Town staff updated the council Oct. 11 on two major historic-district matters: an extensive renovation at the Chronicle of the Horse building on the National Sporting Library Museum campus and the Asbury Church restoration project.

"They’re converting it, essentially into four floors of valuable art storage," a staff member introduced the Chronicle project and described a small porch addition and extensive interior conditioning work to control temperature and humidity year-round, which will be necessary for museum storage use.

The Historic District Review Committee also received plans to replace a picket fence around the Paint Box property with a board fence; staff said the committee received the proposal positively.

On the Asbury Church restoration, staff reported the site investigation returned hazardous-materials results showing asbestos and lead paint and flagged possible PCBs. "We'll need to do some hazardous materials removal when we do that project," the presenter said. The project team has completed a building scan and base map, and Glavion Homes (the consultant identified in the staff report) prepared a Revit model to inform schematic design. Staff said small selective demolitions are scheduled next week to reveal covered spaces for the design team.

Staff also noted plans to meet with the Loudoun County building official later in the month to discuss permitted uses of the restored space and to schedule voiceover recordings and final video edits for an oral-histories project tied to the restoration.

Ending: The council received the updates; no land-use approvals or funding decisions were requested at the Oct. 11 meeting. Staff signaled that hazardous-materials abatement will be required as design progresses and that further regulatory consultation with the county building official is imminent.