Loudoun County FSM PRC Meeting - February 13, 2026
Loudoun County Facility Standards Manual Public Review Committee Meeting - February 13, 2026
The committee met to approve minutes and conduct a detailed review of revised draft floodplain amendments to Chapters 5 and 8 of the Facility Standards Manual.
Consent Calendar
- Approved the minutes from the January 15, 2026 meeting with amendments. Motion carried unanimously.
Discussion Items
- Floodplain Amendments Overview: Staff and work group members presented revised text for Section 5.44 (Floodplain Alterations) and related sections. Key changes include a new independent no-rise certification replacing the previous declaration of no impact, revised categories for floodplain alteration types, and updated topography requirements.
- Independent No-Rise Certification: Defined as requiring no increase in base flood elevation and no discernible change to the floodplain boundary. Examples include storm drain outfalls and clearing without grade changes. A new FEMA-based form will be developed.
- Topography Standard: After debate, the committee agreed to use "best available topography" rather than strict two-foot contours, particularly for exhibits where no grading is proposed. Staff will adjust the requirement accordingly.
- Grading Permit Inclusion: Added grading permit to the list of applications for which floodplain alteration approval must be obtained prior to approval. Language was refined to avoid duplication, using "if not previously provided" to allow single submission.
- Driveway and Private Road Standards (Type One): Revised to allow C2 private roads (up to 7 lots) and agricultural accesses. Fire apparatus access roads may use culverts or arch pipes but not bridges. Added note requirement on record plats warning of potential flooding.
- Type Two Floodplain Alteration: Confirmed that supporting data includes compensatory storage analysis. Duplicate LOMAR timing language in Chapter 5 was removed and retained in Chapter 8.
- Chapter 8 Cleanup: Vicinity map section (8101 A7) updated to include AIOD on vicinity maps for site plans. Wetland permit note for grading permits corrected to reflect that permits must already be in hand.
Key Outcomes
- Approved the January 15 minutes with edits.
- Directed staff to implement the discussed changes: use "best available topography", add grading permit, remove duplicate LOMAR language, move no-rise form to items-to-accompany, and other technical corrections.
- The revised draft will proceed to county referral and then return to the committee for final recommendation before formal public process.
Meeting Transcript
All right, I'd like to call to order the February 5th, 2026 facility standards annual public review meeting. No members are permitted uh participating remotely and committee members disclosed their 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. Um we do have one guest today, uh another member of the uh work group for the floodplain. So as we get into that, if we need Mr. Dane. Okay, Mike Marsala. Thanks for coming over. Thank you. Um hopefully everyone got a copy of the minutes from our January 15th meeting. Take a minute to look them over. I noticed that too. But actually, I did get edits um from Elizabeth. Okay. So I do have some edits to go over with you all. Well details are more edits there are it's funny because she you picked up on things that I was thinking about. Very good edits. Um so basically you'll see that it's in blue here. Um I talked about Chief Kiger, but I didn't use his first name ever. Um we're just so used to around here calling Chief Caiber. So I put his first name in the first reference. Um, so you wouldn't know who that was. And then um pointed out it's sort of gets confusing through this introduction about who's doing what instead of saying Kevin, I said the chair, so that now here I could say the chair also stated um to clarify who's doing what's taking what actions. Um and then forgive me when I scroll here. Um this wasn't very clear. So basically, we amended this to say that we had um let's see staff only plans to reconvene the work group again if needed, and then I just said scheduled discussion instead of our scheduled four discussion, and then this was a day that sort of had no reference, so this was switched to which I only had his first name, didn't have his last name, so he put his last name in here. Um I needed and in front of advisory opinion discussion and gated communities. So this is I need input here because I'm not sure if it's stained, yes, or stain's apostrophe. Now when you have a last name of ends and s and you're trying to possess them, it's just an apostrophe. I it's funny because I asked county administration that questions white would say S apostrophe S so someone whose last name ends with an S. I've only ever done the apostrophe. I feel like that's like one of those modern things, like we don't put comments before but now and it's killing me. I don't know anybody else thing now. So this derives me in the same genre of I'm not gonna argue with her on grammar though. I'm sure people understand the point it means, yeah. I think you can go either way that one. Um those are that those are the amendments to that is so far. If anybody else wants to um go to any particular section, we could definitely do that. There's no other uh addition. I have a motion to approve the uh submitted. I motion to approve the minutes. Is there a second? All favor please say aye. Good to go. All right, we we're gonna dive in now to the floodplain amendments, and I just want to um before we get into the details, thank uh committee members and for participating in this uh work group. Um I know there's a lot of time, and I assume effort put into it. But would you have six meetings or yes? That's a lot. Um I can only imagine how long it would have taken us here in this whole committee to cover that. So um I hope that your efforts are uh reflected in a smooth uh review and recommendations for approval. The uh there was a summary overview that was set out.
openpublica.com