Okay, I think it's a little bit more.

It might for the audio to be for them to be at a microphone.

Yeah.

Or at one of the podiums.

Okay, well, the clock ahead of me has just struck the hour.

So the Loudoun County Board of Zoning Appeals is now in session.

Before we begin, I'm going to ask everyone to check their phones to make sure that they're off or in some sort of silent mode.

If they're not, they disrupt our proceeding and they're really hard on our sound system.

So this board is composed of five members and two alternates present this evening are Mr.

Gray, Mr.

Walker, Mr.

Canonico, Mr.

Kramer, and I am Nan Forbes.

We are a quasi judicial body and an arm of the court.

We meet on the fourth Thursday of each month after each appeal has been duly advertised in a local publication for two consecutive weeks after each property has been duly posted and after all adjacent owners have been notified by certified mail.

It takes three affirmative votes from this board for a matter to pass.

If you wish to speak, you need to fill out one of these pink slips.

Many of you have done that, but anyone else who wishes to speak, if you could go to Stephanie Capps, our secretary, hand is raised over here and fill out a pink slip, then you will be able to speak.

Staff will have ten minutes, then the applicant or the applicant's attorney, who will have ten minutes, all other speakers will have three minutes.

No, ma'am.

No.

All right.

So our first public hearing item is appeal twenty twenty-three dash zero zero zero one.

And who will be handling this?

Ah.

And you'll you'll be setting a precedent for everyone else who speaks.

If you could state your name and then proceed.

Thank you.

Yes, madam chair.

All right.

Good evening, members of the Board of Zoning Appeals and members of the public.

My name is Amanda Johnson, the assistant enforcement program manager for the Department of Planning and Zoning.

And I, along with Mr.

Hugh Green, Senior Assistant County Attorney, will be presenting appeal 2023-3001.

Appeal of notice is a violation dated February 1st, 2023 for 16980 Hillsborough Road in Pursaville, Virginia.

The subject property is comprised of two parcels identified as PIN 487-35-5657 and 522-39-9005, consisting of a combined 29.63 acres and is zoned joint land management area three.

The appellants in this matter are Mr.

Trevor Fields and Ms.

Tanya Fields, both of whom are the beneficiaries of the estate of Mr.

H.

Ralph Fields Jr.

They are represented by their attorney, Mr.

Mark C.

Nealis.

The background information regarding this matter in relation to zoning enforcement staff's actions and the notices of violation can be found on page three of the staff report as well as on the screen.

This matter began in July of 2022 when zoning enforcement staff received a complaint concerning the alleged unpermitted outdoor storage of vehicles on the subject property.

In response, zoning enforcement staff conducted multiple inspections between July 2022 and February 2023.

Based upon said inspection findings, staff confirmed an outdoor storage vehicles use had been illegally established on the subject property.

Such vehicles included numerous commercial vehicles and major recreational equipment, such as RVs and boats.

As a result of the confirmed violation on February 1st, 2023, zoning enforcement staff issued notices of violation to the property owners for violation of Section 1 TAC 203 of the revised 1993 zoning ordinance for the illegal establishment of the unspecified use of outdoor storage vehicles in the JLMA3 zoning district on the subject property.

On March 2nd, 2023, the appellants submitted an appeal application appealing the February 1st, 2023 notices of violation.

Although the appeal application had been submitted at the appellants' request, scheduling of the public hearing was deferred to afford the appellants the opportunity to abate the violations cited in the February 1st, 2023 notices of violation.

As stated in the June 29th, 2023 appeal application acceptance and deferral letter, the requested deferral was conditionally granted based on adherence to the mutually agreed upon abatement plan and schedule.

Between June 2023 and April 2025, the appellants took action in consideration of multiple options available to correct the cited violations, including rezoning applications and annexation of the subject property by the town of Percival.

However, due to the longevity of the violations without substantial progress towards compliance, notification of the BZA public hearing was provided to the appellants on April 2nd, 2025.

Good evening, members of the board.

Hugh Green, uh County Attorney for Loudon County.

Generally speaking, they're all outs we would I consider outside the zoning ordinance.

The first is that the BZA should recognize an equitable defense of lashes and lashes anecdotally defined as so you just snooze you lose that the county when a party fails to uh enforce their rights, um, they have waived their rights to enforce based on uh a period of time.

So the the appellants position is that the county that the this board should recognize lashes of defense for the for the ongoing um condition of the use of the property for so many years.