Leesburg council approves Crescent/Sicklin rezoning, waives required 5-foot parking screen wall

Leesburg — The Town Council unanimously approved a rezoning amendment for the Crescent/Sicklin project on Jan. 13, allowing changes to the concept plan and proffers while removing the requirement for the ordinance-mandated 5-foot parking-lot screen wall.

Rich Klusick, presenting the staff report, said the amendment increases housing and commercial elements: "the unit count is increasing from 52 to 69," ground-floor commercial rises from 5,245 to 6,281 square feet, ADUs increase from three to four, and parking is proposed to increase from 117 to 140 spaces. Klusick said the amendment is consistent with the Crescent District master plan and that staff recommended approval "subject to adding the required parking lot screen wall."

The screening requirement—intended by the zoning ordinance to screen side-yard parking and create a continuous urban streetscape—became the item’s central debate. The applicant’s project team argued a five-foot masonry wall would detract from a park-like, trail-adjacent design and that a 1–3-foot berm supplemented with trees and shrubs, plus Silva Cell soil structures and large canopy trees, would better fit the site and the W&OD Trail frontage. An applicant representative said the wall would look "like penitentiary walls" and pledged to plant large canopy trees and supplemental landscaping to achieve screening while preserving the project’s character.

Council members questioned whether trees could physically fit in the proposed planting strip and whether the berm and plantings would sufficiently screen parked cars. Chris Myers, the applicant’s civil engineer, said berm height is constrained by available horizontal width and existing contours and that in some places the berm could be as tall as three feet but would not match the five-foot wall alone, which is why landscaping supplements it.

After discussion and a motion to approve the rezoning without the parking-lot screen wall requirement (motion made by a council member and seconded by Council Member Steinberg), the council voted 7-0 to approve TLREZN2025-0002, adopting the concept plan and proffers dated Dec. 18, 2025, as presented.

The decision accepts the applicant’s alternative landscaping approach in lieu of the specific wall requirement; staff and the applicant will finalize technical drawings and implement required proffers and planting plans during site-plan and permitting stages.