Politics & Government
Council Votes for More Free Parking Downtown
26 metered spaces to be converted to free parking on a provisional basis.
On Tuesday the Leesburg Town Council approved a resolution to convert 26 metered parking spaces in downtown Leesburg to free parking on a provisional basis.
On a motion by Council Member Kenneth “Ken” Reid, the Council voted to direct Town Manager John Wells to have 15 meters bagged at the south end of Harrison Street, between 305 Harrison Street and Depot Court, as well as 11 meters at the south end of Liberty Street in the Municipal Parking Lot. The town staff will monitor the parking situation, after which Wells will report back to the Council with a recommendation as to whether the free parking should continue.
The resolution noted that the 26 metered spaces are seldom used, and suggested that free parking might attract more visitors and encourage them to stay longer to shop and visit restaurants in the downtown area.
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The Council also voted to hold a public input session on allowing Saturday evening and holiday parking on Wirt Street between Market and Loudoun Streets, and conducting a feasibility study on adding parking spaces on grassy areas at the bottom of Wirt Street, near the Liberty Street parking lots. Residents of Wirt Street have asked the town for expanded parking options in the area.
Reid’s motion to approve the resolution passed on a vote of 5-2, with Vice Mayor Kevin D. Wright and Council Member Fernando “Marty” Martinez opposed.
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After the vote, Reid thanked the town staff and his colleagues on the Council for “bearing with” the issue. “I think it’s going to help a lot of people,” he said.
In other business, the Council received a presentation from James Rohrbaugh of Inova Loudoun Hospital on the hospital’s renovation plans for its Leesburg campus.
The renovation plans includes sprucing up the exterior of the main building, adding a new emergency department with expanded radiology and laboratory facilities, and adding a new 22-bed Loudoun Adult Medical Psychiatric Services unit, replacing the existing inpatient behavioral medicine unit.
Rohrbaugh said that the hospital renovation is scheduled to start this August.
