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Leesburg staff warn shortened state plan-review timelines could force more hires or higher fees
Summary
Community development staff told council recently enacted state deadlines will make the town late on a majority of plan reviews unless staffing increases or process changes are adopted; staff flagged potential need to raise application fees to pay for additional reviewers.
Town community development staff told Leesburg council that recently shortened state review deadlines will make the town unable to meet statutory timelines without adding staff or changing processes.
"Under the new timelines, we would be late over 70% of the time," a community development staff member said while summarizing historical review performance after a staff vacancy and workload increase.
Why it matters: Under the state changes discussed at the meeting, the time available to review plan submissions for completeness and then to review subsequent submissions has been reduced. Staff said the town's historic performance would translate into a high rate of missed deadlines under the new rules, exposing the town to an applicant remedy process that can lead to deemed approvals.
What staff described: The town's engineering division said that prior to recent staffing disruptions it met deadlines most of the time; however, with one long-term vacancy and rising volume, staff estimated they would be late on more than 70% of applications under the new statutory timelines. "Today, we have 10 days under the new legislation. We have 5. So considerably less," the community development staff member said during the meeting.
Consequences and remedies discussed: Staff outlined the process an applicant may use if the town fails to meet statutory review deadlines: the applicant can request enforcement via a sheriff's office-served 10-day letter, after which the plan may be deemed approved if the town does not act. Councilmember Steinberg asked whether raising application fees to finance additional reviewers would be appropriate; staff said higher fees could be considered but that they had not yet calculated fee amounts and that fees would need to be raised "considerably" to support two additional staff.
Town attorney guidance: The town attorney cautioned that denying applications solely for timing reasons would not be legally sufficient. "Time alone would not be an adequate reason but I would I would presume that a diligent engineer could find a reason for turning it down if they needed to," the town attorney said.
Staffing timing and options: Town management said one option is to budget the requested position in FY 2026 but delay hiring until a date the council approves; another option is to wait for the process- improvement briefing and add staff later by amendment. Staff also flagged a known upcoming retirement that would increase near-term staffing pressure.
Ending: Council asked staff to return with recommendations, fee estimates and a report on process improvements before final budget decisions.
