Coraggio Consulting
Albemarle County Board of Supervisors Regular Second Meeting, Wednesday, June 12, 2024

Date: Wednesday, June 12, 2024
Place: Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, Virginia
Length: 6h 24m (video)
Official meeting video (Granicus): https://albemarle.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=1&clip_id=1019
Official agenda: https://albemarle.granicus.com/AgendaViewer.php?view_id=1&clip_id=1019

Machine transcript (speech-to-text) produced by Coraggio Consulting. Not an official county record. Names and numbers may be misspelled; check the video at the timestamp before quoting.
Speech-to-text: whisper.cpp, model large-v3-turbo. Produced 2026-10-15. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:01] Good afternoon. I am pleased to call to order this regular meeting of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors on the 12th of June at 1 p.m. in Lane Auditorium. I'd like to note at the dais we have Supervisor Mike Pruitt of the Scottsville District, Supervisor B. Lupisto-Kirtley of the Ravana District, Supervisor Diantha McKeel of the Jack Stewart District, Supervisor Ned Galloway of the Ryo District, Supervisor Ann Malick of the Whitehall District, and myself, Jim Andrews, representing the Samuel Miller District. The quorum is present. We're also joined here by our county executive, Mr. Jeff Richardson, and our county attorney, Mr. Steve Rosenberg, and our clerk, Ms. Claudette Borgeson, and our senior deputy clerk, Mr. Travis Morris. Also, let me please welcome and thank our

[00:00:41] Albemarle County Police Officers present, Master Police Officer Dana Reeves and Officer Andy Muncy. We thank you for your service here today and for your work that you and your colleagues do every day throughout the county for our safety and security. If all present now would stand as

[00:00:56] you're able to join us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you. If you would now join us for a moment

[00:01:21] of silence. Thank you. Board, as always, our first item is to adopt the final agenda. Do we have a motion to approve the final agenda? So moved. Second. We have a motion from Supervisor Lopisto-Kirtley, a second from Supervisor McKeel. Without objection, if the clerk will call the roll.

[00:02:01] Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Mr. Andrews? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. Malik? Yes. Ms. McKeel? Yes. Ms. Lopisto-Kirtley? Aye. And, board, our next item is brief announcements by board members. We'll start with our order for today.

[00:02:17] Supervisor Lupisto-Curton. I just wanted to say I did a, we did a presentation to, well, two of us at Vivana Station, and it's, what we're doing there is really important work, and it was really nice to be out there, and some beautiful, beautiful land out there that hopefully will help injured veterans, those suffering from PTSD once everything gets up and running, which will probably take a while, after the board approves everything.

[00:02:50] Not before. And that's all I have, actually. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Calloway. No announcements today. Thank you. Supervisor Pruitt. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So it is the last week of early voting for our congressional primaries.

[00:03:07] Just as a reminder to everyone, that means you can vote in person early in either the the Republican or the Democratic primary for our congressional district. That is at the county offices on 5th Street, not this office, but the other one on 5th Street. You can do that anytime during normal working hours. And importantly, for the last week, we keep it open through Saturday.

[00:03:28] So the polls will be open on Saturday for folks who want to go and vote. This 17th, June 17th, on a Wednesday, Scottsville is going to be celebrating Bateau Festival. This is a traveling festival that goes all up and down the James River. We have had the poor luck that it has been quite rainy the last two years in a row. So far we're looking at clear forecasts for it, so this is going to be an exciting time because it's got to be the first clear skies we're going to see in three years. Knock on wood. Additionally, the Scottsville Boys and Girls Club is going to

[00:04:05] be celebrating a major anniversary on the 21st. That is going to be from 5 to 7 in Scottsville at their location. And lastly, it's a very Scottsville-centered time of year. Of course, one of my favorite events in the entire county every year, you know, there's a, I tell people, you know, I just graduated from three years at the law school and people love an icebreaker where they go around and say, what's your favorite restaurant or thing to do in Charlottesville?

[00:04:29] Because it's all full of transplants, right? My thing I always say, the best thing to do in the Charlottesville metro area, including the entire county, is the Scottsville 4th of July parade. it is truly a wonderful experience we pull from people all throughout southern alma all throughout the whole county all throughout the surrounding counties people come up from buckingham people coming from nelson it is uh one of the most diverse and authentic just uh spectrums of our country and our community that you will ever find and it's a blast it goes all day the parade is at nine but the farmer's market starts at eight and runs till i want to say one and then there are

[00:05:04] additional flea markets and live music from one until nine, followed by, of course, fireworks. And that is all I have. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor McKeel. Just to add to Mike, that parade in Scottsville is what parade should be. Seriously, it's what we all remember as a child that still exists, and it's just wonderful. So I agree with you. It's great. Just a couple

[00:05:32] A couple of things. I want to thank once again the board for mentioning that Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority had made a presentation to your CACs.

[00:05:47] And so I reached out, and I think Bea specifically mentioned it. I mentioned it. I reached out, and Jennifer Whitaker, the Director of Engineering and Maintenance at Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority, presented to my CAC this week, and it was actually spellbound.

[00:06:03] it. Spellbinding? Spellbounding? Anyway, people loved it. It was informative. It caught all of us up on where we are in the county with regards to infrastructure. We also had an interesting discussion that I want to mention because we have a lot of campers in our communities. I mean, you know, mobile campers or campers that, and there was a concern in my district about

[00:06:36] inappropriate dumping of the toilets from those campers. What I found out, which was very helpful at the meeting, just so everyone knows, if you have a camper, your waste, your toilet waste can be dumped at our Moores Creek Advanced Water Resource Recovery Facility, which is at 695 Moores Creek Lane, which is right off of Franklin Street. And the description was that as a camper enters, the person driving, or the camper enters the plant from the front gate,

[00:07:13] the dumping facility is immediately to the right. Campers are generally not charged a fee, and I don't know exactly what the generally means, but they said generally not charged a fee. But they do require assistance from the staff to discharge the system, but the system is open 24-7. There's a sign at the facility with a contact phone number in case the operator is not in the immediate vicinity, so you can most often find somebody to help you.

[00:07:43] This was a piece of information that I wasn't even aware of, so just sharing it with you. The other great information presentation we had was from Dan Eggleston, of course, who is our Elmira County Fire Chief.

[00:08:00] Because we'd had a number of fires in the community and some concerns around safety, I asked Dan to come and make a presentation. And again, it was just wonderfully received. Dan did a great job. And during that presentation, what I discovered was something that this board's talked about a lot.

[00:08:21] We have, over the years, talked often about the concern about all the mulch fires that we have, that the belief is that they're started by cigarettes being flicked out of windows. And, of course, they're flicked onto mulch beds at businesses along the roads, and they start fires, which the fire department has to respond to.

[00:08:44] Dan said that they are being proactive right now in areas like Pantops and a few other areas where there are businesses along the road and they have mulch beds and plantings. And they're reaching out and asking if the business owners would be able to switch out the mulch beds to rock.

[00:09:06] Now, you're going to see cigarette butts on rock beds, which is not terribly attractive, but the rock doesn't catch fire, which is a safety, more of a better regarding safety than having all of these mulch beds catching on fire.

[00:09:23] And many of them have been at gas stations, which is also not very good. So he said he's having great success in the business owners being willing to switch out that mulch to some sort of gravel or rock as a safety precaution.

[00:09:39] Just wanted to share those two things. And I do thank, though, very much Jennifer Whitaker and Dan Eggleston for the great presentations. I had two people that say, this was one of the best meetings we've ever had, which was great. Yeah, so thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Malek.

[00:09:55] Thank you very much. And thank you for the announcement about the camper, where to take it, because there was one on the shores of the reservoir a few years ago that was a little scary. Thank you so much. All right, this is the summer season for the Charlottesville band, who will be traveling around to different locations to do monthly concerts.

[00:10:14] There will be one this year at Monticello High School, so watch for the date for that. The next one is June 30th. It's the Family Pops concert at the Paramount. So it's a very popular one for children of all ages. But the one last year, there was not a seat in the house, and half of them were kids, which was really fabulous.

[00:10:32] It is parade season and not just in one location, but July 29th, June 29th, the Saturday before the 4th of July is the customary day for the last 70 years for the Crozet Fireman's Parade, which will begin at 5 p.m. at Crozet Elementary School and go through town.

[00:10:53] Then the mobs will migrate to King Family Vineyard for the family events there and fireworks after dark. So there will be a new location for the after-parade activities. And it'll be an interesting experiment for the first time, but I think it'll be great fun.

[00:11:09] And the scenery is pretty spectacular out there for seeing fireworks over the mountains. Also, on July 4th at 10 a.m. will be the 28th annual Earliesville Parade for the one mile right down the middle of Earliesville.

[00:11:25] And we look forward to seeing our regular soldiers, horses, decorated prams and bicycles out there for that. Also at your counters is the annual report for the Virginia Career Works, and I would just like to have, we just had a great workforce board and elected officials joint meeting yesterday, and some figures which are somewhat in this report, but also the five-year figures, over 35,000 dislocated adult and youth people have come to the Workforce Center or been involved in training.

[00:11:59] Over 2,500 jobs resulting for these people, many of whom have been without work for a long, long time. Over 400 credentials have been earned by students. Lots of different sectors, but the health sector, light manufacturing, skilled trades, IT, cybersecurity is one, and logistics are some of the most popular of the credential categories.

[00:12:27] And the training funds are budgeted up to $5,500 per qualifying student. And I would call your attention to this page here in the report because it talks about the per-locality earnings.

[00:12:45] So the county puts in locality funds, about $22,000 in this current year's budget. Over $260,000 is being returned to our county residents in training in one year. So that's a pretty good return, and I will be back for more next year.

[00:13:02] And thank you very, very much. Thank you. And the only announcement I have actually, I'm jumping the gun here, is actually about June 30th, a celebration at Simpson Park, which we'll hear a little bit more about, I think, when we get to our proclamations, which is the next item on our agenda.

[00:13:19] And the first of those, Supervisor Pruitt, I believe, will read a proclamation in the form of a motion relating to John Henry James Day. Yes, I would like to move that the board adopt a proclamation recognizing John Henry James Day reading, whereas the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors has committed to sharing an inclusive history of our county as a part of our community remembrance project, which includes untold and unsavory stories that have been excluded from the dominant narrative, and whereas after the Reconstruction era in the United States, the crime of lynching succeeded slavery as a means to

[00:13:54] uphold racism and white supremacy; and whereas John Henry James was one of at least 84 people lynched during the period of 1877 to 1950 in Virginia; and most importantly, the National Equal Justice Initiative has determined and documented that it was in Albemarle County where Mr. James's body was shot dozens of times and his corpse left hanging in public for hours, and, whereas, no one was ever punished for this injustice that occurred in Albemarle

[00:14:26] County on July the 12th, 1898, though it happened at the hands of over 150 unmasked white men in the presence of the county sheriff and police chief, and, whereas, it is a new era in Albemarle County, and the Board of Supervisors recognizes a history of racial injustice must be acknowledged, recognized, and remembered for community healing and that July 12th, 2024 marks the 126th anniversary of the lynching of Mr. John Henry James. And now, therefore, be it proclaimed

[00:15:01] that we, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, do hereby recognize this tragic anniversary and continue to declare that July 12th, as John Henry James Day, initially established by the board in 2021 to remember our shared community history and as a demonstration of our commitment never to forget or repeat this tragedy. Second. We have a motion from Supervisor Pruitt, a second from Supervisor Malik without objection if the clerk will call the roll. Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Mr. Andrews?

[00:15:30] Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. Malik? Yes. Ms. McKeel? Yes. Ms. Lapisto-Kirtley? Aye. Thank you and I believe We have Mr. Jim Hingley, our Commonwealth's attorney, here to accept this proclamation. Welcome, Mr. Hingley.

[00:15:54] Thank you. I appreciate having the opportunity to make a few brief remarks. I appreciate the opportunity to make a few brief remarks.

[00:16:11] Am I getting through all right? Yeah, that's good. Thank you. One thing I'd like to say at the outset, that this is a part of the community remembrance project, this proclamation. And there are other parts of the community remembrance project that are important for the community to be aware of.

[00:16:34] And I think the historical marker relating to the John Henry James lynching, which is in Court Square, is a good way for communicating the truth of what happened in 1898 with the John Henry James lynching.

[00:16:53] Also, this county is supporting the collection of soil from the lynching site, and it's displayed at different places around the county along with information about the lynching.

[00:17:11] And so this proclamation is one part of a broader effort for this community to remember this past racial injustice. Another part of the community remembrance project that I was privileged to take part in was last year the dismissal of the indictment against John Henry James in the circuit court of Albemarle County. And that was a motion to dismiss that I brought as the Commonwealth's attorney. It was a

[00:17:43] proceeding in court and it created another form of the record of this past injustice. Now this is spread in the record books of our local circuit court. One thing that stands out to me, particularly about this incident in our history, is that the lynching was countenanced by the legal system. It was not outside the legal system. And that's a hard truth, but it's the truth.

[00:18:19] As the proclamation indicates, the perpetrators of this injustice, this racial terror lynching, were known to the community. And yet, no law enforcement official, no public official, no prosecutor took any action to bring the perpetrators to justice.

[00:18:44] In addition, my predecessor in office in 1898, Maikaja Woods, convened a special grand jury just for the purpose of issuing an indictment against John Henry James, an unfounded indictment, but an indictment nonetheless that expressed the position of the legal system that this lynching was justified.

[00:19:12] And of course, an indictment was issued against John Henry James posthumously, which is a highly irregular procedure. And it was issued, as far as we can tell from the historical record, on the basis of no credible evidence that he was involved in this alleged crime that led to his

[00:19:39] lynching. So I would like to just sum up the indictment by stating from the order that Judge Higgins entered when this indictment was dismissed. And the court said that the indictment was not intended to be and did not serve as an instrument of justice, but rather was used corruptly to

[00:20:13] sanction the racial terror lynching of John Henry James. And so as we remember this on this occasion and throughout the year, we acknowledge this past injustice in our community. And in acknowledging and recognizing and remembering this past injustice, I think it serves to help all of us rededicate ourselves to building a future where such injustices cannot take place and so I thank

[00:20:52] the board of supervisors for its work in issuing this proclamation and the other work that you're doing to keep the remembrance of this terrible event in front of the community thank you thank you and pause for a moment we'll have comments perhaps by supervisors starting with supervisor this is something that is um very sad i'm glad i'm glad we did something about it last year

[00:21:27] regarding correcting the record but i would rather not have to correct uh past actions i because it should have never happened it should have never happened whether it was in 1889 whether it was in 1939 to 1945 things like that should have never happened we have to remain diligent and making sure that this type of thing doesn't happen ever again and I'm actually

[00:22:00] concerned and afraid for our country because I think things like this could happen I hope they don't but we're here to honor uh john henry james day and um he he's someone that should be remembered and it's something that we all need to remember as human beings and and to give respect to everybody and he certainly deserved it and he didn't get it and um that's that's why it's very

[00:22:39] it's very sad for me personally but i thank you very much for coming and everyone else for being here so we can honor John Henry James. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Galloway. Thank you, Mr. Hingeley, for being here today. I think I've made similar remarks in the past, and I have some additional remarks I'll make after the next proclamation, but I think it's incredibly important because in a lot of this, we talk about remembering or acknowledging, but your office was complicit, an office you now represent. Our board was complicit, the board that we now represent, and it's incredibly important that we take responsibility in that complicity,

[00:23:18] And the things that we are doing, I think, the steps that we are taking are our actions to say that we are trying to take responsibility for those actions. It would be naive to think that elected officials and government officials, based on the timing of when Mr. James was pulled off the train, the timing of all of that, that there weren't folks that were both elected and or in positions to be protecting the community, weren't complicit in those 150 folks.

[00:23:47] So it's no surprise to me that there was no prosecution of any of those folks because they were all the ones in power leading on and letting others follow. And we have to recognize that in an official way and take responsibility for the actions of this board, your office, and I'm sure the sheriff and police chief would feel the same way for those that represent those positions now today.

[00:24:09] So thank you for being here today and your part and the actions you have taken to take responsibility for that. Thank you, sir. Thank you. - Supervisor Prood? - Mr. Hingley, thank you so much for being here today. You know, in one of my very first classes in law school, someone told me how, a professor told me how, lawyering, and especially trial lawyering, is about telling a story.

[00:24:34] You're not up there reciting a law. What you're there is crafting the story as best you can understand it, and presenting it to the community so that they can issue their own judgment on it. Which is something that hadn't occurred to me before, but I think it's well put. And so I'm very grateful for your office's role, as well as the role of the Honorable Judge Higgins and Professor Schmidt and other members of the community who all helped come together and rebuild this story that we had lost as a community and present it to the community so that we could grapple with it.

[00:25:09] And I want to recognize how this proclamation and the establishment of this day moving forward is a continued part of that process of storytelling. I also do want to talk about how, you know, I was also there in the courtroom.

[00:25:27] I was not sitting with my other peers up in the front row because I got there maybe five minutes before. Let me tell you, there were at least two additional overflow rooms. I was up on the third floor, which was also packed, watching a simulcast that had bad sound. But the entire court building was packed to the gills, absolutely packed, with people who wanted to show up for racial justice and to talk about how this indignity in our history shouldn't be something that we just endure, but something that we confront headlong.

[00:26:01] And I think it's important that we take that momentum, that we take that energy, and we recognize that our courts are every day packed with racial injustice. It is systematic, it is ground in from this point in our history, and it continues to be lived every day. The same week that this motion, that the indictment was dismissed, there were also 27 evictions that were processed through that home, or through that court building. Evictions in Virginia, we know from looking at the data do not track to whether or not you are poor. They do not track to whether

[00:26:39] or not you are in a community that is falling apart or that is suffering. They track to whether or not you're black. You are more likely to be evicted in Virginia if you're black. We know that nationally, drug convictions track not mainly to your rate of drug use, not mainly to your rate of income, but to whether or not you are black. The rate of parole denial, the rate of sentences that exceed recommended guidelines the rate of kids in Virginia who are burdened by court debt, often for crimes that they were not convicted of. All of these track directly with race and

[00:27:18] primarily track directly to the disfavor of our black community. Your office currently engages in a practice to try and deal with the hundreds, maybe even thousands of criminal records that people bear that did not result in a conviction that were sometimes dismissed outright that they were sometimes exonerated of but still sit on their records that deny them employment opportunities that deny them housing opportunities and I don't actually know the data on the racial impact of that but I've I've I've been with you in one of these these processes where we're trying to exonerate these people and I can tell you looking around the room

[00:27:57] that the majority of them are black this is a continued part of our this is not part of our history, right? Like I said at Black History Month, black history is ongoing and we need to continue to grapple with this. And so I'm grateful for the work that your office is doing, that the work that our court and that the work that this body and our police force are doing to try and grapple with this history and to try and bring us in a new direction. And I only hope that we continue to come every day with the energy that everyone had showing up to the Charlottesville Circuit Court to get that motion dismissed. I hope we continue to have that energy every day

[00:28:32] when we confront these issues. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor McKeown. Thank you, Jim. We appreciate everything you've done and being here today and all of your work over the years for the decades that you've been working in this area. I usually, I always use this date or this proclamation to talk about the equal justice initiative, the museum in Montgomery, South Carolina because many of us went there. I'm sorry. Alabama. I'm sorry. I said South Carolina. Alabama,

[00:29:09] excuse me. And it is a very moving, moving memorial. And while a large contingency from Alamore County and the city went, I would encourage everybody when you have a chance to go down there and see that memorial. It is very impactful. There is no doubt that black history is american history and we really have to admit that um it is concerning some of the what we see

[00:29:42] happening in our country right now is very concerning um we went through years of desegregation and now we're resegregating i fear in our many of our communities we're seeing that in virginia we're seeing that in other communities and that's not a good place to be and um i do have one question, and I don't know, Jim, if you can answer this. We were very excited when we were able to

[00:30:14] install the marker at Court Square. And during the time when we were looking at that marker and talking about where we were, and I'm talking about the James Henry James marker, we were very pleased to be able to put it at Court Square. That's an appropriate place for it to be.

[00:30:32] There was also discussion about being able to get two markers and put one out on 250 West in the location where the lynching actually happened as a way of informing, further informing the community and even tourists about the importance of this event.

[00:30:52] And I don't think that marker has not gone up, and I'm just curious as to, and maybe I'm just putting it on the table right now for somebody to take a look at it and see. I don't even know if you're allowed to have duplicate markers in different places, and that may be part of the problem.

[00:31:08] But I would be very interested in finding out if it's possible to put a duplicate marker out in the actual location of where that lynching took place. And I'll just leave that there. Not expecting an answer right now. But I do thank you. This annual reading of this proclamation is really critical for our community to remember the history in our community. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Malek. Thank you. And thank you, Commonwealth Attorney, for your leadership throughout this whole process. It's been

[00:31:45] really helpful to our whole community. While my parents moved here to Virginia in 1942, I grew up here, and yet there are so many things I did not learn about in school, even at Admiral High School graduating in 1967. Lynching and the associated terror were not part of our American history class in junior year. I appreciate I have so much to catch up on individually, and will do my part to do a better job in the future to show up for justice and for citizen service every day.

[00:32:19] so thank you again. Thank you, and I'll add my expression of gratitude for your being here to bring this story to us again, and I think that we can't be reminded enough. We need to know both the good and bad in our history. UVA strives to be both good and great, and I think, you know, actions mean we need to do better, and being better is part of that, so continuing to try to find ways to root out systematic injustice. I was reminded this morning there was a New York

[00:32:54] Times article about a real estate transaction in Virginia Beach where the seller tried to back out based on the race of the buyer. The article actually quotes extensively from Brenda Castaneda formerly of LAJC. My boss. Homes Project. So there's work to be done and appreciate the reminder.

[00:33:19] with this. Thank you. And I believe Supervisor Pruitt has a copy of the proclamation. And I think that case is going to be pursued by the federal government. That's what I'm seeing in the paper, so it would be good. Thank you.

[00:33:37] Thanks again. Supervisors, next, it is my honor to make a motion recognizing June 19, 2024, as Juneteenth. And this is a proclamation to be read in the form of a motion to proclaim Juneteenth.

[00:34:00] Whereas, the county of Albemarle, in keeping with the core principles of our great United States of America, believes that all persons are created equal and possess unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And, whereas, on June 19, 1865, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed to free all enslaved people, enslaved Americans in Galveston, Texas, were finally told they were free from the bondage of slavery and were for the first time recognized as citizens of our nation.

[00:34:30] And whereas black Americans came to commemorate this day of Juneteenth with celebrations across the country, building new lives and a new tradition that we honor today, and whereas the Board of Supervisors recognizes the enduring cultural and historical significance of emancipation, acknowledges the universally cherished values of liberty and justice, and emphasizes our common humanity,

[00:34:53] And whereas the Board of Supervisors encourages all persons in Albemarle County to recommit to our shared work to ensure racial justice and equity and to commemorate the centuries of struggle and progress led by educators, civil rights advocates, abolitionists, activists, lawyers, trade unions, religious leaders, public officials, and everyday Albemarle County residents who have brought us closer to fulfilling this promise.

[00:35:18] Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that we, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, do hereby recognize June 19, 2024, as Juneteenth, and celebrate the joy of people finally being free. Signed this 12th day of June, June 2024.

[00:35:34] Second. I've made the motion. Supervisor Malik, second. Without objection, if the clerk will call the roll. Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Mr. Andrews? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. Malik? Yes. Ms. McKeel? Yes. Ms. Lapisto-Kirtley. Aye. Thank you.

[00:35:51] And I believe we have several people in the audience here to help us celebrate this occasion. In particular, I'm inviting Ms. Marnita Simpson-Shepard, UVA Law Librarian and descendant of the namesake of Simpson Park, Mr. James Elias Simpson.

[00:36:09] Welcome. Thank you. Thanks so much. I might move the mic a little bit. Oh, yes. Thank you. Yes. Thank you for the invitation. I am a third great-granddaughter of James Elias Simpson.

[00:36:25] And as I proudly accept this proclamation, as I will in a few minutes, there are countless African-American Atmar County residents who should be heralded along with Simpson, who deserve to have their sacrifices and hardships recognized.

[00:36:46] Time constrains us, so I'll focus on just one for now, our ancestor, James Elias Simpson, who lived from 1875 to 1950. So that kind of gives you some idea of how great his contributions were, that the park was named after a black man who died in 1950.

[00:37:10] As an entrepreneur, successful merchant, and substantial landholder at a time when, because of racism and subjugation, most black Albemarle County residents could neither read or write, we feel it's appropriate to acknowledge his contributions to the county.

[00:37:27] Simpson Park, located in his hometown of Esmond, where we will be commemorating Juneteenth on June 30th. I think it's 4 o'clock or so. That afternoon, it's a Sunday. commemorates this achievement. I'm speaking for those who came before us, those here today, including this plethora of Simpson descendants out here on this side. There's other great nieces,

[00:38:00] nephews, and such back there. I'm speaking for those of us who came here before us, those here today, as well as those following when I say this is a momentous day in the history of Albemarle County. Our ancestors did not suffer labor and struggle in vain, and today is proof of that.

[00:38:21] Our friends, family, and community members stand in witness to that right now, today in this very moment, as Albemarle County officially recognizes Juneteenth. I'd like to imagine that the souls of those who endured so that we may live freely fly even higher and lighter on this day of recognition. Thank you. Thank you. And we'll have comments. Please remain. Supervisor Lapista Kirtley. Thank you very much for coming today and bringing your family and friends. It's nice

[00:38:57] to see everybody because this is something that is very momentous. Juneteenth is something very important, not only for all African-Americans, but for everybody, for all of America. And I'm happy that we have this proclamation I'm happy that it's a holiday and I'm happy we're doing what we're doing even it needs to be recognized and it needs to be celebrated so I guess I kind of see it as well it's it's just another important day in the history of America of all Americans

[00:39:33] and it's so nice to have this proclamation thank you for coming thank you thank you Yeah, I really appreciate you being here and for those who have joined you while we do the recognition or the proclamation today. I was struck when usually when these proclamations are here, it will invite reflection on my part in different areas.

[00:39:55] And over the years, it's been interesting to see, to me anyway, on the self-interest of where that has led me. This year, it was actually the phrase in the John Henry James proclamation that says racial injustice must be acknowledged, recognized, and remembered for community healing, appropriate for the context of that proclamation.

[00:40:15] But when I think of what's occurring, it triggered an article that I had, remember, I had bookmarked that was with the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. And that article was moving from equity awareness to action.

[00:40:32] And if I can just read this, the bigger point is awareness, remembering, reflection, recognition does not translate to action. And as a policymaker, I think it's important for me to share with folks that that is something that I am now reflecting and have been trying to reflect on for probably 30 years.

[00:40:56] In this article, it says it's an expression of entitlement for those of us who are white or who have other privileged identities to embrace the personal growth of awareness without upending the conditions we're trying to understand better. It's an even bigger expression of entitlement when we keep circling back to awareness building as a tactic to avoid deeper equity and justice work.

[00:41:16] I don't think we're embracing awareness in that fashion in Albemarle County, But I think it is important for me to continue to remind myself that you can only reflect and be aware and recognize so much that the action part has to happen.

[00:41:34] And as somebody that's an elected official and a policymaker, day in and day out, as we think about everything from land use to our budget, programming resources, that that's where my thoughts are. And the proclamations today have me reflecting on that quite a bit.

[00:41:52] So thank you again for being here today and for letting me share that response. Thank you. Supervisor Pruitt? Thank you so much. I actually want to, and thank you for being here and for everyone who has come out for this proclamation.

[00:42:09] I want to actually circle back to something that Supervisor Malik was talking about, about, you know, she graduated in the 70s and had not learned much about our history of racial terror in the United States and especially in the South. And I just want to say, I graduated in this millennia.

[00:42:28] I also did not learn a lot of these things. We're celebrating Juneteenth. And I would-- I'm not going to embarrass anyone, but I would challenge that if we had a raise your hand of all the white people in the room who knew that Juneteenth existed 15 years ago, that, in fact, most Black Americans were not actually free for a significant amount of time after the Emancipation Proclamation, there would not be many hands up.

[00:42:56] um very recently i had a phone call with my father in which uh we were talking he had um he had just watched the the tv show watchman and he was like did you know about the um the tulsa massacre uh three years ago and i'm like dad i'm a i'm a well-educated man i'm a lot younger than you and the answer is no i did not know about the tulsa massacre i don't think i knew about juneteenth until probably around the time that they had the atlanta episode about the juneteenth party. You know, two TV references today. And I think it is, and I take Supervisor Galloway's

[00:43:34] point, that we can't just stop at understanding and appreciation. We have to translate that into action. But I do think it's important that we just do the very basic education of the white people who sit up here in decision-making positions in order to internalize and realize what has brought us here, and what actions need to follow from that.

[00:44:01] So I'm very excited that this is now something that is part of our national lexicon, this is part of the base understanding for Americans, that this is something we pause and recognize every day of the year. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you. Supervisor McKeel. Thank everybody for being here.

[00:44:19] We really appreciate it, and there is a lovely park. It is just lovely. And we really appreciate your family's part in that park and your family's contributions. I will agree with Mike that I didn't know about the Tulsa Massacre either.

[00:44:42] That was completely off my radar screen. That's why it's so important that we remember that black history is American history. And it has to be taught. And, you know, we must support our school. And I think we are doing a pretty good job as the board in Elmar County of supporting the school system in teaching history accurately.

[00:45:05] But there's a lot more work to be done. It does strike me that as we're talking about John Henry James and Juneteenth, that the last lynching that is recorded in the United States is in 1981.

[00:45:24] That was in 1981. And that is shocking to me that I graduated from high school, I graduated from college, and I'd started a family, and lynchings were still happening in this country. But we thank you for being here.

[00:45:41] We appreciate the lovely park, and I know that the community in Esma just gets great enjoyment from it, and we need to continue to teach black history. Thank you. Appreciate that. Supervisor Malek. Thank you all, other Albemarle County Natives.

[00:45:58] equality and equity have been so hard to achieve throughout our nation's history due to that lack of action that was mentioned by my colleagues. And our community here, while working hard, has a lot to learn and much more to do going forward to ensure opportunity for all and to make those founding documents that we did all study in school actually be real. But thank you all again. And I second the comments made by the other fellow supervisors of gratitude, And I want to bring this over to you.

[00:46:30] And again, appreciate everyone who came out for this. So again, reminder that June 30th is the Juneteenth celebration at Central Park. Thank you.

[00:46:50] Thank you.

[00:47:12] Board, we now move to item number seven from the public. Matters on the agenda but not listed for public hearing or matters previously considered by the board or matters that are pending before the board. Do we have anyone signed up? We do not. Okay. Then we can move on, board.

[00:47:31] Thank you. Our next item is the consent agenda. And I just want to point out with respect to item 8.2, there was a revised form of the motion distributed this in blue, simply because the previous motion referred to changes on the attachment, attached personnel policy manual, but the changes were simply repeals of particular policies.

[00:47:54] So there's actually nothing to be attached. I'm not aware of any requests to pull any items from the consent agenda. So the floor is open to a motion to adopt the consent agenda as amended to Section 8.2. So moved.

[00:48:09] Second. We have a motion from Supervisor Malik, a second from Supervisor McKeel. Without objection, the clerk will call the roll. Mr. Pruitt. Aye. Mr. Andrews. Yes. Mr. Galloway. Yes. Ms. Malik. Yes. Ms. McKeel. Yes. Ms. Lapista-Kirtley. Aye. Thank you.

[00:48:26] Board, this brings us to the start of the meat of the afternoon. Our first action item is to consider the Broadway Blueprint Phase II study. A final draft presentation by Mr. David Benish, Development Process Manager. Welcome, Mr. Benish. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[00:48:43] David Benish, Development Process Manager with the Community Development Department. And I'm the Project Manager for this study, along with assistance from J.T. Newberry from our Economic Development Office. This meeting is to present to you what we hope is the final draft of the Broadway Blueprint Phase 2 Implementation Study.

[00:49:03] We see this meeting as hopefully a final check-in with the board on this study. Rachel Falkenstein from 3TP Ventures, one of our two consultants working on the project, will be presenting the study to you in just a minute.

[00:49:19] We also have here Daniel Heyer from Lining Grade, Civil Engineering, our other consulting firm, working on this project. And we have various staff from our Economic Development Office here as well. And we're all here and available to respond to any questions or comments that you might have today.

[00:49:41] Our goal for today is to hopefully receive general agreement and consensus from the board on the draft study and to receive from you any direction on refinements to the strategies that you may see that you would like to see. Our game plan is for staff to share the final draft document study along with an index of background data, which is currently being compiled, and provide that with any suggested changes you give us today, provide that full document to you in an upcoming consent agenda item for official approval.

[00:50:16] So we're kind of looking for general agreement on the plan or any comments from you today, and then we'll forward to you a final document for formal action. So with that, I'm going to pass it on to Rachel Falkenstein to quickly take you through this, and we're going to focus in primarily on the first five-year recommendations, but are certainly welcome to answer any questions about the whole study.

[00:50:40] Thank you. Welcome. Thank you, David. I'm Rachel Falkenstein. I am a project manager with 3TP Ventures. It's great to be before you and see you all again today. Pull up my...

[00:50:56] Do I have to do something? Oh, sorry, I forgot to drag. Okay. So as David mentioned, today we're going to present our final draft report for the Broadway Blueprint Phase 2 Implementation Study.

[00:51:17] And we're going to focus on not all of the strategies. We're going to focus our presentation on short-term strategies and the integration strategies. but you'll see in the materials we provided, there are also long-term strategies. So we're prepared to answer questions on those if you have them. So our agenda for today, we'll start with just a quick bit of background and a status update, what we've been working on over the past few months since we were here last. We'll go into the strategies in a little more detail and then have time for discussion, input, and questions from you all. So a reminder about our study area, it's shown here outlined in the maroon outline. We're southeast of the city of Charlottesville

[00:51:55] and just near the confluence of the Rivanna River and Moores Creek. Broadway Street bisects our study area, and it's about 62 acres total. And the adjacent city neighborhoods are the neighborhood of Woolen Mills and Carlton to the west.

[00:52:12] So a reminder about our project goals. We had three goals identified at the beginning of our work. This is really about creating kind of a menu of implementation strategies that you all can use to support the topics of connectivity placemaking and economic vitality within Broadway. I really want to build on some past investments that you all have made in the area that the private sector has made in the area and the interests that has kind of swelled up in this area based on its unique location and unique assets. And then the third goal is process-based, really want to make sure we're engaging with the stakeholders and the broad spectrum of

[00:52:47] stakeholders within the area. So our scope was building on a phase one study that you all completed in 2019 and 2020 and we wanted to kind of take that work and build upon it and we had three parts to our work. We did a kickoff where it was just more kind of listening information gathering. Then there was a midpoint review and that's when we were last before you all back in February of this year where we had some observations, some opportunities we had identified but wanted to check in and get some direction before we pulled everything together into final recommendations. So we're here today with our final recommendations. It's still a draft because we need your input and direction

[00:53:26] before we finalize that, as David mentioned. So when we were back with you in February, there were some themes that emerged. We just wanted to kind of remind you what we heard and how we integrated that into our work. We heard that you all really want us to prioritize industrial land uses within the area. You want to see this area continue to be an industrial area for Albemarle County and not to have large-scale residential integrate into this area at this time because of the tensions that could come with the industrial and the residential land uses operating side by side

[00:54:02] or the concern of displacement that could happen. We brought up the concept of an arts and cultural district with you all at that time and we heard support for that and supporting the artisans in the area and the art studio space that is there. And we heard some support for recommendations to improve Broadway for pedestrian and bicycle facilities. But you also highlight the importance of coordinating with the city of Charlottesville. Broadway is unique in that in order to get to the area, you have to travel on city streets. And so to improve the transportation network broadly and connectivity to and from Broadway will require coordination and partnership with Charlottesville.

[00:54:42] Through each phase of our work we have had opportunities for engagement with the folks within Broadway. The stakeholders are a broad spectrum of folks. There are residents in Broadway, there are tenants, there are property owners, there are developers who own property in the area and are interested in opportunities for their property.

[00:55:02] So throughout each phase, we've heard from a wide spectrum of folks and stakeholders within Broadway. And here are some of the themes we've heard throughout. I won't read each of these bullets, but I'll highlight that these have been kind of consistent. Folks are concerned about displacement, especially tenants in the area who don't want to see their rent go up because of gentrification.

[00:55:23] And a desire for more access to the amenities. So pedestrian improvements has been a big theme in the area. and then broadly people do want it to maintain its industrial nature there has been mixed support for residential some people really want to see residential and some people don't want it at all there are two areas of focus for residential that we'll talk about within the strategies and that is along franklin street and pervious row and i'll get into that in a little bit when we talk about the strategies so as i mentioned we're going to go through the strategies now we're going to focus on short term and we're going to focus on integration strategies which are those that require a partnership. So we were hesitant to put a time frame on them, but they are

[00:56:02] all equally important and it's kind of the county's role to be ready and available to partner when the opportunity arises. So starting off with our short-term strategies, the first five strategies I'll cover today are part of ongoing processes or things you are already doing. So I'm going to just briefly go through these. 1.1 is just maintaining industrial land use, maintaining industrial zoning in areas where it already exists today. 1.2 touches on an area along Parias Row and Marchand Street that's circled on both maps. The left map is your comprehensive plan future land

[00:56:41] use map and the right map is your zoning map and so in your comp plan these parcels are identified for residential in the future but your current zoning is for industrial light industrial zoning and so we're recommending that you consider a residential zoning on these properties and the rationale for that is because a they are currently residential uses there are people who live here we've talked to some of the folks who live there they don't have a desire to leave or see their properties be turned over to an industrial use all of these structures except for one are contributing structures to the woolen mills historic district and we think the best path

[00:57:18] toward protection of these structures is keeping them as residential uses they are houses currently And so keeping them as houses seems to be the best path to protect these resources. As I mentioned, these also are ongoing processes that are either already underway or things you're already doing.

[00:57:39] 1.3, we think you all can look at this when you do your countywide zoning ordinance update. Look at your light industrial zoning requirements and see if there are opportunities to continue to support your industrial users, especially around allowing them to capitalize on their locational assets, especially on Broadway.

[00:58:01] There is more foot traffic in the area, and so can there be opportunities for makers to sell their goods and have expanded opportunities for retail space with their industrial use? That might apply to tasting rooms for breweries as well. And also looking at relaxing your parking requirements and making sure you formalize opportunities for artisans and art uses within the industrial land use, or within the industrial zoning.

[00:58:25] 1.4, also an ongoing thing that you are working on, your AC44 process might be an opportunity to continue this work, but maintaining efforts to identify other industrial land uses in the county, we've looked at the data and we've heard from the stakeholders that there is not enough industrial inventory in Elmoro County and folks are being displaced to adjacent localities.

[00:58:46] So continuing to identify opportunities for industrial land uses within the county. And then 1.5, again, this is ongoing. Your economic development office is doing this as we speak. But continue to connect with businesses down there and troubleshoot as issues come up.

[00:59:03] Help them work through issues and make sure you're keeping a pulse on kind of what's going on and what their needs are in the Broadway area specifically. Oops, wrong way. Okay, 1.6 is where we start to talk about new initiatives for the county. Again, we're still in short term, and the short term I should have said is we're recommending it's one to five years from study adoption is what we're calling short term.

[00:59:26] And this one is about looking at the area on Franklin Street that I mentioned. The map at the bottom is your comprehensive plan, future land use plan, and I've circled the properties we're talking about within our study area that are along Franklin Street. You can see Franklin Street here in the city of Charlottesville on the west side.

[00:59:45] But these properties are identified in your future land use plan as parks and green systems. But there is developable land here. And in fact, this aerial photo here shows that corner parcel of Broadway and Franklin Street. It's being developed right now. There are some slopes that front on Franklin Street that are identified as preserve slopes right now.

[01:00:06] And there's a stone wall there as well. And so we're recommending some analysis of this land to identify which portions of this land are actually developable and updating your future land use plan accordingly and saying what use should be there. So should it be residential? Should it be mixed use? Should it be industrial?

[01:00:26] There is a use on this building as well. It's Carter's Bread. And then we understand that there's a portion of this parcel that is outside of floodplain that is also developable. So analyzing that land, looking at the resources, seeing if they should be protected or if there's an opportunity for redevelopment or reuse of this area, and updating your future land use plan accordingly.

[01:00:48] The next strategy is the Arts and Cultural District, which we talked about last time. This is an opportunity for you all to adopt a regulatory policy to incentivize arts and cultural uses within Broadway. And there's a number of routes you could go with this.

[01:01:04] You can provide grant funding. You can provide reduction of taxes. you can provide permit flexibility. So it would have to be an additional process where you would do some engagement and include this within your ordinance, but it's an opportunity to incentivize those artisans and perhaps make it a little bit easier for them to afford to stay within Broadway. And now I'm going to turn it over to Daniel Heyer to talk about placemaking.

[01:01:30] Thank you, Rachel. I'm Daniel with Line and Grade, and we're going to cover short-term strategies related to placemaking and connectivity. So the image across the bottom of the screen is an aerial image of Broadway Street overlaid with a survey. We were in due process of this work. We learned that ACSA was planning a waterline replacement project along Broadway Street. We were able to use the resources they had aggregated and procured for their project for our work. And as a part of their project, we learned that they were going to completely

[01:02:06] mill and resurface Broadway Street when they're finished with the waterline replacement, which was for us a cue that there's a near-term opportunity to implement some sort of, you know, strategies along Broadway Street. In this case, providing pavement markings. Currently, there is no pavement markings on Broadway Street. The image in the top right of the screen is a computer-generated image, a rendering of sorts. That was a real photograph where we laid the white and yellow paint into the image so by providing pavement markings will begin to delineate vehicular areas we will not impinge upon large vehicle movements which are something we heard about from the

[01:02:46] stakeholders on the corridor specifically those who rely on large vehicles to access their property so this will actually be a very very near term strategy we'll be issuing bid documents for the pavement marking in June or August of this year and so you'll in the very near term you'll see signs of the short-term strategies being implemented pavement markings being one of them another thing that will be of specific importance in the short term will be developing a wayfinding plan how to get to Broadway as Rachel mentioned the only way to get there is along city streets we think that based on what's

[01:03:25] happening in Broadway with the eclectic nature of arts and culture but also So like industrial and then tenants like Willowtree, developing a brand identity for Broadway will be important. In fact, as I was standing here listening to Rachel, I was looking at her water bottle that she must have received, and there's lots of Charlottesville waypoints on it, but Franklin's there, but Broadway's not.

[01:03:46] And I think that sort of proves the point that this is an important area. It needs an identity. It needs to be clearly known. But allowing that to happen will require specific integration and coordination with the city of Charlottesville. identifying sign locations where we want vehicles to be encountering signs and how we want them to move through in some cases residential areas to find their way to broadway item 2.3 marchant marchant street we have also learned in our work that this is a street that is kind of forgotten

[01:04:21] about there is no clear path to ownership on marchant street it is not owned by the state It is not owned by the county. It is not owned by any of the adjacent landowners. There are no ownership records for it. So, and as such, it's kind of fallen into disrepair. The asphalt is falling apart. There are no drainage provisions. It's only going to continue to deteriorate given the decades that it's already been forgotten about. So one of our recommendations is to consider converting Marchant into a private street. As such, we can bring it up to current standards and

[01:04:56] provide additional safety and serviceability for that piece of infrastructure. Item 2.4, again, largely the only way to find yourself onto East Market Street in the county is through city streets, East Market being the primary way to find yourself there. And as current, you can't really tell what's about to happen as you leave the city and into the county on East Market Street except for a dead-end sign. There's really no delineation of how you're supposed to use that corridor.

[01:05:27] Obviously, we know that we want to restrict movements for through traffic. I think people are beginning to understand that. But I think specific and clear delineation of improvements for bicycle and pedestrians along that roadway and also delineating how the residents should be moving through there with their vehicles, which is a great dovetail into understanding how this area connects to the future and planned Ravana River pedestrian bridge, which will basically, as currently conceived, be landing one of the abutments in the vicinity of East Market Street here.

[01:06:01] So prioritizing and understanding how we should think about broader movements of bike and bicyclists and pedestrians through East Market into Broadway and then across the Ravana. So with that, Rachel's going to jump back in about the bridge.

[01:06:19] Thanks, Daniel. So we're jumping forward in the report to number five. These are integration strategies. we jumped over the long term as I mentioned but we can answer questions on those so integration strategies are those that while very important they require you all to partner with another partner to complete it and so the timing of these might not be able to be completed in the short term though some of them hopefully could especially some that would require wayfinding with the city of Charlottesville as an example but 5.1 is kind of a continuation of what Daniel was talking about

[01:06:56] so there's the study piece where you all kind of finalize your pedestrian bridge design and location study and I know that's work that you are currently in the process of doing so once that is kind of finalized you have your design decided upon and you're going to ready to move forward with implementation it is really important that you all kind of take a step back and look at the bike and pedestrian network and access to that bridge. And Daniel was mentioning some of the constraints on East Market Street. It is a very narrow right-of-way. It's an old street.

[01:07:28] As of right now, it's not really safe for vehicles to move both ways on the street, let alone bikes and pedestrians. So having a formal plan for how folks are going to get to this amenity, it will be a regional amenity that will attract a lot of folks. And so this strategy is really about implementing formal bicycle and pedestrian improvements within Broadway, East Market Street specifically, but zooming out as well to get folks to and from there by car, where are they going to park? If they're on foot or on bike, how are they going to get there?

[01:07:59] Another piece that's worth mentioning is East Market Street. This segment of East Market Street runs concurrent with the Rivanna Trail, and so folks are getting off of the trail and walking on the street for this portion to get over to the Moores Creek Bridge. And so it's very important to have safe facilities for pedestrians along these streets. So as you continue to move the Rivanna River Pedestrian Bridge forward, our recommendation is that you really prioritize bike and pedestrian movements, especially along East Market Street. Okay, the intersection of Broadway and Franklin

[01:08:38] shown in the image here. And again, this is a computer-generated image showing some improvements at that intersection but this intersection has some interesting opportunities for integration but requires a fair bit of coordination with other stakeholders specifically working to secure right-of-way along franklin for future pedestrian improvements but also working to secure right-of-way along broadway the broadway leg of this intersection actually happens to exist within an easement it is not publicly owned right-of-way the right-of-way of broadway does not begin until several hundred feet to the right of where that image currently cuts off so there is opportunity for working to

[01:09:18] basically secure right-of-way in the vicinity of broadway and franklin speaking of wayfinding and pedestrian safety and making intersections more friendly for all users there's an opportunity to consider improving this intersection to be slightly more compact clearly delineating pedestrian facilities and also integrating that with wayfinding you know at this point if you've gotten to this intersection you should clearly understand how to get to the broadway district and this slightly more compact slightly more soft intersection could be a great place to integrate

[01:09:55] wayfinding and also funnel people maybe toward carlton as opposed to going underneath that one-way bridge under the buckingham branch railroad i don't really foresee that that underpass will really ever be changed. It's kind of a little nook and cranny of the Charlottesville Street Network, so we'd want to be thinking about how we can provide other ways for folks to get into the city without necessarily having to go under that one-way underpass. So Daniel started talking about Marchant Street in the short-term strategies. Right now Marchant Street terminates in a closed

[01:10:34] railroad crossing. This street used to cross the railroads and was recently closed within the past couple of years and i think the railroad buckingham branch was able to close it because of the lack of ownership that daniel had talked about there's no clear ownership they don't need permission they've closed it and so we're recommending the county explore as the street is upgraded to a private street standard the possibility of reopening the railroad crossing as a bicycle and pedestrian facility as daniel was mentioning that underpass in the city on franklin street

[01:11:08] is not a safe facility for folks to walk and bike under if it's it's very narrow and if a car and a person were passing it's very tight there's a very narrow sidewalk so this might be a better route for bicyclists and pedestrians to go to get to points in the city like riverview park or in the future um rivana river pedestrian bridge so the recommend recommendation here is to partner with buckingham branch and see what the opportunities are for this crossing okay one thing we learned and this was surprising to me in that image you see those four buildings from

[01:11:48] this is a small little business complex on Broadway Street right now those buildings connect to a forced sanitary lateral that pumps their sewage up Broadway Street to the top of the hill before it can find its way into the service of RW say system so basically you have private infrastructure within a public right-of-way and i think it's a very limiting factor to the capacity of these businesses here the irony is that there's sanitary sewer right here in this intersection

[01:12:24] just downhill of where they are so i think one thing we can be doing is advocating for some of these landowners for basically inter-jurisdictional connections that there's no reason at this point in time that these properties need to be on a forced lateral type system pumping sewage hundreds of feet up a hill to basically get into the sewage plant that's literally right next door we can be advocating for these property owners to connect into basically modern utility networks at this point in time part and parcel with that is really how we're providing for these these

[01:12:58] services to these tenants and owners and folks who are along this corridor one thing we heard is petty theft is not uncommon so working with local police authorities to make sure that they patrol the area on some kind of regular interval so and then finally and this really is paying attention to how things develop over time but making sure we're coordinating opportunities for transit between broadway and downtown charlottesville whether that's micro transit or jaunt or some other type of mechanism i know when willow tree redeveloped they they paid into

[01:13:33] some sort of fund that will eventually be um be considered so anyway it's just drawing attention to the fact that people do still, the people at Willowtree specifically express that they're still trying to get folks to the downtown mall for lunch and stuff like that. So just paying attention to those future points of integration and coordination. And then lastly, our last two are really about kind of being open to opportunities that might come about as time goes on, as properties turn over, as new businesses come here, as the existing businesses continue to do their

[01:14:10] grassroots placemaking this was something we talked about last time we were in front of you that there's a good bit of grassroots placemaking already happening there are organizations hosting art studios having events opportunities for folks to come out and gather listen to music see our rotating artist studios we've heard conversations in our stakeholder engagement where neighboring property owners were talking about the possibility of building a trail across their properties to connect adjacent to the railroad and so we're advocating for the county

[01:14:45] to kind of champion and support these efforts in ways that make sense for both entities we heard a desire for the county to not be super heavy-handed when it comes to these types of efforts but to be more of a partner and to support the work that's already going on and so we provided some ideas of what this could look like for you all formalizing trail networks as property owners kind of initiate them providing support for arts streamlining permit streamlining permitting for block parties and events that was also something we heard in a conversation between between property owners that

[01:15:19] they would love to see block parties down there and potentially in the future if there were an association that were to kind of organically coalesce around some of these businesses providing support and partnership to a potential future kind of business association down in Broadway.

[01:15:37] And then 5.6 is similar. You already have participated in a public-private partnership in Broadway, but keeping your ears open for future opportunities. We heard a lot about a desire for some public space down in Broadway where folks could gather and have a small pocket park or something like that. So continuing to be open to opportunities like that if they may arise.

[01:16:00] So our next steps on this project, David mentioned, the next steps for the report will be we'll take any input you all have. If the strategies need any adjustments based on your direction, we will do that and deliver a final report to staff. And that can come to you on consent for action on a future agenda.

[01:16:18] We also have an appendix that we're in the process of compiling with some technical documentation, some of the strategies that Daniel talked about. we have some schematic designs that we'll deliver that you all could use for budgeting purposes or to apply for grant money.

[01:16:33] And then the next steps for implementation, if you all accept the study and adopt it, it will be kind of passed off to staff in Community Development Department and Economic Development Office for implementation. And they'll do the work of the department resource requests to get these projects underway.

[01:16:52] And with that, we have just two questions for you all. Do you have any recommended changes to the strategies they're written and then do you endorse and accept the study so we can put the final touches on for final adoption and we're also available for any questions you have as well thank you thank you we will go through our order supervisor lupisco currently yes thank you very much for that presentation and it's frankly it's all it's all very exciting i really like the arts corridor aspect of it. The bridge across the Rivanna River, the connector bridge, do you know where

[01:17:32] that is? Or maybe Supervisor Malik knows where we are with that? Because the last I heard it was, you know, it was a lot more than when I was well on the committee, it was a lot more than what we had anticipated. So I'm just, I guess I'm asking that question to see how much of a part this will be. Maybe Mr. Galloway knows. Right now, a raised grant was submitted for planning stage based on to try to get a better understanding of the costs, especially the engineering costs for it, to see if the total up jump in the dollars could come down. And then just like we've used raised

[01:18:12] grant in the past where it could qualify for a raised grant actual project after the planning grant or study. That's where it's currently at. And are they sticking to the same? Yes. location everything's been decided okay just trying to get the price down all right okay so that's a hopefully shall we say okay um i noticed in in the packet we had the one it showed the broadway pedestrian shoulder so it doesn't really show sidewalks but it shows

[01:18:49] like plastic bollards so that would make the street narrower and then or would you widen the street yeah should the county elect to pursue additional pedestrian improvements along the corridor we've discussed this with beat out there beginning to implement that program that you saw which is basically a walking shoulder defined as a pedestrian facility so it has certain ada requirements that it has to meet but it's basically lowering the bar of getting the facilities on the ground as opposed to like traditional sidewalks and curbs and gutters and drainage systems which

[01:19:29] along Broadway would be a massive amount of cost and so this walking shoulder model seems to fit along Broadway should the county want to pursue additional pedestrian improvements in the future okay and that's because the streets are wider than there's enough room in a number of places there is so the the asphalt now just does this all the way down Broadway so there would be some improvements to make it a little more continuous but in some areas actually there's plenty of space already so and i do like the idea of the the plastic bollards you know along the for separation

[01:20:05] um so recommended changes but no i i like what you presented uh and then going to the edo and cdd i'm in favor of that also but i'm also going to listen to what my other fellow comrades have to say. Should I say comrades? My fellow supervisors. Yeah, I know. Thank you. Supervisor Gallup. I guess I'll start with a question. The arts and cultural district, if that was put in

[01:20:45] place, are there any existing, I don't think we would inhibit any existing businesses by putting an arts and cultural district in place, but the incentives and the things that you can do within an arts and cultural district, would all current operations there potentially benefit from an arts and cultural district? Or are there some that would fall out of what would be allowed under an arts and cultural district? The arts and cultural district is intended to support uses that provide space for or opportunities for events related to arts and culture. So if it's just a

[01:21:23] traditional light industrial business down there, right now the way they're operating, they would not benefit from the arts and cultural district, but it would not hurt them and inhibit them. So we may have to find other incentives. If there's an existing, vibrant company that's not arts and cultural, and we were interested in incentivizing somehow to keep them there, we would have to come up with that as an additional strategy.

[01:21:47] Yeah, that would be probably something separate. I would call that out. I'm not saying it has to be put into this strategy, but it should be called out for the economic development team, especially as I know we'll be eventually gearing towards project enables the restudy of that.

[01:22:10] The margin street, the ownership conundrum, do we need to take ownership before we can do anything? If nobody owns it, somebody needs to own it, I guess. you would not be the only one to have said that um well shocking yeah um one of the adjacent landowners is also married to an attorney who scoured like we have dozens and dozens of formal documentation and there's no reference to any ownership at all whatsoever so it does need to find an owner i don't know that it will end up who that owner should be of the private road is i

[01:22:44] think is should be discussed i mean i would certainly say that and i again i don't necessarily think that needs to be in the strategy report but we anything we're going to do ownership is probably the first step so i guess that's a legal question um or a legal action call out um uh march on i would certainly support the land use analysis on franklin street and we just want to call that out i think that that's a wise that would be a wise strategy to do so i endorse all your strategies i'll just say that up front there's nothing here i'm looking to change i have some comments on a

[01:23:24] a couple of things. But that one in particular, I think we need to do. And what's interesting is on the, what stood out to me in reviewing the plan, it's on page 11, I believe, of the actual plan, if you're following along. So it's under Broadway study area observations and under the category economic vitality. When you read the four bullet points, which are affordability, rising costs, local inventory, essential businesses and organizations. And again, I'm not saying anything needs to be changed here because it's under observations so I'm not suggesting an edit

[01:24:03] but if you read through what the story says and reading through those four stories first off we say it's been an area that has been an affordable space for the operations to be in the second point says well costs are rising so now the places that like it for the affordability are starting to feel constrained and pushed out the end of that states some Broadway businesses may determine that other locations in the county provide a better long-term value to their operations. But then the next point goes on to say, well, current industrial vacancy in Albemarle County is slim to none, and many

[01:24:38] businesses are forced to locate outside of the county. So the last statement under rising costs conflicts with the statement under local inventory, because it's probably not the case that if they're pushed out of Broadway, they're not going to find a home somewhere else in Albemarle. They're going to find a home in some other county or place. Then we go on in the last bullet point to say, but these businesses are important to us. It's worthwhile having them in this location. So I call all of that out to say that we have to understand that it's not about that last statement that they may find other locations in the county provide a better long-term value. I don't think

[01:25:16] that's a true statement. I don't think that does exist. I don't think that can exist. So if anything, maybe that sentence gets struck or it said it agrees with local inventory that they may be forced outside of our county the bigger point or the comment is and I guess this would be directed to staff and the strategy of it that that arts and cultural district getting that put in place you know to me would probably be full speed ahead as soon as this is endorsed and hand handed over

[01:25:49] to the to the team so that we can start getting some tools available to help the existing businesses and other businesses that are there because I think that activity ultimately what encourages or pushes the dominoes over for pedestrian infrastructure, block parties, and other things like that. If the local business area is vibrant and they feel some long-term stability, I think that's what's key to the rest of some of these things that the plan envisions to fall into place.

[01:26:24] I'm not interested in displacing any of the residents there, but I'm also one that's not real interested in seeing this become all residential. I want this to stay LI and have the business activity that's going on down there.

[01:26:40] So I really don't see anywhere else where we do this as a collective area or spot. So I throw all of that out there to say, yep, I would think the arts and cultural district is an important tool that we need to put in place. I know it's even limited. the state has some limitations on how long you can do things for, and we all have to be educated on that, because I don't know all the ins and outs of what that could mean, but it's not just forever. You can only have defined time frames if you put a tax embatement in or something like that. So I would hope that that would be full speed ahead and coming to us in some way once

[01:27:15] this is complete. I think we're there. I appreciate the work. I appreciate the job. I appreciate the vision that's in here and I do endorse. So aside from that little piece under rising costs, I would think that I'm happy to see this move forward and would endorse all the strategies that are in here.

[01:27:43] Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Pruitt. Thank you for this presentation. One of my favorite hidden gems in my district. I also want to just kind of address the possibility of unforeseen consequences that specifically relate to displacement from some of the key questions, right?

[01:28:05] Because what we have is a kind of naturally occurring set of circumstances that have resulted in patterns of affordability that have benefited both industrial and residential tenants, right? You have closely related uses, which generally makes both of them less expensive because it's less convenient for both of them, and you have inconvenient placemaking, can sometimes lower lower values that people are paying um so in addition to just generally making it a more appetizing community um there's some of the specific elements that we're working with here

[01:28:42] that i would be worried i want to just make sure we're considering the possible consequences and have safeguards about it um a big one that immediately led to my mind and we were discussing right before the meeting um we are talking about uh where we have existing uh residential uses um that are grandfathered in i had just as a slight tangent i had asked during the previous one if we got a sense of what the prevailing rents there looked like i don't think we have that information still but i would just say observationally i might guess that some of the units are what we would call noah's naturally occurring affordable housing just because of the age of the units

[01:29:21] and the material readiness of those units those currently can't be easily redeveloped because that would interrupt their continuous use for residential purposes and they can't be redeveloped right there is also the concern then that if we try and align the uses in this largely historic district that has naturally occurring housing uh that is somewhat affordable that that could actually make that a good value proposition for redeveloping into more expensive units um i don't know the way that the historic district intersects with that um and how that

[01:29:56] might uh complicate or change that value proposition but that's a possibility for displacement that i would be worried about similarly when we talk about the arts and cultural district you have you have galleries you have breweries that have naturally occurred in this space um and i am interested in continuing to incentivize and help them grow and expand what they're able to do and create you know more synergetic um partners in the area but my worry might be that the creation of some kind of business or tax incentive through the district

[01:30:31] would not necessarily benefit the visible records of the world, first and foremost, who are already able to survive in this location, but it might instead create an interesting value proposition for the investor who is like, oh, I can easily locate my gift shop that sells watercolor prints of the Charlottesville skyline and coasters there and capture these tax credits for some other use, right?

[01:30:56] I'm not saying that's what happens, but I would just be worried about are we supporting the businesses that are there? Are we creating a value proposition that is going to be captured by some other use? I don't have the solutions for this, but this is maybe one of the, I would say, the most pressing concern I have with this.

[01:31:12] We've identified all these kind of naturally occurring values that we get out of this community. And some of our strategies, I would just worry, make it such a compelling value proposition that it could naturally displace some of these, which aren't necessarily the kind of expert investors, the kind of sophisticated interest that might be positioned to capture them best.

[01:31:33] There's a lot of ways that we could work with this. We could help these individual landowners, these individual residents, these individual tenants through some kind of navigating function to make sure that they're positioned to best capture whatever kind of benefits are made available through different parts of this plan.

[01:31:48] But I just want to raise that. I'm excited for the fiscal improvements that are being planned for Broadway. I'll be more excited when we actually have a little bit more pen to paper on what those are going to look like. But I do agree that the shoulder, the walking shoulder element seems very well suited for that.

[01:32:06] I'm a little intrigued just to know because I know a concern that we've talked about with Broadway is that its width naturally excites people. And also the fact that it is largely unused and that that encourages high speeds down it.

[01:32:24] I'm curious if this shoulder is also coming with a diet below the standard road length, or road width, rather, or if this is just going to make it conform with a VDOT across the board standard. So that I just want to pause on, if you know the answer. Are we looking at a, is there anything planned with the actual width of the driving portion of it to kind of discourage high use, or the high speed use, I should say? The tarmac width of asphalt will remain unchanged.

[01:32:54] it'll still feel kind of broad. The pavement markings themselves, the white and the yellow, will bring visual cues to drivers of where their cars should go. There is some recent studies that suggest that sometimes, Broadway kind of breaks what this study was suggesting, but there is studies that suggest by adding pavement markings you are, because you're adding the visual cue to the drivers, that they actually can continue to speed 'cause they know where they're supposed to be as opposed to removing pavement markings.

[01:33:30] And then they're kind of like, oh my goodness, what's going on here? Maybe I should slow down. - Yeah, I drive slow in Broadway because I'm like, what the hell is happening? - Yeah, so in the case of Broadway, I think what we're proposing right now is the correct strategy that we, because speeding is a problem right now and there is no pavement markings, I think by adding them, we are only reinforcing a visual cue that could be helpful for one.

[01:33:55] But for two, we're not narrowing the physical properties of the street itself. So we're not causing any vehicular turning movement challenges for the large trucks. Are there any kind of stripping, like your rumble strips, your very softly graded speed bumps that could be used in this area at certain points that wouldn't give concern to the, like, large trucking that is also in that area?

[01:34:24] And that also would be within a budget. Is there a magic solution that you found? i'm intrigued by your your comment about like some sort of speed hump um it is a vdot owned and maintained roadway um so vdot would have to be a willing and active participant in that conversation the rumble strips um these would not be the rumble strips running parallel on the margin they might be something running transverse across the road to give a like a a tactile cue those are very interesting thoughts i'll reflect on that a little bit look for the magic solution

[01:35:02] I'm not a civil engineer, so I'm just pulling this out of my hair. But I listen to enough urbanists to know what some of the things they like are. Thank you. I am also still confused about what the path forward with Marchant even is.

[01:35:19] And I don't understand how we create a private street. We're a public body. We don't create private things. Is what's being proposed exercising eminent domain, taking it, And then hoping someone wants to take it from us, which I wouldn't assume anyone would, because then they have to pay for it, right?

[01:35:41] I'm going to try to pick my words carefully. Making it a private street is simply denoting that the roadway is not owned and maintained by VDOT, in this case. So the county could be the owner of the private street.

[01:36:00] The county isn't necessarily preferential to that option either, because then you own the street and you have to maintain the street, and in this case, improve the street. But because no one, VDOT is unlikely to step in and acquire or otherwise own this street.

[01:36:21] This is us saying this needs to be discussed specifically. There needs to be some awareness of who will eventually own that street. And if we acquire an interest in the street ourselves, there isn't a mechanism to convey that to VDOT unless they're excited about that themselves.

[01:36:42] I think VDOT's actually trying to do the opposite, where they're trying to give up their inventory. So they would not be, you could ask, but I'm not convinced it will go anywhere. I'm just thinking the county's not in the business of really maintaining roads and streets. We don't have that kind of, we're not set up for it.

[01:37:00] It would be an odd thing on our inventory, whereas VDOT is in the business of it. If I may, though, I think what's worth mentioning specifically here is that if left unaffected, If no private street or no one steps in to maintain it, it's only going to get much worse.

[01:37:19] And there are people who do live along Pireus Road, which, like, you know, we should be thinking about safe access and serviceable access to those properties real large. Thank you. To kind of also just put a pin on this and move away from Marchand Street.

[01:37:37] In addition to just not understanding how we would mechanically get to private ownership and actually denoting someone who's going to foot the bill for maintenance, because I don't understand how that would happen. I would also just be concerned, something that we sometimes hear from developers, especially from, you know, public good-minded developers, affordability-minded developers, when they're being candid with us, is that the patterns of development that we use in our community end up creating unforeseen expenses that always get realized and burdened by homeowners and tenants because we create so much private infrastructure that then has to be maintained by them.

[01:38:17] I can't help but think that I don't see a way that this does become private in a way that that doesn't become a maintenance burden that falls on those residents who we don't know their income status, but it could be an onerous and undesirable burden that might even outweigh having a nice access road.

[01:38:39] So that's just kind of the background of that concern I raise. When we're talking about East Market Street and also, you know, the pedestrian access in that area, the fact that it's currently a pedestrian access point over to Riverview, it's not clear to me that we have very concrete thoughts about what future pedestrian planning looks like there.

[01:39:04] Currently, it's functioning much like broad, where it's like it's not used enough, so everyone can just use it at the same time. And there's also existing signage there that I am not clear what its legally enforceable powers are, right?

[01:39:21] But like saying, do not go down this street. Do not enter here. I don't even understand what the legal bearing of those signs are. I'm curious if you could help me understand a little bit more about what the next step at the market even looks like. because I understand that you're highlighting it as an area of concern, but I'm not clear what can be done. Frankly, I go there a lot and I don't even know what is done there because I don't understand the signage. Okay. We're going to tag team on this one. Okay. So the property owners along East Market Street are in discussion with county staff and VDOT about what to do about

[01:40:00] the street. And there have been options put on the table about making it a private street that zoned and maintained by them and then it would turn into a one-way street nothing has been decided yet it's just they're in conversation about it right now the other point is our study is recommending a short-term improvement that would be similar to what's being done on Broadway of just some paints to delineate where the pedestrian zone is and where the the auto zone is the car so that is the recommendation but we we were hesitant to be really specific about it because

[01:40:39] of the nature of the ongoing dialogue of what to do about that street between the property owners the county and vdot so i think once that is decided then a more formal plan for how to address the pedestrian aspect of east market street could could then be applied okay thank you still something we're actively figuring out what the stakeholders even want, kind of.

[01:41:04] I think coupled with what we were saying about the pedestrian bridge and what Rachel said about connecting to Riverview Park, like pedestrians and cyclists or whomever are walking on city streets for some blocks to get back to where this eventual pedestrian bridge will go, which I think is suggestive of kind of a broader perspective of integrating Riverview Park, this future pedestrian bridge what's happening on the end of East Market Street that all in and of itself is like a small little micro study of and several different you know stakeholders that need to be

[01:41:41] involved oh and about the signage we we drove by there on the way here just to make sure we were like there is a dead end sign and then there is an end city maintenance sign the end city maintenance sign you can't even really see it's behind a tree there are some I think park no parking signs closer to the end you are you referring to the sandwich board signs that used to be set up to kind of like try to encourage drivers yeah i thought there was like a one-way only sign which is like empirically untrue i mean the dead end sign is empirically untrue right it is not a dead

[01:42:17] and there's a one-way sign but it's on the willow tree property so it's not on the vdot portion of the street so which is also just my understanding is that one-way sign is incorrect and not legally accurate well if it's on personal property if it is in reference to market it is it is it implicitly purports to describe a rule on market that does not actually apply on market well especially if it's on private property yeah i i understand that my point is the sign making

[01:42:55] and the placemaking is confusing, is contradictory, and it is not clear what is even legally binding or bearing on things. So that is kind of what I'm driving at there. And just as a closing thing, didn't we have someone, like, jump the Marchant Street rail crossing, like, a week ago or two as a reckless driver?

[01:43:17] I'm curious if we had, it might have been a separate part, but it was in the Broad Street, Willow Mill District. There was a reckless driver who made a slight deviation of course and literally jumped the rail crossing. I'm curious if that implicates any of our thoughts on safety and planning.

[01:43:36] I think that was a different location. Was it? Oh, I really did think so. The Duke of Hazard thing? Yeah, the Dukes of Hazard. That was in a different location. Okay. I trust my peers. I don't know. Thank you. What was the fact? We were talking about a speeder who was referred to by the police as the Dukes of Hazard.

[01:43:57] He went airborne. For some reason, I thought that was this rail crossing. Yeah. My mistake. I think it was a lot of us. Thank you. Supervisor McKeel. Recognizing that we're running late, and I'll just try and sort of keep to a high level here, but this has been a great conversation and great report.

[01:44:20] I appreciate it. Just a couple of thoughts when we're talking about this sort of abandoned road. VDOT requires, if they're going to take anything into the system, that you bring it up to their standards. Therein is part of the problem.

[01:44:36] They also, when you're talking about those rumble strips, rumble strips on the side of the road are one thing, but when they transverse the road, they are noisy. And I have seen VDOT have to come back and take out many of those transverse rumble strips because the people that live along those roads cannot tolerate the noise.

[01:44:57] So you have to be very careful where you put those, and I don't think this is an appropriate place. I'm just saying. Speed bumps are a whole different issue. You know, VDOT doesn't like speed bumps at all. They won't put them down, but they create their own problems.

[01:45:13] So having said that, I really do agree with many of your recommendations, but I, devil's always in the details, and I have some real concerns about, while I've been very supportive of an arts district and cultural district, I think you have to be careful where you put it, and I am just concerned about the gentrification.

[01:45:36] If this area turns into music events, breweries, all these cultural events, while they're wonderful, I worry about the light industrial piece of this and what this is the only place for some folks in this community to have a business.

[01:45:55] And there's a tension there. And I don't know how we get at that tension. It's not that I'm against musical events or breweries or wineries. I'm just saying that it's really critical that we think this through because this is our light industrial for the most part.

[01:46:13] And we have businesses there that I really want to keep there and I don't want to chase them out. I do agree that I'm happy to support the historic nature of those old neighborhoods that are there. I don't think we ought to be putting a lot of residential down there.

[01:46:31] That's new. I'm not interested in that from my viewpoint. let me just quickly look at my notes here and i guess i could probably stop at that um but i understand what your vision is i just always worry that they're going to be unintended consequences how we avoid that and how we think it through i don't know but that's my concern is keeping it light industrial or at least a portion of it light industrial why i don't know anyway with that

[01:47:06] based on time, I'll stop. Thank you, Wright. Thank you very much. This was lots of good work here, though. Thank you. Supervisor Malek. Thank you very much. I have a few, but I really want to start by saying I endorse the concept and the appreciation for the values of the corridor.

[01:47:25] But as my colleagues have already said, there are some things that are real bumps in the road for me that I would just like to mention, so they're on your list going forward. The gentrification is absolutely the number one thing because anytime we introduce multifamily as a zoning element, that's the end. And we've seen it over and over and over again all across the county for the last 30 years. We lost massive acreage for light industrial because people complained and said, oh, I don't have anybody who wants to be here, so I want to put up apartments. And bang, there goes 100 acres right there. So I really appreciate the effort of the board in the last 10, 12 years to

[01:48:04] stop that and i really have to hold back and not get in that trap again because it would be very very quick to uh to happen um anytime you say residential the words are there and therefore it's going to happen because it's the lowest it's the easiest thing to do and easiest to fill the rents and keep it going um the the idea of the neon in norfolk appears to me i was doing my notes and so we can call it the bart because it's the broadway art district i mean this is great i think

[01:48:39] that it could be combined with a small business district to do. I don't think it has to be only one unless there's state enabling that gets in the way. But we could find a way to protect or to incentivize or whatever the elements of these small businesses, whether they're fixing musical instruments, which is one, or crafting concrete balls that can be put in the Chesapeake Bay to make habitat for wildlife. I mean, the range of activities which are already there, I mean, especially in Morgan's building alone, are just incredible. And there's nowhere else for them to

[01:49:17] go. So it worries me a lot, as it has others, anytime we use things that almost sound too soothing about, oh, it'll be fine. You know, they'll go somewhere else. Well, it won't be fine for them. So I'm really concerned about that. How would we protect the historic district in those houses. We need an ordinance. We've needed an ordinance for 20 years. That's not your job right now, but I'll still put it out there so that others can think about that as well. Zooming on

[01:49:47] down. Here we go. Marchand Street. Reminds me of the 30 years where the county, VDOT, and CSX argued about the square and crozet. Nobody could prove that others didn't own it, and nobody could prove they did own it, and eventually the railroad handed it over to the county as a quick claim deed and said it's your problem now. That may be something our legal folks can think about as a way to, I mean, turn it into a green space. If the most important thing is to have a pedestrian place, then plant grass there and there you go. As I said, I'm not an engineer, so I can come up with

[01:50:24] all these harebrained ideas that other people have to worry about. Jumping on to 5.1, oh, I guess East Market Street, and referring to the question about the end and the one-way traffic, that was part of the discussion when the mill had its zoning process for some reason the one way around the end did not get into the conditions and therefore it could not be enforced and there was a lot of trouble for the neighbors as well years ago and for the businesses there with people flying down to party and wheeling around the corner at the southern at the eastern end you

[01:51:00] know at 35 miles an hour so I'm glad there's a sign that's on the private property for their benefit that's their right is their property to say don't try to come out this way you know if you come in it's at your own risk you're not getting out here because that made a lot more safety for for people um let me zoom down here did that did that i was because i've heard it from people speaking to to in various occasions when we've had tours and other things going on down there

[01:51:34] people have often said please don't love us to death you know don't help us so much that we can't be here anymore and there's fear that all of a sudden there'll be all these county plants and it'll end up where there's no place for them so the organic local growth others mentioned it if it's something that someone wants to do a trail great let's help them do that but don't tell them they have to and it has to be 12 feet wide and have cinders and paved and all that stuff because number one the costs will be so high that nothing will ever happen so i very much appreciate your

[01:52:07] short-term, low, easily implementable striping and things like that to try to train people where to drive and how to walk. Although in Hillsborough, they did have the same experience where I encouraged having lines put on the road and the people complained, well, we asked you for that, but it didn't work out because now people try to be the best. So it's to be careful what you ask for. There's going to have to be a whole lot of other training to go along with it.

[01:52:36] i did have a question on the 5.1 image i don't know if you can easily go back there or not the just to make sure i'm oriented properly um i'm sorry the next page maybe yes so the lower right corner is the cliff and rudy's is upper right corner okay that's correct so the stuff across the street you said that is a stock image or something like that to show how that could be because that is that an existing building across the street on the city side this is yeah it's an aerial photo that we've marked up to show a potential realignment of the intersection right

[01:53:13] but the up at the top left corner that already exists it does no kidding okay i'm always so busy looking other places i haven't seen it all right so the county responsibility is to the lower left and lower side of that and then to the right okay i just want to make sure i was oriented properly because i couldn't figure it out um the public space i mean the the lower right corner is a cliff

[01:53:37] So I know there was several years ago a huge debate about should the preserve slopes on the southern half of that lot where the giant something has been trying to go up there for five years, that those preserve slopes were being removed, and this is what happened.

[01:53:56] But I would not be supportive of taking preserve slopes away from this corner only because it's solid rock and very, very high. And that would perhaps be a great place for your gathering spot because it's everything else.

[01:54:13] Anything built up there would tower over the whole community. I know the city residents nearby were were very in opposition to the changing of those other preserve slopes. So hopefully this one would stay that.

[01:54:30] Yeah, I've covered everything. I thank you very much for your work. Thank you. I've learned a lot from people's comments and from this presentation, and I just don't need to go back there, but endorse what you're doing. I think it's great. I do have some questions more, just observations, trying to make sure I understand it.

[01:54:53] So I'm going to start with what Supervisor Malik mentioned, this corner, I guess. I have the short-term strategies, and there's a description of Ford Road and Belmont Avenue, and I'm not sure how they fit into that corner. Maybe I'm not looking at this correctly. That's on page 12 of 13, I guess, of the study. But be that as it may, I also will point out that this picture, well,

[01:55:32] yeah that's it so help me out here where on this picture is the steep slope right at the corner of franklin and broadway the southeast corner that other what is listed as belmont avenue is more oh these are internal i believe they're private streets that are on the property that's now being developed

[01:56:09] so they don't get to that they're up they're on top of the slope so the portion of the property yeah it's it's a little warped on this either so i wanted to make sure i understood i noticed that in the uh in the outline and the description of what this area includes it includes all of revana authorities as well but there's no mention really of integrating anything with revana authorities so when you look at franklin of course uh you know there are already some speed bumps. There's already, you know, things that affect Ravana. And I don't know whether that

[01:56:44] needs to be taken into consideration. If the scope of this is defined to include that land area, I just was surprised to see it in the circle for the map, since it doesn't really come into play. Let's see. Generally, though, I'm, you know, very much agree that, you know, we need to keep this an industrial light industrial focus for broadway but i also appreciate the the torn about this because i appreciate the fact that as you get towards uh the ravanna river this becomes a

[01:57:22] highly desirable place to be near the park to be near the bridge to be able to get back and forth the woolen mills has amenities that are appealing for um just hanging out and having a good time so So being that is going to make this area attractive to residents, but we need to focus on keeping Broadway available for the light industrial uses.

[01:57:48] I notice when you talk about Marchant that it's currently closed because the railroad's closed it, but when we talk about opening it for pedestrians, there's still concern about how are we going to ensure safety with respect to the railroad crossing, and I hope that gets addressed in that.

[01:58:05] process because I wouldn't want to ignore it. I obviously also very much support the idea of keeping this bike pedestrian friendly throughout. And of course, I hear you with respect to the pavement markings that they might encourage speeding in a sense that unmarked roads don't, but I think we need to have that so that we see that there are places to walk along the road, to get along the road. And that's a short-term

[01:58:36] problem anyway um i i think that rumble strips at that end of broadway nearer to franklin are a little less concerning to me than than further down or somewhere in the middle of that because they're far enough away that the noise is a little less but i imagine that depending on when the traffic is coming through uh will depend on we'll find how much people uh object to it um and those

[01:59:09] were my main concerns and comments. I guess at this point, I'd like to just turn and see if you have what you need in terms of support from the board. But Supervisor, let me see. As the first speaker, I'm taking the privilege of being able to ask another question. I know that the budget impact, there's nothing at this point, but you talked about future implementation of the strategies contained in the study would require funding and or commitment of staff resources

[01:59:46] to implement. Are we talking about getting grants? Are you talking about getting money from the county? Because, you know, the price tag is going to be, I need to know the price tag because we have other, you know, many other important, well, many other important issues.

[02:00:07] And I'm just wondering if you are applying for grants and such for this. David Fennish, Development Process Manager. I think we'll use this study and give to staff and our leadership for us to determine what level of resources will be necessary.

[02:00:26] I think we hope that the grant will be able to be used, the study and some of the information could be able to be used to acquire grants and apply for them. I think the step for us as the Economic Development Office and CDD is to take the study under advisement and to see how it does prioritize what the other needs and responsibilities that we have to implement your agenda.

[02:00:53] So, you know, we have some sense from this study what the order of magnitude of costs are. The consultants have done a really good job to try to use and take advantage of low-hanging fruit-type opportunities that kind of reduce that investment. But that's really part of the next step, is for us to take this study and begin to prioritize how we implement it.

[02:01:15] I think we've heard a lot of the comments that we've heard from you, I sense there's a lot of direction about how we use this and what care we take in implementing these strategies. And we're going to pursue what resources are reasonably available to us, given all the other priorities.

[02:01:32] Thank you very much. And I wanted to be noted that the fact that I'm asking about the cost has nothing to do with it. I don't think that this is a fair. I do think this is a very, very good project. So the cost, but I did need to ask about the cost factor. Thank you.

[02:01:50] Do you have direction? Yeah, if I could just summarize real quickly, I think I did hear one comment, a suggestion. I think Mr. Galloway noted that recognizing that the arts and cultural district may not benefit all property owners and there may need to be, to at least acknowledge that fact.

[02:02:14] With that one adjustment, I think what I heard from the board was a consensus that by and large, the study is okay to move forward. And most of what we heard was advice to us as we take this study and begin to implement to be careful about gentrification and unintended impacts from applying these strategies. So I think we've got what we need. The next step for us to do is to make that one change to the study, and we will compile that with the appendix and have it on your future

[02:02:49] consent agenda for formal action. So thank you. Thank you. Board, we're half an hour behind. Three o'clock was scheduled for our recess, but we were scheduled to finish our smart scale application. So I want to look to the right and left to decide whether we take the recess now and then do the smart scale. Mr. Richardson, do you have any thoughts on this? Or is your staff being ready? You're ready here. Let's go ahead and do it then. Yes, sir. Okay. And then we'll

[02:03:19] take our recess afterwards. Okay. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Chair Andrews and members of the Board of Supervisors. Jessica Hirsch-Ballering, Principal Planner with Abomaral County Community Development. I'm excited to be here today to talk about smart scale applications. So the purpose of today's agenda item is to obtain a resolution of support for the eight project applications within Abomaral County to be submitted for the current round of smart scale. A resolution of support from

[02:03:57] the Board of Supervisors is required for all project applications within the county. Similarly, both the MPO Policy Board and the TJPDC must provide resolutions of support for projects in their service areas, which includes the county. They have both voted to approve their respective resolutions for all project applications within the county. So today's presentation will begin with a brief overview of the SmartScale program. After that, we'll take a look at a map of the project locations, and then I'll describe each of the project applications and show the most recent sketch for each project. So the smart scale program overview. As you may know, the smart

[02:04:34] scale grant program is the primary method for funding large-scale transportation projects in Virginia. Also, the smart scale program doesn't require any local match, so we request the full estimated cost of the project. Admiral County, the TJPDC, and the Charlottesville Admiral MPO can each submit up to four project applications. Smart scale is a competitive program with funding going to the projects with the highest score. Smart scale scores are a ratio of the project's benefit versus the project's cost. To calculate the project's benefit, reviewers will consider how the project will impact six factors, which include safety, congestion, accessibility, land

[02:05:13] use, economic development, and the environment. Lastly, to remind everyone of the long timelines associated with transportation projects, for the projects that are submitted and receive funding in this round, that funding is not guaranteed to be available until the summer of 2029.

[02:05:30] On to the project map. So the Board of Supervisors saw an earlier version of this map in Transportation's January quarterly report presentation, where we listed the projects we were considering pursuing for this round of SmartScale. If you have an extremely good memory, you'll notice that no projects have been added, and the Ivy Road improvements package is the only project that has been removed. That project is actually still in the study phase with BDOT, and we will have the option of applying for funding for that project in future rounds of SmartScale. So projects one, two, three, and five, indicated in blue, are being submitted by Emerald

[02:06:05] County. Projects four, six, seven, and eight, indicated in black, are being submitted by the MPO. Project descriptions were included in your April quarterly report and in the materials for today's agenda item. So now we'll move on to looking at the sketches for each project. So first we have the Old Trail Drive and US 250 West intersection improvements. North is at the top of the picture. Western Admiral High School is in the bottom right, just off of the picture.

[02:06:34] The intersection of Old Trail, which hold on, let me give you guys a pointer here. So this is Old Trail right here. This is 250. This intersection is currently a signalized intersection. If funded, this project would convert the signalized intersection into a roundabout, replace the crosswalks on the north and the east legs and add a crosswalk on the south leg of the intersection.

[02:07:00] This project would improve vehicle operations along the 250 corridor and improve safety for all road users. On to the US-29 and Plank Road intersection improvements. North is to the right of both pictures. Dr. Ho's humble pie is down here. This is 29. This is Plank Road. So this project would construct restricted crossing u-turns also known as r cuts at three intersections the us 29 and plank road intersection right here to the south the sutherland road and 29

[02:07:33] intersection and to the north the 29 and woodson store lane intersection so with r cuts all movements from the side streets must begin with a right turn left turns and through movements are restricted the purpose of these intersections is to improve safety it reduces the likelihood of dangerous t-bone and angle crashes and also to improve efficiency the rio road and hillsdale north field old brook intersection improvements so north and heading towards 29 is to the left of

[02:08:07] the picture heading towards the city or john warner parkway is to the right of the picture This is Rio, and this is the intersection with Oldbrook, and this is the intersection with Northfield. So these two intersections are currently signalized, and they are too close together, resulting in safety concerns.

[02:08:28] This project would convert the two signalized intersections into a single double roundabout. A shared-use path would be constructed around the double roundabout, extending both north and south on the east side, And transitioning to existing sidewalk on the west side.

[02:08:48] Pedestrian crossings would be included on all legs of the new intersection. On to the Barracks Road improvements package. So this is the full package of recommended improvements coming out of VDOT's project pipeline study of Barracks Road, which considered the corridor from Georgetown Road to Emmett Street in the city.

[02:09:10] This is project four on the list or on the map that I showed you earlier. It is being submitted by the MPO. So starting at the western end of the corridor at Barracks and Georgetown, this is Barracks, this is Georgetown. This intersection is currently signalized. This project would convert the signalized intersection to a roundabout and add crosswalks on all four legs of the intersection.

[02:09:35] This project would also close the median between Georgetown and the ramps coming from the 250 bypass. Drivers wanting to turn left onto the side streets in this area will need to U-turn at one of the roundabouts on either end of the area.

[02:09:51] This project would also reduce lane widths along barracks to allow for the addition of a shared use path along the south side of barracks, as you can see here in purple. Same project, just moving a little bit further along the corridor.

[02:10:07] That shared use path in purple again would continue under the 250 bypass and the currently signalized on and off ramps for the bypass would be also converted to roundabouts and crosswalks would be added at the six locations shown here. So one, two, three, four, five, and six.

[02:10:26] These intersections currently do not have any crosswalks at all. They do have pedestrians. And continuing along the corridor, again, our shared use path continues along the south side of Barracks all the way to the intersection with Emmett Street.

[02:10:41] On this slide, you can see it here, but it was also on the preceding two slides. There are improvements planned for the existing bus stops along Barracks and Georgetown, which is served by Route 5. The improvements would look like putting in at least a concrete boarding platform and a full shelter where space permits.

[02:11:01] Onto Barracks Road Improvements Package West. So this is project five on that list that I gave you at the beginning. It is the county's application for a subset of the improvements we just saw, but covering only the portion of the corridor from Georgetown Road to the 250 bypass section.

[02:11:19] Project six, which I'll go over next, is called Barracks Road Improvements Package East. That is a complimentary MPO submission for a subset of the full package covering the other portion. So from the 250 bypass all the way to Emmett Street.

[02:11:35] County and MPO staff are submitting that full package and these two complimentary subset packages to maximize our chances of getting improvements along this corridor. The sketches for the county submitted, the sketches we submitted for this west project are right here.

[02:11:52] can see georgetown here and here's where the the bypass ramps are everything that we included in the full package is included right here here's barracks road improvements package east again being submitted by the mpo complementing the west uh project being submitted by the county again this project includes all the same project components as the full package starting at the 250 ramps and concluding here at emmet street finally leaving barracks behind we get to the mpo's

[02:12:25] application for improvements at 5th street and the i-64 interchange so north is off to the right of the picture this is um this is 5th street uh it's elevated over 64 going this way across the picture as i said north is to the right side and that's heading towards the city this project would convert the existing signalized interchange to a diverging diamond interchange or ddi our community has some experience with ddis there's a new one on pantops at the 64 and 250 interchange and there's an older one out at zion crossroads with the ddi traffic coming off the major roadway

[02:13:06] which in this case is 64 and i'll show you an example here the traffic coming off the major roadway will be able to turn left without stopping kind of on the wrong side of the road this improves safety by preventing backups of vehicles onto the major roadway and then the crossovers at the intersections would be signalized so this project also includes a shared use path that would go in between the north and southbound lanes of traffic on fifth street that shared use path would continue south crossing the 64 east to southbound off-ramp right here

[02:13:44] and terminating ultimately at the sidewalk at Pinehurst Court. The shared use path would also continue north of the interchange along the east side of Fifth Street. It will cross this ramp here and it will also cross Fifth Street Landing ultimately connecting to the currently in design Fifth Street Hub and Trails project that provides access to like the Wegmans shopping area. All All right. Lastly, we have the Pantops improvements package being submitted by the MPO.

[02:14:18] This project is a package actually of two projects that had been submitted in the last round of SmartScale. They both scored well, but they were ultimately not funded. So that's why we're trying again in this round. So the first set of improvements, you're going to see two different slides here. The first set of improvements would be centered around Roelkin Road. So this is 250 going across the screen. This is Roelkin Road right here. North is that way at the top of the picture. This project would add pedestrian crossings on the north, east, and south side of Rolkin. The south leg would include this pedestrian refuge seen here in orange. This northeast corner

[02:14:56] would have this pedestrian island to minimize pedestrian crossing distance. Additionally, about 800 feet of sidewalk would be added to be continuous from Rolkin Road up to State Farm boulevard over here the second set of improvements for this singular application would be centered around the intersection of peter jefferson parkway right here and 250 north is again at the top of the screen um centara martha jefferson hospital is not shown on the picture but it would be off

[02:15:30] the bottom of the slide down over here um the existing so there's a couple of different things i'm going to walk you through all the different steps um the project would include closing the closing the existing median cut between Peter Jefferson Parkway and Pantops Mountain Road, that median cut would be right here, it would be closed, we'd fill in the median there, as well as closing the existing median cut at Hilton Garden Inn just off the left side of the picture. Additionally, the existing shared through and right turn lane on eastbound 250 right here,

[02:16:07] that would be converted to a through lane only and a new right turn only lane would be added for about 220 feet here. The Peter Jefferson Parkway and 250 intersection would also be converted to a through cut. So traffic coming off of Peter Jefferson Parkway from the south and off of Glen Orkey to the north would be able to turn left or right, but they would not be able to go through the intersection. There's very few vehicles making that movement anyway, and by removing that, we improve efficiency for the intersection by removing a portion of the signal

[02:16:41] cycle. Lastly, we would have a 50-space park and ride, a lot that would be constructed in the northwest corner of the intersection. This park and ride would immediately serve CATS Route 10, but it might also serve regional transit in the future. Thank you for your attention. I know that was a lot of information. I'm happy to answer any questions and go back to any of the sketches if you need. Thank you very much for that presentation. Supervisor Lupisto-Curtley. No questions. Thank you very much. Appreciate it very much, Jessica. Supervisor Calloway. I've voted on these twice

[02:17:17] already. I will make this comment because it came up, I think, at the MPO, but like the diverging diamond interchange at the Fifth Street spot, because the Zion Crossroads and the 124 DDI do not have pedestrian or bike facilities, they wouldn't because of where they're located. Some folks had concerns about how bike and pedestrian would work with the DDI, and that is exacerbated by the fact they can't see it at the current ones. So the fact that those two DDIs weren't conceived with bike and pedestrian doesn't mean there aren't others that exist with bike and

[02:17:56] pedestrian. So the fact that that would be our first DDI that does have a need because of where it's located to get people across the interstate in other ways than just cars. So I'm just throwing that out there. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Pruitt. Yeah, like my peers, already voted on this twice excited for the projects, I would just highlight something that I think about a lot, which is we often plan our sidewalk infrastructure with one side in mind, which leaves a lot of people in the lurch. I'm looking here, right? Pinehurst Court isn't going to be able to make

[02:18:35] use of any of these bicycle and pedestrian facilities, not without crossing a pretty dangerous road. I think this is something just envisioning where we're going to have crossing infrastructure is something we need to think about as a long-term challenge for the board when we start trying to improve walkability and bikeability of all these kind of arterial communities. Thank you. Supervisor McKeel. Thank you very much, and this was very helpful to review it one more time. I'm absolutely in support of all these projects, and Ned made a

[02:19:10] really good point, and I appreciate that, and I will just make the point that I hear chatter from bicycle enthusiasts and pedestrian around the georgetown barracks road projects but i am what i'm seeing and you don't have to bring what i'm seeing is improvement to and the concern was transit for and how they get to bus stops and transit there was concern from the city but this is great because it points out that actually the transit stops will be improved the one thing that

[02:19:45] the neighbors and the people that live in that community are insistent on is that solid that all those crossovers on barracks road have to stop it has to be a solid barrier because people are constantly u-turning and cutting through and cutting across and therein is the problem but the bus stop improvements are great so thank you thank you supervisor mallet oh thank you um has there been any discussion about the numbers i mean there's a big staff burden to have eight So I think we need applications absolutely ready because I know BDOT has very high performance bars for what they're going to accept.

[02:20:23] So if you're comfortable with it, I'm comfortable with it, but it's a lot. So that just sort of struck me right off the bat when I saw all eight in one place. At the Georgetown Road corner, I was struck completely by the northwest corner that the road is right at that front door.

[02:20:40] And that whole property, I guess, would be purchased for the right -- that's part of the right-of-way inclusion. Okay. That's the right solution. No, this, well done. We'll hope that we get there. Thank you. If I could, just to, since you were talking about this intersection, I got this sketch on Monday, and I've since received updated information that this leg of the intersection southbound will be just one lane coming down, even so that will still result in a full take of this property.

[02:21:11] Great. Thank you very much. It's better to have a full take than to have it right in front of your house. You are so right about that. Yeah, I think these are great. I had the same thoughts when we were going through it about this one, looking at how people get across from one side to the other along barracks.

[02:21:30] And then on slide 13, the same thing, the concern with the pedestrian usage of those lights and whether they're pedestrian friendly in how they're set up so that people can get across from one side to the other.

[02:21:47] Thank you. board, I believe that this requires us to have a motion to support the smart scale. Yeah, I move that the board adopt the resolutions provided as attachment A. Second. We have a motion close to what's on the screen. Oh, I was just reading out of our packet. Sorry. I move to adopt the resolutions to support the smart scale project applications in Almar County provided in the meeting materials as attachment A. Second. Okay. Motion from Supervisor McKeel. Second from

[02:22:25] Supervisor Malek without objection for her call the roll. Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Mr. Andrews? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. Malek? Yes. Ms. McKeel? Yes. Ms. Lapisto-Kirtley? Aye. Sorry, I often read the recommendations in our packet and you have a different recommendation on the screen. I apologize.

[02:22:43] Thank you very much. Appreciate it. With that board, I believe it's time for us to take a little

[02:22:49] recess for 15 minutes. We're back at 20 of four. Thank you. All right. Welcome back. The dust has

[02:37:10] settled on a 2024 legislative session, maybe, and so it's time to think about the 2025 legislative session. I'm here to present Mr. Steve Rosenberg, our county attorney. Welcome. Thank you, Chair Andrews. Good afternoon to you and to members of the board. No rest for the weary. The circle of life continues we are here to talk to you this afternoon about your legislative priorities as has been the case in years past and especially last year this is very much a team effort you will

[02:37:46] hear this afternoon from from me i will talk about the 2024 priorities and what occurred during the legislative session that was recently completed then emil i'm sorry david blunt uh the deputy director of the tjpdc will uh talk with you about the um you know what the session looks like

[02:38:19] what what does the landscape look like in 2020 for 2025 and then finally um emily kilroy the interim director of economic development will talk with you all about proposed strategy for 2025. Emily is in her interim assignment but is continuing to work on general assembly matters during the course of that assignment and of course and then behind the scenes we also have

[02:38:58] James Douglas in my office, a paralegal, who supports us with these efforts. As was the case last year, this will be the first of three sessions with the board on legislative priorities. We'll get some input from you today and then come back to you in the fall for another interactive session. And then finally, in October, we will have a final set of priorities for the

[02:39:33] board's consideration. So looking at what occurred in the 2024 session, we'll first talk about the board's legislative priorities. And you all will recall that the strategy last year was to take a refined approach. In prior years, the board may have had as many as six, seven, eight legislative priorities. And you heard from David Blunt last year that because of the

[02:40:11] significant turnover in the General Assembly, that we thought it advisable for the board to adopt a more targeted approach and to adopt fewer priorities and to work to achieve success with those priorities. So the board ultimately adopted three priorities to provide state funding for the Rivanda Futures Project, to obtain taxing authority for the county for school division

[02:40:47] capital projects and to expand the county's authority to use photo speed monitoring devices. And so taking those in order, the first to provide state funding for the Rivanna Futures project, there was first an effort to obtain funding in the amount of $58 million, which would have matched the county's investment in that project in the way of the county's

[02:41:21] land acquisition that was closed in December of 2023. And we did not achieve success in that effort. And so during the special session, when the negotiations were underway between the governor's office and the finance folks in the General Assembly, we again made an effort to include in the proposed budget funding for the Rivianna Futures Project in a significantly

[02:41:56] lower amount of $5 million, and that effort also did not succeed. The next priority to obtain authority for the county to impose an increase one percent sales tax for school division capital projects met with greater success but ultimately was not successful there were bills in both the House and the Senate that provided the enabling authority took existing authority for just a handful of

[02:42:32] localities in the state and broaden that so that every locality in the state would have the authority to impose the additional sales tax. That legislation was initially approved by both houses of the General Assembly. It was then vetoed by the governor and then ultimately both the House of Delegates and the Senate sustained the governor's veto.

[02:43:07] And so I think you'll hear from Emily when she talks to you that there continues to be a lot of momentum surrounding that issue.

[02:43:24] And so it may make sense for the board to continue to advocate for that particular initiative in the upcoming session. Then finally, concerning the authority to expand use of photo speed monitoring devices, there was a House Bill, House Bill 20, that would have provided very broad authority for all localities.

[02:43:56] and that was consistent with the position expressed by this board and that particular bill was continued to 2025. There was a senate bill that was enacted and approved by the governor but it's very limited in its scope allowing cameras to be installed at high-risk intersections

[02:44:30] which are defined as any highway or portion located not more than a thousand feet from the limits of the property of a school that is part of or adjacent to an intersection containing a marked crosswalk that is identified in the manner provided in this section as one in which a traffic fatality has occurred since January 1st of 2014. So lots of boxes to check in order to be able to

[02:45:03] exercise this authority contained in the enacted legislation approved by the governor. And we have one stretch of road in the entire county on 29 North that checks all of all of the boxes. And

[02:45:21] And this board's interest, as I recall it, was more in dealing with speeding in rural areas of the county on roads where it is difficult for law enforcement to safely make stops.

[02:45:47] and this enacted legislation doesn't touch that at all. So it's very, very limited in its scope. Then let me talk to you. So those are the board's three priorities as they were approved by the board last year. There are some other pieces of legislation that were enacted by the General

[02:46:21] Assembly and approved by the governor that were either included in your 2024 legislative positions and policy statements, which is that separate document that you approve each year, or were otherwise the subject of interest on the part of members of the Board of Supervisors. And I want to share just a few of those with you. And the first of those concerns the Virginia Freedom

[02:46:58] of Information Act. And the bill that was enacted and that is effective July 1st, as are all of these bills, would allow all virtual public meetings to be increased from 25% to 50% of meetings held per calendar year. And the same restrictions continue to be in place that a public body can't have consecutive all virtual meetings. You know, I think this board has articulated an

[02:47:36] interest in sort of loosening the restrictions as much as possible and allowing, you know, boards and commissions to, you know, provided they provide adequate notice and adequate opportunity for the public to participate electronically, to do whatever they desire to do.

[02:48:01] So the legislation enacted by the General Assembly did not eliminate all of the restrictions that exist, and the most significant of those restrictions is the restriction on consecutive virtual public meetings, which are not permitted.

[02:48:25] But those boards and commissions, other than the big ones like the Board of Supervisors and the School Board and the Planning Commission, the others may conduct up to 50% of their meetings per calendar year on an all-virtual platform, provided they do not conduct those all-virtual meetings consecutively.

[02:48:58] The next piece of legislation I want to highlight for you is in the economic development sphere concerning the Virginia Business Ready Sites Program. In the past, you'll recall, this was one of the board's priorities for the 2023 session.

[02:49:16] This was a priority to reduce the eligibility threshold from 100 acres to 50 acres for parcels eligible for grant funding from VEDP as a part of this funding program, specifically for site development grants.

[02:49:40] The smaller parcels are already eligible for funding under a site characterization grant program, but site development grants were not available for smaller parcels. And so the legislation enacted and approved by the governor now provides in certain circumstances that parcels as small as 50 acres can receive funding under the site development grant program.

[02:50:19] And, you know, some of the conditions, we haven't identified them exhaustively in the slides, but, you know, some of the factors to be considered include topographic and environmental factors.

[02:50:36] And so if you're able to meet certain conditions, then a site less than 100 acres could be eligible for funding under that site development grant program. And then finally, and I know this will be of great interest to Supervisor McKeel, I don't know if you're aware of this, Supervisor McKeel, but there has been legislation enacted, approved by the governor, goes into effect July 1st,

[02:51:08] that will allow the local building official to enforce the Uniform Statewide Building Code for bus shelters constructed in the state right-of-way. The first bill was for one year, approval for one year, and then that was increased, I thought, Steve, to three years?

[02:51:32] I'm not sure, but I can check on that. That's right. So we have three years rather than just one year. So these are some of the bills of, you know, additional bills of interest to the board in addition to your priorities.

[02:51:58] I did have a brief conversation with Supervisor Andrews during the recess about the positions and policy statements in particular, which I think we included last year's as an attachment to the executive summary.

[02:52:21] But in any event, what we've provided to you with the executive summary are last year's priorities and last year's positions and policy statements. You'll have this presentation also coming out of this meeting.

[02:52:38] And then between now and the next meeting, we will update that document, the positions and policy statements, to provide to you proposed changes to that document that reflect other pieces of legislation that were enacted and approved by the governor during the 2024 session.

[02:53:03] So that we eliminate, you know, obsolete verbiage, you know, because something perhaps was adopted or for some other reason it doesn't make sense to include particular items in that positions and policies statements document.

[02:53:26] So we don't have that for you today, just as we don't have for you today proposed priorities. We're going to talk with you, Emily's going to talk with you about proposed priorities, and you'll see some mention of those in the slides.

[02:53:46] So that's the focus for today. And then when we come back to you in September, your agenda materials that you receive ahead of the meeting will have a revised draft of the second document with the proposed changes to that document.

[02:54:06] and we'll be prepared to discuss those with you at that time. So let me just pause and see if any of you have any questions for me before I turn things over to David Blunt. We'll quickly go to my order.

[02:54:25] So the ones that we have here, those, we'll find out how they go. Well, no, these have passed. These were not your priorities. Correct. But they are, based on prior priorities of the board and discussions of the board, these, we thought, would be of interest to the board to learn that they had, in fact, been enacted and they'll take effect on July 1st.

[02:55:00] Correctly so. You're right. The other ones that were our priorities, that's what you'll be bringing back or you'll be bringing back perhaps other things? Well, you'll talk, you know, none of these really were adopted by the General Assembly in the way that this board desired.

[02:55:23] So you will, so Emily, in talking about the strategy for next year, will talk about whether to include these three again in just a few minutes. she will talk with you about whether to include these three again for 2025 and in addition whether to include some others and we we have some thoughts about the possible inclusion of some others in addition to these three thank you so we will have a chance again to to respond to the additional presentations just if you have questions about this particular first part

[02:56:03] Supervisor Calloway. I have no questions. Thank you. Supervisor Pruitt. None for this part. Thank you, Steve. Supervisor McKeel. So, I just have a comment. So, we're not talking about just this particular screen, but we were talking about the other ones that you had on the previous screen, too. I see Emily nodding her head. So, I just want to make a comment, and we can move forward.

[02:56:22] We don't have to get down in the weeds on this right now, but former Delegate Anderson has filed a federal lawsuit over Virginia speed cameras. So, our speed cameras now are in, will be in court, just to say. Just something for us to think about if they accept it. But he filed it in a federal lawsuit filed in Chesapeake. Thank you. One thing I would note is that Chesapeake is located in the Eastern District of Virginia, and we are located in the Western

[02:56:58] District of Virginia. But he filed it with the state and with the feds. Just saying. It's just something to be aware of. That's all. Supervisor Malek. Thank you. Did I misunderstand, I hope, when you were talking about Danica Rounds 336, is it all three of those characteristics that have to be, it's and within the thousand feet of a school and a market crosswalk and a traffic fatality, or is it any one of those three that would allow us to qualify for a high-risk

[02:57:29] intersection? I think it is all, that it's all three. It must have been written for one location okay thank you now we know what to do good luck with that yeah my only uh comment was the same that uh while there is a lawsuit and i was aware of the lawsuit i know that this is a legislative matter getting the authority and then implementing the authority i don't really want to be the one to have to face the lawsuit and pay for the lawsuit if it's uh pending so um thank you we can

[02:58:06] go on to the next very good so i'll turn it over to david blunt and he will talk to you about the landscape for the 2025 session afternoon chair andrews members of the board david blunt deputy director and director of legislative services for the localities in the tjpdc region i'm going to try to be very brief in really just giving you a broad look ahead to 2025 and then turn it over to emily which i think she'll probably dig down in the weeds a little bit more so i think we can be

[02:58:43] Be informed of 2025 by looking back at 2024, as you've just heard, and some of the significant topics that were taken up that will probably come to be part of the larger discussions again, not only in the off-season, but as we head into the 2025 session.

[02:59:01] At the top of the list, I think issues related to the Virginia Clean Economy Act, clean energy, solar. You'll recall that there were a number of bills that were introduced this past session dealing with solar, most of which had the effect of either undoing, limiting, restricting, or doing away with local authority as it relates to solar.

[02:59:24] There's already a number of groups that are talking here, again, in the interim about paths forward with regard particularly to solar. Data centers, another issue that got a lot of attention during the past General Assembly session i believe all of the legislation that was introduced was held off not moved forward defeated in due largely in deference to a study of data centers that is going on this year by the joint legislative audit and review commission they have laid out their work plan for that study

[03:00:00] at a meeting here in the last couple of weeks and are due to report back to the commission of their findings and recommendations around the end of this calendar year. Mental health, I know that you all have had some interest in prior discussion, particularly as it relates to community services boards, certainly an ongoing issue that the General Assembly discusses.

[03:00:22] Senator Deeds, I believe, remains as the chair of the Behavioral Health Commission, and it's an area, I think, where both the legislative branch and the executive branch have been able to find some common ground in recent years, and I think we'll continue to look to see where they can do more of that.

[03:00:38] Education funding, of course, the JLARC report on K-12, elementary and secondary education funding came out last July. There were some attempts to enact legislation to seize upon those JLARC recommendations this past session.

[03:00:57] They ultimately did not go forward. Some of the issues were addressed in some of the funding that was approved in the in the final budget particularly as it relates to some of the at risk and prevention programs as well as i think english language learners but there is a joint subcommittee of members of the senate and the house of delegates that have been charged with taking a closer look at those jlark recommendations the members of that group have been named and i just saw on the calendar that they are scheduled to have their first meeting here of the interim

[03:01:31] next Tuesday. So that is something I know that I will be closely watching. VACO VML as well will be watching that and participating as necessary. And then the final issue that's cited here is in the realm of skill games, gray machines. There was legislation that was approved by the General Assembly that would have allowed those games to legally exist with a number of of restrictions. The bill came back to the General Assembly from the executive branch with a number of proposed amendments. Rather than taking up those amendments, the bill

[03:02:11] was just allowed to, you know, was allowed to die. And the, I think there's probably discussions that are, that are going to be ongoing throughout the interim to see if there's some way to, to reach a compromise in bringing, bringing forth legislation again this coming session. Or perhaps have even heard during the special session, which I think the General Assembly would have to amend their procedural resolution to allow for that, but not out of the realm of possibility. So all in all, just kind of summing up this slide, just some larger takeaways from this session. You saw this particularly with regard to the budget deliberations.

[03:02:51] You know, there were no tax increases that were approved in the final budget. Likewise, there were no tax reductions and that was really was kind of driving the you know the standoff that we had there briefly between the legislative and executive branches and then kind of some piece that was found in in the approval of the final budget to not have either one certainly I think we will we will look to see how those types of positions continue to evolve you know as we head into 2025. And I think it's also cognizant to remember that there were a record number of vetoes

[03:03:28] that were handed down by the governor after the General Assembly adjourned. And I think a number of those bills that were vetoed, we're going to see those again. And I think it's already been mentioned about the sales tax for school construction. Those bills will be back. So again, we'll see as discussions continue, you know, how things might evolve and whether they will continue to be vetoed or there'll be some other outcome. Just again, kind of some of that landscaping for heading into 2025 that Steve had alluded to. 2025 is a short session. So the odd

[03:04:07] number of years are short sessions. So instead of 60 days or more, as we typically see, the session is 46 days. So you're basically doing the same amount of work in two fewer weeks' time. You do have a biennial budget in place, so there will be amendments to the budget, but it's not starting from scratch to build a full two-year budget. Of course, it is an election year. House of delegates, all 100 seats, as well as the governor up for election in November. Again, the vetoed bills. I would expect a number of them to show up for introduction again next year. You also see,

[03:04:45] you know, I've been around many sessions, and you'll typically see in election years what I call campaign brochure bills. It's like, let's just put a bill in. I can say I tried. It shows up during the fall campaigns. And then finally, as I really alluded to with the solar legislation, we did see a lot of legislation this past session dealing with local authority, you know, whether to take it away or whether to provide you with some additional authorities to do certain things by passing ordinances. So certainly I think that we will continue to see a number of local authority bills introduced next year. And then finally, this is just a slide I think that

[03:05:25] largely is a continuation of us, you know, we presented this to you last year as we were heading into a session where you were going to have new members of your local delegation and asking that you seize upon the opportunity to have conversation with them, to get to know them, to educate them.

[03:05:42] I think certainly you're continuing those conversations as you started informing them about the critical nature of that state and local relationship, as well as the priorities that you will land on and initiatives that you may move, may want to move forward with into 2025.

[03:05:58] Certainly continue to have those conversations. So I will pause there and ask if there are any questions before heading into the next section. Again, I think we're just looking for questions related to the presentation at this point. I'll vote Supervisor Bruich.

[03:06:14] Actually, just to the dichotomy of the brochure bill and the functional bill that are both going to be happening at the same time, would you characterize these kind of election year cycles as being uniquely well-suited or uniquely ill-suited either for the success of those functional bills?

[03:06:38] I don't know that there's really an impact of the former on the latter. I think most folks can take a look at bills that are designed to send a message or be part of a campaign, have an idea of the seriousness of those, how much vested interest that a particular legislator may have in trying to really push it forward, and knowing whether or not it's going to pass.

[03:07:03] And I think a lot of times those bills are not going to move forward. Kind of following off that line of thinking, as an amateur at this craft that you're an expert at, I would say my impression of the way I might characterize the four-year gubernatorial cycle is that year one, as in the year following an election, is one that is particularly poorly suited for local administrative bills because they're still animus in the air.

[03:07:30] That is definitely the impression I got from our last year one. Is that a fair characterization? Was that year an exception to the rule? I think this past year was perhaps that exception to the rule, you know, and I know some of the conversations we had last year with the board prior to you taking your seat were really about the uniqueness of this particular election cycle, the number of legislators in both the House and the Senate, many of them who had served for a long time that were not going to be returning.

[03:08:01] So there was just a huge newness factor that we had not experienced, you know, in a generation or two probably. Coupled with the numbers, D's and R's, being so close in both the House and the Senate, not knowing who was going to be in charge.

[03:08:19] So I think, you know, I think we'll be probably in a better posture after the next election, you know, to know maybe where chips will fall, where I think it was more of an uncertainty this past year because of those kind of unique factors. A quick question on following up.

[03:08:38] You said, for a shortened session, is there also a limitation on the number of bills that each delegate can bring forward? Yeah, the House typically would have a limitation around 15 bills that they can introduce. The Senate, I don't believe that they came to an agreement when they had the last meeting of the Senate Rules Committee, so don't know what their number is going to be.

[03:08:59] They've been low 20s, I believe, in the past. So you still do the math. It's still a lot of bills. A lot of bills. Okay, good to know. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, indeed. I'll turn to Ms. Kilroy. You're welcome. Good afternoon.

[03:09:16] So first I want to thank David for all of his support of the county in Richmond. We really can't do a lot of the work that we seek to do on behalf of the board of supervisors' priorities without David's on-the-ground presence in Richmond. So he's a really valuable asset to the county and just always great to work with him.

[03:09:33] The other is that I expect that our local delegation might be listening live or on a recording, I wanted to take a moment just to thank them. While we were not successful in the 2024 session on the board's legislative priorities, there was success in that all of them were introduced, which is not something that we have always been able to achieve. So all of the items that the board prioritized were introduced by at least one member of the local delegation. So we really appreciate their support because that's often the biggest hurdle to getting movement forward.

[03:10:03] So this is a slide that we shared last year to frame our approach for 2024. And as we mentioned, last year we took a modified approach. And for this year, we'd like to refine that approach a little bit with your concurrence. I'm going to spend a moment here to talk about these four sections. Last year, we thought about pathways through the General Assembly in really two main lanes. One was draft legislation with the help of bills being introduced. And the other was using the legislative positions and policy statements document to share broader areas of support where the board didn't have a particular outcome in mind per se, but wanted to express support or opposition to some of the topic areas that we know are common and where we may be expecting

[03:10:42] legislation to be introduced by other members of the General Assembly. For example, we added last year support for implementing the JLARC Community Service Board study recommendations broadly, not necessarily saying here's a particular bill to address a particular need. The other two sections here are different, and I hope that that just sort of demonstrates the increased maturity of our work and connection to Richmond. So we're recommending pulling out budget items specifically out of the legislative priorities as we had last year, and to think about those in sort of a third lane of budget amendment requests that we could put forward. And that really mirrors how Richmond

[03:11:18] approaches thinking about budget amendments and funding items out of the state budget. Finally, we had a topical opportunities wedge of the pie last year. We're calling it legislative opportunities this year. And that's where we would capture those opportunities, not to leave requests for a new bill to be drafted, but to lend support to specific opportunities that we know are coming forward, whether that be from our geographic neighbors or another county that has a bill that we know that we also would support. An example of this from last year, two years ago,

[03:11:53] the board had a legislative priority to reduce the minimum acreage in the Virginia Economic Development Partnerships, Virginia Business Ready Sites Program from 100 acres to 50 acres. It just so happened that Augusta County also had that same priority that year, completely independent of us.

[03:12:11] And so when the bills were introduced, that was when we became aware that that was a priority for Augusta as well. And they were facing a different but similar challenge with assembling that minimum acreage. We became aware through the 2023 session that the governor's office was working with Augusta County to advance that priority.

[03:12:30] And so our recommendation to you all last year was to remove that as a priority from your program and really let Augusta take the lead. And ultimately, as Mr. Rosenberg shared earlier, that was successful as a bill in the session.

[03:12:46] And it was really through letting somebody else lead that we think we saw some success there. So that's sort of the frame with which I'm going to roll through the rest of these slides today. So we'll start with the budget requests. The first one that we wanted to pull out for the board's attention is Ravana Futures.

[03:13:07] So last year, at the request of a state agency, we put forward a request for a $58 million state funding request for site readiness for Ravana Futures. This year, with some feedback from our local delegation and agency contacts, staff is recommending that the board consider advancing more of a phase one request for $5 million in the state budget, understanding that Ravana Futures is not going to develop overnight, but be a multi-year process with multi-phases, and to focus more targeted on a phase one opportunity that would look at some utility work and infrastructure and site work to advance more

[03:13:42] of a smaller first step. The second one that I wanted to put forward for the board's consideration is not new, although it's been some time, so for those of you who are newer on the board, you may not recall that when, at the time that the county leased Biscuit Run Park from the state, there was discussion about how the state could be a partner in part of the park's development.

[03:14:06] And so we have not, as we've sort of worked to focus on opening the park, we have not brought forward this as an opportunity for state funding to the board. But we thought with the park due to open in the next couple of months, that it would be time to think about, is there a discrete project that we currently don't have local dollars attached to that could really help open up another section of the park or another amenity at the park that the state might come forward with some state funding for. If the board was to support an approach like this, we would go back and work with Parks and Recreation Department staff to identify what a good candidate project might look like and bring

[03:14:46] that forward when we're back with you on this topic in September. So for this section, I wanted to get the board's feedback on considering budget amendment requests for Ravana Futures at $5 million and a to-be-determined Biscuit Run project coming in around $1 million. And then anything else you might want us to think about? Word supervision. So your recommendation is $5 million for Rivanna Futures and $1 million for Biscuit Run, and that's it? On this budget, on budget requests.

[03:15:23] On the on-budget request. Okay, but not other legislative priorities that we have. Oh, I'll get to those in a couple minutes. Okay, that was a confusion. All right, so no questions. Supervisor Kelly? I would throw out for consideration, I don't see her in the room, but it would probably be informed by Kaki that anything we've got in our, I know it's not today, but the list of support positions, there's a couple of different categories that talk about state funding for local department of social services, community services, mental health services.

[03:15:57] So I would think that given bringing on a Second Hearts team and our approach to that, given some other issues in the county that are pressing, as well as just ongoing unfunded type of mandates that come down related to mental health and social services, plus the state's probably bad history of funding their own Department of Social Services, that there could be something there.

[03:16:29] It seems like some of those type of programs, even some small leeway on monies, could have big impacts for localities and maybe not get caught up in the political R's versus D's kind of thing that a lot of places could go on.

[03:16:45] So I would throw that out there as something to maybe have a conversation with staff about and see if there's some good, hard-target areas that are going into election year. I would think these would be the kind of things that brochure bills could, you know.

[03:17:02] It seems like our new folks had some good success in getting some very targeted type of pieces through this last time, that this could be good items that they could get their teeth, you know, clinched onto, as Diantha says, with dog with a bow.

[03:17:17] that may have some good impact for us. I'll interrupt just for a moment there. Are we looking at the budget overall and all the things that might be of statewide impact or just for local budget requests that are...

[03:17:33] That's a great clarification. So right now this would be looking at what are specific budget amendment requests that would project-type things that might be considered by members of our local delegation, small, fixed, specific items. We'll get into in the positions and policy statement section, I think, to address those types of more operational type items.

[03:17:57] Yeah, I'm just, you know, the general support statements for, oh, give us more money for community services is not what I'm looking for. I'm looking for very specific things like, oh, you're doing a great job of supporting, you know, the hearts team and what everything that's there.

[03:18:15] what is the state doing to help localities move to programs like that the the one of them was matching federal dollars so what is the state doing to help localities match those type of things so I'm fine with the general statements and not trying to get into that conversation but you know I guess the overarching piece is unfunded mandates I would think in the social services area there could be some places in there that we're not talking huge dollars in the big scheme of things that could have very very positive local impact that other localities go oh that's a

[03:18:47] good idea i could get behind that um for the two that are structured i think the approach that you've presented with biscuit or with um ravanna futures makes sense makes it much a much easier pill to swallow for the state each year also i think that's the first time i've seen the new word mark for ravanna futures which i didn't know ravanna futures had its own word mark Very cool. And, of course, I'm always excited for more money, especially if it's free, for Biscuit Run and would be happy to think of ways that we could spin this.

[03:19:21] The thing that always jumps out to me is just how people get to Biscuit Run, which I see as one of the more complex and prudent funding priorities. And I wonder if infrastructure along Avon and Scottsville Road could potentially be framed as part of that.

[03:19:39] I also do just want to fully endorse what Supervisor Galloway was saying, and that was also top of mind for me. We have quite a lot of roles, specifically in social services, or human services, in which we are exercising state and federal authority using our own personnel.

[03:19:59] And we are also attempting, for example, with the Harts team, but with several of our interventions, in trying to decrease the burden on overstrained state resources. I think there's a great framing there that's available of if locality does X and Y designed to reduce the strain on the state hospital bed system, for example, then they get X many dollars for this position.

[03:20:24] I would be excited for that. I would be excited to have additional funding for our support for that. And also, frankly, the kind of incentive framework that would work statewide, I think, is compelling. Thank you. Supervisor McKeel? yeah so we're talking right now about budget amendments i think it's an interesting question for khaki and human services if there is something that they can go after with a specific funding amendment which requires that's very different than our legend just in general our legis so i don't know the answer to that and i don't know whether that would be appropriate for this or if

[03:21:04] they could even come up with it i'm not sure we can definitely explore that i think knowing yeah Yeah, and I think to your point, one-time type things fit well into this category. Some of those longer operating type items would generally fall. Yeah, so maybe Kaki could think about something that gets at what we're trying to do.

[03:21:23] But certainly I'd like to have that discussion when we're talking about our legislative packet to come back to that. I don't have any other specifics. I certainly support these two. Thank you. Supervisor Malek. Thank you. I support these two as well, and others to consider.

[03:21:40] I know that last year in a budget amendment, the city received their share for the pedestrian bridge from the Dogwood Memorial across Warner Parkway. So that might be something that the county could have some money toward that as well.

[03:21:56] There was a bill last year, but I don't remember what happened to it, on sort of catch-up funding for emergency services all across the Commonwealth. I don't know if that's appropriate for this. Department of Labor in Richmond has been massively reorganizing and nobody quite knows how they're managing the federal WIOA dollars, but it resulted in a $100,000 cut to the Piedmont effort this year, which we're trying to make up with partnerships with other agencies.

[03:22:26] But one possible discrete thing would be a bolus of funding for integrating workforce training into the high schools, because high schools are trying to hire their own FTEs to do the work that the workforce people are already trained to do. And lots of counties are partnering with us, but that may be a funding issue.

[03:22:45] Thank you. Thank you. And I'm supportive of these, and I just think that this discussion has pointed out that this overall organization has a question about when we say budget, Are we talking about specific asks, or are we talking about statewide implementation of specifics that would be applicable to any jurisdiction wanting that type of social service or workforce development or whatever?

[03:23:11] Thank you. Thank you. Yes. I just have what I know yesterday that was brought up by a delegate regarding asking for $10 million for Rybana futures instead of $5 million. Could either you, Mr. Richardson, or Ms. Calvary, do you have any comments on that?

[03:23:34] I remember that conversation, and I would say at this point we'll step away and follow up on conversations and make sure that we're aligned and that we're looking at, that we're being very specific about what the infrastructure dollars would go for so that we are all in alignment.

[03:23:58] So I appreciate you bringing that question up, and we'll step away and we'll revisit that. I did want to say to the board, I was not going to say this. I did want to say to the board, because Ms. Lupisto currently asked a question related to Ravana, and I was talking to Mr. Henry about it as recent as today, and we saw this play out last year when we visited with our legislative delegation, that there was a little bit of confusion about us asking for $58 million.

[03:24:28] And I wanted to say to the board, I've had several conversations, that we were quickly able to look at the cost associated with the entire Boulders Road project. And that is completing the loop road from where it ends today all the way through the property that we acquired back to the location on 29 that is north.

[03:24:58] And we quickly, with DOT numbers, were able to back into $58 million of infrastructure work. So I just wanted to say out loud that certainly I was disappointed with the confusion that that created because we had several questions about, is this asking for reimbursement?

[03:25:19] And, of course, that's not the case. But as recently as earlier this week, when we were at the site with officials from Ravana, again, we learned the critical nature of completing Boulders Road for two ways in and two ways out as we move forward with the project.

[03:25:38] So we'll refine our discussions. Ms. Lupisto Curley, that's a great catch on your part. But I did want to say that to the board, that that number was not pulled out of the air. And there was a lot of discussion with state officials about that initial ask.

[03:25:55] And I just wanted to clarify that for the board. Thank you. All right. We'll go on to the next section of this discussion, which is the legislative priorities. So I've got two boxes up on this screen.

[03:26:11] One is just showing the three from last year. And then three bullets on the right-hand side, which are items that have come up in conversation with board members. Sometimes folks will reference, you know, we know Mr. Rosenberg has a list.

[03:26:28] And so this is our effort to capture what was on that list. Again, this work session is really to start the conversation with you all. So we're not looking to adopt or close the door on anything today, but to start that conversation with you all as we prepare over the next several months to be back before you with a first draft in September. So I'm going to walk through each of these right now. One from last year is the one cent for schools capital. There was, this was one that several localities, as Mr. Rosenberg indicated, have the authority on an individual basis to have a one

[03:27:04] cent addition to the local, or a one cent local sales tax addition to the state sales tax to support schools capital as a dedicated funding source. There was unexpected broad support from a groundswell of localities in the 2024 session for this type of broad access to that one cent for schools. It had a two-thirds or greater majority vote in both chambers. It was vetoed by the governor and was unable to be overturned with the two-thirds again when it came back

[03:27:41] in April. The energy around this topic is pretty strong. A lot of localities wish to come back and carry that forward again into the 2025 session. And so we are recommending that the board consider carrying this item forward into the 2025 legislative priorities as there seems to be continued conversation with folks in Richmond as we move from the end of 2024 into the beginning of planning for 2025, that this might be successful if it were to come back again.

[03:28:16] I'm going to go through all of these and then we can go through the order. The next one is the Enhanced Photo Speed Device Authority. The lawsuit notwithstanding, this was another one where there was not expected to be a lot of support in Richmond for expanding authority around photo speed devices.

[03:28:36] There have been a number of these bills introduced over several years. Most of them never got out of committee. They just did not have the support to get through there. There were a large volume of bills introduced on this topic, all sort of attacking it from a different angle.

[03:28:53] But when the bills came out at the start of the session, there was a lot of energy around this topic as well. And this year, they got out of committee. Most of them were not successful. The one that was signed, the SB336, is very limited and does not really solve, I think, a lot of the issues that this board was concerned about when you put forward this as a priority last year. So we wanted to put forward for your consideration for this year to consider carrying this one forward as well, perhaps directing staff to be a little bit more discreet

[03:29:28] about what the specific issues that we were trying to solve are so that it is received as a little bit more of a targeted approach than a broad expansion of authority. The bill that was successful, had very specific criteria attached to it. And we think that that was part of its success.

[03:29:48] So shifting over now to what had been on the right-hand side, rental housing safety, the board has expressed some interest in looking at more tools in the toolbox to support non-building code issues in rental housing, an area where you've had outreach from constituents on having trouble accessing some of the system supports that exist.

[03:30:15] Wanted to just highlight there was a bill introduced in 2024, House Bill 597. It would have enabled localities to pursue legal action against landlords, not addressing safety hazards in rental units. It was vetoed by the governor. It's an area where we could look at pursuing, we could try again.

[03:30:37] And this was not an item that we put forward last time, but it's an item where the board could elect to include it in its package if it's so desired. Another is funding authority for CARTA. CARTA is the Charlottesville-Albemarle Transit Authority, Regional Transit Authority.

[03:30:55] There were two bills that were introduced in 2009 in the General Assembly that the city and the county worked together to put forward. One was to enable the creation of such a regional transit authority. And then there was a partner bill to give that authority, funding authority, through sales tax revenue, much like that one sent for schools.

[03:31:17] The creation of the authority was enabled in 2009, but the partner funding bill was not successful. The city and the county took a step back at that point to look at how else could we tackle regional transit.

[03:31:33] The regional transit partnership through a lot of the work over this past several years has looked to start to look at that authority and look at what some of the possibilities might be. There's been a lot of study on this topic, as you all are very well aware. If the board desired, this could be included in a legislative packet and partnership with the city of Charlottesville to go after, again, that funding authority to sort of finish the partnership of both having an authority and then having the authority to raise revenue for it. The final one in this section, before I'll

[03:32:09] open it up back to you, is reimbursement for responding to community threats. So there's a current statute that limits locality's authority to pursue reimbursement of expenses incurred in responding to hoaxes, threats that turn out not to be true. The slide shows what the current authority lays out. In 2024, there were a pair of bills that were introduced to increase the ability for localities to recoup the expenses incurred by responding to those community threats.

[03:32:40] House Bill 147 and Senate Bill 656, neither of those was successful. One was left in committee and the other was removed at the request of the patron. That would have raised the flat fee to $2,500 or a minute-by-minute billing of actual costs up to $2,500. This is something that the board could consider trying to pursue as as one of its priorities if if so inclined and i'm going to stop there and go back to my first slide to ask for your the next thing you'll be doing is

[03:33:19] legislative priority support okay do we have questions about this we want to talk about both together if we're going to have discussion i mean the next topic chair if i may the next topic is quite wide-ranging, and I think taking these six issues discreetly makes sense, although I recognize the desire to say time.

[03:33:40] Supervisor LePistro. Could you go to slide 22, please? And I'm in favor of doing this. What I wonder is if we're supporting the one cent for schools increase, we're supporting perhaps one cent for CARTA also.

[03:34:00] The timing, you know, I'm concerned about that. would both pass, would both fail because we're asking for a two cent increase or do we stagger it or am I getting the cart before the horse? Yep, cart before the horse. I just worry about that. I mean, I'm in favor of doing this. I mean, I love referendums and I love asking the people, you know, do you want to do this? I just think having, if we have two of them at one time,

[03:34:34] maybe we don't i those are my only concerns otherwise i mean what you're proposing i think is is is good supervisor callaway do you want to go back to your screen with all of them um certainly the one cent for schools capital and the revana futures um i i'm not shocked of the broad support for the one cent just listening to people at vaco the last two years um clearly they i guess some had political fear of their governor i suppose when it came back for the veto

[03:35:11] question. But that one, I think the building momentum, because it's across both aisles, should definitely be continued. I mean, I'm not opposed to any of these to go forward. I don't see them as competing, the one cent and the Carta, because the one cent is statewide and the Carta is locality-specific or region-specific. I think giving us something more, a little bit more authority for this rental housing piece is something that's pressing. So I'm glad to see

[03:35:50] that's there. Supervisor Pruitt? Yes. So I am, I would say, generally in favor of carrying over our previous things. I will just say on two of them, I have questions or carve outs. I know we've kind of arrived at the one cent coming from sales tax. And I'm curious, and that seems to be where all the political momentum is. I'm curious how we landed on the most regressive possible tool in the toolbox for that and whether or not there is any room to identify an alternate revenue source that

[03:36:29] localities could exercise or that school boards could exercise because I mean frankly like retail sales tax it's politically more viable but it's also it is the most regressive local revenue source and frankly almost any other revenue source that the school could exercise I think would be preferable. So I guess I would just ask that question. And the answer might just be, this is where we've arrived at, because it's politically viable. Is that a yes? That's about it.

[03:36:58] And I think it builds off of that specific, that legislation that's currently on the books that, I don't remember how many localities enjoy, nine localities currently enjoy, which is, so the one on the books is funded through sales tax. And so I think that the thought was that is probably the path of least resistance if it were to be successfully applied statewide that was only about five years ago that was like 2018-19 was when the first localities were added understood and i recognize that we are not exactly in the position as people who are not legislators

[03:37:37] in that house uh to be the ones innovating so i appreciate the point there um i would say you know i share all the members of the board's uh concern about photo speed uh cameras and i have I've spoken vocally in public about how we need to have them, especially for our rural highways.

[03:37:53] I'm thinking of my own rural highways in my district that can be quite dangerous and we don't have the ability to patrol adequately. I would say that is also conditional, and we've talked about this, I've shared this with a few members of the board, on how we are able to cabin our enforcement authority.

[03:38:10] If this is exercised and the only way that we legally have the authority to exercise it is as a criminal infraction or misdemeanor that is identical to all other speeding enforcement, then that is frankly something I have a hard time supporting and swallowing just because we know this increases ticket issuing and also just data-wise that photo speed enforcement disproportionately impacts poorer people and darker people statistically.

[03:38:39] I'm curious if there would be any appetite to have this conditional on it being a civil penalty that localities have the ability to have discretionary fee schedules, as in one that scales up, could potentially start at zero, could potentially be waivable?

[03:38:59] The authority that the county has now for school zones and construction zones, and we've enacted the school zones here, it's civil. It's a civil penalty. Okay. So it is not processed like other speeding tickets?

[03:39:15] Yeah, the video footage has to be verified by law enforcement, but it's a fine that comes in the mail and you pay it in the mail. And do we have control over that fee schedule? I'm also just to kind of explicate a little bit.

[03:39:37] A $100 fine as a first offense is a life-altering thing for members of our community. If that started at a lower level or if that started at a zero level and there was a repeat defense within calendar year provision. I would have that much less concerning to me. I also recognize speeding as a life-changing event for people. Yeah. But. No kidding. Especially in a school zone. Yeah. Exactly. With the number of cars that we have passing our school buses every day.

[03:40:10] A thousand. Yeah. Just an update on the fee. It's up to a hundred, so not to exceed a hundred. it could be lower the there's also a requirement for signage so it's not taking a the photo out sort of out of the blue but there's a number of signs that indicate that you're about to enter a photo speed enforcement area and I think it was only during school hours I mean it's school zone so it was only during school hours it wasn't like 11 o'clock at night yeah I do I take that

[03:40:48] the board has varied opinions on this. I've tried to articulate mine, I guess, as how that could be realized in a way that is confluent with everyone's desires. I would just want us to be clear that we want significant authority in how our fees are determined, and we want that to be local. I would not want to be in a position where any speed camera we have has Richmond dictating what the flat fee associated with that is it would be passed by referendum so we would have more control

[03:41:21] local referendum not to speak not this one not to speak speak cameras would be a decision by us a decision by the board to implement speak cameras is not a referendum issue that's not my interest but it was so there's a um once the authority is granted there's a an ordinance adoption process so it would go through public hearing but not um but not a referendum. But just to address Mike's concerns, I think we really were recognizing with this most of your concerns, to be honest with you. I don't question that. I was not fully involved in that,

[03:41:57] but it sounds like we have the adequate authority with the existing single location we can do it. I would just want to make sure that we have the ability to frankly exercise the adequate and due discretion, and I know that's not always Richmond's priority. The other items that were recommended, I mean, I think two of these came from me, so I'm excited about them.

[03:42:19] I don't know that we need a cap on a minute-by-minute accounting of actual costs. I would just say that. It is actual damages. If it's actual damages, I say we should be able to recover.

[03:42:36] The only reason we aren't able to directly recover actual damages uncapped is because of the existing legislation that was designed to give us more authority poorly. So that would be my input. But I think the bill that was specifically listed and has been proposed, I think, two years running now, carried by, I believe that's the SIA price bill.

[03:42:58] I love that bill. I was in the room when the idea came up. I want to see it in force. I am curious if, you know, CARTA has not been fully manifested yet to coalesce around a preferred fee schedule and tax schedule that we would find appropriate.

[03:43:21] Would it not be more appropriate as a first step to request discrete funding for management level administration and organizational operating costs, followed by this kind of request that would be tied to a taxing authority?

[03:43:42] I apologize. I'm turning to Vice Chairman Keele for that. I was a little surprised to see that here. Having said that, we've all said that we know we're going to have to have a funding source if we're going to have a robust transit system. We are supposed, and I didn't mean to interrupt your time at the podium, I'm sorry.

[03:44:00] Oh no, I was turning this to you, I wanted your input on that. But we are expect, the Regional Transit Partnership is expecting back at the end of this month, or at least I think the end of this month, a report from Charlottesville and Albemarle on the work we're doing towards the authority.

[03:44:20] And so we definitely have to have that conversation. I'm not even sure what is being recommended, and I'm not sure at this point. This is certainly one item, but I'm not sure if there are other items with our enabling authority that will need to be addressed.

[03:44:42] We were assuming there were a few others. I haven't heard yet whether or not there's anything else going forward besides the funding piece. I would like to maybe leave this on, but, Emily, these are not written in stone at this point. in time this is just for initial feedback so that's what i would say to mike premature yeah so let's think leave this on if we could and just think about it and maybe we'll have a good next step before before this is due back as homework we will probably have some more information from the rtp's uh uh reception of right because ann wall and i've talked about coming back to this

[03:45:17] board and reporting out and so but i appreciate y'all thinking about this and getting it in place So, more to come. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Now it is your... I'm sorry, I didn't mean to jump in.

[03:45:33] I think these are great to say. I really am appreciative of especially the rental housing safety because, like Mike, I've been kind of hammering this one. I actually even brought a copy of House Bill 597 with me because I would love to...

[03:45:51] But, you know, with some of these, Emily, it might be good, again, to make sure there aren't other communities. The Augusta piece is very informative. That is a very different community than ours.

[03:46:07] And sometimes the sponsors make a difference in who they are and where they're located. But you would be looking at that later as well. I wouldn't want some of these, though, to go off of our list inadvertently or just because somebody else is sponsoring them.

[03:46:28] But I do think that's a critical, especially over the next year. Anyway, so right now with this, I guess I'm saying I'm happy. Thank you. Great. Thank you. Supervisor Mellor? Thank you. I support keeping all these on.

[03:46:44] And just back in 2009, a person who's now currently a congressperson from south of here met David Slutsky and I, who went to the committee meeting asking for this authority to fund all that had been studied for the previous eight years here locally for transit and transportation to fund some of our projects.

[03:47:10] We were screamed at to get out of here because we hadn't built the bypass. And so I still have the scars on my back from that. So that's how long this has been on the docket. And all the same options that were considered back then, recordation taxes, et cetera, are all fully in use in other really important funding areas.

[03:47:34] So I'm very much in favor of keeping that on there. We'll see how it goes. The threats, I was trying hard to read what you had in about the authority for the threats. It seemed like they were both the same, up to 2,500, no matter, is both those categories 250, not more than 2,500, or 2,500, something or other.

[03:47:59] Whatever it is, it's lucrously too long. It's like a half an hour's worth of work, and so it doesn't really do anything for us. Yeah, you really have to look at the legislation closely because they actually separated, the bills separated out the responses related to the hoax calls. And for those who may be under 18, it stayed with the $2,500.

[03:48:20] But for those over 18, it was provided for a flat fee of $2,500 or a minute-by-minute. And it was that minute-by-minute part that didn't really have a cap. So I think that was the cause of some of the consternation over the bills this past session.

[03:48:38] Okay. So, I mean, I can understand that the stupid teenager makes a stupid phone call. $2,500 is, I understand that, because the parents will deal with that. But, and then you said that the other is unlimited and. That's what the bill was proposing.

[03:48:55] Right. Okay. So that addresses in some ways the cap, but for anybody over 18, they're going to be held responsible if this were to pass for the total expense. That was the bill this past year. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Very similar to if someone's careless with a fire and they burn down their neighbor's house, they're responsible no matter what the cap is.

[03:49:12] I mean, that's a big deal. Okay. Thank you very much. That's all my questions. Thank you. and I'm supportive, the only caveat being that we haven't seen the list of others that we would support, and whether we're the lead or somebody else is the lead, I think, is fluid. So, thank you.

[03:49:30] Thank you. All right, I know we're on time, so I'm going to go quickly through the next section. So, Mr. Blunt shared that the General Assembly had several bills in emerging areas last year, sort of the key themes from the General Assembly session, and we expect that many of those will remain topics in 2025. If the board wished to express support or opposition or express benefits and challenges connected to some of these issues that could support efforts in Richmond by our local delegation, that would be something that we could flesh out over the next several months.

[03:50:01] So if there's information that we wanted to convey around the county's stance on clean energy bills or data center bills that might come forward, that feedback can be helpful to our local delegation once they're in session and bills are being debated, and because these are areas where we expect to see some energy again coming into 25, we may want to spend some time or not fleshing out the county's opinion on these, even though they may or may not have a direct impact on us at this time. The other area for support would be continued implementation of the JLARC

[03:50:38] studies, the two JLARC studies that have come out most recently. One is on public school or education funding and the other is the community service boards funding which is um how the state big piece of the state's infrastructure around supporting behavioral mental health challenges do we you want us to make comments on that what's what's remaining what's remaining then let me let me do the last one and do them together um so the final one is the positions and policy statements your packet has last year's document what we typically do is spend the next couple of weeks looking at what needs to just be adjusted because of things that may have happened um at the state

[03:51:15] level already. The only thing that that we wanted to put forward for consideration to add to the positions and policy statements for this session is to just express broadly support for state funding for economic development site readiness. So in this this is a program that that can be used by localities around site readiness. We could use this for Ravana Futures. We currently have a project that's getting underway actually with the actual site work earlier this

[03:51:48] week up at North Fork Research Park for a preparation of a site that that we had a successful VBRSP application for. The state budget over the past several years has had a lot more funding in that program bucket and as part of the biennium budget this year the governor's original request was reduced down to 20 million each year. And I have up on the screen what it was in 23 and 24. So you can see at scale the challenge there. So that was just something that we wanted to bring to the board's awareness

[03:52:23] as we know that the board has previously taken legislative priorities and positions on that program. So I'll go back to this one. Okay. And this is the end of this. So sort of wrap up Support opportunities and any other additional comments.

[03:52:52] Supervisor LaPito-Kirk. So just quickly, whether or not to support or oppose some of these items, unless I see the legislation and know what it says or what they're asking for, I'm going to wait and I can't, I'm not going to comment on it because I don't know.

[03:53:10] JLARC, okay, that's one thing. But the other ones, I don't know what they're proposing, so. Supervisor Callaway? I mean, certainly the JLARC studies with education funding, especially as it relates to SFQ positions and expanding that. So I'm sure we'll be coordinating with our school division.

[03:53:28] And it seems like since Senator Deeds is our senator, that anything related to the mental health services should be, we should be supporting efforts there as well. That would have impact on us. What was the other, was that all I was commenting on?

[03:53:47] Yeah, I think if there's any topics on this list that the board feels strongly, we should be, staff should do some work to sort of identify some areas for specific feedback that could help us as we talk to the legislature once they're in session.

[03:54:04] So, you know, bills come out usually in late December, early January, and then there's a lot of quick work to get feedback back on does the county have a position on this. And without having specific feedback from the board during that sort of rapid pace time, it can be a challenge for us to provide good feedback.

[03:54:24] so if there's you know a couple of these topics that the board wants to um understand these issues a little bit better to be able to sort of stake out a position on um we could do that work can i go back that for me that would be mental health schools funding and clean energy sorry the second slide you were asking for comments on or were you just sharing that uh this one as well everything else i mean this is the rest of our list of all because i thought that was coming back at a different time i do want to understand i almost feel like i've asked david this question in the

[03:55:01] past but we don't have to get into it now but the site readiness money shifted to some other thing so i think it's important maybe in the next round we understand where that money shifted to so that we understand what to be or how to position ourselves based on where that some of that money is being redirected and then like i mentioned uh earlier the in a outside of the board meeting this study on these custom incentive grants. I didn't have the phrase down. It sounds like we were getting our heads wrapped around. Staff is getting their heads wrapped around that.

[03:55:34] And that's probably not, that's probably a get ready. What's the, where's this leading kind of conversation? So I don't know if it necessarily even relates to the legislative packet. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Pruitt. So on the previous slide, I would just say, I think I've kind of come to the conclusion that CSBs are the most important and underfunded elements of the state budget, full stop, and they implicate localities very significantly because we are the ones who are then on the hook for the consequences of lack of funding.

[03:56:13] So I fully endorse in the strongest possible way that we can send a message that our funding priorities include CSBs. I would want that to be in bright, bold, flashing letters in as much of that as possible. Education funding, I think we've already implicated in our other funding discussion under budget priorities, but we can continue to highlight that. Clean energy and data centers, I see that as being frankly perfectly fine in locality's hands. I like the fact that we have authority over them.

[03:56:46] I don't know that I would want any state supremacy there or any state restriction there. And frankly, skills games are a toxic political football that I don't want near me unless I have it thrown at me. I grew up in South Carolina in the 90s when we had completely unregulated skill games. So I have negative opinions about it. But, you know, I don't like seeing the person who is absolutely destitute pulling the handle every time I go to the gas station, which is what I did all through my childhood. But unless the ball is pitched to us, I don't think we need to

[03:57:22] grapple with it. As far as the the broader set of policy recommendations, this is maybe a minor one and maybe a weird one to pull out, but the abuse and neglect definition change, I'm a little curious how that got in there and what the background of that is because it feels morally complex because it kind of turns on the question of like status as, well not incriminating, but one's status as an

[03:57:56] addict, rather than one's conduct being an issue, I would be troubled if we make, I'm assuming this probably relates to child protective services and care and tools, but I don't know, without more information in front of me, I'd be curious what advocacy groups have to say about this and who in the community is pushing for this, because I mean, you know, I know people who are addicts who have lost children because of that fact, rather than because of other facts, without any kind of state supports. I am concerned about that being something that we execute like

[03:58:32] de rigor as policy and would want to know kind of what feeds into that and who's asking for it. Also, there's so many more sexy things we could have under housing. We just have one thing for supportive housing. I know when you talk to a tenant organization, the thing that every tenant organization I've ever talked to as their number one priority once is a CPI-pegged rent stabilization capacity for localities. The ability for a locality to institute rent stabilization that is

[03:59:07] pegged to CPI. Not rent control, but rent stabilization for year-to-year increases that is pegged to CPI. It is unlikely to pass in this session, but I think it's important to keep asking for that because that is what renters across the state want. More than anything else, that is what they want. And there's other things that, frankly, if I was sitting here for longer, I would be able to just scratch out a bunch of examples, which kind of pulls me into the final point I would make, which is just, I would say, as a whole, our package very much gives the flavor of focusing on good government and local authorities and what our local priorities are. It very much reads like

[03:59:45] a package that is crafted primarily by the six people on the dais and by staff. This is also one of the most important political documents we generate in a year, and it is not one that I know of much public engagement around. Maybe I am speaking out of turn, but I would expect here's the NAACP's 10 legislative priorities.

[04:00:05] Here's Louisville's 10 legislative priorities. Here's Indivisible's 10 legislative priorities. And that to all be things that we are getting in our email that we are having to contend with and grapple with as to what we're saying are the community's priorities. I don't know that that kind of outreach is happening.

[04:00:23] And I think that then informs the kind of things that we're asking for as a community which is not me to say that I don't support the things on here but there are things that I know are very important to our community that I don't think we necessarily walk upstairs upstairs metonymically to Richmond and ask for because I don't know that that is getting transferred to us we are not being seen or treated by the general public always as the kind of legislative lightning rod and convener that we could be and I'm just wondering is there space for

[04:00:59] that. Why? Is there a way we can consider what our legislative priority process looks like in a different way that does look for more community and interest group input? Supervisor McKeel.

[04:01:15] Thank you, Emily. I'll try and keep it brief. Clean energy and data centers should be up to us, not up to the state. Mental health gets at the community services board because we're doing great with hearts. And I'm not saying we couldn't use more, but our hearts team is doing great with mental health, but where we're lacking is our community services board. I would heartily support going after those JLARC studies, which had simple and great recommendations, and the General Assembly ought to listen to their own studies, which they paid for and were bipartisan. Just saying. I can get kind of agitated about that. Having said that, skill games I'm not interested

[04:01:53] in. I agree with Mike. They are a race to the bottom, and why would we want that in our community? I'm done with that. And the idea that we're even thinking about it, I find appalling. And school funding, I think we have a partner, Almar County Public Schools have a legislative point person.

[04:02:12] And I think for us to save time, let's partner with them because they have very rarely ever come up with any funding thoughts or positions that I've disagreed with. So I'm just saying that not that we just give them control, but we ought to be able to use their legislative partner and aid really effectively and save you guys from doing some of that work.

[04:02:35] And with, oh, and the other page, I'm happy to support that. Where we go with that is fine. Yeah. Thank you. Supervisor Malek. Thank you. So as a matter of philosophy, supporting and protecting local authority for all kinds of decisions is number one, and that's sort of the big umbrella that's over things because the local boards are closest to the public and can very easily be kicked to the curb if we lose approval, and that's where those kinds of decisions should be made.

[04:03:08] I'm absolutely convinced without evidence yet that all of these state takeovers, preemptions, are going to be back because the absolutely venture capital types who are wanting to make the quick buck on all of these things and then flip them for outrageous savings or profits are going to go to the least common threat, which is the legislature, and see if they can wipe out all of the bowling pins all at once by one thing there.

[04:03:40] So I am definitely all in to get ready to do whatever we can do to arm our delegation and meet with them in advance in maybe single conversations instead of one big thing first, just so that we can have a chance to listen to their questions without everybody being such a big group.

[04:04:01] I think that might help. So anyway, clean energy data centers, the CSB funding. Schools did get a lot of increases this session, and I agree that they need to step up and take that voice. And the skill gains, I'm very happy to leave that to other people, although I think that, like the lottery in many ways, which was very narrowly approved all those decades ago, and it was 100% supposed to go to school funding for construction, and look what happened to that.

[04:04:27] So why in the world would we want to have more ripping off of our most vulnerable people to support i mean just like one small business taking the profits and i mean i know there's all sorts of arguments oh we'll all go out of business if we don't have these things well what were you doing before you had all these things you were doing you were alive so um i just the victimization that's going on is really difficult for me to grapple with but i don't have anything else to do the general assembly really abused that lottery funding they still abused it and i'm going to just say ditto with respect to the previous two comments i think are

[04:05:06] pretty straightforward with a little bit of hesitation on the clean energy only because I think that we are in a situation where some things need to happen and occasionally local control is getting in the way and I don't want to make up the blanket statement that might go too far. One thing that I do think is missing from this list is at one point we discussed our own And I don't want to go into this as a detail, but I know we did discuss our issues with TDO procedures that were requiring us to take people to all over the state.

[04:05:45] And that we were hoped that there might be a way to approach the legislature to find a way to make that problem a little less severe. I'm not sure what that would look like, but I know it's something we discussed in the budget season.

[04:06:02] And Jim, that's a great point because I thought that was a local decision, not a state decision. So I guess we need to know more about it. We need to know what our authority is and whether providers have the authority to turn away, to force us to, you know, what are the restrictions that are forcing us to go all the way to the far ends of the state for service?

[04:06:22] Because it seems like different communities are doing different things and I don't get it. Yeah. So may I add on a question to that question for the list? And that is, in other states, people who take state payments for things are not allowed to turn away people who need them.

[04:06:38] I mean, if you're a licensed dentist, you have to take Medicaid, period. That's just the law in Massachusetts. So the fact that some of our hospitals are allowed to say, no, we're not going to participate in any of these mental health things to protect their bottom line is really appalling it. We probably won't ever get anywhere in Virginia because business is king.

[04:06:56] Well, there was legislation, HB 23, Senate Bill 497, that required alternative transportation providers to follow certain restrictions. But there aren't any. And that's, I guess, where are those providers? That's something I think we should look into.

[04:07:12] Thank you. Thank you. Any further? Do you need any additional feedback? That's it for me. Okay. Thank you all for your time. Thank you. And, Lord, at this point, I think we need to go into closed session. We have a limited amount of time. Yes, Mr. Chair, I'd like to move the Board of Supervisors to convene a closed meeting pursuant to Section 2.2, TAC 37711A of the Code of Virginia.

[04:07:34] First, under subsection 1, to discuss the appointment, promotion, performance, or resignation of specific administrative employees of the county appointed by the Board of Supervisors, and second, under subsection 5, to discuss the expansion of an existing industry in the southern part of the county in the Scottsville Magisterial District, where no previous announcement has been made of the business's interest in expanding its facilities to the community.

[04:07:54] Second. We have a motion from Supervisor Pruitt, a second from Supervisor Malik. Without objection, the clerk will call the roll. Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Mr. Andrew? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. Malik? Yes. Ms. McKeel? Yes. Ms. Houston-Kirtley? Aye. Okay, board. We'll see you in, I guess, in 241.

[04:59:04] Okay, board, we'll come back out of closed session.

[05:03:14] Do we have a motion? Yes, I would like to move the Board of Supervisors to certify by a recorded vote. that to the best of each supervisor's knowledge. Only public matters lawfully exempted from the open meeting requirement of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act and identified the motion and authorized closed meeting were heard, discussed, or considered in the closed meeting. Second. We have a motion from Supervisor Pruitt, a second from Supervisor Malek. Without objection, the clerk will call the rule. Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Mr. Andrews? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms.

[05:03:39] Malek? Yes. Ms. McKeel? Yes. Ms. Lapisto-Kirtley? Aye. Thank you. Our next item is a report from the County Executive. Yes, sir, Mr. Chair. I do have the June 2024 Progress Albemarle report, and I'm happy to present this to the board this evening. Abby Stump is to my left, and she will be helping with the presentation. And as always, I thank the CAPE staff as well as our operating departments for working hard to connect and put meaningful things in front of the board and in front of our public this evening. First thing, I would start out with board specific to partnerships.

[05:04:16] Yesterday, the City Economic Development Authority, the County Economic Development Authority, received updates together on two items of mutual interest, including a presentation from Ruth Emmerich, the COO of TJPDC, on the Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy, which was funded by a 2022 grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration.

[05:04:38] A consultant, Cam Woyne, worked in collaboration with another planning district commission, Rappahannock-Rapidan Regional Commission, and Gove Virginia Region 9 Council and the regional stakeholders to develop the strategy. Kamoine produced a separate CEDS plan for both the TJPDC and the RRRC, as well as a super regional report focused on shared opportunities and strategies for the entirety of the two regions.

[05:05:09] I think this is just a good example of both the city and the county and our economic development departments and our authorities working together. And I would remind the board that we meet with the city's economic development department on a regular basis to talk about projects of mutual interest that are along our boundaries.

[05:05:28] And that's, to me, interesting in the fact that this afternoon, earlier, you heard an update on the Broadway corridor blueprint, which really requires our city and our county economic development departments to work jointly for the success of that area.

[05:05:44] it's a really key area in our community okay meadows creek community center backup generator project arpa reserve funding was used to purchase and install a generator at meadows community center to ensure power for residents during outages and the generator has now been installed securing and installing the generator was a partnership across fire rescue parks and recreation finance and budget it was an improvement identified after the lengthy power outages during the january 2022 snowstorm and the uh the correct generator had a sick the the getting the correct generator had a

[05:06:24] 60-week lead time and getting that generator here the medical the meadows community center is located in crozet is primary you primarily used as a senior center this will serve as a place for those in the nearby community uh to get needs met during a power outage while the center is small it could potentially make a warming and a cooling center as being and it's also right now being evaluated by staff for additional options. Woodbrook Lagoon Stream Restoration work

[05:06:59] intends to repair existing erosion, prevent future erosion, and improve the water quality benefits to this facility. This site, located off of Brookmere Road, was originally built as a wastewater treatment lagoon but was modified in 2011 to act as a stormwater management facility.

[05:07:19] large storms have eroded the berm separating the facility from the adjacent stream this berm which also serves as a walking path must be repaired to prevent breaching the upstream embankment will be modified to allow more storm water into this wetland area of the facility this is probably my favorite slide and it won't surprise the board this is the county government's lead leading and leading educating program from the University of Virginia, and these are our lead graduates for fiscal year 24.

[05:07:56] Eleven staff from throughout our organization attended UVA's lead program during fiscal year 24. Leaders from throughout our county government attend this program. It's one week long, and we are helping to ensure that consistent and intentional leadership philosophies are being instituted at all levels of the organization.

[05:08:17] And, Board, we're really lucky that this program is in our own back door over at the University of Virginia, taught through the business program. We have a wonderful relationship with those folks, and I do appreciate everything that they do in partnership with Albemarle County.

[05:08:34] Oh, my goodness, Ann Malick is asking me to identify the staff. All right, I do not have a script on this, and so... Can you help me? I can help with some, yeah. JT. JT. Ryan. Brian. Jim Barber. Keith. Bradshaw, out of community development.

[05:08:54] Shanandra Usher is in the middle row. She's in finance. Our human resources director. Jessica Rice. Kevin McDermott. Who's the next one? Who's the next one? Do you know the bottom row?

[05:09:12] Yep. Kevin Miller. Katie Batten from social services. I'm sorry I didn't have that script.

[05:09:28] I'm glad Ms. Malik asked me, and sometimes I'm not good with names and faces, and I apologize. Sometimes we just freeze up because we're at the podium. Deputy Chief Emily Policia was accepted as part of the LEAD Virginia program.

[05:09:44] This is a separate program than the one that we just talked about through the University of Virginia. This is a program modeled on the theory of social capital. Lead Virginia attracts senior-level professionals who are committed to advancing Virginia's future. So it's a highly competitive program. This experience not only enhances individual leadership capabilities, but it also fosters a network of high-performing, solution-oriented leaders dedicated to creating a positive statewide impact.

[05:10:10] And she's with a class of folks from all over the Commonwealth, and so she uses this opportunity as well to network. And in the world of fire, rescue, emergency management, this pays dividends for the county, as you know, Board. I don't think you've seen a picture lately on the Quartz Complex project update.

[05:10:30] Phase one of the Quartz Complex addition and renovations project continues with the completion of structural steel framing, placement of concrete slabs, ongoing exterior wall construction, and electrical conduit work. Substantial completion is expected in early calendar 2025.

[05:10:49] Ongoing project updates can be found at www.albemaracountycourtscomplex.com. And we do have some of our folks in here from Fez today, and I do want to thank Lance Stewart and his wonderful team for, really, they've just provided outstanding leadership work as this project has got off the ground, and I appreciate that very much.

[05:11:10] Bike Month in Albemarle. County staff worked with area partners to promote May as Bike Month with events, including two that took place in the county, one in Crozet, one at Darden Town. E-bike demos and a skills course with the ACPD, our police department's bike team, were on hand at these events.

[05:11:32] And, Board, you know how popular this is because you've seen our staff that work at these kinds of events, and it's quite popular. so I really appreciate the work here. Free car seat installation event. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, correctly installed car seats can reduce the risk of fatal injury by 71 percent for infants, 54 percent for toddlers. Our Albemarle County Fire Rescue will be at 5th Street Station for free car seat adjustments and installation this Friday from 10

[05:12:07] to 12 and that's friday june 14th if you cannot make it that day the fire rescue department can help with a key with a car seat installation year-round just contact the ashville i mean the almarc county i'm sorry they did it too but they live in fire stations and they did it too but our fire rescue department will help with car seat installation just contact fire rescue police swearing in ceremony our police department recently welcomed five new officers to the department this past May, following their graduation from the Central Shenandoah Criminal

[05:12:47] Justice Academy. This is the 150th basic law enforcement class. The new officers, Lauren Day, Hunter Harmon, Bryce Owens, Tyler Walls, and Kyle Zuby, all, and Kyle graduated first in class academically, and he also set a new statewide record for the highest score ever on the test.

[05:13:11] And so I had an opportunity to attend this and these young people continue to just absolutely amaze me with the breadth of skills and education that they have walking in the door to be a key part of our Albemarle County government. Update on the employee clinic. The purpose of our employee clinic, and this is our employee health clinic, is to enhance the overall health of employees and their families, provide dedicated quality health and wellness services to employees and their

[05:13:46] families and help us manage the rising health care cost. And it continues to be an issue for both Albemarle County local government and Albemarle County schools. I'll remind the board that we have a combined health care fund that includes all county schools and employees and families covered lives and all local government. The current status of the project, a vendor has been selected after an extensive RFP process. We are sourcing two separate locations, one on 29 north and one in pantops so we will have we hope to have two locations human resources will

[05:14:23] play a significant role in the clinic implementation along with key stakeholders including partner entities and the school division we're working with our vendor to determine the type and number of medical personnel that will be housed at each clinic and starting this fall employees will receive regular updates and information about clinic services and resources so this is an absolute must-be project for this organization and it can't get online too soon we are really excited about this so i'm glad i'm ending with that because uh board i'll be happy to try to answer any questions luckily in addition to abby we've got some key staff here if there are questions

[05:15:02] that I can't answer. Thank you. We'll go through our order. Supervisor Letizio Curley. Congratulations. It's a wonderful presentation, especially with the health clinics opening up. Thank you. Supervisor Galloway. I appreciate the information as well, so thank you very much for the report.

[05:15:21] Supervisor Pruitt. Thank you very much for the update. I have no questions. Supervisor McKeel. I'm really excited about the clinic. This is great, wonderful news. And the other points in the presentation were wonderful as well. And you'll, as always, send us a copy.

[05:15:37] Thank you. Supervisor Malek? Hopefully the copy will have the names, especially the graduates. I didn't write them down fast enough on the graduates because I want to ask you about that. And this is absolutely, what a great upbeat meeting today.

[05:15:54] But I did want to call out and thank you again for all the staff work to get the generator at the Meadows because it was a very long 80 hours with no power for those people all in their 70s, 80s. in the 90s. They didn't have oxygen concentrators. I mean, it was a real problem until the fire and rescue departments got there and broke into the community center to put their own generators in there to be able to charge up people's cell phones, etc. So this is a really big deal for our community, and I'm very grateful. Thank you. Thank you. I also appreciate everything in the presentation, but I find particularly the idea of help with car seats, I'm reminded of the fact

[05:16:32] and I'll sometimes take on a task, and my spouse will say, well, we really should get an expert to check that you did it right before we turn this on. Yeah, exactly. I think it's one of those cases. Larry. So I appreciate it. Thank you. And, Jeff, let that be a lesson for you and for names in the future.

[05:16:52] You're so right. Sometimes at new employee orientation, I've got a list of, I've got all the department heads up there, and I'll get to Dan Eggleston, and I'll go, I can't remember his name. Sometimes I can't remember my own name, Jeff. I think I'm telling on my age a little bit. We are on the spot, so thank you.

[05:17:12] Board, this brings us to matters from the public, matters on the agenda but not listed for public hearing, or matters previously considered. We don't have anyone signed up? We do not. Okay, so I don't even need to rest. That will take us then to first of our four public hearings this evening.

[05:17:32] Again, I'd like to remind the public who are here, if they desire to speak on a matter, there's a sign-up sheet to my left under the first window, audience right, for any of these. So, our first one is a public hearing on the electrical vehicle charging fee ordinance, led by Mr. Kyle Mallory, Deputy Chief of Operations, Facilities, and Environmental Services.

[05:17:55] Welcome. Good evening, Chairman Andrews, Vice Chair McKeel, members of the Board, County Executive. Give me a second. I'm a long-time listener, but a first-time driver down here. And will you just adjust your mic, because we're having a little trouble. There we go. Yeah. Okay. How about that?

[05:18:11] That's great. Thank you. All right. I think while he's figuring his getting this together, you know, our podium is low, and for some of the taller folks to be able to raise that up a little bit, I think, would work better.

[05:18:27] And is there an easy way for Jim or myself to say to them how to do that? I'm just saying. You're fine. I think there's an easy... You're fine. But there are folks that really, it's a height issue. And I think there is a button somewhere over there that we can use to raise it. There actually is a button right here on the left-hand side, which we've had a little bit of trouble getting it to raise up without jumping out of the tracks.

[05:18:52] So it's something we're still working on. But there is the capability to raise and lower this depending on the height of the individual person. So thank you. It's a project we're working on. I hope I stalled long enough for you. Perfect. Thank you. Good evening again. I'm Kai Mowry. I'm the Deputy Chief of Operations. I work in the facilities group with the public groups primarily. I'm here tonight to talk about electric vehicle charging ordinance in order for the county to recoup some of the operating costs for these units. Just a side note, the retail fees would not apply to the county's fleet of

[05:19:31] electric vehicles. We currently have four and are looking to expand as we rotate vehicles in and out of service. A brief introduction. In accordance with the climate action plan, the county wanted to increase the electric vehicle charging infrastructure available to the public. So in 2021, the county did receive a grant to install 13 charging stations at the two county office buildings. The initial project cost, including a five-year equipment lease and maintenance contract,

[05:20:05] was about $333,000. The bulk of that was paid for by a Dominion grant for $230,000, with the remaining monies coming from board-dedicated climate action funds. We installed two different types of chargers. Here's a picture of our chargers here at Cobb McIntyre. We've got level two chargers and we've got level three chargers. Level two is a 240 volt AC charger. It's a typical kind of thing you will actually find in your own home if you install an electrical vehicle outlet.

[05:20:38] Typical adds about 35 to 40 miles in about an hour, give or take, depends on the car. And our level three chargers, which are our most favorites, they're called a DC charger because they are more of a direct current than an alternating current unit. They can add about 100 miles in 30 minutes.

[05:20:54] This is where we do, most people do the bulk of the charging. They do about 80% of the charging on just these three units alone. Environmentally, we've seen over 8,000 unique drivers. I see over 50 unique drivers a day, actually.

[05:21:12] We've dispensed over 771 megawatts of electricity in the last three years. If you equate that to a greenhouse gas emission savings, it's about 528 metric tons. And for people who doesn't mean a whole lot, it comes out to very close to about 60,000 gallons of gasoline that's been saved in the last three years of operation of these units.

[05:21:38] It's proved to be a popular program, especially since it's been free to the public. Demand is increasing, give or take, approximately 10% a month every month since we've turned the power switch on. We're now averaging about 40 megawatt hours a month for all these units for an average cost of approximately $5,000 a month to the county to operate these units. And to give a perspective, an average household uses only about 900 kilowatts. So we're powering about 40, 41 homes a month in

[05:22:12] electricity usage for these units. Originally, when these units were installed, the Virginia Code Code was written such that pretty much any government agency was not allowed to assess fees for the distribution of electricity so as not to be in conflict with the public utilities.

[05:22:32] As a result, as I mentioned, the charges have been free to the public, and they have very much been enjoying that service. After we installed our units, the code was amended to allow government agencies to operate retail fee-based EV charging stations on their property.

[05:22:50] And since that time, at least three counties that I've found in the state of Virginia have elected to have EV charging fees. We've got Arlington County, Fairfax County, and Loudoun County. Pretty much everything clustered up in Northern Virginia.

[05:23:07] If you take a look, you can see each one of them has had a totally different approach to what fees are going to charge and how much. We actually looked a little bit at the Arlington and Fairfax and we kind of merged theirs when And we were kind of looking at the way we wanted to implement our program.

[05:23:26] We boiled it down. There's basically three primary costs that feed the operating costs of the EV chargers. You've got your electrical costs. We just, we run on a standard Dominion rate schedule, which can fluctuate annually depending on which riders are in effect at any given time.

[05:23:44] That costs, that's probably about 45% of the cost. Leasing maintenance fees. Currently, we have a five-year contract that came with the initial installation. So we have zero lease and maintenance fees at the moment, but that contract is due to expire in 2026.

[05:24:01] At current pricing, it's looking to be about a $4,500 a month additional cost once we renew the contract, which would add approximately $0.15 per kilowatt hour to the overall cost in a couple of years. But right now, it's been prepaid.

[05:24:17] And then there is an administrative fee from our EV service provider who is ChargePoint. They charge a flat 10% fee on all the revenue that they collect in all their transactions. If we break it down to what we're looking at, the electric rate in kilowatt hours, the cost over the last 12 months, we pretty much averaged the cost.

[05:24:40] It comes out to approximately $0.13.2 per kilowatt hour. As I mentioned, the lease and maintenance contract currently is zero, but that is going to change in a couple of years. And we do recommend taking a look at that fee annually in order to make adjustments due to cost changes.

[05:24:57] And the last fee is the charge point administrative fee. It's going to be approximately 1.5 cents per kilowatt hour for a total cost of 14.7 cents per kilowatt hour. We're also recommending, similar to Fairfax County, what's called a dwell time fee.

[05:25:13] Some people would call it an idling fee of $2 per hour, capped at $25 per session. It basically applies as soon as the battery is complete and fully charged, but the vehicle sits in the spot and it takes up the spot. We give them a 30-minute grace period to come down and move their vehicle.

[05:25:30] Otherwise, basically, this fee will go into effect. The whole purpose is to encourage turnover to allow more members of the community to be able to come down and use the chargers instead of having people just sit there for long periods of time. I did do a search around Charlottesville, give or take about five miles around the county office building.

[05:25:52] There are give or take about 80 chargers, electric vehicle chargers, that are available out there, not including Tesla chargers because they obviously, they're very specific to just Teslas. So I took a sampling just to show what kind of pricing exists currently around the county.

[05:26:09] We've got Amped Up. They serve the dairy market. They're about $1.80 per hour, which sounds good, but when you add their additional fees and convert it to a per kilowatt hour cost, get about 32 cents based upon the charges they're using now. Blink in Charlottesville charges a flat 49 cents per kilowatt hour and EVgo has a very complex pricing structure dependent on whether you're a member and what time of day it is. So their cheapest pricing is 34 cents per kilowatt hour if you're you know between midnight and 8 a.m and then it just goes up from there. So our pricing

[05:26:48] Pricing is going to be well below the local offerings. And we even predict in a couple years when the contract is up for renewal, we will still be very competitive as far as the pricing for consumers to want to go look for an electrical vehicle charge when that rate may potentially change.

[05:27:10] And our recommendation to you is we're recommending to adopt the two-part fee consisting of the $14.7 per kilowatt hour fee in addition to the $2 per hour dwell time or idle fee after a 30-minute grace period goes into effect. And that concludes my presentation. Thank you. We'll go through our order for questions. Supervisor LeCistroff. Thank you very much for an informative presentation, but I have no questions. Rosa Calloway. And this is scheduled to start July 1?

[05:27:47] That was a proposed schedule, yes. I mean, is that, like, do we have enough time? I mean, I don't know. I guess if you show up and you need to pay, you just pay for it. It doesn't seem to be a very large charge. But, you know, we'll put out education efforts and all that. Is July 1 too soon?

[05:28:03] Are we okay with letting people know? We pretty much think it's okay. However, obviously, we've been operating the way we have been for a while. It would be possible to delay that to give more time for the public to realize that there are charges potentially coming. And the notice of the one the different rates, depending on if it's peak hour or not. I'm just assuming with how small we're charging that that complexity just doesn't really matter. Yeah, our intention is just to charge a flat rate pretty much 24-7. We're not looking to make it very easy for people to see.

[05:28:41] They'll just be able to download the ChargePoint app. You can pull it up. It'll just list specifically exactly what the fees are, and then they can make their informed decision looking around the city on where they would like to come and charge your vehicles. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Pruitt.

[05:28:58] Thank you very much. I had an initial pause about the dwell time fee until I realized that it didn't even start tolling until you had the battery fully filled, which, for those of us who do not use cars, I will say from my personal experience, knowing people who do exclusively drive electric vehicles, No one fully fills their battery because it starts having diminishing returns over time as it gets close to it, is my understanding, unless they're at home.

[05:29:29] I don't think it's very common, even on a level two charger, to actually fill all the way to the top. So that gave me concern until I learned it didn't apply until you're at 100% and is my experience that most people get to 95 and go because it charges very slow from there, which is me saying, good.

[05:29:50] I think this should probably be fine to go into effect, talking to folks I know who drive electric cars and who use this site, actually, because it's a very popular site because it's free. It is more frequent that they are surprised when they show up and it does not charge them because it's showing up in all the apps, right?

[05:30:07] It is live on a ChargePoint app. You know it's there. You go to it expecting to pay those normal fees, and it doesn't. So I'm not sure that the education piece is actually a concerning thing. It's more of a happy surprise for people currently. Um, and I mean, the fees are quite minor, right?

[05:30:27] Roger McKeel. I agree. Excuse me. I agree. I think we have plenty of time to advertise because I agree with Mike. Um, and we'll send out a press release or we'll do all, work all, your, work all your magic. So I think it'll be fine. My sense is, and I could be wrong, but it seems like to me, a lot of people are parking, charging, and going to dinner downtown.

[05:30:49] You would be correct. That's what I've observed. So, um, I think it'll be fine. And this is more not a question, but just kind of a comment, maybe a statement of philosophical beliefs. But I wish we could put an idling charge on a lot of cars in our community, like the multiple cars in my neighborhood that take their kids to the bus stop for two blocks and then idle for 20 minutes.

[05:31:17] I'm just saying. And I'll probably get emails about that. But oh, well, thank you. Thank you. This is a great idea, and I'm very glad you're proposing this. Is there a timer that begins when the charge is complete?

[05:31:35] Is that how you would find out? And is it automatic through software that they get billed, or does some staff have to do so? I mean, ChargePoint has quite the data gathering for each one of the vehicles. I mean, they know who's charging, when you started, when you stopped, how much energy you took, how long you've been sitting there taking energy, not taking energy.

[05:31:54] So it's totally done by the service provider, ChargePoint. And has anybody already talked about putting a shed roof and solar panels over those things so we can generate our power to sell to people? That is not what I've heard, but it's not a bad idea. That's all I have. Thank you very much.

[05:32:12] Thank you. Yes, I'm also supportive, but next question about dwell time. I mean, I do drive an electric vehicle, and you set it to whatever level you want it to charge at. You could try to charge 200% or something else.

[05:32:27] How does it determine when the dwell time period starts? As soon as the charging unit senses that the receiving unit, the vehicle in question, is no longer taking energy, that's when the timer starts.

[05:32:45] So they can sit there, like, for instance, if you drive an electric field, you know, level two, you can sit there for four hours, and, you know, you might be half, three-quarters full. The dwell timer wouldn't have even started yet. Thank you. Mr. Chair, I have one additional question.

[05:33:02] We have a very specific prescriptive resolution in front of us with a specific rate. Does the enabling legislation actually require a vote by the legislative body every time we want to change this rate?

[05:33:21] I would have to defer to the county attorney to be more specific with that answer. A moment, please. Would you need me to repeat the question? No. So paragraph section two of the ordinance provides a mechanism for the recalculation of the rate on a fiscal year basis.

[05:33:50] So that can be done administratively without returning to the board for authorization. Thank you. Great. Thank you. With that, I will open the public hearing.

[05:34:07] Do we have a nurse? We do not. Okay. Then we do not. So I will close the public hearing. and the matter is back before the board uh any additional comments if not we're looking for a motion i move we approve ordinance number 24-a attachment a in our packet an ordinance to establish rates for county-owned electric vehicle charging stations does that work so we have a motion from supervisor mckeel a second from believe supervisor pruitt

[05:34:44] without objection if the clerk will call the roll. Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Mr. Andrews? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. Mallett? Yes. Ms. McKeel? Yes. Ms. Lutista? Kirtley? Aye. Thank you. Board, well, next to move to our Ravanna Futures zoning map amendment and special use permit. We will have two public hearings, but we will take the discussion, I believe, together as one presentation with the county as the applicant during the public hearing.

[05:35:19] Thank you. I'm Bill Fritz with the Community Development Department. And before you today, you do have two items, which, as you said, are going to be two public hearings. I'm going to present them combined. I can answer questions however you like to do that.

[05:35:34] The two applications you have before you today is a rezoning for 172 acres to go from planned residential and RA to light industry, and the other is a special use permit to allow offices in newly constructed buildings.

[05:35:51] This image shows the character of the area along with the area owned by the county. The orange line and the area to be rezoned are highlighted in blue. This image is oriented with east at the top. As you can see, the rural areas to the north and east are typical of the rural area of the county with a mixture of open and wooded areas with scattered residential development.

[05:36:14] The development along Boulders Road is the Ravana Station, and it's a mixture of office buildings. To the west, opposite Route 29, is the Briarwood development. This image shows the boundary of the area owned by the county in orange. It's the same area. The area proposed for rezoning includes area zoned PRD, which is shown in green, and RA, which is shown in white. That overlays the area that's proposed for rezoning the blue area. Access to the site is currently obtained from Boulders Road, which intersects Route 29 at a signalized intersection. As can be seen in this

[05:36:52] image, the rezone effectively consumes all of the development potential from the PRD. The proffer is proposed to limit traffic generated to 5,000 vehicle trips per day. This traffic volume is consistent with what would be anticipated from the PRD and the area recommended for residential, office, industrial, and limited commercial development in the comprehensive plan. VDOT has not recommended any transportation improvements. I'd just like to note that rezonings can be initiated in two ways. The county may initiate a rezoning or a request may be made by the property owner. Only during a property owner initiated application can

[05:37:32] proffers be accepted. This application was submitted as a property owner initiated zoning. We just happen to, the county just happens to be the property owner. Because of this, we were able to get a proffer to limit the traffic volumes. As mentioned in the last slide, some of the area currently zoned RA is recommended for residential, office, industrial, and limited commercial development. The boundaries of the comprehensive plan are general in nature, except where they follow physical boundaries such as roads or water courses. Staff has reviewed the plan and the board's past action to extend water and sewer service and is of the opinion that the area

[05:38:11] proposed for rezoning is consistent with the boundaries of the plan. There are two small areas that are outside the development area boundaries. In these two areas, the boundary follows the edge of two lakes. However, the property line goes through those lakes. I've highlighted those areas for you. I had to exaggerate the size of the circle so you could see them. No development may occur in these areas due to existing regulations. Therefore, we find no conflict with the comprehensive plan. These applications were reviewed for consistency with the criteria for rezoning consideration and the special use permit review criteria. The staff report has comments for all

[05:38:50] the review criteria, and I'd be happy to answer any questions you have about any of the findings. I'm not going to go over all the findings, but I would like to point out the part of the review that focuses on the comprehensive plan. As shown in the previous slide, a majority of the area proposed for rezoning is not shown for office, industrial, or commercial development in the land use recommendations of the comprehensive plan. The area is shown for residential use. However, the economic development portion of the plan has comments about supporting target industries.

[05:39:18] The county's purchase of this property facilitates economic development of defense and securities industries. These are target industries. The plan also directly addresses Ravana Station, noting its importance and the importance of supporting this facility. The comprehensive plan is divided into chapters, and the plan states that the order of the chapters is intentional. The economic development chapter precedes the land use chapter. Based on the ordering of the chapters, it is the opinion of staff that this rezoning support of Ravana Station and Target Industries allows for a finding that the proposed rezoning and special

[05:39:54] use permit are consistent with the comprehensive plan. Staff in the Planning Commission are recommending approval of the rezoning application with the acceptance of the proposed proffer, and staff recommends approval of the special use permit. No conditions were identified as necessary for the special use permit due to the proposed proffer. And that concludes my presentation, but I'd be happy to answer any questions that you have. Thank you. Move on through order. Supervisor Lupisto-Curtley. No questions. Thank you very much for that. Thank you. Supervisor Galloway. None at this time. Supervisor Pruitt. I don't believe I have any questions. Thank you. Supervisor McKeel. Thank you, Bill. I don't have any questions.

[05:40:31] Supervisor Malek. I'm all sad for now. Thank you. And I will save questions for the applicant. thank you so with that we will open the public hearing and uh do we have any one signed up we do okay good um we do we do we do uh in in person only or writing something

[05:41:01] so no online okay and one person okay so i will oh here we get my i will read the uh instructions During public hearings, the board will acknowledge speakers addressing the item listed for public hearing.

[05:41:28] Speakers are limited to one appearance of three minutes per public hearing item. Applicants are limited to a 10-minute presentation of their proposal and are allowed a five-minute rebuttal at the close of the public hearing. Timekeeping is conducted through a timer and light system at the podium.

[05:41:44] The green light will go on when you begin speaking, which begins your allotted time. The yellow light indicates you have one minute to finish speaking. The red light indicates your time has expired, and you will be asked to end your comments. To give all speakers equal treatment and courtesy, the board requests that speakers adhere to the following guidelines.

[05:42:02] When addressing the board, state your name, and if you live in Albemarle County, your magisterial district. Address comments directly to the board as a whole. Any written statements or other supporting material may be given to the clerk. If representing a group or organization, you may ask others present to raise their hands in recognition.

[05:42:19] Speakers may not share any unused time with another speaker. Back and forth, debate is not permitted. Do not speak from your seat or out of turn, and all comments are live-streamed, recorded, and published on the Elmore County website. And with that, our first speaker is Michael Scott.

[05:42:38] Welcome, Mr. Scott. There he comes. Got it. Thank you for coming. Good evening. I actually thought I was going to be speaking at the end of the presentation, but the... Oh, sorry. She's right. He's the applicant.

[05:42:55] We will go to the applicant first. Oh, applicant first. And then you will speak afterwards. You're right. Sorry, I called your name to advance. I reserved the balance of my time. I was eager to hear from you. It's a surprise that I have a McCloney as the applicant. I was, yeah, that's right.

[05:43:12] I was eager to hear from you. We'll start with the applicant. So we're going to let you start with your presentation. Sorry. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening, Board. Emily Kilroy, I'm the Interim Director of Economic Development, and it is a funny position to be in the applicant spot. I'm joined by J.T. Newberry, Deputy Director of Economic Development.

[05:43:29] He'll be helping me on all the technical items as we get deeper into the presentation, but thank you for your time this evening. You all know why we're here today. The board announced in May of last year that the county was under contract to purchase 462 acres of land at the end of Boulder's Road next to Ravana Station.

[05:43:49] And to the right is the vision for Y, the development of an intelligence and national security innovation acceleration campus that not only retains the existing anchor for the region's defense sector, but to provide the opportunity for it to expand and for the ecosystem of public and private partners to expand along with it. The 2D drawing on the left was translated into a three-dimensional sort of art of the possible, bring that vision to something that's more understandable to the average person on the right there, and that's what we're calling Riviana Futures, and that's why we're here today. This is a slide that we put together for the

[05:44:26] Planning Commission public hearing. We know that there's been some discussion in the community about the pace with which this application has been able to proceed through the rezoning review process. There's a few things about this project that are unique, and I'm going to take just a few moments to highlight those. First, the timeline shown here includes all the public meetings where this project has been discussed in public over the past year or so. I'm going to highlight two in particular. One was the June 21st public hearing that the board conducted to allow business and industrial development uses on the property acquired. That was an important step, a step that we had to take as part of that acquisition process. And really, it was the first articulation

[05:45:02] of the business and industrial development needs on that property. The other was the December 13th board meeting where staff identified that rezoning would be the priority coming into this calendar year. Staff have been meeting bi-weekly and then weekly with staff from community development since the fall, with several touch points dating back to when this idea first came to pass over a year ago. And in that way, community development has been consulted in a pre-app posture for a very long time, even before the formal application was made this past January. The second thing that's really notable to point out is that the county owns this land. So for the property to be sold,

[05:45:40] leased, developed, or otherwise substantially altered will require an appropriate public process. The county has an active role in this project moving forward, not just through the legislative review process, which would potentially culminate this evening. Rezoning is a critical path for this project in order to bring the land to a point where it is eligible for grant funding and a signal to partners that the county is serious about this project. So with the zoning in place, should the board choose to do so this evening, we'll be minimally eligible to apply for several state and federal grant opportunities, which will allow us to bring down, again,

[05:46:15] funding from outside of our community to help bring this vision to a reality. Finally, I'll just note the broad media coverage of this project and the vision for the development out there. This effort has not been advancing outside of the public eye, and our communications and public engagement team has been very intentional about sharing information to keep this in the public realm.

[05:46:37] I'm going to transition more towards the land use aspects here. Site acquisition activities to date, we had the real property acquisition starting with the May 23 announcement of the contract. In June, we held that public hearing to preserve all options for uses that were within this intelligence and national security innovation acceleration campus model that we're trying to pursue. We also did due diligence during the period between May and the contract acquisition closure in December to understand whether the land that was part of this vision could support

[05:47:12] that level of development out there. And then we closed on December 15th, 2023. We transitioned in January with the transition of the calendar into really the site readiness phase of the project. I'm going to tee up this final slide and then transition over to JT Newberry to talk a little bit more about the rezoning specifically.

[05:47:33] But this slide is a slide that we show to talk about the model for how we're approaching development of this property. So locally driven, state supported, federally shared. Locally driven was site control, which Albemarle County completed in 2023. site readiness is where we are today, and we're continuing to do work on our end to prepare for what site readiness ahead will look like. And again, really we're focused very hard on how to bring in state support to help advance the work ahead. And then at the same time, in parallel, building partnerships with federal and private partners to do that vertical development that

[05:48:10] will bring really the full vision to being. So this is the framework for how site readiness will occur. And I'm going to transition now to JT to talk a little bit more about what site readiness looks like. Thanks, Emily. JT Newberry, Deputy Director of the Economic Development Office.

[05:48:30] I believe this is information that the board has seen previously. Emily just talked about our local framework. This is the framework that the state uses for site readiness. And they use a tiering system that goes from tier one to tier five, where tier one is essentially raw, vacant land, and tier five would be a shovel-ready project. On the right-hand side of this slide, you can see notes around where staff estimates the land at Rivanna Futures is on this scale of site readiness. Right now, we would consider it to be about a tier two, where it's designated in

[05:49:09] the comp plan for growth, but not currently zoned as such. Should the application be successful tonight we will be very close to um if not at a tier three and the ultimate goal is to reach tier four which is a best practice uh among developers where you're you're striking the right balance of um cost benefit of preparing a site for future development but um not doing so so much that you've you've over invested in the project i think one of the more interesting things about

[05:49:42] the state system is the success odds that are noted in red. I'll try to highlight them here along with each tier. The general goal of site readiness is to impact the speed, risk, and cost of ultimate end users so that they have confidence that their future investment will pay off. And so that tier four level gets you to about a 70 to 80 percent success of being able to use the site as you anticipate and and right now we're we're under the state system looking at

[05:50:18] about less than 20 percent. So I'll quickly touch on in the last three minutes here two lines of effort that we've we've been working on since the acquisition. The first is our conceptual engineering. Emily touched on the due diligence we did prior to the acquisition but we've gone into a second phase of that due diligence, trying to understand what are the infrastructure impacts, the water, the sewer, the stormwater that will be necessary to facilitate this larger vision that we've been

[05:50:53] working from. You've heard Deputy County Executive Henry call it the art of the possible that we inherited from the state. This slide represents what our engineer visualized as a full build-out of of the site and it our entire rezoning area that's under review tonight would would facilitate this vision. The other line of effort that we've been working on is the purpose of tonight's public hearing the rezoning and special use permit requests. The applicant believes that light

[05:51:32] industry zoning with a special use permit for office would allow us to facilitate all of the uses that would be supportive of the mission of retaining Rivanna station and growing compatible uses there. And as Emily mentioned, it makes us just minimally eligible for those state and federal grant opportunities. Mr. Fritz in his presentation talked about the proffer and quickly mentioned that this level of traffic is what is currently allowed by Wright under the

[05:52:07] existing zoning. And so by providing this proffer, you know, we believe we're both mitigating the impacts anticipated by the rezoning, and it allows us to facilitate that phase one vision that we've been pursuing, that art of the possible. So the next steps from here would be to, if we were successful, pursue state and federal grant opportunities, as Emily mentioned, to bring the funds necessary to enhance our site readiness. We'll be next providing a more comprehensive

[05:52:44] update on our effort at the joint board EDA meeting in mid-August. And with that, we'll take any questions. And we'll go through the questions before taking public comment in addition. So again, Supervisor Lupisto-Curtley. No, thank you very much. I have seen this many times. Thank you.

[05:53:04] Supervisor Calloway. I don't have questions. Supervisor Pruitt. Like my peers, it's presentation I'm pretty familiar with at this point, and I have had less time to get familiar with it than they have, and I don't have any questions. Thank you. Supervisor McKeel. Just one, well, it's not really a question, but it's clarification. You all have talked about the grant process and why the timing, but there certainly is some chatter in the community, and I just want to make sure that everyone understands the timing of this and how that

[05:53:39] relates to the grant, just so everybody's clear on it. Thank you for the question, Ms. McKeel. So certainly we won't put all eggs in one basket. So we're looking at lots of opportunities to be able to bring this project to fruition and advance the initial site readiness work.

[05:53:57] One really strong match for what we're seeking to do here is the Virginia Economic Development Partnerships, Virginia Business Ready Sites Program site readiness funding. And the application for that opens this summer.

[05:54:14] We don't have a specific date, but generally that would come out in the July time frame. And that sets off a series of iterations of paper materials and then meetings. And then if there's continued interest, more paper materials and more meetings with the Virginia Economic Development Partnership staff to get towards sort of a finished review package.

[05:54:34] so we've been working really hard with community development to understand that that that is sort of our target timeline to be able to be minimally eligible to apply for that grant because if you're if you're the land that you're seeking to do site readiness work on is not zoned that is not seen by the state as as you having done really putting the skin in the game and and the due diligence piece that they're looking for to show a serious level of commitment to bringing that site online and so so we've been working towards a summer having the rezoning in place by summer to to be

[05:55:10] not only eligible but competitive in that grant process and then there are some federal deadlines in the fall time frame that also have some good opportunities we think might be a good match for the work that we're seeking to do moving forward so so the time the timing is really you know we've we've invested locally in this project and we're really excited about the the opportunity to leverage state and federal funds to continue to advance that work at speed.

[05:55:35] Thank you, Emily. I appreciate the clarity for everybody. I appreciate it. Thank you. Supervisor Malik? Thank you. I don't have any questions due to your excellent presentations, but just this image here on the screen shows all this forest, which indicates a whole lot of thinking about stewardship and how the rural area, in addition to being a distance boundary for the high security there, provides other workplace amenities for our federal partners to really have a wonderful place to work in addition to a secure place to work.

[05:56:10] Thank you. Thank you. And I have some questions I won't just hold off on until we start having a chance to hear from the public and gone. So with that, I think. All right. Mr. Scott, thank you for your patience.

[05:56:26] Your second turn to come up. Michael Scott, just introduce yourself, please. Thank you. Good evening. I'm Michael Scott. I'm with the Rio District. And I last spoke here June 21st of last year in favor of the Rivanna Station futures purchase. At that time, I said I thought it was the first time I'd ever spoken at a Board of Supervisors hearing. And I said I think it was the most forward-leaning proposal I'd ever seen in 30 years of being a resident.

[05:56:55] At that time, what I asked the board to consider was to set aside about 25% or more of the purchased land as a natural area rejuvenation zone for military veterans and first responders.

[05:57:13] That's the target community that we're talking about on Rivanna Station and adding in first responders, folks who have experienced trauma, who have experienced two decades of high operational tempo, which takes a toll on folks. And I think there's opportunity to partner with groups like the Veterans Administration, mental health providers, other service-based groups in the community, but providing that space, that land for folks to get out of nature. There's considerable

[05:57:46] studies and science behind nature-based healing to help heal the mind and soul of folks who have served us. So I'd ask that that proposal was positively received by the board last year, and I would ask that that continue to be considered outside of the zone that we're talking about tonight, but in that 462 acres. Having said that, I think that the proposal put forward tonight for rezoning is the logical next step. I don't think it's anything hasty. I

[05:58:24] think this is a unique situation where you need to have it rezoned in order to lure in those federal and state dollars. It just makes sense. It's the logical next step of the decision that was made a year ago. And I think in the concerns about, you know, oh, the county is the one proposing this and the county is the one who owns it that's where i think that that natural area setting aside that space would help address that and it would set the county the county being setting a higher bar as an example for the community that it serves so

[05:59:02] thank you for your time thank you thank you thank you thank you and that was our only speaker so board i would like to now ask that we consider other questions or or before i close the public hearing that make it come before. So Supervisor Malik. I do remember Mr. Scott reminded me of a question that I want to be sure to get on the record. I guess it's a zoning type inclusion question and that is would the zoning as proposed allow without further process for a medical clinic on the property? For a medical clinic? Right. This is something that's been frequently requested by

[05:59:36] active duty folks so they don't have to go to McGuire to get their teeth done or something. If it If it was a publicly operated one, it'd be permitted as a public use. If it were a private facility, you'd have to give me a minute to look at the list of permitted uses in the LI district.

[05:59:57] Publicly operated. So if it was part of the military operation or something, the county, that would be enough public if it was county operated. Public uses are allowed by right. On behalf of the military. Okay. Because it would be what I was, what they had asked for was particularly something for the folks who are employed there.

[06:00:14] Okay. That, I think, covers it for me. Okay. Thank you. And there are other additional questions. And my sort of broad question is if there's sort of an envisioning of what steps will come back before the board or back before the public as this process proceeds.

[06:00:36] Because we know that there's been some concern expressed by the Planning Commission and others that we don't have a site plan. They don't have quite the level of detail that a private applicant might have. But when we prove something with a private developer, we don't see it again.

[06:00:52] The county does as they review the plans, but it doesn't come back in this way. I'll answer some of the questions that I can answer from what the community development department would be doing. And if it were a public use, county public use, there would be a 2232 review compliance with the comprehensive plan.

[06:01:13] that's done by the Planning Commission, not the Board of Supervisors, but it's still a process that would go through. And then, of course, there is the site plan process. The public portion of that would be, there would be a notification of the abutting property owners, and that information's made available, and it would have to go through the review process for a site plan. And, of course, if there were any special exceptions, those would be before the Board of Supervisors, but those are unknown whether or not there would be any request at this time so does that answer your question from the community development side okay and then i'll let them answer yeah there may be public

[06:01:49] private partnership questions and things like that as well that might be addressed good evening board trevor henry deputy county executive pleasure to be in front of you talking about this great project again as as jt noted on previous slide we will be back in front of the board in a joint session with the EDA in August. We will be talking about and sharing information our engineers have been doing really in a kind of phase two work, looking at some potential phasing and a little more depth and detail that I think will be informing. As we apply for grant funding,

[06:02:26] we also will be looking at a master plan, more of a campus plan, of which would involve input from the board it would be hopefully input from our federal partners to help take that part of the possible into something more tangible our academic partners private sector so that we envision would be a very public process similar to other master plan processes that we've done in capital projects and also through community development so I imagine once we you know once we kind of move that forward this fall and into the spring there'll be multiple engagements with

[06:03:00] our board on proposals, input, some engagement, and before any finalization to what a campus plan would look like. That would then lead to site planning and further design, and we'd be following the county processes for all that. So as Emily mentioned, that is what is really unique and I think a differentiator between the county as the applicant versus all other private sector applicants is that once they're rezoned they're they're moving forward on their work and they're working through their community development process this project will likely be in front

[06:03:38] of the board on for multiple iterations over the next 10 plus years does that does that get to your answer it does and it also for example the discussion about the art of the possible there's nothing that doing this enables all of that it has to come in stages that we will all see and discuss. The only thing I would add to be to try to attempt to be a little specific because I know folks are curious about what the future will hold. I think that master or the campus planning process will give us a much clearer roadmap of what some of the possible tools moving forward, what some

[06:04:14] of the options might look like for how things progress on the ground out there. But certainly if the board were to build something that would be part of your CIP and that follows a public process. Funding to do further studies out there are all part of our budget process. It's subject to board appropriation. And so there's a lot of the public elements, the consent agenda type things in your packets, as well as presentations and public hearings that are part of how we do

[06:04:48] business here in the county. We will see this project, we will see elements of this project popping up in lots of ways here at the board as a planning commission likely with the economic development authority as we move forward the roadmap for which will really be guided by that campus plan which is our next major phase of work following this phase of work and i guess i could also add since this has already been looked at from a comprehensive plan perspective that that would also mean that you know we'll continue to look at it in terms of the climate action plan

[06:05:24] biodiversity plan the other plans that inform the comprehensive plan on on any kind of activity by the county as opposed to an activity by a private developer thank you are there any other questions one very technical one so all of the the projects with which i'm familiar so far are ongoing on the dashboard and people can go well this these type when it hits the site planning stage will those type of things under the same file number i see lots of heads nodding so that's another way where people can dial in the project number and find out for themselves what's ongoing and that'll be

[06:06:03] great thank you thank you uh with that i will close the public hearing the matter is back before the board we'll go through our order supervisor lapisto curtain no questions uh the comments or additional okay uh supervisor gallivin yeah i'll make a comment i mean uh given the just the conversation that finished i don't feel in any way that we have to defend this from a public process standpoint. I'm fully confident in the project, what we've done, and how it's transpired now. It will continue to transpire with everything that's there. I think that the angle of the

[06:06:42] conversation that was had at the PC and some others in the community is it begs the question whether or not the level of detail is appropriate and necessary for other rezoning applications, not this rezoning application. So that is probably worthy of a conversation at some point because it is one that we've heard rumblings about before, but now we have a project where bubble concept plans, you know, we're going based on almost some form-type things that we know are guided or restrictions in the county.

[06:07:17] It's on an entrance corridor. You know, we trust that those things are going to be in play. The nature of it being a public project and having other elements will constantly be back in front of the public, unlike other private applications. But when you have other applicants in the community putting forward this, and a level of detail is desired and expected and demanded in some ways, is it necessary and appropriate?

[06:07:43] And that's where I think we leave ourselves open to some criticism, not of this project, but of our normal process for other applications. So I'm certainly willing to get into that conversation. So thank you. Supervisor Pruitt? I don't believe I have any comments.

[06:08:00] Supervisor McKeel? Yeah, I don't really have any comments. I think this is a great opportunity to discuss the project and inform the public about the processes of how they work. And we've done that. Supervisor Malek? I am very pleased with the level of detail which we have available to us today and encourage the public to continue to do their homework as well because that is how we all stay informed on what's going on.

[06:08:26] And that engagement, just like Mr. Scott's ideas, will bring forth other ideas for the public that we can benefit from. Thank you. Thank you. And I'm very supportive of this as well, so I don't have any additional concerns at this stage. Then we would look for a motion on the Z&A.

[06:08:44] Screen wing. Do we have anything? One on the screen, hopefully. One coming up. There we go. I'm going to put up the motion for the rezoning.

[06:09:03] You'll need to open and close, open, hold, and close. We'll do the second public hearing after we do the first motion, I believe. We'll do the last time. We just need this motion. Call that. Yeah. But it's...

[06:09:18] There we go. Okay. All right. I move to adopt the attached ordinance, attachment D, to approve zoning map amendment, ZMA 2024, quad 02, subject to the proposed amended proffers.

[06:09:37] Excuse me, Mr. Chair. This is the wrong attachment. That's the wrong one. Sorry. I think the motion's correct, but it should refer to attachment E. Everything else is fine. Corrected. Attachment E. Second.

[06:09:53] So we have a motion from Supervisor Lupisto-Curtley, a second from Supervisor Malek. Without objection, the clerk will call the roll. Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Mr. Andrews? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. Malek? Yes. Ms. McKeel? Yes. Ms. Lupisto-Curtley? Aye.

[06:10:09] Thank you. And also the he, it should be a the. Subject to the proposed amendment offers. So at this stage, we are through the ZMA. I think it's now time to open the public hearing for the special use permit.

[06:10:25] Do we have anyone signed up to speak? We do not. Does the applicant have anything further? Then unless there's an additional comment or questions from the board, then we're looking. I'm just going to take an opportunity, Emily Kilroy, Interim Economic Development Director, just to thank the partnership of all of the staff who have worked on this project to this point and to the leadership of the board for putting us in a position to be able to do this. So thank you very much. Did you have something, Bill? Oh, okay. He was going to put this.

[06:10:59] Switch the motions. Please do that. In the meantime, I make sure I close the public hearing, which I don't think I've done properly. And so the matter is back before the board and there are no other additional questions or concerns uh this one should be attachment f i believe we're just checking to make sure so that is it's not on we're just checking to make sure so it's what's up here but it's attachment f f okay no no i'm just saying i'm i'm looking in granicus um mr chair it got it got changed after i prepared this okay so it's attachment f

[06:11:36] Okay. As in Frank. Okay, got it. I move to adopt the attached resolution attachment F to approve special use permit SP 2024-00014, subject to the proposed amended proffers.

[06:11:55] Second. A motion from Supervisor Lupisto-Hurby. Second from Supervisor McKeel. Without objection, the clerk will call the rule. Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Mr. Andrews? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. Malik? Yes. Ms. McKeel? Yes. Ms. Lapista-Kirtley? Aye.

[06:12:12] Great. Thank you. Thank you for all your work on this project. It's exciting. So we look forward to hearing more about it as it progresses. Board, this brings us to our final public hearing for an ordinance to amend County Code Chapter 2 Administration to increase the compensation of the Board of Supervisors.

[06:12:33] I believe this is going to be led by our county attorney, Mr. Steve Rosenberg. I'm going to pinch hit Chair Andrews for Jessica Rice, who I understand is a little under the weather this evening.

[06:12:51] So bear with me. The members of the board, other than Mr. Pruitt, will remember last year we did a rather deep dive on this subject.

[06:13:09] And we talked about the fact that there are two different methods by which the Board of Supervisors can consider changes to its compensation. And it has been the longstanding practice of this board to follow the process which allows the board to make annual adjustments based on an inflation factor.

[06:13:42] The other process, which the board consciously decided not to adopt last year, affords an opportunity to provide larger increases that take effect for the next board.

[06:14:01] So I'm just reminding you that we had that discussion last year. there was a decision by the Board of Supervisors to maintain the use of the longstanding process by which the Board adjusted its compensation annually based on an inflation factor.

[06:14:21] Under the state code, that can only occur by action of the Board between May 1st and June 30th of each year. So we have a situation, and historically it's been the case that the Board of Supervisors has received the same inflationary adjustment as county staff. So currently, we have a circumstance in which county staff received a two percent cost of living adjustment effective as of January 1st

[06:14:56] of 2024, and that could not be provided to the Board of Supervisors at that time because it did not fall within the May 1 through June 30 window. So the item before you today is an ordinance for your consideration to adjust board salaries by that same 2% that county staff received as of

[06:15:27] January 1st of 2024 because we are now in the window between May 1st and June 30th to take effect as of July 1st. And so if the board, after the public hearing, approves or adopts the ordinance, it would increase board salaries by 2%, and that's the same 2% that staff receive

[06:15:54] as of January 1st, taking board salaries from $19,803 to $20,199 in fiscal year 25. And it also provides for an increase in the stipends for the chair and the vice chair. In the case of the chair, from $1,800 to $1,836, and for the vice chair, from $600 to $612. So it's very

[06:16:26] straightforward. The budget that you all have already adopted and the appropriation that you've already made includes funds sufficient to fund these increases. So the matter is now before you for public hearing and consideration of the ordinance. Thank you. Does anyone have any questions of Mr. Rosenberg? And I will open the public hearing. Do we have anyone signed up?

[06:16:59] We do not. So I will close the public hearing and the matter is back before the board. Any additional comments. Supervisor Lopisto-Kirtman? No, I have no comments, and I, you just want comments. Okay, and I am supporting the 2%, same as staff. Okay. Supervisor Gallin? Yeah, no comment.

[06:17:20] Supervisor Pruitt? I'm supportive of the 2% to lockstep with staff. I've also expressed this previously. I don't think this is the year to grapple with this, but I am, I have an appetite for us exploring next year and the following year the alternate pathway.

[06:17:38] I don't think we are compensating supervisors enough if we want it to be treated as an actual part-time job. I think this is roughly commensurate to what the pay should be. If we were literally only spending the time that we are in meetings and reading books, preparing for meetings, that about tracks to what that pay should be.

[06:17:58] If you want us to do constituent services, if you want us to be out there in the community, if you want us to dig into issues proactively, I'm not sure that this is reflective of that, and I'm not sure it helps us have a diverse board. Thank you. Supervisor McHugh. I agree with Mike, but I am comfortable with supporting this right now. Thank you. Supervisor Malek. Yes, I'm supportive of this at this level. I think aligning with staff has been a comfort value that I have, but I was, it is interesting. I think this is the first year that I can remember it being explained when there's been a delay because normally it's taken effect when the staff

[06:18:35] got their raise in the past so maybe this is the first time where staff had a raise in january and others did not so anyway i was glad to hear that explanation that it didn't begin at the same time yeah i appreciate the explanation because it also sort of gets past the idea that people think oh why didn't you do it when you didn't discuss in the budget you know we didn't try to sneak it in it's just the way it's required to be done so thank you i think it was actually discussed in the budget. It was discussed. True. It's been discussed. It's just not done at that time. Thank you for that clarification as well. Then we are looking for a motion, and I believe it's attachment

[06:19:13] A. I'd be glad to do it. I move that we approve the ordinance to amend County Code Chapter 2 administration to increase the compensation on the Board of Supervisors. Do I need the amount? attachment that's fine attachment attachment attachment a second a motion from supervisor lapisto-kirtley a second from supervisor malik without objection if the clerk will call the roll mr pruitt hi mr andrews yes mr galloway yes ms mallet yes ms mckeel yes ms lapisto-kirtley hi thank you board uh our next item is from the board committee reports and matters not listed

[06:19:49] on the agenda so uh supervisor lapisto-kirtley i will say that we had our first um uh fire Rescue Foundation meeting yesterday. Yes, it went very well and we're moving on getting everything together. The MOA will be coming up and it does take time to form a foundation, but it is in the process and everyone's very excited. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Galloway. Just to note that we knew it as Safe Streets for All. It is now being called Move Safely Blue Ridge. They have

[06:20:25] been doing some public some public outreach so tonight i believe they were in louisa county i believe they were here last night in the county office building so each of the jurisdictions are receiving public comment you know folks coming out and doing kind of a which we've seen in like comprehensive plan type of meeting so that's that's ongoing at the at the at the moment so if as those reach out if there's further requests for public input i have encouraged them to let the CAC folks know because that's a good spot to push information like that out. Thank you.

[06:21:01] Thank you. Supervisor Pro. Trying to think what even public meetings I've attended on behalf of the board since we last met. It's not been, it's been but one. I guess the only thing I would highlight is that the regional affordable housing conference is on the horizon. I actually don't have the date in front of me. I was just trying to find it. Supervisor Galloway, I don't suppose you know that called? It's in March. It's usually in the final week of March of 2025.

[06:21:29] It's in spring. Supervisor McKeel. No, just a comment or a recognition that the minutes we passed today were from September of 2022. 75 pages. They were two years, almost approaching two years. Just to point out that we need to, at some point. I think there's good news coming on Yeah, and I'm sure there is.

[06:21:54] I'm just saying. Supervisor Malek? Nothing today. Thank you. And just to address that, I believe that, you know, we've been going through the process of hiring someone. Yeah, and we had that discussion during our retreat. Ward?

[06:22:11] Unless there's anything further from the county executive, just please. So, Mr. Chair, just a second. Periodically after we have staff presentations, I will go to the hall behind Lane Auditorium because I want to speak to the presenter. And I did this tonight with Mr. Mowry from the Facilities and Environmental Services Department when he did the presentation on the electric charging stations.

[06:22:34] And when I went into the hallway, the entire Facilities and Environmental Services team was circled around him and they were all patting him on the back and telling him what a good job he did. I inquired as to how I obviously bragged on the entire team.

[06:22:51] And they had a mock board meeting last week with board members and staff to get him ready for this evening. I don't know who played which board member. That's what I was going to ask. I want to know who played who. I know how this board thinks, and I know you're going to want to know later who got matched up with who, but I can't be more proud of our staff who work so hard behind the scenes to make things like this go really well.

[06:23:16] I think that that was Mr. Mallory's first time in front of the board, and they went the extra step to be prepared, to be prepared for questions. Of course, they had their PowerPoint reviewed, edited. Of course, the board, you know we make mistakes and we're apt to make mistakes.

[06:23:35] But they did the measure twice and cut once. And then the camaraderie that they had in the hallway, being so happy for Kai that it went so well, it was really a cool moment to watch. And so I wanted to share that with the board because I thought we had a minute. And I had no idea that that amount of preparation went on behind the scenes.

[06:23:52] So I want to share that with the board. That's great. Preparation pays off. That seems so smooth and well done. So thank you. Board, we will adjourn. Our next regularly scheduled meeting is on Wednesday, July 17th, 2024 at 1 p.m. in Lane Auditorium.

[06:24:11] As indicated on our calendar, it's updated in January. We have no meeting on the first Wednesday in July this time. Opportunities for the public to access and participate in this meeting are posted on the Albemarle County website, on the Board of Supervisors' homepage, and on the Albemarle County calendar. Participation will include the opportunity to comment on those matters for which comments from the public will be received.

[06:24:31] Good evening. Good evening. That sounds like...

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