Coraggio Consulting Albemarle County Board of Supervisors Regular First Meeting, Wednesday, October 2, 2024 Date: Wednesday, October 2, 2024 Place: Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, Virginia Length: 6h 9m (video) Official meeting video (Granicus): https://albemarle.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=1&clip_id=1142 Official agenda: https://albemarle.granicus.com/AgendaViewer.php?view_id=1&clip_id=1142 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [00:00:00] the effort. I'm pleased to call to order this regular meeting of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors on the 2nd of October 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-Curtley of the Rivanna District, Supervisor Diantha McKeel of the Jack Jewett District, Supervisor Ned Galloway of the Ryo District, Supervisor Ann Malick of the Whitehall District, and myself, Jim Andrews, representing the Samuel Miller District. Quorum is present. We also are joined by our county Executive, Mr. Jeff Richardson, our Interim County Attorney, Mr. Andy Herrick, our Clerk, [00:00:35] Ms. Claudette Burgerson, and our Senior Deputy Clerk, Mr. Travis Morris. Also, let me please welcome and thank our Albemarle County Police Officers, President Sergeant Matthew Riley and Senior Police Officer Christian Hernandez. We thank you for your service today and every day on behalf of the people of Albemarle County for our safety and security. If you'll all now please stand and join us as you are able for the Pledge of Allegiance. [00:00:59] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice. [00:01:20] Thank you. Please now join us in a moment of silence. [00:01:49] On board, our first order of business, of course, is to adopt the final agenda. I have not heard of any suggested changes, so we're looking for a motion to adopt the final agenda. So moved. Second. We have a motion from Supervisor Malik and a second from Supervisor McKeel. [00:02:04] Without objection, if the clerk will call the roll. Ms. Malik? Yes. Ms. McKeel? Yes. Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Mr. Andrews? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. Lapisto-Kirtley? Aye. Thank you. Board, we're going to move to item five, which is our brief announcements by board members. [00:02:21] Before we start, I just want to note that we will be having an update on storm matters from the county executive at the 6 p.m. hour. Of course, we also have the pleasure of having BDOT's representative, Carrie Shepard, here later this afternoon, so we'll get some updates from that as well. [00:02:39] But we'll go through order with announcements. First, Supervisor McKeel. I'll take a pass today. Thank you. Supervisor Pruitt. I want to begin just by acknowledging that everyone up here on the dais recently came from a lovely event in the Scottsville district, where we were joined by the governor and some of his team to announce the expansion of a really impressive locally owned and run scientific manufacturing outfit, Afton Scientific, that's going to be bringing in a lot more what we might call new-collar jobs. [00:03:10] These are good-paying jobs in the tech and manufacturing space that do not require a college degree but do help lean into our really amazing workforce development capabilities that we have here in the county. And it was a great event, and I'm thrilled about this opportunity for partnership between our economic development team and between the state. [00:03:31] Additionally, I would like to remind people right after that, you know what I went and did? I went by the county offices on 5th Street to go vote. I was unable to vote because I forgot to bring my ID, and I chose not to do an attestation, which is an option if you do not have an ID. But early voting is ongoing and will continue to be ongoing. [00:03:51] We have a sticker up here at the dais from Vice Chair McKeel, who voted, I believe, yesterday, but she's still got the sticker. You can keep that sticker. You can wear it on Election Day if that's the thing you're squirreled up about. So please, everyone, go out and go vote. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Galloway. I'll just mention that I was pleased last evening the VIA Centers for Neurodevelopment had a screening of the documentary in a different key at the Paramount last night. [00:04:16] If you haven't had a chance to see this documentary, it's about individuals with autism. It gives a wonderful history. case studies, et cetera. I came away from that learning a whole lot. It was just very impactful. So I appreciate the fact that they hosted that screening. And again, if you just haven't had a chance to catch it, it's called In a Different Key. Highly recommend. Thank you. Thank you. [00:04:40] Professor McEastle-Kirtley. Yes. And in addition to what else is going on, we have COVID and the flu that is going around so just to let everyone know you can actually get four free covid tests by going to covid tests with an s dot gov covid tests dot gov they will send you four free covid tests now you're going to look at them and you're going to say the expiration date is it's out of date but there's a little paper that goes with it and you can check to see because they are extending the life of these COVID tests. [00:05:19] The other thing I wanted to report is October 4th at Darden Town, the Peabody School is doing plantings. The children are doing plantings. They're not planting monarchs. [00:05:35] They're actually planting. They actually have plants, pollinator plants, and they've been doing it all week. and I think October 4th is the last day. Between 8.30 and 10, they'll be doing plantings of pollinators. [00:05:52] So congratulations to the Peabody School. Thank you. Supervisor Malik. Thank you very much, and I will take all of everybody else's time that they did not use. Thank you. So many correspondents over the last week of the horrific news and images all up and down the eastern half of the country regarding the hurricane has brought several constituents to thinking about how we need to do a really good job on our waterways and our stream buffers. So as flooding occurs in Albemarle and throughout Appalachia, this can be a moment to really take notice of where we could be making improvements [00:06:29] to help prevent future situations that create life or death danger, damage property, and require expensive repairs to infrastructure. And we have time now as we're working on our comp plan and other zoning issues for true consideration with all of this storm damage in our mind. [00:06:48] Some damage, some disasters certainly cannot be avoided, but we can make flooding situations worse or better with good policy. I look forward to the adoption, consideration and adoption of the Ravarian Buffer Overlay District and other ordinances and the comprehensive plan which can take these into consideration as we talk about climate. [00:07:10] Very much to the current day, I wanted to give a few reports on the RBC Ravanna River Basin Commission meeting last Friday, the 27th, at Carver. More than 100 participants were present and talked about, received, heard updates about the Ravanna River Corridor Plan, and also had discussions and questions. [00:07:31] The Ravanna River was the first designated scenic river in Virginia, more than 50 years ago. Lisa Wittenborn of the Ravana Conservation Alliance reported on the health of the river and with 22 years of data certified by the Department of Environmental Quality. [00:07:46] Tim Patilino gave a fantastic presentation of the parks and trails and outdoor recreation in Amaral County and the focus for Phase 3 of the Corridor Plan. The inventory coming of cultural and historic areas, sensitive ecological areas, and determinations of the best places where future human access without environmental damage might be done. He talked about progress on the Old Mills Trail extension to Milton along the north side of the river and the donated easements in process. The Brook Hill River Park is shovel ready and ready for funding [00:08:22] from outside sources or some here and it will be the northern entry port point to the Ravana Blueway, 17 miles of river south to Buck Island on the Flaavana border. And the Cobb family had the largest Black-owned farm, the Buck Island Farm, and they will be working with the family to record that and to have mention of that at the park as it's developed down there. Chris Ritter is the destination manager at the Convention and Visitors Bureau, and he talked about outdoor recreation [00:08:57] and the national 4% increase annually during COVID, along with a dramatic increase in diversity among outdoor recreation visitors in our region. Courtney Kacation talked about the CVB strategic plan and that the river park system was the highest long-term game changer for visitors. [00:09:17] The master plan included outreach conducted by SIR from Richmond, resulting in data supporting the county focus on natural resource protection. Eighty-four percent of visitors from this report want outdoor recreation, and the number one asset in Elmall County was recorded to be Natural Beauty Scenic Roads Historic Properties Outreach Assisted by Virginia Tourism Council Corporation. [00:09:43] Next, October 6th is the new date. It was postponed from last Saturday for the Riverwalk and Ice Cream Social from Riverview Park North to River and River Company. So there is time to register for that and you can do that through the PDC website and it will be shuttled back to your car if you're able to do that. [00:10:02] Next, October is Wine Month for more than 40 wineries in Albemarle County are major contributors to the Wine Region of the World Award in 2023 and have been awarded multiple entries in the governor's case every year and have had multiple winners of the governor's cup. [00:10:20] The direct 1% local sales tax revenue annually to Albemarle in 2023 was $6.2 million. The indirect impact of that 4.5% extra that goes to the state, as well as the benefits of employment, purchases of supplies in this agriculture sector, all happening locally, and the expenses of the operation, far greater impact than that $6 million. [00:10:47] In addition to contributing to tourism and the more than $900 million in visitor revenue for the region, the enjoyment for our local residents who can gather and listen to music at the wineries, that all contributes to our quality of life. And lastly, November, and I want to get head start on this so people can order things. [00:11:08] November is the month to display our green lights on porches and fences in honor of our veterans. Photos of the, oh, here we go. There's the picture of the beautiful green spotlights that county staff set up on the county office building last year, and hopefully they can rummage in their closets and find those again because November 1st will be the day to turn them on. [00:11:28] And the reason for the Operation Greenlight is to raise awareness of the increased services available through the VA and local agencies for our veterans and active-duty soldiers and their families of all ages. I invite businesses to decorate your storefronts and offices with green lights on strings or, as the COB has done, with green spotlights. [00:11:50] Last year, throughout the county, on rural roads and in towns and neighborhoods, I saw citizens displaying these green lights for their veteran neighbors. Let's do it again. Thank you very much. Thank you. Obviously, we'll have a chance to talk later about some of the things going on with the storms, But, you know, it can't go without saying that there have been tremendous efforts by many to help people in their neighborhoods, help people on their roads where they're in trouble. [00:12:21] And I've seen a lot of this, particularly in the community of Batesville, where I've been particularly impressed with the work that's been done to take care of things there. And, of course, just in time, because I want to shout out again for the Batesville Apple Butter Festival coming up on October 12th and 13th. [00:12:39] And I hope that we can get things in shape there for making sure things can go off without a hitch. Thank you all. Are there any other announcements? If not, we will turn to our next item, which is proclamations and recognitions. [00:12:55] We had the green light on the county office building a minute ago, but now we can look out in the audience and see green very happily. So I believe Supervisor Malik has a proclamation recognizing National 4-H Week. [00:13:11] Thank you very much. It's an honor to read this, having had children in the organization many, many decades ago. Proclamation recognizing National 4-H Week. Whereas October 6th through 12th, 2024, is National 4-H Week in the United States, and more than 1,800 students ages 5 to 19 are involved in 4-H in Albemarle County and Charlottesville City alone. [00:13:35] Whereas Virginia Cooperative Extension System conducts 4-H programs throughout the state, land-grant universities, Virginia Tech, and Virginia State, with the mission to help young people acquire knowledge, develop skills, and form attitudes which will help them become self-directed, productive members of society. [00:13:52] And whereas 4-H addresses issues facing youth wherever they live, in inner cities, suburbs, rural communities, it helps break down barriers by focusing on learning by doing, building self-esteem, leadership, and citizenship skills, and focus on critical issues such as protecting the environment and provide programs on food and nutrition, science and technology, natural resources, substance abuse prevention, animal and plant sciences, career education, community pride, citizenship, and leadership. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that we, the Albemarle County [00:14:28] Board of Supervisors, do hereby recognize Sunday, October 6th through Saturday, October 12th, 2024, as National 4-H Week, and encourage community youth and families to participate fully in the wide range of available programs and activities Albemarle slash Charlottesville 4-H provides. [00:14:46] Signed this second day of October 2024 by Jim Andrews, Chair. That's our motion. We have a motion from Supervisor Malik, a second from Supervisor McKeel. Without infection, the clerk will call the roll. Ms. Malik? Yes. Ms. McKeel? Yes. Mr. Pruitt? [00:15:01] Aye. Mr. Andrews? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. Lapisto-Kirtley? Aye. Thank you. And I believe we have not only members present, but Mr. Sam Leach is here to accept us as Extension Agent for Youth Development from the Virginia Cooperative Extension. [00:15:21] and you're joined by Sarah Brown. She's our new outreach specialist. Step forward to the microphone and thank you. Welcome. Thank you all for having us today. It's a pleasure to be here. We've brought in several of our youth as well as volunteers and parents with us today. [00:15:41] And we just want to thank you all for your support of our programs, especially our paid salaries, both full and partial. Those mean a lot to us And we're able to cover more ground and serve more youth in our communities that way. So thank you all for everything that you do as well. [00:15:57] Very good. Thank you. And I will ask whether there are comments from the dais, Supervisor McKeel. Thank you for being here. And it's always lovely to see young people in our audience. We really appreciate you being here. It does strike me as I'm reading your goals that many of them really are critical for us during these times. [00:16:22] When you look at critical issues such as protecting the environment, providing programs, I won't go through the list, but the 4-H really is a great organization to help our children, no matter what age, to help us in the future solve some of these problems. [00:16:45] Because we're facing lots of problems with the environment right now. And so we really thank you for your work, and we thank you for participating in the 4-H. Thank you. thank you supervisor approved when i was first running for the board something that i thought about a lot and focused on is what makes people as they age want to stay where they live versus want to move somewhere else um and i think really the key to wanting to stay where you live is caring about your community caring about your neighbors and having that connection and especially [00:17:21] when you live you know further out in a rural area it ain't always easy to know even who your neighbor is, because they might be a few miles down the road. And as a country, I think we're atrophying a lot of these organizations that help you really invest in your local community, really invest in your neighbors. 4-H is such an amazing way that people, right from the jump, still as young people, can get that experience, can get to know people who they might live near, who they might not otherwise see down the road, get to know what side of the issue is actually affecting the physical soil of where they grow up in and how they can be part of that solution [00:17:58] i think it's an extraordinary organization it helps build that kind of texture that fabric of community that's essential to having you know a community of people a culture that lasts that wants to stay here that wants to give back to outmorrow county so thank you for the work i'll do thank you thank you super professor gallant um thank you i appreciate you all being here i just want to commend all of the young people here, because in an age where these can really take our focus, I think when I think of the 4-H, it's hands-on knowledge and skills, but then it's also different age groups working with younger folks as they continue through the different programs. [00:18:39] I just commend you that you have an interest to want to use your spare time and free time to do those types of things, because to the points that have been made prior to my chance to speak, that hands-on skills and knowledge is what's going to eventually lead to the solutions that they are driving at. So well done, and keep at it, and again, thank you all for being here today. [00:19:00] Thank you. Supervisor LePiesto-Curtley? So impressed with all of you. Thank you for being a member of 4-H. Some of the terms in this proclamation that really resonated with me were building self-esteem, leadership, citizenship skills, And the number one, learning by doing. [00:19:20] And that's what you're doing. And I think that I highly commend you for being part of such a great organization. In 1800, between Charlottesville and Albemarle, that's incredible. Yeah, those are going to be future voters. I like that. But I really thank you very much for being a part of such an important organization that touches all of our lives. [00:19:46] And I commend the parents, the supervisors that are over you, that are supporting you in doing this. Because without their help, you probably wouldn't be able to do it. Can we ask them to stand and just, you know, would you just all stand up, all the members there? [00:20:06] I notice there's someone in kind of an off-green shirt. I just don't know if that was a washing error or if you've aged out. So, in any case, thank you for being here. [00:20:22] Supervisor Mallett. Thank you. It was such an honor to read this proclamation and to recognize all of you, both very young and adults as well, who help. In the 1980s, my nine-year-old daughter attended meetings in a neighbor's kitchen in Earliesville and ended up taking her heifer to show at the State Fair in Richmond in the Gettysire class with Polt Herefords. [00:20:45] The experience across so many different topics, as the proclamation mentions, are survival skills. What happens when we don't have those cell phones? You need to know how to use a screwdriver. You need to know how to build things and measure things, measure twice and cut once. Those kinds of hands-on experiences that you all have now and are getting every day. Taking care of your animals. During COVID, people who really suffered most were people who did not have outdoor responsibilities and have to get out and take care of animals because it helped to put all those stresses in perspective. [00:21:18] So having that variety of activities that you adults are helping them to have is really important for Lifetime. And thank you very much. I'm going to run this down to you. Thank you. [00:21:42] And I really appreciate you all being here and what you do. 4-H was a big part of my community when I was growing up. Head, heart, hands, health. Got it. Obviously, this is, you know, I hope something very meaningful for you growing up as as you work through this so thank you for being here thank you again for having us appreciate it have a great day thank you board this brings us to matters from the public matters on the agenda [00:22:21] but not listed for public hearing or on matters previously considered by the board or matters that are pending before the board do we have anyone signed up to speak we do not perfect then board we can now move to the consent agenda and again i'm not aware of any interest in pulling any items from the consent agenda if not then do we have a motion to accept a consent adopt a consent agenda so moved second okay we have a motion from supervisor McKeel second from supervisor Lapisto-Kirtley without objection if the clerk will call the roll Ms. Malik yes Ms. [00:22:56] McKeel yes Mr. Pruitt aye Mr. Andrews yes Mr. Galloway yes Ms. Lapisto-Kirtley aye Thank you, Mort. Our two action items for this afternoon. First one being both homestays. First one being SE 2024-1, 1234 Carter Street homestay. And this is being presented by Francis McCall, Deputy Zoning Administrator. Welcome. [00:23:25] All right. Thank you, Chair Andrews, Board of Supervisors. I am Francis McCall, Deputy Zone Administrator. We're here today to go over the special exception 2024-1 for a homestay at 1234 Carter Street in Crozet. [00:23:51] The applicant is requesting two special exceptions, one for a resident manager on the parcel, and another to increase the number of permitted guest rooms from two to three. The parcel is a half-acre in size, zoned R2 residential, and owned by the Square LLC. [00:24:13] The parcel does contain one single-family dwelling with living quarters in the basement for a resident manager and three bedrooms on the primary level. So as kind of an overview, again, of what is by right within this particular district, The residentially zoned parcels are permitted to have the homestays up to two guest sleeping spaces within the single-family dwelling. [00:24:43] The applicant, the Square LLC, is requesting exceptions for the number of the permitted guest rooms and the owner occupancy. The property previously applied for a homestay special exception to increase the number of permitted guest rooms and waive the residency requirement for a homestay, meaning that the property would not be the primary dwelling for anyone. That request under SE 2021-32 was denied in November of 2021. [00:25:20] So since that time, the property owner has renovated the basement of the structure and added living space for a resident manager. The owner has been renting out both the upstairs and downstairs as long-term rentals for 30 days or more, but has noted they prefer to do short-term rentals in the primary level and install a residential agent in the basement living area as noted in attachment b of the packet the confirmation of resident agency residency will be verified during the home state clearance process when staff visits the site and inspects [00:25:57] the property for building and fire safety compliance as well as residency manager occupancy This aerial shows the entrance to the basement living space, as well as the off-street parking areas dedicated to the homestay and the resident agent. [00:26:18] The Square LLC additionally owns multiple parcels abutting the parcel addressed in this application, including vacant parcels and long-term rental properties. These are views of some of the surrounding area. [00:26:36] The Crozet Post Office is located across the street. Residential partials and vegetation are located to the rear and sides of the property. Again, here's another picture of the entrance of the resident manager's entrance. [00:26:57] It's currently in the final stages of the building permit renovations for those living quarters in the basement. The final inspection of the living quarters is the only remaining step to bring the property into compliance with the zoning. [00:27:13] and it also is in compliance with the taxation requirements. So in summary, the request, again, is to permit the resident manager to fulfill the residency requirements for a homestay and to allow an increase in the number of guest rooms from two to three. [00:27:32] So as such, looking at the use of a homestay based on the property itself and the use in the greater context of the neighborhood permitting a resident manager and an increase in guest rooms from 2 to 3 on the parcel at 123 Carter Street does not violate any of the special exception factors. [00:27:52] As the parcel would remain a full-time residence and a resident manager would be required to be on-site during rentals, staff does not believe that there would be any adverse impacts to the surrounding neighborhood or general public health, safety, or welfare. [00:28:11] The homestay use itself is a by-right accessory use to the primary dwelling on the parcel and is considered consistent with the comprehensive plan. The already existing structure proposed for use as a homestay is consistent with size with the surrounding neighborhood. [00:28:31] So as such, staff is recommending with the following motion for your action. Thank you. Take any questions. Thank you. We will go through our order with questions. Supervisor McKinnon. I had a couple of questions, but it was really about the basement. [00:28:49] And I think your picture answered my first question, which was, does it have a separate entrance? And it looks like it does. Yes. Yeah, I just didn't see it in the, maybe I missed it in the information. And I guess a follow-up question to that, Frances, is when we're in, and not for this particular one, because I see that there are windows and a door. [00:29:15] But when the fire department and we're inspecting these applications and folks are staying in basements, I would assume that part of our inspections would be to look for windows and doors so that people have access to get out in case of a fire. [00:29:36] I believe that maybe part of what we might look like, if that were to happen, we probably would get the fire rescues, give us any advice in that respect. In this particular case, they're renovating that, so buildings looking at the permit already, they're doing those. [00:29:53] But for the most, if my understanding is correct, and Lisa can help me here, but we're looking for the interconnected smoke alarms and things like that to make sure that if one goes off, everybody knows, and that's a big part of that fire rescue, which we actually do ourselves as far as our code enforcement folks. [00:30:16] I don't think we get fire rescued unless there are some issues that we do need to have them weigh in on. I see Lisa's pulling up to the mic. Lisa Green, manager of code compliance. In this particular case, yes, the basement has a building permit, so all of those fire safety regulations for the use of that as a residence is inspected by the building officials to make sure that it's safe and has the requirements for it to be a residential dwelling. [00:30:46] Yeah, and not so much for this because I see this is fine, but I would hope that as we're approving what you all are talking about happens every time because there have been real tragedies when people were in basements, specifically underground. This one is above ground, at least partially above ground, but those underground basements where people find themselves trapped. [00:31:08] One of the things that we do when we look at these is to make sure that they have a building permit and that it is looked at for safety. And then part of the homestay inspection is the code compliance officer, and they are looking for the building safety and fire safety. [00:31:29] And Frances is correct that part of that inspection looks at the interconnected fire. There's a list. The interconnected fire alarms, fire extinguishers, and different things like that. [00:31:45] And an evacuation route map has to be posted. Thank you. That's helpful. You've informed me. I think after this last week, we're all looking at situations where people would need to be necessary to get out quickly. In this case, it would be a fire, but there could be other more natural events that would cause someone to need to evacuate quickly. [00:32:09] So thank you very much. I appreciate the information. Thank you. Supervisor Pruitt. Help me. I want to make sure I'm fully understanding when some of these special exceptions attach and are triggered with the bedroom requirement. If the short-term rental is listed as an aggregate pricing rather than pricing them to individual and discreet, like three individuals who are asking to do a short-term rental, if it is just this is the amount to use the entire upstairs, would that still trigger the special exception because of [00:32:48] just the number of bedrooms that that's correct yeah if they the aggregate was two they do this by right all day long you know if they with proper application but if they want to ask for three and be able to utilize three then yes but if the applicant basically just locked one of these doors it uh so in take two hypotheticals one in which both in which they are renting the entire upstairs but one of which they are locking one of the doors in the second one that is when they would [00:33:26] not require a special exception that's a particular situation we'd probably have to see and do the evaluation during their application to see if that actually would meet the muster if the room is actually still there but they're locking it I'm not sure if that's that may just be an interpretation but I don't don't know that just yet as far as how we would make that call as far as you have the space, so we're going to say that you have three, so you need the special exception or let you lock it. We can't be there when they're unlocking or unlocking, so more than likely it's going to lean towards [00:34:03] get the special exception. Thank you. I appreciate this. I know the board has been grappling with these exact things coming before them for many, many years. I've only had the nine months so far, so I'm still trying to make sure I understand how all of the rules get actually executed in practice. I appreciate it. [00:34:20] Thank you. Supervisor Calloway. Thank you, Mr. McCall. It seems in the past when we've approved resident managers, they've either been the owner or there's already that person identified and on site. This is, and I may not have thought of this before, but it seems like this is the first one where, do they have a resident manager identified? [00:34:39] I don't know that for sure from Mr. I know Ms. Brumfeld has been the one that has, she's just out this week. So she's been in most of that communication with staff, and I think there are a few others. But I don't know that for sure. I guess my concern or my point would be a resident manager has some responsibility here. [00:34:57] It just can't be a long-term rental to satisfy allowing the homestay. The resident manager isn't necessarily the responsible agent. They should probably be the responsible agent, but I guess the way it's written, it's not necessarily required that they both be that or be the same person. [00:35:17] But I just want to make sure that if we're approving a resident manager that's not already identified, isn't an owner of the property, and the person coming in, this isn't, like I said, just like signing a lease for a year, that there's added responsibilities here that would have to be. [00:35:33] How do we handle that? Yeah, so I believe the Square LLC, Mr. Stevens, he is the responsible agent. And he's the one that lives within the area and does the – but it's the occupancy, having the house being used as a dwelling. [00:35:51] And that's all the requirement technically is for that resident. If that's a resident manager and they're actually managing it as well, that's fine. But it's being used as a dwelling. That's the primary use, and then you have the accessory uses. It's just not the owner that is the resident living and using the property at the moment. [00:36:12] So is this a homestay, this particular one, where the person needs to be on site at all times while the homestays are in place? I believe so. So if that's not the responsible agent, that would have to be the resident manager. So the responsibility isn't just living there. [00:36:28] You've got to be on site. You can't take your own vacation if the house is being put out. So, I mean, that's the type of stuff I'm wondering about. So that is correct. So at the time, so right now, the process is they're looking to see if they can get a special exception to do this. If approved, then the homestay zoning clearance application will go forward. [00:36:49] Part of that application review is to identify that resident manager who will occupy that basement, and that will be the resident manager. And it is a part of that review of that application before that application can be approved. So we would not approve that without that responsible agent being named so that we know. [00:37:10] And resident manager. And resident manager. And, yes, that has been part of the communication that this would have to be the person acting as a resident manager would be a responsible agent and be on site at the time of rent. Thank you. [00:37:26] That's all right. Thank you. Thank you very much. I just have a couple of questions. The downstairs basement has a building permit, correct? That's correct. But it's not completed yet? There's no CO? [00:37:42] That's my understanding at the moment. It's waiting for that final inspection to do all the, so that it can have a CO. Okay, is that imminent or could that take weeks or months? I don't know that right off the top of my head. I didn't check the actual dates. It's up to them to actually request the final inspection. [00:37:59] So it's really have they done all the work and then call for that final inspection. And correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me like we're approving something, we're giving an okay to something that isn't finished yet. You know, there's no certificate of occupancy. Well, for the main house there is. [00:38:17] It's just the renovations of the basement. Right, but the renovations of the basement, that is the whole premise of this, where a resident manager can live there. But it would be possible for you to, you know, again, the homestay zoning clearance would not be approved without the finalization of this building permit to make sure it has a CO and can be occupied. [00:38:44] Okay. I mean, there's a large part of finalizing permits and the checklist and making sure everything is done before the homestay application zoning clearance. The actual document that says the homestay can actually go here would be approved. [00:39:04] And I believe we've seen this multiple times where the applicants have wanted to get the assurance that they could do something before they actually apply for their clearance. So if they apply for it and they've paid for all and done all the inspections and then say they want to do something, then it's kind of a waste of their time so that they don't feel like that they would want to do that. [00:39:26] So they're asking for these exceptions beforehand. Yes, it stays there, but if they can't meet everything else, then we're not going to actually grant the actual clearance for the homestay. Okay, well, that answers that. Thank you. I appreciate that. And I know, depending, I'm piggybacking on what supervisor, Pruitt said there's three bedrooms. [00:39:48] Correct me if I didn't hear, understand correctly. If you have three bedrooms, could they rent to three different, let's say, three different people that don't even know each other or on a rotating basis, like, you know, A's here for seven days and then the next day B comes in for another room seven days. [00:40:08] I mean, you could have something. That seems like a viable scenario. Yes, I think that would work. So that's something you could have. Okay. I was under the impression that the people had to, you know, be a family or relatives or friends or something, but you could just have completely separate. [00:40:27] Yeah. Okay. last question do they have a number of mr stevens do they have a number of llc's or is this the only one i'm not aware of of any additional we didn't check that particular one but i know this llc does own multiple parcels as noted in the report they own multiple parcels that they have uh home stays for um don't believe so um i know he operates a hotel room in the dcd um that's out of one of his spaces that he actually has in the downtown Crozet district. [00:41:03] But I believe, as noted, this is the one that he's trying. He does rent the other homes as full-time, more-than-30-day, you know, long-term lease homes. Sure. Okay. And a lot of people do that who, yeah, in the long-term rentals, no problem. [00:41:19] I like that. Okay. Those are my questions. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Malek. Thank you. And all these questions have been really helpful to make sure we all have the understanding of what we're doing here. and i appreciate the clarification about the process that it's not a problem to do this stage first because then all the others will follow along and if things do not meet muster then that's the end of it uh and i will just point out that in this blue ridge avenue is the oldest street in crozet and there are numerous historic houses right around this property that are owned by the same people who have restored them and rent them out and really care for them very well so i have [00:41:58] confidence that this building will continue to be as well maintained as it has been all along and there's a lovely big backyard that goes with it and places to play and run your dogs around that kind of thing i don't know if they'll have dogs but um that's that's all i have to offer and i especially appreciate the questions about the basement exits i mean i mr andrews and i both received communications about the having wet wet water why water rescues from campground up the road during the both the previous this recent storm and the previous one and those were people in great big mobile homes who still had to get out in the middle of the night because someone [00:42:36] pounded on their door to say get out so it is really important and i'm glad we're paying attention to all those things as well let me know when you're ready for a motion you have to do yours thank you i i have no additional questions the questions that i have been answered um i'll look to see if there are any additional comments. Just to answer Supervisor Lupisto-Curtley's question, it does seem that they own four other short-term rentals through the stay-in-crozet business. [00:43:07] And the one, the DCD one is the one that's up above. They're all in the registry. I assume you would not have had us come this far without having everything be in the registry properly. Great. Any other questions or discussion? [00:43:25] If not, then we're looking for a motion. I'll be glad to make one. I move that the board adopt the resolution for SE 2024-1, 1234 Carter Street Homestay, attached to the staff report as attachment G. Second. [00:43:42] We have a motion from Supervisor Malik, a second from Supervisor Galloway. Again, look to my right and left to see if there are any additional discussion. Seeing none, without objection, the clerk will call the roll. Thank you. Ms. Malik? Yes. Ms. McKeel? Yes. Mr. Pruitt? [00:43:58] Aye. Mr. Andrews? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. Lupito-Kurtley? Aye. thank you um and i see you've switched seats so next up is uh similarly uh se 2024 17 4975 blue fox farm homestay this one presented by lisa green manager of code compliance well good afternoon chair andrews and board and uh thank you for your time uh my name is lisa green i am the manager of code compliance this special exception is somewhat similar in nature to the [00:44:34] one you just heard. The property is owned by Blue Fox LLC and the applicants are requesting a special exception from the board per county code 18-5.148B2 for the resident manager at 4975 Blue Fox Farm. [00:44:56] The property primarily consists of cow pastures and forested areas. There are two dwellings on the property, a 1,699-square-foot dwelling at 4975 Blue Fox Farm built in 1976 near the front of the property, and a 3,141-square-foot dwelling at 5035 Blue Fox Farm built in 1985. This is in the center of the property, which is the primary residence for the Desaads, who are the sole owner [00:45:28] of the Blue Fox LLC entity. The property also contains multiple farm buildings. The structure proposed for use as a homestay is located near the entrance of the property down a private driveway and includes ample parking seen here with the red star and then the parking. Let me get my parking off of the private drive. The Desaads residence shown here by the green star is at the end of the [00:46:06] driveway. The proposed homestay, shown here with the red star, is at the beginning of the driveway. The closest adjacent structure to the homestay is to the north, which is an accessory structure on a separate parcel, also owned by Blue Fox LLC. This is a view from the proposed homestay looking toward the property owner's residence with the barn in between. This is the property [00:46:41] owner's primary residence. This parcel meets all of the requirements for a homestay use and by right is permitted to rent up to five guest sleeping spaces within a single family dwelling or a previously existing accessory structure. This special exception is only required due to the property being held under the Blue Fox LLC entity and for the Desaads to serve as the resident managers for the LLC. If the special exception is approved, the owners would then [00:47:17] apply for the homestay zoning clearance and go through all of the approval process. The property is currently in compliance with all zoning and taxation requirements. To summarize this application, the request is to permit a resident manager to fulfill the residency requirements for homestay use containing two single-family dwellings, one of which is the primary residence [00:47:46] of the owners of the LLC. Looking at the use of the homestay in a second dwelling on the parcel occupied by the owners of an LLC, staff does not believe that there would be any adverse impacts to the surrounding neighborhood or general public health, safety, or welfare. The homestay use itself is a by-right accessory use to the primary dwelling on the parcel and is considered consistent with the comprehensive plan. And due to the size of the parcel and size of the structure, The dwelling for use as a homestay is consistent with the surrounding neighborhood. [00:48:26] Staff has analyzed the use itself based on the property and the use in the greater context of the neighborhood, and such staff recommends approval. Noted here is the recommended action. [00:48:43] Thank you. We'll go through our orders. Supervisor McKeel. Thank you, Lisa. I don't have any questions other than I will note, I see this is an LLC, but we do know the name of the person. Correct. They are the sole entity owners of the LLC. [00:49:00] Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Pruitt? I want to clarify that I'm correct in understanding the whole reason this is before us and is a special exception is because they own it as an LLC, and if they owned it in their names as natural persons, it would not be before us. [00:49:17] That is correct. I just wonder how much work we create for ourselves with this particular thing and how much work we create for you with this and whether or not there might be some kind of razor to identify sole beneficiary LLCs and cut through that. [00:49:37] Something to think about in the future. This is my terrible habit on these home states. I always think about reform instead of thinking about the issue before me. Supervisor Galloway? I have no questions. Thank you. Supervisor Lupisto-Curdley? Yes, I agree with Supervisor Pruitt. I think if the only reason it's before us is because it's an LLC, then I think that's something staff could have handled. [00:50:00] But no other question. Supervisor Mello? Thank you. I will ask Attorney Herrick out. Do we have authority to make a different process for an LLC beneficiary who lives there, or are we not allowed to? [00:50:15] That's something that we could look into. As the board is aware, the criteria for granting homestay should be based on land use criteria, the impacts that they have. So we would need to identify what angle of ownership was a land use impact. That would be the challenge that staff would face. [00:50:31] But that's certainly something that we could look into if there's board interest in it. Well, I remember that issue coming up in previous years. I just want to float that idea to you. Thank you. I have no further questions. Out in Browns Cove, it is sure remote and quiet. And you saw the view of Byron Park in the picture there. [00:50:48] So it's way out there. Thank you. And I have no questions either on this one. So, again, I think I will look to the right and left and see if there are any additional comments or concerns. If not, we'll look for a motion. Very good. I'm happy to make one. I move that the Board adopt the resolution for SE 2024-17-4975, Blue Fox Farm Homestay, attached to the staff report as attachment F. [00:51:13] Second. We have a motion from Supervisor Malik, second from Supervisor Pruitt. Without objection, the Clerk will call the roll. Ms. Malik? Yes. Ms. McKeel? Yes. Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Mr. Andrews? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. Lapista-Kirtley? Aye. Thank you. Moving on, Board. We're now up to our presentation on the Ivy Road Corridor Pipeline Project. This is being led by Jessica Hirsch-Ballering, Principal Planner of Transportation. Welcome. [00:51:43] Chair Andrews. Yes. As we transition, I would ask you to consider talking with the board prior to our adjournment tonight to see we had two members of the board that expressed interest in the county attorney's office looking more closely at the issue that Mr. Herrick answered. [00:52:02] That's not direction from the board, and we would ask the board, if you want us to spend some time with that, is there enough of an interest from the board for us to do that? And we don't have to address it now. but i i think that if we could flag it for the end of the meeting before we go home that would help us at times the board is confused and staff is as well as is this a to-do list item or is it not and that's the reason i'm flagging it thank you um where of the fact that they're also yes there's also legislation that has enabled us to consider a different uh length of time associated [00:52:38] with the ownership of the homestays so i think that has to be sort of rolled into one discussion rather than just this one item so that's why i hesitate to take any time right now to discuss it but i just made a note about that very issue that i was going to bring up at the same time yes general assembly legislation yeah yes thank you thank you proceed thanks uh thank you chair andrews members of the board of supervisors jessica hirsch-ballering principal planner with Albemarle County Community Development. I'm excited to be here today to present on the Ivy Road Corridor Pipeline Project Recommended Improvements. So the purpose of today's presentation [00:53:18] is not only to share the study identified recommended package of improvements for this corridor, but also to get the board's feedback on those improvements. There's no action that needs to be taken today. So first, a bit of background. This study was funded and led by VDOT as part of the Project Pipeline Program. This program is designed to develop a steady stream or pipeline of high-priority improvement projects that address needs identified in Virginia's transportation plan, which is also known as VTRANS. The improvement projects identified through this process may be considered for implementation through funding programs like SmartScale or revenue [00:53:55] sharing, among others. The study area for the Ivy Road Corridor study includes Ivy Road from Ednum Drive on the west to Alderman Road in the city of Charlottesville to the east. It also included the U.S. 29-250 interchange as well as Old Ivy Road. The study focused on improving safety, reducing congestion on all the roadways in the corridor, as well as enhancing multimodal accessibility, especially along Old Ivy. The study began in May of 2023 and included VDOT, [00:54:30] county, city, and UVA staff. This board has received periodic updates on this project through our regular quarterly reports and presentations. You may remember that this study included site visits by staff and the consulting team, two online public surveys, and a corridor focus group, which was a group of key stakeholders living or working along the corridor who met three times throughout the life of the study. So we are now at the conclusion of this study, and we have a recommended package of improvements, which are shown here. To orient you, and I've got the little [00:55:03] pointer here. So going left, right across the screen, this is Ivy Road or US 250. Going north, south, we have the US 29 bypass. Right here, we have the triangle about that had been proposed previously. And right here, we have old Ivy Road. So the improvements identified here, moving from west to east include two roundabouts identified with these green circles. One is at the Boar's Head Drive-Colaridge Drive intersection with 250. The other is at the Old Garth-Canterbury [00:55:39] intersection with 250. The median would be closed between these two roundabouts for safety. That is indicated with this blue line here. And the roundabouts would be used as turnaround or U-turn locations for drivers who would otherwise be turning left into or out of their destination. [00:55:58] We also have the triangle about here at the Old Garth-Old Ivy-Falconer Drive triangle. Up here, we have the extension of both the southbound 29-250 D-Cell Lane, indicated in orange, and the extension of the northbound acceleration from Old Ivy to Leonard Sandridge, indicated with the purple arrow. Last but not least, we have a shared use path, indicated with this dotted line here along the south side of Old Ivy from the intersection with Old Garth on the west end to the intersection with Ivy Road on the east end. This would include improvements to the [00:56:35] underpass beneath the railroad to demarcate space for bikes and pedestrians and formalize existing traffic patterns. So broadly speaking, this is a pretty complicated corridor where any one improvement is going to have both upstream and downstream impacts. So these recommended improvements were carefully considered so that they work together to achieve those study goals. [00:56:57] This particular package was vetted by the Corridor Focus Group. It was also the scenario that was scored most favorably by our second online public survey that included over 1,200 respondents. Given that, we expect that these improvements would have broad public buy-in. Lastly, I'll note that the consultants identified other potential improvements both west and east of the area shown in the picture. If you recall, the study area was actually a little bit larger than what you're seeing in this picture. But county staff decided to focus on the improvements in this middle section because these improvements address the county's most pressing concerns. So let's zoom in on what [00:57:35] each of these improvements might look like. A note that all of these sketches are from the consultants. They come from the middle of the process, so I'm going to explain some differences between the pictures and what we intend to have as the final package of improvements here. Okay, so this is the roundabout at the Boar's Head Drive intersection. This is Ivy Road going east-west across your screen. Here's Coleridge Drive, and here is Boar's Head Drive. Not shown in the picture, but included in the proposed recommendations is a raised concrete median that would continue from this roundabout east to the roundabout at Garth, Canterbury, and 250. Before we look at that east [00:58:15] roundabout, let's look at some data. So this is an excerpt from the consultant's analysis showing significant improvements in level of service if this roundabout is built. So the top block shows level of service and expected delay at the intersection in 2045 if no improvements are made. This is our no build scenario. You can see that while the east and westbound approaches are all green, everything looks good. The north and southbound approaches are not looking so good. [00:58:42] Red and yellow is not good. The bottom block shows levels of service and expected delay at this intersection in 2045 if the roundabout is built. You can see decreases for those north and southbound approaches and our levels of service for all approaches are green. Moving on to the roundabout at the Old Garth-Canterbury-Ivy intersection. Here we have Ivy Road. Here's Old Garth. Here is Canterbury Road. This is a gas station. Again, not shown in this picture, but there would also be access management, the closed median between this roundabout and the roundabout [00:59:19] at Boar's Head to the west, continuing through here. The roundabout would likely be shifted from its location in this sketch a little bit to the southeast, and the purpose of doing that would be to limit right-of-way impacts to the gas station and reduce potential confusion between the gas station driveway users and those exiting the roundabout to the west. This is an excerpt from the consultant's analysis showing, again, significant improvements in level of service in the horizon year, going from some failing movements, lots of yellows and oranges and reds, to almost all A's [00:59:51] and bees if we were to build the roundabout. Moving on to the triangle about. This would enforce one-way counterclockwise vehicle travel around this triangle-shaped set of roads. So down here, this is the Old Garth-Canterbury-Ivy intersection with the roundabout that we just talked about. This is Old Garth Road. It's an extension of the off-ramp coming off of 29. [01:00:17] Here's Old Ivy Road. Here's Falconer Drive. This is a railroad underpass here. A couple of things about the triangle about. So first, the county would strongly support some changes to the sketch shown in this slide, as this sketch doesn't consider multimodal connectivity, and county staff would like to see a continuation of the shared use path that will be over here, continuing all the way to the west to this intersection with Old Garth Road. Second, the triangle about success is contingent upon efficient flow of traffic through the Old Garth Canterbury-Ivy intersection here. Without efficient flow through this intersection, [01:00:52] we would risk backup into and consequent gridlock in the triangle about. For that reason, this triangle about can only be constructed in tandem with the roundabout that we discussed on those previous slides. All right, this slide shows an extension of both the southbound D-cell and the northbound acceleration lanes on the 29-250 bypass north of IV-250. So just off the picture here to your left, that's where IV-250 is. The bottom side, this is northbound 29, and the top side [01:01:27] is southbound 29. This is one of the St. Ann-Belfield campuses here. So what we would have is an extension of this deceleration lane as you're getting off of 29, and an extension of this acceleration lane as you're getting on 29. So the data in the left corner, basically what it's showing is a decrease in the density of vehicles on the ramps when these extensions would be built, which means just if the extensions are built, you'd have a lower likelihood of vehicle backups on the ramps. We don't like vehicle backups on the ramps because that can affect [01:02:00] traffic that's moving at much higher speeds along 29 continuing past those ramps. One, these extensions pair really well with the other proposed improvements to reduce overall congestion in the area. One concern the county has regarding these improvements is that sound walls, which are expensive, could be required for these improvements, especially with the addition of the Old Ivy Residences development on the east side of 29, which would be right here. [01:02:32] Here we have the shared use path indicated in purple. As we discussed, it would go from Old Garth Road all the way along the south side of Old Ivy up to the railroad underpass just before you hit Ivy Road. This allows for multimodal connectivity and improved safety, which are both important outcomes for the project from a county perspective. On the east end of that shared use path, we have the challenge of a narrow underpass beneath the railroad. You can see it here. This is the roadway, but it actually goes underneath the railroad shown here. The county's preference is to [01:03:10] maintain two-way vehicle traffic at this underpass while formalizing the existing practice where vehicles enter the underpass from one direction at a time, with the vehicles coming from the opposite direction waiting to enter the underpass until there's a gap in oncoming traffic. That would be formalized with the addition of a new signal and stop bar west of the underpass. [01:03:31] You can see them right here. One-way alternatives have also been proposed by the consultants, but these alternatives have had mixed responses from both the focus group and the broader public. so that's why we support the two-way option. Not shown in this sketch, this improvement would also include a six-foot-wide raised sidewalk on one side of Old Ivy to demarcate space for pedestrian and bike traffic in the underpass. A note that the raised sidewalk would likely need to be on the north side of the roadway so that the eastbound bike and pedestrian traffic can continue along the [01:04:08] north side of ivy road if the raised sidewalk were to be on the south side of the underpass we would need to add a crossing of old ivy at ivy road um right here um a crosswalk at this location would increase delay for motor vehicle uh for motor vehicles and not be the safest option for bikes and pedestrians anyway um and so what we what this means is that we would need some sort of mid-block crossing on this side of the underpass so that folks using the south side shared use path [01:04:42] could cross over to the north side raised sidewalk. All right, that actually covers all of the improvements in this recommendation. Here's our overview slide again. I'll come back to this in just a second. This is the discussion question for you. As I said, we're presenting all of these improvements and we'd love to get the board's feedback on them. Does the recommended package improvements meet the board of supervisors needs and expectations for this project thank you i'm [01:05:15] sure we'll have questions and supervisor mckeel um the quick answer is at first blush yes um the other thing that i would just caution and you alluded to it is these are schematics and you can't take everything on these diagrams literally that's really important because we watched that happened to some degree with the barracks road and the diagrams. I mean, it is what it is. [01:05:46] They're schematics. So I really appreciate you pointing out the changes, which really sounded very appropriate to me. I will use this opportunity to just let folks know that in the last regional transit partnership meeting, the university transit announced that they were purchasing some smaller buses that would be able to access Old Ivy Road under these railroad passes, which is really good news. [01:06:20] Just using this as a time to let you all know, because that's always been one of the problems we had getting transit with all of the students and the university folks living along Old Ivy Road. They couldn't get the transit buses, I'm sorry, the UTS buses underneath. [01:06:36] So that's really good news. And you were at the meeting, I think, when they talked about it. So that's all good. I don't think right now, I'll probably have all kinds of other questions. But for right now, I think the answer is yes. Oh, one quick question. So all of these projects really, or many of them, work together. [01:06:58] So it's going to be important that we don't try and separate out the projects. So is this pipeline study going to be competing with the other pipeline study? I mean, are we going to have dueling pipeline studies challenging the monies, the smart scale monies? [01:07:17] I'm just trying to figure out how this is going to be timed. That's a great question, and I'm going to give you a no and then a yes. So this pipeline study actually ran concurrently with the Barracks pipeline study that you're really familiar with. You guys will hear a little bit more about it when L. Barrack gives our quarterly report presentation after this. [01:07:37] Barracks Road, all of the projects that came out of that pipeline study have been submitted in the current round of SmartScale. This is not being submitted in this current round of SmartScale. That submission has already happened. So this will not compete with the Barracks Road study. [01:07:53] That being said, the next round of SmartScale is coming up in 2026, calendar year 2026. We will do more pipeline studies with VDOT between now and then. So this project, the improvements recommended here might compete against the improvements recommended in other pipeline studies that we are yet to be involved in. [01:08:14] Okay, but the two that deal with this one area along the bypass are not going to be competing. That's correct. So we don't have dual in pipeline studies, at least for the bypass areas. That's great. And I think for right now, that's all I have. [01:08:32] Thank you very much. Thank you. Supervisor Pruitt? Am I correct in understanding that while we have the shared use path on Old Ivy, there's no bike-ped infrastructure that's being proposed on Ivy proper? Right now, there is a sidewalk on Ivy Road. [01:08:49] I don't remember for exactly which portion, and I know that UVA is interested in improving bike and pedestrian infrastructure in this area, but you're correct. As part of this package of improvements, there are no additional bike and ped infrastructure. I think that sidewalk ditters out right when it crosses 29, but I might look to folks who are more familiar with that area. [01:09:12] Can you go to the section that looks at the triangle about area? Can you just talk me through it like I'm an idiot? [01:09:28] So imagine you're coming off of 29 and you take this off-ramp. That off-ramp eventually turns into this road, which we call Old Garth. Um, if that was your, the movement you were trying to make, you were trying to go this way and get onto Ivy, uh, your movement would not change. [01:09:48] If what you wanted to do, if you were coming from Ivy here, or you were coming eastbound or westbound along Ivy, and you wanted to head north up to perhaps, uh, St. Anne's Belfield is off this direction. Um, you would no longer go up Old Garth once the triangle about is in effect. [01:10:03] You would make a right-hand turn here on Old Ivy, make a left-hand turn on Falconer Drive, and then you could continue up towards St. Anne's Belfield. So basically, we're treating this as a giant roundabout where you can only go in one direction. That's where the triangle about name came from. The intention is just to make traffic move more smoothly, have fewer potential points of conflict at these intersections, and just reduce that overall congestion and improve safety. [01:10:30] Do we have another shot that's just right of this? I thought we did on the other side of 29. We have this, perhaps. yeah right here and there's no so the bike pedestrian facilities except for when we get to the bridge are in the shared east path is entirely on the south side of the road is that correct that is correct is there any existing um sidewalk on the north side of the road i don't think there is there is existing sidewalk along old ivy um for various reasons it was [01:11:08] determined that a south side shared use path would be the most appropriate um the only thing i would mention because i always like to mention it you know what i'm about to get at go for it um the really the worst section of the rye balna trail is uh right here um because you can't cross the bridge or you can't cross sorry the railroad track so you have to go all the way around and back up up old ivy and then cross onto that farm right there um it is one of the sketchiest parts of the rivana trail because there's often a lot of traffic going over the bridge at old ivy [01:11:48] and there's not a sidewalk there um i don't know if this is the appropriate place to raise that but i just mentioned that right uh there is a pedestrian need to cross uh the north end of the of old ivy right at the end before you get to that bridge um and i don't think there's any facilities that serve that um i don't know how urgent that need is but certainly a need i have with some regularity to cross that street um everything else uh looks excellent and i think it's meeting the much more common and present needs of people who are commuting to work in [01:12:23] their cars than the occasional need of a supervisor crossing the street on a jog thank you supervisor is there a response to that crossing from the south side on the multi-use to then get to the bike ped infrastructure that goes under the railroad because you would have to move to the north side um you mean on the east end here yeah that i discussed so we we don't have that thoroughly planned out but that was the purpose of me mentioning it that we know that it's a it's something that would need to be addressed is there space under there for bike and the ped i think that [01:12:57] it would let is there space for folks bikes and pedestrians under the railroad underpass there is six feet of space that is that is what the consultants came up with a six foot raised sidewalk potentially with some railing barrier that is all the space that is available that's much narrower than a standard shared use path but that's what we have to work with and we think that having a raised sidewalk with some sort of vertical barrier would achieve our goals of improving safety in that area did they look at any of the water retention that happens there um that's a great question i have to get back to you on it we're [01:13:34] gonna we've already got people snorkeling in their cars but like ped you don't wouldn't want people trying to get under there can i just and i'm sorry i'm not trying to take away from your time nit but um my understanding at one point when we were talking about this project and that particular railroad bridge, VDOT was talking about straightening the entryway into and under that bridge that would make a difference. Is that part of what you are? I guess that's part of what y'all are talking about. Because you go in at an angle, and they said if you straighten the road [01:14:08] and go in straight, it gives you more space. Is that what you are? That is not what we decided to do. That's not part of the recommended package of improvements, but I do want to assure you that It was investigated very closely, and it was just determined to not be a cost-effective solution. [01:14:26] Okay, and I didn't mean to interrupt you, Ned, but I just remembered a big discussion about that. And once, while there has been a lot of flooding there, when they were doing our sidewalk project, they actually found a buried drain that no one had been maintaining. [01:14:44] Was it better? And so the water retention under that bridge is, I won't say it's been fixed, but it is much better. Now, if you get 30 inches of rain in two days, it doesn't matter what you have, it's going to flood, right, because it's a bowl. [01:15:02] But just, I know the VDOP folks said to me, just finding and realizing that that drain was there and opening it up has made a significant difference. net. The trick is to make sure over the decade that people know that drain is there and not allow it to become clogged again. And I'm sorry for interrupting. Do the maintenance on it. Yeah, that's right. Can you show the roundabout in front of the market? So just so I understand, if you're at the market and you want to go into town, do you have to head west, hit the other [01:15:39] roundabout, then come back? Or how do you interact with that roundabout? Nope, that's exactly correct. Because of the access management that's going to be in place, to improve safety, you will have to, if you're leaving this gas station or any of these shops, you will have to head west, make a turn at the roundabout, and come on back. [01:15:57] And to get there from coming west, you go through this roundabout and empty into the parking lots. Because it did say somewhere there was a closed median there, right? Yes, and that's indicated at the beginning with that blue line. So is it the, which, if you're heading from west and you want to go northbound on the 250, head towards Leonard Sandridge, do we want them taking, like it seems like, well, I understand, and even if we were not dealing with traffic coming from the west, the extension of the Excel lane is a good idea, period. [01:16:37] But for those people coming from the west, do we want them taking the on-ramp to 250 on the south side, or do we want them going through the triangular route and taking the Excel lane? I don't think that we have a preference for the decisions that individual drivers make. [01:16:57] Currently, the expectation is that people will use these ramps. As part of the whole pipeline project, they did look at extending and improving these ramps, but that was also determined to not be cost-effective. uh some people will use this triangle about uh to get over this way and then take the ramp here um but these are all open and public roads people will use them how they see fit it almost seems with the extension of the diesel lane you're almost encouraging them to take old ivy road up there and then you don't have a light to deal with because you hit the roundabout [01:17:31] and go through there so i understand what you're saying we can't decide for them but we sure can influence where they go is in did they have any thoughts of the roundabout being so close to that light to get on to 250 i'm a fan of roundabouts i'm not complaining about the roundabout i'd put around about everywhere um but the but that having to come out of a roundabout and hit a light it seems pretty close to that did they address that or hit that or to speak to that no that's a great point and i don't think we discussed that in detail um i'll bring it back to the consultants and see if they have any feedback for you um and then i would just note that to the conversation about the competition against [01:18:10] pipeline studies, we're assuming it gets funded under the current SMART scale. If it doesn't get funded or not all of it gets funded, then it will be in competition with this project. You're correct, yes. Thank you. Thank you very much for the presentation. That explains a lot to me because what we received in our packet wasn't nearly as detailed and I was like, whoa. [01:18:35] Regarding the railroad bridge, are you going to have because it's going to be a two-way with a six-foot raised path that will be for pedestrians and bicycles both okay and the signals that you're putting there would there be one on each end of the underpass yeah so let me because it looked like there was one so this would be a new signal the one um just west of the the underpass the signals here would remain in place and they would be coordinated with this one. I see. Okay. Got it. Got it. Okay. So that answers that question. [01:19:13] All right. And if you could go to page eight, slide eight, I think that was it. Okay. So in reality, right now you can only go, if you're coming from Old Ivy and you turn right, you can only go right and then left if you want to go on 250. You can't go up Old Garth Road. That's That's just one way coming down. [01:19:39] So it would just be, like you said, kind of a big triangular roundabout. Okay. So far, I like your – it looks a little complex in some areas, but it seems to address a lot of issues, and hopefully we can get the funding for that because it would greatly improve the safety of that area. [01:20:02] Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Malek. Okay. So I've been writing things down as other people have asked their questions. So the Boarshead Roundabout, when the Boarshead Golf Club entrance road was improved, that was presented to the board as only for golf. [01:20:32] And now I've been told that it is the primary entrance for this whole sports club. Huge amounts of traffic on there. So that's a problem I've got right now is what happened to that that did not have the university living up to what it presented to us for the approval, because this is the primary insurance for them and so i'm always saying you know show me the money um was there consideration of having a stoplight there as had been put in when the approvals for the residential townhouses across the street there was a proffer and everything put in for that to pay for that [01:21:07] stoplight has was that considered as a short-term thing for the 15 years until something might happen on this so i can't speak to it being considered as as exactly specified in the proffer but I will say that the project pipeline study did consider every single intersection in the study area, so from Ednum to Alderman Road. [01:21:29] So every single intersection was considered, and multiple potential improvements for each of those intersections were considered. What you guys are seeing is what was determined to be the best package of improvements. Okay, very good. So triangle about basically is, I think, the only change that is on there is that someone coming west on Old Ivy Road will no longer be permitted to go from where Faulkner starts down to the exit ramp. [01:22:04] They will all have to go up and then down. And at the same time, so that's going to quintuple that traffic for sure, as far as the numbers of people who will then have to be merging into the high-speed exiting ramp people. [01:22:20] Was there consideration of some structural something to slow those ramp people down? I mean, it says 25 miles an hour, and people pile up on my bumper when I slow down. After I get off of the bypass, I slow down quickly, and they're, errr, because they want to hurry up and get on through. [01:22:39] So I would love to know more about the numbers that are considered, and I'm sure you've done all sorts of studies about this. Just having lived and worked in this area for 25 years, there are times of day when things are tricky. [01:22:56] and after five after the schools are all done is when it's the worst because that's when all the home commuters are trying to beat it out of town and go west was there any consideration of forcing the out-of-town people the non-local drivers to go to the traffic circle that has existed since i was five years old and go on 250 west in that way that you're asking a really great and really big question um i want to answer your question really broadly and then if you want to follow up after [01:23:32] the fact we can do that so broadly the project pipeline study decided to look at two two major routes for solutions and one route was to make improvements to these northern ramps which is the route we chose the other potential route for improvements was to make improvements to all of those ramps south of ivy road it was determined pretty early on it was determined at some point in the study that making improvements to everything south of 29 or of ivy was not going to be cost [01:24:10] effective and didn't have as much buy-in from the public and our corridor focus group yeah i'm much more concerned with what the engineers have to say yeah and i know there was discussion a couple of years ago about having a double lane exit ramp as a way to instead of having a single lane that went under the bridge and the bridge is too narrow blah blah blah then you have a double lane exit ramp that takes people to the existing light and a double lane left and Bob's your uncle. [01:24:36] So those sort of common sense, non-engineer suggestions, I think, are important because the triangle about is going to have consequences that I think the out-of-town engineers may not get because they haven't been there watching the length of time they may need to be watching. [01:25:00] And so people wanting to go, as was already mentioned, people wanting to go on the bypass will continue to be able to go under the trestle and then go east on old ivy and then take the left that makes sense the concern about taking out that 50 yards between faulkner and what you're now calling old garth road that's really interesting to have the exit ramp now have a name that because old garth road actually goes from that intersection straight off to the upper left corner of your picture i mean that's been old garth road forever So anyway, that would help to have that have a label also for everybody's understanding. [01:25:40] So that's a concern there. So the eastern underpass, I've gotten confused as people have been asking their questions. It is two-way but one way at a time. Correct. It's not going to be like it is now of people trying to get by. [01:25:58] I wanted to make sure I had heard that correctly. Okay, the bus is a fabulous idea. would the bus go to the western end of old ivy road or only due to the the where the the first hundred yards where those the new numbers of residences are going to be put in yeah we haven't gotten into discussions okay we were just excited that they were buying smaller buses that actually can traverse that's fabulous but i think that there are you're going to go where the students are and where the and their employees are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people are coming. They're going to go where the folks are living. I'm really glad that that's a [01:26:37] consideration. All right. Talked about that. I guess that's all of my questions at the moment. Thank you. Thank you. I'm going to start on this slide before going back. So I was worried at first about how to control traffic going to the west, but you said it's going to be, the bar will be coordinated with the light but is the light also impacting like the right turns coming out of the car wash and the parking lot there because they are already kind of i don't know sure where the [01:27:16] light exactly is here that's a free-for-all so the the light it would be here where the stop bar is for westbound those lights would remain in place with the stop bar here you're correct that this driveway would need to be addressed as part of putting together a final product yeah okay so that maybe would eliminate that or it could be eliminated or yeah that might be a viable solution okay i don't know what existing rights they have to continue it um back to slide eight if you would for just a second again there are questions raised that i want to make sure i understand [01:27:55] so yeah i've been very concerned for some time about the backing up of traffic onto the bypass from the old Garth Road exit here when a lot of those people could have gone a little further on the bypass and taken the other exit but at this point at least you know that if you're if you're if you're not if you're from here you look at that and you see that back up and you know that you're going to have to make your way through the light under the underpass through the light [01:28:25] before you can get to ivy going west which you know many times a day is not as viable an option as just continuing on a little further but if we put the roundabout in the people coming to the second exit are still going to then come up off their off ramp and have to sit at a stoplight to wait to turn left and then go through the roundabout this is actually encouraging people to take the first exit because that's the one where it's a free flow pretty much all the way through okay i just want to make sure i understand because i i do see that low i don't know how you'd control [01:29:04] first local versus non-local because if you're trying to get to crochet and you want to go right that's the way you go so uh yeah uh problem um yeah i'm generally very supportive of this though i as a package i realize it's a pretty big package though um i just have to ask because i've noticed changes in the university's properties that i want to make sure they've looked at or if they've understood and what effect they have so the two that i'm sort of aware of one is there's a way to get it looks like it's going to be a way to get to leonard sandridge from old [01:29:43] ivy um please go ahead all i'll say is that is not part of this project no i understand that but it's happening now i mean it's opened up um and and i don't know how much that's going to be regulated as far as who uses that, whether that's going to open up a whole new avenue for people to get out of that area. [01:30:05] And the other one that I haven't personally investigated, maybe you have, is the access at the underpass at the end of old ivy to ivy, which is, I guess, slide 11 again, that the ball field fence, I've heard, has been changed so that it's not impossible to go up and over because that was preventing people from trying to make a pedestrian crossing on the north side and i don't know if that that probably also hasn't been looked at as part of this [01:30:37] that makes a big difference so um uva was included uva staff were in attendance at all of the project pipeline meetings so they've been included in this process and what you described going through the ball field was considered um but this was determined to be the the preferred solution Will that solution not be closed off again? [01:31:01] That's something we'll need to follow up with UVA on, but this was the preferred solution for all parties involved in the project pipeline process. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you very much. Appreciate that. Are there additional questions or comments? We do want to answer the question, I guess, which is whether people are supportive or not. [01:31:21] Supervisor, ma'am. Thank you. So this intersection, did I read somewhere that if you're going eastbound on 250, you will be banned from taking a left and going down under the trestle? That was something that was considered. [01:31:37] It is not included in this final recommended package. Oh, important clarification because that would otherwise double the traffic at the other end. People coming out of the orthopedic hospital and trying to get to one of the residences there. So that's a huge, I'm glad I asked that again. And just the question of how to stop Mike Rosé residents from zooming through the quick way is to stop the westbound traffic under the trestle, which has been suggested for 25 years. [01:32:10] You know, I haven't gotten anywhere with getting engineers to think about that, but that is the intuitive answer to stop the people racing through, is to put them back where when I was little and we were driving out there, everybody took the loop. I mean, loops were cool back then, but people can also figure out other ways and get to 64 and go west that way, where we have bigger ability. [01:32:33] So I just want to keep raising the sort of simple and common sense things that people could consider. Thank you. I'm going to ask whether that was looked at, because obviously there will be a lot of people who would find that dramatically affects their current practices, but I don't know if it was looked at. [01:32:56] I can't remember if that specific thing was looked at. If there's interest from the board, we can follow up with a much more detailed slide from the VDOT consulting team so you can see all of the different things that were looked at before we came to this package. Yeah, I'm fine with the package as it is. Okay. I'm impressed. Any other comments? Supportive? Are we worried about it? [01:33:27] All right. Great. Thank you. Thank you very much. Very, very exciting project, in my opinion. board this time for a recess and we have about 15 minutes [01:33:39] yes please diantha to the dais diantha to the dais [01:50:50] back from our recess and our next item is the transportation planning quarterly report uh mr alberic karina plume planner one transportation welcome thank you um good afternoon board chair andrews my name is albert karina plund i'm a planner in community development And I'll be presenting the Transportation Planning Quarterly Report. [01:51:31] So first, I want to talk about SmartScale updates. As a reminder, SmartScale doesn't require any local match. Albemarle County applied for four projects this round. The Ryo Road, this appears in the map as well, the numbers, the Ryo Road intersection, or the Ryo Road and Hillsdale-Northfield-Oldbrook intersection improvements, the US-29 and Plank Road intersection improvements, the Old Trail Drive-US-250-West intersection improvements, and the county portion of the Barracks Road Improvement Package that was recommended as part of the Barracks Pipeline Study. [01:52:05] The MPO also applied for four projects. They applied for the 5th Street I-64 Divergent Diamond Interchange Project, the U.S. 250 Peter Jeff and Rolken Road Improvements as part of the Pantops Package, the city portion of the Barracks Pipeline Study, and to improve the likelihood that funding for this corridor can be secured, They also applied for funding for the entire recommended barracks improvements, covering both improvements in the county and the city. [01:52:33] So for clarification, we applied for county improvements as part of that package. The MPO applied for the city as well as county and city, just to increase our odds. Applications were submitted this past August with information about funding likely coming early next year. [01:52:50] Funding for these selected projects will be available summer of 2029. Three Nuts Trail Albemarle County was awarded a two million dollar planning grant through the very competitive race program To develop a master plan for a shared use path that would extend from the Emmett Ivy intersection in the city of Charlottesville Go west across western Albemarle County through the Crozet area and into Nelson County where it would eventually meet up with the popular Blue Ridge Tunnel Trail Staff finalized the grant agreement with FHWA and released an RFP for consultants in early April 2024. [01:53:28] A selection committee composed of different stakeholders in the region reviewed several written proposals and interviewed the highest scoring consultant teams. Staff expect to complete contract negotiations and kick off the project before the end of the year. Free Ridge Lane, on August 12, 2024, the board approved $15,000 to fund the pilot program, which is expected to kick off before the end of the year and will run for one year, after which we will assess whether or not to make the project permanent. [01:53:58] Move Safely Blue Ridge is the TJPDC-led planning process to develop a regional safety action plan. It is being funded partially through the federal Safe Streets for All grant program with Albemarle County and the other localities in the PDC area providing the local match. [01:54:17] Segments or intersections that have had three or more injuries or fatalities in the last five years were identified as high-injury network locations. In September, county staff, the consulting team, TJPDC staff, and ACPD officers conducted visits to some sites and the high injury network to better understand some of the safety problems at each location. [01:54:41] The plank through truck restriction. In July, the county was informed that the Commissioner of VDOT had approved a through truck restriction on Plank Road. Signs have been installed and restrictions affect. Staff also attended the August and September monthly meetings of the Regional Transit Partnership. [01:54:57] Highlights from the meeting include presentations about the formation of a Charlottesville-Albemarle Regional Transit Authority, Carta, followed by a vote by the RTP to endorse the formation of Carta. The board may recall from your joint meeting with the Charlottesville City Council that the Carta presentation was there as well. [01:55:17] And county staff continues to meet monthly with VDOT and ACPD to address citizen transportation concerns. Issues from this past quarter include requests for pedestrian infrastructure on Penn Park Road and Penn Park Lane. And there's some safety concerns on Penn Park Road, Albarine Road, and Advance Mills Road. [01:55:35] There's also been some maintenance concerns on Garth Road, Georgetown Road, and Old Lynchburg Road. Thank you, and any questions? Thank you. We'll go through our order. Supervisor McKeel. Questions, presentation right now. [01:55:55] Thank you. I reserve the right to come back in a few minutes. Of course. Supervisor Proulx. A lot of projects I'm very excited to see move forward in the future. Thank you. I have no questions. Supervisor Galloway. This could be more commentary than questions, but since the Penn Park Road came up as a driver safety piece, I know that some citizens had reached out. [01:56:18] I don't know if it was to beat on staff or both about the speed limit on Penn Park Road. It's currently posted at 35, so you come off of Rio Road and drive down to the park, and it's posted as 35. Now, the interesting thing is all the roads coming into Penn Park Road are all 25, accepting the Charlottesville Catholic School, which is actually nine miles per hour, which is an interesting number for speed limit. And when you're driving out from Penn Park, a VDOT posted sign says that you should take the curve at 25. So really, if you're leaving Penn Park Road and [01:56:52] you're obeying the cautionary sign about doing 25 around the bend, that really leaves almost 100 yards, if that, to get up to 35 before you hit the red light to get back onto Raya Road. So I'm just bringing all that up to say with the addition of some new units that are there that were built by right the ongoing requests there for pedestrian infrastructure that i always forget if i'm to make a speed limit change request if i have to do that through staff or through vdot or through both but after the resident brought it up and going out and driving that again it's really kind of baffling why that would be at 35 anyway so i guess i'm formally asking that if there's no [01:57:31] objection anywhere that that be looked at to have that speed limit reduced down to 25 to match really what you do when you exit and i you know anybody that's actually driving 35 into there hits those speed bumps they're going to be on the golf course which i guess they they earned it if they do that but probably shouldn't be um going at that speed into the into the park so i have to double check and i believe we have one uh and i'll send it to you if we do but i think vdot did complete a speed study of Penn Park Road in the past. And if we do have that, I'll send you the information as well. [01:58:04] I mean, if that speed study somehow says it supports 35 miles per hour, I call BS on that speed study. It's just going to be that point blank. So if Carrie's here, I'll have her bring it up there as well. It just doesn't seem to make sense. And if the timing of the study was done before those additional units were put on there, and now we have the Bennett's Village over there, I mean, there's just other things that make sense to have that be a lower speed limit. Thank you. [01:58:27] Thank you. Supervisor Lupito-Curvin. I commiserate with you because we have Gordonsville Road that is 45 and 50. Halfway through Gordonsville Road, going north to Gordonsville, it's 45. [01:58:48] The other half is 50. I asked VDOT to do a study. They did a study asking them to reduce the northern part to 45 miles per hour because everyone's speeding and they did a study maybe you can explain it they said seven something about 85 the normal speed limit with 85 percent of the whatever i did not really get that all i know is there's a lot of speeding cars there i would ask carrie when she's here for a better definition okay because i'm not the best to explain but they're measuring the based off the [01:59:23] percentile of the speed. Can you go to slide five, please? Yes. Okay. Bullet number three, segments, intersections with at least three injuries, fatalities identified as high injury network locations. Do you have a list of those? I do not have them on me right now, but I can get the list for you. Can you get those? Because I know one of Gordonsville Road, That fits it right there. [01:59:57] So I would really appreciate getting that. And I think the other supervisors would like to know also what roads they have in their districts that have or the high-injury network locations. Yep, I can get that to you. Okay, thank you, all of us. [02:00:13] Thank you. No other questions? Thank you. Supervisor Malek? Thank you very much. so regarding the transportation dashboard which i'm not expert at but for was there a start time for that because you mentioned a few things that were i guess quite recent but ongoing things foothills crossing hilltop park road west hall those things which have been studied for five years without resolution are they still on the dashboard in some process so i will love direction on how to access that kind of information if it's not obvious for people yes the the dashboard that [02:00:51] i made that has the different um projects listed that's mainly for smart scale projects and other cip level projects that we do it's not covering things like the speeds so there's a different file than that has all the traffic safety police yes we have records of that but it's not in the dashboard okay so a different place to look so i will need update on how to find that then thank very much others may like it as well so just to be clear you would like studies on well i would just like to know where to go to find the master list that shows you know the speed study at x and was done and you know because i've gotten individual emails now and then but then more [02:01:31] citizen complaints come in for the exact same thing and it's hard to find where it is okay if anybody's even looking at it anymore if it's been dismissed or okay i understand whatever okay thank you very much. Thank you. I have no additional questions. Supervisor McKeel. I do, and I was trying to separate out my questions and my concerns, so I'll wrap back around here. Georgetown Road has a through truck prohibition. Through trucks are prohibited. Carrie has been working [02:02:04] with me really well on how to get the signage improved because we have one of the things that really came out of one of my citizens advisory committee meetings with the police was the frustration of all the folks that live along georgetown road on trucks specifically dump trucks right now with lots of dirt and just really big trucks constantly using georgetown road um the signage there and carrie sent me pictures and i understand the signage there are five signs right now that say through trucks prohibited they all reference the straight the state route [02:02:43] number i couldn't tell you what the state route number is for georgetown road i don't think that the drivers of these trucks know state route numbers so i guess my question is is it is it an absolute that these that the signs have to say the state route numbers could they also say georgetown road so that the people that need to obey those signs actually understand where the prohibited what the prohibited road is um i'm not too sure what vita science standards allow [02:03:21] we can ask vita if we can i mean add the road name to the road which is more recognizable for me as well i mean i don't think yeah and i don't need to belabor it but it should say in my opinion through trucks prohibited on Georgetown Road. [02:03:36] If you have to throw the state route number in there, that's fine. But people don't know what state route numbers are. I mean, I don't. I doubt that many of you all know the numbers of all of your streets and roads in your district. I'm just saying. [02:03:52] So if you could look into that, I would really appreciate it. And I'd love to have a response back. If it's an absolute or if we can actually add a street name, it would be great. Thank you. I appreciate it. Supervisor Lupisto Kirtley? Yes. This has been, frankly, a burning issue with me and the through-truck prohibitions. [02:04:13] Carrie knows it. You know it. The truckers do not pay attention to the signs. I supported Plank Road getting the through-truck restrictions. But let me tell you the reality is that truckers ignore the signs, unless you have police out there all the time writing tickets and by the way writing tickets but not points against the license which is a problem and that that's a problem we've had on [02:04:44] gordonsville road it's been very frustrating the police came out last month they wrote 17 tickets for oversized trucks and by the way we have large signs put up by vdot on either end saying trucks over 65 feet not allowed prohibited they come through all the time last week we had a large oversized amazon truck that flipped over on its side thankfully no one was hurt but i i had an [02:05:20] email from a constituent today that on Tuesday, within 15 minutes, two oversized Amazon trucks, and if you, over 65 feet, and you say, well, how do you know it's over 65 feet? If they have a sleeper cap, that is an over 65 feet truck, foot truck. So, I mean, this is just going to continue until we get some kind of creative way vis-a-vis VDOT. Hopefully, the county can do something but, I mean, with VDOT, to deal with this. [02:05:55] People are getting killed and injured. And, by the way, Gordon's Railroad was shut down for 11 hours when that happened, when that Amazon truck overturned. So thank you for letting me vent. [02:06:11] Thank you. Are there any other comments? Supervisor Malek. Please direct me if this is a Carrie question instead. Which department is keeping up with the flashing lights? this is regarding the photo speed section on hydraulic road which i support and love today again and it's been reported to me several times in the last couple weeks the flashing lights are not working so i don't know if that's a carry question or vdot question or a county question um and similarly to the um no truck zone the sign which identifies the times [02:06:51] when the cameras are working is about this big and the sign the letters are about this big and if one is in traffic it's very difficult to read so two questions um how do we improve those situations and does the county have the authority and i don't know andy uh to have it 25 miles an hour all the time in that section because then you wouldn't have people going is this the time is this the time or not and if the lights aren't flashing which people rely on to know when the kids are there uh that's a problem and it makes i think ways for people to weasel out of paying [02:07:27] their fines which they really will deserve if they're speeding but we need to have the sort of a bulletproof mechanism to make sure we're doing this right so I don't have the magic answer but I do have concerns about that also I saw myself one time and others have called in the Hillsdale roundabout pedestrian crossing it's very dangerous because the lights are not terribly visible I've been looking for them, actually, as I've been driving to come up to the right to turn north onto Hillsdale. And people struggle across and get to the median, and then they can't get across [02:08:07] because the drivers are ruthless coming off that roundabout. And I don't know how to resolve that either. So sorry to dump all these problems on you. And I'm sure that Ms. Sheppard will pick up as well when she gets up here. For clarification for the Hillsdale roundabout, do you mean the new one at hydraulic and hillsdale or do you mean the one farther up the one at hydraulic and hillsdale yes thank you for that the yes um so those are two things i wanted to make sure to get on the on the table for further discussion yeah about the uh flashing lights i think that would be a [02:08:39] question okay great that would be a question yes thank you i'm done are there any additional comments questions thank you for the presentation thank you and next up terry shepherd uh for our vdot uh quarterly report charlesville residency administrator welcome uh i realize that uh you've [02:09:13] had a busy few days probably uh hearing about a lot of issues so oh yes forward update there we go all right well good afternoon uh mr chairman members of the board uh carrie shepherd here to provide the quarterly presentation uh before i get into the formal presentation though i would like to give you an update on the storm damage currently in almar county we have eight roads closed. Five of those are due to washouts, which means it's going to be a little bit longer term repair. That includes 614 Sugar Hollow Road. I do have an update on that, though. That one they [02:09:49] are actually working on right now, and it should be open later this evening. So that one will come off the list. But in addition to that one as a washout, we have 635 Craigstore Road, 682 Broadax, 811 Bearwood, and 839 Whippoorwill. Whippoorwill and Craigstore and Broadax are going to be a little bit longer term for repair so it could be in excess of two weeks or more because we have to get a contractor in place and then we have three roads that right now are closed for flooding that is 622 Alba Vanna Springs Road 689 Burgess Creek and 712 Plank Road so that is what we are [02:10:27] continuing to work on at this point we are hoping for no more rain okay into my formal presentation so not too much has changed on this slide since I was last here I would like to point out that we do have a public hearing scheduled for the Berkmar connector that's scheduled for November 13th at UVA North Fork and there's the address listed and then I also would like to mention that we are actively trying to include the Route 680 Browns Gap Turnpike Bridge with the bundle project so that they can do the roundabout at 240-250 and the bridge at the same time. The last piece that [02:11:07] they're trying to see if it's feasible is the funding. So if we can figure that out, then hopefully they get rolled in together. As far as our design build bundles, the hydraulic package, they are starting construction of the pedestrian bridge at Zan. There will be a traffic shift. [02:11:27] They were supposed to have that traffic shift this week. I'm not sure if the weather has delayed that a second time or not, but just be aware of that. The traffic will just shift so that they can work in the median to put in start putting in that bridge and then no real updates to bundle number two and then status for our what i'm going to call our more bundle number three which is the hydraulic cedar hill road district avenue roundabout and fontaine interchange improvements we have public hearing tentative for early 2025 and request for design build qualifications in [02:12:02] february so that should be moving along as well as far as rural rustic updates old dominion road construction is complete sutherland road is under construction we did have a pretty severe washout on that road a lot of damage from these storms we're still trying to replace a pretty large pipe and we had a lot of stone wash away so so that one um is going to be under construction probably well the goal is actually to pave it next year so it's going to actually be be um stone put down and let it get compacted through the winter so we can pave it first thing in the spring. Henderson Lane is pending construction that is also going to be prepped but not paved [02:12:42] until next spring and then we have Glendower Road phase one and as a separate project phase two that is in preliminary engineering and will also be readdressed next year. As far as construction activities we have the Afton Mountain Warning System installation that's in progress. [02:13:00] estimated completion date is early next year also ongoing 708 red hill road that one's still moving along estimated completion is still in december but i do want to draw attention to phrase mill road that bridge was completed three months in advance of schedule and is open as far as traffic engineering i do have the truck restriction signage still on the list and we will discuss with the county if we can add Georgetown Road signs to that. But generally speaking, we did confirm that all signs are in place and clearly visible and the appropriate [02:13:40] size as well. We also have Milton Road. It's a curved warning sign review that's also in progress right now. We have Stony Point Road speed and sign review that is also in progress. That's the end of my formal presentation and I will take comments and questions. Thank you. I'll go through order. Supervisor McKeel. Thank you, Carrie. And I mentioned it to the county folks because I know you all work together so closely and talk about the three trucks restriction. What happens is that [02:14:13] we have five signs for Georgetown Road. Three of them are on between Barracks Road and Hydraulic road and by the time you get on the on to georgetown road it's really too late for these trucks i'm just trying to figure out a way to get the name of the road on those three signs that are outside of the road if that makes sense because if you're just driving down barracks road and you see three truck restriction on this route number and they turn on to georgetown road by the time they're on there it's almost too late i just but you were great to look to [02:14:53] to help me with those signs and i really appreciate it but i think they could be more effective also thank you very much for the work on the sidewalk and um i'm sure that i'll be getting some emails before too long if you want to just clarify right now for the georgetown road the problem we've had with the dangerous sidewalk problems? [02:15:15] Yeah, so there has been some falls out there, and they've been reported through work orders. So we had our contractor go out and do a full assessment of Georgetown and hydraulic up to Lambs Road. They presented that back as a report to us, and they identified the different tripping hazards and gave us a cost estimate. [02:15:34] So we're proceeding with getting that work done. They are a little delayed. That's why I haven't gotten back with you on a date yet. they're delayed because of the weather but in the next couple days early next week at the latest i should have some sort of an idea of when they can be out there to make those repairs it's good because we have had people hurt and it's really important to get that done at the same time though i recognize you all are probably overwhelmed right now there's a lot going on i do recognize that and i guess that was one of my questions was um your maintenance budget is only so big and i get that because i [02:16:08] I think we're all aware that VDOT is underfunded based on all the changes in the funding structure and the money that goes into your VDOT. But given the stress right now on the maintenance budget, are you anticipating that there will be things that you'll have to put a hold on or a stop order on in order to deal with some of the storm issues and the repairs? [02:16:35] we have roads that are going to have to be repaired that's expensive yeah we're hoping that we would get some sort of reimbursement depending on the type of project or the cost we won't know that for a long time so to answer your question in short yes but the good thing is as far as major projects we're kind of coming to a little bit of a slowdown because we're coming into winter so that's kind of one good thing about it is coming at a time where we're already going to slow down anyway but it'll it'll be interesting to see how the winter plays out that will affect our budget. And then we'll have to just reassess in the spring of whether we have to kind of put the brakes on some projects and hold off until the new fiscal year. [02:17:14] Yeah. So it's too early to answer my question, really. And I get that. And the winter, of course, is snow and ice and how much you have to spend to clear all of that. Because a lot of the, even the ice, the liquid that you all put down when you're anticipating ice is so expensive. [02:17:30] And I understand that. So it's just always a concern. Agreed. Yeah, well, thank you very much. I appreciate it, and thank you for all the good work. Thank you. Supervisor Pruitt? Very, very simple. The project that is always nearest and dearest to my heart, because I get so many questions about it, Glendower Road, Phase 1 and Phase 2. [02:17:51] I know the other rural rustics you mentioned all have a kind of spring 2025 target date. It sounds like Glendower is also spring or summer 2025. I just wanted to make sure to confirm that, because I don't think you said that explicitly. [02:18:07] Yeah, that would be our goal. We have to work through the priorities as they're listed in the plan. That's why the other roads are kind of slated as first. But, yeah, our goal would be to hit those next year, too, and get both. And that's going to be sequenced, but both within the same calendar year, likely? Yeah, that would be our goal, yeah, to do them both. [02:18:24] Thank you. That's all I have. Thank you. Supervisor Galloway. Hello, Carrie. I know we've got a couple of ongoing things going, so I appreciate the updates on those issues. So the one I brought up prior, I don't think I saw you in the auditorium yet. And I always forget if speed limit changes or requests are through VDOT or through staff, so they're aware of how I feel. [02:18:47] Penn Park Road, sounds like it's been looked at before, but as I made the comment earlier, when you enter, it's posted as 35. All the offshoot roads are 25. You hit speed bumps at the end as you approach Penn Park. [02:19:04] When you're leaving Penn Park, VDOT has a take of 25 around the curve, which really only leaves about 100 yards of 35 when you're exiting the park. I'm not sure why that sign doesn't exist going into the park around the same curve. But it seems that if you were obeying it, a good 75% of this road, you should be doing 25 anyway based on what's posted. [02:19:28] So I'm just asking that that road, with the addition of we have additional residential units that are there of the folks, and we don't have any pedestrian infrastructure, even though a lot of pedestrians are accessing the park down Penn Park Road, that that be looked at to be switched over to 25. [02:19:46] And if there was, they mentioned there was a study done at some point, so I'd obviously want to know the timing of that study, if that was before the additional residential units had gone in or not. But this is one of those things where it just doesn't seem to make sense to me that this would match the speed of Ryo Road. [02:20:02] On a street where houses literally front the road, going into a community asset that a lot of people attend so any assistance or help on trying to get that I'd like to see I would personally like to see the road change down to 25 it just seems to make sense but I always kind of forget the process for these speed limit changes so okay that's a new item thank you oh and the hydraulic one the hydraulic you know Whole Foods where the roundabout is now I know that there are concerns there but I have to admit that that right before that project, I went out as a pedestrian and tried to cross from the Kroger side [02:20:38] over to Whole Foods and kind of paid attention during a busy time. It was in the morning, and it took a long time to be able to cross over there. Same time of day, I went out after the roundabout was in place, and I was able to traverse that intersection as a pedestrian in a way that I didn't have to sprint, even with the sign crossings, and just felt safer doing it, and it didn't take as long as I thought it would. Obviously, it does seem to be that people need to learn what the yield sign means and learn how to yield because it's um i love i don't love bad choice of word but i it's frustrating when folks will criticize infrastructure when it's their [02:21:16] driving skills that are in question because if people were yielding and knew how to properly yield that roundabout would be working effectively so just for what it's worth thank you supervisor Thank you for being here, Karen. Yeah, roundabouts slow traffic down. [02:21:34] That's why you're able to cross the street and everything. I mean, they're fantastic. So I'm going to make another pitch for Gordonsville Road, which is halfway 22, the other half 231 going up to Gordonsville. Because half of it is 45, 22 is 45. [02:21:52] Then from 231 on, it's 50. and with the number of trucks uh we have there these are rural roads with deep ditches there's no place to go you go off the road you're going into a ditch you're going into a tree you're going into a fence uh it's not pretty and it's it it's been happening a lot within the last year we had someone that died uh a guy that was in a truck actually hit a tree and died and we've had i you You probably heard me mention about the Amazon truck. [02:22:30] We've had lots of trucks turn over, turn over, because if someone else is coming that is oversized, boom, then someone's going to go off the road. But I would like to see that reduced from 50 to 45 so we could get additional coverage. [02:22:47] But I do want to ask you, because I know the other roads, we have, you know, Supervisor McKeel, Supervisor Malik. We have truck restrictions. My roads, that one road. We have truck restrictions. [02:23:04] What can we do when the truckers use their mobile phone and not their truck GPS? What's the solution to be able to enforce that? I mean, we can't put up officers at every single road 24 hours a day or even eight hours a day, every day. [02:23:26] Unfortunately, we don't really have any control over that. We've tried through our central office and other avenues to reach out to GPS companies, but we have not had success. So, you know, as far as enforcement, that's not really anything that we can control. And is there a – what about going through the – well, I know we're – our legislative agenda has photo speed cameras on it if we can get that but do you know of any restrictions on trucks where they can the police can give them points on their license instead of [02:24:04] in addition to a ticket that's not something i know all right within the legislature thank you very much thank you and supervisor malik thank you uh so direct ridge was on the washout list yesterday, but it's not one of the ones you mentioned. So the bridge was washed out onto Rhett Ridge in Northern Albemarle. And I don't, so if you happen to know that off the top of your head, otherwise I will drive out there and look. It should be open. I looked at our list and it was, it had just been updated. Okay. Fantastic. So it should be open. Yes. That's great. Thank [02:24:41] you very much. So the Afton Warning, Steve, is that the lights that were, had the public hearing in Stanton six weeks ago? Yes. And because I wasn't able to get to the public hearing, Are these low to the ground, or are they up on high poles, and how is that going to work? I think this is a warning system to alert drivers when there's a slowdown and a backup in congestion. [02:25:03] So it will alert drivers to slow down just to make sure that they know that there's a stop condition ahead. And I think it's just like a normal-sized sign that starts to flash, alerting them that there's either slower or stopped vehicles ahead. [02:25:19] Okay, so more at the driver's height as opposed to 50 feet. live in the air okay so there has been one there by 107 westbound for a long time so but i will double check i will i'm glad to that that's it and not just very high polls with 24 7 big highlights because the migratory bird pathway would be ruined and that is a really important skyway for the whole of the western part of the united states so that was my confusion if that information was i misinterpreted what was in the public hearing before so i'm thrilled with your answer on that I will double-check, though, just a caveat. [02:25:52] Is for the Russet-Perry Senate bill last year, which passed about allowing gravel road funds to be able to be used for redesign and maintenance to solve problems, is that process a VDOT process, or is that a county process? Who needs to work on that so that we can start contributing? [02:26:10] I thought it was going to be this season that we would get a report back from somebody about that, so I need to know. So that's a very good question. That's still being discussed internally about how that's going to play out. We actually have a meeting Friday that I'm going to be attending where we're going to discuss how that works and how that works with the funding, how do they get added, county or us, and who decides what can be done or not. [02:26:34] These are all good questions that we also have. So we are ironing that out as we speak. When we have something finalized, I'll be sure to share it because I know that's a big interest for the county. And different parts of the county have different desires, needs, et cetera, with the users of those particular roads. [02:26:52] So hopefully there will be some kind of public input that's allowed before you write everything in stone, for sure. Is VDOT or the county taking care of the flashing lights at Thamwell High School for speed times when the reduced 25 miles an hour when lights are flashing, which was normally arrival and dismissal, was historically the way to know you were supposed to go 25 instead of 35. But those haven't been working for a couple of weeks, and I just didn't [02:27:28] know who to call if I saw that again. Those are county under permit from us, so it would be the county. Okay, so I'll talk to the county about that. And then I guess perhaps it's an attorney question for later. Do we have the authority to make the whole roadway, or maybe it's you, the whole roadway 25 of that section 25 all the time so that there is not the confusion about the time of day and that's maybe somewhat due to our authority we were received from the legislature last time around but um so in order to change so the speed limit is 35 right so in order to change [02:28:06] it to 25 we would have to do a speed study and it would have to be justified if we were to do that then the school zone would go away completely because there would be no need for it anymore But we could still have the photo speed cameras there to make sure that people who did not behave would get it. [02:28:22] It would no longer be a school zone. But for the locality change in speed limits, that's only on a residential or business district that's already 25 miles an hour. It gives you the ability to lower that to 15 miles an hour. [02:28:38] But if it's more than 25, it's in a different category of consideration. It goes just back like our normal processes for speed studies. Okay. Okay. Well, that throws me in the ditch a little bit there. Okay. I will think about it another way. And you've already addressed the, I'll go back and work some more on Hillsdale and see what I can do about that, or think about how I understand that better. Thank you. Oh, I asked you about the rearrangement. Okay. Yes, I think I'm all squared away. Thank you very much. [02:29:15] thank you i very much appreciate you taking time to come here today knowing all that's going on and i appreciate the update on road closures and washouts but i suspect that there's uh situations a lot worse in some respects i mean those are the roads that are closed uh the damage done to roads that are still open i guess i'm trying to understand um and to help people realize that there's an inspection process but there's a reporting process we can remind people the [02:29:52] reporting process because i think that there are people who are looking at their roads and saying well this is starting to be undercut here the pavement's buckling or if it's a gravel road it's got sections that have they're still passable but they're washed out um is this just a matter of getting people to file reports 1-800-4-ROAD or is it um something that you know there will be an inspection how bad is it do we know at this point uh beyond the closed roads what the status is of a lot of these damaged roads if people report things that would be excellent we can't be [02:30:30] everywhere at once right now so we're just kind of trying to focus it's like putting out one fire at a time um so we are strained for resources we did i left one out because i found out about it on the way here um we found out similar to what you're saying a pipe on 810 um out past um white hall and i don't know the exact the exact location of it but they found that this afternoon and they determined it was serious enough that they're actually doing it right now they're going to open cut the road and replace it so if if we get help from the public that would be great um we're trying to find the things um the problems as fast as we can it's just going to take some time so yeah there [02:31:08] could be things out there right now that we need to address we just don't know about it okay phone calls or even or the internet portal either one yeah the work the work order system is is really good because then it gives us the ability to track it but it also can we get responses back to who submits it so they can track it as well so it's a good yeah it's an easy way to communicate instead of um you know outside of that channel great thank you i certainly encourage people uh because i know we've got a lot of situations like that uh and then i had this is off off the topic in a [02:31:41] in a sense but um report from a constituent it was in a very serious accident on i-64 involving hitting a deer and their concern was whether or not the deer fences get inspected regularly along 64 because the deer was in the median and i don't know whether it used the on ramps and the off ramps or found another way but um to some extent it's uh you know a very difficult problem to solve but i wanted to ask as far as those fences and what the process is for repair [02:32:19] of those not that i i don't know if there's a really specific process but i i do know which we have contractors out on 64 um and they do they do maintain those as much as they know about if there's a break in them um i don't know frequency as i assume when they when they find out that's when they just scheduled the work um uh it's a good question though um i can i can ask and see what that looks like and there is an effort to have those fences i take it everywhere except for obviously where there's access to the public so on the on on ramps and offerings i have i have [02:32:56] nothing further at this time i really appreciate your report do we have other questions or comments Just a comment. We received, Carrie, today a really great report on the pipeline study for Ivy Road and Old Ivy Road, and I just want to thank you and all the folks, the team at VDOT, for getting to, because that was a lot of work to do, and I just appreciate the work, because those are hugely important, both of those pipeline studies are hugely important, and really deal with safety in this community. [02:33:28] So thank you. It was a great report. And I know this whole board appreciated getting the update on specifically the Abbey Road and the Old Abbey Road. So thanks. Thank you. [02:33:44] Thank you. Thank you, Gary. Thank you. Board, that brings us to item 14, which is a closed meeting. Do we have a motion? Yes. I would like to move that the Board of Supervisors convene a closed meeting pursuant to Section 2.2, TAC 3711A. [02:34:00] The Code of Virginia, under subsection 1, to discuss and consider appointments to various boards and commissions, including, without limitation, the Crozet Community Advisory Committee, the Historic Preservation Committee, the Jontz Board, the Jefferson Area Board for Aging, the Monticello Area Community Action Agency, the Places 29 North Community Advisory Committee, the Social Services Advisory Board, and the Village of Rivanna Community Advisory Committee. [02:34:24] Second. We have a motion from Supervisor Pruitt, a second from Supervisor Malick. without objection for Kirk, we'll call the roll. Ms. Malik? Yes. Ms. McKeel? Yes. Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Mr. Andrews? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. LaPista-Kirtley? Aye. Thank you. [04:59:54] And then last time, I'll forget. Good evening. Call us back to session. I believe we have a meeting coming out of closed session. Yes. Motion. I would like to move that the Board of Supervisors certify by a recorded vote that to the best of each supervisor's knowledge only in public business matters lawfully exempted from the open meeting requirements of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act and identified in the motion authorizing the closed meeting were heard, discussed, or considered in the closed meeting. [05:00:23] Second. We have a motion from Supervisor Pruitt, a second from Supervisor Malek. Without objection, the court will call the roll. Ms. Malek? Yes. Ms. McKeel? Yes. Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Mr. Andrews? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. Lapista-Kirtley? Aye. Thank you. And I believe we have a motion coming out of closed meeting. [05:00:39] We do. I will read all of the appointments for the boards and commissions as one motion, and For the Crozet Community Advisory Committee, Wallace Barrett Johnson. For the Historic Preservation Committee, Charles Chapman. [05:00:57] For the Jefferson Area Board for Aging, Cameron Mowat. Monticello Area Community Action Agency, Crystal Bland. Places 29 North Community Advisory Committee, Misty Parson. social services advisory board janine braithwaite and zarina burge village of rivana community advisory committee judy hudley hundley i'm sorry second we have a motion from supervisor mikhail second from supervisor malik without objection if the clerk will call the roll ms malik yes ms [05:01:34] mikhail yes mr pruitt hi mr andrews yes mr galloway yes miss lapisto kirtley i thank you uh board our next item is from the county executive and i know we don't have a regular report today but we have we should yes sir as you referred to at the beginning of the meeting we have our fire chief here this evening dan eggleston and i'll ask chief eggleston if he would to come to the board and the focus tonight would be on the storm work and effort that's going on and has been going on across albemore county our region and anything that chief eggleston feels would be [05:02:09] relevant. And thank you, sir. Well, thank you. Well, good afternoon or evening, board chair and members of the board. My name is Dan Eggleston, chief of fire rescue. I'm here to talk about sort of an overview of our response to the storm that worked its way up through the commonwealth earlier this week or last week as well. On the way up here, it's, you know, it's odd to think that we weren't that long ago that we were before you talking about how the wildfires scorched hundreds of acres and threatened the lives and homes of many people in the county, which then led into [05:02:47] discussions about the drought that we had over the summer. Now I'm standing before you to talk about the floods that happened from the remnants of the hurricane. You know, I hate to say it, but I think this is just our new normal, unfortunately. But I thought I'd just give you a quick overview of what what we did to prepare what we saw in terms of damage and the challenges and then maybe circle back and talk about what we can do to learn from this experience and and really focus on what we can do perhaps to mitigate some of these efforts but um you know as usual anytime we see activity out in the golf or in the in the atlantic we start planning right [05:03:25] away so we pulled our team together and really focused in on what we can do to prepare ourselves best for this storm, which we activated our emergency team, which we also use online program to bring people together to generate action plans and scenarios that we can then respond to as things start to unfold. I will say that this particular event, I wanted to highlight two high performers in this event, one of which is our National Weather Service, which is managed out of Sterling, virginia it's a great group of folks that not only provide us with with really good information [05:04:03] but you can pick up the phone and call them and they can discuss and give you pinpoint information about what will happen to our county and that is so valuable because as you can imagine we have 723 square miles we're trying to figure out you know how this is going to be impacted and we can't do it alone but the other group too is that ravanna water and sewer you know they were instrumental in helping us get a better picture from their gauges and what they're seeing at their reservoirs to what impact that's going to mean to our citizens downstream. So they were [05:04:37] online 24 hours a day providing updated information and also have recently reached out to talk about what they can do even more now that we've learned from this experience. But I just wanted to mention that great work and we really appreciate those partners you know as I mentioned it one of our challenges is that our county is so big 723 square miles it's really difficult to get a situational awareness of what's going on we rely on a handful of gauges to let us know about the streams but that's very limited a lot of times we get information quite frankly from our public [05:05:16] safety staff our firefighters and police officers are out there on the street all the time and while that's great usually it's a result of an emergency and we want to know some of this information ahead of time so um we are trying to work towards uh establishing some better partnerships with dcr and the national weather service to see if we can replicate some of the great work they've done with gauges along the rivers to see if we can spread those out throughout the county and get a better picture of what what's going on in cases like this um you know i would say that um uh it's still a challenge and even as we talked about earlier um supervisor malik and i've had lots of conversations [05:05:56] even applicable to our drought we've got to do a better job of trying to get our arms around what's happening with the environment in our own county but it's going to require a lot of a lot of partnership um this particular event really sort of came in three waves we had the event right before the hurricane as it moved its way up which caused a significant amount of damage that's what probably hit Batesville the hardest is that first storm it caused flooding to many houses along Batesville it washed out the road washed out some private bridges then then we had another wave that [05:06:31] worked through Sunday night into early Monday as well Friday night as well but the one that worked through on Sunday night also created flooding at Misty Mountain Campground which caused us to evacuate many campers along that area as well. So these events caused several cases in which cars were swept off the road and the occupants had to be rescued. But we're very thankful that there were no serious injuries as a result of any of this happening. But I think that's just luck. [05:07:03] And I think we're very fortunate not to have those turn into anything more than they were. Keep in mind while we're doing that, that's sort of above and beyond our normal duties. I just want to let you know that during that period we also had three very significant hazardous materials caused both in transportation and fixed facilities as well as three significant structure fires one resulted in a fatality in the eastern southeastern portion of the county so our fire marshals were very busy trying to determine that so the ability to do our normal job as well as to staff up and [05:07:39] respond to something like this is really important and i'm so grateful for for all of our folks volunteers and career that, you know, train and prepare to do this kind of work. They really stepped up again this time and did a wonderful job. So looking forward, I think we've already had a hot wash of what we learned already. We think there's a couple opportunities. First is to go back and help put together a better way to understand what's happening in our county from a weather point of view. We're going to follow up on that. But I also think there's an opportunity [05:08:14] particularly related to the Batesville area, there might be a mitigation opportunity down there. I know that Senator Deeds has reached out and offered assistance through his office. When the dust clears from the Department of Emergency Management, we're going to engage with them to see if is there an opportunity in Batesville as a pilot, perhaps, to do some mitigation projects to lessen the impact of future flooding. [05:08:41] I know that at least three or four homes were flooded at least twice, if not three times. And so it's likely to happen again. Stillhouse Creek was raging pretty high through that area. [05:08:56] It washed out the road, and a couple of areas washed out a lot of private bridges. So the community is very interested. It's one of the more engaged communities I've dealt with. I was down there talking to the community, and we were brainstorming about ways they can step up and help. [05:09:14] But I think also we just need to keep an eye on our additional threats. I think climate change is a real thing, and I think we just need to be prepared to not only respond, but look at other ways in which we can perhaps mitigate some of those risks, because we're going to likely see this happen more and more often. [05:09:32] And I'm not just saying that, but I think it's something that I've seen in my career. It's the frequency and the intensity of these events are increasing. We also have reached out to some of our surrounding communities, especially in southwest Virginia and North Carolina. [05:09:52] We're working now with the ECC. I think there's an opportunity for them to help out some of those communities with some dispatchers and call takers. We're trying to help facilitate that. We also have some staff that are volunteering to go out and help to reach some remote areas in North Carolina to bring needed food and water and medicine to those communities that are cut off. [05:10:16] Now that some of that search and rescue efforts have died down, a lot of those state and federal resources will leave those areas, and they're going to need long-term support. So we want to be in a position to help them out as much as other people have helped us out over the years. [05:10:32] So I'll be more than happy to answer any questions you all have. That's just a quick overview of what we experienced and I'll be more than happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you. We'll go through our order. Supervisor McKeel. First, just we all thank you and the team and all the – and we're really glad that all of you all are safe and our community members are safe, and we really appreciate it. [05:10:59] These times, though, do present, as you just said, an opportunity to say, okay, how can we do it better? And I really appreciate that, looking at it. And maybe there will be some lessons that we can learn from North Carolina and what they have struggled with. [05:11:19] But thank you very much. Sure. I appreciate it. I don't have any real questions, but I do appreciate all yours, everybody's hard work. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Prood? Brett? I join my peers in thanking you and your team for all the hard work you've done. [05:11:36] You know, I was sharing with some of my peers earlier that my family's from the Western Carolinas. That's where I grew up. My father still does not have power and probably will not for a week more, and that's true of most folks down there. It is troubling that as bad as the last week has been here in Albemarle County, it could have been so much worse, and that is not something that feels comfortable to say. [05:12:02] I mean, we look at the levee there churning along down in Scottsville, And we look at that and we say, oh, yes, it could have been so much worse if we did not have this kind of preparation and this kind of technological advancement that's protecting us. [05:12:18] I am curious, especially when I compare kind of how we've endured this last week, I am not familiar with any major utility strain that we've seen, like you have seen in other parts of Appalachia. [05:12:35] They're kind of downed power lines, kind of outages, the kind of those debris, also them blocking things with live wires. Is this something that your office has been tracking on significantly? Because when I think climate change, I think utilities strain, first and foremost. We do. [05:12:51] We have a good relationship with Dominion Energy and the cooperatives that serve Albemarle. In fact, we have a dashboard that we can monitor outages. I think one of the reasons that we didn't see that level of activity is mainly the winds didn't materialize like we thought. they kept below around 20 miles an hour we were really concerned if the winds were gusting higher with the wet weather that that would create lots of issues in terms of power but we really lucked out in that case the winds really didn't materialize as much as we thought um another thing i just wanted to touch on you mentioned briefly the the really tragic fire in the in the scottsville [05:13:28] district that occurred during the same time um have any of the structure fires or any other instance we've seen been in fact triggered by the uh the flooding and the rainfall we've seen because that was my first thought when i heard the release um we're not sure the one in scottsville still undetermined they have some things to um follow up on uh the the priority was is to make the family lived out of state so we want to make sure they were in a good spot when they came down from new york but they're continuing to investigate that right now at this point we're not sure if it as related to the weather. [05:14:01] Thank you. That's all I have. Thank you. Supervisor Gallagher. Thank you, Chief. Appreciate the update and everything that everyone's been doing. I think the only thing I would add, and I'm not looking necessarily for a response here tonight. [05:14:17] That's not why I'm bringing it up. But I see Mr. Harper here. And in the past, sometimes we talk about our water infrastructure and how it moves. And a lot of times it's the, you know, we talk about the stormwater infrastructure in the urban area, but it's more these natural areas that depending on what's in them, you can't stop the water. But if something's blocking that surge of water coming and then it releases, then you have a kind of a double surge that happens. And I know that going out and investigating all of that infrastructure is moving as quickly as it can, but it's not a well-budgeted area [05:14:55] necessarily. I'm not saying it's underfunded, but it's probably not funded to get past the gray or the pipes and things that are in there um so i would you know when we see an emergency like this or things like this start to happen it leads me to go well as you said if we can do opportunities for improvement seeing what's in the way if big water does come and what can we do to mitigate that whether it's helping working with private landowners or whoever to keep our known infrastructure areas clear so if all that water does come it's not getting multiplied because there's things lying in wait to hold the water up and then release again so i think that's something worth [05:15:33] talking about come budget time and i don't i guess jeff i've never thought about emergency we have contingency funding for emergencies so you know we don't know what could happen and those are there for those reasons to go to that but when you talk about like river gauges i think like if you're trying to do emergency preparedness if it doesn't if it if we thought about putting aside a budget line item just for things like that so it's not hitting one department's budget i don't know just thinking out loud when i heard him say that but just throwing out there is food for thought but um did you see a lot of debris happening i mean [05:16:12] obviously we do actually i'm not talking litter i'm just talking like the trees and the things that tons tons of debris um actually when i was visiting uh batesville greg harper was out there with me we were commenting on the enormous amount of silt that came through batesville that's going to end up in the basin there in Crozet. It's going to fill up that basin. And that's happening everywhere in the county. I think, you know, I'm not a civil engineer, but I think it's going to cause us to start looking at things perhaps like cutover areas and things [05:16:48] that could exacerbate the erosion and maybe think about perhaps how we could regulate something like that, because just watching that firsthand, it concerns you, because where's all that debris going? And then what does it do, as you say, that sets you up for the next event? There could be a log jam that's going to cause even more flooding. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Lopisto-Curtley. Well, speaking of our culverts and pipes and everything, I'm going to ask Mr. [05:17:18] Richardson, I understand where we currently do have a, we currently are looking, sending cameras down all the culverts and pipes and everything in the county and i know that's at a huge huge cost but i think that's progressing or we haven't have we started that yet it it is underway and in fact mr harper's here uh with our facilities and environmental services and he's he's he's a key part of that program and and if the board i don't remember off the top of my head how long it's been since we've had an update or we've gotten you some information on that but i can certainly [05:17:54] check with facilities and environmental services and get something back to the board on that okay that would be nice to get an update because i think that's very important especially with all everything that's going through every you know the debris and such and i want to congratulate you also on getting another safer grant thank you that will also help us uh to get additional firefighters and the mts so congratulations on that um but thank you for everything you do keeping our county safe and and being being prepared so you're you're going you're forward [05:18:32] thinking which is i think something we all appreciate well and i just want to point out this is such a big team effort you know this county outside of fire rescue and pd you know we've got some great partners that come to the table in time of need it really makes this kind of event go much smoother because we're all committed and i appreciate that supervisor malik thank you um i really appreciate all the comments you've made about our planning [05:19:04] ahead and thinking about the velocity that comes off the mountain sides and one of my constituents reached out to me because the mountain right behind the dairy queen in crozet that iconic view the rain came the water came flying down that mountain jumped the fill then jumped the ditches on Buck Road and completely demolished property down below, not the house, but the huge destruction of everything. So I think people perhaps underestimate the force that is generated [05:19:37] by Mother Nature in these circumstances, which can be truly scary. I was alarmed by what you said about how the search and rescue has moved on to other places, but isn't there federal recovery dollars and things that will be coming, I hope, for these poor people who have lost everything under the sun there is usually we're i'm talking about search and rescue teams both state and federal they'll they're usually have about a two week two and a half week deployment and then they go back but then then fema brings in recovery specialists usually small business loans and and other experts that can help walk people through recovery i mean but that's a long process [05:20:14] i mean these communities it'll it'll take years to recover and it's it's on top of their normal work too so they're going to need some help long term that's why we want to be able to prepare perhaps send people down to relieve them so they can get a break that kind of thing and i say this because the community i was involved with before i came to albemarle we had a significant flood and it took us several years to recover from that and it was a lot of work well just seeing on the images on tv of the just the floating destruction and where is all that stuff gonna go and how will you ever get get it moved it's just mind-boggling but i'm so grateful and look [05:20:51] forward to more discussion locally about all the planning you're doing i was thinking back to the derecho in 2012 and the m&m after that or the the after whatever after action report after that talking about changes for sheltering and things which you've already incorporated to have places closer to home for our faraway rural folks and places where they can take their pets because they won't leave home without them that's for sure and then the may 29th of 2018 at our house we received 11 inches of rain in six hours it was massive destruction so that's my only reference point about what happened on our property compared to what's happening in these places where they had [05:21:30] 17 inches in i mean holy mackerel so while it wasn't hurricane camille it was still mind-boggling for for us in our circumstance so i love this idea of having an extra budget outside the budget of any department things so that there are ways that we can move some of these things forward because you know having showers at more of our fire stations that the public could go to in a desperate situation where it's 95 degrees for 10 days and there's no power those kinds of things make so much difference for our citizens and i remember uh the memorable for many reasons but [05:22:04] june 6 2011 meeting and the commander from fort belvar was standing at the podium talking back then about the biggest national defense threat that the United States face is climate change. And sadly, we haven't nationally faced that very well in the last 13 years, but we've got to now, no question about it. [05:22:25] But thank you all for what you do. Thank you. Thank you for coming here and taking time now at this very in the moment. But I think what you're hearing is the receptiveness to finding ways to help make sure we remain resilient, continue to do what we can. [05:22:42] prepare ourselves for more of the same. I appreciate the shout out to Batesville. I've certainly been impressed by the way the communities come together to help each other. And I think that's going to be key in many areas. So I applaud them and I'm grateful that you've been able to get out there and see what they're dealing with. And I also very much applaud your forward thinking on this and looking for ways that we can try to mitigate, you know, future damages. I am reminded that the Misty Mountain situation is something that's had several iterations now of having to go [05:23:19] rescue or otherwise help out, and I hope we can find ways in that case and in others to work with people to see if we can make problems a little less severe as they go forward. Thank you very much for being here. Do you have additional questions? I'm sorry, I forgot. In that Misty mountain recovery situation do we have i know that if there's a fire which begins there are recovery costs and things in addition to the horrendous risk to our rescue people which in fast running water i can't imagine being in a boat trying to help 12 people and dogs and everything [05:23:58] else get to safety but i don't know if we have any ability to use the same category of response as a way to make people aware of the fact that you don't just get to go put rescue people at risk and not because you're not doing your job and so that's lots to learn on that whole element of enforcement and accountability when we have special permit activities or or other thank you yeah and and i will say too that um you know we we were scheduled to to review that and look at that situation a little closer i think that the folks there are in the same position we are [05:24:33] even though there was a lot of rain i think the water suddenly rose quickly perhaps these gauges we're talking about a gauge would be appropriate in that case to give them early warning that they they know that something is coming um so we're trying to uh again create a situation where people can help themselves but also we can generate a good a good clean clearer picture of what's happening around our county thank you uh yes mr richardson not to be redundant just a couple of thoughts board um because mr eggleston chief eggleston is here this evening a couple of [05:25:09] thoughts one is uh uh dan mentioned our partnership with ravanna water and sewer authority and i really really want to publicly thank fire rescue and the other county departments for how they have looked to partner with a key partner agency with our water authority uh and this is a good example related to community safety and dan emphasizing that they were with us through this most recent event 24/7 trying to provide critical information that helps our our fire rescue folks it helps with deployment it helps with staffing it [05:25:47] helps to identify what's coming down the pike next and so that that is a tribute both to our fire chief our public safety departments but also Bill Moyer and his team over at Ravana so I didn't want to say say that out loud the The other thing that I wanted to say to the board, and the board did a nice job of thanking Chief Eggleston, but our finance officer is in the back of the room and, you know, I just don't take it lightly that we moved swiftly during the budget process and Dan, his team, [05:26:23] Alyssa Mazzoni, along with the team in Jacob's department, we quickly put together our fourth safer grant fema safer grant application and when i was at national icma i was with a manager in a uh education session who who was not successful in in getting one of those grants uh a manager from a local government manager he talked a little bit about what his challenges were and it it was a riveting reminder to me of how competitive those grants are so it really speaks [05:26:57] well for fire rescue, our finance team, and how we've managed the first three. And on this fourth grant, we've been successful. Frankly, Chief Eggleston told me earlier this year, he said, Jeff, I don't know. I don't know if we'll be successful. It's going to be difficult. [05:27:12] And we got it. And it's $1.74 million. It's going to allow Dan to hire seven firefighters, And it's going to be for a key part of our community to bolster the career service along with the volunteer services in fire rescue that we need. [05:27:34] You'll hear more about this as we go into the budget process because as we have stacked these over several years now, we will continue to pay attention to the federal money and how that steps away and then how the local money steps in. [05:27:49] But it is a good strategy that's paid dividends for the county. Without Dan's leadership and support of finance, we wouldn't be here where we are right now. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you, Dan. [05:28:04] Be safe. Appreciate it. Next up is from the public. Public matters on the agenda but not listed for public hearing are on matters previously considered by the board or matters that are pending before the board. Now, I'll look to see if there are any signs, but I do want to make a note that there are several public hearings that will follow, but one of them we've been asked will be asking for a deferral. [05:28:28] That's the 1193 Seminole Trail. So if anyone is here to speak on that, they may want to speak for matters from the public because there won't be a public hearing if the board agrees to the deferral. Are there? We can. Okay. Well, with that, we will move to our first public hearing, which is a public hearing to consider a one-time payment of monetary bonus to employees. And this is presented by Jessica Rice, Director of Human Resources. Welcome. Good evening. So thank you. I'm Jessica Rice, [05:29:05] the Director of Human Resources. And tonight's public hearing is in consideration of adopting an ordinance, approving a one-time monetary bonus to covered, benefit-eligible county employees and employees of other partner agencies as named in that draft ordinance. After approving the implementation of phase two of our comp and class study in January of 2023, the Board of Supervisors did not provide a base salary increase in the FY25 adopted budget. We had received our pay increase [05:29:41] six months prior to that. However, the FY25 adopted budget did include funding in a salary and benefits reserve for consideration of a potential one-time payment for staff at some point during FY25. The request this evening is to utilize the funds previously set aside to provide a one-time bonus for staff to help offset rising health care costs, child care, and other economic [05:30:12] As outlined in the draft ordinance, a one-time payment of $1,000 is being recommended for full-time covered benefits eligible staff who are employed prior to January 1, 2025 in prorated amounts for covered eligible part-time staff in accordance with their designated FTE assignment. [05:30:37] This recommendation is in alignment with the county's strategic plan, goal number six, workforce stabilization and customer service to recruit and retain engaged public servants who provide quality government services to advance our mission. [05:30:55] Thank you. Thank you. We'll go to our other questions. Supervisor McHugh. I don't have any questions, Jessica. Thank you. Supervisor Pruitt. Can you help me get an understanding of what the universe of uncovered individuals would look like? [05:31:12] I'm guessing this is, I guess, part-time county employees who work less than 19 hours. Is that right? So the uncovered employees would essentially be our temporary staff that are not benefit eligible. And also we have constitutional officers who draw down salaries as dictated by the state. [05:31:35] and that's largely who we're talking about as far as uncovered employees okay thank you yeah thank you supervisor galloway thank you miss rice this is more curiosity we approve does it does it just get immediately processed like when does the actual bonus hit for the employees that's a great question so what we're planning to do is this would be a mid-year bonus and any staff that are that are employed and on board with us prior to january 1 would be eligible for that as long as they're on that approved list, and they would receive it on January 17th through normal payroll processing. [05:32:14] Awesome. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor LePiesto-Curtley? I have no questions. I am supportive. Thank you. Supervisor Malek? Not a question, but I appreciate the plan to offer a choice of how people might receive it. [05:32:29] I think that's very sensitive and important, so thank you for that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for the presentation, and at this point, we'll open the public hearing. Do we have anyone signed up to speak? We do not. We will close the public hearing, and the matter is back before the board. [05:32:47] Any additional comments, questions, statements you would like to make? Then we're looking for a motion in the form, I believe, of attachment A. I move the board adopt the proposed ordinate attachment A. Second. We have a motion from Supervisor McKeel, a second from Supervisor Malik. [05:33:06] Without objection, the clerk will call the roll. Ms. Ballett? Yes. Ms. McKeel? Yes. Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Mr. Andrews? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. LaPista? Kirtley? Aye. Thank you. Board, our next item is a request relating to ZMA 2023-01-1193 Seminole Trail for a deferral. [05:33:31] And I believe we need a motion. Mr. Chair, I'd suggest that the applicant be recognized to make the request of the board. Okay. Thank you. We received an email, but I think it's better to get it in person. So welcome, Ms. Long. [05:33:47] Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the board. Valerie Long with Williams Mullen, representing the applicant and now owner of the property. We apologize for the very short notice, but we are hoping to see if there's a way we can perhaps update the application and working with others to get it a little bit closer to what the Planning Commission was looking for, and I think would also be well-received by the board as well. [05:34:12] We don't know. We're hopeful, and so we would respectfully request a deferral to a date, undetermined date in the future. We're not sure when we'll be ready to come back, hopefully in the next month or so, but we're not certain, and I wouldn't want to request a date certain without knowing if we'll be able to meet that date. May I ask if this is also likely to require the Planning Commission to take action again? The Planning Commission's already acted, Sorry, the Planning Commission has already acted on this, so it can come directly back to the board at this point if it's deferred. [05:34:47] Thank you. Does the board have any exploding timer underneath us on this? So the request for a deferral, since it's made by the applicant, tolls any timeline that the county has to review it. Are there any questions or concerns? [05:35:06] And I would look for a motion to defer from the supervisor of the district. So I move we grant the deferral request for ZMA 2023-1, 1193 Seminole Trail. Second. We have a motion from Supervisor Galloway, a second from Supervisor Malik. Without objection, the clerk will call the roll. Ms. Malik? Yes. Ms. McKeel? Yes. Mr. Pruitt? [05:35:28] Aye. Mr. Andrews? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. Leguister? Kirtley? Aye. The matter is deferred. Thank you. Board, this brings us to another public hearing. This is a solar power purchase agreement, PPA, lease at Fifth Street County Office Building, and this is being presented by Mr. Bill Struthers, Chief of Facilities and Operations of the Facilities and Environmental Services. [05:35:55] Good evening, Chair Andrews, fellow board members. So the public hearing tonight is related to a lease of the roof space on the Fifth Street County Office Building. [05:36:11] This lease is directly in relation to a solar PV project that our fed staff has been working on developing over the last several months. In order to achieve this project through the power purchase agreement, which we're using so that there's no county funds that are needed for the project, one of the elements of that actually requires a lease of the roof space for the 5th Street County Office Building. [05:36:39] I'm going to quickly turn this over to Jamie Powers. He's our Climate Protection Project Manager. He has been the champion on this project, developing it with the solar provider and developing the system and the process. So he's going to give a little explanation on how the system works and how the process works, and then we'll talk more about the lease. [05:37:00] Welcome, Mr. Powers. Good evening, Mr. Chair, members of the board. Jamie Powers, Climate Action Project Manager. we have a new program title we're now climate action instead of climate protection so that's exciting so i'm excited to share a little bit more context and details for this project for you all tonight happy to answer any questions after the briefing so as you all know the board adopted our climate action plan in 2020 and within that plan there are several relevant strategies from a couple of different chapters that kind of call into question this project you can see [05:37:40] those strategies on the slide in front of you, and so I won't take too much time to read through them. The main one is B7, which is about making investments in renewable energy, particularly at local government buildings. For context, also within the climate action plan, the board called for staff to put together GHG, or greenhouse gas emission inventories, for the community of Albemarle beyond county government on a biannual basis. As you can see in the provided graph, [05:38:19] this is something that our program has actually done on an annual basis from 2018 through 2022. And just as a kind of note, because our process relies on federal data sources, we are always going to be a couple years behind because those agencies are always a couple years behind with the data that we need for those inventories. But this gives you an overall sense of the trends that we've been seeing over the last several years. And given the board's targets of a reduction by 2030 [05:38:54] of 45 percent of our 2008 emissions and net zero emissions by 2050, we obviously have some work ahead of us and this is a great example of the county being a leader and showing as an example to the community what is possible and that we are actually sort of leading by example through a project like this. So power purchase agreement is the format that this project is taking and what that means essentially is that we have a solar developer, in this case Sun Tribe Solar, and we [05:39:32] lease the roof space or we would lease the roof space to the developer for them to have access to install the facility the solar energy generation facility the developer would own and maintain the system so if anything you know if a panel goes down or something like that the developer comes in and takes care of that they're responsible for all of the maintenance it is a 30-year term of agreement and so it's for the entire length of that term that they would own and maintain that system we as the name implies would purchase the solar power from sun tribe just as we would [05:40:08] purchase energy from another utility so that's where the name comes from and that's how the arrangement would work as bill mentioned there is no initial investment no down payment and so that's a financial benefit to the county for sure and then over time because of how the pricing is agreed to in the contract we end up saving as i'll go go into in a moment quite a significant amount of money over the course of the 30-year term in terms of impact and this speaks to [05:40:42] both b7 as well as r3 from our cap strategies this is going to allow us to meet about half of the county office building's energy needs over the course of that 30 years to contextualize that in terms of our emissions reduction goals that's about 10,000 tons of carbon dioxide over the course of the 30 years or the equivalent of removing over 2,000 cars from county roads for one year just to give you a sense of scale there and over that 30 years we're going to save 1.2 [05:41:17] million dollars through the cost savings the graph that you can see in front of you just to give a little explainer the green and blue areas together is sort of the expected market rate over the 30 years and how that is expected to grow given historical trends the green area of the graph is what it is going to cost us this is a hypothetical these are not real figures although we have obviously real figures to back some of this up given the expected cost savings and then the blue area represents the delta the difference between where the market is and where our costs are going [05:41:54] to be so that's just to give you a bit of a sense there the last thing that i'll share before turning it over to bill is just a visual of the potential areas of cob fifth street's roof that we could put solar panels on there are some technical questions that need to be addressed to make sure that all of these spaces are appropriate for panels but this being a public facing facility [05:42:19] This is also a great opportunity for that community engagement that is part of strategy B4 from the CAP, where you can incorporate signage and have educational events for staff at the facility about the importance of and how solar energy works so that they understand kind of how they're playing a role in our climate action. [05:42:40] So with that, I'll hang around for any questions, but I'll turn it over to Bill to close out the presentation. So just a quick recap, it's a 30-year lease on the roof space of the county office building. [05:42:56] The provider will have access to it prearranged through facilities. They won't have free access to the facility. They'll be responsible for the system. They'll also be responsible for any damage caused to the roof from directly related to the PV system. They will, again, they will fully maintain the system on all aspects, the inverters, the solar panels. [05:43:19] They will also, we also have an option, several different options during the 30-year lease that the county chooses, we could purchase the system at fair market value at 7-year, 15-year, and then at the final end of the system's lease agreement. [05:43:36] And 30 years, it would probably be likely that that's about the time the roof needs to be replaced. So we also had the option for them to just remove the system completely at no cost to the county, which then we could replace the roof and potentially get into another PPA agreement with a newer upgraded system that's more efficient. [05:43:55] Right before this presentation, I had actually run some numbers from the energy usage for Cobb 5th Street over the last 12 months. And the rating of this system will actually provide about 58% of the energy usage for COP5 being renewable versus off-grid. [05:44:14] With that, staff recommends that the board adopt the resolution to authorize the county executive to sign a proposed lease agreement in support of the power purchase agreement. And we'll take any questions, as you guys may have. Thank you. We'll go through an order for questions. Supervisor McKeel? Yes, thank you both for your great presentations. [05:44:34] In my head, I think about this in a similar way because the county school system has put solar panels on their school buildings. So this is sort of the same process. I mean, it may not be exactly, but it's a similar. Yeah, it actually is very similar, almost the exact same. [05:44:52] They actually, I believe, went through a power purchase agreement as well. So they were able to put PV systems on many of their schools without any initial investment to them, but still get the benefits of actually using renewable energy for those sites. [05:45:08] I thought it sounded vaguely familiar. So I'm very supportive because it's worked beautifully. The school system has a little bit of a track record of doing it with multiple schools, so this is really great. I do have a question, and this is probably wackadoodle. [05:45:23] And just tell me, Diantha, that is not something we have to even worry about. But it does come to mind because something a friend mentioned to me recently. What happens to solar panels with hailstorms? [05:45:41] Generally, the panels are designed specifically to withstand a certain amount of hail and certain size. They're pretty resilient. I'm not going to say that we have a tremendous hailstorm with baseball or softball-sized hail. [05:45:58] It's not going to bode well for the panels. But general hail that we would normally receive, heavy sleet, small hail, the panels generally can withstand those without significant damage. There may be a panel here or there. With that power purchase agreement, it's up to the solar provider to repair those panels or replace those panels if they are damaged. [05:46:19] So it's not declared an act of God and they're not going to touch it. They will replace them. That's written in. And the reason I ask is because I have a friend that was telling me recently that their insurance went up almost 40%. [05:46:36] And when they called about it, they were told because they have a metal roof. And the insurance companies were having so much trouble with hail and metal roofs. and it's causing just and it made me because i wasn't sure how how these solar panels reacted to hail yes well they're they're not going to be as resilient as a metal roof um you know you may have crackings i mean it it it they will sustain some damage right if with heavy yeah but the key is it's in the policy and the agreement and we have that covered yes so that's excellent so that was [05:47:11] the only question i oh i see you're coming forward and madam supervisor just to add two more points one it is in the interest of the solar developer to keep as many solar panels running as they can because that's how they generate the energy for which they get paid and then the other piece just to kind of put this on the record that there is no substance in the panels that kind of leaks out That's a piece of misinformation that we hear a lot, but that's not something that actually happens in case it does get struck by something like a hailstone. [05:47:47] And I had not heard that, but I'm glad you declared that not a problem. Thank you. Thank you. This was very interesting. I really appreciate it. And I am very supportive because it's worked very successfully for the schools. Excellent. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Pruitt. [05:48:03] In the materials that you all have provided, and I think in the presentation, You touched on the fact that this is going to be, we're going to have better cost saving than if we had tried to do it our own rather than partnering with SunTribe through the solar purchase agreement, which I assume means that SunTribe is doing something else that makes it work, because that on its face would imply that they're not making a profit, which doesn't sound like something a company would do, which I in turn assumes means that they are capturing some kind of tax credit assistance that makes it profitable for them. [05:48:37] could you help me understand why we can't do that why we can't do initial capital uh investments and as a county capture those state or federal tax credits yes thanks for the question uh mr supervisor so there currently is no money in the budget for such a move it would in fact be a a long-term cost savings if we were to purchase the system ourselves that would be a more of a cost savings than the PPA. Just given the situation and the fact that we really want to make this [05:49:15] project happen, this seemed like the best option. And in addition to the federal tax credits that are available, they are also able to trade the renewable energy credits that they generate through the project. So that's another benefit that they see. Did that address all the questions? [05:49:33] And that was kind of my suspicion. I guess I was just, I was interested in how large that delta is just as we you know prepare for another budget season if this is something that we want to continue doing to other county properties i don't think there's as many as much large roof space as we have at cob 5th street but um whether or not it's a large enough delta to be worth considering where you characterize it makes me think it's probably not 30 years is a long time to be calculating our losses and profits so it works if you're a private company maybe not if you're a government delivering services like i always say thank you all for your work sir [05:50:09] supervisor calloway thank you both i have no questions supervisor lupisto kirtley yes just one question you on one of the slides where you showed uh at cob fifth they were covered in blue there's one gray building so excuse me for not knowing is that gray building to the right hours the the gray area is actually a domed metal roof that covers the upper floor where fire and rescue and the Virginia co-op is located, so it's not really situated well to put that on there. [05:50:45] When we, two years ago, I believe, we did the roof replacement at COV-5, we actually designed it to be solar-ready with thicker membrane. We did a load analysis on the roof, and these were the areas that were identified that are most ideal for the panels to go. [05:51:02] The back area is obviously the parking lot, and we also tried to keep some of the panels away from the center of that back area because that's where the tower is. So there's a possibility of ice forming, and it could get there. So we were expanding to keep them away from that. Got it. Thank you. No other questions. [05:51:19] Thank you. Supervisor Malin? Thank you. This is exciting stuff. So I know that EPA is doing a new rulemaking about solar panels as solid waste and how they're to be managed. So my question, and I may have missed it, not being a lawyer, those long 30-page things are difficult for me. [05:51:40] Is there any consideration of requiring proper disposal of whatever the current rules are at the time, federally, for when the decommissioning happens? Have you thought about that at all? Because I know there are cadmium and other stuff in there that has to be managed in the right way. [05:51:57] You can't just chuck them in a ditch. So I want to know. I'm not sure offhand right now, but we can share the relative content that's in the agreement. I would like to assume that they would process them. The rare minerals and materials that are in them would be more worth otherwise to recycle versus to dispose of. [05:52:20] I think what's recyclable is the question. Is it really bona fide, recyclable, or is it like plastics, which really isn't? So that's a question I don't have the answer for, but I know it's out there. Lots of smarter people than I are working on that. Yes, we can definitely share the agreement. [05:52:38] And just following up on that question, I guess I'm assuming these are your typical large-scale utility silicon-based panels. So I don't know if the cadmium thin film is a totally different type of system. [05:52:53] So I'm not sure exactly what's in this, but I think it's something we should probably look at to make sure. But I don't think it's got what some people say comes in some types of solar thin films. You answered my question before, which was who was getting the renewable energy credits. [05:53:16] So is this otherwise a standard net metering? You'll produce a certain amount, it'll go into the grid, and then you'll buy whatever power, and then you'll get the credit for what you bought. That's correct, sir. Okay. Thank you. I have no other questions. [05:53:33] Actually, I do have one additional question, if I may, Chair. My understanding is that certain regulated energy monopolies have had some kind of general resistance toward the widespread adoption of rooftop solar because it is harder for them to capitalize off of and that there are some regulations on how the buyback to the grid, or rather the sellback to the grid, is managed that makes it harder for it to be scalable and profitable. [05:54:07] does that affect this project in a meaningful way does it affect sun tribes rates that they're charging us on this so my understanding is that this is small enough so that that's not an issue it where we usually run into that issue is between a scale like this and and utility like the community and shared solar type of scale so that's where you really run into an issue and why we haven't had much of it in the county because it's really hard to overcome that this one should not be impacted by that issue okay thank you thank you any additional questions no we will open the [05:54:47] public hearing if anyone signed up to speak okay we will close the public hearing um and the matter is back before the board are there any other additional comments or questions and if not then we're looking for a motion i move that the board adopt the attached resolution attachment c to authorize the county executive to sign a proposed lease agreement. Second. We have a motion from Supervisor McKeel, a second from Supervisor Malek without objection. The clerk will call the roll. [05:55:18] Ms. Malek? Yes. Ms. McKeel? Yes. Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Mr. Andrews? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. Lepisto? Kirtley? Aye. Thank you. The board, this brings us to a fourth public hearing schedules for an actual proposed USA easement under Boulders Road, and this is being presented by Mr. Herrick, our interim county attorney. Welcome. Good evening, Mr. Chair, members of the board. I'm Andy Herrick, the interim county attorney, and it's my pleasure to be here this [05:55:56] evening and to present to you this proposal for an easement of county property under Boulder's Road to the United States Army. The U.S. Army has requested a new cable easement under Boulder's Road adjacent to the National Ground Intelligence Center. As you all are aware, this is part of the county's priorities recently if dealing with Ravana Futures property and the slides here will show exactly where the property is located. From a general view here's where Boulder's Road is located just north of the North Fork of Ravana River on Route 29. Here's a closer picture showing [05:56:33] the location of Boulder's Road and then here's the location of the proposed easement. It's in the dashed line within the right-of-way. The county owns the title to the right-of-way of Boulders Road. It's maintained by VDOT, but the county is the title owner of the property. And you can see the dashed line here is the location of the proposed easement. By way of background, Boulders Road was conveyed to the county in 2009. And in 2013, the county conveyed a cable easement to CenturyLink. In 2020, the U.S. Army contacted the county about having its own easement under [05:57:09] boulders road and then 2021 the county and the u.s army entered an initial lease some of you may remember that that was a board action in the year 2021 it's included with the staff report as attachment a it had a one-year term that could be renewed by the army but the army did not renew it and therefore the the lease terminated after one year on june 10th of 2022 we've since been contacted by the Army requesting a new lease, and so the form of the lease that we have right now is almost identical to the lease that was enforced previously, but was not [05:57:47] renewed, with one exception, and that is that the rental amount has increased slightly to $3,400 a year, but in almost all other respects, the proposed new lease is identical to the terms of the lease that the Board had previously approved. So just by way of staff recommendation, this does require a public hearing. [05:58:06] any sort of disposal of county property does require a public hearing such as we just had for the roof of Cobb 5th. The U.S. Army has expressed urgency in proceeding. We've been working with them to expedite this. We do recommend adoption of the attached resolution attachment C to authorize a new lease of this easement and we're continuing to work with the U.S. Army longer term for an outright conveyance of an easement as opposed to just a lease of the easement. [05:58:35] I've provided suggested motion language here, and I am happy to answer any questions that you all might have. Thank you. Supervisor McKeel. I don't expect you to speak for the Army, but I guess they just, for whatever reason, didn't renew it. I'm not sure what the lapse was. I know that Mr. Nathan Voracek, with whom I've been working at the Army, is available on the line, And if the board has any, and I should have mentioned that a U.S. Army representative is available for questions if the board has any. [05:59:04] Well, and I guess there weren't any problems that we should know about. They just didn't. I suspect it was just an oversight. It was during the pandemic, perhaps, and it just didn't happen. Yeah. I do think it's better to move to, rather than the lease that has to be, I think it's better to move to the committee. [05:59:21] That is the discussion that we've had with the Army, encouraging them to have a permanent solution as opposed to us coming back to us. To continue to come back to us. that's really all I have. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Prude? I have nothing. Supervisor Gallup? Thank you, Mr. Eric. No questions. Supervisor Opisto-Kirk? Thank you very much. No questions. Supervisor Malek? No questions for me, and thank you. And I have no questions, so we will open the public hearing. Is there anyone signed up to speak? I think not. Not. We have no one signed up, so we will close the public hearing. Matters back before the board. We have the suggested [05:59:58] a motion there if someone would like to uh yes i move to adopt the resolution attached to the staff report as attachment c second we have a motion from supervisor lapisto kirtley a second from supervisor malik without objection if the clerk will call the roll ms malik yes ms mckeel yes mr pruitt hi mr andrews yes mr galloway yes ms lapisto kirtley thank you great thank you Quick work of that. [06:00:29] Board, this brings us to matters from the board, committee reports and matters not listed on the agenda. We'll go through an order. Supervisor McHugh. Just got myself organized here. Sure. This came up quickly, but it's all good. [06:00:47] Not complaining. I believe that this came up earlier in the discussion. We were talking about short-term rentals and homestays. [06:01:06] And I was going to ask separately, and I think Ann mentioned it or Jeff someone, there was a change in the state code of the General Assembly, I believe, that would allow the board, when we are approving these short stays, that would allow us to establish a sunset clause. [06:01:33] if the property changed ownership i think it may have had something to do with that i need to know more about it but i am very interested in having a discussion at some point this is not the time to do it but i would be very interested in having an agenda item or discussion about that particular issue and then i think we had another concern that we maybe wanted to talk about as well the llc portion so we could maybe roll that all into an agenda item to talk about if that's the appropriate way to do it but i really would like to have the ability to discuss the possibility of putting some [06:02:10] sunset clauses as the property changes i think that was the the flip that we were allowed to use yeah and i and that's all i had in my notes i think um oh i just wanted to mention one other the thing that I noticed today. Today is, or I guess, well, today is actually National Custodian Day. And I'd like to send out a big shout out, if there's some way, Jeff, to the custodians that work in this building. I just realized it today. You know, it's one of those things that came [06:02:48] along. We need to remember that for next year. But if you could somehow or another extend gratitude to us for all the custodians to keep this building clean, that would be great. And that was all I had. Thank you. Thank you. [06:03:04] Supervisor Pruitt? I have nothing for the board. Supervisor Galloway? I want to note for the board that the regional housing partnership has determined the actual date for our upcoming summit that will be March of 25. That is March 13th. [06:03:20] That is a Thursday. So that date is set, and they're already getting a nice program together focusing on solutions. um dealing with housing um so some good keynotes getting lined up and different sessions being put out but just putting that date out there as a well in advance save the date kind of item um in the past we've had a lot of supervisors be able to attend so and is this still going to be a day day so we put it out say nine o'clock in the morning and just yeah i mean i don't i guess i'll find that out well in advance but it is it's typically a kind of a nine to five eight to five So that was March the 13th. [06:03:59] I'm trying to find it on my calendar. All right. March 13th, 2025. Anything else? Yeah, it's in March. Not quite. Close. That's all. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Lupita Kirkman. Yes, the only thing I have is Saturday, November 9th from 11 to 3 at the Carver Recreation Center is commemorating the African-American military experience. [06:04:25] I went there last year, and it's really fascinating to hear some of these stories of the African American, especially women and men, during their time of service. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Malek. [06:04:41] No extra announcements. Thank you. Okay. We will at some point perhaps discuss the hardware river request that you mentioned, but not now, but something that we should bring up at some point. [06:04:58] I don't know if you were going to mention it. Fine. The Flavanna County, as I mentioned, is pursuing with DCR a designation of the Flavanna section of the Hardware River as a scenic river in Virginia. And where the North Fork and South Fork of the Hardware come together in Albemarle and then from what Carter's Bridge to the county line is the single river is a section that the county could choose to join in the same application and have it all considered as one unit if desired. [06:05:32] So that, and if there are other questions that need to be answered, then I'd be glad to receive those and forward them on to Tony O'Brien and he can get answers to those from DCR for us or whatever. So it is an honorary, apparently there are some extra considerations for certain uses that might be especially impacting use of water going into the river, which I think actually may exist for all waterways in Virginia, not just ones going into scenic rivers, because every drop of water in Virginia is called water of the Commonwealth and so has constitutional protection, [06:06:10] unlike places in other states where people can either take it all with nothing for downstream or fight hard about regulation of ditches and things like that when our county constitution already takes care of that. So I don't have a firm answer to Jim's question about what other restrictions there are, but we'll be happy to learn more about that. [06:06:31] Supervisor Malek, is there a contact that we should be directing any kind of questions to? I would like to speak to someone at Fluco in Fluvanna. Tony O'Brien would be the, he's the Fluvanna supervisor who is on the RBC, and he's the one who brought it to the RBC. [06:06:49] Or Isabella O'Brien, who can gather things at the RBC for further discussion. i might uh reach out to him and have a conversation good this is i think mostly in my district i talked briefly with uh via email with with jim about some considerations and thoughts i have most of the hardware that's in the scottsville district isn't actually accessible to the public um which doesn't disqualify us but it makes me skeptical about what the impact is for our community because It's mostly in private property sections. [06:07:25] So I would just like to learn more about what they're trying to accomplish and get a better understanding of the program. Yeah, good. When Ravana was adopted, the second phase of the Ravana was put in since about 2010, I think, was when the upper level north of the Ravana Dam was added. [06:07:42] Then the description at that time was there were not restrictions put upon landowners, et cetera, for this designation. And if that has changed, then we all need to know. But I think there was no expectation of public access along the river based upon the designation. [06:08:00] But certainly there would be help, I think, provided by DCR for improving perhaps places where there was access that was available. Thank you. I just think it's something that we will hope to consider a little bit as a time next couple weeks or so and then bring it back before the board to discuss, get questions answered if we're going to consider it. [06:08:25] And I just want to make sure Jeff doesn't need the nodding of four heads about the short-term rentals and the discussion, perhaps, about the sunset clause. Do you need the nodding of four heads in the LLC? [06:08:41] I'm fully prepared to address that issue with the board. Okay. So we're good. I just want to make sure. We usually need to do that to count heads. That's what I'm trying to remember. [06:08:57] I don't think so. I think that was it. The LLCs and the sunset halls. If you have nothing else, I have nothing further. Nothing from the county executive? Then, fourth, I believe we are finished for the evening, so we'll adjourn to our next meeting, which is the 16th of October, 2024, here in 1 p.m. in room. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Coraggio Consulting · aguyonx.com