Committee asks Leesburg to close Church Street by courthouse after security study; board endorsement sent to full board

A Loudoun County finance committee on June 10 voted to send to the full Board of Supervisors a recommendation that the county request the Town of Leesburg permit the permanent closure of Church Street between Market Street and Cornwall Street adjacent to the courthouse complex.

The move follows a county Department of Transportation and Capital Infrastructure (DTCI) security study, issued after a January 2024 review and corrected today to fix a mislabeled diagram, that concluded the courthouse buildings do not meet recommended minimum setback distances and therefore face security risks. DTCI also commissioned a traffic study analyzing 11 intersections and multiple future scenarios; the study found Church Street carries roughly 640 vehicles per day and concluded a closure would not cause significant adverse effects on the modeled network. DTCI staff told the committee the model's conservative assumptions produce travel-time increases the study estimated at…