Loudoun County FSM PRC Meeting Summary – February 3, 2025
Loudoun County FSM PRC Meeting Summary – February 3, 2025
Note on date: The agenda and transcript provided for this summary are dated January 16, 2025, but the user specified the meeting took place on February 3, 2025. This summary follows the user's instruction and uses February 3, 2025 as the meeting date while noting the discrepancy.
The Facilities Standards Manual (FSM) Policy Review Committee (PRC) met to elect officers, approve prior minutes, and conduct a detailed review of proposed amendments to FSM Chapters 7 and 8. Staff presented revisions intended to align the FSM with the new Zoning Ordinance Re-write (ZOR) and clarify requirements for plats, plans, and environmental features. The committee discussed numerous technical changes, many of which were approved for inclusion in a forthcoming technical memo.
Discussion Items
- Election of Chair and Vice Chair: Nominations were opened for committee chair and vice chair. Pete and Brandon were nominated and willing to serve. A motion was made and seconded; all members voted in favor. Pete was elected Chair and Brandon Vice Chair for 2025.
- Approval of December 5, 2024 Minutes: The minutes from the prior meeting were reviewed. A committee member suggested summarizing edits rather than listing every markup. A motion to approve the minutes as presented was passed unanimously. Staff noted that future minutes would be streamlined to capture key decisions and redline references.
- FSM Chapter 7 Amendments: Laura (staff) introduced Michael Staten as the new Forestry Team Lead. Staten shared his background from Fairfax County and Richmond. Staff then reviewed minor yellow-highlighted changes to Chapter 7, including cross-references to invasive species management (Section 7309), edits to reforestation planting options (removing Table 4, focusing on seed mix with supplementary plugs), and clarifying language for restocking and natural regeneration. A question was raised about proving natural regeneration; staff explained that a narrative indicating the method is sufficient. The committee agreed with the proposed edits.
- FSM Chapter 8 Amendments – Overlay Districts and NER: This was the most extensive discussion. Staff presented a reorganization of Section 8101 to separate “zoning overlay districts” and Natural Environmental Resources (NER) into a new subsection (8101A11) and to handle NER individually in other sections. The changes aimed to reduce confusion when preparing informational exhibits for plats. Committee members debated whether to require overlay district boundaries on easement plats, AR1/AR2 division plats, and family subdivisions. Some members argued that requiring an informational exhibit on easement plats added unnecessary work for a rare “loophole” scenario; others supported it as a safeguard. Ultimately, the committee accepted the separation and agreed to keep the informational exhibit requirement for easement plats, noting that most cases would reference prior applications.
- FSM Chapter 8 – Well/Septic and Stormwater Edits: Staff proposed updating terminology from “drain fields and associated septic lines” to “individual sewage disposal systems” to match the ZOR, and similarly for wells and water lines. For stormwater, staff initially suggested broadening “storm sewer” to “stormwater management improvements,” but committee members expressed concern that this would add information requirements for boundary line adjustments. It was decided to retain “storm sewer” as the current standard, with the option to revisit later.
- FSM Chapter 8 – Site Distance Requirements for Family Subdivisions and AR1/AR2 Plats: Staff proposed adding site distance information to informational exhibits for family subdivisions and AR1/AR2 division plats. After discussion, committee members noted that site distance is typically checked during grading permit review and that adding it now could delay the tech memo. The proposal was withdrawn, with an agreement to discuss it at a future meeting.
- Tech Memo Overview and Timeline: Laura outlined the draft technical memo, which would explain the “why” behind each amendment and include redline attachments. The memo was originally scheduled for release January 27, but given the day’s discussions, staff indicated it would be finalized shortly afterward. The effective date was set for March 10, 2025 (six weeks after release). The committee acknowledged that many minor editorial suggestions (e.g., consistent use of “of this manual,” floodplain versus FOD wording) would be cleaned up in the final DOEM version and were not urgent for the tech memo.
Key Outcomes
- Elected Officers: Pete – Chair; Brandon – Vice Chair.
- Minutes Approved: December 5, 2024 minutes adopted as presented.
- Chapter 7 Text Approved: The committee approved the yellow-highlighted edits to Chapter 7, including cross-references, reforestation planting options, and invasive species management language.
- Chapter 8 Structure Approved: The separation of overlay districts and NER in Section 8101 was accepted. NER requirements will be handled in individual sections (e.g., 8103, 8106, 8107, 814) rather than in a single note. The informational exhibit requirement for easement plats remains.
- Well/Septic Terminology: Approved change to “individual sewage disposal systems” and “individual water supply systems.” Stormwater language retained as “storm sewer” for now.
- Site Distance Proposal Withdrawn: The addition of site distance requirements to family subdivision and AR1/AR2 informational exhibits was removed from the tech memo; to be discussed at a future PRC meeting.
- Tech Memo to be Issued: Staff will finalize the technical memo incorporating the day’s agreements, with an effective date of March 10, 2025. The DOEM process will address remaining minor inconsistencies and cross-reference updates.
- Next Meetings: Scheduled for Thursday, February 6, 2025 and Thursday, February 20, 2025. Upcoming topics include sidewalks, ADU written agreements, ESC and stormwater amendments, and floodplain ordinance amendments.
Meeting Transcript
I'd like to call to order the January 16th, 2025. Facility screeners. No members are participating in opening. Can committee members disclose that they are members of one or more affected groups and their respective declarations of interest kept one file and then standards and annual public review committee. And items we're gonna try to hit early here, just touch up seven and eight. I know it feels like we finished that last time we met. Laura can explain why we're doing not a full review, it's just uh some other staff input that clarifies it. But um we do have for my laws a expectation to elect chair and vice chair at our first meeting of the year. Um like to start with that and entertain any nominations for chair and vice chair uh maintained status point. I think Pete and I are willing to do that. I just don't want to stand the door. Somebody else was interested in uh stepping in. So is that a motion, Brandon? President Channer and Pete and Glasgow. Pete, are you willing to do that? All in favor, please say aye. Aye, aye. Any opposed. Yeah, it's for human money. Yeah, you just didn't get the full year, so that's you call. Um we also have our minutes from our December meeting. But good job capturing nuances of our conversations. Um meeting, yeah, as y'all might recall. Bill Hatch came. I don't did I get his farm names right. Mel Road Farm. Is that the Naya? Got it right. Um we got into discussion of chapter seven amendments. This is the first time we actually looked at the draft text that provided a presentation at the prior meeting in November. And so this is the first time going through the draft text, and there were quite a few um amendments that I tried to capture out here in the um it's a little tricky because these are amendments on top of amendments. So in the minutes, I try to just show what you all actually change. So if you try to marry this up to the set, it's not gonna match. It's like black as proposed, and then the strike through is and the bold underline are things that were done to the proposed text. That's how that works. Um we had a bunch of those things. I think yeah, and then we just had excuse me, that our next meeting was today. These are fine. I just think that's maybe streamlined or every edit in minutes almost redundant or in tech memo or I would I would I would summarize it, you know. It should reflect. I would say a bullet point like for the for instance on base two, Marie says uh committee amended introductory text of FSM 7.305 reforestation pairs. Period. Like we have the record, the red lines, all that save you a bunch of time and trying to make it format and all that stuff. We can go about changing this set with the future, right? I'll move to bring the motion. Is there a second all in favor? Any focus? So I'm gonna hand it over to Lord. Kind of talk about chapter seven and eight. We'll start with seven.
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