A Board of Supervisors Meeting

By Charles Houston

Ceremony

Everyone expected the April 10 Board of Supervisors’ Public Hearing to be brutal. There were at least four contentious items and every seat in the Board Room of the Government Center was filled. Most estimates were that the meeting would continue until at least 3 a.m. Chair Phyllis Randall was pessimistic and had searched for ideas on shortening the hearing. Then the local clergy had an idea – conduct the meeting as if it was a religious service to set a calming tone.

“Why not?” Randall thought.

At 5:59 she gave a signal and the lights dimmed. A stentorian voice in the back of the hall bellowed instructions, “Ladies and Gentlemen, please be seated.”  

The room was almost dark when a young girl, wearing a white robe, walked serenely down the aisle, holding a large candle which she placed on the center of the dais. The room lights came up slightly.

Then a tinkling sound. A black-robed elder swung a censer from side to side, dispensing an aroma around the room. It was silent as the audience absorbed the scent.

Randall spoke softly into a microphone. “Welcome, all. Let’s try something that would let us work efficiently and amiably. For this meeting, I’m reducing public comments to two minutes. I’m asking my colleagues to talk only when they believe an issue needs fulsome discussion. What do you think?”

There was polite applause. A few gave forth with a cheer. A teenager from Valley took the mic, “I like that smoke, but dudes, it was weed!” 

So much for that fairy tale … and the fairy tale that growth is good.

 A Nine-hour Meeting

At 6 p.m. on April 10 the Board of Supervisors convened a regularly scheduled Public Hearing. The meeting ended nine hours later – 3 a.m. Even then, several major items had to be deferred to a later time. 

Fortunately, squabbles are local. National issues don’t seem matter as much. Perhaps that’s because Supervisors shy away from that minefield. Perhaps national issues don’t seem to affect our daily lives. Perhaps it’s because there are only nine Supervisors and they try to be amiable.

Leadership

Leaders often get hit in the back by arrows, or at least by complaints. I’ve heard many undeserved complaints about Phyllis Randall. Expecting “perfect” voting records is unrealistic. A fair standard is a voting record that generally aligns with my opinions; honesty, a sense of good government, and clear independence from special interests. Some special interests are multi-millionaire land barons who would fight their grandmother for a dollar bill. I’m a populist and they make me sick.

Back to Randall. Go to a meeting and you’ll see that every citizen has a chance to be heard, that time limits are enforced not just against citizens, but against fellow Supervisors. She is often a better advocate for western Loudoun than western Loudoun’s Supervisor, Caleb Kershner, though sometimes her vote can be inexplicable

Politics

Voters prefer politicians who don’t come across as a politician. Two good examples are Matt Letourneau and Kristen Umstattd. One Republican and one Democrat. They often vote the wrong way (that is, not the way I wish they’d vote) but they are accessible and will listen and then articulate the reasons for their positions. 

The Meeting Unfolds

After the Pledge of Allegiance Chair Randall covers housekeeping items, such as reminding the audience of time limits.  

The next items are administrative: Conveyance of a utility easement, approving a temporary polling place in Leesburg. “Business Meetings” are a bit different from Public Hearings, and begin with ceremonial resolutions like “The Board of Supervisors applauds the 4th grade class at Powell Elementary for its 39th place award in the national Irish Step Dancing competition.” 

This takes time even though there are no disagreements and each passes unanimously.

Squabbles

Six items required public discussion and a Board vote; four were particularly important.

One was an initiative to preserve 70% of a property’s prime agricultural soils. An All-American slam dunk, except it wasn’t – fat cat land barons contended that this standard would end their conservation easement business or hurt the value of their properties. 

Not only are they greedy, their arguments are wrong. For one thing, the County retained the Kimley Horn engineering firm to evaluate the density argument independently. That firm did not see any problematic effects when prime soils are protected, yet many supervisors didn’t seem to care. The vote on this was rescheduled for June.

I thought the prime soils question was selfishness personified, but another proposal was worse. The volunteer fire company wants to build a spiffy new facility on an undeveloped seven acres in the heart of Philomont Village. I won’t get into the weeds. Instead, here are my general thoughts on people’s character. 

On one side were long-time residents who don’t want the huge new building. Their preference was to renovate the existing building. On the other side were a cabal of irritable firemen and a smirking fire chief.

The most contentious proposition was for a 4.8 million square foot data center on Belmont Ridge Road. The Board Room had been full, and I think a majority of the audience had come to oppose this scheme. 

The applicant was shocked at the opposition and asked for permission to resubmit its request. It did so, reducing the data center’s size to 1.3 million square feet, which will come before the Board at a future date. We won! Note that this project could give up 72% of its original request and still be a viable development. Perhaps the County overfills its feed trough. Why not a 72% reduction of everything, everywhere? 

There is concern that they’ll come back later for more, but we’re taking this as a win. 

One last vote was not controversial, though it should have been. A developer proposed a huge subdivision called The Village at Clear Spring. Here was a case of a promoter convincing people that a cow was a horse. 

I’ve never seen such a sleek and slick rezoning package. It sold the idea that a huge commercial tennis center was just swell, as was increasing density from 50 by-right residences to 1,000 houses. This is in the Transition Policy Area but the only transition I see is money flowing into the developer’s wallet. 

The cow was a gigantic subdivision, but with that package, the Board and many citizens were certain that it was a horse. The developer won. 

The lesson is that we need to get involved at the earliest stages of review. Rest assured that a successful developer is regularly pressing his case to Staff. The public generally knows nothing about development proposals until very late in the approval process. Transparency demands that there be significant public notice as soon as any large application or rezoning is requested.

Charles Houston is a former office building developer and a rezoning cynic.