Loudoun County FSM PRC Meeting - April 11, 2025
Loudoun County Facility Standards Manual Public Review Committee Meeting - April 11, 2025
The meeting was called to order at approximately 3:00 PM. All committee members participated in person. The committee approved minutes from previous meetings, received updates on several ongoing amendments, and discussed the 10-year Private Street Reserve Fund and Prime Farmland Soils. A lengthy discussion on Sidewalks and Shared Use Paths was deferred to a future meeting.
Consent Calendar
- Approved the amended minutes from February 6, 2025 (corrections to alphabetical order and a missing word).
- Approved the minutes from February 20, 2025.
Public Comments & Testimony
- No public comments were made during the public comment period.
Discussion Items
- DCR/DWR Amendments Update: Staff reported that updating the comprehensive plan, zoning ordinance, and FSM will require a CPAM. A joint ZoAm (zoning amendment) was recommended by the committee to align updates. The committee discussed two specific recommendations: (1) removing the requirement to assess and protect habitat on moderately steep slopes (outside the RSCR buffer) and (2) providing flexibility in the type of assessment required (not always a field assessment). The committee requested clarification on footnote 2 in Table 603-1, noting it is confusing.
- Preliminary Soils Review (PSR) Amendment: A minor amendment to change the county’s review time from 30 to 60 days to match realistic workloads. One member objected, expressing concern about increasing timelines. Staff noted the county can still accept private consultant reports. The committee agreed to forward the amendment via agency referral or a technical memo.
- 10-year Private Street Reserve Fund Update: The committee reviewed a proposal to shift the trigger for establishing a reserve fund from site plan approval to bond release. The goal is to require a funding schedule rather than full upfront funding. Discussion included the ambiguity of the current zoning language, industry practices, and the need for a zoning administrator’s advisory opinion. The committee agreed to pursue this approach, with no FSM text changes needed at this stage.
- Prime Farmland Soils Update: The committee concluded that no FSM amendments are needed because the recently adopted zoning ordinance language is already very specific. However, unresolved questions remain about stormwater management and VRM easements on preservation farm lots. Staff noted that the updated zoning text is not yet available in clean form, causing frustration.
- Sidewalks and Shared Use Paths: The committee reviewed a heavily marked-up draft from November 2023. Key issues included definitions (e.g., NUX acronym), sidewalk easement requirements, and consistency of language. The committee decided to defer final review to a future meeting after staff provides a cleaner document.
Key Outcomes
- DCR/DWR Recommendations: The committee recommended a joint ZoAm delay and forwarded two specific text revisions to zoning staff for consideration in the quick-fix process.
- PSR Amendment: Approved to proceed as a minor amendment; will be attached to an agency referral or technical memo.
- Private Street Reserve Fund: Directed staff to seek a zoning administrator’s advisory opinion to change the trigger to bond release and to continue discussions on appropriate documentation.
- Prime Farmland Soils: No FSM changes recommended; staff to address stormwater classification questions internally.
- Sidewalks and Shared Use Paths: Continued review; staff to provide a clean, track-changes document for the next meeting.
- Next Meetings: Scheduled for Thursday, April 3, 2025, and Thursday, April 17, 2025 (note: agenda listed March 13 but summary uses April 11 per instruction).
Meeting Transcript
Okay, I'd like to call to order the March 13th meeting of the Loud County Facility Standards Manual Public Review Committee. No members are participating remotely. Committee members disclose that they are members of one or more affected groups and their respective declarations of interest are kept on file in the minutes of the facility standards manual public review committee. All committee members participated in person. We have two sets of minutes to approve. We had a amended ones for two six two twenty two six and then two twenty, two six and two twenty. Right. Yeah. And I will go ahead and um I can show you the amendments that I made. Um Elizabeth caught an error in the two six minutes, and I also caught an error. Apparently, in the opening when it put your names in alphabetical order, I was challenged to these particular minutes that I changed the order, it's supposed to be alphabetical. Uh that was one change. And then the other change was I was missing the word in this sentence, it just said the committee of and I added the committee inquired about. So those were the two changes that I had made from the previous set of minutes. Um so that would be for the February 6th minutes, and if we have a motion, we can get a motion in the second. Second. Okay. Um anybody disagree or we agree with that consensus, right? Yeah, we can second. And then we also had the thank you for the edit. And then we also had the February 20th minutes. Um I tried to make these shorter, but I struggled a little bit just because we had the public input session. So I love it to capture as much of that as I possibly could, and also the discussion after that for the uh DCRDW on amendments. Um but I can walk through this, or if somebody wants to make a motion, that would be second. Second. Okay. And then anybody uh object to approving amendments, I guess we've been saying hello Kevin. We just approved minutes. Thank you. You ever need to get through town quickly? Just follow Angela. Why are you in town? These are two are regularly the scheduled function at uh I parked and I saw Z walking out, and I go, where's that going? As far as two reminders, I guess I needed three today at like 2 30. I thought about it, should have done it. Thank you all for at least making use of my absenteeism. We are we did minutes. We are at the 3 15 p.m. DCR DWR amendments update. So I was gonna say, Mike, do you want to give that update? Sure. We don't really have an update. Um we we talked to zoning. Um we know that it's that in order to update this, we're gonna have to do a CPAM to update the comprehensive plan, uh, some type of zoning ordinance update and um the FSM update, but at this point in time, we don't know when or what order or how these things are gonna happen. Betsy and Dana need to talk and figure it out. So that's that's just where we're at. We know we're gonna have to do updates, but um, we're still waiting on zoning to try and figure out what the timing's gonna look like. So far as you know, they all have that on their fix list. They did, but we're we're talking to them to figure out whether or not that needs to be a separate thing or on the quick bit or stay on the quick pic. So that's what they're they're trying to figure out on their end.
openpublica.com