The Facility Standards Manual (FSM) Public Review Committee (PRC) met on January 15, 2026, at 3:00 PM to address administrative items, floodplain work group updates, the 10-year private road reserve fund, and gated communities. The meeting included elections, adoption of virtual meeting policies, and discussions on emergency access standards. The committee also heard public testimony from a visiting student.
Floodplain Work Group Update (3:15 PM): Maggie reported that the work group finished reviewing draft text. Staff is addressing final comments and will email a revised draft. The target is to present to the committee on February 5, 2026. Separately, the Zoning Ordinance Committee (ZOC) accepted language for accessory residential uses (proposed by PRC members) but staff will not support it, creating a disagreement. Active/passive recreation issue remains unresolved and is now set for TLUC in March and Board of Supervisors in April.
10-year Private Road Reserve Fund Letter Tech Memo (3:30 PM): The committee discussed a draft tech memo for an interim compliance mechanism. Laura recommended shifting to a zoning advisory opinion from the zoning administrator, as the issue is not in the FSM. The zoning administrator is reviewing the draft. If issued, the advisory opinion will confirm that interim letters (certifications) satisfy zoning requirements until a zoning ordinance amendment is processed. Staff will send a notice to industry upon issuance. No vote was taken; update expected at next meeting.
Gated Communities (4:00 PM): Extensive discussion on draft text for gated community safety criteria. Key staff input from Fire Marshal's Office (Chief Kiger and Dan Eyerly) highlighted best practices: requiring a universal emergency access system (e.g., C2E radio frequency) as in Prince William County, gates failing open on power loss, and contingency planning. Debate occurred on requiring traffic analysis (e.g., queuing) for every gate vs. a threshold (e.g., 100 vehicles per day). The committee learned that Supervisor Saints has requested a Board Matter Initiative to evaluate gated community design. The Deputy County Administrator advised taking a statement to the full board for guidance before proceeding. The committee agreed to table specific criteria until receiving board direction, but acknowledged the value of staff presentations. The chair noted lessons learned in aligning early discussions with board intent.
Note: The agenda listed target times (3:15 PM, 3:30 PM, 4:00 PM) which generally aligned with the sequence of discussions.
Okay, got uh slim pickings for a committee so far, but we've got enough to form a quorum. So happy new year. First meeting of 2026. I'd like to call to order the January 15, 2026 facility standards and manual public review committee meeting. And pursuant to the code of Virginia or Section 2.23708.3 and in accordance with the Board of Supervisors policies procedures on advisory boards, commissions, and committees dated October 6, 2022, and the May 16, 2023 PRC bylaws. I want to let everybody know that Keith Simpson is participating in our meeting or remote location in Richard Virginia that is not open to the public. And he cannot uh and do a personal matter. Made this request within the time frame required by the policy. County attorney has determined that he meets the qualification participate promotion as required by law. And the PRC has made arrangements for Keith's voice to be heard by all persons in the large counter. Record shall also reflect the member participating remotely, the reason and the location record also reflect that we are each members of one or more affected groups in our respective declaration of interest are kept on file and the minutes of the facility standards may go public. Do we need to update our declarations each year? Just that we haven't been doing that. We've only been doing it at the beginning. If you want to any time you want to update your declaration, you can. If something is changed, this would be a good opportunity. Okay. Or they could have declaration reflects the current employer. I might not. I'll go check yours. Yeah. We don't have anybody any public comments of that. Yeah. Okay. Um wish Pete was here. You want to proceed to something else? Give him a few more minutes. If you want a few minutes. Normally elect a chair and vice chair. And we can have heat your present. Do anything if that's all right with everybody. Why is that? Um, so let's move on to review and approval of the meeting minutes from the December 18th meeting, which I did not attend, so I don't have a personal comment on. Okay, um, I can do a quick run through. Um we had a flow planning work group update that was pretty brief at that meeting. We went through ENCODE at the seminal scale. I demonstrated their new artificial intelligence search assistant and um tool, and then we got some feedback on tools, and then we switched to the head year private road reserve fund letters, sort of like a final review on a couple of final stop funds and the committee game final amendment. Um we left it that I would draft a tech memo on that today. And then lastly, we went through gated communities. We all shared our feedback. I don't had the discussion at the end of this particular session. Um Betsy requested that everybody safety related criteria related to gates. Um I think the deadline for that is technically this meeting because we thought we were gonna move this meeting, but uh I did receive some and appreciate that and not meeting. That was really the extent of it. Does anyone have any uh visions, addendums, comments on the minutes? A move to adopt the minutes. Thank you, Matt. Second, thank you, Derek. All in favor of adopting whose minutes as presented, please say aye. Aye.