People You Should Know: Mark Miller

Mark Miller: Loudoun County Planning Commissioner

Mark Miller is the Loudoun County Planning Commissioner for the Catoctin District which includes most of the portion of Loudoun County in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

This is Mark’s second term on the Planning Commission. He was originally appointed in January 2020 and reappointed beginning in January 2024 by Catoctin Supervisor Caleb Kershner. His current term runs through 2027.

Mark is also the Planning Commissioner representative on the Zoning Ordinance Committee (ZOC).

The Planning Commission has nine members. Its’ primary responsibility is to make recommendations to the Board of Supervisors (BOS) on issues concerning land development ordinances, comprehensive planning, future land use policies, and the County’s Capital Improvements Program.

In addition to the individual zoning and rezoning requests it deals with on an ongoing basis, for the past several years the Planning Commission has focused on the rewrite of the Loudoun County zoning ordinance.

With the ordinance now adopted, the Planning Commission will turn its attention to the proposed Comprehensive Plan Amendment (CPAM)- 2024-0002 and Zoning Ordinance Amendment (ZOAM)-2024-0002 for the Rural Policy Area.

At the March 5^th Business Meeting of the BOS, the Planning Commission recommended that the ZOAM address rural policy issues to include use restrictions in the Mountain Overlay District (MOD). Friends has long advocated for greater restrictions on new commercial development in the MOD and will be following this issue closely.

The current schedule is that the Zoning Ordinance Committee (ZOC) will review draft language for the ZOAM August 2024 through January 2025 with final BOS approval of the ZOAM in September 2025.

Mark was born and raised in Miami, Florida. He graduated from the University of Florida before moving to Maryland to attend graduate school at the University of Maryland. He lives in Leesburg with his wife Ellyn, and son Jake.

Mark was Chairman of the Loudoun County Library Board of Trustees and a founder of the Smashing Walnuts Foundation, a childhood brain cancer research funding organization.

Mark owned and operated a small business in Ashburn for 6 years and now is a Real Estate Agent with Long and Foster.  LPM