Virtual Town Hall on SE/SW Leesburg Issues

Last night, the Leesburg Democrats sponsored a town hall focusing on the southeast and southwest of Leesburg.  The town hall was held virtually on Zoom with all the Democratic candidates for town council and Mayor Kelly Burk.  I was incredibly impressed with the questions poised by the residents that attended the virtual town hall.  It was a great opportunity to discuss the development happening in SE/SW Leesburg, as well as the Westpark property, and the overall vision for the town of Leesburg.  

I enjoyed the opportunity to discuss what smart growth is for me.  I know a lot of time people complain about candidates using platitudes and buzzwords to discuss issues.  Smart growth can sound like a buzzword, but for me smart growth is growth that is a net positive for the town of Leesburg financially and in regards to our town plan.  I hope to see more re-development of Leesburg to fit the current and future needs of our residents.  An example of smart growth is the Ketterman's Jewelry building on Catoctin Circle.  The building used to house one business and then sat vacant.  The Ketterman family purchased the building and redeveloped it to house four businesses, including their jewelry shop.  These three or four businesses will create tax revenue for the town.  Additionally, there was no need for the town to build a road, sidewalk, or lay new water/sewer lines to the building.  This makes this re-development a net positive for the town of Leesburg.  As I look throughout the town, there are opportunities like this to re-develop.  As a council, we must ensure our entrepreneurs and property owners have the ability to redevelop their space to maximum use.  

Another issue that came up was our how our town can help our small businesses.  I'm always happy to talk about our town's economic development role.  The town of Leesburg has staff with the specific role of economic development and they work incredibly hard to promote Leesburg and our businesses.  As a member of town council, I will work to ensure they have the resources to continue their important work, and I will fight to help get them even more resources.  In addition to resources, I believe the town of Leesburg needs to create our own Leesburg Economic Development Authority.  An authority allows the town to pursue private, state, and federal funds to assist our Leesburg-based businesses and promote the town of Leesburg.  In addition to creating an authority, I will urge our town staff to continue to partner with the Small Business Development Center located in Leesburg and ensure our businesses know about the resources the SBDC offer.  Finally, I want our economic development team to focus assistance for our residents that are starting their businesses in their basements, backyards, or garages.  We don't know how successful a business could be when they start, so we must work to help as many businesses as possible succeed.  

Finally, we discussed the Westpark property and the town's option to purchase.  I don't believe the council could make a decision to purchase or not purchase the property because there was no due diligence performed.  The majority of town council members didn't believe the town staff could focus on guiding the town through COVID-19 and performing careful study of the Westpark property.  This inability to study Westpark is very frustrating to me because we don't know what type of opportunity this purchase could have been.  We should have at least studied the purchase, performed an appraisal, and then made an informed decision.  The reality is at this point Westpark is off the table.  

Overall, this was a great opportunity to answer questions from residents and layout my reasoning for running for Leesburg Town Council. I will be posting a link to the recording of the town hall here shortly.