Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, Business Meeting, Tuesday, April 15, 2025

Date: Tuesday, April 15, 2025
Place: Board Room, First Floor, Government Center, 1 Harrison Street SE, Leesburg, Virginia
Length: 6h 14m (video)
Official meeting video (county, Granicus): https://loudoun.granicus.com/player/clip/7931
Meeting page: https://loudoun.granicus.com/player/clip/7931

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 2026-10-11. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:09:13] Thank you. Well, good evening, supervisors. Good evening, staff. And good evening, Loudon. I'd like to call to order the April 15, 2025 Loudon County Board of Supervisors business meeting.

[00:09:32] This room has a hearing loop. If you need hearing assistance, switch your hearing aid to the telecall mode. If you need a headset, we have those available as well. Please see the clerk to my left to request one. Supervisor DeCrony will now lead us in words of inspiration, our prayer, and the Pledge of Allegiance.

[00:09:49] Supervisor DeCrony. Thank you, Chair Randall. As we celebrate Earth Day on April 22nd, we lift our hearts in gratitude for the beauty of Loudoun County. Lord, teach us to care for this land with wisdom and compassion. Help us protect its air, its water, and its soil.

[00:10:06] Give strength to the farmers who tend it, vision to the leaders who make decisions about it, and courage to the people who advocate for its future. Bless the people of Loudoun County with wisdom to care for this land, that we may work together to preserve what is good, restore what has been harmed, and ensure that this land remains a place of beauty and balance for generations to come. Amen.

[00:10:37] I know that my colleagues who are not here up here with me right now are on their way.

[00:10:57] Supervisor Letourneau, Supervisor Sainz, and Supervisor Kirchner are all due to show up. So I think they're, one of them's coming, two are coming from D.C., and so they will all be here. Loudon, and especially people in the audience, there have been in the last, just the last hour, some pretty major changes to the agenda, and I want to go through those changes right now because it may change if you want to stay here with us for the rest of the evening or not.

[00:11:24] All right, item number nine, which is LEGIE 2023-0064, the Cross Mill Center ZMAP 2023-0064, Special Exception 2023-0006 and Special Exception 2023-0007 has been deferred to the May 6, 2025 Board of Business Meeting for Action at the request of the applicant. I should say this, when an applicant makes a request to defer, I don't think I've ever said no for their first request usually I'll say yes for the first and second requests but by the

[00:12:03] third request I've started to say no we got to take this now because we can't keep putting this off so two things are happening in this meeting the applicant for well not the applicant the Walton Woods South writing special exception it's in our AIR report but it's in our AIR report for the for the May 6 meeting if you are here to speak on that item you can absolutely stay and speak on that item you absolutely can but just

[00:12:35] so you know the AIR goes on on consent normally I would we will pull anything that's on the consent agenda off if the people are here to speak on it but that item is not going to be heard tonight And it was on the AIR report for the sixth meeting anyway.

[00:12:52] So if you want to stay, stay. If you don't want to stay, that's fine. The Magnolia rose within the past hour. I received a phone call from the applicant and asked me to defer that item to a future meeting. They did not give me a date certain.

[00:13:09] The request was made via e-mail, and so I didn't speak to the applicant. I will call the applicant and find out when they want to defer it to, but right now that item will not be heard tonight because the applicant has asked for it to be deferred.

[00:13:27] I do not know why they asked for it to be deferred, but it is my practice if they ask, I will say yes to that the first time, maybe second time, but not the third time. So if you're here to speak on Magnolia Rose, same thing. If you want to stay, you want to speak, absolutely do that.

[00:13:45] There's no issues. But if you don't, because it won't be her tonight, then we'll see you next time when it comes back. So I want to say that before we start because I want to say that before we start. I also never, ever do this, but tonight I've got to make sure I have my glasses before I do what I never, ever do.

[00:14:04] There is a man in the boardroom, and I'm putting my glasses on because I can't see a thing without my glasses, so I'm just, everybody's just a blurb. So there is a man who I think is in the boardroom. Al, are you here? Al Van Huyk, are you here? There he is. I never do this, but Al Van Huyk in Loudoun County is a legend.

[00:14:23] He is a Loudoun Laurel. He has been on every commission, committee, and board. He has advised people from all over the spectrum on policies and on issues. He has run for office once himself.

[00:14:39] And he is just an absolutely, he's an amazingly good man and an absolute legend. And I cannot have him in my boardroom without recognizing him. And although I almost never allow clapping in my boardroom, I'm going to ask Al, will you please stand up and we can give you a hand clap.

[00:14:58] Thank you, sir. No, it does not. it does not but see that's why i like him because you got to ask those questions right all right supervisor the consent agenda is really long which is a good thing and so i'm going to go on and read the consent agenda right now item r1 proclamation to declare april 13th through 19th 2025 is national public safety telecommunications week that is for approval and presentation tonight mr turner you're going to join me down front item r2 proclamation to

[00:15:37] declare April 20th through 26th, 2025 is National Volunteer Week. That's also for approval and presentation. Mr. Turner, you will join me down front. Item R3, proclamation to recognize April 20th through 26th, 2025 is National Infertility Awareness Week. That would be for approval only, and Ms. Brickspin will let us know, and we will talk about where to go to do an approval on that one.

[00:16:06] Item R4, proclamation to recognize April 2025 is Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month in Loudoun County. As for approval only, I will be going to the Take Back the Night event this Saturday and I'm presenting this resolution at 6:30, if anyone would like to join us.

[00:16:25] Item R5, resolution to recognize the 60th anniversary of the Northern Virginia Criminal Justice Training Academy. That would be for approval and presentation. Mr. Turner, you're going to join me down front for that. Item R6, by commission to recognize International Dark Skies Week 2025 in Loudoun County. That's for approval only. Mr. Coney, is that yours? Who put that one forward? Who put Dark Skies forward? Did I? Matt, did I? Was my chief of staff. I might have. And I have no idea where we're going to present that, but I will let everybody know in advance of that

[00:17:01] one. I thought it was you, Mr. Crony, because that's normally your thing. It is your thing, but we will find out. Item R7, proclamation to recognize 2025 as National Child Abuse Prevention Month in Loudoun County. That's for approval only. We are getting a hold of SCAN, Stop Child Abuse Now to go join them with laws to present that. Item R8, proclamation to commemorate Fair Housing Month, that's for approval only.

[00:17:31] Item R9, proclamation to recognize April 26th as Earth Day, that's for approval only. Item 1A, the contract renewal, supply, and installation, carpeting, and floor covering. Item 1B, contract award, road construction support services.

[00:17:48] It's a very long consent agenda, guys. I'm not even halfway through. Item 1C, contract award, construction support service for the Reston-Lowden County Recreation Complex. Item 1D, contract award and FY 2025 capital improvement program amendment construction of the fire and rescue station 28 Leesburg South Station.

[00:18:07] Item 1E, award authority to increase ambulance and emergency services and other social services vehicles. Item 1F, award authority to increase capital improvement program amendment technology products, services, and solutions.

[00:18:24] Item 1G, award authority, personnel, computer, workstations, servers, and services. Item 1H, Disability Services Board Annual Report. Item 1I, resolution authorizing the issuance of appropriate backed bonds through the Economic Development Authority of Loudoun County.

[00:18:43] Item 1J, resolution authorizing the issuance of sales of general obligation, public improvement, and refinancing bonds. Item 1K, fiscal year 2024, Loudoun County Community Services Board annual report. That was on our consent agenda last time, everyone.

[00:19:02] That's twice on the consent agenda. Item 11, Western Loudoun Recreation Complex Scope Modifications. Item 1N, construction contract for Shellhorn Road West. Item 1N, countywide risk assessment and internal audit plan.

[00:19:20] Item 1O, composting initiative, composting initiatives report and recommendations. Item 1P, Howardsville Community Wastewater System Connections Fee Waiver for Vacant Lots. Item 2A, appointments and confirmations.

[00:19:37] Item 3, administrative items report of April 15, 2025. One more reminder that Walden Wood is not on this AIR report. Item four, resolution approving the issuance of the Economic Development Authority of Loudoun County, Virginia, up to $18,500,000 multifamily tax-exempt revenue bonds.

[00:19:59] Item five, proposed establishment of residential permit parking district in the Richmond Forest Community. Item six, resolution of Attent to the Men, DOAM 2025-0001, Loudoun County Facility Standards Manual Standards for roadways over dams and flats notes regarding maintenance and emergency access ways and fire lane identification and item 11 board member initiative each east east beach road i almost said but that could that can come out really bad east beach road corridor safety study that is the

[00:20:38] consent agenda i will make a motion to move is there a second on that motion motion seconded by Vice Chair, turn to discussion on that motion. I do want to highlight two things. Item 1P, the Howardsville Community Wastewater System Connection Fee Waiver for the vacant lots.

[00:20:55] If anyone has been following this for the past six years, maybe more than that, many years ago we had people in Loudoun County who were still using privies. And when I came onto the board, I found this out. I didn't actually know what a privy was because it's a very nice word for an outhouse. It's a very nice word. And I was unhappy with that. I did not believe that anyone in Loudoun County should be using an outhouse if they did not want to and they

[00:21:31] did not want to. And we needed to hook up a wastewater system for them. It's a very long story, but some of these people have been paying much more in their real property taxes than they should have been paying, and so the fee waiver, we're giving them a fee waiver to hook up their wastewater system, I believe is the right thing to do.

[00:21:52] I think it is like, I want to say it's somewhere between 8 and 12 homes, so not a lot, so it's one of our older, much older communities in Loudoun County, and we just needed everyone to not have to go outside and use outhouses anymore. That just was not acceptable to me.

[00:22:12] And I want to say, colleagues, please go and read item 1H, the Disability Services Board annual report. It's very, very helpful to read. We've been talking about some of the changes we're going to make to the county facilities, because although we are meeting our minimum ADA standards, that's really not enough for me.

[00:22:33] I want us to do more than just meet the minimum standards for ADA, and so some of these things have been informed by the Disability Services Board. If anyone goes to the facilities that are down on this floor, you can see the difference in how they are much more than just minimally ADA compliant, and so I really want to thank the Disability Services Board for all of the help that they have given us as we go through the county facilities and make our county facilities as ADA compliant as we possibly can.

[00:23:06] And so the DAB board has the services board is really helping with that effort. So I really do want to thank them and please go read that report if you've not done that. Anybody else for the consent agenda? Mr. Crony. Yeah, thank you, Chair Randall.

[00:23:21] So Howard'sville is in the Little River District. And as Chair Randall mentioned, the wastewater project has been ongoing since 2015 to address the public health issues in that small little village. Residents can now connect to the wastewater system for proper wastewater disposal, but currently no vacant lot owners have chosen to connect because it's so cost prohibitive.

[00:23:47] And I want to thank Kevin Grigsby for sending in a fabulous letter, making us aware of the costs, the high cost preventing community revitalization efforts in Howardsville. So that's what this is about. It's to really revitalize the area and it's for a small amount of homes. I also want to quickly mention the composting initiatives report and recommendations.

[00:24:11] I sit on the Farm Committee of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments and I learned about Arlington County's composting program. Arlington County has a pilot program to collect food scraps from smart bins located at farmers markets near transit and near multi-family properties there are 14 food scrap collection bins that cost about five thousand dollars per bin and i would like us to consider these bins at the nine additional food waste drop-off sites that we

[00:24:44] are now approving for expansion composting builds healthy soils and it would also be great for residents especially uh our farmers in western loudon to pick up the compost since july 2023 480 cubic yards have been made available to the public and i'm hoping that we can make more uh healthy soils available to our public thank you mr crown it's gonna it's been through it's been through 16 i always say that because you were with me when we when we started this

[00:25:17] in 2016 was you you you you were we did this together so it was 2016 uh miss uh briggsman thank you madam chair um on the composting item um if you look in there and look at staff's presentation they do have a demonstration of what these would look like at county facilities and also i did ask the question about the compost potentially coming back to the county for fertilizer but right now our compost goes out of the county um and so the staff said that that they could be looking at that i did want to you know a lot of stuff literally just flew by us

[00:25:56] from finance committee and i just wanted to draw my colleagues attention to it and the public's attention to um some of the things that that went on consent and just mention that if you look at these items it's a demonstration as to how well this county is run and how responsible we are with taxpayer dollars and our fiscal policy we have a policy that our debt service has to be 10 or less of our county's expenditures and the credit rating agencies do look at that and our

[00:26:32] ability to pay off our debt when they give us our bond ratings which have continually been triple Triple-A. Tonight we approved $124 million in appropriation-backed bonds for things like the crisis receiving stabilization center, school bus replacement and acquisition, various improvements of county-owned facilities. We also approved not more than $380 million in GO bonds for projects that are very important, including the Philomont Fire Station replacement, intersection improvement program, sidewalks and trails program, and various road and school infrastructure improvements.

[00:27:09] We also approved an expansion of the Western Loudoun Recreation Center, and the reason we did that is because we have decided that we will be putting teen centers in our recreation centers moving forward. And so this will be our first time that we are actually putting a teen center in the recreation center, which we think is more symbiotic, for lack of a better word, than what we've been doing kind of standalone and or at the libraries.

[00:27:36] Don't worry, Cascades Library will be open for quite some time until we're able to put more teen centers inside recreation centers. But that is an important note. And lastly, I want, well not lastly, I also want to thank my colleagues for supporting the Richland Forest RPPD.

[00:27:55] It's a residential parking permit for some of my constituents they've been asking for for a little while. And then thank you for supporting the Earth Day and National Fertility Awareness Month proclamations. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Ms. Bricksman. Yeah, I would concur with Ms. Bricksman's words.

[00:28:13] And I would say that so much of, if not almost all, of the credit for how well we're doing in Loudoun County accrues to our amazing staff. Mr. Hemstreet and the staff here advise the board and they advise as well. And so we want to always remember to thank the people who should be thanked for the work they do for Loudoun County.

[00:28:35] Supervisors, I made the motion for the consent agenda, seconded by Supervisor Vice Chair Turner. All in favor say aye. Any opposed? That motion will pass 6-3. All right. I have a couple comments this evening. I'm sorry? 6-0-3.

[00:28:51] I'm sorry. What did I say? 6-3? It is 6-0-3. Yes. MBTA was this past Thursday, MBTA, of which I am chair, had our audit results returned to us.

[00:29:07] We had a clean audit at MBTA, so that is very good. We did get all the numbers from our six-year program, and I do want to say that Loudoun County is receiving $55 million in MBTA regional funds for different Loudoun County projects, which means that's -- we did very well.

[00:29:33] I also want to say that for quite a few years, quite a few years, the Greater Washington Leadership Program has asked me to take part in their program. And I've said no for quite a few years because it just takes a lot of time to do.

[00:29:52] And many of the meetings were going to be in the evenings, and I have evening meetings and that type of thing. What this program is, is they try to bring leaders from all over the D.C. metro area together, especially a lot of business leaders, CEOs, and that type of thing.

[00:30:08] And we, one, network, learn from each other, those types of things. But for me, and for Loudoun, it's also a way to talk to different businesses that maybe haven't entered Loudoun County. For whatever reason, in the Greater Washington Leadership Program, for the most part, it's mostly people from Maryland and D.C.

[00:30:29] There's never been a person from Loudoun County who's participated, and there's only been, I think, one time somebody from Fairfax. I don't know why that is, but they asked me to do it, and so this time I put my application in so I haven't been accepted yet.

[00:30:45] I will not know if I'm accepted until May 23rd, but I have put my application in. There is a tuition fee to that. If I am accepted, I will use my office funds for that, and I will come back to the board and let them know when that happens and what that will be, but I won't know when that will happen until I get to the 23rd of May, so whatever meetings after that I will come back.

[00:31:12] They did change their meetings to be -- because I don't know -- I'm not sure how they meet in Maryland, but in Virginia, most of the boards meet in the evening, so they changed them to be every Thursday from 9:00 to 4:00, which will allow me to make my board meetings and all of the regional meetings and everything else, and I think they actually changed them because they were not getting a lot of Virginia involvement.

[00:31:35] And so I submitted my application, we'll see how it goes, and I will come back and let everybody know what happens and how that goes. I am really kind of excited about my voice for a cause today. I should have done it some time ago.

[00:31:51] Let me find out my information on that. Just give me one second. Because, and Mr. Crony, you're really going to like this, and Ms. Bricksman and Mr. Turner, because my voice for the call today is the Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy. So that's very exciting.

[00:32:08] And we have with us, well, I'm going to let Tom Kircherville introduce everybody who's come with you today before I ask questions, but the Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy is a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting, preserving, and restoring wildlife habitats in Loudoun.

[00:32:26] Founded in 1995, the Conservancy has grown into a volunteer-driven community that offers a variety of initiatives, including educational programs, citizens of science projects, and much more. All their efforts work toward their vision of a Loudoun County where people and wildlife thrive together.

[00:32:45] Tom, how about you introduce everybody who's with you today? Absolutely. And thank you so much for having us. We're so honored. So with me tonight is Amy Uland, our board president and our stream monitoring program coordinator, and Trinity Mills, our advocacy specialist, so we're happy to have them, and many other representatives of our organization are here tonight as well.

[00:33:04] I know, I saw many others. Okay, first of all, what are your key programs and your key initiatives? Yeah, so our mission, as you stated, is very broadly executed, as you'll see, but it's very simply stated, to protect, preserve, and restore wildlife habitat, and I really want to underscore the volunteer-driven portion of what you mentioned in relation to us, because we are a completely volunteer-driven organization, and we would not be even in existence without our volunteers. Again, many of whom are here tonight and some of whom we'll honor. In fact, last year, 2024, we had the highest volunteer engagement in our history, with 625 volunteers donating

[00:33:41] over 15,000 hours of time to the five areas of work that we do, to get back to your original question. And I could talk at length on each area, so I know I have a very short amount of time here, so I'll be brief. So the five areas that we focus on are citizen science, which is providing the general public the opportunity to engage in legitimate scientific research, data collection, data observation, to help them contribute to answering real-world questions and solving local problems related to our environment. And our citizen science programs include stream monitoring,

[00:34:15] which Amy leads, amphibian and reptile monitoring, bird counts, butterfly counts, and bluebird monitoring and we provide a great deal of data in those areas again all through volunteers who help help us really not only prevent and identify but also sometimes solve environmental issues in our local environment our local ecosystems second area that we focus on is education talk about that more in just a moment we offered 182 free educational programs last year to the public and those could be anything from bird walks to nature walks to presentations and

[00:34:52] lectures on a wide variety of subjects. Third area is conservation advocacy which Trinity heads up here and I'm sure many of you are familiar with our involvement in that. We definitely work to educate the public on a variety of advocacy issues that affect the environment and we also mobilize our members and the public to feel like they can use us and we can amplify their voices through our organization habitat conservation is the fourth area and we do a lot of restoration projects throughout the year in fact there's one ongoing right now at balls bluff regional park which is

[00:35:26] pulling the invasive garlic mustard plant in an effort to really help preserve our native spring ephemerals and virginia bluebells and we do quite a bit of that and then finally our jk black oak Wildlife Sanctuary, which is an 89-acre globally rare wetlands that we own in Luckett, and I know many of you are familiar with that. In 2024 we were recognized nearly 1,000 species of wildlife flora and fauna that are supported there, many of them very unique and some of them even on the endangered side. So we're committed to really preserving that that land for

[00:36:03] future generations to enjoy. So that that was phenomenal. I know it's a lot. There was a lot. You answered my second question. I'm going to throw a question at you that I didn't tell you I was going to throw at you. Because you talked about how to kind of monitor species. What about bees? I keep hearing that we're losing pollinators and we're losing bees and honeybees.

[00:36:32] What happens and how do you monitor that? Yeah, well, the pollinator program is one that is currently vacant with Loudon Wildlife Conservancy. It's something that we have had in the past. It's something we want to restore and revive. So with each of our programs, we have a coordinator who's really an expert in that area who leads that, gets the volunteers together.

[00:36:54] So we recognize that the pollinator issue is definitely one that we need to focus more on. So from that perspective, we're just looking to get more volunteer involvement to kind of revitalize that program. upcoming events do you all have? Well, two I'll mention. One is our Celebrate Birds Month, which starts on April 19th and lasts through May 18th. And this is a month-long celebration of the phenomenon that is the spring migratory season and the height of spring migration in our area.

[00:37:23] And a big part of that is our bird-a-thon, which happens during that same period. And our bird-a-thon is like a walk-a-thon that we have teams for and sign up for. But instead of counting miles, They see how many bird species they can count. So you are all cordially invited to participate in our bird-a-thon, which you can sign up for on our website if you like.

[00:37:41] You can form a team and fundraise for Loudon Wildlife. And then the second event that's coming up, which is really exciting, is, as you mentioned, we were formed in 1995. One of our founders, the esteemed Joe Coleman, is here tonight. We're so appreciative of everything that he not only has done but continues to do for the organization.

[00:37:58] And we will be celebrating that anniversary at our annual meeting on June 8th here in Leesburg at the Idalee Recreation Center. Okay. All right. That's amazing. Wow. A bird-a-thon. As long as it's not a bug-a-thon, I might be able to do that.

[00:38:16] What is the best way for people to learn more about you, to reach you, your contact information? Yeah, really the best way is just our website, I think. That's the portal. So loudonwildlife.org, and when you go there, you'll find a wealth of resources. Would everyone who's here with the Conservancy please stand up?

[00:38:34] And we want to thank you all. Wow, thank you all for being here today. Thank you so much. Thank you all. Very appreciate it. Thank you. Mr. Hempstreet, do you have any comments this evening? Yes, ma'am. Chair, I've got four comments for this evening.

[00:38:50] The first is that today marks the launch of the annual Solarize Virginia campaign. Loudoun County homeowners have the opportunity to sign up to learn more about solar power options specific to their property. The program offers free satellite solar assessments, streamlined installation, and discounted pricing on solar systems from vetted installers.

[00:39:10] The campaign runs through July 15th. More information is online at SolarizeVA.org. Second, Loudoun County residents can discard potentially dangerous, expired, unused, and unneeded medications anonymously at several locations in the county on Saturday, April 26.

[00:39:27] The Sheriff's Office is partnering with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and local police departments for the National Take Back Day event. Tablets, capsules, patches, and other solid forms of prescription drugs will be accepted. Details include the location of the drop-off sites or online at loudoun.gov slash takeback.

[00:39:47] The third, the Loudoun County Public Library's annual food drive begins this Saturday, April 19th. Donations of unopened, unexpired, non-perishable food items can be dropped off at any of the library branches from April 19th through April 27th. Donations will be distributed by Loudoun Hunger Relief.

[00:40:05] During last year's food drive, the community donated more than 5,000 pounds of food. More information is online at library.loudoun.gov slash food drive. And then finally, we are just one month away from the annual Bike to Work Day event on Thursday, May 15th.

[00:40:21] Loudoun County will once again host two morning pit stops along the Washington and Old Dominion Trail in Leesburg and in Sterling. Loudoun Transit and Commuter Services will also host information and registration events for Bike to Work Day on April 24th in Leesburg and May 3rd in Ashburn.

[00:40:40] Details can be found at loudoun.gov slash bike to work. Those are my comments for today. Thank you. Thank you. We have our resident bikers, Ms. Brooksman and Mr. Turner, our bike-to-work day people. And so, yay. Chair Randall's not biking to work.

[00:40:59] I'm really clumsy. Shouldn't happen. Okay, so we have the Environmental Awards tonight, the Environmental Excellence Awards. And the way we're going to do this, we're going to have the staff come to the table and speak about this first. And then Mr. Turner and I are going to go down front, and we will have, when each award comes up, it will be presented, and there will be a picture taken of Mr. Turner and I, and then everyone will come back at once to take a picture of everyone and all the supervisors who are with us.

[00:41:27] So could staff please come to the table, and we, before Mr. Turner and I come down, if you have any presentations, we can do those, and then Mr. Turner and I will join you down front. Good evening, Chair Randall, members of the board, Mark Cavaney, Assistant Director with General Services.

[00:41:51] I am pleased to be here to present the 2025 Environmental Excellence Awards that is the board and the Environmental Commission's effort to recognize all the good work that's happening in Loudoun County. A little bit of brief background on the Environmental Commission Awards.

[00:42:07] This comes from the Environmental Commission bylaws, which state that we will hold a yearly awards program to recognize those individuals, businesses, nonprofits, educators for their leadership on environmental issues. We first did this in 2023, so this is our third year doing it, and every year it just keeps getting better and better.

[00:42:26] So, with your permission, Chair Randall, I'd like to invite Jim Bingle to come to the podium to announce the award winners for 2025. And Mr. Turner and I are going to join you all down front. Ms. Bingle, where are you? There you go. Mr. Turner, let's go down front. Okay, sorry.

[00:42:46] While you come down, I am going to let you know that I'm happy to share the Environmental Commission's Environmental Excellence Awards with you today also quickly i wanted to invite everyone to the energy and environmental forum on thursday may 22nd from 5 30 to 8 p.m at the academies of loudon so um i'm also joined here i'm not by myself um the in the environmental commission our vice chair william marsh and if

[00:43:18] you would please stand up when i mention your name um mark peterson robert wilbur and phil daly and emily southgate uh from the commissioner all here i hope i hadn't missed anybody okay thank you for for participating we have four awards for activities conducted in the past year and two lifetime achievement awards to present this evening all of our award winners exemplify the value of individual and collective action to improve our community so first i will call up

[00:43:55] Tanya Finch as the first of the winners to represent the citizen or community group award winner. Tanya Finch started an initiative called What About the Turtles to protect wildlife impacted by construction. Tanya mobilized community volunteers and coordinated with a local construction company and a wildlife advocacy group on a rescue operation for box turtles trapped in a construction site this effort created a network of collaborators set an example

[00:44:34] for community driven action and demonstrated best practices for protecting animals during

[00:44:40] construction projects oh yeah no no okay okay thank you thank you all right um so i'm i understand

[00:45:27] that one of our awardees is in transit so i'm going to go over past her and go to government employee or program team and invite brian karnes general manager for loudon water and paul gilbert executive director for nova parks up to receive this award loudon water partnered with nova parks to create Reservoir Park along the shores of Beaver Dam Reservoir, which opened on October 21st, 2024.

[00:46:03] The innovative park model intersects the reservoir's primary purpose of providing clean drinking water with benefits of open space, recreation, and public awareness. Park infrastructure filters rainwater while also providing interpretive content to educate the public on water conservation and protection and provides a space for land and water recreation.

[00:46:50] Okay, thank you. In the educator category, here to accept her award is Beth Sastre, who is the commercial horticulturalist for the Virginia Cooperative Extension in Loudoun. Beth has provided bilingual training on worker protection standards to local growers and agricultural workers using an innovative outreach system designed to implement specific programs for hard-to-reach unique groups. In 2024, she conducted training for 147 workers in 30 vineyards, supporting a year with no health incidents or pesticide spills. She has shared her practices

[00:47:27] with other counties and the state of Virginia. Thank you, Beth. Our student winner today, Ryan Nisse, was not able to be here to accept his award in person, but we're going to tell you about him anyway.

[00:47:48] He is a senior at Potomac Falls High School who founded and directs the Loudoun Nature Conservation Project, an organization that encourages youth to take action in environmental restoration. LNCP has partnerships with 14 schools, parks, and community organizations.

[00:48:06] It organizes its own cleanup events, connects students with local conservation organizations and actively participates in environmental advocacy. Ryan has also conducted independent research monitoring water health in the county.

[00:48:22] So we'll give a recognition to Ryan in absentia. And then before I present our two lifetime achievement award winners or ask them to come up these are two people i have the deepest respect for as leaders each in their own right but it also seems apropos to share a little bit of serendipity in the lives of these two men and in the awards they are both receiving today our winners phil daly and al van huyck and come on up while i tell

[00:48:55] this story um originally met as camper and camp counselor when both were much younger it is safe to say that for many early outdoor experiences provide a grounding in our future love and care for the environment. After many years and decades later these men came to know each other again in Loudoun where their environmental interests became intertwined again. People demonstrate environmental excellence in ways both personal and professional and these gentlemen

[00:49:33] represent both demonstrate both so first I'm going to go with the younger of the two I present to you our newest Environmental Commission member Phil Daley who has been a force for environmental education protection and advocacy in Loudoun County since 1980 he has cultivated environmental awareness in the community through decades-long volunteer work with multiple organizations including the Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy the Goose Creek Scenic River Advisory Committee, the Audubon Naturalist Society, Banshee Reeks, Nature Preserve, and many others.

[00:50:12] He has also been a change agent by leading and contributing to countless nature walks, youth nature camps, and citizen science projects, and regularly advocating for wildlife habitats. Phil has a long history of engaging the community, educating youth, and inspiring people to appreciate nature through his own personal observations and love of nature.

[00:50:35] And now, do you want me to just go ahead and go on with that? Okay. Last, but not least at all, and I really appreciate your recognition of Al Van Huyck at the beginning of this meeting, is Al Van Huyck.

[00:50:51] He has championed environmental conservation in Loudoun County for half a century. Through grassroots organizational leadership, advocacy with government, and communication in the media he has shaped policies on natural resources historic sites and agriculture he has participated directly in county government taking on environmental issues during six years on the planning commission and four years on the agricultural district review committee he then was a founding organizer and leader of two important preservation groups the loudon

[00:51:29] Preservation and Conservation Coalition, and Friends of Blue Ridge Mountains. He also recently launched the Loudoun Cemetery Conservancy. Throughout all this time, he has contributed to the sustainability of a wide variety of environmental and other nonprofits that improve Loudoun's quality of life through his financial support and Family Foundation, which annually provides support and grants to preservation groups.

[00:51:58] Thank you both.

[00:53:04] some more coming well that was wonderful and fun and i congratulate everyone who received an award

[00:54:35] environmental excellence award and thank you to the committee you guys are doing amazing amazing work okay we have um another information item that we're going to be able to get to right now it's the survey of residents now the results of residents the survey of resident results and if mr govan and miss cox can come up please to the table it's it's not a voting item yet

[00:55:06] but still good evening good evening chair randall and board members all right um so to me my immediate right uh is dr megan cox from division chief from the department of finance and procurement as you know and to my immediate left i'm going to introduce mrs sonia wittink i practiced that

[00:55:39] chief operating chief operating officer of polco who will present to you the survey of residents

[00:56:06] wonderful thank you we are okay um so i'm sonia wittink ceo of polco um thank you for welcoming

[00:57:10] here board and of the administrator um we don't have the presentation up so i'm going to proceed with just from my notes is it the one that we have in our item is this the presentation we're talking about that we have in our item it's the same the same presentation okay okay so you do have the we have it the public can't see it but we we can see it um later on we could possibly um posted or something so everyone can see this okay wonderful okay so starting out just um i'd like to thank megan cox for her thoughtful detailed feedback throughout this project it was she was

[00:57:47] an essential part us were members of her staff in making sure that this was a success and also acknowledge brandon barnett who is on my team and he he managed most of the work on our side of the partnership, and I'm just here to present. Just a second slide. Polco provides tools to bring the voice of people to decision making. We strive to make online engagement efficient, effective, and civil, and we proudly contribute to thought leadership on survey methods, data analytics, and government performance. Third slide. The jurisdictions we work with use our data to assess

[00:58:27] needs, monitor trends, measure performance, inform budgeting processes, build strategic plans and more. When combined with all the important context that you and your staff bring, it creates a foundation for really robust decision making.

[00:58:45] Fourth slide. The National Community Survey is a standardized five-page survey that focuses on ten facets of livability. It provides a full picture of how residents feel about and experience their community and the facets align to municipal departments so there's helpful data for all county staff.

[00:59:05] How a survey is conducted matters and we use our expertise to ensure your results are representative. We select our sample without bias, we oversample multi-family housing units, we make statistical corrections for common disparities such as older adults responding in higher proportions than younger adults.

[00:59:26] This was the fourth iteration of the Loudoun County NCS. The survey was conducted in October and September, October into last year, extensive multimodal reach was implemented to ensure a very high response, and 1,352 responses were completed, which is a very excellent result, much higher than most communities achieve.

[00:59:51] This results in a margin of error of plus or minus 3%, which, again, is well above the best practices for this type of survey, or below, I guess, smaller than. And the results were statistically weighted to reflect Loudoun County overall and further ensure representativeness.

[01:00:09] So that's talking about when we get more older adults and fewer -- younger adults, we reweight it to make sure that it's in equal -- the correct proportion. So older adults are not overly representative. So additionally, you currently have about 3,000 subscribers on the Polko profile, and these can be accessed for follow-up questions through our -- through our Engage platform.

[01:00:32] Slide six, POLCO was the first organization to create benchmarks of public opinion for local governments. We have the largest database, which has been maintained for over 20 years. And Loudoun County received comparisons to the entire benchmark database, which we call national benchmarks, and also to a subset of communities with similar characteristics, which we'll call custom benchmarks throughout this presentation and within the report.

[01:00:59] So on to the results, going to the slide eight. To orient you to the chart in this presentation, most questions in the survey were asked on a four-point scale, such as excellent -- you know, you rate it as excellent, good, fair, or poor, or essential, very somewhat, or not at all important.

[01:01:19] And in the presentation, we present the percent positive, which is basically the top two items combined, such as excellent or percent excellent good or percent essential or very important. This is noted at the bottom of every slide.

[01:01:35] You can see on this one it's percent excellent good. We also indicate comparisons to national benchmarks with shading, custom benchmarks with teal arrows, and comparisons to 2022 with a green up or down arrow. There's legends on the left of each chart to remind you of these.

[01:01:54] And if there's no icons or shading on the chart, that means that they were similar to the comparative group. Either the trends -- Give me one second. Just give me one second. Supervisors, keep scrolling down -- keep scrolling. Keep scrolling until you see the -- until you see this page, the Loudoun County, the National Survey Results, and then keep scrolling up, and you'll find what she's talking about.

[01:02:18] It's under information items, so survey. It's under information items. There you go, Mr. Turner. It is not in staff presentations. It is under information items, all right? And then when you click on it, keep scrolling. And you're going to actually scroll to page 8 on our iPads to start the survey.

[01:02:40] And then if you keep scrolling, you'll start seeing. She talked about the demographics. That's on page 12. And if you keep scrolling, it actually starts on page 9, actually. Okay. You see it? You good? Everybody good? Okay. Thank you. No problem. And we are on slide 8, the facets of community livability.

[01:02:58] Actually, for us, it's 9. Oh, sorry. Okay. It's nine for us. That's okay. Then I will add one. Well, let me just change that. It's nine on the page. It's 16 if you look at page number of 43.

[01:03:14] You see that? So everyone, if you're looking up top, go to page 15. If you're looking on the actual page, it's page nine. That make sense? Okay. Okay. Yeah? Good? Good. So, for the facets of community livability, this quality, you can see the ten facets of livability are in this chart.

[01:03:32] In the survey, we asked two questions to ask directly about these facets. The first rates the quality of each facet, and we see here that the economic health and utilities are above the national benchmark, so that's why they're shaded darker there.

[01:03:48] The second question, next slide, refers to those same ten facets, but is centered on how important each facet is to your community members. So the question is asking the community what they think we should focus on in the coming two years. We ask about both quality and importance of each of these facets so you can have context by creating a quality importance comparison, which we'll see on the next slide. So this chart, which is also in your report, can be used to help a community determine which areas may need additional policy

[01:04:23] focus or resource allocation in the coming years and which others are performing well by comparison. It shows areas of relatively higher importance that may have lower quality ratings from residents. Here, community design and mobility have larger gaps and potentially need attention. These were both similar to national and custom benchmarks, but mobility ratings did increase from 2022 to 2024.

[01:04:52] Next slide. Of the 123 survey items that evaluated characteristics or survey services, most were similar to the benchmarks. Specifically, higher than the custom benchmark was Loudoun County as a place to visit, and lower than both benchmarks were cost of living, availability of affordable quality housing, and Loudoun County as a place to retire.

[01:05:17] next slide when results were compared to 2022 in 2024 21 received ratings that were statistically significantly higher 93 received similar ratings and 11 received slower rating or lower ratings a few of the higher were available of availability of affordable quality mental health care affordable quality child care and preschool community sports for the arts opportunities to attend culture and arts music and music activities and treating residents with respect

[01:05:54] a few of the lower were employment opportunities feeling safety feelings of safety from property crime street cleaning and air quality but there's all the details in the report supervisors if you look up they've actually found the report and then now they have it in front of us yeah oh awesome Next slide. So on to the key findings. The first finding is that Loudoun County continues to be a great place to live. Next slide. About 80% of respondents said it had excellent or good ratings

[01:06:34] for Loudoun County as a place to live, the overall quality of life, and the overall image of Loudoun County. In addition, 8 and 10 planned to remain in the county for the next five years. This was similar to the benchmarks and remains stable from 2022. Second finding was that resident ratings were on or governance ratings were on track. Ratings for items related to Loudoun County's governance tended to be positive and on par with benchmarks. The county saw improvements in three

[01:07:10] ratings treating all residents with respect treating all residents fairly and being transparent these are increases from of five percent to seven percent from 2022 residents value natural and recreational amenities three quarters or more rated the most most aspects of parks and recreation and the national natural environment as excellent or good ratings for cleanliness and recreational facilities were better than the national benchmark. Air quality ratings did drop from

[01:07:47] 2022, but only by 4%. Note also that this is perception data and not a measurement of particulates in the air. This may be related to concerns about the growth of data processing centers, and it's a topic that might benefit from additional questions using our Engage module and the 3,000 folks who are subscribed to your profile.

[01:08:13] It's concluded in your subscription, if that's of interest. Residents viewed Loudoun's economy as a strength. Ratings for most aspects of economic health were above the national benchmark.

[01:08:28] This is something that, you know, I do some presentations all over the country, and this is a rare view to see, so you should be very proud. County as a place to visit was also on the rise.

[01:08:45] There were -- the NCS has space for -- available for communities to ask unique questions about special topics and areas of interest for your community, and you did ask a couple questions. First, we asked residents what influenced their decision to use public transportation.

[01:09:04] Convenience and availability were the top influences, followed by avoiding traffic. and environmental impact were less of an influence but still impactful for 60 percent of respondents repeating a question from 2022 residents were asked which types of affordable housing were needed in the county smaller detached single-family homes tossed top the list with an 11 increase from 2022 townhouses and road houses and detached single-family homes were next in importance

[01:09:38] both increased by nine percentage points from 2022. Roughly seven in ten were looking for more duplexes and apartments or condos, and half or fewer were interested in tiny or mobile homes. So in summary, Loudoun County has a high quality of life, the residents had good ratings for your governance, natural areas and recreation opportunities were very appreciated, and your economic health is a great strength. And that was a quick summary of the survey results. Again,

[01:10:15] there's a lot of more questions that we didn't cover and i know that the staff is diving deep into them wonderful suppose i know you didn't didn't have the have the um presentation for some of it but just in what she said do you have any questions or comments miss brixman thank you could you go back to the governance slide please okay so being open and transparent to the public went up by five percent or more otherwise it wouldn't have that arrow going up

[01:10:53] that's correct okay and how the national okay so that's the national benchmark yep so we are basically similar to the national benchmark okay so but the 47 48 and this might be a question for mr govan so now now what do we do with with these results for example will will staff look at this and say okay how can we better inform residents about issues facing the community or how can we be better about being open and transparent to the public so the next plan is to work with our

[01:11:31] departments and offices that have an interest in the survey of residents i know that we are looking at like for example in dei looking at some type of coordination on doing something with this data we're also looking at any other annual studies or surveys that we can do as well okay and were Were there any statistics on inclusivity that I missed?

[01:12:01] The statistics are in the full report. We also have an engagement and inclusivity facet. Okay, but it wasn't in the slide presentation? I'm wondering how we did on that. No, it's not one of the key findings.

[01:12:16] It wasn't one of the key findings. Okay. Correct. Okay. And did we ask about sustainability or perceptions of sustainability and environmentalism? at all? There are some questions in the natural environment facet. And I would say, I think one of the key things that like, so in the report, there's an interactive online report that's got a lot of depth of data. And one of the things that a lot of communities do is, I think that when you're looking at these issues, it's looking at disparity analysis

[01:12:52] and not just like what the main top line items are. You know, in our presentation, we tend to stick to that because it's a short presentation, but you can look at any of the hundreds, more than 100 questions asked and look at it by different, like, demographic groups and also areas in the community. So that's a way that most departments usually deep dive a little on the questions that are specific to them and their work. They'll look at the disparity among different people and my last question recreation programs or classes that would be

[01:13:28] more like a prcs parks and rec services whereas quality of parks and recreation opportunities would be more outdoor if i'm reading that correctly okay i'm really happy with those numbers thank you miss glass thank you madam chair and thank you for the presentations um very insightful um for what folks see us in -- what they see in our community.

[01:13:54] So you said that we had about 1,352 respondents out of a sample of 6,500, and you said that's a good number of folks that participated?

[01:14:11] It's an excellent number. It is? so to be statistically valid is is is basically for at a five percent margin of error is you need 358 respondents so and that is honestly what most communities are working with so to have three times almost four times as many as that is is really excellent okay thank you mr crony uh thank you chair randall and thank you for the information so you mentioned um with the 81 on the air quality

[01:14:47] how that's gone down, you mentioned it might be worth doing a deep dive, further analysis. Could you explain, you mentioned like maybe with the data centers or? Yeah, we just had a conversation about air quality when we were speaking with staff, and they were just puzzling about why that would have gone down, but they feel like the air quality has not really, and so that was one of the ideas.

[01:15:11] But I think whenever you see anything that you're just like that doesn't check quite, you know, this is a all of survey data is perception and perception is incredibly important. I would say it's the number one outcome that you're you should be measuring thinking about when you about, you know, as a report card for your work, for your collective work.

[01:15:34] So if but it is perception so it's very important if you see something like an air quality rating like to look at the actual what is the air quality as measured in the air and if there's a disparity if the air quality is continued is maintained its actual quality but the rating has gone down then it's something to think through what is the public seeing what is the public hearing.

[01:16:00] That's interesting. Okay. Yeah. I would really love to have a deep dive of why Loudoun County is a place to retire, you know, kind of deep, because that seems to be an area that we were low on. You know, we're working on affordable housing. But, you know, is there any plan to kind of look at area of aging, you know, to maybe deep dive on that one? I think that's a good one to look at.

[01:16:29] If I could just say, I was speaking with Megan, we're both working on getting our names right, earlier, and we, my company did do a survey, a statewide survey of older adults with Virginia, with DARS.

[01:16:50] and i think it was in 20 late 2023 and so i was going to connect with the make sure she was connected to that data because i don't know if it was it was sort of done through dars and triple a's but i don't know if um you know counties were specifically know that that happened and that that data is available so that could be a starting point in terms of yeah really digging deeper on why okay thank you uh thank you madam chair have so i noticed that um a fairly low

[01:17:24] percentage of our residents who responded to the survey watch this meeting and i completely

[01:17:33] understand why they don't um and they don't necessarily not many reach out to on like the

[01:19:22] national benchmark for it. So it's pretty common. I think it's usually in partnering and with other groups and trying to meet community where they are. And as much as you can do that, that can be really helpful, but you're still, there are people who are not necessarily, like they're too busy to be engaged with even, you know, like community groups that they have an affinity for, right? So if they're not that engaged, if they're just engaged in, you know, paying the bills and doing all that stuff it's just going to be hard for them to prioritize getting that getting

[01:19:58] the information because you can provide it in as easily an accessible way as you possibly can and but there's still that two-way I think so again the overall I would say the communities who do it best are just thinking about who their partners are in the community where they can share out information and, you know, how can you meet people where they are at.

[01:20:23] Thank you. Mr. Turner. Thank you, Madam Chair. I was curious, there was a huge jump between 2016-2018 on respondents, like 80% more respondents in 2018 than in 2016.

[01:20:41] It's leveled back off again to about 40% increase. Can you recall, was it the mode that we sent out the survey? I mean, what changed in '18, and did we duplicate it in '20, '22, and '24? So what changed is that because response rates to just randomly sampled surveys have been going down over the years everywhere, we started using more modes of outreach.

[01:21:09] So we engaged the staff and created -- Polko ourselves, we have an outreach toolkit for each city that we work with. And again, it's kind of like what I was just saying, it's about, you know, having staff engage with community partners, getting the word out, using social media, using email lists, using whatever you can to say, hey, please participate in this survey. To sort of put a little bit of rails on that, we continue to have a randomly sampled survey and we keep the analysis of those separate and then we use statistical weighting to bring them together to ensure that if for some reason we felt like from

[01:21:44] the other modes we were getting a skewed sample that we could either not use it or or do if create make some statistical adjustments but basically we just recognizing lower response rates and needing to meet the community in more places and where they're at we engaged with your staff to make sure that there was really good robust outreach so it's really kudos to them and a lot of work on their side and a little bit of advice on our side is it fair to say this is a completely subjective question if you don't want to answer it i give you permission not to answer it but

[01:22:21] would you say in relation to communities around the country average communities that we are significantly receiving significantly more positive ratings than an average community somewhat more average how would you characterize that because i was i was frankly uh i think these are extraordinary results. I think this paints a picture of a place that is one of the very, very best places in America to live. I mean, that's what I think it represents. I'm biased.

[01:22:53] Is that, is that, could I back that up with this data, that opinion? Um, I think that, you know, like overall, I would probably, you know, as a statistician, I would say that you're actually similar to a lot of the benchmarks. So, um, and you're over the, you know above the benchmarks in um a good proportion but not a striking proportion there are a few communities that like quite frankly have a lot of money that might be above the benchmark on more aspects but yeah i would say that you can say that you're in a quite a quite a remarkable community well i appreciate that and corroborating what my

[01:23:32] impression was i'm looking at the key findings start 14 of 43 if anybody wants to look at the highest performing areas, our economy, our overall economic health, place to visit, place to work, ease of travel, K through 12 education, opportunities to win cultural arts and music activities, community support.

[01:23:51] My gosh, if you had listened to the political rhetoric directed at Loudoun County for the last five years, none of this would have come to anybody's mind. I will say that it's super remarkable on the economy to have that many items that are above the benchmark.

[01:24:07] And I want to use just, I'm out of time, but this is a political year. Let's remember this, sir. Thank you. Thank you. I want to just highlight some of the departments that are doing, and have always done exceptionally well, and especially our public safety.

[01:24:23] The highest survey results, period, the end is and has always been fire and rescue at 93%. Next highest is our libraries at 90%. and then our Sheriff's Department at 81%, so great job to our -- to our employees.

[01:24:43] On page 12, if you compare impressions of federal government to Loudoun County government's effectiveness, federal government's 51% and Loudoun County is 74%, so a little better, a little better than federal government.

[01:25:01] I also want to say that -- and this is important, kind of speaking to what Mr. Turner said -- Whenever we have a discussion about housing, there's a lot of screaming, hollering, and yelling that people don't want houses. If you look at these results, 47% of people agree that we need more affordable housing in Loudoun County.

[01:25:21] 23% say they somewhat agree. Only 11% or 18% say they disagree or strongly disagree. And so remember this, supervisors, when we start talking about housing. People know that we need more attainable housing in the county, and the numbers, and I've lost a page, for transparency in the county have gone up significantly.

[01:25:43] So people think, even if they don't hear as much as they want to hear, they do believe we are a transparent government. And so these are good numbers all the way around. And once again, I want to say this. We cannot look at these numbers and not directly attribute these numbers to amazing staff in our county.

[01:26:03] the both county administration, but all of our line staff, we have like the line, the staff in any county government or public servants. And these numbers do not come because the nine of us and we're great. We are. We're wonderful and all that.

[01:26:22] But these numbers are not because of the nine of us. They are because of the staff and their work. I mean, firefighters of the fire and rescue services of 93 percent. Not one of us have put out a fire in the past many years. I know we haven't. So these are numbers that attribute to the incredible staff in Loudoun County, and we should absolutely just never forget this, forget that.

[01:26:41] I also want to say that it's interesting that people are saying that they like to have more volunteer opportunities. Listen, people, I do a voice for a cause every single week. There's lots of opportunities to volunteer in Loudoun County. If you want to know, you can absolutely email my office, and we can tell you about great volunteer opportunities in Loudoun County.

[01:27:02] But overall, these are very good numbers. I do want to know a little bit more about what Mr. Crony said, about the perception of air quality, because I think that's probably true. That perception comes because of data centers. But overall, these are great numbers, and I want to thank you all, and I want to thank your staff.

[01:27:20] Thanks so much. We appreciate you. Okay, supervisors, we are a little bit early, but I think we might have all the people we need to have here for some of our proclamations. I am told that Laws has walked into the room, and even without my glasses, I can see the Laws has walked into the room.

[01:27:41] Thank you for coming. Laws members, I am coming on Saturday with colleagues to do the resolution at your Take Back the Night night. So we will be there, I will be there on Saturday, which I think goes from 6 to 8. I'll be there at 6.30 to read the resolution.

[01:27:59] Any supervisors that want to come with me, we're going to put it on the four-year calendar. I think it's more powerful to go to you to do this than you all to come here because there's going to be a lot more people at Take Back the Night who need to see that resolution than it's here today. So we're going to do that resolution with you all on Saturday, okay?

[01:28:16] We'll see you there. Hopefully we're going to take back the night in the sun and not in taking back the night in the rain because hopefully it'll be good weather but we're going to be there with you right now though we are going to do some of our proclamations we're going to do the um national public safety telecommunications week and we're going to do the national volunteer week and we're going to do the what is the last one we're going to do oh the resolution for this um 60th anniversary of the criminal justice training academy but right now we'll start with the national public safety color communications week with my staff please

[01:28:55] meet me up front with the resolutions in hand unless they're somewhere on the dais they're probably back there i think they're back there yeah why don't you go up there back there and grab them mr turner why don't you join me down front and i have the microphone already i know

[01:29:11] it's a lot it's a lot of them i won't i won't i won't where is he where oh okay animal services

[01:30:52] there you are. No, well, he's not here. Okay. I do want to say before we start that to Animal Services, to Chris, I want to say this to you. A couple of nights ago, I was with somebody and we saw, unfortunately, a deer get hit. And I immediately went, we got called Animal Services.

[01:31:16] And the person didn't know that you guys are like, always have somebody on call. And so I don't know if people always realize when we talk about public safety why our animal services is part of public safety and all that you all do so I just want to point that out there's somebody's on call all the time with you all's office and we know that and we appreciate it very much all right I'm gonna read it okay national public safety telecommunications weeks whereas emergencies can occur at any time that require the prompt response of law enforcement firefighters EMS providers and humane law enforcement officers to protect life and preserve property.

[01:31:56] And whereas when an emergency occurs, Loudoun's public safety telecommunicators are the single vital link between first responders and people seeking immediate relief during an emergency. And whereas the safety of our law enforcement officers, firefighters, and EMS providers is dependent upon the quality and accuracy of information obtained from citizens who call or text the Loudoun County Emergency Communications Center, and whereas Loudoun County Public Safety telecommunicators have played a pivotal role in the apprehension

[01:32:33] of criminals, the suppression of fires, and the emergency care of all patients, all while consistently demonstrating unwavering compassion and professionalism. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors does hereby proclaim the week of April 13th through 19th, 2025 is National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week in Loudoun County. The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, Loudoun County Combined Fire and Rescue System, Loudoun County Sheriff's Office, and Loudoun County Animal Services urge all residents to honor the men and women whose diligence and professionalism keep our county

[01:33:11] and citizens safe. Chief Williams, Chief Williams, I like saying Chief George, Chief Williams, and to the law enforcement command staff and to the animal services, I'm going to hand you a mic. You can say whatever you want to, but I do have one question I do want to actually focus on today. I think sometimes when we talk about the importance of behavior and mental health

[01:33:49] of our officers we often think of people who who respond but i often think that people who are on these phones and listening to the the crisis or the trauma happening don't always get the same closure because they're not always there to do that how do we respond and make sure we take care of the mental health of our telecommunicators as well as the mental health and of all of our first responders but how do we respond to that because i don't always think that we give enough focus to the mental health of telecommunicators and chief chief chief williams you get to go first

[01:34:27] madam chair uh thank you very much for the opportunity so there's a piece when i reflect back on my training um it was about 30 something years ago i did time as part of that initial training in the communication center and i remember um some of the calls from 30 something years ago where the 9-1-1 calls came in it was a mutual aid fire between montgomery and prince george's county there was no electronic cad to cad so that was chaotic there was a thunderstorm coming through with the beltway and then a mother came home to find her uh child and with

[01:35:05] traumatic injuries so all of those things stay with me you know 30 years later so i want to say how very much i appreciate what you guys do day in day out um i appreciate the chair's uh comp question because I think each of you or I hope each of you know how important behavioral health is to me and we do have members of the peer support team who are telecommunicators we we provide them access to our wellness center and our behavioral health coordinator I think there are opportunities we can do

[01:35:40] to continue to improve that because I think you're right when the call hangs up they take a deep breath and then the next call comes in and that may not be the best way to you know rehabilitate from that traumatic exposure so I appreciate you guys I appreciate you guys too appreciate all of you guys but I know what you the job that you have is very very difficult and obviously extremely important I'm gonna walk it down here to you thank you chair Randall yeah as you know I've said it many times before my brother's a

[01:36:18] supervisor over at the ECC, so this means a lot to me. I've had the occasion in my personal life to have to call 911. And even though I'm CIT trained and seen as much as I've seen during my career, it's those calls that knowing somebody on the other line that is confident, calm, and also compassionate is what gets you through those moments. And those moments have stuck with me just as much as the moments that I've seen on the job and the work that we do. And to Chair Randall's point, I think that we can never stop trying to improve the mental health of the people

[01:36:54] that do this work. I know for our department, it's something that we strive for. We have trainings for. We try and make sure that people are aware of the resources that are available to them. So it's something that we don't ever want to overlook and we want to put it at the forefront. But I can't thank the people enough that do this job.

[01:37:12] It is such a crucial job, and it helps the people in the community from the word go at the time when they're most needed. So thank you very much for what you do. Thank you. You and I never talk.

[01:37:30] Thank you. And I would just echo the partnerships we have in telecommunications. It's just incredible. But also just echoing the thanks to all of our public safety telecommunicators who do a phenomenal job. And, you know, the trauma is definitely there, that exposure of taking those phone calls.

[01:37:50] And, you know, sometimes it's really acute where you have, you know, one extremely difficult call. We just had one over the weekend, extremely difficult call, and that can trigger trauma. Sometimes it's just a buildup of little ones over time, you know, that it's just, you know, the over and over, you know, repetitive, you know, for us, domestic disputes and things like that.

[01:38:09] And since, you know, since we've now gone to universal call takers, we're actually seeing, I think this, you know, some of the the cross across the aisle calls that were used to just be ours on this side and yours on that side. And now we're getting exposure to each other. So that, you know, that opens up things there.

[01:38:28] So our peer support team is is, I think, really vital to that. We have members of our peer support team in our emergency communication center. We are super excited to have our behavioral health coordinator now on board that we'll be able to do, again, some of that more acute, but also some of the longer. Thank you very much.

[01:38:44] No, I just wanted to add on, in virtually all of these circumstances, this is the first voice somebody in dire distress hears. The responsibility of that position is acute and lasting and life-changing, as we've heard here.

[01:39:05] So I just can't thank all of the telecommunicators and our first responder network and community enough. This is just extraordinary work and really, really valuable. I completely agree. Thank you. I'm going to give one to each service, so one to animal services, one to sheriff's office, one to firefighters, and then we're going to figure out how to take a picture, which, good luck.

[01:41:54] Okay, we're going to do – can I have my – we're going to do the proclamation

[01:43:06] for the Criminal Justice Training Academy and Mr. Hemstreet is going to join us down front for this one. And Chief Brown, you're coming back down as well. Mr. Hemstreet. Thank you. How's it going?

[01:43:40] I am well. How are you doing? Okay. We have a proclamation for the Northern Virginia Criminal Justice Training Academy. Whereas the Northern Virginia Police Academy was established on April 5th, 1965, by Alexandria City, Arlington County, and Prince William County, and whereas the Academy Charter was amended and adopted by the counties of Arlington, Loudoun, and Farquhar, the cities of Alexandria, Fairfax, Falls Church, Manassas, and Manassas Park, the towns of

[01:44:17] Leedsburg, Middleburg, and Percival, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, and the Metropolitan Washington Area Transit Authority in 1988 and officially renamed the Northern Virginia Criminal Justice Training Academy and whereas the Northern Virginia Criminal Justice Training Academy's goal is to provide professional, cutting-edge training and support to our member agencies, personnel, and the greater law enforcement community and has been nationally accredited since 2004 and whereas the Northern Virginia Criminal Justice Training Academy continues to provide basic and professional development training focused on fundamental

[01:44:56] policies of 21st century policing for over 2,500 police officers and deputy sheriffs. And whereas for 60 years, the Northern Virginia Criminal Justice Training Academy has been committed to serving the community through commitment to the fundamental principles of criminal justice.

[01:45:16] Now, therefore, be it resolved, the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors does hereby recognize the Northern Virginia Criminal Justice Training Academy on their 60th anniversary and extends their gratitude for the steadfast dedication to the citizens of Loudoun County.

[01:45:40] Chief Brown, when I met you, you were sheriff's deputy, and then you became the chief of the Leedsburg Police Department, and now you are over the Criminal Justice Academy. So you have been in multiple areas of law enforcement in this county and actually involved in multiple areas of law enforcement for the state and for the nation.

[01:46:02] So I'm going to have you speak, and then I'm going to see what Mr. Hemstreet might want to say. Thank you, Chair Randall, and thank you for this recognition. I called Chair Randall up or sent her a text and said, hey, can we do this? And her and her staff did not hesitate to respond in kind and worked very quickly to put this in place.

[01:46:19] It was something that I wanted to do for the 50th anniversary because I was a co-coordinator for that. It just didn't come across my mind, but as much work as the staff of the Academy has done over the last 10 years, I figured we'd get a recognition this time. So I definitely appreciate that. And as you can see, the Academy's history has evolved numerous times throughout the last 60 years.

[01:46:40] But one thing has not changed, and that is training excellence from the beginning. It continues to grow. continue to get very innovative and pour a whole lot into making sure that our deputy sheriffs and our police officers and our dispatchers are highly trained and ready for this highly stressful environment that they go into. So on behalf of the academy and on behalf of the board of directors, which I will turn it over to our chair, Mr. Hemstree here shortly, I extend my thanks and gratitude for giving us this recognition. We appreciate it. I have one quick question. Is this also where the police the animals are trained the police dogs are trained are they trained at this

[01:47:17] academy as well no they are not where they train they're not trained at our academy our academy is a 16 member agency as mentioned there uh and we are actually very internal we do extend ourselves for in-service classes to everybody in the area so we do welcome folks in when they when they want to come in and there's a particular class that they want law enforcement can look on our website call our coordinator and we usually get them in if we've got a free seat for them all right just uh Thank you to the board for the recognition. Thank you, Director Brown, for all the work that you do and the team does out at the academy.

[01:47:53] And then absolutely to the sheriff's office, as well as all the other partner agencies that provide instructors to the academy as part of the curriculum. I think it's a great thing that's been around for 60 years and keep going and working at it.

[01:48:09] I just want to add one thing. He's a very humble man here, but Mr. Hemstreet came on as our chair roughly about a year and a half, two years ago. And it's very challenging, having sat in several capacities at the academy, from a recruit to an instructor to deputy director of basic training, then on the board of supervisors myself and now back as executive director.

[01:48:32] I know the folks that sit around that table, and it can be quite challenging with a whole bunch of A-type personalities. And I just want to give Mr. Hemstreet his due to say he really does orchestrate and guide everybody around that table towards consensus and makes the academy a better place for it.

[01:48:48] So I want to appreciate this man right here. So thank you. Attorney, you want to say anything? So as a member agency, we are very much indebted to the academy.

[01:49:04] And actually, you know, obviously I was just trained as a recruit there. I was an instructor there for a while as well. So I've seen it firsthand. And one thing that really strikes me about the Northern Virginia Criminal Justice Academy is that they train well and way above the required minimum standards. That makes a real difference to the service delivery that is delivered around the Northern Virginia area, and it's because of the staff and the standards that they have at the academy that law enforcement in the Northern Virginia region.

[01:49:34] So thank you. All right. Let's take a picture. You and I are going to change places at this moment before we take a picture.

[01:50:10] Okay.

[01:50:28] Can everybody come down for Volunteer Appreciation Week? If you are here for Volunteer Appreciation Week, can you please come down? Volunteers, come on down. Would you like to speak on this?

[01:50:46] On both sides, on both sides. You're going to introduce yourself to me again?

[01:51:01] Into my meter, you're going to introduce yourself to me like we've never met. I'm going to have Mr. Turner read this one. Hello. Proclamation for National Volunteer Week.

[01:51:17] Whereas throughout Virginia's history, citizens have actively volunteered their time, talent, and energy to serve and improve our communities to make our commonwealth a better and safer place. And whereas the hundreds of dedicated volunteer members of the Loudoun County Combined Fire and Rescue System selflessly donate their time as first responders and in critical support roles for the system.

[01:51:37] And whereas volunteers are the catalyst to create positive changes in our communities by bringing their compassion, their time, their ideas, their talents, their technical skills and professional expertise to strengthen and help our county flourish. And whereas these trained and organized volunteers, our neighbors are summoned to a wide array of emergencies across the county every day, including fires, emergency medical incidents, natural disasters, hazardous materials, incidents, water rescue emergencies, and other public service calls.

[01:52:05] And whereas our community is incredibly fortunate to have the unwavering support of our dedicated neighbors and volunteer first responders who selflessly give their time to help those in need. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors does hereby proclaim April 20th through 26th, 2025, its National Volunteer Week in Loudoun County and encourages all citizens to honor the dedicated volunteers of the Loudoun County Combined Fire and Rescue System.

[01:52:32] I have just a couple of weird comments. When I was maybe eight or nine years old, we had a dog named Max, and he was a boxer, and he was a great dog with tons of energy.

[01:52:49] And at one point, he was too much for my grandmother to handle. And so she gave the dog away, and she gave them to a family that had a volunteer firefighter as the father of the family. And Max would go to all the calls. Max would follow him out, ride in the car, potentially ride in the truck, and Max followed him.

[01:53:09] And one day, for whatever reason, the father couldn't take Max. And so the father went to the call, and Max leaped through the family picture window in the living room and ran to the firehouse. If ever there was a dog that epitomized the dedication to service of the people standing up here and the people they represent, Max was that animal.

[01:53:33] It is something that springs from the heart. It is a spirit. It's a genetic spirit that drives someone to do something above and beyond. And all of these volunteers have that spirit. They would not be in this job if they didn't have that spirit.

[01:53:48] And they hear the call, and there's something genetically that drives them to respond to help others. And that is just incredible, incredibly laudable, and it really is the life's blood of our community. So thank you all very much. And thank you. Thank you, Mr. Turner. And before I pass it to you, ma'am, I would say that, you know, if I have one major hope right now is that the commitment to our volunteers comes through this board every day.

[01:54:17] Because we've talked about it for years, and there are things we've done and hurdles that we've crossed. A study that was done that shows just the financial value of volunteers.

[01:54:33] And whenever I cite that study, I say, but you can talk to the financial value, and it is significant. But it's impossible to talk to the community value of volunteers, and what you all do every single day. and so i want to say that and i want to say thank you you know it's interesting whenever i'm kind of out at all the fire homes fire houses i always seem to land on a volunteer shift and i always say to the volunteers i'm handing you these muffins i'm handing you these donuts please save some for the career staff not one time have you guys ever saved any for the career staff

[01:55:05] but otherwise you guys do a great job so i appreciate that i defer to us thank you uh so So if I can just take a couple seconds, because I know you're probably counting the time.

[01:55:21] So I want to just introduce who is up here, because, as you know, we have a really neat governance structure, and we have representatives from two of the three committees. So to my left is President Jimmy Chesmedia, who's the chair of the Administrative Operations Committee. And to his left is Kevin Kelly, the chief of the Percival Rescue Squad, who's chair of the EMS Operations Committee.

[01:55:44] And then we have Chief Kathy Harasek, who's the vice chair of EMSOC and chief of Sterling Rescue. Al Pacifico, who is not only our assistant medical director, but long time, life for long time, life of the rescue squad and the fire company. And on the far end is Gemma Starkey, who's the rescue chief from the Lovitzville Fire and Rescue Station.

[01:56:05] So I just want to say a quick couple things, and then President Chesmedia, Chief Kelly, and Chief Harasek, quick few words, if you're okay with that. So I want to say thank you to not only the leadership up here, but I don't want to say more importantly, but as much importantly to the people who are on the units, running calls, and also doing the behind-the-scenes work of keeping the lights on, responding to the calls, keeping the lights on in the volunteer stations.

[01:56:35] The other thing that I want to just say, and I've leaned on it a lot lately as I've worked through this process is I would not be here in this position as chief of this system without my experience as a volunteer in a neighboring jurisdiction. So with that, I want to say thank you to the board for your support, but thank you to the folks standing here and all of the people in the system that they represent. President Chesbandia? Oh, the last thing I want to say is Chief Kelly, so he was on a unit today. He united on down here, changed units to an ALS response

[01:57:11] buggy in the parking lot and uh i just that that speaks to the commitment of the folks uh standing up here with me thank you jimmy thank you chief um all right uh as the chair of the administrative operations committee i'd like to personally thank the latin county board of supervisors for recognizing our dedicated volunteer members during national volunteer appreciation week our volunteers selflessly give their time often spending hours away from their families to deliver a professional, high-quality service to our community.

[01:57:47] Our commitment, your commitment, does not go unnoticed, and we gratefully appreciate all you do for us. Just to extend that, this is being accepted by the group of us on behalf of the 1,100 volunteers that are part of the combined system that are staffing EMS fire support service apparatus throughout the county 24 hours a day.

[01:58:10] And there are career volunteer members and providers who are shoulder to shoulder in this county working and you know when we talk about a volunteer giving just a shift a week at 650 hours alone that we're asking them to be apart from their family you put on top of that the training requirements that the volunteers are working to meet all of the same requirements across the board i think that's where they're showing their dedication to the system and to the county and i know on behalf of all of them i'd say we very much appreciate the

[01:58:43] support of the board and the county administrator and setting up the system for which we have i would just like to say ditto but i will uh i would try to say that i pointed out that uh chair randall thank you very much i'm surprised that for the amount of banquets that we've run into each other this year um she always likes to point out that the volunteers are not normal people um that what we do we do for free uh we do some very dangerous things um and yes we do it for free but loudon County started out as a volunteer system and so I think on speaking for all of

[01:59:21] the volunteers that are currently a lot of them are running duty as Chief Kelly said right now but I but I'd also point out that I think that the correlation that we listened to in your study earlier of 93% satisfaction with the Loudoun County residents about the fire and rescue system it only gives Chief Williams a little bit of a marker for improvement there but I would say I think think it directly correlates to the amount of pride and the amount of contentedness that the volunteers get out of the system. We are trained to a very high standard. We are equipped to a very high standard. And so the delivery of services as a combined system to the community is equally that

[02:00:00] high standard. And so we're happy to be a part of that success and we look forward to it in the future. And again, thank you very much for all of your support and giving the volunteers a place to

[02:00:17] call home. Thank you. Let's take a picture. So I do want to be, we're back, and before

[02:02:22] we start, I do want to again say two things. One, that we have two people who are speaking on the Walton Wood South riding special exception that's on our speaking list. That is scheduled to be heard on, I'm sorry, it was on the AIR report or is on the AIR report for May 6th.

[02:02:45] So it's not on the AIR report for tonight. Now you can absolutely speak on the item, you can, but it was never on tonight's AIR report. So if you want to speak on it, you certainly can, but just so you know that it was not to be voted on tonight.

[02:03:00] And I want to say that we had two applicants that asked that we defer their applications. One was the Magnolia Rose, and I've deferred that to a future meeting, and one was Cross Mail Center that has been deferred to a meeting certain of May 6.

[02:03:20] Again, if anyone would like to speak, you certainly can, but those items have been deferred. So I'm going to call your names. I will call the names in the order that I have them. If you are not in the room, because it's one minute to six, if you're not in the room, if I call your name, I'm going to pass by you, and in one minute I'll come back to you, but otherwise we're going to pass by you.

[02:03:43] Okay. The first speaker is Mary Dreyer, followed by Ryan Bellier. And the third speaker is Donald Murray. Are any of those speakers in the room? Yes.

[02:03:59] Hi, ma'am. How are you? It is six o'clock at this point. If I call your name and you're not here, I'm just going to go and pass by you. Thank you. Good evening, Ms. Dreyer. Thank you for being here. Thank you for hearing us. My husband and I are residents of Ridings of Blue Springs, and we are members of the Dulles District, and we live by the Walton Wood property.

[02:04:23] And so we're here tonight to provide some public input into this PCOR 2025-0011 request for validity extension for CPEC's 2014-0017 Walton Wood property.

[02:04:39] This property is currently zoned CLI, and it has a special exception for 233 senior living continuing care units. The applicant has requested an extension of five years so they can work with Loudoun County on Legge 2023-0106 to turn this into an intergenerational community.

[02:05:12] They would like to change the zoning for this property to SCN24 to enable them to, by right, build as many as 250 additional multifamily units on this property. This is a significant change and directly impacts us as residents who reside immediately beside that property.

[02:05:34] And it appears to us to be non-conformant with the approval conditions of CPEX 2014-0017. In addition, the County Ordinance Chapter 10.11 clearly states no approved special exception use may be enlarged or expanded unless approval of a new special exception has been granted by the Board of Supervisors.

[02:05:57] And we absolutely agree with that and hope that you will consider requiring them to get a new special exception for this property rather than rezoning the property so they can build by right at high densities against our CR1 zoned homes.

[02:06:14] And so on that note, I ask the board to consider this input as they'd make a decision about whether to approve or deny this application. Thank you for your consideration in this matter. We really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Iyer. Appreciate you coming in. ryan bellier followed by donald murray followed by alex marcus is ryan bellier in the room ryan bellier okay donald murray and alex marcus followed by james russell donald murray are

[02:06:47] you in the room alex marcus are you in the room and james russell you will be followed by hannah witzkill um followed by donna wadowski good evening mr russo good evening uh two weeks ago

[02:07:13] So this board, I've thought of how to phrase this, and I don't know how else to phrase it, but this board accommodated a lie, a lie, and not you say you'll be here in 10 minutes when you know it's 15 kind of lie.

[02:07:38] A journalist was slain with American manufactured munitions, probably, possibly manufactured by a company that has an office in Loudoun County.

[02:07:58] The man was 23 years old, and he gave his life for truth in a moment in history where it seems that everybody has given up on the concept.

[02:08:19] This young man gave his life. And it got me wondering, I mean, I've been coming up here for a year, for a year. people have come up with me, people from this community have come up here at substantial risk to themselves and their families. And I wonder why do you think we've been doing that? It's not

[02:08:55] because we needed a hobby. It's not because we wanted to make friends. We have seen over the last two months an increasing trend I've spoken about here before, a trend of immigration agents kidnapping people off of the street for their political opinions. People came up here at risk to themselves because they knew that day was coming and the many more who feel these concerns who have not joined us the people who thought the concerns to themselves are too great have

[02:09:35] apparently been vindicated thank you mr russell hannah i'm sorry hannah witz go followed by donna wadowski followed by eric hein good evening miss witzko hi so hello everybody um i'm here tonight regarding the PCOR 2025-0011 request that Mary alluded to before for a five-year extension

[02:10:11] to a special exemption that was approved in 2014 to build a senior living center in Dulles South. And the reason I came tonight was because I wanted to bring your attention to the scope creep in the design plans to create a new intergenerational community by mixing stacked multifamily housing and senior living together in a plan that would more than double the original plan's proposed residential density. And so it was pointed out to me that the procedure for approving this special exemption extension requires that the extension plans do not

[02:10:47] deviate significantly from the original plan as approved in 2014. But it seems to me that this new intergenerational plan, which aims at both changing the use case from senior-only living to stack multifamily and also doubling the density does not meet that criterion.

[02:11:09] So I therefore request that if the extension is approved, and I know you're not approving it tonight, you're approving it several weeks from now, but when you do that, we want it done so that it notes that the original special exemption was for basically an R8 density and not for their SCN 24, 28 density that's currently they're applying for, and that it was only for senior living and not for a mixed use between the multifamily and the seniors, which we think will, you know, impact lots of things, for example, traffic.

[02:11:43] So we just want you to acknowledge that when you think about that extension so that we can begin the public debate kind of of the zoning changes on a level terms and, you know, based on the original special exemption and not on the more recent visions of the builder.

[02:12:04] So thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Donna Wadowski, followed by Eric Hine, followed by Volkan Balaka. Good evening. Good evening. On April 4, 2024, Supervisor Briskman decided to dip her toes into international politics by using government letterhead to state lies about Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Israel-Gaza war.

[02:12:37] She not only divided our county, but she received immediate blowback from the Jewish community from around the world. I was in this chamber when a woman said that she voted for Supervisor Briskman but is now asking for her resignation.

[02:12:56] Chair Randall decided at that time not to discipline her. This triggered the pro-Palestinian, pro-Hamas mob into coming to every single board meeting since then. The pro-Palestinian, pro-Hamas mob not only has thanked Supervisor Bristman, but she continues to write in local papers misinformation regarding the war.

[02:13:21] The pro-Palestinian, pro-Hamas mob have redirected their lies against the Sheriff's Department, saying deputies are using Gestapo-like tactics to remove undocumented immigrants from our streets.

[02:13:36] Nothing can be further from the truth. On July 30, 2024, Melody Waldecker, a grandmother, was killed in a carjacking in Sterling by an illegal immigrant. Supervisor Briskman, never one to miss a controversy, demonstrated in front of Sheriff Chapman's office on April 1st, 2025, with 12 of her fellow misfits over the fact that Sheriff Chapman signed an agreement with ICE to place a detainer on criminal illegal immigrants for 48 hours.

[02:14:16] In the 60 years of living in Northern Virginia, I have never, and I mean never, seen a current elected official demonstrate against another current elected official one who has been elected by the citizens of loudon county the chief law enforcement official that has kept loudon county as one of the safest places to live thank you so just as i have not allowed things to be said that were not appropriate i'm not going to allow citizens who come into the room and speak no matter who thinks what about them or whether i agree with

[02:14:55] them or whether i don't agree with them to be called a mob they are constituents they have a right to come speak and they do and they are not a mob they are citizens and they are constituents and i will leave it at that eric hein followed by vulcan ball balaka followed by renee katani mr hein are you here eric hein okay um vulcan um balaka it's b-a-l-a-k-a are you here no okay

[02:15:29] renee katani these are all people who had signed up to speak on magnolia rose and they haven't counseled and so i'm just going to make sure they're not here before i before i go forward scott brock are you here scott brock are you here sylvia um bemon are you here to speak on yes ma'am After you will be John Myers, who I do know is here.

[02:15:59] Good evening, Ms. Bayman. Good evening, everyone. My name is Sylvia Bayman. I came to speak to Point 7, Commuter Bus Service Expansion to mitigate standees in Lowndon County.

[02:16:18] So good evening, everybody. My name is Sylvia Bayman, and I'm proud resident of Lowndon County and federal employee at the State Department. I want to begin by expressing my sincere gratitude for commuter bus service London County provides.

[02:16:34] The speed, comfort, and efficiency of commuter bus is a lifeline for many of us, especially federal workers commuting to D.C. under new mandates five days a week in person presence. After five years living in Arlington, moving to London County felt like a breath of fresh air.

[02:16:57] I chose this county for its quality of life. I deeply hope not to be forced leave due to unsustainable commuting conditions. Current challenges. I bought a house near 1 London in 2019 precisely because I could walk to the former bus stop and commute directly to work.

[02:17:20] Since that, stop was eliminated due to COVID. Now I drive every morning to Dallas Transit Center where I arrive at 5.10 a.m. just to get seat at the bus at 5.48 a.m. Often, we stand in dark, 45 minutes and cold, waiting for our seat.

[02:17:43] And on the way home, I walk over one mile, five stops, to make sure that I have a seat. Some days, buses are too full to stop. State Department is the last stop of the commuter bus in D.C.

[02:17:59] And by location of State Department, we are simply left behind. I don't mind. I love to walk. I take it like my daily exercise. But sometimes I go five stops and then comes a lady that is impaired or something and I have no heart and we stand.

[02:18:17] And it breaks my heart to see some people in the rain left behind. Who I represent. I'm not alone. I represent many federal workers and London taxpayers who leave home before sunrise.

[02:18:33] I wake up at 4, 4 at 30 a.m. every morning. work hard to support America's interests, and still try to be there for our families after a long day. Ms. Behan, I'm sorry to disturb you, but your time is up. If you'd like to email us your comments, you can do that, but your time is up, though.

[02:18:53] Oh, I just wanted to say if... No, Ms. Behan, your time is up, but we'd love to have you email the comments to us, okay? Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Where do I email it? You can email at bos at loudon.gov. or you can talk to talk to the clerk she can she can tell she can help you so much thank you very much thank you just second sir john myers you will be followed by um saeed kobesi followed by christy wick ready when you are good evening chair randall loudon board's advisors my name is john myers i'm the president of the land career firefighter association tonight i'm here to

[02:19:31] speak in favor of the board member initiative addressing lounge comparators and compensation philosophy. In 2017, Evergreen Solutions presented its class and comp findings for phase one. The study recommended adding additional comparators to help Loudoun's compensation philosophy be more market competitive. County staff agreed with the report and made recommendations to add the comparators. At finance, Board of Supervisors made a motion opposite of the recommendation to not include the additional comparators. The supervisor believed the county should not use these comparators because they had collective bargaining. As of picking comparators that allowed their employees a seat at the table was out of the question or rational. Another reason

[02:20:10] given was the additional comparators had a much higher cost of living than Loudoun. Well, currently, Loudoun has a higher cost of living than both Montgomery and Prince George's County. When Mr. Hemstreet was asked, who do we compare to? His answer was, we compete with the entire region. Supporting this BMI tonight will allow Loudoun to compare to these other localities that have collective bargaining, just like Loudoun now does, and eliminate the need to wait for and passed procedure. As far as compensation philosophy, Evergreen Solutions and county staff both recommended that the county should compensate its employees at 5% above the median to be competitive. The same supervisor then made a motion against staff and Evergreen's recommendations

[02:20:48] to include a philosophy of 95 to 105% of the median. Their belief was that there are positions that are easier to fill and didn't need to be filled at 100% of the median. The supervisor was quick to give examples of job titles that they believe deserve 105%, but would not give any examples of 95%. Why is that? It's because when you do that, you remind everyone this job title belongs to a real person. You put a name and a face to the role. You make it human. You make it matter. Just because a position has more applicants and it's easier to fill doesn't mean it deserves lesser compensation. Loud employees are the ambassadors of the county and strive to give

[02:21:26] citizens and guests the best experience in service i ask you tonight to pass this bmi giving loud a more comprehensive set of comparators and setting the standard that none of its employees will receive pay below the median thank you thank you mr myers and we're going to take up this item as soon as we finish public comments so it'd be very fast very very quickly um saeed kobesi followed by christy christy wick followed by rob sheldon saeed has not called in saeed has not called in so he does not called in and that was for magnolia rose it's

[02:22:00] christy wick um in who is also here for um uh who also signed up for magnolia rose are you in the room miss wick because if not our last speaker who signed up as well is rob sheldon are you in the room all right is there anybody on the phone um who would like to speak that we have missed no there There is not, okay, and we did not get anybody else who walked in and gave us any, okay, well, then that completes all of our public comments.

[02:22:34] I am going to go to item number 12 because I think we can get this item done fairly quickly before we take our dinner break. During our dinner break, we're going to take a closed session, so we're going to do item number 12, and then we're going to do appointments and nominations, and then we'll take our dinner break.

[02:22:50] Item number 12 is a BMI with Mr. Sains and I. We can probably go straight to a motion on that item. Mr. Sains, would you like to make the motion or would you like me to make the motion? Okay, we're ready when you are, sir. I move that the Board of Supervisors approve amendments to policy 5.3, Official Compensation Philosophy in Loudoun County Human Resources Handbook

[02:23:25] to expand the county's competitor market to include Montgomery County, Maryland, Frederick, Maryland, Prince George's County, Maryland, and the District of Columbia. I further move that the Board of Supervisors approve increasing the compensation philosophy target market in policy 5.3 to 100 to 105 percent.

[02:23:45] Second. Discussion on the motion. Mr. Sainz. Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, I believe this is definitely something we need to do. As it's been noted earlier, we are competing with all of our neighbors here in the DMV area to include Montgomery County, Frederick County, Prince George's County, and the district.

[02:24:05] And, of course, our competitors here in Northern Virginia area, Fairfax and Prince William counties and others as well. So I think this is the right step to take at this time and also to increase the compensation philosophy from where it was at 95 to 100 to 105.

[02:24:27] So hopefully my colleagues can support in this matter. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Brixman. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm really proud and happy to support this motion. I'm glad that we're rectifying this situation. I know that the chair and Supervisor Saines have been working on this for a really, really long time, and it's been a long time coming, so good job and happy to support.

[02:24:51] So I want to kind of reflect on some of the things that Mr. Meyer said. When this came up, the first time this came up, there had been a study done from NVTA, and it showed who was leaving Loudoun County to go to other places to work, and where were they going.

[02:25:09] At that time, I don't think it's true anymore, but at that time, the number one place people were leaving to go was Fairfax County. Number two was Prince George's County at that time. We were losing more people to Prince George's County than anywhere else in Northern Virginia except Fairfax County. The ideal that we would not have had as our comparator, the place where we're losing most of our employees, made no sense to me then.

[02:25:35] And the rationale given was that, well, they have collective bargaining and we don't. Well, now we do. The other discussion was the comparator. I actually made the motion to make it 100% to 105%, and that motion did not pass, and the motion that did pass was 95% to 105%.

[02:25:55] And I said at the time, if we set it at 95%, people are going to come in and be paid at 95%, and what that means is we're going to lose people, and it costs so much more money to retrain people, especially first responders, than to pay them with their worth and retain them.

[02:26:14] And so none of that made any sense to me, and it was done really for reasons that were never validly explained. And so this should have happened then. This is long overdue.

[02:26:31] I will say not just Mr. Sains' name, but on those six to three votes at that time, It was Kristin Umstead, Karan Sainz, and Phyllis Randall who were voting for those things at that time.

[02:26:47] And so this is -- it is apropos that this is back, and it is apropos that we are going to pay, especially our first responders, in ways that their counterparts in the Washington metro cog area are getting paid and we're going to do a comparator for those and the compensation of a hundred and hundred and five percent this is the it was correct to do then it is correct to do now thank you mr. Sains no I'll just

[02:27:22] simply say let's vote on this measure to continue to support our well loved and dedicated staff that we have here in Loudoun County we appreciate all the work that all of our staff does day in and day out for us here. Thank you.

[02:27:39] John, I'm not going to call you well-loved. I like you a lot, though. I'm just going to say that. Mr. Sainz made the motion and I second the motion. All the people who say aye. Aye. Opposed? That motion will pass 9-0. Supervisors, let's do our appointments and confirmations before we get before we uh either take a break and then reading the closed session i'm reading the closed session but let's do the appointments and confirmations and we will start uh if you

[02:28:11] have appointment please put your light on where did mine go miss glass thank you madam chair i nominate mr alan winn to serve as the broad-run representative on the transit advisory board okay and i i re-nominate douglas wagner to the affordable um dwelling unit advisory board he is the chair of that right now so i'm going to re-nominate him anything else anybody else seeing none so advisors do you need a break before we go to the closed session because do you need

[02:28:44] because i do we've been here the person that just got in the dance like no thank you very much i'm going to say let's take a five minute break and then come back and read in the closed session

[02:28:55] thank you okay mr. we are back and vice chair Turner would you please read us

[02:38:21] in the closed session I move that the Board of Supervisors recesses public meeting and enter into closed session pursuant to section 2.2 3711 a 7 of the Code of Virginia to consult with legal counsel pertaining to actual or probable litigation pertaining to the proposed golden Mars high voltage transmission lines motions made in second by miss Bricksman discussion on the motion? I have none. Seeing none, all people say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion carries 9 to 0

[02:38:56] and we are in closed session. Okay, we are back and Mr. Turner is going to read us out of closed

[03:41:39] session. I move that the closed session be adjourned, that the Board of Supervisors reconvene its 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 resolution certifying the closed session be adopted and reflected in the minutes of this public meeting.

[03:41:56] Second. Motion is made. Second by Supervisor Brixman. Discussion on that motion? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. That motion will pass 9 to 0. Would everybody please affirm? Ms. Glass? Affirm.

[03:42:14] And I affirm as well. Thank you very much. Mr. Sange, or Ms., who has a motion? Mr. Sange, do you have a motion? Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that the Board of Supervisors authorize and direct the county attorney to file a notice of participation in SCC docket number PUR-2025-0056, the 520 KV Golden to Mars Transmission Lines and the 2030 KV Lockridge and Sojourner Loops to represent the county's interest in such proceedings.

[03:42:43] Second. Did you say second Ms. Glass? I will give that second to Supervisor Glass. Mr. Kesha on the motion. Briefly I'll just say and you know to translate this this is authorizing the county attorney and the county staff to file with the sec regarding the mars golden lines that the county would like to participate in the hearing and we will advocate continue to advocate for undergrounding power lines for the for this route and we will ask the county to go down to the sec and ask them to have hearings here in louden county so we can have have our residents come out and the county officials come out and speak in regards to

[03:43:19] these power lines as well.

[03:43:43] Thank you. Okay. Mr. Turner. I'm sorry. Anybody else? Motion was made by Supervisor Sainz. Thank you by Supervisor Glass. All the people who say aye. Opposed? That motion will pass 9 to 0. I need to go upstairs for a second. I'm going to hand the meeting to Vice Chair Turner. Thank you, Madam Chair, colleagues. Let's do board comments. Supervisor Glass. Thank you, Vice Chair Turner. Let me start with disclosures. On Wednesday, April 9th, I met with representatives from DLA Piper and Cyrus One to discuss the Broadland Cyrus One data center project. On April 9th my staff met with representatives from Lennar and Walsh Colucci to discuss the Concora development. April 14th my staff met with representatives from Enterprise and Walsh Colucci to discuss the Ashburn Park and Rhyde housing project. April 14th I met with representatives

[03:44:22] from JK land holdings to discuss the cross mill data center application. April 15th I met with representatives from tri tech to discuss the Concord development I went to last Tuesday to a ribbon cutting which was an opening of a Loudoun County pickleball court it's inside it's for 24 hours there are three courts and a half court there and at the end I was able to play a little bit of pickleball with the instructor my first time and she said I was pretty good I was like I can do it

[03:45:01] for about 15 minutes and that's about it so on a more somber note I just want to just to give my condolences to the family that lost a young child this past weekend I just want you to know that I'm praying for you and praying for peace and for God to wrap

[03:45:41] his arms around you. That's it. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Glantz. Supervisor LeTourneau. Yeah, disclosures. My staff spoke with the applicant for the Crossmill Center application on, I believe, Friday, April 11th.

[03:45:58] Also, just for the public's awareness, I will be holding one of my Dulles direct town hall meetings on Monday, April 28th at 7 o'clock at Mercer Middle School. My guest for the town hall will be Buddy Reiser, and we'll be discussing Loudoun County's economy in light of the concerns about the federal workforce and data centers and many other issues.

[03:46:21] so certainly the public is welcome. I always give an update on everything else going on in the Dulles District and around the county, and we'll be happy to take questions and comments from citizens. That's it. Thank you. Supervisor Tacroni. Thank you, Vice Chair Turner. So for disclosures, on April 11th, I met with Chuck Hewn, Charles Yudd, and John Cox regarding the Cross Mill Data

[03:46:54] Center. For my board comments, I have a Red Hill Road community meeting on Monday, April 29th at 6 o'clock p.m. at Watson Mountain Middle School, and the purpose of this meeting is to listen to the community about the possible paving of Red Hill Road to a rural rustic road standard.

[03:47:14] The program provides a practical approach to paving Virginia's low-volume unpaved roads. When we propose an unpaved road, it is important to solicit the community's feedback. So the Red Hill community requested this meeting to discuss the program, and I look forward to obtaining the community's feedback.

[03:47:34] I am also doing a St. Louis door-to-door meet-and-greet on Saturday, May 3rd from 1 to 4, and this is an opportunity to meet the community where they are. This meeting is an alternative way to gather concerns from residents who are not always available to attend the many St. Louis community meetings Chair Randall and I have had.

[03:47:57] So this gives another opportunity for the community to discuss water quantity and quality concerns, traffic concerns, whatever's on their mind. I look forward to seeing them at their homes. So that's something new for me and I hope to do that in other communities as well.

[03:48:18] Earlier this month, I met with Regina Lloyd and her daughter Sarah and Larry Lloyd regarding Mickey Gordon Park. Chair Randall attended this meeting too to discuss documenting the history of Halls Park. I'm very excited to announce that baseball has returned to Mickey Gordon Park at the Pop Gordon Field.

[03:48:39] There is already a baseball team practicing at the park. I don't think it's American Legion, I think it's another team. So that's great news that people are interested in using the baseball field. And a big thank you to Steve Torpy and PRCS for restoring the baseball field.

[03:48:56] Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Armstrong. Thank you, Mr. Chair. On April 14th, I had a meeting with Randy Minshew, Charles Yudd, and Chuck Coon on the Cross Mill Center.

[03:49:17] And on that same date, I had an email exchange with Ben Wales on Magnolia Rose. I'd like to bring to the attention of the board something that happened after, well, actually during our last meeting out in the lobby and the garage.

[03:49:41] One of our citizen speakers who had spoken against Hamas and in support of Israel was leaving the building when one of the speakers who spoke in favor of the Palestinians accosted her and called her a Zionist pig and a Nazi and continued to follow her out to the parking garage.

[03:50:18] Fortunately, we have a really good security team here, and they were able to surround the individual who was saying Zionist pig and Nazi and prevent that individual from following the other speaker all the way to the other speaker's car.

[03:50:41] So I would just ask that people not choose to attack each other in the lobby, in the garage, between the two, And try to keep it as civil as possible because I would not want this board, these board meetings and this dais to become a platform for attacks on Jews or Israel.

[03:51:16] And I also don't want the lobby of this building and the garage to become another forum for attacking people on this issue. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Saints.

[03:51:33] Thank you, Vax Chair. Turner, on April 13th, I spoke to Ben Wales of Carada Partners in regards to Magnolia Rose. And then on April 14th, I actually spoke to one of the owners of potential Magnolia Rose regarding Magnolia Rose, obviously.

[03:51:56] And then in regards to my mandatory disclosures, I'd just like to call to attention to the citizens of Loudoun that our public library system is doing a food drive from April 19th to the 27th. They can bring perishable items to any of our library branches.

[03:52:14] It's in support of Loud and Hunger Relief. The Sterling Foundation is doing their annual scholarship drive. They will be awarding scholarships to a male and female student at Parkview, Dominion, and Potomac Falls.

[03:52:32] The application deadline is May 21st. I mean, excuse me, May 1st. So all seniors and senior parents, these are people, if you know anybody who has a senior, attending those three schools, let them know so they can apply and get some scholarship money for their next endeavors.

[03:52:48] Also, I want to call out May 16th, there's going to be a casino night benefiting Firefighter Brown Memorial Park that will be taking place at Fleur de Cuisine in Leesburg. So if you go to my newsletter, there's a QR code you can scan to get more detailed information on how to participate, but I definitely plan on attending myself.

[03:53:12] So again, Friday, May 16th, from 7 o'clock p.m. to 11 o'clock p.m. at Fleur de Cuisine in Leesburg, every casino night, benefiting the Firefighter Brown Memorial Park that is in Sterling, Virginia. And I would just like to go off of Supervisor Umstead's comments.

[03:53:31] I think you hopefully would mean your intention was to say that you want to see no violence of any kind to any groups whatsoever taking place in the boardroom, in the lobby, in the garage or anywhere. You know, everybody should be respectful for one another, their viewpoints and their issues that they champion.

[03:53:49] And let's have civil dialogues as adults and again, human beings. And hopefully we can all come to understandings and understand other viewpoints. but let's do it civilly people. So that'll be all. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Kirshner. Thank you, Vice Chair Turner. As far as disclosures are concerned, on April 7th, my staff met with applicants for Fox Chase Farms of Middleburg, and on April 10th, my staff went out to visit the Magnolia Rose site and meet with the applicants.

[03:54:18] The only board comments that I had because I wasn't here for the consent agenda is, first of all, thank the staff and this board for taking a very big step in moving forward the Western Loudon Recreational Complex. It's a big thing I've been advocating for.

[03:54:34] I know a number of folks on this board, including the chair and former supervisor, Tony Buffington, have been pushing forward for the west. And it's going to really help to clear up some of our roads as well because people will now, once this is completed, will be able to attend a major recreational center in the western part of the county and not have to travel into the eastern part.

[03:54:56] It's going to be the original facility was 83,000 square feet. Now we've moved over to 96,000. It will accommodate a lot of different things, including meeting spaces, classrooms, gymnasium, fitness center, and aquatic center, which is desperately needed in the western part of the county.

[03:55:12] a complete pool complex it's also going to increase the fields we all know we have a deficit in fields for diamond fields six rectangular fields and so I just thought I would be given I wasn't here for the consent would be remiss and not thanking my fellow supervisors and for all the staff who have worked on this and from for many years getting it to this point and taking a very big step forward tonight so thank you very much and those are my comments and I used one minute and 30 seconds thank you supervisor Brisbane yes thank you vice chair sayings um by way of disclosures i had conversations with colleen gillis and ben wales

[03:55:48] on april 10th and today regarding um respectively regarding magnolia rose i had a call with charles yudd from jk land holdings on 411 for cross mill center i joined scrape for the grape on saturday which was pretty amazing we destroyed over 400 000 eggs we believe at beacon hill at beacon hill in the golf club, and my staff as well joined. It was gross, so gross, like really gross,

[03:56:23] and I consider myself an outdoor person, but it was gross. I had the opportunity to join Save Soil Day and present our proclamation to them at Cascades Library. They had a lovely event with some speakers and a movie about how important soil is for us. I would like to invite everyone to join my first ever community bike ride on april 26 we'll be leaving from route 7 brewery in my district it will be taking an eight mile trek around the district mostly in bike lanes

[03:56:56] at a very safe route and this is being co-sponsored by bike loudon the brewery arthur's ice cream maverick bikes so it's it should be a lot of fun so join us on april 26 you can sign up from my website. It's a special kind of twisted, colleagues, for the President of the United States and this administration to use the specter of anti-Semitism and previous historical heinous acts rooted in the same to justify fascist actions against others in our society

[03:57:31] whom they want us to think are the problem. They want us to think that they are criminals and rapists and terrorists as a way to justify their fascist and autocratic desires. It's abhorrent that we have now seen bad faith arguments and misinformation to justify sending green card holders, visa holders, asylees, students, gay barbers who happen to have a crown tattoo to what amounts to an overseas unaccountable gulag in El Salvador, from which they may never return.

[03:58:01] Some of these people are being arrested for simply practicing their First Amendment rights, the right on which all others are dependent. Yesterday, his administration literally lied about a 9-0 ruling from our Supreme Court that directed them to bring home Kilmar Abrego Garcia, and even the president of El Salvador, who Trump admires, stated he would not help bring this man home.

[03:58:29] We should all be chilled to the bone by these actions, by these lies, and we are now literally in a constitutional crisis. This is un-American, undemocratic, and inhumane. Gun violence archives, three months into 2025, there have been 3,982 total gun deaths, 79 mass shootings.

[03:58:48] The deaths include 72 children under the age of 12 and 271 teens, ages 12 to 17. Thank you, Madam Chair. He was riveted by me. Thank you, Madam Chair.

[03:59:04] On Tuesday, April 8th, 2025, my staff and I met with Colin Gillis from Curata about West Belmont. On Thursday, April 10th, 2025, my staff and I met with Mike Romeo from Wash Kalushi and Jake Ballard from Rooney Parton to discuss the application for Belmont Covary zoning. On Thursday, April 10th, 2025, my staff and I met with Brian Clifford and Tony Calabrese from D.L.A. Piper and Todd House from Cyrus One to discuss Cyrus One and Broadlands.

[03:59:27] On Tuesday, April 15th, 2025, my staff and I spoke with Colleen Gillis from Carada to discuss the application for West Belmont. I, too, did scrape the grape on Saturday. Mine was not nearly as gross. No, I was up in Lovitzville out in the hinterland scraping, and mine was not nearly as gross.

[03:59:51] And Supervisor Glass, you have my deepest sympathy about having to play pickleball as part of this job. And my chief of staff said never, ever again say anything about pickleball, so I've already violated that, and now I'm in trouble with my staff.

[04:00:07] I sat on a panel today downtown at Data Center World's Annual Conference at the Washington Convention Center. It was very interesting, packed house, and a lot of really good questions about Loudoun County and data centers.

[04:00:24] And I was on a panel discussion the week prior to that about data centers at the Association of public service employees and again a very interesting discussion so that's all i am thank you manager thank you to me sir manager one other thing point of order if i can um i didn't i left at the last meeting i read us into two closed sessions but i left after the first closed session so i did not get to affirm either session i'd like to do that now on a firm so you affirm the one that you were at and you affirm the one that you were not up until the time that you left that's That's correct.

[04:01:01] That's what you're doing? That's what I'm doing. Okay. Wonderful. Thank you. I went up to Magnolia Rose two times to look around and talk to the applicants on Sunday. Supervisors, on May 15th, I'm going to hold my annual State of the County address.

[04:01:18] It would be in this room. Without objection, I'm going to use this room for my State of the County address on May 15th. There are so many things about this current administration that is very disturbing, and And if I start talking, I'm not sure I could finish. In fact, I know that I couldn't finish.

[04:01:34] But one thing I'm most disturbed about is the Secretary of Education. Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, who used to be over the WWE wrestling, did not know what an IEP was, an individualized education plan. And this past week, she said not once, not twice, but three times.

[04:01:52] Instead of saying AI, she said A1, as in the steak sauce. So our kids need to learn A-1. Listen, you know, for three times she said, she did.

[04:02:08] For all the talk about DEI and this and that, we have a Secretary of Defense who they literally have added somebody else to their not secure chain as they talk about war plans. and we have a secretary of education who doesn't know what an individualized service plan is and doesn't know artificial intelligence from steak sauce, these things are disturbing.

[04:02:33] And I'm not going to stay on it too long because what would be the point? But I am going to say that when we talk about people who are not qualified for these jobs, this is what this looks like. And actually, sometimes it's a bit funny, but sometimes it's awfully, awfully dangerous.

[04:02:53] and with the the secretary of education which I am most concerned about I'm very concerned about education I'm very very concerned about the voting rights and the SAVE Act that just passed that if it passed would disallow hundreds of thousands of women from voting so I will you know talk about these things as and when I as and when I see appropriate I do want to say that this is Holy Week and And this Friday is Good Friday, and this Sunday is my favorite holiday and my favorite time of the year, which is Easter.

[04:03:29] I think for me, Easter has such a special sacrosanct meaning, and I will say that I often try to say on Good Friday, which, by the way, I do a full 24-hour fast on Good Friday, and it's an amazing thing to do.

[04:03:50] But I also try to say on Easter what I'm very, very, very grateful about. And besides, obviously, my salvation and my family and my friends, I will say I'm so very grateful to have this position still. I still wake up every morning and I'm still thrilled to be chair of Loudoun County.

[04:04:06] So for everybody in Loudoun County, thank you for allowing me to serve as your county chair. And we're going to go to the next item. The next item, we're going to go on and do the bus items so we can get Ernie and them out the room. they jumped up real fast they jumped up real golly it's already like up on the screen and everything okay then all right well I guess I should ask you guys supervisors I do think because they're because the emails that went back around back and forth today actually I thought I was

[04:04:44] clear and then and then we realized I wasn't and they were kind of confusing all the things going back I think we need the presentation because I think we need to level set because I don't I do not believe that we all have the same understanding so let's go and do the presentation. Thank you madam chair members of the board appreciate the opportunity this evening as you may recall back on March 10th during the budget workshop we had some discussion about the increased standees on our commuter buses and at that time we committed to bringing back to the board our recommendations to resolve them if we observed sustained overcrowding on our commuter buses. Well it throughout March and into April that was

[04:05:22] absolutely a sustained phenomena and has not decreased so staff has put together a very viable mitigation strategy to address that and that's what we'll we'd like to present to you all this evening. If you will indulge us we would like to level kind of level set the the where we've been and why we're here now just to kind of frame really just the last year. Back in May of last year, the board had the transit summit. At that point in time, ridership was exceedingly low. And so the board agreed to

[04:06:00] continue suspending the commuter bus revenue neutrality policy because, again, we did not have ridership to sustain that. We eliminated 10 underperforming routes. That was routes that were less than 10 riders on the bus per day. We agreed to surplus 16 commuter buses and that was still kind of in hold until the board made a decision about the feasibility study to pilot bringing commuter buses into Loudoun for our workforce. And the decision was discussed and forwarded on to increase the commuter bus fare from $10 to $11 in FY25 and to increase

[04:06:38] the bus fare in FY 26 to $12, which would occur actually in December 2026. So that was discussed in May almost a year ago. It's a very different picture than what we have today. In fall, we submitted our budget to the board, and again, it was looking at the underperforming routes and the very low ridership.

[04:06:59] In December, those actions were affected. We effectively cut those 10 routes that were underperforming. We increased the fee from $10 to $11. And in December, the Finance Committee agreed or recommended that we implement the commuter bus pilot projects, which are coming in from Frederick and from Dale City.

[04:07:21] And that was actually approved and ratified during your budget process. That was December 10. January 20th, it changed. We were notified of the Federal Return to Work Directive, and we started seeing the signs of that in very late February.

[04:07:43] March, we saw significant increases in commuter bus ridership, and the early part of April, it continues. We have a lot of statistics that we can share with you in this presentation, which Scott will dive into. but the questions that you asked us on March 10th were what changes have occurred in the commuter bus ridership since the federal workers have been returning into in-person work we have that information for you and is a transit services seeing a growing need for additional routes to accommodate these changes simply that answer is yes so we at this point would like to kind of go over some of those details and and then certainly entertain any questions

[04:08:21] comments and direction from the board Scott thank you so on the screen right now is a chart of where we have been since the start of FY25 and ridership as you can see has significantly increased essentially doubled since July of 2024 through March of 2025 the point of note for us is or for the transit staff and planning is the average ridership per trip which is the second column from the right all the way down at the bottom you can see it's all the way up to 38 Pre-pandemic, that was 34.

[04:09:02] So we were riding 34 per day on an average bus pre-pandemic. And the other big issue that sticks out with us is the number of buses with standees. We basically had none all the way up through February, and then it skyrocketed in March. It's continuing to have that same trend in April.

[04:09:24] So what we did was took a look at FY26 and said, okay, based on the current ridership, what would our revenue neutrality look like? And essentially we've got -- and that would be including adding routes to offset the standees.

[04:09:40] So essentially the projected costs are about $5.9 million. You see the revenues and the projected ridership is $358,000. So we're at about $14 one-way trip starting from July 1 if we were to be revenue neutral. So Madam Chair, if I could just jump in here a quick moment.

[04:09:57] A lot of questions have been asked why are we suggesting and recommending going -- returning to revenue neutrality? So right now, the board is subsidizing the commuter bus service to the tune of about $2.7 million of local tax funding for, certainly for 26.

[04:10:16] It's a little bit less than that for 25. And the conversations that rightfully warranted the waiving of the revenue neutrality policy was because the ridership wasn't there. And the board's conversations were about, you know, always looking to get back to that.

[04:10:36] when ridership returned so uh it is incumbent upon staff to bring to the board uh recommendations that are consistent with your historic policy approach and and and recommendations and this is what we're doing tonight ridership is back um how how the board chooses to address that we just want to present you the information um but it is clearly uh ridership is back and the the tone of the conversations and the the the thrust of it is when it is back it we should strive again for revenue neutrality. Just a point of clarification. It was COVID? Yes, ma'am. Okay. Yes, and that's when the

[04:11:14] revenue neutrality waiver or policy was waived. I don't know, did you want to add into that? Yes, yes. Thank you, Mr. Emstreet. The other major contributing factor to this was in the time of revenue neutrality when it was waived metro also came online um and the you know the board has made significant investments into uh bringing uh metro into loudon as a primary means of commuting

[04:11:48] support uh the county invests in excess of 30 million dollars a year uh to ensure that that is a viable option for commuters um and so there the there is now a need to find balance between those two viable solutions recognizing that that can be a little bit delicate um we we do believe that it is appropriate for us as staff to bring back to you the scenarios that say ridership is up rail is in place um revenue neutrality is a viable option for consideration uh and with that

[04:12:25] the revenue neutrality proposals as as scott has indicated um does not affect fy 2025 our proposal um if fy25 the increased fares that we're receiving due to the ridership can cover uh the proposal of increased um uh routes however in 26 if we were to achieve revenue neutrality that would bring it up to 14 per one-way trip it would be in december of 2026 it goes to 12 per previous board action this would move it a little bit earlier what our proposal is effective

[04:13:04] of July 1, move it to 14. That would get it to revenue neutral and the 2.7 million of local tax fund that is currently applied in '26 would not be needed as mentioned in that last bullet there. So that kind of frames why staff is bringing that to you for your consideration.

[04:13:25] And I think that I think I'll be quiet at this point and let Scott kind of take that. So I would say that when you go back just one more time, if you can go back one more time, that $14 one-way is actually a total of net of $28 per day.

[04:13:44] Right now they are at $22 per day, and if they're going back and forth, in December they will go to $24 a day. Metro was approximately, if you did the furthest extent run of Metro and you parked at our garages, that's about $19. So right now they're at $22 for this concierge service.

[04:14:02] Metro's at $19. So I just want to put all those factors in front of you. All right, Scott, I'm going to now try to be quiet. We're on the last slide. It's good. FY26, the fiscal impact, if we went with an alternate solution of not being revenue neutral, essentially, if we left the fares exactly as they are already set today, where they would turn to $12 in December, the projection is the additional operating costs would be covered by the fares as well that are not budgeted in FY26.

[04:14:39] The LTF would still remain at 2.7 because of the additional routes being added in. So that's where we would stand in the alternate ride. And that's also assuming ridership remains steady all through FY26.

[04:14:57] So with that, the staff recommendation is, you want to take it? Okay. The revenue neutrality policy for fiscal year 26 is reinstated. The commuter bus fares are pushed to $14 for July 1.

[04:15:16] We would retain nine commuter buses previously authorized for surplus. Estimate and appropriate $101,000 of commuter bus fare revenue for the Department of General Services in 25 to offset the cost of the additional services in FY25.

[04:15:33] And with that, we're open for questions. Okay. It's hard to do this in a motion, Supervisors, because there's a lot going on. It's a countywide issue. I would put the motion on the table, and then we would go from there and see where we go.

[04:15:50] But what I think I'll do is this. I'm going to divide the motion in the package, and then when I get to the second part of the motion, we can discuss a little more. So let's try just doing this. I move the Board of Supervisors. Point of clarification, Madam Chair.

[04:16:06] I thought you were going to go straight to the alternative motion from Supervisor Letourneau and I. I'm not because of what, that's why I'm not. You've changed your mind? Because of what, because I told you before this meeting, I did not understand what Mr. Brown told me when I came on this board, when I came on the dais today.

[04:16:25] It was a different understanding, so I'm not doing that. So I'm going to do this. I move the board of supervisors reinstate the commuter bus revenue neutrality policy. That's the only motion I'm going to make right now. Okay.

[04:16:43] There's a motion in a second. So just doing this part, just reinstating it, reinstating it doesn't say at what level and how fast. So this could be, we reinstated, so the next part of the motion could be, we reinstated over the next five years.

[04:16:59] We go first to $12 and then the $13 and then the $14. This goal, this part is just that we are going to reinstate the net neutrality policy. I purposely did not say the second part of how much and when, because those are two different things.

[04:17:16] Whether or not we restate it, and I think we should, because I do not think we should be subsidizing this commuter bus, is different than how we're going to do it and when we're going to do it. That's why I split this motion in half to say, first, let's do it, and then the second part of the motion can be, we can talk about with Ms. Bricksman and Mr. LeTurner and all that, how we get there. So that's why I split the motion in this way. Ms. Bricksman?

[04:17:47] Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a couple questions for staff. The way this motion reads, though, we will de facto have to go to $14, correct? So the way the motion was proposed by the Chair, it simply says reinstate, but doesn't say when the motion that's presented in the packet does say for fiscal year 2026 but I believe that the chair I literally didn't say that so well but I'm asking the question because to me if we decide tonight that we have to go back to revenue neutral then automatic in my mind automatically takes us to 14 but you're saying it doesn't it would require the board

[04:18:27] to have follow-on actions to define when that occurs but didn't we decide during the transit summit that we would raise the rates a dollar per year or dollar every 12 months until we get to revenue neutrality that's what we decided the there are only two actions taken relative to those was one in 25 and one in 26 with no discussion about getting to revenue neutrality as that being the game or as that being the end game it was raise it 11 to 2 from 10 to 11 and 25 okay and then from 11 to 12 in december um so we had only decided two raises at the

[04:19:02] transit summit okay okay um okay uh it seems to me that how we get there i guess we can decide in the next motion as madam chair is saying um the other thing i wanted to address you guys started talking about metro and and i kind of get the um i kind of get the idea or the concept and i support the concept of trying to encourage folks to go ride metro but i just did a quick search and metro

[04:19:37] wasn't named once in this item as a reason why we want to maybe make those rates a little higher so that we encourage them to ride Metro. I kind of buy that theory, but also there are areas in this county where Metro is really not accessible at all, my district being one of them. I've tried it. Honestly, I've tried to ride Metro to D.C., and it's really not efficient, and it's not timely at all so a lot of folks in districts where you don't have real close access to metro or metro bus

[04:20:12] that's not going to work for them and the reason that supervisor letourneau and i came up with the alternate motion was so that we didn't shock people with a 14 rate increase so i just want to make sure we're not doing that and then then we can move on to another motion so um thank you thank you madam chair uh mr crony yeah thank you chair randall so i i was kind of surprised at the 2.7 subsidy how much are we subsidizing the pilot from outside the county i want to say

[04:20:50] it was at 1.8 i thought yeah well there's two different pilots that's what i'm trying to register it in my head i think the first pilot was somewhere around 1.7 i i honestly we'd have to come back to you on that number i don't have that number off the top of my head those are those are not our residents you know bringing people in from frederick and dale city to loudon so yeah i i just think we ought to think about you know these are our residents that are riding the commuter bus and going to 14 i would agree would be kind of a shock for our residents can you

[04:21:24] reiterate what um what metro costs including um the costs for the parking yes ma'am so the the furthest extent metro ride if you're going from into the line to in line for this point is about $675 for that ride. That's one way, $675. And then it's just under $495 a day for our parking garage. And then, so if you put those together, it's about $19 per day. That's the cost to run Metro. And the county invests a little over $30 million into the infrastructure that we've built

[04:22:02] or support for that. Right. Are we going to reopen any of the closed lots? I know we talked about that, talking about infrastructure, the commuter lots that we closed. Is there any proposal for that? So the demand for commuter services is not requiring additional lots. It's requiring additional routes out of those in very specific and discrete times. And so we fortunately have some extraordinary transit planners and modeling that they put into it, and they know exactly how line those up to make sure that uh they're getting to those those pinch points okay um

[04:22:41] we have certainly had a number of a few requests to to add new lots um that is not an economically viable or um ridership maximizer so have we looked into i know we were going to look at transitioning from the dullest transit center to the ashburn south metro rail garage have we looked into that we we discussed it at the summit i believe um but we did not pursue that as a viable option at that time because we didn't have the ridership to demand it okay but now we do okay hopefully that can come back because i know we're paying rent for that right for the mwa garage or

[04:23:19] not the mwa um surface lot yes so the county made some capital investments on it uh and we have a lease that we'd have to break and forego those investments that we made on that yes ma'am okay thank you thank you mr lechardo yeah i guess i'm a little i don't necessarily disagree with this approach of that motion because the alternate motion specifically says that we'll increase one-way fares by a dollar until revenue neutrality has been reached so it gives the goal of revenue neutrality so i don't see it necessary to adopt a separate standalone thing saying revenue neutrality

[04:24:00] it just seems kind of unnecessary and maybe a little bit confusing so um i mean we can discuss what revenue neutrality means and when we get there but the reality is that number could change again right like if ridership continues to increase then the number to get to revenue neutrality is going to go down again right that number is absolutely subject to ridership fares grant funding all of the above that's that comes in and changes every year so yes point because Because grant funding is a whole other discussion that could push it in the opposite direction.

[04:24:34] So I guess the point is I almost think the board is going to have to just decide this periodically whether we support revenue neutrality or not. And, you know, at least what we can do is not do it right away because that's the shock of the $14. Establish sort of this path to try to get there, but we're going to have to end up revisiting this.

[04:24:54] And we do annually in our budget anyway. Like we have these budget check-ins. There is a subsidy number that's in the budget every year. We can adjust it every year, depending on what we think it is. So I think that's just kind of the better approach than just saying, I mean, I'm fine with saying, like, our goal is to get back to revenue neutrality.

[04:25:11] It's my goal, too. But I don't know that I want to adopt it as policy at this moment without defining it. So I think I just probably wouldn't support this motion. Mr. Sainz. Thank you, Madam Chair. So which are our routes that are seeing the increase in ridership?

[04:25:32] mostly routes coming from the west so from harmony to leesburg to the dullest transit center in are really seeing the biggest the biggest increases um it's not any one of them because most of the routes go through all three of those park and ride lots it's it's a combination combination okay got you it's like a you stop here then stop here and and so on and i'm assuming it's the same thing coming back in the in the afternoon that's correct and so are we having uh you know i'm hearing series and obviously i've forwarded i'm sure my colleagues have been forwarding a lot of the emails that we're receiving from residents where they as you noted earlier that yes people are standing

[04:26:12] um in the aisle and are they standing like the whole ride so say from loudon to dc or dc back to loud is it the whole ride or is it just partial generally speaking there's they're standing from 19th and e or 19th street depending on where they fell up um to the first stop in loudon county when there's generally enough people get off to wow clear seats for the rest of the ride and i know that's probably not legal or shouldn't be so okay yeah so we definitely need to do something um and and get to get those riders into seats um and of course you know we have options and that's

[04:26:49] what was the goal because not everybody likes taking the metro and everybody likes taking the long haul buses because i i personally take the metro when i can when i'm going to the city i wouldn't take the long haul bus but then one of my colleagues actually does take the the bus and he says he loves it um and has had to stand up a few times and share those stories with me um so i will continue to listen to the conversation and see where we're where we go with these motions but we definitely need to bring these buses back um so while i still have time do we have these buses readily available right now or do we have to retrofit or call them back or anything of that

[04:27:24] nature we have them readily available to come back and and start providing service and do we have the the bus the drivers ready to go we do I'm gonna caveat this that we do for the few that we're going to need to offset the existing standee issue if we get beyond this we're going to need more okay and obviously I know Keolis does the day-to-day and recruiting efforts and all that stuff did they do we know if they kill the circulator from DC was canceled a few months back did they

[04:28:01] collect resumes and and have like a list of folks ready to go um saying stick be on standby and go through that list or whatever they plan on doing most of our partners regional partners all are reached out to those drivers immediately when that happened okay and so supervisor santa know you're aware of that this because of your hr past they try to keep a constant pipeline of drivers in training and we mentioned to the board before it takes 45 to 60 days to get a driver onboarded trained and operational so the three uh drivers or the number of drivers that we're looking at here

[04:28:38] that keolis has identified for early may they were already in the pipeline to be the that that driver set for normal attrition and so we were able to identify those they will continue that process and they certainly have a heightened awareness as do we all of the potential need our transit planners have looked very closely at this and they've modeled extensively what the pain points are and how they would be mitigated so but they're proposing these couple routes in the morning couple routes in the evening um we have those resources to launch that i think may 5th is the

[04:29:12] date that they're targeting right now to to get that rolling out good thank you mr turner thank you manager i just want to drill down the definition of revenue neutrality so the county has invested a certain capital expense in building the transit system correct we bought the buses we built the system. That was a capital expenditure that came up in a prior, but probably CIP that built the system to start with. So when we say revenue neutrality, we're talking revenue neutrality for our daily operations costs. If we hit revenue neutrality, we are paying for the daily operation

[04:29:48] of the system through fares. The $14 is revenue neutrality for the all-in capital costs, everything to operate. That's everything. So the whole system is revenue neutral at $14. If we drop off the $14 and we stay on the schedule we're on right now with the $2.7 million in local tax funding, we're essentially sharing the burden of operating the transit system to every taxpayer incrementally.

[04:30:16] Whereas if we hit revenue neutrality at $14 on 1 July, then suddenly the burden, that entire burden of operating the system shifts to those people who actually use the system only. Correct? I understand that. So with one caveat, sir, whenever we get grants, so the buses are purchased with a significant grant contribution from the state, as well as if we continue to be fortunate to receive operational grants from the state, that is a contributory as well.

[04:30:44] So that's part of that total package. So it's not exclusively on the users of that. They are subsidized by grants that we are successful to. Except my next question then would be, is the $14 reflective of the infusion of the grant money?

[04:31:00] Yes. Okay, that's what I thought. All right, so if we continue to operate the way we're operating right now, then we're amortizing some portion of the cost of the transit system to all the taxpayers in Loudoun County until we hit revenue neutrality two years hence, correct?

[04:31:20] Vice going to $14 right now and shifting the burden of the system completely on the people who use the system right now. That's our option. Yes, sir. Staff's recommendation is to make that shift in July. I believe one of the alternate proposals is to our alternate number two, which I believe has turned into a version of the alternate item, would phase that out over a series of years.

[04:31:41] Phase? Phase that in over a series of years. Okay, got it. All right. So just to be clear here, we can address the immediate increase in ridership, whether we go to $14 or not. We have the capacity and the resources to address the additional buses, the additional drivers, and meet this demand.

[04:32:01] If we don't go to $14 by 1 July, we are absorbing that cost as part of operating at the higher level. We're absorbing that and spreading that extra cost out among all the taxpayers. At this time, actually, the additional services, because of the additional ridership, the additional fair revenue accumulated will offset those costs.

[04:32:26] Okay. Good. Thank you. I am so surprised that we've had a long discussion about this. All I have said was we're going to go back to revenue neutrality. I didn't say how or when so we can be flexible. And Mr. Turner -- I mean, Mr. Letourneau, the reason I'm putting this forward is because of the discussion we just had.

[04:32:42] if our goals to get there are goals to get there, some people's goals might not be to get there with a motion that you and Ms. Bricksman are bringing. Some people's goals are to maybe to get there with the motion that staff is bringing. Some people's goals may be to get there another way, but everyone's goal is still to get to revenue neutrality, which really is all this motion is saying.

[04:33:02] All this motion's doing is giving us flexibility to get to revenue neutrality. That's all this is doing. Nothing more, nothing less. It's just not that deep. There was quite some time ago, and Mr. Brose, you might remember when, a study for people who were riding the commuter buses, and they were asked if the commuter buses were not available, would you ride the metro?

[04:33:26] The vast majority of them said no. The vast majority of them said they would get in their cars, because the vast majority of these riders can't afford to ride the commuter bus. Are their employers paying for them to ride the commuter bus? A lot of them are being paid for by their employers.

[04:33:43] So we should not assume that if these people, if they don't ride the commuter bus, they're going to get on Metro. They're not. They're going to get in their cars and clog up the roads a little bit more. The fact that, as Mr. Sains pointed out, the fact that we have people standing and we need more buses speaks to the demand for this bus system.

[04:34:05] That's what it does. This is the one time that I've been in parades, people have come out the audience, out the crowd in the parades and said, please don't take a parade to the commuter bus system. People want this bus system, and I have fought for a long time to keep this bus system, even when there was a discussion about it going away when Metro was approved.

[04:34:26] So I am very committed to this bus system, but I'm also committed to not subsidizing this bus system by people who would not even get on the Metro. They would get in their cars. Why would we subsidize this bus system, the commuter bus system for this population?

[04:34:42] So $14 all at once is a lot. That's going there pretty fast. And so maybe there's a way to get there slower and have different options. But the idea that we shouldn't be trying to get back to revenue neutrality is foreign to me.

[04:34:58] Of course, that should be our goal, in my opinion. Thus, that's all this motion is doing. So I made the motion. Supervisor Glass seconded the motion. All in favor please say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed. That motion will pass 7-2 with Mr. Letourneau and Ms. Bricksman voting against getting back to revenue neutrality.

[04:35:21] So the next part of the motion. So I'm going to make this motion only because it's in the package. That's it. If no one seconds the motion, it's fine. But staff put the motion forward, so I'm going to make the motion, and then I'll go to either Ms. Brickson or Ms. Latourne, I'm not sure which one you're going to go to, for the alternate motion. The packet motion is, the revenue neutrality policy will be for fiscal year 2026 and direct staff to execute the necessary budget adjustments, adjust the one-way commuter bus fares to $14 effective on July 1st, 2025, retain nine commuter buses previously authorized

[04:35:59] for surplus and estimate an appropriate 101 simple commuter, excuse me, excuse me, bus fair revenue for the Department of General Services in fiscal year 25. Okay, that motion was made and seconded.

[04:36:17] I have no opening. I didn't think it was going to be seconded, actually. I think, I actually think that, you know, the staff makes a motion, I'm going to try to respect that. I actually think $14 is a lot to jump to right away. And so I made the motion out of respect to staff, but I think $14 is a bit much to jump to right away.

[04:36:39] But let's discuss this motion since it's on the table now. So anybody else want to discuss this motion? Okay. All in favor please say aye. Opposed? Aye. That motion will fail. Eight to one.

[04:36:55] Who's making the motion? Miss Bricksman, would you like to make a motion? Yes. I move that the Board of Supervisors, well this says maintain the revenue neutrality policy waiver, so we just voted not to do that, correct? So I have to adjust this motion, colleagues. So I move the Board of Supervisors increase the one-way.

[04:37:25] Madam Chair. Yes. I think Supervisor Brisbane, if I may, you just need to say fiscal 27 or later instead of fiscal 26. I move the Board of Supervisors increase the one-way fare in the commuter bus service starting in FY27.

[04:37:42] No, I'm saying the revenue neutrality statement, instead of saying restored revenue neutrality in fiscal 26. Oh, do it in 27. It would just say FY27 or later. Or later, okay. Right, and then you would go to the rest of your motion. So I move the Board of Supervisors continue the commuter bus revenue neutrality policy until fiscal year 27 or later?

[04:38:08] No, that's not right, Mr. M. Street. So, Chair Randall's motion was to reinstate fiscal... No, no, I didn't say... No, no, it wasn't. My motion was simply to reinstate the commuter bus system to get back to revenue neutrality.

[04:38:25] I didn't say when. That's what the alternative motion said that as well. That's what your motion was, which is what was approved by the board. So, I'm just saying the motion, your motion would now read, I move that the Board of Supervisors continue the commuter bus revenue neutrality policy beginning in FY27 or later, and then you would read the rest of your motion.

[04:38:47] Fiscal year, FY27. Correct. Fiscal year, not calendar year. You think I should delete the word waiver? Yes, because you've already passed, so you're the fiscal neutrality, the fiscal neutrality, revenue neutrality policy would begin in FY27 or later.

[04:39:07] well no she said it's not going to begin until we want to begin it she said she wasn't putting a time barrier on it you're modifying that and by setting the time frame now you are your motion does well the original motion said increase the fares by one dollar per fiscal year starting in fy27 until revenue neutrality has been reached so with this motion it gave us leeway to have neutrality reached in 27 28 29 correct the way i've worded it you're saying the same thing it's

[04:39:43] just and it's just saying it so i should say fy 27 or later correct okay all right um let me try this again point of clarification to michael how about implement the revenue neutrality policy in fy 27 or later that would work that sounds good is that okay mr hemstreet yes okay i move that the board of supervisors implement the revenue neutrality policy starting in fiscal year 27 or

[04:40:15] later. Retain the nine community buses previously authorized for surplus and estimate and appropriate $101,000 of commuter bus fare revenue for the Department of General Services in FY 2025 and direct staff to prepare an item to evaluate revenue neutrality for FY27. Second. Thank you. Did you in did you intend to increase the fare to $12 that that has already been approved by the board in December that was done during our our transit summit so that can stay on in December that's

[04:40:53] staying and we can cover those expenses for fiscal year 26 yeah you don't need for it to start in July no sir since we don't have the revenue requirement in July we're fine with it not starting in July. Okay. If I might ask staff a quick question, with this plan of implementation, do you know what the projected LTF might be for fiscal year 2027? Say we only raise it to 13.

[04:41:29] We would have to do more analysis. I don't want to give you any kind of decent numbers because what's going to drive that is what grants we get and how ridership stays, if it stays strong, it's going to substantially reduce the amount of... That's what I thought. And contract rates, I need to mention that.

[04:41:47] We're getting ready to go into renegotiation of contract rates, which changes a lot of things. So I'm not at all comfortable giving you a number on that at this time, Ms. Gishman. Okay. I guess, you know, in general, I don't have an issue with subsidizing a public service.

[04:42:07] Nobody expects the riders of Metro to fully pay for Metro. I mean, there's certain infusions that go into Metro to provide that public service. There is a rider fee. I haven't seen the numbers. The chair might be correct in that folks would be willing to pay, that the threshold might be up to $28 a day.

[04:42:30] I don't know, and staff, you can bring it to me at some point if I've seen this and I don't remember it, but I don't know that we have seen any data that shows us that, number one, that employers are paying for this.

[04:42:47] I assume some of them are, but some of them may not be. I don't know that I've seen data that folks who ride the commuter buses are necessarily not going to feel it if the rate immediately goes up to $14 or if we go to revenue.

[04:43:04] I don't know if I've seen the data that, I don't want to use the term wealthy, but it's the only term I'm coming up with, that people can necessarily afford an expensive $30, $28, $30 round trip bus every day of the week all year long, and it wouldn't be hurting them.

[04:43:25] And we know that inflation is not necessarily going down. We know that everyone's worried about costs and expenses. So I like this plan that we're going to go to $12 starting in December. We'll go up and we'll bring it back to us in fiscal year 27, maybe in another year, and we can evaluate how it's going.

[04:43:45] I think that the increased ridership, especially with nine additional buses, really might reduce that $2.7 million that we've had to put in this coming fiscal year. And so I'll be interested in learning those numbers. And I would appreciate my colleagues' support on this. Thank you.

[04:44:02] Mr. Letourneau. Thank you. Maybe I'll just start for a question for Supervisor Brisbane through the chair. So what got dropped in this was the $1 per year. Yes. Do we think that it is necessary to say fare should increase at that increment starting in FY27, or would you wish to just keep it?

[04:44:22] I would prefer, because we're going to evaluate it. It's coming back for evaluation anyway, so then we can decide. Yeah, that would be my intention. Okay, so what this does is just basically, despite the rigmarole we just went through, It keeps the revenue neutrality policy really in place for two years, which allows us – waiver – which allows us to not shock the system, basically.

[04:44:45] And the real issue I had with it was that we went through a whole process. We announced fare changes. We announced fare increases. I don't think it's fair to people to then – who, frankly, make plans kind of longer term based on what their commute's going to cost and things like that – then suddenly change it especially effective July 1 when it's April when we just changed it for January and we've already told them we're going to change it again for December so and it's you know at that point it would be a from the current which is 11 it would be a three dollar increase on 11 dollars you know rough math that's like almost 30 percent increase you know so that's

[04:45:21] too much so we were really just trying to come up with a way to slow it down while getting us eventually to revenue neutrality um but you know not having to do so immediately so uh you know i think this makes sense we are subsidizing it a little bit for for this period of time we can have time to talk about it um so as i understand it there are no additional routes coming into the dullest south stops from this nine correct because i have gotten my own complaints about standing coming from riders in that area not a lot but a few uh i have to look but i believe there is one

[04:46:00] there is one okay that's what i was trying to get earlier in the day was exactly which routes and the answer i think was was none of those but that we got back anyway we just kept the level we just kept it at a high level of where where we're doing we're trying to offset the we're trying to strategically place it would be helpful if you could follow up with that because if since i have contacted by residents who are complaining about standing as well i would like to be able to say that we're trying to address it and i'm sure everybody would depending on where your riders are you know so so we know like where we're actually adding the routes it would be helpful and if i could real quick in all fairness we really didn't know what's going to happen until

[04:46:39] tonight pass through and we could make a decision on where we could go with the budgeting and everything and i know this was asked but you think you can get drivers quickly enough to start this effective until was it july 1 or a couple we we can get enough drivers to support a couple of routes in early may beyond that we're going to we're going to have to start from scratch hiring drivers okay and if i may madam chair just a little bit of a follow-on to supervise letourneau um and when you ask the uh in your area are you referring to the dulles transit center specifically are you referring to me i'm referring to eastgate and stone rich right okay

[04:47:18] just want to make sure i had that clear thank you mr turner thank you madam chair now i was i'm confused i want to make sure i got it right so chair randall's motion reinstated the commuter bus revenue neutrality policy period supervisor briskman's motion directs the board the staff to implement the revenue neutrality policy not later than fy 20 or fy 27 or later and you already have a schedule that will achieve revenue neutrality by 27 that was instituted at the transit summit?

[04:47:55] Yes, sir. We have two years of increases that were not directly based on revenue or ridership projections. They moved us toward that goal, so we will need to come back to you in the 2027 budget process with more data, more analysis, better understanding of what revenues we will be getting or projecting and estimating to better articulate what revenue neutrality looks like 27 forward okay got that but we have a schedule right now we are going to increase fares right now based on prior direction or we're going to leave them where they are the the only approved increase at this juncture is in december 2025 from going up to eleven dollars to

[04:48:35] twelve dollars okay so that's still in place yes sir okay um um well i had another question that was really important one i know i mean you're all gonna have to bear with me i want to ask this question i'm going to watch the clock run down here um uh oh okay so what we've just decided right now we are going to begin to be able to perceive palpable relief of the overcrowding by early may yes sir they should start feeling that ease of that pain and then it will get progressively better after that presumably depends on ridership right right we'll add

[04:49:13] the buses and then depending on where ridership goes from there okay so this is going to be an iterative process it will but this gives staff the ability and the authority to make those adjustments with your with your direction we can have the professionals align those routes to make sure that they are addressing uh the known um points as they're occurring so and staff has done this previously they they have that flexibility under the current construct we did not have that this gives us those authorities to do okay and the whole success of everything we just talked about depends on president trump i'm sorry you don't have to answer that you don't have to answer that You don't have to answer that.

[04:49:48] It's a rhetorical question. That's all I have. Thank you. I wasn't. So I actually don't believe we should be subsidizing this. I'm going to disagree that I do mind. I wouldn't mind subsidizing this service. I can think of a lot more things I'd rather spend this $2 million on than subsidizing.

[04:50:06] I would put it in our housing trust fund. I would give it to our nonprofits. There's a lot of things. I mean, we have a bus service, an intra-county bus service that doesn't cost anything right now. People could get on the metro if they want to, but we can't subsidize everything. And I would have a lot of issues subsidizing this service.

[04:50:25] If we have grants and things that we find and we see, great, let us know. We can go with this for now, but I wanted this to be a little more fluid if needed. We want to have the goal to get back to the revenue neutral, but if we, as different things come in and different information is given to us, we may change.

[04:50:46] when and how we adjust the bus fare while still with the goal of achieving revenue neutrality. But I will tell you, this service is not a service I want to ever subsidize.

[04:51:02] I don't want to shock them all at once, because I think going from 11 to 14 is a shock, especially in that shorter period of time. So I wouldn't want to do that. But there's no way in the world that in the end, this is a service I want to subsidize. Clearly, this is a service of very high demand, which is why we're having this conversation.

[04:51:23] And if you have this high of demand, and you have, and truthfully, I don't know that every single person is paying this every day. Some people may work from home some days. Some people may not go in. I don't know what they're doing. And I did not say that jobs are covering them.

[04:51:40] I said that's possible. But what I do know, I do know for a fact that when asked, would you, if this wasn't here, would you get on the Metro, the vast majority of people who wrote this service said no, they wouldn't get in their car. That much I know for a fact. And so people who are not even willing to get on the Metro, I'm not subsidizing this service for them.

[04:51:58] That's just not, that's not something I think we need to do. And so I'll support this motion. And then as, you know, as we learn new things, if we get scholarship grant money, if we have a whole lot of people going back to work or less people going back to work because what's going on in the federal government, all kind of things can change right now.

[04:52:18] I mean, things are very much in flux as it relates to who was going into Washington, D.C., or even Alexandra or whatever for a job. Things are pretty much in flux. So I want us to be flexible enough to respond to it while still having the same goal.

[04:52:37] So I'll support this motion now, and we'll see if we have to change it in the future. Would you like to have a closing, Ms. Brixman? I would. Thank you, Madam Chair. So I think this gives us some flexibility over the next couple of years to reevaluate. I mean, it's really clear just from the numbers that you have here that this is changing rapidly, and it has changed drastically.

[04:52:58] I mean, if you look at the ridership, total riders per month from December 24 to March 2025, it has more than doubled, more than doubled. It's gone up 73 percent compared to July of 2024 and 48 percent since July of 2025. per trip ridership is now at 38 that's up 52 percent since January 68 of our buses have standees so I'm fairly confident that with that type of demand that we we will be able to get to revenue neutrality at at some point in the near future in the next couple years um but you know I also

[04:53:34] wanted to I looked for her name I wanted to thank the speaker who came today and really kind of drove this home and made it a human issue for us what she's dealing with trying to utilize the commuter bus and you know I also think that it's not just a benefit to the riders to have this service I think it's a benefit for other people who do have to drive to have less cars on the road I think it's a benefit to have fewer cars on the road for the environment and the carbon output and all of that so um i think it's a it is a benefit that that that i think that we should be investing

[04:54:11] in and i don't mind as i said earlier i don't really mind investing in it um i did uh want to also thank supervisor letourneau for for hopping on this with me um our staffs worked on this today together and i appreciate supervisor letourneau responding quickly and we were on the same page without even knowing it and so um i i thank him for working with me on this he wanted to co-sponsor but we don't really co-sponsor motions so anyway i thank colleagues for your support and i look forward to the updates from staff thank you well he was able to second it so there you go all the people who say aye opposed all right that motion will pass unanimously let's

[04:54:49] go to the next motion today which is um is it the last item no because number 11 got put on consent so i think it is just the work plan number 10 and we have motions on the dais for that too

[04:55:27] why does that keep happening give me one second dan because something is not i know i'm hitting the right thing here what's going on there we go um okay there are seven um slides on this presentation and i think we'd like to see them are you all by yourself today sir i am uh judy

[04:55:59] was out sick today we believe in you can't sit by all right we're ready when you are yes ma'am good evening board uh i'm have the pleasure of talking about our quarterly work plan update

[04:56:34] and uh one thing as you noted in the item that's different this time where i'm seeking at least a little bit of specific guidance about the data center phase two project so if it would please the board i'd like to run through sort of these simpler updates on other projects first and then circle back to the data center question and we can fit in the other motions at least the ones i know of at your pleasure there's only two up here i think yeah yeah yeah so i was

[04:57:06] last in front of you in january 22nd on the most recent update since that time we have adopted the data center phase one zoam and cpam we have also finalized the rural stork village classification cpam so a couple of updates on the zoom work plan is that for phase two of the data center project at least as we have previously laid it out to you and the board's approved the project plan

[04:57:39] we would anticipate that taking approximately 18 months or so from now into the fall of 26 for completion because of the the number of things that are within that and as i said i will circle back to that later we've also had some movement on the zoning ordinance rewrite adjustments zoam we have presented at least the the topics not the specific language but the topics and thoughts on that to the zoning ordinance committee both in march and april and we'll also be be returning in may so we have bumped the completion date of that back quarter in anticipation of

[04:58:18] hopefully wrapping up conversations with them in may of june at the latest and then bringing a resolution of intent to amend to the board the floodplain overlay district uh while has it's being primarily led by building development um it is still a zoam and they are presenting to both uh well a joint a joint meeting of the zoc and the fsm public review committee on may 1st to begin the review of the zoam doam language that would be associated with this for our non-historic

[04:58:54] community planning initiatives on the st louis village plan even though i still have it as tbd we have recently completed the second meeting out in st louis with the london county design cabinet and so we are incorporating some of their ideas into the draft village plan we are anticipating bringing the draft back to the planning commission in the june july time frame and hoping that we will be with you after the august break to present that plan to you as well

[04:59:28] and try to move that forward to completion we're also currently pursuing the 2024 general plan review cpam which you may recall is sort of a it's broader than just a cleanup but it is is something that is oriented towards issues that staff has observed over the past five or so years of using the general plan and so it's addressing a collection of those items to try to clean them up separate from any other sort of cpam process that will be with the planning commission

[05:00:03] a public hearing later this month. It has recently been out for review and we have had some, I'm not quite sure how to characterize them, but listening sessions, essentially some work sessions with members of the development industry and others to talk about the various components of this with them as part of that. So we've made some changes and what is presented to the commission later this month will incorporate as much of that feedback that we think is essentially a good idea

[05:00:34] and that should be before you hopefully before too long as well. One big update that I do want to highlight is that the countywide transportation plan review previously was TBD we are now putting a date on it that is going to be partly dependent on some meetings that we're proposing with you in May with both DTCI and DPZ staff to among other things kind of gather from you some of the individual issues that you would like to look at in the ctp so we can better understand the scope of

[05:01:11] what that project might look like but approximately we're kind of looking at a summer 2025 to summer of 2027 sort of timeline but again that is going to depend on the feedback that we receive from you as well for our historic planning initiatives one thing that i highlighted on the preservation equity initiative phase two is that we are looking to use a little bit of the money that we still have allocated to that project to doing a national register of historic places

[05:01:47] application for the first baptist church of watson watson is historically african-american community and as part of the village classification cpam i mentioned earlier it's now mentioned specifically in the general plan as a rural historic community so not a village as you recall the villages we were at least looking at them all having small area plans in future years the communities would not have that level of input but we do have have now added policy guidance to support those communities with small-scale targeted community-based initiatives and this would be the first one of those potentially so that is something that we are

[05:02:21] looking at doing the oh and the last update is not actually a project update but one thing I do like to do when I can bring good news to you is that I had noted that there were 11 vacancies in the item within the department and we have since had two other people sign on for job offers so we are down to nine current vacancies at the moment so that is all all the updates i have for everything other than the data center project which we can circle back to now or after

[05:02:58] we discuss this oh gosh um let's there's one there's one motion on the dais right now that's not part of the data center project and so uh well oh okay that's two well then let's do these let's do these right now before then mr crony makes another motion so let's let's do these motions first miss class would you like to make your motion first yes are we not going to have some questions i was going to do questions and motions you guys would need to do because we're going to

[05:03:36] literally have four rounds of motions on this day as right now so my questions have nothing to do with either of these motions right me neither would they have can you put them in the in the final motion can your questions be asked in the final motion in the in the packet motion let me just let me just say this probably i i i hear on a regular basis from my colleagues that we're on this day is too long and let's get going let's get moving and i said the one way to do that is go straight to motions so i'm trying to do that more often and i'm getting pushback so again this is my

[05:04:14] full-time job it's fine with me but i don't want to hear people talk about how we're on here too long if you want to ask questions in advance of a motion. So, Ms. Brixman, you guys want to ask questions, ask questions. Okay. My questions are about the Zohar adjustments. Can we, within the Zohar adjustments, include child care facilities, child day centers as an accessory use in Chapter 3, Table 3.3-01, permitted accessory uses structures? If not, is a BMI needed? So, we can do

[05:04:50] anything that the board gives direction to do. What we've tried to orient internally with that is truly about clarifications and corrections of anything that was perhaps inadvertent missing language or a use was listed incorrectly whether it was permitted and should have been special exception something of that nature. So we have purposefully not included at from our internal direction anything that's a good idea but is not not a not a clarification or correction but since we do have this going on we could incorporate it if we just received that direction from the board especially a what sounds like a simple change if it's something that the board

[05:05:30] would like us to do okay and it's coming back in the fall of fall of this year so the the resolution of intent to amend would likely come before you um june july at the latest we hope and then we would actually make the text changes and then proceed through the normal hearing process okay so then that would be an opportunity to ask for these text changes it could be i i would actually say if you um want them that we could just do them by motion now really at any any of y'all's meetings just make a motion that we have it incorporated it doesn't happen necessarily at

[05:06:08] least I'll defer to Mr. Hemstreet but for something like that if you make a motion to have us incorporate it doesn't have to be associated with one of our items necessarily. Oh okay all right well I'll talk to you about these ideas offline then. Thank you. Mr. Lajardo. Thank you. The county-wide transportation plan review is now listed as summer of 27. I've been asking about this one constantly. Is there anything we can do to move that up? So like I said that's going to to depend on, I think, the scope of the -- I'm aware of some individualized desires that certain board members have, but definitely not the majority of you.

[05:06:43] And so once we meet with all of you, hopefully in May, we can better pin down what that timeline might be. So possibly, but without really knowing what everybody wants. Is it impacted by other stuff in the work plan or not as much because it's sort of different staff? No, it's really not impacted by others in the work plan per se.

[05:07:01] It's one of the things that we're going to have to do with that CPAM that we don't for most of our others is run the actual transportation network model and as long as we don't make any significant changes to place types or anything in the meantime, that should be pretty static. Okay.

[05:07:17] And then the other question was, is the electrical infrastructure, CPAM, I forget, yeah. Is that, is follow 25 on phase one as fast as that can be done no matter what? Pretty much? Pretty much, yes. Like if we move something else out of the way, it wouldn't really be done faster?

[05:07:34] No, and I actually had that conversation with Pat Giglio just last week, but no, we were already utilizing consulting services. Right now we're waiting to receive materials that we then review and go through it. Adding another staff member to it really doesn't seem like it would add anything.

[05:07:50] So the good news is I may have asked some questions and taken some time, but that's going to save us from having a motion later. So, all right. Madam Chair, may I provide information to Supervisor Letourneau? Sure. Supervisor Letourneau, I just wanted to mention to remind the board that there's an extensive review process.

[05:08:05] that can take as much as three to five months with vdot once we once we develop a plan and you endorse it so we're kind of at their mercy so that will extend that timeline miss glass you want to ask a question make a motion i want to make a motion madam chair okay when you're ready ready um i move that the board of supervisors add old ashburn to the list of villages that will undergo small area plans through project nine on table two of the department

[05:08:44] of planning and zoning work plan item 10 staff report motion made and seconded by miss brixman discussion on the motion miss glass yes thank you madam chair i'm making this motion to add old ashburn to the village small area plans project because i believe there are several aspects of old ashburn that are worth saving and need analysis done specifically for that area to best provide a path forward there's currently a village conservation overlay district for ashburn but it does not include the old ashburn elementary nor the nationally registered ashburn presbyterian

[05:09:22] church the land use historic preservation initiatives county facilities and future infrastructure all need to be looked at in tandem to guide future decisions that will save what remains of the old village I've wanted to have old Ashburn added to the work plan for some time and after my meeting with staff yesterday to discuss the pros and cons I believe the time is now I hope my colleagues will support my motion to old Ashburn in the village small area plans project and allow staff to prioritize it with the other 15 villages as we strive to

[05:09:57] what is left of old Ashburn thank you thank you thank you mr. mr. Turner thank you madam chair what's your best guess at where this would fit into the queue would this automatically move to the bottom of the pile and give priority to the ones in front of it or would the entire mix be reprioritized so that this one could replace priority of ones that are already on the list so the only direction we've received the board right now was to to list the three villages that would kind of be at the front of the line and even that is subject to change. We're going to have to bring back a project plan to you for both the individual

[05:10:37] plans, but also sort of the plan for how long it's going to take to do all of them so we can determine the prioritization at a later time. It doesn't automatically do anything right now. I can support this. Thank you. Ms. Glassman, when you first called me about this this morning or last night, whenever that was, I was like, really? Seriously, why? But then what you just said makes a good point because when I think of old aspirin, I think of just that one strip by the firehouse and that type of things, but you make a good point that there's other parts of Old Ashburn that we haven't modernized, and that maybe if it was part of a village plan, we won't

[05:11:13] modernize it, because I do think it was unfortunate how it happened, but the fact that there are fairly modern townhomes on one side of the street of Old Ashburn kind of bifurcating that village is very unfortunate, but if you go further back, there are other things back there that are can still considered old ashburn and i have forgot about those areas until you just said that so i'm happy to support this motion thank you second closing um i just uh ask that my um colleagues support this and um um i'm we kind of was hoping that you know there are other

[05:11:51] parts of eastern ash eastern loudon that you know we could look at but it looks like old ashburn is probably one of the last places where it has enough to try to save. All right, motion was made by Supervisor Glassing by Supervisor Briggs, but all people say aye.

[05:12:09] Aye. Any opposed? That motion will pass 9-0. Mr. Kirshner, you have a motion. Thank you. Yes, I move the Board of Supervisors and direct staff to prepare proposed amendments within the Zoning Ordinance Rewrite Adjustment No. 1 Zoning Ordinance Amendment to modify the standards of the mountainside future protections as set forth in Loudoun County zoning ordinance section 5.04 mountainside overlay district to expand the coverage activities permitted with an overlay and to allow for modifications of certain standards for such covered activities. Motion to be Mr. Kirshner and second on

[05:12:45] the motion. I can't support this. I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to second this for the point of discussion but I'm I don't believe I'm supporting this. Mr. Kirshner. Okay. Thank you Madam Chair. So one of the things I have we have been running into and But first of all, I want to thank staff for making this recommendation to add this to the discussion of the rewrite that we're going through right now.

[05:13:13] I think it's probably something -- again, when we passed the zoning ordinance, there are things you can't all completely get correct. There are kind of hangups, and what this motion is essentially attempting to do is to make to allow the staff to kind of view some of the issues that have arisen with applicants who have come on issues that they're having and to allow the staff to perhaps address those.

[05:13:41] In some of these situations, I think, special exceptions, for example, aren't even allowed. I'll give you a perfect example. There is zero tolerance whatsoever. Under the current zoning ordinance, it requires a 300-foot buffer around a spring house.

[05:13:57] over a thousand foot area and with no remedy whatsoever or even a review to review whether or not some mitigation can or cannot take place given that situation so what this emotion really allows to do is add to our our work plan within the with the zoning ordinance rewrite in the Western Lawton zoning ordinance rewrite to allow staff to come forward with a couple of I would probably call them and maybe Dan you can correct me or Joe these will probably would be minor or recommendations for changes that we could potentially consider within that

[05:14:34] process that we're going through now. Is that a fair assumption? And could you maybe elaborate on that a little? Sure. So I would take the direction to mean that we would actually just put the work into that. And there are two mountainside features that are protected under this section. One is the ridge feature protection and the other is a spring feature protection.

[05:14:52] and so right now there is no ability to to modify to even consider any differences to what the standards are so we would be looking at um what staff could recommend about the but an option that would at least allow the potential for that modification not something that's automatic but something that gives the board uh or even maybe the zoning administrators some leeway to to um make things work and not be quite so rigid and do we currently i mean right now you can't even come in with a special exception on correct on that i mean it's just like zero tolerance period even if it's nonsensical correct correct and that's really i think the objective here is to

[05:15:30] allow staff to kind of look at the problems that have arisen with these applicants um maybe suggest some language that would allow um some flex a little bit of flexibility there or at least some form of a special exception um so that we don't continue to consider um a friendly yeah sure what So, would you consider the words to study modifying the zoning, to study modifying zoning standards for mountainside future protections and study expanding the covered activities permitted within the overlay and to allow for more modifications?

[05:16:05] Because this says do it. Well, I guess if we, I guess having staff look at it and come with suggestions, is that, because we have to have the discussion at some point. I'd rather the motion say it. Say study? I mean, will that be sufficient for staff to -- I'm sorry, Madam Chair, I'm out of time.

[05:16:24] Would that be sufficient for staff to at least bring forward an item later that would say, "Hey, this is what we've looked at," and make suggestions potentially? We could. I guess my perception of it in drafting the motion was that we would provide language with some of that study background explaining it.

[05:16:45] the board will and and we'll have the final say in whether each line that we're proposing as an amendment gets included or not like we did with soar there'll be a table we'll get the vote if you'd like maybe not ideally but if you'd like you know line by line about those different changes a lot of what's currently in the adjustment zone is going to be pretty minute for something like this at least you would have a proposal in front of you that you could evaluate and decide if you like it or not but if you'd like us just to study it okay let me think about this um the crony so i have a question so mountainside the mountainside overlay district is in the rural cpam zoam it's

[05:17:25] one of our topics under our project schedule so i'm just questioning the need for this i mean my understanding with zoning ordinance amendment with these adjustments these are quick fixes right to the zoning ordinance, is my understanding.

[05:17:41] We're doing a whole overview of rural Loudoun County, of the zoning ordinance and the comprehensive plan in that project. And we do have mountainside overlay as one of our topics. So I'm just wondering the need for this when we actually have it as a topic coming up.

[05:18:02] So the impetus for including that within the rural use of the standards project was that there were a number, well, initially, part of the reason that it was pushed was that there were a number of community desires to look at things broadly that, for different reasons, we didn't feel like we could fit within the rewrite project. I think, not to put words in Supervisor Kirshner's mouth, but he's trying to tailor this just to, I think, the couple of things that right now are so rigid that if we wait for the Western Lomb project to be completed, It'll be possibly completed much later than this ZOAM could do.

[05:18:41] So anyone that's having issues with this rigidity right now potentially has a method to continue with their applications or submit applications that maybe they're not submitting right now, if there's flexibility, at least that's an option. So I would prefer they go through the rural ZOAM CPAM because there is a topic about that.

[05:19:03] I mean, a lot of Supervisor Kirshner, there are so many people that have come to us, different stakeholders, who have said, you know, it is rigid. Our zoning ordinance is rigid. You know, you look at equine, and, you know, there's a lot of setbacks that are very rigid for the equine industry.

[05:19:21] So, I mean, we're fixing that. So I'd rather fix it in a comprehensive, holistic view than look at it as a one-off, because I could bring a bunch of these as one-offs. And I thought we were looking at it holistically, the rural CPAM ZOAM.

[05:19:39] Okay. I'm sorry. Will you finish? I apologize. Are you sure? Yeah. Good. Mr. Letourneau? All right. So this is a topic in the rural uses ZOAM, but the concern is that it just will take too long to get it done. Yes. I think that's accurate.

[05:19:55] Is this something that staff thinks is a significant issue? I'm kind of getting the impression that you do, honestly. I mean, it depends on how you define significant. It is rigid. So anyone that's within these areas, there's no way around it. They either can meet it or they can't. And, you know, with a 300-foot buffer, in some circumstances, if 275 could be provided, but there's a reason why they can't quite get to 300, that might be a reasonable reason to allow some flexibility. Again, it all depends on how much flexibility I think we're talking about with where we end up.

[05:20:27] so i think the problem is like some of us don't have any kind of baseline really on what the issues are and i think i don't know chair rendell i think did you withdraw your friendly uh no no i haven't actually made it yet i'm giving him some time okay because i kind of like i think we need a basis to decide whether we want to put the effort into having you actually propose language and do more technical work and sort of scope out exactly what the problem is and how big it is and whether it is something that can just wait until the world uses zoom or whether this is like a you know hair on fire issue for enough people that we actually have to address earlier

[05:21:06] i have no idea like i'm vaguely aware of this issue i've until i walked in tonight and saw the motion i've had no discussion about it so i i don't know that i'm ready to add it to the work plan but i think supervisor kirschner brings up what sounds like something that's worth exploring so i do think a middle ground between the you know what this motion is but also keeping this kind of discussion going with the board or tluck or whatever would would be a useful exercise that's kind of where i am if that's helpful to anybody uh mr i'm sorry miss umstead uh thank you madam

[05:21:38] chair i guess what concerns me is this is a very gent general motion in its wording but dan you seem to have some ideas that are very specific uh where you've run into people with specific problems about specific aspects and so I tend to agree with Supervisor Letourneau that I don't know exactly why we're doing this and maybe if I did I

[05:22:15] would be more supportive but I wonder if sending it to tea luck isn't the best idea if the chair of tea luck agrees to it I do I do believe that your perception that that our regulations are too rigid in certain areas that's probably absolutely correct I know I've had concerns about that with 300 foot buffers in some instances but I just this is such this looks like such a

[05:22:50] generally stated change or direction that I don't really know what what I'm voting on in this. So unless there's an amendment that specifies it or sends it to TLUC, I would probably be a no vote tonight.

[05:23:07] So if I can address that slightly, because as we were reviewing the motion internally, some of the questions were presented. It's partly, it does read broad, I grant you that. The mountainside feature protections that are mentioned, again, there are only two of them, so it's not that there's 12 different standards or features.

[05:23:26] So if they're both listed, it might seem a little bit more narrow there. And looking at the covered activities right now, there are, I think, four covered activities that are listed and they are very narrow.

[05:23:41] And so the intent was that we would look at whether amending both sets of this or maybe only one, depending on what -- we just don't -- we don't know exactly how we would write the amendment right now so as a staff we were trying to word it broadly enough to give us flexibility but narrowly enough that you had some idea of what we were talking about might have missed the mark but we tried mr turner thank you madam chair um i think supervisor paterno is on exactly the right point that i want to make what we're effectively saying is whatever this is and i don't know what it is it's sufficiently important to pull it out of the rural cpam

[05:24:18] process and give it priority over everything else we're talking about in the rural cpam process I promise you, if we put the rural CPAM gang down here, like we usually do, I could come up with 25 other priorities that are equally urgent and need to be pulled out and added to the DPZ work plan as separate standalone items.

[05:24:37] I'm sorry. I just don't support that. We've got a rural CPAM ZOAM process that's going on. Staff is certainly welcome to make recommendations in those discussions, and stakeholders can make recommendations. And yes, it might take longer, but that's true of every aspect of the rural CPAM ZOAM. And I think that that is the crucible within which we can cook this soup, and this is one of the things that ought to be in that crucible and discussed.

[05:25:01] But to pull it out separately and say it should have a separate priority, especially when I don't really know what it is, someone's going to make the determination that really doesn't have any oversight that says this is the issue we're trying to address, I think it needs to stay in the rural CPAM zone.

[05:25:16] Thank you. Dan, you may have not been here, but Supervisor Letourneau, Supervisor Umstead, Supervisor Sains, you all were here. Remember when we had the big confusion around what was going on on the AT&T mountain and whether or not it was short hair mountain?

[05:25:39] Remember that? Remember that? Remember that nightmare? Remember that? We, at that time, made some of these things that were happening in mountain overlay districts and in Ridgetop, we made them very narrow on purpose as a result of that, because we purposely made these uses very, very narrow.

[05:26:04] And so it's not that I don't know what they are, it's that I would have to know why we want to widen them out or do something different with them before I could say, yeah, let's widen them out. I know why we made them narrow. I just don't know what's going on that we need to make them wider.

[05:26:21] And without that knowledge, it's hard for me to say yes or no to that. So I'm going to go back to Mr. Kirshner and Dan. If we did say, I mean, first of all, I do think it might be a good idea for this to go to T-Luck, of which you were on, Mr. Kirshner, as is Mr. Crony.

[05:26:41] And maybe if we just send this whole thing one time to T-Luck, it may be able to give us some answers as to what's going on. And then we could shoot it back out of T-Luck with at least T-Luck knowing what's going on. I'm on T-Luck.

[05:26:58] Everyone who deals with the rural is on T-Luck. So what if we make this the motion to move this item to TLUC for further discussion to whatever the next TLUC meeting is, which is, well, maybe not the next TLUC meeting.

[05:27:17] Well, no, I mean, you guys got the item ready. What's the next TLUC meeting, Mr. Crane? Do you know? Well, April is full. April is the rural. So to the May TLUC meeting? So let's make them. However, my one thing is that I would want to know why we're separating it out. No, no, no.

[05:27:33] no no no no that's not what we're doing you don't get to speak still my time um so so no i just was asking her the date of the tluck meeting that's all i was asking which may i make a make a motion to move into the may tluck meeting so mr kirschner would you be okay just making making that motion and and doing that send into the may tluck meeting so we can have further discussion more broadly to discuss what some of the issues are some of the issues and then dan if you could come back and tell us exactly what we're trying to do, exactly what the issues is, because we just cannot go to the Shorehill Mountain thing again.

[05:28:09] I mean, literally a whole band came out, the Shorehill Mountain Boys Band came out of that whole, we're not doing all this again. We're just not doing all this again. I'm fine with that, Madam Chair. I'd like to motion to move this item to T-Loc for further discussion. Okay, motion is made to go to T-Loc and second it. But do we need to pick a date?

[05:28:24] To the May-T-Loc meeting. Yeah, to the May-T-Loc meeting. May-T-Loc meeting. Madam Chair, could I just offer two examples of what this might accomplish? One is if you have a property owner, which we're dealing with this, who has an existing driveway and they want to relocate that driveway for whatever reason, whether because it washes out frequently because of the rain from the, you know, coming down through the gravel or whatever, our regulations prohibit them from moving the driveway, period.

[05:28:59] If they want to expand or replace their septic system, the regulations prohibit them from grading to creating a new septic system. These are the minor variations that we're looking for to create that kind of flexibility.

[05:29:19] Thank you, Mr. Kroboth. Well, there's a motion and a second on the table to send. So, Mr. Kirshner, we'd have to withdraw this motion. Yeah, I'd withdraw that motion. And I would agree with that as a seconder of the motion. And now there's a motion on the table to move it to TLUC that I have seconded as well. Do we need to have a discussion on the motion to move it to TLUC?

[05:29:37] I don't. I'd appreciate my colleagues' support for this so we can have... Mr. Crony, did you have a question about the TLUC motion moving to TLUC? This is now the time for that to happen, ma'am. So, Mr. Kroboth, can I ask you a question? Okay, so we have Mountainside Overlay District is in our work plan for the rural CPAM and ZOAM.

[05:29:58] Wouldn't Mountainside Feature Protections be a part of that discussion? Yes, it could very well be, yes. This solution would deliver a final product earlier than what we're anticipating it would.

[05:30:15] So I don't know that we need, I mean, I think I agree with Supervisor Letourneau here. Do we need a final product that quickly? I mean, couldn't it be part, like, and I agree with Supervisor Turner that, you know, there's, if we had all the stakeholders in the room here, everybody would say that they need their projects done, that they are having issues with setbacks and different regulations.

[05:30:38] So I don't know that I can support this. I think it needs to go under the Mountainside Overlay District for the rural CPAM and ZOM. Okay. Mr. Letourneau? Yeah, I didn't quite say that. What I said was I don't know because I don't understand what this really is about.

[05:30:57] I guess my question to staff is, do you believe that there are other issues in the rural uses, CPAM, similar to this, that are causing as much issue that needs to be addressed quickly?

[05:31:15] Or is this sort of a standalone, kind of an oddball issue? I literally don't know. I'm not asking a leading question. I mean, the other project is broad enough, I'm sure, that there are other issues like this. yeah um this one is just acute enough that whenever we've met with a few people there is no there's no option we can give them there is no alternative they can either meet it or they can't and if they can't they cannot move forward and in most of the other issues that's not the case there's usually some process that you can yes yeah so i mean my colleague and far be it from me because i'm not on t look so if they really don't want it they'll vote no but it seems like you you could still

[05:31:51] decide not to pull it out and do anything about it all this motion does is just have the discussion at tluck and at least for the rest of us that don't know anything about this we may learn something sorry it's well wrong and then if my colleagues on tluck decide it's not worth pulling out i'm not going to argue with them but um i don't know that there's too much harm other than some time by sending it to tluck because and i'm really what's swaying me quite frankly is more that staff doesn't usually come at us quite this hard on something i'm just i'm sensing that so this is i don't mean i'm not attempting to come at you in any given way coming at us okay coming at us is

[05:32:29] the wrong word but you're not usually this vocal to the point where mr crow with is like interjecting as we're about to vote to try to say this is the problem here's why so i'm kind of sensitive to that and i think it's probably worth at least a discussion and then if everybody decides it's not we can't pull it out it's you know then so be it but at least we'll know more so i'll support i'll support chair randall's motion um miss brooksman thank you madam chair could could i ask a supervisor to crony a question through the chair um when is it supposed to come when is the

[05:33:00] overall issue supposed to be coming to you guys in the work plan yeah the mountainside um i think it's meeting number five joe am i right but isn't that like is it july is it the summer no july is the breweries and the wineries okay i believe that would be september it's supposed to come September. Yeah, September. Okay. It's Mountainside Overway District, yeah. Okay. Thank you.

[05:33:28] So, I think this is what our committees are for, to work out issues and or to see if issues even need to be worked out. We may get there and go, oh, okay, we're good then, we're fine. And we may get there and staff will come back with more examples and Mr. Kirsten will have more examples and we'll say, oh, okay, I see that. But I think we have these subcommittees for a reason and I I think this is a great use of TELUC, and I don't know why we wouldn't use it in this way.

[05:33:59] And, yeah, so I really don't like doing this without the TELUC chair's, you know, concurrence because that feels like I'm forcing her, but it seems like a lot of times, you know, people are like, send it to this committee, but this is what the committees are for, in my opinion.

[05:34:16] So I'm going to -- I'm going to say let's send this to TELUC. You want to close? colleagues support i mean we've kind of flushed all right mr the eternal i mean mr i mean this guy mr i sit next to you forgot my name the kershner made the motion i seconded the motion to send this to tluck to the matey luck meeting on people say aye aye aye opposed okay if you're no raise your hand okay that's a 5-4 vote to go to tluck that's a that's oh come on you can't it's a 4-4

[05:34:50] vote just say yes because it's four four vote fails the motions and then and then that's nothing now now we have nothing here all right it's a four four one vote with miss it's four four it's four four one with miss uh glass abstaining so it felt so the motion fails okay um all right um

[05:35:27] i'm going to go back and change my motion on miss glasses vote and say no to her god's sake okay so there's a motion um on the work plan um mr crony would you like to make the motion on the in the item on the for the work plan then we'll then we'll go to data centers it's on page 13 of the item yes okay i'm going to do um okay i move that the board of supervisors

[05:36:03] approve the current list of projects listed in tables one two and three on the department of planning and zoning work plan as identified in the april 15th 2025 board of supervisors business meeting action item and you want to also say that you move that the and and and to include move no no and to include as adjusted as adjusted this evening for to include um old old ashburn oh doesn't mean to include old ashburn the village village ashburn yes there you go i love that yep

[05:36:35] yes that's the motion okay i will second that motion discussion on the motion mr crony uh no discussion i think we already had the discussion um all i will say is this there there is something to be said around about courtesy to a colleague that can be extended with no skin off people, no skin off people to extend courtesy to a colleague. I think that that's a good that's a good practice to do and I think it makes us a stronger board when we extend courtesies.

[05:37:15] Tonight the courtesy was not extended and I don't really see a reason why it wasn't. would you like to close mr crony uh no closing on that one all right all in favor please say aye i'm opposed that motion will pass nine zero let's do data centers please okay i was wondering why you're packing up okay i move that the board wait well you have anything you want to say nothing when i add okay nothing i move that the board of supervisors for the data center design standards and locations phase two project scope to the transportation and land use committee for

[05:37:52] discussion and re-evaluation and direct staff to return to a future board business meeting with a revised project plan incorporating the committee's recommended revised scope, schedule, and cost. Okay. Motion is made and seconded by Supervisor Turner for this to send this to TLUC.

[05:38:11] Yes. Okay. So, the data center design standards and locations phase two item was deferred on March 18th and has not been discussed. Committee into TLUC gives the committee a chance to discuss the item in more detail.

[05:38:27] My intention is that it will be discussed in one committee meeting in May, and then it comes back to the full board. The Phase II CPAM will consider amendments to the Loudoun County General Plan to address land use, site and building design, sustainability, water, energy, air, light, and noise policies pertaining to data centers.

[05:38:48] It will also consider the ZOAM updates to the zoning ordinance to include additional standards that may include noise attenuation measures, building and site design, landscaping and buffering, accessory use requirements, and the establishment of data center uses within existing structures.

[05:39:07] Phase two will also develop policies and additional zoning standards for design and performance guidelines for utility substations and microgrids. So these are things that we really haven't discussed and I think sending it to TLUC gives us an opportunity to really define the scope and to also have a larger discussion like do we want to have an innovation summit?

[05:39:29] Is that something, do we want to bring in data center stakeholders to talk about onsite power generation and how that might look? So there's a lot of different ideas and different topics to be discussed and I think TLUC is the right place for it to go because we have we deferred it we haven't had it at the board so it makes sense for the committee to take a further evaluation of the item thank you mr saints thank you point of clarification really quickly and if you want to rule me out of order i understand

[05:40:03] there's an underlying issue here as to why we're recommending this go to teluk for discussion related to staff's understanding of what the motion we passed on March 18th, whether it's a permanent motion or a temporary motion. Okay.

[05:40:19] This whole discussion can be both of all abbreviated but also clarified. I am going to roll you out of order right now because I'm going to give you a reason because when these items are written, staff gives us options for motions.

[05:40:37] This is one of the options for a motion that they have put. In fact, this is motion number one in this item, and they gave us this motion number one option, and when we get to you to speak, if you want to ask staff that question, you may, but the discussion is still appropriate, and then we'll get to your time.

[05:40:56] Mr. Sainz. Thank you, Madam Chair. And real briefly, because obviously we have a little limited time, does staff feel saying this to TLUC or coming back to the board, will that extend the project, and if so, by how long?

[05:41:13] So it could extend it. I think staff was presenting this and assuming that it would go to TLUC for a more focused discussion based on the potential that the scope may -- the board may just hope that the scope would be narrowed instead of kept the same or expanded based on some commentary on the 18th and based on all data centers now being a special exception.

[05:41:37] So the board's going to see all of them regardless of what other standards we may or may not put in place. So it may not expand the timeline depending on the scale of the scope that's ultimately agreed upon. Okay.

[05:41:53] All right. So as of right now for this, do we have microgrids is already inserted into this, is that correct? energy was that incorporated into this already was the noise attition measures incorporated in this already yes noise is something we look at okay so I don't know what exactly we discussed at Tila because those are things that we've talked about and provided information to staff from various points of views and and whatnot so I kind of feel not necessary to go to Tila to have an extra meeting and then send it back to the board because a lot of the stuff that we

[05:42:32] already discussed that we want to see is already incorporated in this so um i'll be glad to listen to the discussion but right now if i had to vote i would vote to send it to the to the board not to tluck thank you yeah so i'll be very clear what i'm looking for out of tluck is to delete not add so but the reality is there are things that we were contemplating as part of this cpam that i don't think are necessary anymore because of the previous item that we adopted and so there's no reason to waste time telling staff to go out on standards and uses for uh by right data centers

[05:43:11] when there aren't going to be any by right data centers in the future so that is why however the most efficient way to accomplish that is that's what we need to do and i think sending it to tila could be an efficient way to accomplish that it's either that or we do it tonight or we do it on the fly or somebody brings motions but we don't typically work that well that way so um so i'm I'm fine with sending it to TLOG now, but I want to say, going into it, if this comes back and we've now added this, that, and the other thing on top of it, I probably wouldn't support it when it comes back to us.

[05:43:45] But if we can narrow down the scope, there are some important additions to this CPAMP. Supervisor, I think, Turner had one recently on the microgrid issue. There are some things that we added to this that we need to do, but there's also some things we don't need to do anymore, so let's just focus this and then get it back to the board and get moving. Ms. Brixman. Thank you Madam Chair. Why is the project delayed till fall of 2026 now? In part because we we hope that there would be more overlap.

[05:44:19] The amount of work we had to put in the finalized phase one didn't allow staff to do that and also our consulting help has kind of been put on hold different times as this project has evolved because if we had started them down the two previous paths we've given them We would end up not using the work that they have done, so we have not had any work really happening on phase two in the background at this point.

[05:44:40] Okay, so that kind of answers one of my other questions, because we did provide the consultant as a resource, and I was wondering if they've been used. No, not yet. It sounds like they haven't been used. No. Initially, they were going to do mapping. When we broke out phase one, to focus on mapping, we handled that in-house, and we were going to move them towards looking at some of these standards for phase two, but there has been a lot of evolution on that in the past few months.

[05:45:06] So, as you can see, my head is exploding right now, that this has been delayed another, I guess, six months, and then sending it to TLUC could delay it another two months, probably. It's hard for me to tell whether we've actually leveraged the consultants that I made a special motion and got funded to be used.

[05:45:32] I agree with Supervisor Laterno that I would like to see things deleted that we don't need. I feel like why couldn't we trust staff just to say you don't need to do stuff on bi-right because we don't have bi-right anymore? That seems like an obvious thing to me.

[05:45:48] It seems to me like the description as to what Phase 2 was supposed to be includes all of the things that Supervisor Tacroni was saying. You know, it's issues such as, but not limited to, noise attenuation, building and site design, landscaping, buffering, accessory use, replacements, Building design, sustainability, energy, water, air, light, noise concerns.

[05:46:11] So I guess it's hard for me to agree to send this to TLUC when it would delay. And I believe that what it is already envisioned covers everything that Supervisor Tacroni just listed.

[05:46:30] And again, I am more up to deleting things from what needs to be done and not adding things. And the idea of a forum, like that just makes, I hope the forum you're talking about isn't supposed to be before we pass phase two, because if we have to go through another public input forum, I will lose my mind.

[05:46:52] So I guess I somewhat understand the merit, but honestly, I'm not sure I can support this. Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Turner. Thank you, Madam Chair. Through several discussions I've had with staff, I believe there is some confusion on staff of the intent of the March 18th meeting on attaching the specs to all data centers.

[05:47:18] And the confusion is, and I don't know that it's confusion, so correct me if I'm wrong. Staff was under the impression, I believe, that when we passed the motion on March 18th that attaches specs to all data center development until we came up with performance standards in Phase 2, in which case we will have defined by right development, the specs will be removed and the performance standards will apply.

[05:47:40] That is the current size of the Phase 2 project that is currently being contemplated. If we can clarify for staff here tonight that the intent of the board, of a majority of the board, was for our specs to be attached to all data centers permanently with our March 18th judgment, it completely changes and radically reduces the scope of the project in to figure out what we're going to do.

[05:48:03] I don't know if the performance standards clearly doesn't apply because you've got a specs attached. So there's no such thing as a by right data center. So it's not a performance standard. But I want to set noise standards. I want to set setback standards. What form do they come in? Do they come in a CPAM? Do they in the zoning ordinance?

[05:48:18] If we can simply clarify for staff, yes, the intent of our March 18th motion was to permanently attach the specs to data centers, then they can come to TLUC very quickly and say, based on that guidance, this is the much reduced scope of phase two that we can kick out very fast and give them some direction. I can make a motion right here now asking for the sense of the board, was our intent for the March 18th specs attachment to be permanent? If the answer to that is yes, they can now scope out what goes to TLUC and we can very quickly reduce the size of phase two dramatically.

[05:48:51] I'm trying to think of how I would do that by Robert's rules of war. First of all, Mr. Crony, you can't say one meeting because you don't know that that would be true once you get to TLUC. That's not something you can do, although I don't think it should take more than one meeting.

[05:49:10] That's not in your control. It's not in my control. It's not in anyone's control. I do hear you. I hear what you're saying. So but at this point, there is a motion on the table.

[05:49:26] what I could do is is table the motion on the table until this question is answered and then come back and pick up this motion like it well I'm not sure how you would do a friendly that this motion okay okay when let's try to try differently and then I'll have a statement and then I wasn't I wasn't in my time then just been I was trying to figure out how to do this it's on page 14 of the item I move that the Board of Supervisors clarify that the intent of

[05:50:04] of the March 18th motion, and I don't have the nomenclature in front of me, establishing a special exception for all data centers in Loudoun County following subsequent to March 18th that the board's intent was to make that a permanent change. I further move that the Board of Supervisors forward the data center design standards and locations phase two project scope to the Transportation and Landings Committee for discussion and revaluation and direct staff to return to a future board business meeting with a revised project plan, incorporating the committee's recommended revised scope, schedule, and cost.

[05:50:35] The reason, yeah, the reason that doesn't make sense is because you're saying, in my opinion, is you're actually saying to the board to clarify something, not to do something, which is, which is. Well, I'm asking for the board to make a motion that it was the board's intent to clarify for staff that it was board's intent that the March 18th motion was a permanent change.

[05:50:57] So, let me say it back to you. You're asking that the motion is that we clarify for staff right now, that we tell staff right now that that was the board's intent. So take out the word clarify, that we say staff right now, that that is the board's intent, and then have the rest of motion.

[05:51:15] I can -- that's a better way to, I think, word that, because, yeah, that's fine. Hold on. Hold on. It's a friendly. It's not a motion yet. It's a friendly. Which, Mr. Crony, that's a friendly. Who made the -- who seconded the motion? Me?

[05:51:33] I did. You did? Okay. Did you second the motion? Okay. So that's a friendly, which means that's all that is. So before I do that, let me do my close and then go back to Mr. Crony, because it's just a friendly. If you don't want to vote for the motion with the friendly, then don't vote for the motion with the friendly, but that's, it's not a motion. It's a friendly, if you, it's a friendly, no, you don't split a friendly motion. That's, it's a friendly motion.

[05:52:01] So, listen, I think Mr. Letourneau is right. I think it's hard to do things on this day during business meetings.

[05:52:19] It's a lot to do, which is why even the other thing was a lot to do. So I think that something going to a committee is fine. It doesn't need to live in the committee. It goes to and comes back out of the committee. I do think that we can, for lack of a better word, take some things out, narrow this scope, do a lot of things with it because of what's already been done so that's not an issue that's not an issue to me i can't i cannot imagine it's not it's going to be in tluck for more than one meeting although that that's not part of the motion it should never be said but i don't mind

[05:52:51] having the discussion um in tluck if the tluck members are committed to pulling this down narrowing it takes up taking some things out and getting it back out that is that's what's happening that's not an issue for me but if if anyone wants to start talking about anything else and you know then we can't do that so no one can say words like gigabyte because we can't talk about anything else that's in there so mr crony you want a closing yeah i think it would be um part of our purview

[05:53:30] definitely to refine you know i'll say refine um because some things we may not want to remove some some things we may want to enhance so i do think it's important to to look at it in a committee because we don't as chair randall said i don't think it makes sense to be doing this right now and um staff can come in with what um you know what feedback you've gotten so far because i think we have given you some feedback already um about you know noise tonal noise and and micro grids and utility substations so hopefully you'll bring that to the committee so we can be really

[05:54:08] productive and if we can if we if we can refine we'll refine for sure and then it'll come back to the board so i think this is the best way to move forward with it thank you okay motion was made by mr crony and and with a friendly amendment and a second by mr turner all people who see please wait a minute you guys good i think so no matter what i think this will end up being more complicated than what i think it is right now but we we will bring an item that lays out the direction that's been given and where we think is should be the bulk of our efforts moving

[05:54:45] forward and the committee can agree disagree delete add things to that package okay okay all the people please say aye I opposed that motion will pass 9-0 not quite sure we just passed but hold on the county attorney believes that based on the last motion that failed 4-4-1 there needs to be another motion made right now mr. Kirsten would you like to make that motion thank you so I move that make sure I get this language right my motion would be to

[05:55:24] order what you explain why the county attorney is asking for this I think well I think it could be explained in the motion it can be explained in the motion that's what it's a motion you have to vote for the motion that's not stop you can can I can I just exactly make the motion yes that's exactly what's about to happen. That's not the appropriate point. Make the motion. Thank you. So I would make a motion to suspend enforcement of the violate, suspend lawsuit enforcement of violations of Mountainside Overlay District until we have an opportunity to discuss this issue at the rural zone returns

[05:55:59] to the board in September. I will second that. Explain what the motion's for. Yes. So we have one of the purposes of my motion was because we have one particular applicant who the county attorney will need to -- he's been diligently working through the process trying to resolve the violation.

[05:56:21] But they have come to the conclusion that based upon the way the oversight or the mountain overlay district is written, we may not be able to. So they will have to soon file a lawsuit against them. Normally those lawsuits are -- they wait till the last -- till the end, but there appears to be no solution.

[05:56:39] But as long as we are going to discuss this potential solution to these minor fixes in September, the county attorney could not hold off on filing a lawsuit if we are continuing to make progress. So the purpose of this is just to suspend -- and Mr. Rogers, correct me if I'm wrong, but the idea behind the motion would be to suspend a lawsuit enforcement of violations of the Mountainside Overlay District until we have an opportunity to discuss that the OM rule returns to the board in September. Does that make sense? Okay. Our chair -- our

[05:57:15] T-Luck chair has it. So if -- in other words, it would -- I think the normal process when someone is in violation of a zoning ordinance, they work -- staff will diligently work with that person and try to bring them into compliance. This person is diligent, works in the process, missed some grandfathering, has a current structure, and so by suspending it, it will allow more time to work, perhaps work through it, make some fixes if possible, and as well as other applicants who have come as well, they're not as far down the road, but just suspending the lawsuit enforcement of this.

[05:57:51] That's what we're requesting. Ms. Bricksman? Thank you. So let me see if I'm clear on this. We're asking the county attorney, if I may ask the county attorney, we're asking the county attorney to suspend enforcement and or a lawsuit based on a zoning violation? Is that what we're doing? Mr. You're asking that to the county attorney? To the county attorney. Yes, Mr. Rogers, would you like to answer that? Yeah, first let me say that I'm not saying you have to do this. What

[05:58:27] I'm saying is right now we have a code violation for which there's not a solution under the Mountain overlay district so i'm supposed to bring a suit for enforcement and this would delay the filing of that suit okay okay i guess i i i got it i guess i don't understand why this wasn't just a closed session item and i also so basically we were trying to change zoning and and let this mountain overlay district issue leapfrog everything else for one constituent who was just about to get

[05:59:04] sued i i guess that was rhetorical that was rhetorical and and i guess i would advise my colleagues if you have something you need to get done if you have a motion maybe call us if there's a motion that that's going to be this complicated and to avoid an issue like this call your colleagues call your colleagues because this seems like a much simpler solution than leapfrogging

[05:59:42] the western loud and cpam to help one constituent advocating for your constituents is great i we all do it but i can't even believe the amount of time we just spent on this and we had staff here trying to explain when the simple simplest thing would have been for the our colleague to call us

[06:00:08] and tell us what's going on thank you madam chair mr saints um yeah so i kind of will piggyback off what Superintendent Bristman just said that yeah if we had this issue why wasn't this shared or conveyed to us by our colleague or by the county attorney if we have an example or you know we have this issue that's going on instead of us going back and forth and all this stuff I'll just simply

[06:00:43] put it that way that could have been explained to us offline or yes had a quick closed session item and whatever have you so I'll just throw that out there for next time to possibly think about that please um thank you thank you mr letourneau all right so let me go back to let me understand what the actual motion was are we suspending enforcement of the entire ordinance for everyone or just for one particular with regard to the mountain overlay district violations what's come up is there's just

[06:01:18] no flexibility in the mountain overlay district ordinance this person is in violation and the law reads the way it reads so currently i'd have to file suit for enforcement is it is there just one individual that's not in violation or are there others out there and there just has to be one that's advanced far enough for zoning enforcement to be bringing action i'm aware of one i believe that uh i'm not sure if it's dan or betsy who indicated there might be another i'm aware of

[06:01:51] one there are we have had other conversations with property owners who um are facing similar issues due to the rigidity of it, but they are not enforcement issues right now. Those are more people that would desire to do different things. They have not already have something that's an enforcement issue. Well, if the board had approved the TLUC discussion, I don't know how that would have really changed anything because there still would have had an enforcement issue and you still, I think the county attorney would have still have to have brought suit, right? We just didn't have

[06:02:27] context but if you're in the process of modifying an ordinance I would not bring this we weren't we were just in the process of setting the item to T look for discussion well that's not okay all right so yeah I would sort of say like let's I'm not getting into who did what but like if there's something out there that we need to know is even if it's staff or whoever then you need to tell us before something like this happens live in a meeting that's just not this is not great okay I don't know what else mr. Turner I'm sorry I'm sorry miss

[06:03:06] um stop thank you madam chair madam chair if I could continue to grill either Dan or the county attorney on this thank you can I at least assume that suspending any enforcement of the mountain lay mountain overlay part of the ordinance does not essentially violate the intent of the mountain overlay ordinance

[06:03:44] i i would think if the problem here was somebody can't clear cut the entire side of a mountain you folks would not be coming to us and suggesting this so can i assume that we are at least if we go along with the county attorney's suggestion that we are at least keeping intact the general

[06:04:11] desire of the board to protect the mountainsides. So the enforcement issue is existing. It will not get worse by delaying any action, but they cannot attempt to comply unless we do make a change.

[06:04:34] If the board decides not to make that change, then they will have to tear down our structure. But in your opinion, if we made a change, we would still be honoring the general intent behind this part of the ordinance?

[06:04:55] If we were to change the ordinance? Is that the question? Okay. I am inclined to support this, especially because legal just got involved. But I want to make sure that we're not authorizing just destruction of mountain, of mountainsides.

[06:05:21] And I've got to assume you would not be coming to us with that if you felt this was going to destroy a mountainside. I've got to assume you believe the action you are either recommending or going along with still preserves the board's basic intent on protecting a sensitive area.

[06:05:48] Because if you're telling me, no, we're going to let someone clear cut a mountainside, then I couldn't go along with it. But if you're saying this isn't going to hurt anything that's important, it's a technicality that needs to be corrected, then I can support this.

[06:06:09] So I will say something I think, and Leo can shoot me down if he would like or if he thinks that this makes sense. It may be if we clarify the language of the motion to not enforce any existing enforcement issues.

[06:06:26] That way we completely avoid the chance that someone goes and does something else bad new after you take action tonight might help everyone feel comfortable in narrowing it. But the existing issue will not get worse. It will not deviate from our policy any further than it already is.

[06:06:44] either it will either get better because they can come into compliance or because ultimately they will have to tear down the structure okay thank you mr turner chair may i address the county attorney yes you may mr rogers so am i correct here that we're asking the board of supervisors to waive enforcement of a zoning violation for one individual in loudon county till some future date It's at least one. I'm aware of one. And right now, the law would say he can't do what he has

[06:07:23] done. I agree with what Director Galindo said, that it's not going to get any worse. But we are put in a position where we have to take action if the board does not amend the ordinance or create a process for a modification. Does it not establish a legal precedent that this board took a vote on the dais at a public meeting to absolve one person from a zoning violation, doesn't that establish a legal precedent that if anybody in the county has a zoning violation that we're going to prosecute, they have every right to come before this board with precedence? I'd

[06:07:59] like a vote of the board to waive your enforcement of my violation of that zoning ordinance. I don't think so. I think what you have here is the board's going to consider this ordinance during the rural zoam if the board's going to make changes or allow for modifications during that process then that would be the better approach to take we're looking for compliance and if that process does get created then we have that ability otherwise the resort would be to litigation i'll also say what i told supervisor kirschner it's going to take me two years to get

[06:08:34] a court date this motion which i saw when i came on the dais today doesn't say any of that It doesn't give me any clue that that was the back story behind this motion. Now I understand the back story. I'm frankly appalled that we're even having this conversation.

[06:08:52] I think it's unprecedented. I think it's wholly inappropriate. And I think I know the specific individual and the specific case that this is being brought about. But to ask this board to vote to absolve one person from compliance with our zoning laws is, I just think, completely and utterly inappropriate.

[06:09:10] So, I'll give you a closing. First of all, that motion wasn't, this motion was withdrawn. The motion that we actually voted on and voted 441 no to was the motion to send it to TLUC. And had we sent this to TLUC, we might have been able to have some clarity and some indifference at this moment.

[06:09:32] I think people should always make phone calls, always, but truthfully, it's not just one of my colleagues I'm talking. It's not just one of my colleagues who doesn't make phone calls, and that's just the fact. And my only question was, I know this case, and I know for a fact that when this was being done, there was a lot of interaction with staff.

[06:10:00] And so I do not know how or even what the zoning violation is because we all know this person. We all know what we've all been there, to be quite honest. And so I'm a little confused with that violation might have been.

[06:10:16] But if I am appalled, it is it is with my colleagues who cannot even extend one moment of this is your district, Mr. Kirshner. Maybe you actually know what's going on. Maybe, yes, maybe you should have made some phone calls and maybe you close it, all that, all that.

[06:10:36] But in the end, there is a reason that we offer one another a little bit of professional courtesy and grace. And please believe I have offered to every single person on this dais, I have offered that. Every single person.

[06:10:51] And that can happen. And there was no reason today not to send this to T-Luck. None at all. It would not have hurt a thing to send this to T-Luck. So, maybe all of us can make phone calls more often.

[06:11:06] Maybe all of us can assume that the other person is taking care of their constituents. Maybe all of us don't have to have every detail before you chastise somebody else. Maybe all of us can work together to let a person help their constituent.

[06:11:23] Maybe this is not about one case or even one supervisor. Maybe this is about all of us. Mr. Kirschman, would you like a closing? I would. Thank you, Madam Chair. Again, I apologize to my colleagues if my communication wasn't as clear as it could have been. I certainly will take the blame for that. This is not an attempt to protect any particular one person. Overall, I take offense at that, Mr. Turner, and you should apologize for that, quite frankly.

[06:11:51] But what I would say is there have been ongoing issues because the Mountainside Overlay District is largely in the western part of the county where applicants have come forward and run into a lot of issues. So that's really what this was an attempt to do. Yes, this one particular case, which I attempted with a second motion to prevent us from having to file a lawsuit only, not enforcement, because enforcement has gone through the process.

[06:12:14] And what we do for almost every applicant who finds themselves in violation because they made a mistake or they didn't make a grandfathering cutoff or what off, we work with that applicant. And this particular applicant has worked very diligently with staff trying to resolve this. And we come all of a sudden to a loggerhead where there appears to be no solution.

[06:12:33] And so all I was asking as a result of this motion is since we're going to, since this was the will of the board, to address this in September, Can we have a motion so that we don't have to file a lawsuit and someone has to answer and go through that whole process? It's going to take two years anyway because we might be able to come to a solution at that time.

[06:12:50] And that is always the way we treat every single person if there is a forward-looking solution that we can find. And it seems to be that maybe there is a forward-looking solution, and so we're just asking that we vote yes on this motion just to suspend basically essentially the filing of a lawsuit, but enforcement for existing.

[06:13:11] And I would change my motion, if that's okay, with the second -- change it for existing violations right now and not ongoing to address Ms. Umstead's concerns there. So if we could change the motion to that, I would appreciate it. Thank you very much. That's a second of that motion. That's fine with me. The change in length.

[06:13:28] First to make the motion. I second the motion. All right. All right. Well, the one particular -- there are multiple people.

[06:13:54] Like, no, no, no. Just tell her exactly who it is so she knows who it's on.

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