Chair, Loudoun County Board of Supervisors Candidates

Gary Katz

Gary Katz and his wife Lesley have lived in Loudoun County since 2011, and they live in Leesburg with their three young children. Katz is originally from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a BS in Computer Science. Katz works in the software sales industry, combining his engineering, technology, and sales expertise to deliver solutions to State and Local clients which allows him to tackle complex challenges. Katz and his family are deeply engaged in their local community and faith. In his spare time, he enjoys playing chess, cooking, and cheering for his kids at their various activities.

Blue Ridge Leader: How do you plan on preserving the Transition Policy Area? Would you keep on rezoning the TPA? 

Gary Katz: I am not in favor of making needless modifications to the Transition Policy Area, and I am opposed to sweeping changes to zoning regulations. I instead prefer to make minor changes which would be based on the needs of our county. I do not want the Transition Policy Area to become the “new” Suburban Policy Area. This would be wrong. At the same time, we must balance overall county needs in the decision-making process and can’t make policy decisions based on the fear of “if you give a mouse a cookie, it will want a glass of milk.” We must be mindful of the intent of the TPA and judicious in the execution of any such considerations, and any unintended consequences thereof.

I will develop a shared vision and goals for land use planning and revitalization in Loudoun County. My goals will reflect the County’s unique characteristics, such as preserving cultural heritage, enhancing quality of life, ensuring rural open space, preserving farmland, and promoting sustainable development. I will support Loudoun’s farmers by implementing farmland preservation programs such as conservation easements that will also protect the history and unique qualities of Loudoun’s villages and towns. 

BRL: If Loudoun County continues to grow, how do you control county spending?  

GK: We need to stop digging ourselves into a deeper hole. The Board of Supervisors has made the mistake of passing budgets that are based on spending increases without considering the effectiveness of the money spent or our return on investment for the residents of Loudoun County.  

This was most egregiously implemented with the 17.6% annual increase in the FY 2024 budget. We need to start with next year’s budget not exceeding the FY 2024 budget given the excessive increase. We need fiscal accountability at all levels of our government and must establish an additional check on our spending by creating an Office of the Inspector General to audit and investigate irregularities to ensure funds are spent responsibly. 

However, the essence of this question isn’t necessarily just on spending, but rather the impact on the taxpayer. Spending most certainly impacts this, as does revenue growth. We need to strike the right balance to minimize the impact on the taxpayer as much as possible by controlling spending with a sharp eye toward fiscal responsibility while also increasing the commercial tax base. 

BRL: What specifically would you do to preserve western Loudoun?  

GK: The best way to preserve the rural nature of western Loudoun is through conservation easements. With an easement it’s perpetual, so the land will be forever preserved, and the owners of the land can realize the economic benefits from owning the property. But we also need to have a vibrant agricultural and tourist-based economy in western Loudoun. We can do this by eliminating regulations that are impeding our agricultural businesses from growing while implementing new regulations that balance the needs of business and the quiet enjoyment of our residents. 

The rustic “look and feel” of western Loudoun is a part of the cultural heritage of the county. For instance, I’d ideally like to preserve small schools such as Lincoln Elementary that have become part of the fabric of the community. We also want to preserve the gravel road network, as well as create sports fields that minimize lighting where possible and use pervious surfaces. All the above contributes to the peacefulness and tranquility of the region that residents very much wish to maintain. And provided this can be accomplished while meeting basic needs of the county such as safety, then I’m all for it.

BRL: Would you support a decrease in residential density?  

GK: While density decisions can be on a property-by-property basis, I’m generally in favor of keeping our current density zoning policy in place. If we can put significantly more acreage in conservation easements, then that will result in lower density for the region. 

BRL: In future planning and zoning how do you prevent economic special interest from having disproportionate influence?  

GK: I’m not a career politician, nor do I aspire to become one. Thus, I’m not powerbase building like my opponent who has her eye on Rep. Wexton’s Congressional seat. I’m focused on doing what’s right for the people of Loudoun County, not what special interest groups want me to do. 

Special interest influence is an important distinction between me and my opponent. She’s been a career politician for so long and her loyalty is to special interest groups and not to Loudoun County residents. When I’m your next Chairman, I’ll start with a clean slate and fresh perspective, and I won’t be beholden to any special interest groups. 

Sam Kroiz

Sam Kroiz was born and raised on his family’s Georges Mill Farm, northwest of Lovettsville. He is a graduate of Loudoun Valley High School and the University of Virginia. He and his wife Molly have run a goat dairy and cheesemaking operation on their farm since 2013 and are raising two children who attend Lovettsville Elementary School. Kroiz is a well-known community activist, particularly as the host of monthly community barn dances at his farm and for his leadership in the successful fight against a proposed mountaintop data center in 2016. He previously ran as an independent for Catoctin Supervisor in 2019. 

Blue Ridge Leader: How do you plan on preserving the Transition Policy Area? Would you keep on rezoning the TPA?

Sam Kroiz: The Transition Area was created to provide a transition between the Suburban and Rural areas, with policies that are in between those areas’ policies. It’s not supposed to transition from that into something else, like more Suburban area. Preserving the TPA is all about not moving the boundaries, either the Suburban/Transition boundary to the east or the Transition/Rural boundary to the west. It’s also crucial not to rezone to suburban housing densities or suburban uses like data centers. 

There has been and will continue to be tremendous pressure to move boundaries and rezone the TPA. Public opinion is overwhelmingly against it, judging by politicians of all stripes promising to preserve the TPA, but it will happen if voters don’t elect someone that they can trust to follow through on their promises. Chair Randall already moved the Transition/Rural boundary back in 2019, promised never to move it again, and then moved it a second time earlier this year. The first time the boundary was moved by a R-controlled Board, and the second time by a D-controlled Board, so neither party can be counted on to preserve boundaries or the TPA in general. 

BRL: If Loudoun County continues to grow, how do you control county spending?

SK: Loudoun County has been growing incredibly fast and will continue to grow, and the county budget has grown even faster and will keep doing so for as long as our politicians from both parties keep giving sweetheart deals to developers in which they pay millions of dollars less than they should for road, school, and other costs associated with their projects. 

Developers bankroll the campaigns of most of our politicians, and those who aren’t developer-funded owe their elections and are therefore subservient to their parties, which themselves are bankrolled by developers. I don’t accept any campaign contributions from developers or special interests of any kind, PACs or LLCs, etc., and I don’t belong to any party, and I will make developers pay their fair share.

This sweetheart deal-making has been going on for years and is the reason why our taxes are so high, yet our roads and schools are perpetually overcrowded. While developers pay millions less than they should for their projects, what they do pay often comes in near the beginning and the costs come later. This allows our politicians to use the payments from new projects to pay the costs of past projects and creates a bit of a pyramid scheme situation that leaves our politicians forever desperate to approve the next project no matter how big of a financial hole it might eventually put us in. Tax revenue from data centers have helped dull the pain from this poor planning, but it has also enabled it to go on for so long, and now there is a lot of pressure to expand data centers to keep paying all the costs of housing development.

BRL: What specifically would you do to preserve western Loudoun?

SK:As I outlined earlier, there is tremendous pressure to approve new sweetheart deals for housing development to pay the costs for past sweetheart deals, as well as to expand data centers. 

Due to state laws about proffers, our politicians cannot make these sorts of deals in the Rural Area. This is why successive Boards have moved the Transition/Rural boundary and moved parts of the Rural Area into the Transition Area, where they can make these deals. There is currently a proposal for a 2000+ unit mega-development on the formerly Rural Area property that was moved in 2019 and there will surely soon be one for the property that was moved earlier this year. This suburban encroachment will continue unless voters elect representatives who will just say no to moving boundaries, instead of ones who moved the boundary, promised to never do it again, and then did it again. 

Keeping the Rural Area boundary stationary is the key to preserving rural Loudoun, but that won’t do it alone. We also need to employ a variety of strategies to keep farmers farming, and as a farmer, I’m best equipped to make that happen. There are a lot of things that we could do for free to stop hurting farmers and there are also some things that we could do to help that would cost money. Along with programs like Purchase of Development Rights and incentivizing Conservation Easements, the hardest part is convincing a majority of the Board that spending money to preserve rural Loudoun benefits all of Loudoun through cost savings, and I’m best equipped to do that as well. 

BRL: Would you support a decrease in residential density?

SK: We need to reform our cluster zoning policies because we are losing rural Loudoun with the current policies. In theory, developers get to build more densely with clusters in exchange for preserving farmland, but they are building the extra houses while we aren’t getting the preserved farmland. There is an initiative in the works to reform the policies to preserve prime soils without decreasing the density. It’s been in the works for years and it’s unclear if the Board will consider it before the election, much less if they will pass something that works.

It may turn out to be impossible to reform cluster policies to adequately preserve farmland without reducing density, in which case we should consider decreasing the allowable density. In AR-1 zoning in northern Loudoun for example, we could cut the density in half and still allow more density than is allowed in southwest Loudoun and neighboring counties. 

Opponents of reducing density claim that doing so would reduce property values, and that’s true if you reduce density on one property, but it’s not true if you do it for a whole zoning area. To prove the point, you need only look to southwest Loudoun where the allowable density is 1/3 that of northern Loudoun, yet the property values are higher. Some folks who have put property into conservation easement have used the same property value argument to claim that reducing density will stop them from doing more easements, but they currently do easements in southwest Loudoun and neighboring counties that allow even less density.

It’s important to note that less density in rural Loudoun doesn’t mean more density in suburban Loudoun or the Transition Area. Many folks throughout Loudoun believe that the housing density is too high where they live and in many cases they are right. 

I don’t want to increase housing density anywhere in Loudoun. I’m running for Chairman to keep rural Loudoun rural because my livelihood and way of life depends on it and it’s also what the overwhelming majority of the population wants and should get from their elected representatives. 

Communities in every part of Loudoun should be able to get what they want from their elected representatives and they will if they vote for me as Chairman because I will serve the public interest over the interests of a political party or special interest campaign contributors. 

BRL: In future planning and zoning how do you prevent economic special interest from having disproportionate influence?

SK: Our politicians’ campaigns and political parties are bankrolled by developers and other special interests and they routinely serve their interests at the expense of the public interest. At the very least, voters shouldn’t have to wonder who their representatives are serving, and they won’t have to if they vote for independent candidates like me that don’t accept developer money.

Phyllis J. Randall

Phyllis J. Randall and her husband Thaddeus have lived in Loudoun since 1993, and are the parents of two adult sons, Ashon and Aaron. She was elected Chair At-Large of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors in November 2015 and then reelected in November 2019. She represents Loudoun on various regional, state, and national bodies including, Chair of the full Northern Virginia Transportation Authority, and Chair of the NVTA Governance and Personnel Committee. She also currently serves as a member of the National Association of Counties, Health and Human Resources Committee and founding member of the (NACo) Economic Mobility Leadership Network, a member of the Virginia Association of Counties Health and Human Resources sub-committee and a member of The Washington Metropolitan Council of Governments Board of Directors, to name a few. Professionally, Randall is a retired mental health therapist, with substance dependence as her emphasis area. 

Blue Ridge Leader: How do you plan on preserving the Transition Policy Area? Would you keep on rezoning the TPA?

Phyllis Randall: The Transition Policy Area serves as a buffer between the Suburban Policy Area and the Rural Policy Area. Putting restrictions in the Zoning Ordinance (that is currently being developed) for both place types and use will restrict the type of development and density in the TPA. In addition, many of the tools utilized to protect land and open space in the Rural Policy Area (RPA), can also apply to the TPA. Lowering the required acreage of land required for Conservation Easement, and a robust Transfer of Development Rights program are two of several ways to ensure the TPA continues to have 50%-70%, usable, open green space.

BRL: If Loudoun County continues to grow, how do you control county spending?

PR: Many of the issues faced by the current county board are the result of decisions made by boards from many years ago. Although the growth over the last four years may be only 6%, for many years Loudoun was one of the fastest growing Counties in America.

In fact, at an astonishing growth rate of 35% between 2010 and 2020, Loudoun was the fastest growing county in Virginia for many years. Unfortunately, for almost two decades the required infrastructure did not keep up with residential growth, leaving Loudoun with clogged roads, overcrowded schools, not enough green space, and county staff who were overworked and underpaid. 

Today, the roads being built, schools being constructed, county staff being added, county parks being built etc. are not simply the result of growth over the past four years but the past twenty-five years. Yet even with those challenges, at 0.875 cents per $100 of real property value, Loudoun continues to boast the lowest tax rate in all of Northern Virginia, including Fauquier County. It is and will always be my intention to pass the lowest possible tax rate while still providing the required services Loudoun residents have come to expect and deserve.

BRL: What specifically would you do to preserve western Loudoun?

PR: Rural Loudoun helps make Loudoun a unique place to live, work, learn, play, and raise a family. It is particularly important to protect our Rural Policy Area (RPA). Before 2016, Loudoun had not updated our county land use plan in over fifteen years. During that time, so much “by-right” development (does not require Board approval) occurred within the RPA that developed parcels they could no longer reasonably be considered rural and thus needed to be transferred to the Transition Policy Area (TPA). 

That is why it was so important to update the county land use plan during my first term. And it is also why it’s vital we complete the supporting zoning ordinance rewrite this term and the accompanying rural zoning Comprehensive Plan Amendment next term. 

Together, these documents comprising land use policy and land use law in Loudoun will allow us to put new policies in place to limit future “by-right” development. Limiting “by-right” development will prevent development with no accompanying proffers to offset the impact of new residences on county infrastructure. In addition, we must consider other tools to restrict growth such as conservation easements, Transfer of Development Rights and Purchase of Development Rights programs. 

BRL: Would you support a decrease in residential density?

 PR: I do not support a countywide decrease in residential density. In fact, I support creating opportunities to build assessable housing for various income levels. However, I will continue to work to decrease the possibility of residential development in the Rural Policy Area. 

In short, the question is not if Loudoun can welcome new friends and neighbors. The question is where those homes should be built and if required infrastructure is put in place before or in conjunction with new development. I believe infill and adaptive reuse in the Suburban Policy Area, and mixed-use developments in the Urban Policy Area is appropriate and should be encouraged. 

BRL: In future planning and zoning how do you prevent economic special interests from having disproportionate influence?

PR: I don’t believe “economic special interest” currently have disproportionate influence in Loudoun. However, I do believe that allowing our General Land Use Plan to lapse for over fifteen years was beneficial to some industries and interest groups and allowed bi-right development that harmed our Rural Policy Area.  

During my first term, I was proud to lead the effort to address and complete a new General Land Use Plan. During the current term we are completing our Zoning Ordinance as it pertains to our Suburban, Transition and Urban Policy areas. 

Early next term we will complete a Zoning Ordinance as it pertains to our rural policy area. Intensive, public input and involvement has and will continue to be key to ensuring a transparent process and guaranteeing the voice of residents rise over those of special interest.