair Randall. So for sure, we need the high school. I tried to move the high school up a year, actually, not too long ago to 2027 versus 2028.

[02:46:21] For sure, I know that we need the high school. I know there are students that will be going to this school from active applications. So I don't question needing the high school more. It was versus a standard stadium or an enhanced stadium.

[02:46:38] That was kind of my issue. But I do have a question for staff. Would you be willing to work with Willowsford on a fence, Latin County Public School staff, on a fence?

[02:46:56] Like it doesn't have to be in the tree conservation area or near their trails. So I appreciate the question. The original ask of this was to put it on the property line, And then the ask was to extend the tree conservation area.

[02:47:12] Now the ask is to put a fence farther into our property, the fence off part of our property. It just keeps, the ask keeps going and going. We looked at it. We thought the tree conservation area was the best opportunity. There was a request for the fence for safety and security, I think was mentioned earlier, for people potentially dropping off students in a community and walking through the woods to our school.

[02:47:32] The middle school is not even built yet. The high school is planned to open in 2028. We don't know if that's going to come to fruition or not. So in the event that when the schools come and something like that does occur, we'd definitely be willing to have that conversation.

[02:47:51] Willing to have the conversation, you mean with the HOA about a fence? So to provide, as a public entity, we try to treat every residential community around us the same. You know, we're being asked to put a fence along the southern property boundary. Well, we're bordered by residential properties on three sides.

[02:48:08] So if we had to provide fencing for the entirety of all of our residential neighbors, that'd be over two miles of fencing that we'd have to install and maintain, let alone the number of trees that we might have to remove to make that work. It's a very, it's not a cut and dry yes or no, ma'am. Okay. Well, at least you, I hear that you're willing to work with them.

[02:48:26] You're willing to sit down with the HOA and work with them potentially on a fence. That's, that's, I'm not going to give up until you say you might be willing to work with them. I think we can continue to have conversations. I think we can continue to have conversations, but we cannot commit.

[02:48:44] I mean, we don't know. We can't put a fence on someone else's property and then be expected to maintain it. We can continue to have the conversations. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Thank you. Madam Chair. Mr. Turner. That just brought up a question to me.

[02:49:01] So I'm not sure, right now the option, there's a tree conservation area along that border. And how wide is that? So it's 40 foot wide for the length of the southern property border where the trees exist today. So that if we put a fence up, it undoubtedly, I'm assuming, would be a chain-link fence.

[02:49:22] We'd probably have to look at it. Which would obstruct. Wood is hard to maintain in that area for a long period of time. Or composite. Whatever it is, it's either opaque or it's going to be a see-through chain-link fence. But whatever it is, it's going to obstruct the view of the tree conservation area, correct?

[02:49:39] So instead of looking at a tree conservation area, you're going to be looking at a fence of some kind, and then the tree's behind it. I guess that's accurate. I don't know if we could put a fence in the tree conservation. I guess, yeah, I guess what I'm saying is I question the value of the fence to really accomplish anything, but I take it that the community is desirous of that, but it's not a compelling argument for me.

[02:50:03] Thank you. Ms. Bricksman? Thank you. One more quick question. Sorry. Is LCPS projecting this school to be at capacity when it opens? So typically high schools open with the first three grades, not a senior class.

[02:50:21] the rising seniors have the option to stay at their home school. So the second year, it will be at capacity. Projection. We don't have an attendance zone, so we can't. But one would anticipate based on the number of residents and children that live in the area.

[02:50:38] But until the board adopts an attendance zone in spring of 27. The school board, I see. Yeah, yeah, the school board. Yes, ma'am, thank you. The school board, the school board. Until the school board adopts an attendance zone in spring 27. The point I want to make is I believe that LCPS has a process to project the size of the schools that they need, the size of the facilities that they need, and does it happen every once in a while that a population might go down and then up again and then down?

[02:51:09] Yes, it does happen every once in a while, but I don't feel as if at least I can replace my judgment of what the capacity of the school will be with LCPS's judgment or the school board's judgment. And the schools have projected the need for a 2,100 student school with the commensurate facilities that come with that. We have been growing in Loudoun County by leaps and bounds 35% according to the last census. So we know the kids are coming in my mind. And so I'm really glad actually that we're right sizing and you know hopefully these kids will never have to have

[02:51:49] trailers you know hopefully these kids will never have to you know have people who want to attend a game parking in a neighborhood because there's not enough parking i mean that happens with dominion high school all the time the neighbors complain because there's not enough parking even for the facilities that they have here we are actually planning for the right amount the right size of facility and the right amount of parking so i'm really glad that we're being forward thinking and forward looking on this and i'm happy to support the motion thank you can somebody tell me what

[02:52:22] is the cost differential between these two two size stadiums i don't have an exact number for you ma'am but i would just say that the like you mentioned before the feels the same and tracks the same so the anticipation is there wouldn't be a significant cost difference because we're expanding the bleach i don't know what a significant cost difference means i'm asking because i had a a colleague that said what's the difference and truthfully there is a difference in cost and I just don't know what that difference is and that would help me make well actually that's that I just I think is an important point of this decision can somebody tell me whether are other schools

[02:52:58] or other high schools with the same capacity I'm sorry with the same enrollment why didn't you ask for larger stadiums in those high schools I think we've learned lessons I think that we those are pretty recent high schools. They are and but I mean it's a process and so we've acknowledged that we have schools that when we have an independence playing a John Champ that we're going to have a large population. I do and I don't I'm not disagreeing with it if you have that but I don't

[02:53:35] think it's I just don't again you know one of the nice things that we get to do as supervisors is go to LCPS events and I take advantage of that all the time at that little car we can go to all the events. And I go to games all the time, all around the county, big games, and I'm just not seeing it.

[02:53:54] I mean, except for Battle of the Burn, I'll give you that one, except for Battle of the Burn, I'm just not seeing it. I don't, I mean, they're, you know, are they full? Yes. Are they standing room only? No one can find park? No, they're not. And I mean, I'm in, I'm at these games all the time. And can somebody tell me why the visitors bleachers need to be more?

[02:54:17] we cannot okay we cannot okay we're not in construction okay all right all right listen these are hard questions you guys are supposed to advocate for which is supposed to advocate for i do appreciate it i do appreciate lcps i really thank you for being here i think lcps is an excellent school system in so many ways i don't think i've ever ever voted against an lcps request this will be my first time but i really do appreciate you being here so thank you um mr return would you like a closing yeah i can answer the question chair randall because when you have

[02:54:53] schools that are proximate to each other effectively it's not much further for that community to go to a game so i would like to point to you the john chant versus lightridge game which happened in september last year and i was there two schools that arrivals the battle of braddock first battle of braddock no i'm serious that's what they market it as okay i was there the willisford folks i know it's a different Willisford, but they'll know what a traffic problem that was, and the fact that people were parking literally a mile away from that event. There was not a seat to be had anywhere there, and it was overcrowded, hosted at Lightridge with the 2,700 seat capacity, because Lightridge

[02:55:32] is a bigger school. Now, guess what? Champ is actually a smaller school right now. Champ's only got 1,500 or 1,600, but the full Champ bleachers, the visitors bleachers, were completely full for that because it's just a five minute drive from Champ to Light Ridge and so everybody from Champ came too and it was one heck of a football game decided on a last minute field goal won by John Champ as a Champ parent you know a little bit of bragging rights but anyway um but that's why because when you have these situations you have all these big big schools that are really close to each other and they play each other and when they play each other it's effectively a home game for everybody there's no real difference it's not like you got somebody traveling an hour to play

[02:56:09] the game it's independence versus champ versus lightridge versus freedom they're all really close so anyway uh that's why i think the answer is it makes sense so i would encourage us to vote for this and um move on from the conversation uh i do appreciate you know the concerns that exist about it i as i said i think the times when it's not needed it's really not an issue those relatively few times where it will be needed then you know you've got to manage that traffic just as you would any other situation but i think we do have enough built into this in this complex where we'll be able to do that traffic flow will be a little bit better because you actually have room to do it

[02:56:48] and we should take advantage of opportunities when they present itself because it doesn't happen very often thank you it's amazing we always start like we have enough to say on this and then we all say it use our truth all the time we always have stuff to say okay the motion was made Mr. Letourneau seconded by Supervisor Briggsman all in favor say aye opposed nay that motion will pass with Supervisor Tocroni and Supervisor and Chair Randall voting

[02:57:20] against the motion and Supervisor Kirsten being off the desk thank you very much okay um supervisors I we need to go on the close we're going to go into closed session but let's take a five minute

[02:57:33] break before you read in the closed session okay thanks minutes guys five

[03:09:27] minutes five minutes come on back miss Briggsman would you please read in soon the clothes I will I move that the Board of Supervisors recess this public meeting and enter into a closed session pursuant to sections 2.2 - 3 7 1 1 a 8 and a 29 of the code of Virginia to consult with legal counsel pertaining to the negotiation of a collective bargaining agreement where public funds are being expended and where negotiations in open session would adversely affect the bargaining position of the county.

[03:09:59] Second. Discussion on the motion? No, ma'am. Seeing none, all people say aye. Any opposed? That motion will pass 801. We are in closed session.

[03:28:39] Okay, we're back.

[03:56:17] Ms. Brixman, if you would read us out of closed session, I appreciate it. I certainly will. I move that the closed session be adjourned, that the Board of Supervisors reconvene this public meeting, that the minutes of the public meeting should reflect that no formal action was taken in the closed session, and further move that the resolutions certifying the closed session be adopted and reflected in the minutes of this public meeting. Second. Discussion on the motion?

[03:56:43] Seeing none, all in favor say aye. Any opposed? That's 7-0-1. Would everybody please, I'm sorry, 8-0-1. Would everybody please affirm, Ms. Umstead? Affirm. Affirm. Affirm. Affirm. Affirm. Affirm. Affirm. Affirm. And I affirm as well.

[03:56:59] All right, supervisors, let's go to the next item, which is the item 7I. It's the American Rescue Plan spending discussion. Would staff please come to the table?

[03:57:22] Mr. Govan, after this one, can you leave and go home, sir? Okay, there you go. All right, we're back, Chair Randall and board members. First, I just want to say thank you for the board members taking the briefings.

[03:57:40] that Dr. Cox and I provided to you all. With that being said, we are ready to answer any questions that you may have on this board item. Wonderful. Supervisors, do you have questions on this item?

[03:57:57] If I go to Ms. Bricksman, I'm not coming back to anybody else. I'm going to let you all know that now. Okay. Okay. You set my motion, Ms. Bricksman. Can you answer the question in the motion there? Wow, that is what I'm talking about. Mr. Sainz. Thank you, Madam Chair.

[03:58:13] I move that the Board of Supervisors approve the reallocation of $3,189,294 in underspent funds from the Loudoun County American Rescue Plan Act, Act State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds, as outlined in Table 3 of the May 2023-2024 Board of Supervisors Business Meeting Item.

[03:58:34] I further move that the Board of Supervisors appropriate $2 million of unanticipated fiscal year 2024 fund balance for the creation of an economic mobility program and direct staff to return to the Finance, Government, Operations, and Economic Development Committee no later than September 2024 with a proposed implementation plan.

[03:58:57] Motion is made and seconded by Supervisor Bricksman. Discussion on the motion, Mr. Sains. Thank you, Madam Chair. I've talked to a few of you already, and you received my email, and we talked about this at Finance. I've been working on this for quite some time and wanted to bring this forward.

[03:59:14] One staff did the reallocation and recalculations of our ARPA funding, and I believe this initiative is the right approach to help many of our families and individuals here in Loudoun County.

[03:59:29] For example, the goal would be possibly to look at helping families with an AMI of no higher than 30%, which is $46,000 for a family of four in Loudoun County, which I'm pretty sure you all can agree. That definitely would be a family or individual in need of assistance here in the county for rent, whatever it might be, and these economic mobility payments that they'll receive, depending on the amount that staff brings back and we discuss if the motion is passed will be sort of like a steroid shot to help them.

[04:00:04] They can help them to go buy groceries, pay bills, pay down debt that they may have, help them because, again, this is unaccounted for money if it's approved and they're part of the program that the families and individuals are not counting on. So this could be monies they could put away for savings or save up for a down payment for a house, down payment for a car, And, of course, this will all be spent here, well, potentially be spent here in our local economy to stimulate our local businesses and help our store owners sell their goods and services here in the county.

[04:00:35] So I appreciate the dialogue that we've had in finance and some of the conversations I have with my colleagues offline, and I do hope you support this initiative. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Glass. Thank you, Madam Chair.

[04:00:51] And I will gladly support this motion to fund Economic Mobility Pilot Program. I wholeheartedly agree with everything Supervisor Sainz just said. And I really believe that, you know, any additional help that we can give to families and our community is, you know, it will help them, but it will also go back into our local economy.

[04:01:17] These programs have been proven successful in other jurisdictions, And I look forward to seeing what structure and guidelines staff will bring back in the fall. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Mr. Letourneau. Thank you. Well, first of all, I do appreciate the movement on not utilizing the ARPA funding because the ARPA funds would have been reallocated from the Round Hill Water Tower Project, which I think is much easier for the town and even for us to just see that to completion and reallocate ARPA.

[04:01:48] I probably, if we, you know, I have my reservations about this and I wouldn't have supported it probably under any circumstance. I kind of think allocating the money before we've seen the program and then not sending it to fund balance and just simply allocating it now is highly unusual for us and not something we typically do.

[04:02:07] My more macro concern is, as I said in the finance committee, this is a pilot program. There are other counties with pilot programs. We could see how those pilot programs actually work before we have to do it, since those parameters are kind of already there, and they're far more mature than ours is, and there's already partners that have been identified that are working on them.

[04:02:31] I would probably prefer a more targeted approach to assistance, as we've been doing. For instance, rental assistance is something that the county's been providing regularly. sure money is money but that way it's it's very clear on how it's being used um i think using taxpayer dollars in this way does present questions um about you know who's going to get it there will be some people who will want it and won't be able to get it we're going to have a lottery um and so on and then you know the the overall uses of the funding so um i don't think i'm would be able to get there on this but i do um at least appreciate we're not going to be delaying the

[04:03:10] round hill projects and putting them into a more difficult situation in order to do it. Ms. Umstead? Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Questions for staff. If we put it into this project that Supervisor Sains is proposing, and I think there's a lot of merit in what he's proposing but if i'm looking at table three um are those are those the only uh projects that

[04:03:49] would be defunded if we took this money and put it into what supervisor sains wants on page six of the staff report yes so so those are the projects that those are the only projects that we have found thus far that would be at high risk for not being obligated. So those would be the only ones that would be defunded. Okay. So in general, I think water and wastewater are pretty

[04:04:22] critical services. So Hillsboro would lose almost half a million for their wastewater treatment system. I'm not as worried about losing the specialized marketing to seniors. I'm not as worried about losing the training. I think Supervisor Sane's priority is probably higher than those priorities. Howardsville's going to lose a drainage study, though, it would appear.

[04:05:01] There seems to be some consternation between staff, so please interrupt me. What's going on? So just to clarify, Supervisor Armstead, I think what you may be listing as defunded were the six or seven projects that we were funding.

[04:05:21] When you described like Hillsboro, Howesburg, Howesville, and so forth, the projects that we are defunding would be on Table 2, And those are the ones where we show, like, the displacement of services in reference to when we didn't have the opportunity, when we put out bids for, like, mobile home, and the two bids came up empty, for example.

[04:05:48] And then so on Table 2 is what are the projects that we would actually defund. All right. I am misreading Supervisor Sam's motion, then, because it refers to Table 3. If I may help clarify.

[04:06:05] So what Supervisor Sains' motion does, to my understanding, is that it proposes funding for everything in Table 3 consistent with staff's recommendation to reallocate ARPA funding to those projects.

[04:06:20] So the projects you listed are receiving additional funding under this scenario. The funding for the Economic Mobility Program would not be funded out of ARPA. Under this recommendation, it would be funded out of fund balance. All right. Okay.

[04:06:35] Thank you very much. Thanks. Mr. Crony. Thank you, Chair Randall. So I have a question for Supervisor Sainz. Yes, Mr. Sainz, you got it? Can I ask you a question? So this is a pilot program, right?

[04:06:51] We're going to try it out and see what kind of wraparound services we can provide for this community. Because it's a limited amount of money, so I'm just wondering, you're thinking this would be a pilot program and maybe establish something for the future that would be more standard regarding the economic mobility?

[04:07:10] Yeah, so this will be a pilot, as mentioned, so we can test the waters, collect data, we'll partner with Loudoun Network has reached out, said they're interested in possibly being a partner with us.

[04:07:26] George Mason, who's partnering with Alexandria currently right now, there they've reached out and we've talked to them preliminary have conversations so we have some community organizations that are interested in doing this with with the county if we are to move forward so again yeah we collect the data do do some surveying of the participants in the program get all that information look at how their spending was how they started the beginning of the program middle of the program end of the program and then we can take that you know look talk to staff look at our partners and then make a collective decision if you want to move forward with something else. More permanent. More permanent or another program, another period of programming, correct. Okay, great. Yeah, happy to support

[04:08:05] this as a pilot. Thank you. Mr. Turner. Thank you, Madam Chair. Was it, Mr. Govan, was it in the briefing you gave me somewhere, I've seen references that we looked at the Alexandria program, we looked at the Fairfax program, we're already getting some feedback and results on those pilot programs and presumably we're going to model our program after some of those programs.

[04:08:26] Did I hear that somewhere? That is correct, Supervisor Turner. We did kind of like a fact-finding with the Fairfax County to kind of learn about their program and their model to look at. That's what I thought. At the meeting with the HUD representative today, I asked a question.

[04:08:45] It seems like with the growing homelessness in the world today, we tend to be doing a lot of effort in staunching the bleeding and reacting in a triage mode. And I specifically asked her, is there some way that we can empower lower-income groups to get out of that status?

[04:09:07] And he said very clearly that we've got a lot of programs that are doing precisely that. And that addressed sort of my concern, and I understand Supervisor Attorney General's concern about using taxpayer dollars, which could easily be interpreted as a handout, just a gift.

[04:09:24] But again, emphasis on the fact this is a pilot program. we have homelessness, we have lower income families in the county, and you use all the tools in the box when you're in that kind of a situation, and I think this is a tool that we haven't tried yet, and I think we'll study it, we'll look at it, we'll see what kind of results we get, and see how we can sustain it, and I think it's a great idea, so I'm happy to support it.

[04:09:48] Thanks. Ms. Brooksman. Thank you, Madam Chair. A couple questions. I'm definitely supporting this. So I understand we have about $170,000 balance at the end of all of this. Is there any way that we can allocate that to something on time, to rental assistance or homelessness programs?

[04:10:10] I'm sure you probably went over all of it with a fine-toothed comb. So I would say we would have to probably go back out to our departments and offices to kind of see what's available. But like we've briefed before, we did a peer-to-peer.

[04:10:26] with prospective departments to see what was available. Okay, and I guess my next question is probably going to have the same answer, but if we were to actually send, as we were going to, send the Roundhill Water Project to Fund Balance and immediately do the same, like immediately allocate those funds out of Fund Balance, would there be any way to use the $1.5 million?

[04:10:56] Because Round Hill said, we're fine if we get it from Fund Balance or we get it from ARPA. They're fine. Their timeline will not be changed. Would there be any way that we could use that 1.5 for what seems to be more of what ARPA was really meant for?

[04:11:13] Not that it's not meant for clean water projects and those sorts of things, but really people in need. I think staff may be stressed to get a really solid plan in place by the time we would need to obligate it. okay um well i would love it if you can find something come back to us with something for the 176. okay i i am excited that supervisor saints has brought this forward i remember hearing about programs like this during covid and i kind of unfortunately put it out of my mind because i thought we we we wouldn't do that in loudon county and i'm kind of sorry i did that but i'm really

[04:11:53] glad that he brought it back and I have you know NPR has done a couple stories on other jurisdictions doing these economic mobility programs and it's pretty impressive how they change people's lives and they really help them get on their feet have the ability to maybe buy a suit to go to a job interview or just be able to pay their rent so they're not stressed out it's just and it's proven also in the stories that I've heard that they aren't just using this for you know a vacation or not to work because they're getting a check right they these are used for necessities and

[04:12:31] for things like I mentioned you know getting a getting a job interview or maybe buying a computer at some point which you couldn't buy before because now you can you know put 500 towards your rent then you can buy a computer to actually go look for a job so I'm really excited highly Highly supportive, and I thank Supervisor Sains for putting this forward.

[04:12:49] Thank you. Well, I can't believe that I, of all people, am saying this, but I think that this is so nonspecific at this time that it's actually bothering me a little bit. Since we've been up here, I've been listening very closely. I have heard everything from it could be used for businesses to it could be used for education to now we're buying a suit and a computer.

[04:13:12] I don't know what we're doing here, right? And I'm a little concerned that we're putting $1.5 million to something that is very vague. Now, obviously, obviously, I support economic mobility programs. But I'm not quite sure why we've attached an amount to a program that we don't even know what it looks like yet.

[04:13:33] So if we're not going to have this discussion anyway until we get to the fund balance discussion, Why not let the staff come back with some kind of idea of what it would look like before we attach an amount to it? It might be $1.5 million.

[04:13:50] It might be less. It might be more. But it doesn't make much sense to me to attach a specific amount to something that is this vague. As I said in the finance, we don't even know the department this was going to go through yet. And, you know, I hear that other places have done it, but sometimes we can model something after someplace else.

[04:14:12] Sometimes we can't. So it's not that I disagree with the ideal. I don't. But I don't. I agree with the ideal kind of largely. But if I'm going to start passing out or deciding that this idea is going to have $1.5 million attached to it, I need to know what we're actually doing.

[04:14:31] And this feels, it just feels a little, it just feels very vague. It feels like a great idea without any specificity to it yet. And so, Mr. Sains, can you tell me how you came up with the $1.5 million?

[04:14:47] Can you tell me what will happen if staff comes back and they says, my gosh, that should have been $3 million? Now, if they say it should have been $700,000, cool, that's easy. But they come back and said, gosh, that should have been, we can toss you one. If they come back and say, we're going to need double that amount.

[04:15:04] So why not let staff go do the work, come back, and give us the amount versus giving them the amount to go work with? Well, initially, again, when we started, I was going to use ARPA. So when they did their reallocations of ARPA and what.

[04:15:23] But now we're here because my time for an announcement, but now we're here. Correct. I know the background, but why not let them come back and tell us an amount versus us tell them an amount? Looking at other programs, I think this is the correct amount to allocate for right now.

[04:15:38] We have the funding to do so, and it's, from conversations, it seems like it's, everybody's in support of it, so let's give them the go-ahead to go formulate the plan. You didn't answer my question at all. I'll continue because I have a closing now, but I think this is a worthwhile program.

[04:16:01] I understand some of your concerns, but those will be addressed, but I think in spirit, everybody is supportive of this idea, so let's go ahead and vote. say yes let's move forward with this initiative staff will go back do some more analysis come back with the framework no later than september and finance we'll we'll have some further discussion and then we'll we'll continue to move forward but i think this is the right right step in the right direction for the for this great program that will help many residents here in our county we just had a sampling of some folks sharing their stories earlier during the public comment period we've

[04:16:38] We received a few emails to this situation, encouraging us to do so. We received emails from the Loudoun Community Foundation, Nicole LaCossa. They're supportive of it. The Loudoun Human Services Network from Ms. Nicole Morse. They're supportive of this idea as well.

[04:16:54] So I think let's be forward-thinking. Let's push the needle a little bit and move this process forward. So thank you. Okay. I need one point of clarification. Do we have any idea what department this would be coming out of?

[04:17:15] So at this time, the Department of Finance and Procurement would be the one to take the lead, at least, to do more of the fact-finding. Okay. Okay.

[04:17:32] The motion is made by Supervisor Sainz. Second by Supervisor Brixman. All in favor, please say aye. Opposed? No.

[04:17:50] This motion will pass. Six, two, one. Fine. Yep. Thank you. With Supervisor Laterno and Supervisor and Chair Randall wrote against it and Supervisor Kirshner off the dais.

[04:18:07] All right, let's go to the last item for tonight, which is the Federal Aviation Administration Community Process to mitigate aircraft noise within the area of the Airport Impact Overlay District. Thank you, Madam Chair. Good evening.

[04:18:33] Good evening. Give me one moment while I pull up this presentation. Amazing.

[04:18:56] Okay, we are ready to go here. 8-8, everybody. Okay. Yeah, we're ready. Thank you. Okay, so good evening, Chair Randall. Good evening, supervisors. I'm Josh Peters. I'm joined here at the table by Daniel Galindo and Dusty Smith, and we also have our consultant help from Vionair on the WebEx.

[04:19:20] Their names are Jim Allardyce and Jason Swartz, and this is a returning item. We were last here in October of last year, and so our intent is to pick up the discussion where we left off at that time, and I'll be presenting some new information along the way.

[04:19:40] So this presentation, it does begin with a brief background because it's been since October of last year since we were here. I'll then move through some informational updates, and then I'll ask the board to provide votes on three different decision points in this project.

[04:19:58] Those decision points are the three sub-bullets here. The community engagement plan, which is basically a do we move forward or no question. After that, the second bullet is project funding and the competitive bid process. It's asking for direction on whether to initiate the request for proposals process.

[04:20:16] And then the third question is a question of additional consulting assistance. And so I'll move through those items in more detail as we go along. You believe this would be most helpful to take these in three different motions? They are separated out there, actually.

[04:20:34] They are, and you think that would be the most helpful way to do this? Because I do. I do. I do. Yeah, I think they're three separate decision points. The second decision point is more contingent on the first. So if you vote yes on the first one, the second one is probably also a yes, and the third decision point is more or less separate.

[04:20:55] Yeah, that one's a little bit, yeah, I agree. Okay, thank you. So by way of background. This process began in January of 2023, and I'm sure the board remembers that was the date on which the board adopted updates to the airport impact overlay district.

[04:21:12] And along with that adoption motion for the AIOD, the board also gave staff direction to open a dialogue with the Federal Aviation Administration with the intent of better understanding the range of options available to address noise in the area around Dulles Airport.

[04:21:31] So following that January 2023 direction, staff did begin attempting to open that dialogue with the FAA. As you know, we encountered some challenges. We then enlisted the help of Vionair to try and help that process along.

[04:21:48] And it was with Vionair's help that we developed a community engagement plan, which was what we presented to the board in October of last year. That community engagement plan looked like a community work group. And at that time, the board did endorse the community work group.

[04:22:08] And the board's endorsement in October of 2023 included some additional specifics regarding the composition of that work group. If you remember, we added the community of South Riding to that community work group. So that was what happened at the October meeting.

[04:22:25] Since the October meeting, the very following month in November, we received some correspondence from the FAA regional administrator conveying that our community engagement plan must be expanded. So the plan that the board just endorsed needed to change.

[04:22:42] Vionaire held additional discussions with the FAA since then, since that time, clarified some expectations. Viner outlined an acceptable community engagement process, which is what we're here to explain tonight, is what that process would look like, how it's different than what we last presented to you.

[04:23:01] Viner's also revised their proposed scope of work so that we have an understanding of the cost and the time frame and the staffing and contractor needs that would be necessary to implement this community engagement plan. And so what is that community engagement plan?

[04:23:17] This is what it is. This is the format of it. So in any event that the FAA would consider a proposal for a change within their jurisdiction, they are telling us that our community engagement would need to move through this format.

[04:23:35] The format has two different groups in it. It's the design group and the regional project group. The design group is much the same as what we presented back in October. It's that same grouping of communities that is to the west of the airport, focused on addressing noise that is coming off that east-west runway.

[04:23:55] That group is now called the design group, and their participation and function is generally consistent with what we presented before. They would work with our consultant, they would articulate the problems as they experience them, and then they would work with Vionair to put forward some sort of a proposal that is at least viable in terms of FAA policies and what's the constraints in the airspace. That's the work of the design group. The new part now is the regional project group, and this is a group that would be

[04:24:33] composed of all jurisdictions and major community groups within 10 nautical miles of the airport, and the relationship between these two groups is that any proposal that comes out of the design group would need to have favorable consensus also with the regional project group before it could even be sent to the FAA. So that is the big change here. That's what the FAA is requiring of the county if we're going to put forward some sort of a request for a change in their jurisdiction.

[04:25:11] If the board directs staff to move ahead with the community engagement plan, it would necessitate restructuring the work agreement with our contractor, and that's what you see as attachment one in your report. The total cost of the project would increase to $200,000, including services already rendered and paid over the last year. The board has already approved a total of $140,000, and if the board directs staff to proceed with this community engagement plan, staff would seek an additional $60,000. The significance of the $200,000 mark is that

[04:25:50] if our project, if our contract values exceed the $200,000 mark, we have to go out to a full request for proposals to be able to spend more money on the project. And so what we're asking for, since we are right at that threshold, we're not past it yet, but since we're right at that threshold, it does make sense that if the board wants to move forward on the community engagement plan, also direct staff to begin the process for the request for proposals in case we need it,

[04:26:24] because there is about a six-month lead time, as I understand it, to be able to move a request for proposals forward and start operating on it, which could become a disruption or it could cause a delay in the project. So that is item number two that we're asking for direction on. Item number three, county staff and board members have been approached by the Aloft group as a potential consultant. Staff, as we outlined in our staff report, we've identified a potential concern here

[04:27:02] in that the principal member of the Aloft group does live within one of the affected communities. And so it sets up a situation where a person who has a personal interest in the matter could also become a compensated technical advisor.

[04:27:24] As we have tried to look into the matter and understand just ethics and legal implications, we did check in with our county attorney. As we understand it, this does not meet the standard of a conflict of interest exactly, so it is not a legal issue.

[04:27:43] um, as a conflict of interest, nor do we believe it's in conflict with any other, um, part of the code of Virginia. Um, however, it is a process issue because in the event that this contractor was successful, um, as we hope the process will be successful, but if the end result is to move noise away from this individual's home, um, and another home or community ends up either experiencing or perceiving an increase in the noise, it could be perceived as a real process

[04:28:19] flaw. And so we bring this to your attention because we think the way of dealing with it is to deal with it out in the open, right? So it's a question. I should also say that it's that bottom bullet there, the attachment one in your staff report, which has the proposal. The change order in front of you does actually include the Aloft group as a subcontractor providing a limited scope of services in this project plan.

[04:28:52] So in the event that the board needed to give affirmative direction on the first two points and not affirmative direction on the third point here, that would have some implications for us to be able to, that would put staff in the position of needing to figure out who then does the work that this subcontractor is going to do.

[04:29:15] Okay, it's about a $60,000 value of work that is in that work plan. So moving from there, Transportation and Land Use Committee did recommend moving forward on all three points, and staff is recommending similarly, but a little different, that the board endorse the community engagement plan, direct staff to initiate the RFP process if needed, and then to discuss and provide project direction to staff regarding the additional consultant assistance.

[04:29:52] So that does conclude our presentation, and we're, of course, ready for questions. Thank you so much, sir. Very much appreciate it. We've been doing this for a long time. I'm going to go to Mr. Turner for three separate motions.

[04:30:14] Does anyone need to ask questions outside of motions? Okay, Mr. Letourneau. So can the community engagement process proceed without the additional $60,000?

[04:30:31] Could that be something that could be handled within existing resources within the existing contract? That would be in excess of conversations that we've already had with our main contractor, Vionair. So right now what they're proposing to us does not include coordination of that regional project group.

[04:30:51] That is the piece that has been subcontracted in this work proposal to the Aloft group. So we would need to figure it out. So I did a lot of digging on the Aloft group. So the principal in question who lives in Birchwood, and I will add this is probably the main reason I took this off consent, because I do believe it is a conflict of interest and one that will adversely impact other communities, potentially, at least in appearance.

[04:31:15] This individual has a lot of technical expertise, for sure, including potentially direct lines with the FAA. But as I read this, that's not how you would utilize him because you're concerned about the perceived conflict. So if the point here is to bring in a consultant to help with the public engagement process, why would we not find a consultant that's more specifically equipped to put together the community engagement process rather than one that has essentially self-selected themselves into the project who lives in an affected community?

[04:31:49] I agree with the question, but some of the reasons for it would be that this is a person who already has industry experience, industry connections, is well-versed in the scenarios that we're experiencing, and is already, in fact, engaged in our project.

[04:32:09] And so there is some benefit to bringing such a person under that umbrella. But again, you're trying to accomplish public engagement, not necessarily this overall objective. Like, the add-on piece here is we now have to do the 10 nautical mile project. And I don't see where there's an alignment with this individual's specific expertise and the specific public engagement of the 10 nautical mile group.

[04:32:33] So did we look at any other options or have any other discussions? We have not had the chance yet to look at other options, no. I really implore my colleagues to slow this down a little bit and take some time. I know it's already gone really slowly, but we jumped into something.

[04:32:52] It was not a staff recommendation. It was, you know, in terms of who was selected, it was essentially self-selected. So we've got to figure out that part of it and get it right. And whether we need more time to do that or not, I don't, this is very rushed.

[04:33:08] I would add that during our discussions with the consultant, the discussions about a loft came up as well. And there was some perceived benefit of their involvement in the process because they have had some communications.

[04:33:28] They were able to make some communications with the FAA at the same time that our consultant was. So there were some just benefits there that we saw with this particular contractor. And there was also the boots-on-the-ground element to it.

[04:33:44] One aspect that Vine Air has raised is that they don't live here and that having someone who is very familiar with the area and the communities in question would be a benefit to them. So those were some of the reasons that we were considering this. Okay. Ms. DeSaintz?

[04:34:01] Thank you, Madam Chair. I don't think we got the, well, for me, either the county staff or county attorney, do you feel there's a conflict of interest by having the gentleman who is on a loft then also live in the community And then is he also part of the, or being proposed to be part of the community roundtable as a member?

[04:34:26] So that's one question. Then the second question is, clearly there's definitely a benefit of having this person's expertise and knowledge and working with us. So, again, you know, to Ms. Letourneau's point, you're recommending that he be more public speaking or reach out.

[04:34:42] But why not put him in the category of technical knowledge and expertise? And then, Mr. Smith, obviously you're in our public affairs, and we have your colleagues, Mr. Barber, so wouldn't you guys be the more outreach and public engagement and opening set-up community meetings and all that stuff and e-mails?

[04:35:02] So in terms of the design group, we are perfectly capable of working with Vionair to accommodate the communications needed for that. In terms of the wider regional project group, that is a little larger area.

[04:35:18] dealing with other jurisdictions um we do feel like there could be some expertise that would benefit um our communications department um but bringing and bringing a consultant on that side but can i get an answer to the conflict of interest part yeah i'll take i'll take the first i'll take the first uh try at it so um what we understand is that definitionally it is not a conflict definitionally under the code of virginia is it a conflict yes i think it is a conflict you You have a person who has both a personal interest and then also a professional interest in the situation.

[04:35:57] So I think while it's not a legal question, it is a health of the process question. We think this person has some benefit to offer, and also the circumstances around it are pretty far from ideal. Before my time ends, Madam Chair, if I can ask Mr. Rogers for an opinion.

[04:36:14] Absolutely. Mr. Rogers? Yes, I absolutely agree with what you just heard. It's not a legal conflict of interest, and a legal conflict of interest means statutorily he would not be able to bid. That is not the case. Certainly I can understand the perceived conflict of interest that someone may have, but that doesn't mean it's a legal conflict of interest.

[04:36:35] And with my remaining time, if I can ask Mr. Turner a question? Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Turner, would you be comfortable or okay with, say, if we were to have this individual stay on as a technical advisor, but made the stipulation that he could not participate or be a sitting member of the roundtable in his capacity as a resident?

[04:36:55] Your comments had already caused me to think in that direction, which I can clarify a little bit. But you would be open to that? Absolutely. Great. Thank you. Is this individual on the line right now with us? No, ma'am. Okay. Not on the line, but I do think I need to interject on a possible...

[04:37:16] It's just a little bit uncomfortable, to be honest. Well, rest assured, monitoring the meeting. I know, but it's different if I hear him clearing his throat. It's difficult, but let's be clear.

[04:37:31] We're talking about circumstances. We're not talking about a question of character. Absolutely. Right. So what I do need to say, though, is that part of the reason that this individual would be heading up the public engagement piece is that the staff-recommended way of mitigating this conflict is to keep this individual out of the technical role.

[04:37:56] The technical role would be headed up by Vionair. All communication between our project and the Federal Aviation Administration would be by Vionair, not by this individual. So there is a clear separation of roles and responsibilities to functionally mitigate the conflict.

[04:38:15] So we believe we have functionally mitigated the conflict, but it's the appearance and it's the involvement that is just a fact of the situation. I'm coming to you. Yes, Mr. Turner.

[04:38:32] Thank you. Just to clarify the process. So the design group comes up with a design proposal. It must get passed. You used the word consensus. I assume that's a majority vote of the members of the project group, correct? So I think it's less than a yes or no.

[04:38:48] It's less straightforward than that. So I'd like to ask Jim from Vionair to speak up on how do we understand consensus of the regional project group? What do we actually, how do we achieve that? Well, so I think because the initial perception was that we were going into a community work group or a roundtable type setting, That there would have to be consensus from everybody in the group.

[04:39:17] The idea or the thought process behind this regional project group is that these people act in the capacity of being informed and being able to inform their communities about what's going on.

[04:39:35] The idea behind the regional project group is really mostly one-way communication from us to them to tell them what is going on, because the intent of this entire project is very limited in scope, and it is intended not to involve them at all.

[04:39:57] as far as changes to the noise impacts positively or negatively anywhere outside of that wedge west of the airport. Jim, this is Mike Turner. You're on my clock, and I'm running out. What we're seeking from these folks is acknowledgement of that, basically.

[04:40:15] I'll give you the time back. And if there's objection to what we're doing, they would have to show impact to them based on what we're proposing. If they cannot show impact to them based on what we're proposing, then we can take that information forward to the FAA and say, we did what we said we were going to do.

[04:40:39] We're going to do a very limited scope in just this area. We did not affect anybody else. And, you know, if they got to the point where they go, well, I don't like what you guys came up with because I didn't get to put my proposal in, well, that's a whole different project from what we're trying to do.

[04:40:56] So it's really not a community roundtable model. This is a different animal. Okay, I'm going to start this time again. Jim, can you hear us? Can you hear us? Okay, so Jim, it seems like you may not be able to hear board members as they ask follow-up questions.

[04:41:19] Did you hear Chair Randall asking if you could hear her just now? No, sir, I got it now. Okay, so I'm going to give Mr. – I stopped Mr. Turner's clock because it wasn't his fault that he couldn't stop the answer. But I do appreciate the answer. So, Mr. Turner, I'm going to start your clock again.

[04:41:37] Thank you, Madam Chair. The point I – is there some way that we can recuse the Aloft representative from the consensus process? Now, I think there's real value with his background for him facilitating the community meetings. I can see a lot of technical questions about airport traffic patterns and all of that coming from the civilian population.

[04:41:58] Have another Birchwood representative on the project group who is not under contract. We are paying him to facilitate that process, but not to participate in the establishment of a consensus. That gives us one step removed from a conflict, I think.

[04:42:15] And we could reasonably defend that approach if we have a non-paid Birchwood representative on that group. I think his expertise is invaluable at this point. And to go back out and say, let's find a community facilitator for this process, you would have to find someone that has his level of expertise that could answer those kinds of technical questions of this group that's not in Birchwood.

[04:42:36] And I just, I mean, I can see the FAA salivating at the delay that this would cause. Sorry, but that's kind of how I view it. Thoughts? So on the question of can the principal from the aloft group be recused from any participation in the design group, yes, we would ensure that.

[04:42:56] No, in the project group. So the regional project. He would participate, but if in establishing consensus, he would not participate as part of the consensus. He would not be a voting member. Correct. No, he would only be involved on the project manager side, facilitation side.

[04:43:13] Yeah, I think that mitigates a lot of the conflict. Okay. Ms. Umstead.

[04:43:28] Thank you, Madam Chair. Do you know, has this process ever worked anywhere? Has the FAA ever agreed to change flight patterns based on this process? I'm going to ask Jim to answer that. Absolutely. As a matter of fact, on July 11th, the flight procedures at DCA are being published that we worked on a very similar project to what we're proposing for the design group.

[04:43:53] So they do have a community roundtable. It is more robust than what we're planning on for this because, like I said, this is a much more limited scope than we had over there. But we did go through the very similar process with the design group over there to come up with.

[04:44:14] And that group does have two-way communications and input and consensus into the recommendations that are made to the larger group. And once we came out with those recommendations, we had unanimous consent. It was forwarded to the FAA, and they are in the process of implementing them in July.

[04:44:35] Okay. All right. So this is not a total waste of money. I hope not. I don't think so.

[04:45:13] Any conflict that may exist with this one individual?

[04:45:26] I think what it ensures is that I'm hesitant to say that the regional project group is a mitigator of the conflict. I think what it does is it ensures that there's a level of consensus before anything gets sent to the FAA. But I think the fundamental issue of somebody possibly having competing interests, that remains.

[04:45:56] I think that's a fact. Okay. So the main problem is going to be if this individual, with or without his participation, somehow his neighborhood is saved and some other neighborhood gets all the flights, as I think you guys said was potential, that's where this becomes a significant problem.

[04:46:24] And I think it really is, in my understanding, it is mostly on the perception side, because I think as a part of the design philosophy of the design team that Jim will lead, part of that philosophy will be not to move noise over to another community.

[04:46:43] So that is built into the health of the process. Okay, thank you. Sure. Mr. Crony? Yeah, thank you, Chair Randall. So, Bionair will be doing the design group, and the Aloft group will be doing the regional group.

[04:47:01] That's exactly right. Right? And so, I really, I agree with what was said by Dusty that, you know, he's really boots on the ground. Like, they, the Aloft group has so much expertise and is really, has been indispensable in this process so far.

[04:47:18] And, you know, I don't believe we would have gotten where we are today without members of the ALOF group. I think they've really helped, and they do know the local community, and they know what's going on at the airport.

[04:47:34] And, you know, they're not going to be giving technical advice necessarily, because I think that's what Vionair is supposed to be doing. But they will be facilitating and doing more of the engagement. Am I correct in saying that? and bringing everybody together and trying to get consensus. And they won't be a member of the team, right?

[04:47:53] But they'll be just facilitating. Right. They would be a member of our project team, and they would be tasked with spreading the message of whatever proposal the design team, under Jim's guidance, chose to put forward.

[04:48:08] Right, with social media, with a website. Exactly that. It'll be a large communication piece. So I think it may be a perception, but I think the reality is that what they're doing is not technical, so they won't be involved in trying to shift noise somewhere else.

[04:48:26] It's not technical. It's more facilitating and communication and just moving the process along. I think that's the right distinction. It's actually not technical. It is facilitative. It is project manager. It is communications. Right.

[04:48:41] Thank you. and how many people do you think you'll have on the regional group how many because it's a 10 10 mile I mean what are we looking at because I know we we have not yet identified all of the jurisdictions yet because we wanted to make sure we're moving forward with this process we think it's in the range of 10 to 12 and maybe less than that because when I first we first had a group of like maybe five or six but the 10 nautical miles adds in a couple of counties that we might not have expected otherwise so it's it ends up being about 11 and a half actual like road

[04:49:17] miles when you look at it on the ground so it's but but we that would be our next step is to start identifying those that would also be part of what the loft group under this proposal would be helping us do absolutely and I think they can do that they have relationships so they can start they don't have to start from scratch in other words so I think they really offer a huge benefit that another group could not provide. So thank you. Ms. Brixman. Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a lot of questions. First of all, can you just briefly, briefly tell me what's the design group doing and

[04:49:54] what is the regional project group doing? Jim, can you take that one? Quickly, because I only have two and a half minutes. The design group is tasked with coming up with flight procedures and or standard operating procedure changes to mitigate noise okay and then the regional project group is is tasked with informing people within 10 nautical miles of the airport about what's going on okay okay so i mean that the the end results that that i think a lot of people are hoping for

[04:50:33] is that the flight paths change and by default if flight paths change they go over someone else's house probably so you're saying that in the second group anyone who might be impacted by the flight path changing will have a voice jim in the larger group the regional project so yeah yeah the flight path changes are only potentially going to affect communities west of the airport so anybody else

[04:51:08] in the other 270 degrees around the airport will not be affected well we don't know what the design group's going to say yet, do we? Well, that's, that's the limit. That's the limit of the scope. Okay. We're only, we're only scoped to make changes to the West. And, and in similar, I got you. I got you. I got, I got more questions. I got more questions. Sorry. Um, so, uh, you said that this round table process worked, but this is not a round table process. This is a work group process. So has the FAA ever responded and changed flight paths because of a work group process like

[04:51:47] this? Yes. Okay, great. I still have some issues. I think the conflict, especially as Supervisor Umstead described it, could be very, very, it could be a very bad look for us if the flight path over the perceived flight path over that person's home is then changed to not be over that person's home anymore. And I have to think that if Ryanair hired this consultant, Ryanair hired this

[04:52:26] consultant, why can't Ryanair go hire another consultant with similar expertise that doesn't live in the community? Right. That's because Ryanair was asked to work this person. Specifically with this person. So it's like a no-bid contract. And we didn't even go out and see if anyone else had this kind of expertise and connections. Well, that's true. We've not yet done that. Thank you. So the amount that I don't know about flight paths and noise could fill

[04:52:59] several arenas. But when we say the noise can go over other homes, doesn't that, don't you have to like take into account if the plane is at the same height or if it's at the same runways and so it's not just like like apples to apples you know you it goes over other homes and it's going to be the same amount of noise in the same way if it's a if it's if it's climbed a good amount and I have no idea what a good amount is it would not be that same amount of noise or if it was forced to take

[04:53:34] a different path. It would not be. So we're acting like we're going to take exactly what's in this community and move it to another community possibly. But it could be a very different experience for that other community, even if it changed the past. And I personally don't want to give another community the idea that we're going to give them the same exact experience because it's very likely it wouldn't be that experience. Is that not correct? Can somebody? Hello?

[04:54:06] Jim, are you able to answer that? Yeah, sure. I didn't know if you wanted me to answer or not. Yes, I think your assessment is correct, ma'am. Well, okay. Okay. Can you give me more?

[04:54:23] Sure. How much time you got? I mean, because when I say I have no idea, I mean my experience with airplanes, I get on them, I don't enjoy them, and then I get off of them and praise God that I'm off.

[04:54:39] That's my airplane experience. So can you just tell me, like, I mean, how much difference would, you know, would another neighborhood experience if, I mean, how much more would it climb? What are we talking about, seriously?

[04:54:55] Because, first of all, I don't believe there is a conflict. I think this person's not doing all this just because it's going to impact his house. And I think we have to know that no one has worked their whole life to get this much experience and expertise because one day he thinks it might benefit him because he's going to live in a neighborhood where everyone's flying over his house.

[04:55:17] I mean, he's been doing this for a long time, and we've chosen him for a reason, and he didn't do all this until I land in this moment. So I don't know that I – but how much of a difference are we talking about if it went someplace else? Well, and that remains to be seen. The determining factors, I think, are the design philosophy that the design group will come up with. They're going to be the ones that get put into that, and they will put the guardrails up that say what we can and cannot do.

[04:55:47] The other piece is everything, anything that we do has to be within FAA criteria, and it cannot cause any safety issues or operational issues. So, you know, those are kind of the parameters that we have to stick within.

[04:56:03] And I will say there's no silver bullet when it comes to noise mitigation. You're not going to please all the people all the time, but I think you can mitigate noise to a satisfactory level for the people that are involved. Okay. Mr. Turner, I'm going to go to you for motions, sir.

[04:56:21] Thank you, Madam Chair. You want me to do it in two motions, three motions, or one motion? I want you to do it in, well, I think two motions, because I think one and two depend on each other, and then we'll do three separately. Okay. I move the Transportation and Land Use Committee recommendation that the Board of Supervisors and direct staff to proceed with the change order proposal and community engagement process is set forth in Attachment 1.

[04:56:42] I further move the Transportation and Land Use Committee recommendation that the Board of Supervisors and direct staff to initiate the process for a request for proposals, if needed, to select a contractor that is qualified to implement the community engagement process outlined herein. Motion is made seconded by Supervisor Tocroni's discussion on the first two motions, well, the first two parts of this motion.

[04:57:05] Well, you guys know what I mean. Thank you, Madam Chair. I understand the perceived conflict of interest. I'm more comfortable with where we are. I would really like to see, I think, probably, if we hire the contractor, that he be outside the consensus process, however that consensus process is designed, and that there's a separate community representative.

[04:57:27] That's not my call, but that's my input here in making this. I think it's really helpful to have somebody with that much experience involved in the community discussions that are going to take place. And I want to be clear to everybody. The FAA, I think, tends to put these kinds of discussions in a box like they've seen a thousand times around the country, which is every time you move a flight path, you're going to irritate a new set of people, and it's a no-win game, and it goes on for years and years.

[04:57:55] All we need to do is break through the thermal layer to say, this is a unique situation. We have a two-mile strip of land that's in a floodplain that has a power line in it that will never have houses in it. All we want you to do, and my understanding is through third-person relating a first-person conversation is the United Airlines and Delta Airlines chief pilots they've talked to have said, we can do this.

[04:58:21] I've flown these kinds of things. It's just climb straight ahead or five degrees left or right, climb to three, four, or 5,000 feet before you proceed on course. There's any number of ways we can do this. It's a unique situation. All we have to do is get through to the FAA and EMWA. This is not that big a change.

[04:58:37] This is not going to back traffic up, waning down runway 30. Worst case, it makes a minute between departures instead of 30 seconds between departures. That's only a problem for a short period of time during the day, and it could significantly help the residents in both South Riding and Birchwood. And I can only think of one area of residences that would be upset, and that probably can be ameliorated with the design of the departure that Vionair is going to produce.

[04:59:04] So I think this is really good progress. I think we've really moved forward. And, yeah, it's taken some time, but it has not taken nearly the amount of time it could have taken in this kind of a process. So I'm pleased with the progress that we've made this forward, and I hope my colleagues can support it.

[04:59:19] Thank you. Mr. Crony? Thank you, Chair Randall. I'm very happy to support this motion. It has been a long process. I want to remind everybody that there are 32 communities within the area of influence that will probably be involved in some way.

[04:59:36] the design group um maybe even 33 with south riding so everybody will have a voice so um you know i think i think we're not trying to move the noise to some other community um what we're trying to do is mitigate what exists at the airport and uh try and try and uh improve the quality of life for everyone so i i don't really see this as pitting one community against another um i think the aloft group has done so much so far and um this is as i said this is a long process and i think they'll be able to expedite it with their level of expertise and their professionalism

[05:00:15] they've been indispensable and i think we just make sure they're not part of the regional group that makes the consensus you know we'll have a group that will do that consensus and um the aloft group will facilitate. So I'm happy to support this motion. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. LeTurner?

[05:00:34] Yeah. So on this part, I'll stave the ALAF group discussion for the next motion. That's where that is. But on the process, and this is really for staff. So my concern is not what the design group recommends per se, because I think Supervisor Turner has a clear vision here. Now we don't know if the design group is going to actually agree with that vision or implement it, but assuming it does. But what happens once it gets to the FAA? And what guarantee do we have that the FAA couldn't come back and look at the other 270 degrees as alternatives for traffic heading west out of

[05:01:06] runway 30? That's a Jim question. None. Jim's answers are succinct. I didn't even hear it. He said none. Okay, explain. Well, the FAA has jurisdiction over all the airspace. They can do whatever they want.

[05:01:27] They can approve what they want. They can disapprove what they want. What we're trying to do is increase the likelihood of implementation of the recommendation from the design crew and that's all we can do it has worked in the past it can work again i think we've come up with a plan that has a very limited scope that we we don't take too broad of a brush and i think that's going to increase the likelihood of implementation if we flag for the faa concerns over 30 departures so the backup plan to three zero departures is generally one one right left center departures

[05:02:03] generally i think it's one left they're using or one right they're using and when runway three zero goes down that's what they do which happened when they did paving and things like that so why would you know you don't think there's any chance that the faa would say as an alternative to what the design group is recommending we may want to instead utilize runway one south any of the self-departures on the runway ones? So all we're looking at is how the departures physically come off of runway 30, both laterally and vertically. And we are not looking at runway use. We're not

[05:02:40] saying use runway 30 less or use runway 30 more, thereby moving traffic to any other runway. We're not, but couldn't they? That's correct. We're not. And that's what keeps that other 270 degrees sterile where we do not affect anybody in that other 270 degrees no but we're not make sure but couldn't they once we open the pandora's box couldn't they could the faa sure well that was my question okay so that's that's my only concern is that we're sort of opening a pandora's box here we're going to send one salute one recommendation there to the faa but there's no guarantee they're going to take that there's no guarantee that they're not going to look at one of the other

[05:03:20] options that doesn't simply involve the western traffic however if they did did that they would be initiating a change and there's a whole process that they've got to go through to do that okay okay all right mr turner made the motion mrs mr crony second would you like a closing mr turner thank you madam chair so two points something we've forgotten here is it isn't just the existing communities. If you remember when we approved the new noise overlay, there are 2,000 new homes that haven't been built yet that are going to be directly affected by the existing flight path.

[05:03:58] They don't get representation on the regional project group because they're not built yet, but there's 2,000 additional homes that will be affected if we don't get this runway 30 noise abatement procedure implemented. So that's number one. Number two, they changed the pattern to Runway 3-0. They did it for business reasons. It's going to take a mighty reason to get them to suddenly affect their business solution at Dulles Airport to do away with the solution they've been operating with for 20 years. So they have huge motivation not to do that. Now, if we present a

[05:04:33] departure procedure that is basically fine-tuning, a departure procedure that already exists, the Capital One departure already exists. It's fine-tuning that departure. If we present a departure that fine-tunes that departure procedure. They have every incentive business and otherwise in the world to alleviate the noise complaints and reduce those while maintaining their current business operation.

[05:04:52] Shifting to departures off the one of the north-south runways would create huge problems, which is why they got rid of that in the first place and came over to runway 30. The challenge is to get a change that is within their threshold and their tolerance to say it is a much better business decision for us to follow this new procedure off runway 30 and reduce our noise complaints than it is to suddenly throw a fly in the entire ointment 360 degrees around and start changing departure procedures. They do not want to go to departures off of runway one north, left, right, and center. They just do not, or they would not have piled all their departures

[05:05:31] into runway three zero. And this is a fine change. And let me just ask this question in the time remaining. If they don't like our recommendation, they can just ignore it and continue to do what they want to do, right? So there's really no reason they would go through the drill of changing departures to the other runways. They just don't have to accept our recommendation. The challenge is to give them a recommendation that appears to be relatively painless, and I think we can do that.

[05:05:59] Okay, thank you. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay, so we have a 7-1-1 vote with Mr. Luterno abstaining and Mr. Kirshner not being on the dais. Okay, Mr. Turner, would you like to make the second motion, please?

[05:06:20] Madam Chair, I further move the Transportation and Land Use Committee. Well, it's not a further move, it's a new motion. Oh, I'm sorry. I move the Transportation and Land Use Committee recommendation that the Board of Supervisors direct staff to include the Aloft Group as a subcontractor to Vionaire to provide services limited to project management assistance and facilitation.

[05:06:37] Motion to be sent by the supervisor to Crony. Discussion on that motion. I got no other opening comments, manager. Okay. Discussion on that motion, Mr. Letourneau. Yeah, so I would simply say I do not in any way, Chair Randall, believe that this individual gained all his life experience and then put himself in this situation.

[05:06:57] I do think, however, there's a reason he's been doing this for free for the last six months, not as a contractor. He's been engaged at this level because he lives here and he has an interest in it. And I think for the integrity of the process, why put yourself in a point of resistance?

[05:07:14] So I want to give some context to why I'm coming at this. I have a group of residents that live on the south side of the airport who are very concerned that the outcome of this process will result in more overflights to the south side of the airport. And so how do I turn to them and say, well, the county has hired somebody who lives in the one community that's made the most noise that's trying to eliminate all the westerly noise and disperse it and have a different procedure.

[05:07:42] You don't need to worry about it, though. It just, the appearance there taints the process, even though I don't, I'm not questioning anybody's character or abilities or anything else. And by our own admission, we didn't even do any due diligence on any other option whatsoever.

[05:07:59] We just literally went right into this one because the gentleman had already been essentially doing the work for free. So I think we're being a little naive to not think that that's an issue. And it has nothing to do with the individual's qualifications or what kind of job he's going to do. So if nothing else, I'm glad I'm putting this out on the record because I think hopefully it will help with the process a little bit.

[05:08:21] But I would like to slow down on this piece of it and make sure there aren't other options and make sure that we can't do this in a way that isn't going to cause that level of eyebrow raising when it comes to this particular issue. I also don't believe, based on my read of this individual background, that we're actually utilizing his skills correctly. Because he's not going to be the one talking to the FAA, even though Supervisor DeCrony has described how instrumental he was in that. He's not going to be the one doing any kind of technical analysis. This is a gentleman who was an air traffic controller. He's going to be doing public engagement with other communities. I don't know why you, it's a square peg in a round hole to me. I don't,

[05:09:00] his resume and what we're actually asking him to do don't match to me. I do think it's helpful in that we are eliminating the conflict, potentially, but it doesn't make much sense to me. So I can't get there on this motion. Okay, Mr. Sainz.

[05:09:17] Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Turner, did you make the motion and add in what we talked about earlier, having him only be a consultant and not sitting on the neighborhood group or whatever the committee's called? I would if I had some more concrete description of how the consensus process goes.

[05:09:38] I don't know how that's going to evolve. So it would be easy to say recuse him from any vote that the regional project group takes, but I don't know that they're going to take votes to achieve consensus. So that's my desire, but I don't know if we fold that into a motion. We don't have enough concrete information to be able to say that's a viable motion because we don't know what the consensus process is going to be.

[05:10:00] Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. May I attempt to maybe add in the language to say the consultant's name, be only allowed to operate as a consultant and not sit as an individual resident on the committee or neighborhood group or consortium, whatever the title is, and just sit as a consultant only?

[05:10:27] I think I can take that as a friendly and craft it if you want me to do that. In my opinion, I think if we're going to have a friendly about because this discussion has been so robust, then we need to understand exactly what that friendly is and we're not going to be crafting things.

[05:10:47] I mean, like, can you can you give language to what you're trying to say? I'd like to make a friendly motion that the consultant for Aloft only be allowed to operate in his consultant ability, technical and helper presentations that can answer technical questions, but be forbidden to sit as a resident on the resident organization group or committee.

[05:11:13] Is that okay? You want me to try that as a motion? No, it doesn't have to be a motion. It's a friendly. I just want it. It's a friendly, so it doesn't need to be a motion. If you accept that? I do. And, Laura, Mr. Crony, I'm sorry, you accept that? Okay. Thank you.

[05:11:28] Mr. You're still in your time. Are you good? I'm good with the motion now. Okay. We have that language in there. Thank you. All right. Mr. Crony. Yeah, thank you, Chair Randall. So I just want to clarify, you know, the reason why we don't have the Aloft Group doing the technical is because that was to remove the conflict.

[05:11:47] So Vionair is doing all the technical. Bioneer is going to work with the design group, right, with all the communities. So the Aloft group would not have a seat at the table. Birchwood will. Birchwood will have a seat at the table within the design group.

[05:12:04] No, within the project group. No, there are two groups. There's the design group and the regional group. Yeah, but Birchwood's not going to have a seat. Mr. Turner. Sorry. No, Birchwood will have a seat at the design table, and it will not be the Aloft group. They are not involved with that part of the process.

[05:12:19] They're involved with the regional group, and I agree with what Supervisor Sainz said, that they cannot be making decisions on the regional group, but they can facilitate. So I accept that friendly, but, you know, being a resident of an area, to me, is not a conflict of interest.

[05:12:42] We just have to make sure that they're not making the decisions, making the consensus decisions. And I never saw the Aloft Group doing that. I always saw them as facilitating and helping communicate and helping with relationship building, bring the groups together.

[05:13:00] So I'm very comfortable with this, but I just want to make sure everybody understood that when we talk about Birchwood with the design group, it is not, the Aloft Group's not going to have anything to do with that. That's going to be somebody else from Birchwood, representing Birchwood, right?

[05:13:17] Am I correct in saying that? That's right. So I think everybody is saying more or less the same thing, that if a person is to participate as a paid contractor or subcontractor, they would not be able to participate as a resident in any voting capacity, even discussion capacity.

[05:13:37] Thank you. Wonderful. Thank you very much. Ms. Bricksman. Thank you, Madam Chair. I do support this process. I just want to put that out there. I voted yes on the last motion, but I don't think I can support this motion with the Aloft group joining, and with all due respect to trying to carve him out of the decision-making or anything like that, with all due respect to my colleagues, as a facilitator of the

[05:14:10] discussions for every stakeholder within a 10-mile radius of the airport, he has more of an opportunity to influence where the discussion goes and how the decisions are made than he would if he just had one seat on the group, in my opinion. This person is going to be facilitating every single discussion, and he, and I'm not trying to disparage anyone's character, but by nature of the work he's already been doing and where he lives and how we pretty much know he feels about this he's going to

[05:14:44] have a bias and as the leader of the discussions he will even maybe even without even being cognizant of it direct the conversations in a way that he might want them to be directed I don't know the man you might be right he might be the group they might be completely unbiased but I don't feel comfortable with it. I would love to support going out to search for somebody that has the same technical experience that can do that facilitation without living in the community. And I have to

[05:15:23] believe with two international airports and two systems of flight path direction, there's somebody else out there. There might even be another person who's a consultant that does this kind of work out there that Vionair could hire.

[05:15:42] So I'm not going to support this motion, not because I don't support the process, not because I think it's a bad process, and actually not because I think it could never work. I am just very, very uncomfortable with what could be unintended consequences of having this person be that particular consultant without doing the due diligence, as my colleague from Dulles suggested.

[05:16:05] Thank you. Well, the nice thing about being, representing every single person in Loudoun County is never, ever, ever, ever would I choose one community over another if I thought it was going to harm one community to help another community. I just would never do that.

[05:16:21] Never. And I don't hear that at this moment. That's why I was asking the questions that I was asking is, you know, I hear what Ms. Letourneau was saying, but if this neighborhood to the south is not going to be impacted in the same way, because I mean, Mr. Letourneau has been the one that's taught me before that a plane rising, climbing, not even very much, very much impacts what you hear on the ground. You told me that. You taught me that. And you're a, quote, car guy and a plane guy. And so if, you know,

[05:16:57] If that is true, then that's true. So if the difference because a plane has climbed that much higher will be significantly less impact on another neighborhood, then that's the answer to me.

[05:17:19] Gosh knows, we have spent, I mean, talk about something that has not been rushed. This process has taken a very, very long time. and we've been talking about these issues for a very very long time and um you know this is a study and and and you know we have time if we need to change something else let's put something else later on down the line we can you know i i actually know that there are a lot of people who do who do work and i won't say it it's it's not benefiting him at all but he's one person in a very large

[05:17:53] neighborhood and so um it's not a benefit to just to him and and there you know i think it's hard to say there's never any type of perceived conflict but i also don't believe that truth is perception i think truth is truth um and so i'm not going to perceive a conflict where you know we're saying there is no legal conflict. So I'm going to support this motion and I'm going to really try to continue to work to learn more about this subject and, you know, these things that I just don't know.

[05:18:30] I will say that, you know, I do, I always like it when I can lean on the expertise of one of my colleagues. I have a colleague on the board that was a fighter pilot, right? I mean, I don't, I don't think there's no there's anyone who's has set on this day as even the last supervisor from the aspirin district who knows more about these things than mr turner and if it's something i mean if it comes to reporting like lean on miss bricksmiths come to hra lean on mr saints that's why we you know we can lean on each other's expertise and so i'm going to lean on mr turner's on this one and

[05:19:05] and support the motion would you like a closing all right motion was made by mr turner seconded Mr. Crony, all in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? I think that was 5-3-1 from what I heard with Mrs. Umstead, Letourneau, and Bricksman voting against the motion and Mr. Kirshner not being on the dais. So I think that's what I heard on that one. Thank you all for all the work on this item that's been going on for a really long time. We do appreciate it. I do want to say one more thing before we adjourn. This is Memorial Day weekend. Memorial Day is, huh? Oh, I'm sorry,

[05:19:43] board comments well i'll make that my board comments i'll make that my board comments all right board comments okay god all right uh board comments miss umstep madam chair i on disclosures i had a meeting with michael capretti on may 8th on a proposal to build um affordable housing next to a data center, and I had a meeting with Roy Barnett

[05:20:22] and Denise Harover on the Orm Farm property. This next week, Thursday night, May 30th at 6 o'clock at Ida Lee in the lower level, school board member Lauren Chernoff, Leesburg Mayor Kelly Burke, and I will be hosting a panel discussion on fentanyl and opioid abuse. I asked Mr. Barber to make sure it was on the FOIA calendar in case anyone else

[05:20:59] wanted to attend, but we have some really good panelists for this. And finally, I would like to say that I'm very saddened to see the graffiti, anti-Semitic graffiti that has been put on four Starbucks stores, I believe in the Ashburn area. And the great irony is that the celebration

[05:21:30] of Hamas by Americans in this instance is a celebration of a terrorist entity that would execute those very Americans without thinking twice about it. So I think it's a terrible thing that we're seeing this in our community. And thank you to the sheriff for taking it seriously and trying to track down who did it. Thank you. Mr. Sains. Thank you, Madam Chair.

[05:22:06] mandatory disclosures on may 17th i spoke with matt leslie of bowman regarding atlantic boulevard residential rezoning uh legislative application and thank you to those who came out and spoke on various issues as always you could be anywhere and you chose to be with us to speak about an issue that's near and dear to your heart so i appreciate that and then in regards to our conversation with the economic mobility um the community foundation is hosting a full philanthropy i always get that word incorrectly spelled just stated when i say it philanthropic

[05:22:45] yes a summit uh in which will be taking place on june 11th from 8 a.m to 11 30 a.m um they're actually going to be talking about economic mobility and having the folks from alexandria and their community partner, and they're going to have a panel discussion regarding their economic mobility program.

[05:23:06] So I know I told Ms. McCollum about that, so I'll make sure to get you that information if you haven't received it yet. I want to share that to the greater community and to my colleagues if you wanted to learn more about the program and see how it's being implemented in one aspect in Alexandria.

[05:23:24] And that, oh, Memorial Day weekend, yes. So on Monday morning at 10 o'clock a.m., sterling boulevard the the veterans memorial is um where we will be there again to honor our our veterans at the memorial on sterling boulevard again 10 o'clock a.m on monday so if you are looking for a program to participate in on memorial day come on out to sterling so it's at the corner sterling boulevard and and holly and that's it for me thank you thank you mr saynes

[05:23:55] Mr. Crony. Thank you, Chair Randall. On May 7th, I met with the Brambleton Group with Chair Randall and Senator Suha Subramanian. On May 13th, my chief of staff met with the Orme farm, the applicant for Orme farm rezoning and the Stonebridge rezoning. And on May 15th, I met with Toll Brothers regarding Arcola Farms.

[05:24:28] I want to thank everybody who came out tonight to speak. And I had a great town hall in Brambleton earlier this week. 80 residents actually came out to speak about issues on Belmont Ridge Road, specifically at Legacy Park Drive.

[05:24:45] And I plan to submit the short-term and mid-term improvements for potential fund balance, particularly near Briar Woods High School and at Legacy Park Drive. Clearly, there are some issues along that corridor for that many residents to come out and want to voice their concern.

[05:25:08] And I want to welcome Raga. She's a senior at Briar Woods, and she's doing her capstone project with me. so she'll be with me for the next few weeks before she graduates. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Crony.

[05:25:25] Mr. Turner. Thank you, Madam Chair. On Friday, May 10th, I met with Amanda Williams from Cooley LLP to discuss the application for Tillotsview. Later that same day, my staff and I met with Denise Harriver and Roy Barnett from Van Meter Company to discuss the application for Orme Farm rezoning.

[05:25:43] I'm ashamed to admit, until somebody just mentioned it, that I have been looking forward to this three-day weekend coming up for quite a while, and suddenly I realize it's actually Memorial Day, which is a pretty important day to remember. And as I was sitting here reflecting on my comments, I realized I can count right off the top of my head six of my squadron mates that have died in airplane crashes over my career.

[05:26:08] I remember the day I was told they had died. I remember the nature of the crash, every instance, exactly what happened and why. And I remember living on every Air Force base I lived on that all of the families on the base dreaded the day when a blue staff car with the wing commander and the squadron commander and the chaplain would show up at the front door because everybody in the population knew exactly what that meant.

[05:26:35] We've had Trevor Brown was lost in February. Chair Randall mentioned the deputy that was shot in a routine call. Our military men and women and their families put their lives on the line every day, just like our first responders.

[05:26:51] And this is a day where we can reflect on their devotion to the country and to what's important in their lives and ours as well. So take some time on Memorial Day and celebrate it accordingly. Thanks. Thank you. Mr. Letourneau.

[05:27:08] Thank you, Supervisor Turner, for sharing that. And there's no way I could be more articulate than you just were, so I echo that sentiment. I also thank you and our other colleague on the other end for your service to our military and always thinking of you. Disclosures on May 8th, I met with representatives of Westbrook, Cooley, and Curata to discuss Arcola Town Center residential, which is LEGIE 2023-0030.

[05:27:33] And then also just want to recognize the Dulles District's capstone student, Megan, a senior at Freedom High School, heading to JMU next year to study politics. so she got to spend some time with us tonight and I think she picked a pretty good meeting to do it at least we weren't talking about septent tanks but we got got to see we did have sanitary we did have trash but got to see some good stuff so I appreciated talking to her and this is the time of year all of our seniors are getting ready to graduate and they have their whole lives ahead of them and that's an exciting time for the whole community and it's always great to see so many graduation

[05:28:12] parties and things like that um you start to realize you know it is a whole community effort to have a kid go from kindergarten all the way up to you know 18 years of schooling i'm going to be in that boat pray tell next year god willing so um yeah anyway have a good uh weekend everybody community effort also called a village but i didn't use that phrase did i also called a village um miss glass thank you madam chair two disclosures on Wednesday May 8th my staff met with representatives to discuss the quantum park

[05:28:51] data center application on Wednesday May 15th and Thursday May 23rd my staff met with Amanda Williams from Cooley to discuss the Tillis View residential presenting application the disability services board meeting was on May 14th and the disability services board recently sent the Board of Supervisors asking the Board to support and fund day support services for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. This will likely be something that

[05:29:26] I and I'm sure Chair Randall will bring up during the Board Strategic Retreat in June. I also was a part of the Metropolitan Washington Air Quality Committee meeting yesterday. They had a discussion on the 2025 work program and budget.

[05:29:51] A couple of things they're going to focus on is to develop a maintenance plan and redesign request and develop an environmental justice action plan. I wasn't going to say anything, but I just want to thank the staff. I always hate when I get

[05:30:22] like this. Mr. Crowbuth, Mr. Hemstreet, Mr. Rogers, we have the best staff. We have the best first responders here. Just thank you all for helping me out our last meeting. I really appreciate all that. Thank you. Thank you. I think that's up to you now, Ms. Brixman. Okay. Thank you, Madam Chair.

[05:30:58] We all love you, Sylvia. By way of disclosures, we had a meeting with Ben Wales and Colin Gillis of Curata Partners on Arcola Farms Residential. We had a great event at the Hidden Lane Landfill, the former landfill, with Congresswoman Wexton and our EPA dignitaries to celebrate the acceleration of the EPA project to clean up the former landfill.

[05:31:29] and to provide clean water to residents who were impacted by the bad practices of the former owners that resulted in TCE, i.e. poison, in the groundwater at Broad Run Farms. Because of an infusion of funds from the Biden administration's bipartisan infrastructure bill, this project will be complete much faster than anticipated, and hopefully we can return that land to use that will benefit the public sooner rather than later.

[05:31:55] I was also honored to represent Loudoun at the National Park Service hearing to consider the courthouse, the Loudoun County Courthouse, to be designated a historic landmark. The application rightfully focused on the historic work of John Hamilton Houston, specifically the case where he fought for defendants to have the right to a jury of their peers and so it was kicked off for him a lot of his civil rights work

[05:32:34] and he learned how to use jurisprudence for civil rights and so I was really honored and we did get a message back that they have forwarded our application and we should hear a final decision in December that our courthouse will be a National Historic Landmark.

[05:32:54] We have been working really hard in my office on cell coverage in certain areas of the district that it has been patchy to the point of calls being dropped and people not being able to talk on their phones in their homes. We learned in that process of meeting with carriers to help improve service that actually Milestone Towers was in the process with LCPS to put cell towers on Dominion High School and Riverbend.

[05:33:21] So we are in the process of taking public feedback on that. there's been quite a bit of public feedback. I do want to assure the community that I am listening, but I am generally supportive of improving the service. Everyone deserves to have decent cell service this day and age, and we also want to make sure that for public safety that everyone has good cell service in their home and in their cars when they're driving in the area.

[05:33:47] We have a new Algonquian team member who started today. Her name is Ashley Palmer. So if you get a chance, please come by and say hello to Ashley. She'll be handling external communications, working with HOAs and our nonprofit groups, doing the newsletter and social media and those sorts of things. So we were fortunate enough to have Ashley come over to us from Loudon Hunger Relief.

[05:34:15] So I did have a conversation with Jennifer Montgomery about that the other day. But we're all good. She's very happy for Ashley, and we're very happy to have Ashley. So do stop by to say hello. As far as gun violence, lately we have had up to date today 6,381 total gun deaths, 168 mass shootings about halfway through the year.

[05:34:40] We've had 452 deaths that were of teenagers ages 12 to 17, and 88 were children up to the age of 11. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. My staff met with Amanda Williams on Tillis View on 5-15, Ben Wells and Cooleys on a color farm on 5-8, and that one doesn't even matter.

[05:35:06] So, yeah, Memorial Day weekend, people always think of Memorial Day as the beginning of summer and when all the robbing queues and cookouts happen. And then I'm always a little offended is too strong of a word, not offended.

[05:35:22] I always get a concern that we actually forget what Memorial Day is really supposed to be about. And you can't grow up on a military basis like I did and not remember what Memorial Day is supposed to be about. So I just hope everyone does pause. I will not be here this weekend. I have to go back home to Denver.

[05:35:40] And so I will miss all the Memorial Day services. And so please give my regards to everybody when I leave. I was going to say something about what happened at the last meeting, but I'm going to leave it alone and talk to people individually because that's what I'm going to do.

[05:35:57] I will also say that over the past, I guess today especially, I don't know why we've been doing so much on housing. And today, I talked earlier about Mr. Turner and I's experience today with HUD.

[05:36:12] But I got to tell you, the chamber event this morning on attainable housing was so powerful. And I was really sad that not all of my colleagues were in the room because some of the discussion was really about, you know, the public pushback we get for new houses and how to put that in some perspective of the public pushback versus the benefits.

[05:36:43] And lots of discussions about, you know, I forget which town it was in Pennsylvania that used to have 63,000 people and today has 18,000. And I think, you know, sometimes we forget how really blessed in Loudoun County we are.

[05:37:01] One of the things, and I can say this now because we have all of our AAA bond ratings, one of the bond agencies, I'm always surprised sometimes at the questions. I think the questions are because our finances are great, and we have a staff that does a great job.

[05:37:19] But one of the bond agency's questions were exclusively about how much we have grown and how much they want us to keep growing. In fact, they wanted us to send them some follow-up information because they have made the determinations that counties that are not adding population could get ranked down.

[05:37:42] So they're not even saying keep your population. They're saying they want to see counties growing population as an estimation indication of whether they will keep that AAA bond rating. And if you look at the remarks that they sent us, one of the credit agencies actually noted that in the credit rating.

[05:38:02] It's because we are a county that continues to add population. and they link that population growth with it's good for the economy. It's good for the economy if you have a diversity of housing. It's good for the economy if people who work here can live here.

[05:38:20] So it's really interesting now the whole discussion on housing and the fact that when we talk about houses and someone will say, well, it costs this much for a house, you forget all the other things, like that person is working, that person is paying taxes, that person is part of the community that's helping to raise your children.

[05:38:37] all those things. So it's really interesting discussions I've been having. I know it, really interesting discussion lately on what housing is and housing does and the attainable housing spectrum. So I would just really encourage some people to not look at housing as just that's going to cost us money because it's so much more than that. And some of the discussions we were having today in the chamber discussion especially was so, so interesting.

[05:39:10] So I just want to say that everybody have a good weekend and a reflective, meaningful Memorial Day, and we are adjourned.

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