Coraggio Consulting
Albemarle County Board of Supervisors Regular Second Meeting, Wednesday, November 20, 2024

Date: Wednesday, November 20, 2024
Place: Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, Virginia
Length: 7h 18m (video)
Official meeting video (Granicus): https://albemarle.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=1&clip_id=1203
Official agenda: https://albemarle.granicus.com/AgendaViewer.php?view_id=1&clip_id=1203

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

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[00:00:02] Thank you for not starting without me. I am pleased to call to order this regular meeting of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors on the 20th of November 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 Bielapisto-Curtley of the Renana District, Supervisor Diantha McKeel of the Jack Dewey District, Supervisor Ned Galloway of the Rio District, Supervisor Ann Malick of the Whitehall District, and myself, Jim Andrews, representing the Samuel Miller District.

[00:00:28] Quorum is present. We're also joined by our county executive, Mr. Jeff Richardson, Our Interim County Attorney, Mr. Andy Herrick, and our Senior Deputy Clerk, Mr. Travis Morris. Thank you. Also, let me please welcome the Albemarle County Police Officers present, Officer Andy Muncy, and Master Police Officer Dana Reeves.

[00:00:47] Thank you for your service here today, for your work on behalf of all of us every day throughout the county for our safety and security. If all present could now stand as you were able and join us in the Pledge of Allegiance. To the republic, which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

[00:01:20] Thank you. And I now ask that you join us in a moment of silence.

[00:01:33] Thank you. Board, our first item, of course, is to adopt the final agenda.

[00:01:52] I have not heard of any suggested amendments, so if there's a motion to adopt the final agenda, it's presented. So moved. Second. We have a motion from Supervisor Malek, second from Supervisor McKeel. Without objection, if the clerk will call the roll. Ms. McKeel.

[00:02:08] Yes. Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Mr. Andrews? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. Lupisto-Curtley? Aye. Ms. Malik? Yes. Thank you. We will now turn to item five, brief announcements by board members. Going through our order for today's meeting, we'll start with Supervisor Lupisto-Curtley.

[00:02:32] Nothing today, thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Malek. Thank you. On Monday the 18th, I attended an exhausting but very informative conference sponsored by Senator Dave Morrison in Short Pump, and it was nine hours of bringing together all the different stakeholders and legislators, et cetera, working on energy issues going forward, particularly in the legislature, but also dealing with the 10-year projected doubling of electricity demand

[00:03:07] and rates for residential users by 2035 due to the extra demand and investments needed for data centers. So there was a lot of hair tearing going on, but I have files saved that I will forward to everybody so you can see the slides and do the best catch-up you can.

[00:03:28] And there will be more. This is, I think, trying to have a better organized and more common understanding of where the red lines are before the legislative process this year. So it was interesting that the number one takeaway when Senator Marsden did his introduction was local authority is a given.

[00:03:50] And that was really nice to hear. So at least we didn't have to fight that battle this time. But I'm sure it will come back in another way later, but there'll be more to talk about soon. Thank you very much. Thank you. Supervisor McKeel. Just a couple of things. and I just really want to point out some items for the public.

[00:04:09] In our packet today was one of our quarterly reports by our facilities and environmental services folks about the work that is happening in Albemarle County. So if you ever wonder what is happening and what our staff are working on, this is a great way to find out.

[00:04:30] You can go to our board packet and take a look at it. It's actually on our consent agenda, and I just want to send out a big thank you for all of the work that is represented in that report that we have today. Another shout-out, I just want to recognize, and Jeff has already talked about this several times publicly, but all of our employees, both government side and school side, should have received an announcement that our Albemarle Employee Care Clinic is coming soon.

[00:05:04] Two facilities, one on 29 North, I think 29 North, and Pantops. And so everybody received a card in the mail today. If you're an employee, you would have received a card at some point, maybe not today, maybe yesterday, this week. But it's really a great awareness tool for our employees, and this is going to be a great option.

[00:05:26] This certainly helps to take us down the road, in my opinion, of being an employer of choice for our employees. So great option. And the only other thing I'd like to point out, and I just realized it today, one of our officers pointed it out to me.

[00:05:44] I've received several e-mails and questions from constituents who have received a fine for the school speeding zone. And they have questions about it.

[00:06:00] And I just realized, and thank you very much, Abby, that if you go to our website, you can find under, if you go to government, it's right there, school, zone, speed, camera, Q&A. So there's a question and answer document, and many of the questions that I'm receiving are answered on that document.

[00:06:21] So just something that we can send to our constituents that I think will help inform them on how that camera zone works and what it's all about. And with that, thank you very much. Thank you. Supervisor Pruitt. Three quick things.

[00:06:38] So this board will sometimes both hear comment and talk about invasive species and what it means to mitigate and control those. I was invited to a really excellent event that was put together by the Rivanna Conservation Alliance over at Darden Tau this weekend and wanted to share a little bit about it for others in the community who might want to be involved in the future.

[00:07:01] So this was a volunteer workday this Saturday, and they brought together a wide range of volunteers, people from other nonprofits who were allied, to learn how to cut down and mitigate porcelain berry and Asian bittersweet, which are two strangler vines that actually harm our overall tree canopy.

[00:07:20] People who are interested can find additional workdays in the future by going to the Rivanna Conservation Alliance's website. There is also a whole nonprofit that is just dedicated to this called PRISM, P-R-I-S-M, which is the Piedmont Regional Invasive Species Management. And I also want to give a shout-out to our staff that I know, I believe this was actually a discussion point during the budget, Jesse with Parks and Rec, who is an essential partner in this, who really makes the whole operation run.

[00:07:47] um i would also like to remind everyone uh also this saturday was the beginning of regular firearm hunting season for deer in virginia or in albemarle county it actually does vary by region um i would encourage people who are hunters and want to make sure that they know the right thing there's a lot of regulations that go into what kind of hunting you can do but generally speaking this is the beginning of what we call deer season and it runs until uh early january um this is important even if you are not a hunter because it brings up a lot of basic safety concerns make sure you're staying on trails if you're out in the woods make sure you're wearing visible clothing

[00:08:25] make sure you are you should always be keeping your dogs curbed but this is an especially important time to keep your dogs curbed I would also remind folks especially in in the southern part of our county in the rural areas this is a time that people are much more likely to encounter stray dogs because there are some people who hunt with dogs and not all of these hunting dogs have PERFECT RECALL. SO MAKE SURE TO GET FAMILIAR WITH YOUR NEIGHBORS, FIGURE OUT HOW TO COMMUNICATE WHEN YOU HAVE A DOG ON YOUR PROPERTY. THAT IS NOT YOURS. AND LASTLY, I DO WANT TO JUST HIGHLIGHT ONE THING. I WAS LATE HERE AND DID NOT JOIN US FOR PUBLIC COMMENT AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

[00:09:04] BY BOARD MEMBERS THE DAY AFTER THE ELECTION, BUT I WOULD LIKE TO HIGHLIGHT JUST ONE THING THAT I KNOW IS ON MY MIND THAT I THINK IS GOING TO BE VERY IMPORTANT FOR US MOVING FORWARD, And that is that the president-elect has focused heavily on what we are going to do about illegal immigration in the United States.

[00:09:21] Some of these are significantly going to implicate the role of local government, potentially. I would raise this to this board as something that we need to be thinking about proactively and know how we are going to respond if there is a question or a call that comes from the federal government about how we should be involved in immigration in Albemarle County.

[00:09:43] And that is where I'm going to leave that because there's a lot more research and learning that I need to do on this subject. Thank you. Thank you. Professor Galloway. Thank you. Over the last week, some of us, a lot of us, a handful of us attended BACO, and I'm not going to report a whole lot there.

[00:10:02] I think we can all share that in conversation. Following that, though, I did go to the Virginia Governor's Housing Conference, and there was some good information in that that I will share out as well. But also, during that conference, the NACO, the National Association of Counties Community Workforce and Economic Development Committee, had their monthly call, and there was a report in there that I'm going to send to the board that's just based on what local governments can do and innovations that you can do related to affordable housing.

[00:10:32] And it's kind of an overview. It has good information in it, but it also calls out some solutions that have been put in place around the country that ideas or examples of things that I had not heard of. some i had some i had not so i thought that was useful but also on that call one thing that i thought was and it probably came up because we had something at tjpdc on the hazard mitigation plan but they were talking about homelessness on that call and making sure that you have a homeland homelessness plan or have that figured out in any sort of disaster and emergency planning situations

[00:11:10] especially as you have more climate type of events, like what's going to happen there. And it wasn't just honed in on folks that might be experiencing homelessness at the time of the event, but what are you going to do because homelessness is created from those events.

[00:11:34] So it's a two-pronged kind of approach. So that was something I'm just calling out because that's not been on my mind when I thought when emergency planning or hazard mitigation has been in front of this board. More to come or other items I'll share out in the email when I send that report out from the NACO group.

[00:11:55] Thank you. Thank you. And I will be, I think, maybe adding some things when we talk from the board later in the afternoon. But following up on the VACO, I just want to congratulate Supervisor Malik, who is the president, now the past president of VACO, ran the meeting and did us all proud it was well done all the way all the way around I also will later report on the Ravenna Solid Waste Authority's final meeting of the year yesterday but I wanted to shout out that at the meeting

[00:12:32] yesterday the Ravenna Solid Waste Authority Board of Directors recognized service of mr. Lance Stewart who is of course retiring and his service on that board has been very helpful over the years so i want to make sure that's noted um does anyone have anything else to add at this time okay thank you yes one thing just to follow up um thank you supervisor pruitt for reminding me because it was out of my brain about deer season so for those of us who live in the rural area a reminder for hunters there is no going on private

[00:13:08] property without permission and if you don't know whose property you're on it means you don't have permission. So some word to the wise. No shooting from the roadway. These are continual problems where we have to call law enforcement to help us. If you are reclaiming your hounds, you may not bring your vehicle onto private property. You may not bring your weapon onto private property. You have to walk the half mile to my house without your weapon to say, may I look for my hounds?

[00:13:37] Otherwise, you will get a very bad reaction from me, which has happened in the past. So a word to wise, be respectful of the people who live in the community where you may be hunting. We have two families who hunt with bow on our property. It's very important for them as well as for the management of our herd and people need to be respectful of others. Thank you very much. Thank you.

[00:14:01] With that, board, we have no proclamations or recognitions for today so we'll move to from the public matters on the agenda but not listed for public hearing or matters previously considered by the board are matters that are pending before the board and I think we have a couple signups. We do. We have two sign-ups, and I think everyone is in person. No one is online this afternoon, so I will read the instructions.

[00:14:26] During the time set aside for minors on the agenda but not listed for public hearing, individuals may address the Board of Supervisors concerning matters previously considered by the Board or matters that are pending before the Board other than items listed on the agenda for public hearing. Individuals are allowed one opportunity of up to three minutes to speak at each board meeting during matters from the public.

[00:14:46] The sign-up sheet is managed by the clerk's office. Timekeeping is conducted through a timer and light system at the podium. The green light will go on when you begin speaking, which begins your allotted time. The yellow light indicates you have one minute to finish speaking. The red light indicates your time has expired and you will be asked to end your comments.

[00:15:04] To give all speakers equal treatment and courtesy, the board requests that speakers adhere to the following guidelines. When addressing the board, state your name, and if you live in Albemarle County, your magisterial district. Address comments directly to the board as a whole. Any written statements or other supporting material may be given to the clerk.

[00:15:22] If representing a group or organization, you might ask others to raise their hands in recognition. Speakers may not share any unused time with another speaker. Back-and-forth debate is not permitted. Do not speak from your seat or out of turn, and all comments are live-streamed, recorded, and published on the Albemarle County website.

[00:15:40] And our first speaker this afternoon is Neil Williamson. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. My name is Neil Williamson. I serve as the president of the Free Enterprise Forum, a privately funded public policy organization focused on Central Virginia's local governments.

[00:16:02] I come before you about an item that's going to be on your agenda this evening, but I'm not going to be here at the evening session regarding AC44. I have been following this for, okay, since the beginning of time. And I am once again speaking about the Free Enterprise Forum lasagna plan.

[00:16:22] Now, this board has taken a position of not trying to reinvent the wheel, but going ahead and looking around the Commonwealth at different ideas. However, at the same time, this board has enshrined a binary choice, rural area, development area.

[00:16:39] And your rural area is greater than 95% of your land mass. And this board has also regularly stated there is a housing crisis. I ask a simple question. Your AC44 comprehensive plan, what is it doing to help alleviate the housing crisis?

[00:17:00] Staff in your last presentation indicated it is a one-to-one trade for density in the 2015 plan. So that means we're not really increasing the density. There was discussion, there was no discussion of the lasagna plan thus far.

[00:17:18] It's based on a plan that exists in Loudoun County, where there are four, not two, but four opportunities. There's an urban, suburban, transitional, and rural. Other localities across this great commonwealth of ours have different percentages of, quote, development areas or growth areas or whatever they're going to call it.

[00:17:40] Falkir, which is often bandied about as being hunt country, et cetera, I think it's something in the neighborhood of 52% is development area. Now, I'm not suggesting that it has to go that direction, but as Supervisor Pruitt raised last meeting, when do the supervisors get to talk about the map?

[00:18:01] Just like the kids show, it's the map, Dora, use the map. There's a whole lot of yellow on the map, and that's good because the market wants yellow. They want single-family homes, but if you try and find a lot for a single-family home today in Albemarle County, it's not there.

[00:18:18] Consider moving away from the binary choice, developmentary rural area. Order the lasagna. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker is Emily Dreyfuss.

[00:18:35] Neil, I was busy making notes and lost my place on the agenda. Emily, welcome. Thank you. Thank you. You might want to pull the mic down just a little bit. Oh, not a bit. Yeah, there you go. Thank you. My name is Emily Dreyfus. I live in the Rio Magisterial District, and I'm here on behalf of a coalition of organizations that is very concerned about affordable housing.

[00:19:02] I will email this later if you haven't already received it. The undersigned organizations representing thousands of county residents, faith-based communities, housing providers, and advocates ask that you initiate a rigorous approach to affordable housing in Albemarle County.

[00:19:19] There is a wide array of critical unmet needs, and we hope you will exercise your leadership to enhance the well-being and quality of life for all citizens. We must all anticipate decreased federal funding and a shift to increase the responsibilities of local government, making the affordable housing shortage even more urgent.

[00:19:38] We stand together to ask that you do the following. A, improve funding. First, establish a housing trust fund with at least $10 million in dedicated annual funding specifically for affordable housing, up to 60% area median income for rental, and up to 80% for homeownership.

[00:19:56] Funding for new construction preservation of existing deeply affordable housing is paramount, including the successful redevelopment of Southwood. The housing trust fund was unanimously supported by the board as part of the Housing Albemarle Plan, which was approved in 2021. Number two, improve the ACER program, Almar County Emergency Relief Program, to provide substantially more funding and provide more relief for each household.

[00:20:21] The current limit of $800 per household is inadequate to pay even half of a family's average monthly rent. Third, the county's robust investment to expand resources to address affordability and community development needs will require using every funding opportunity in the toolbox, including possibly increasing property taxes.

[00:20:43] If necessary, please don't shy away from taking those steps. B, strengthen AC44. Please ensure the county's comprehensive plan includes ambitious new approaches to address housing needs, including upzoning growth areas, developing a specific plan for future expansion of the growth areas while avoiding sprawl, strengthening inclusionary zoning and robust and affordable housing incentives and allowances, including incentives to reduce the impact on climate change, manufactured housing preservation, land banks, land trusts, and other

[00:21:17] options. And we also ask you that you exercise more discretion over parking minimums. Our signers are the Blue Ridge Area Coalition for the Homeless, Charlottesville Albemarle Affordable Housing Coalition, Charlottesville Low Income Housing Coalition, Community Climate Collaborative, Impact, Livable Seaville, and Virginia Organizing. Thank you. Thank you. And that's all. Okay. Thank you. This brings us to the consent agenda and I have not heard of any items to be pulled from the consent agenda so we have a motion to adopt the consent agenda. So moved. Second. We have a motion

[00:21:54] from Supervisor Malik. Second from Supervisor McKeel without objection if the clerk will call the roll. Ms. McKeel. Yes. Mr. Pruitt. Aye. Mr. Andrews. Yes. Mr. Galloway. Yes. Mrs. Piso-Kirtley. aye miss nalik yes thank you for our first item an action item this afternoon is se 2024-22-3065 gables run road homestay and this is being led by discussion by scottsville by lisa green

[00:22:29] manager of code compliance and this is in the scottsville district thank you welcome miss green Good afternoon, Board and Chair Andrews.

[00:22:57] I'm Lisa Green, the Manager of Code Compliance. Thank you for your time today. For your review, a special exception, SE 2024-00022-3065 Gables run homestay.

[00:23:14] This application requests a special exception from County Code 18-5.1.48 to allow the property owners, Michael and Cheryl Trice, to operate a homestay in an accessory structure on their parcel, which is less than five acres in the rural area district. The 4.229 acre parcel is located south of Milton along Gables Run Road. It features manicured lawns

[00:23:47] and trees and includes the primary residence of the owners at 3065 Gables Run Road, outlined here in blue. The property also has a pole barn, outlined in green, and a two-story detached accessory structure built in 1992, which is the focus of this special exception, outlined in red.

[00:24:10] The lower level of this accessory structure serves as the garage, while the upper level is a one-room studio. The nearest neighboring dwelling is located over 650 feet away from the proposed homestay in all directions, and the surrounding properties consist of a mix of forested land and mowed fields. The parcel meets all of the requirements for homestay use, with the exception that the parcel is just shy of five acres in size. The accessory structure was built prior to August

[00:24:45] 7, 2019, and meets the primary structure setbacks. The special exception is only required due to the property being less than five acres. If the special exception is approved, the owners would then apply for the homestay zoning clearance and move forward with the remaining approval process. The property is currently in compliance with all zoning and taxation requirements.

[00:25:10] The proposed structure for the homestay has an entrance directly off of Gables Run Road and located near the primary dwelling on the parcel and as you can see here includes ample on-site parking. The next few slides are photos of this site. This photo is of the primary dwelling shown in context to the proposed homestay use.

[00:25:43] Another photo showing the property from the center of Gables Run Road looking south, and here you can see the on-site parking for the primary residence. This photo is looking west. Here you see the lower level of the garage entrance of the accessory structure and the on-site parking area for the proposed homestay use.

[00:26:07] After reviewing the relevant factors, Staff believes that utilizing the studio above the garage of the two-story accessory structure as a homestay on the owner's parcel would not adversely affect the surrounding neighborhood or public health safety or welfare.

[00:26:25] The homestay is considered an accessory use to the primary residence on the property and aligns with the comprehensive plan. Given that the parcel is just under the five-acre requirement and considering the size of the structure, the dwelling is compatible with the surrounding neighborhood.

[00:26:47] Staff has analyzed the homestay use with the context of the property and the neighborhood and therefore recommends approval. Do you have any questions? Thank you. We'll go through our order. Supervisor Lupisto-Cartney. Thank you very much. Please refresh my memory.

[00:27:03] Have we accepted other homestays in the rural area less than five acres? I think we've had a few, but not many. Mostly it was about the 125-foot setback when we did those special exceptions. Thank you.

[00:27:19] Supervisor Malek. No questions. Thank you. Supervisor McHugh. No questions. Thank you. Supervisor Pruitt. Is there already a certificate of occupancy issued for the for the dwelling unit above the garage that's in question? It's not a full dwelling but there is a certificate of occupancy for the structure. Got it. Thank you. Supervisor Calloway. I have no questions. Thank you. And I have no questions. We have Supervisor. Does it have a kitchen? I'm sorry it has a kitchenette but not a stove for permanent cooking okay thank

[00:27:59] you any additional questions additional comments if not we're looking for a motion at this point great I would like to move the board adopt a resolution for s did we open this for public hearing sorry I'm just no oh god sorry I was startled that we were already taking this step that's why I paused thank you I'd like to move the board to adopt the resolution for SE 2024, TAC 223065, Gables Run Homestay, attached to the staff report as attachment F.

[00:28:40] Second. We have a motion from Supervisor Pruitt, a second from Supervisor Galloway. Without objection, the clerk will call the roll. Ms. McKeel? Yes. Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Mr. Andrews? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. Lepisto-Curtley? Aye. Ms. Mallett?

[00:28:56] Yes. okay thank you that was easy but uh we'll uh move on now to a presentation uh on the five-year financial plan um this is being led by mr andy bowman our assistant chief financial officer welcome mr bowman see you now if we'd use your old title giving you more time to get up here

[00:29:19] thank you uh chair andrews for the introduction and good afternoon to the board i am going to be the primary staff presenter today but I do want to recognize I'll say others will introduce themselves along the way but I do recognize the four staff currently in the Office of Management and Budget who've done so much of the

[00:29:57] analysis and coordination keeping it low profiles they prefer to do too in the corner of the auditorium but I just want to thank that team for all of their work to put this I'm a I'm the voice and the translator and the storyteller today but so much of the good work is based on the hard work those folks do every day so today is a work session on the five-year financial plan no action is requested from the board today as I like to do with the board is to frame how does this conversation fit into all of the long-range strategic planning the work the board has been doing so this slide recaps where we've been the

[00:30:34] summer and fall starting with the adoption of the budget calendar and also the board's first public review of the strategic plan execution and reporting report, also known as SPEAR. I highlight this because we've been very intentional in the last two years since the board adopted a strategic plan to tie the budget and a long-range plans and strategic plan together very tightly. And so, though they can sometimes feel two different processes, strategic planning and financial planning, they work best when they feel the same.

[00:31:07] We were here in October with Dr. Bailey reviewing the economic outlook report. And there's another update on performance Jessica Rice our director of our relatively new County government HR was providing reports on the work they've been doing and the status and of some of the strategies we've implemented such as the compensation and the classification study this conversation is going to continue on December 4th in a joint meeting with the school board really providing an opportunity for the school board to tell their story with an emphasis on the capital program and for the board to engage on that and then we'll be back in February for the annual recommended budget process and the work sessions

[00:31:46] that follow. So looking at today, there's just really two items on the agenda and kind of desired outcomes. The first is, you know, taking the board's direction from the strategic plan, walking through where we are of how do our revenues project out based on the economic outlook report, what we're seeing to date, then how do the expenditures align the strategic plan to what that looks like. At the end of the presentation, we want to make sure we're leaving as much time as we can to get feedback from the board in terms of what does the plan do well and what may be missing. That's a question the board can take in a lot of different directions, but it

[00:32:23] will be helpful to staff to hear things if there was something the board was expecting to see but did not. Or perhaps something seemed about right, but maybe there's a future policy discussion that the board would like to have in the future. All of that can help us give feedback not just for this budget process, but for those long-range discussions that we have. So before we dive into the plan itself I want to take a moment and get us just grounded in long-range financial planning. This is part of the board approved county financial management policies and really it's just a good

[00:32:58] check to make sure that we are planning for and going through the planning exercise. Sometimes it's the exercise itself not the plan where we have the value of are our plans aligned where as we open capital facilities are we able to operate them? What are some of those strategy and policy discussions that can emerge. I recall several years ago when we were in a five-year plan session, the board really had a lot of discussion around revenue diversification. And that led when the state authority changed around food and beverage and transit occupancy taxes, the board was well positioned to take action in response to those. So again, the policies can be just as effective

[00:33:37] as the dollars when we think about that plan. And that goes to my next point about this is not only about the new dollars and what gets added to the plan. Currently, we have a general fund budget of more than $400 million. And as the board evaluates in the budget, it's not just looking at what the additive things are doing, it's looking at what the base of funding is doing. How are we performing in our services? What are those policy levers and recent investments made? And what are those results we have seen? While this is a long-range discussion, this does lead into the annual budget, but today is going to have a different look and feel than it will in a March work session.

[00:34:12] Usually when I'm before the board in March, it's usually changes that will happen almost immediately in a matter of months. This is a much longer frame of time we have. Of course, the current year is important, and so is the next year, but this is a much longer time horizon we look at. Finally, the assumptions. This is the best we know as of today on November 20th, and this will continue to evolve, and that's okay because, again, it's the exercise of planning as we think about scenario budgeting for as things get a little better, as things get a little worse, and how do we respond to those accordingly. I also need to give a lot of credit to the Board

[00:34:50] of supervisors because you all understand five-year financial planning very well. This is a slide the board has seen a few times in recent budgets that looks at across the last three fiscal years what have some of the cost drivers been including those that will be upcoming in fiscal year 26 circled in red. The board may recall and I'll share for the public in fiscal year 24 the board of supervisors took about 4.9 million dollars of funding and applied that one time into the capital budget to support one-time needs then in fiscal year 25 is some of those prior commitments uh you know were coming online that 4.9 was available for county government public

[00:35:27] schools to support those operations the board did something smaller but equally impactful last year when the board generated revenues to fund initiatives such as the burkmar ambulance and the hearts team those things started mid-year but the board knew starting mid-year the full funding for those would need to be available with the revenues that were generated so again this is one I share but the board has really demonstrated a strong grasp of how this planning goes into driving forward their strategic plan so with that I'm going to jump to the the bottom line summary of where we are let's take an overall look at the plan and that is a reflected on this chart here

[00:36:05] this looks at the county's general fund only it does not include the school fund it does not include the capital funds what we assume in the general fund as the board knows is two of the largest transfers that are made are to the public schools for operations and to the capital and debt program for those expenses in the plan those are made by formula so there would be work need to be done to balance the CIP as there would be the school budget just like there is every year so when we look at those gap numbers at the bottom that really reflects a county government gap knowing those other formulas are being made the second observation is that blue line and revenues which is the bottom line I'll talk about this more in detail but we

[00:36:44] can see that is a fairly steady upward trends that we've had and I'll talk a little more detail about some of the assumptions behind that the red line on the expenditures that the first place I go in the five-year plan is the the out years when I look at that and we can see that there are some significant gaps in the out years that is a common for our past five-year plans that is common when I look at other localities the point is not to balance fiscal year 30 but to begin to put us in a position to make those decisions about how we can do things differently. Just as I'm sure five years ago we had an unbalanced budget for what we project fiscal year 25 would look like, we now have a balanced budget. So this is an iterative

[00:37:22] process we continue to improve on. Final observation I will make though is the timing of some of those first years. And a lot of plans we look at, at this time of year it's common to have a gap in the first year, fiscal year 26. But sometimes we see some of those obligations where things really ramp up for our year two and three. So in this chart, if we kind of pay attention, if we have no gap right now in fiscal year 25, then we go to 3% and to 5%. In some of our past plans, we see that trend occur more in year 2 to 3 versus years 1 and 2, which signals to us there are a lot of the expenditure pressures and obligations coming sooner than we would in the plan. We're going to

[00:38:00] talk in more detail what those look like through this presentation. So to begin at a high level on the revenue side, I'm going to recap the economic outlook report that the board received in October. Four main takeaways that our staff had.

[00:38:16] First is that Albemarle County continues to be very strong and performs well. The other key takeaway is that we also follow state and national trends. So whatever is changing in the state and national, we do keep our eye on that. Many of Albemarle County's revenues are backward-looking.

[00:38:33] We receive our consumer taxes based on past activity. Business license is based on the prior calendar year. Reassessments are of January 1st. So if sometimes there are things changing right now, it can take a little bit of time to show up in the county's financials. So the national economy was summarized to be as partly sunny, partly cloudy.

[00:38:51] There are certainly lots of indicators in both directions, but the threat of a recession is not as great right now as it looked perhaps one year ago and two years ago. That's not to say that the impacts are the same for everyone, all industries, but this was just where the outlook was.

[00:39:09] And while there may not be a recession, Dr. Bailey did recommend it's prudent for us to plan for some cooling that will show up in late 24 to 25, followed by moderate growth. And again, the final point of the economics and that timing may vary just because they slow down and one revenue may not impact us in the same way as an impact in another in terms of how that cash comes into the county.

[00:39:31] So to kind of take Dr. Bailey's economic outcome report, look at our historical financials. I want to show a picture of how we've kind of put together at a high level what our revenue outlook is. And I will caution the board, this is probably the busiest slide. You've seen it before that I will show the entire budget process from now through May.

[00:39:50] So we're going to do the busiest one today. So we're going to get this out of the way. And if you all could bear with me for a moment. This is a graph of all general fund revenue changes since fiscal year seven to the present and a future projection. If you look at those vertical lines, which are varying heights over that more than 20-year period, that is the change year to year in how those general revenues, that's the overall economy, that is tax rates, that is changes in state funding, revenues that may have been added, discontinued.

[00:40:21] It's all in there across all of those years. What we have going through the middle of that is a red line all the way through, which is kind of through the good and the bad. What is an average annual growth that you would see in the long term? and that's about 4.7 percent. But as the board can see as we look at this chart, 4.7 is all over the place when we look at what has happened in history. So to talk through the story of the last 20 years or so, we have in the pre-Great Recession, and I'm starting in fiscal year seven because that is when the county began annual real estate reassessments. To go back further, we see more of a choppy trend when those were done every other year. So we see a very strong revenue picture prior

[00:41:00] to the Great Recession, but we see a very long period of not just the Great Recession, but that initial recovery that heavily impacted the just the real estate markets the housing industry the labor force and so that was a very deep prolonged impact as the majority of the revenues in the county come from real estate and related functions so we see a growth averaging a little over 1% from that period with that orange line that's highlighted there from fiscal year 9 to fiscal year 14 including one year in fiscal year 10 where it may be hard to tell that number is actually below zero there was negative revenue growth one year from

[00:41:37] that time period in fiscal year 15 up into the pandemic there was a much steadier pace of growth averaging a little over five percent which was you know at or above or essentially at that long-term average fiscal year 20 was actually on pace to be very similar to fiscal year 18 and 19 but as everyone knows in the fourth quarter the pandemic began and those revenues began to drop very fast and very sharply since fiscal year 20 through 24 it's been a very different picture where the bounce back from the pandemic happened and it happened stronger than we've had in any period in revenue history that we've had in the county.

[00:42:14] What we can see now is in fiscal year 24, as we finish that year and we head into fiscal year 25, we see that slowdown occurring. This is one, if Dr. Bailey was here with the board, she frames this really well as we think about what that more than 4% growth looks like in fiscal year 25. If you experience that coming out of the Great Recession, that would feel like things were really taking off. If you experience that coming off the time of the pandemic, that feels like a slowdown, even though it's not in a recession. One of the board's consensus agenda today was our first quarter financial report, and I can report that in fiscal year 25, revenues are

[00:42:51] trending very close to where we projected in the budget. So that's good. We're not seeing a further slowdown, but I'll also share that in two of the last three years, the board has approved a mid-year revenue update to apply those revenues, and staff is not anticipating bringing that forward because right now things are following so closely in fiscal year 25.

[00:43:09] So for what that outlooks in the future, really looking at fiscal year 26 and 27, there is a bit of a slowdown knowing that if something happens, we'll see a little bit of a dip. It does not look like a recession that took place either in the Great Recession or at the start of the pandemic, but it does represent some economic slowing that then rebounds into the out years.

[00:43:30] When we look at the out years, if you talk to most financial analysts or economists, they would say that to predict beyond two years is a very difficult thing to do. What we have done to assist the board is just to plan that average growth continues in those out years, knowing that we have time to adjust those strategies there.

[00:43:46] So as we think of that blue line on the summary chart, that is really those green bars reflect where that is of the relatively steady economy, but anticipating a little bit of a dip. But just as we continue to work with Dr. Bailey and her team on a quarterly basis, as we have quarterly updates to the board of supervisors, will continue to watch this closely and be nimble as things change. So that is the revenue side of the equation. And what we'd like to do next to staff is to walk through how our expenditure is tied to the strategic plan. And to kick that off, I'm actually going to turn it over to our county

[00:44:18] executive, Jeff Richardson. Andy, thank you very much for the tee-up of today's work session. And four members, you've seen this slide, but it designed in different ways. You will recognize the five balls that represent your strategic goals that encircle the middle goal, which is goal number six, and that is workforce and customer service.

[00:44:51] Board, you went away approximately two years ago, and you looked at updating your strategic plan, and that is a significant task in this organization where we're trying to identify a handful of five-year objectives where this board and staff work together to identify what are the areas where we need to focus our capacity for the next five years to make the biggest opportunity and address the take advantage of the biggest opportunities and to address the biggest problems and issues that we face in this community and so as Andy said earlier we work diligently every year

[00:45:30] to connect the strategic plan to the budget and i think most importantly the capacity that the board and staff identify in our budget to connect to these opportunities and these problems that we hear and face and work with partners work with our city work with our community to try to address every day i want to take a minute and i want to hone in on and highlight really three of the six goals that are red circled at the top you see safety and well-being at the at the left you see

[00:46:04] education and learning and then in the middle and this board was instrumental in saying let's make sure that we identify our our workforce for the work that we do in this organization and let's highlight the importance of our workforce because without a strong workforce that we're able to recruit and retain we're not going to get the work done and we've been in situations before where we've struggled mightily to recruit and to retain high quality staff these three goals i would suggest board are the foundation they stabilize the other goals and you will see a lot

[00:46:42] today with andy and jacob's work really an accounting of significant investment in these three areas where i draw the thread through all of this is an investment in infrastructure And Andy's going to talk more specifically as we go through this, but this is investment in infrastructure that in some cases has not taken place in decades.

[00:47:06] Examples would be the regional jail renovations, and these are renovations just to bring the jail up to a basic minimum of acceptable design and operational capacity with what we deal with on a day-to-day basis with our folks.

[00:47:25] new courts basically the same thing as with jails this is modernizing and bringing these courts with the help of in partnership of the city to a basic level of functionality to be able to deal with today's demands schools three new schools in the next five years and that's after I believe approximately two decades of no new schools but continued expansion of schools but board the infrastructure investment doesn't stop there. If we look into the middle with our workforce and customer service, several years ago, this board was instrumental in putting together a public

[00:48:02] safety pay plan. That's a part of our pay and classification infrastructure where we can be more competitive in recruiting and retaining both police and fire in public safety. Two years ago, you supported modernization of the classification and pay plan for the balance of the organization and you received a report last month from our human resources department on how we're doing in a number of areas with key metrics. We also have investment in key customer service systems

[00:48:39] both in community development, also in finance, in the department of finance, and also key critical investment in IT systems. These systems, these upgrades, this modernization will help our organization keep pace with the volume and the complexity of work that's coming at us in a number of departments, and it will provide our employees with an ability to measure, to look at metrics, to make adjustments where necessary, and monitor customer service. And that's what we want.

[00:49:15] But, board, you hear me say with regularity that we can do anything you want. We just can't do everything you want. You've heard me say that. And in the spirit of strategic planning, we're going to be able to identify more opportunities and we're going to identify more problems than we have revenue capacity to be able to deal with.

[00:49:38] And so I think, as Andy has teed up, the near-term obligations, You hear me talk a lot about out-year obligations. Our out-year obligations are more closely aligned with fiscal year 26, which is where we're going, and then fiscal year 27.

[00:49:57] And we see those gaps, and we're going to be creative. We're going to be aggressive as we begin to go through the budget process and to begin to develop our budget with an eye on trying to do as much as we can with what we have. But, Board, I believe what you're going to see today is you're going to see significant investment in the areas of safety and well-being.

[00:50:19] This has happened over a number of years. These are strategies such as pulling down federal dollars, competitive federal dollars, to be able to pay for local operational needs in the area of fire service. But it also pulls down non-local money in a number of areas.

[00:50:35] We continue to work hard on that. I'm proud of our staff, and I appreciate the board's attention today to these three areas in particular. Thank you. Thank you.

[00:50:52] What I'll do next is I'm going to walk through these six goals, and there are 23 objectives under them, and really connect what are the actions in the five-year plan that are tied to these. Some of these items will be new funding planned to be added. Some of those will just be acknowledging there is recent funding, and it's in place, and the results of those have not yet been seen in full.

[00:51:14] There's also those things where there's just staff effort. We have resources in place. It's how those are directed and how that time is prioritized. So to begin walking through this, I'm going to start with the goal of workforce and customer service because as the county executive talked about how integral it was to drive in all of the other objectives forward.

[00:51:34] So the two objectives here are shown on the slide in orange. The five-year plan does include compensation and benefit increases over the next five years. We've also included, as supervisors acknowledging their comments, we are planning to implement and open the employee care clinic to locations in calendar year 2025.

[00:51:57] That is a strategy not only about supporting the workforce and helping retain staff, providing access to service. There's also a way of looking differently about how we can manage our health care costs, as that is a significant cost driver in our society right now. Third, I will mention, is that we have included an assumption, without naming them specifically, that there will be some physicians out there that we can't simply re-engineer ourselves out of or improve a process.

[00:52:23] I think a good example of that is police officers and child protective services workers. There's an immediate response and a call that takes place that, you know, over time as our community grows will sort of be there despite all of our efforts where we may have opportunities to re-engineer other types of positions.

[00:52:41] So that is acknowledged in this request as our community grows. Moving to the rest of workforce and customer service, one of the big emphases has been modernizing our processes and technology. We have what we call the core systems modernization project where to date we have implemented a human resources system.

[00:53:01] In January, a community development system will be going live, and in April, the financial management system will follow after that. That is going to improve our reporting, provide data, change our processes in a lot of transformational ways, not just how we do our jobs, but the customer service impact as well.

[00:53:19] Staff also has its eyes beyond the core systems modernization project. This will probably be more of a CIP impact than an operating, but in the upcoming horizon of five years, what are other end-of-life systems that we need to plan for so that we don't run a risk of lapse of support or legacy systems that are no longer serving their purpose.

[00:53:39] And finally, we've emphasized, as the county executive acknowledged too, that re-engineering of operations. And I'll say this is not just a talking point, this is a commitment that has been made in the budget. The county executive, as part of balancing the budget in fiscal year 25, we included $250,000 of savings that would be captured over the course of this fiscal year, with a plan to increase that number to another $250,000 for a total of $500,000 by the time Fiscal Year 26 gets here.

[00:54:06] We're currently evaluating that, and we'll bring a report to the board back that is part of the recommended budget. But that is an effort to really capture and acknowledge those commitments to improving organizational performance. Final objective here is around, really in the CIP, about the space planning and strategies.

[00:54:24] The board has included funding around that in the CIP, and that would be recommended to continue. Moving to the next goal, which is one of those circled in red at the start and some of those large budget drivers, is safety and well-being. The first objective I want to focus on here is supporting community safety through highly responsive services.

[00:54:44] We've had a lot of recent funding here with the HEARTS team expansion that would be expanding this year. The HEARTS team, the first iteration of that was recognized recently by the board and nationally for the work that they have been doing. We've increased police officer staffing. We have, I apologize for my acronym, Alphabet Soup up there, Albemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail is on the slide for that renovation of that facility that is decades old.

[00:55:09] And also added in the current fiscal year, not yet providing service, but working through the training aspect of that is the Berkmar Ambulance, serving one of the busiest call areas in the county for emergency medical response services. When we look at new funding in the five-year plan, a lot of this is driven by prior commitments.

[00:55:28] Next calendar year, we anticipate the general district court being opening and continuing the phases of that project. So that has both the operating impact and also the security impact we need to plan for as the courts expand. We would anticipate increasing police officer staffing in the next five years.

[00:55:44] The area of fire rescue, we've obtained successfully in partnership with our finance and fire rescue departments four FEMA Safer Grants, one of which has been fully picked up, but there are three remaining, totaling 57 firefighters. And we'll speak a little more of that later.

[00:56:01] The last item I want to note in our planning is just really acknowledging the changing landscape in our volunteer fire rescue stations. We have received requests over the years, and this is just acknowledging that the landscape is changing. And we want to be trying to position ourselves so that if there's ever a time when volunteers need assistance, we're able to position and provide the opportunity to not have a disruption of service to the community.

[00:56:24] I want to go into this a little more detail, just to kind of give some historical perspective on how this is evolving. just when those requests have been received. So starting back around the turn of the century and in 2008, there were a total of five requests from volunteer fire rescue stations for supplemental staffing. Kind of the general logic behind that is volunteers have said, if the county is able to staff Monday to Friday during the daytime, volunteers can cover nights and weekends. So several of those took place during that time frame. And then we went through a very steady period in the volunteer system where no requests were made for about a decade. Now, there were

[00:57:02] certainly other investments the board was making at that time with the other fire stations in the urban ring, but since 2019, the last six years, we've seen a change where we've received four requests from stations, and two of which were not just the daytime staffing, but also for nights and weekends. So I want to be clear at this time, we have not received as of today any requests for other staffing, but just looking how things are changing in recent years compared to that prior period, it may be appropriate for us to plan, if needed, to support those volunteer stations and the services they provide for firing that service.

[00:57:34] Continuing in the safety and well-being, we have the human services aspect of this, where their board has continued the community assistance program. This was started up with ARPA funding as a short-term measure, and increased funding has continued in the Department of Social Services for that, as well as the human services navigator position.

[00:57:56] The last objective here is really around coordinated planning. This is not as much of a dollar as it is a staff time commitment where we are currently underway in an organizational-wide coordinated effort for continuity of operations planning to make sure we're prepared for whatever that next disruption may be.

[00:58:16] The third goal I'm going to touch on, the last of the three that were circled in red, is education and learning. This is, as I've said before, this provides school funding based on the allocation of local tax revenue formula.

[00:58:31] just as we would in prior years i will acknowledge as i was meeting earlier today with both my counterpart with the school's budget director and their chief operating officer you know one of the things that is on their mind in the five-year planning is the operating impacts of their projects we have included in the cip high school center two and two elementary schools one on the southern end and one in the northern part of the county and the school division historically has expanded programs such as most recently as a crozet elementary and those operating impacts were able to be picked up as part of the funding formula but to open a new school two of which would open in fiscal year 27 there will be a much

[00:59:08] larger fiscal impact is that they would they would see with the operating cost of the school being anywhere from a million to two million that's a very approximate number not a number from the schools just for perspective of the magnitude so this is one of the things that is on their minds too of how do we plan not only for the current year but where we're headed with those obligations coming. On December 4th we'll have a meeting with the school board as again mentioned to really talk about their capital program and seeing some of their long-term pressures and giving the board an opportunity to engage with them. So the fourth goal, we're halfway through the six, I'm going to hit on is

[00:59:46] the resilient, equitable, and engaged community goal. This is one where a lot of this goal is not so much in the new dollars heavy, it is about implementing with the resources and the policies and the staff that we have. That includes climate action, but I'll acknowledge that in addition to our current ongoing funding for climate action, in the past, the board has added one-time funding to support initiatives.

[01:00:08] Staff anticipates that some additional funding would need to be added, but that would probably start at fiscal year 27, and we'll continue to monitor that. The final point I'll make on the slide, I could tie this project to multiple objectives. So to me, it's just to acknowledge it without worrying about what the best objective is. The Northern Convenience Center is included in the five-year CIP, and then there would be the related operating costs, just as the Southern convenience center opened in recent years these next three objectives again to continue the theme of this goal was really about implementing what we have with the community partnerships and engagement the community response

[01:00:44] readiness and the stream health initiatives the next goal I will go to is infrastructure and placemaking the board has made significant investment through the creation of the broadband accessibility and affordability office and they are currently working with our federal state and local partners with the funding in place to implement that to make progress on the broadband improvements that have taken place in recent years we also have a goal really about partnership and working with our water partners at the water sewer authority and the service authority around that objective so no dollars

[01:01:19] associated with that one that are new a little bit more on this slide we have some really about the the public works function and improving that in the enhanced maintenance our Department of Facilities and environmental services were before the board in recent months to talk about the litter collection program that is funded by the disposable plastic bag tax and that's another example of revenue diversification the board took on in recent years and that has restricted uses which include the litter collection program and also continuing to implement the recent new funding for the entrance corridor and

[01:01:56] right-of-way programming in our facilities team another theme of just you know kind of the changing landscape is transit which comes up in our recent new funding the board has supported not just the operational increases to cat and John our two primary transit providers but exploring the micro cat a program that has been operation for approximately a heater in the coming months the board is going to get an update on how that service is performing the usage and everything that goes with that and that was a two-year grant that was operated by the city of Charlottesville and we'll look to every option we can to extend or expand that grant as we can but there will be a time

[01:02:35] in the coming years where that will shift from a more of a local cost than it is presently due to that two-year grant. Also in the CIP, continuing the transportation leveraging program where the board is able to put aside local funding, support transportation projects, and leverage funding from the state. Moving into quality of life, which is the sixth goal we'll cover today, we are including the implementation of the comprehensive plan. We have the funding in place and the staff time as that continues to work through the process. We also have funding

[01:03:11] with economic development. The board has invested one-time funding to the economic development fund, Also, with the acquisition of Remanded Futures Project and the staff support for the future of that strategic property and the art of the possibility in that area with our partners.

[01:03:26] In the past, the board has, like Climate Action, like Housing, like other areas, the board has invested one-time funding into economic development. And this contemplates in the plan that at some point we would look to make sure that we have a blend of both ongoing funding into that plan and one-time.

[01:03:44] So, the next objective is in the area of parks. This really is taking the current CIP and bringing that to life as Biscuit Run is scheduled to open on December 14th, just a few weeks from now. And that will continue with other improvements in that park and the CIP around those athletic fields and also the athletic fields at Darden Town Park, which are approved by the board and currently under construction.

[01:04:11] So at this point, I've covered 22 of the 23 strategic objectives, but I'd like to slow down a little bit now and spend a little more time as kind of an example or a case study around the housing at Albemarle. I talked earlier about when we look at a strategic objective, we look at where is the funding provided to date, what are the results, what are the new funding, how is this connected, what are the policy tools that are out there.

[01:04:35] And to go into a little more depth on this particular topic, I would actually like to invite Akaki Dimmick, our Chief Human Services Officer, to walk through this to see how all this may play out in a little more detail. We did not do this for all 23 objectives, but we wanted to take some time on this one. The final comment I will make, because it connects to the agenda item following me, is the expanded tax relief in the elderly and disabled.

[01:04:57] The board has given us direction on how to expand that program. We have built that into the five-year plan, knowing that we'll also have a discussion after this meeting. But I just wanted to make that acknowledged to connect two agenda items together. Thank you, Ms. Dimmick. Thank you. Can you drive from that?

[01:05:14] Yes. Thank you. Kaki Demick, Chief Human Services Officer, pleased to share with you a little deeper dive into the board's investment in affordable housing over the last several years. To frame that conversation, just a reminder about the significant housing needs we have in our community.

[01:05:33] In March, I'm certain this is higher now, but in March of this year, the median home value was $522,000. 44% of renters in our community spend more than 50% of their income on housing. That is severely housing burdened, according to HUD's definition.

[01:05:51] And 16% of homeowners spend more than 50% of their income on housing. We have a generalized need, based on a study that was done some time ago, that we need about 10,000 affordable units by 2040 to meet the demand, with a significant portion of those for folks who are below 50% AMI.

[01:06:12] The Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission has launched into a new regional housing needs study, which will refresh these numbers, and I fear that that number will likely be higher. Thank you. The board has invested in the last five years $17.744 million in affordable housing, which is a very exciting investment.

[01:06:36] On this page includes Hickory Hope Apartments, which is the Piedmont Housing Alliance apartment set right on the edge of Southwood, and the middle reflects Vista 29, which was previously called Premier Circle Permanent Supportive Housing Projects, which we celebrated the groundbreaking of on October 30th.

[01:06:57] And finally, the picture of the former picture, I guess, It's sort of more fully invested in housing now of Southwood with a particular deep investment by the board in Cardinal Hill Apartments.

[01:07:15] Thank you. So those investments shake out over the last five years as listed. That includes a substantial portion of ARPA funds in addition to general fund investments. Since 2022, you can see that this affordable housing investments have significant impact on a number of folks, including folks with new affordable and some deeply affordable rentals, maintaining some affordable rentals, supporting owner-occupied units, safe shelter for domestic violence and people experiencing homelessness,

[01:07:51] housing navigation and counseling, which are important services available for a community that is stressed as much as we are around affordable housing availability. And, of course, the adoption of the developer incentive package with a focus on tax abatement. The tools that Albemarle County uses to address affordable housing needs are robust and complicated.

[01:08:15] And so I wanted, I think it's useful to sort of list and identify them all. In terms of rental assistance, we have mainstream vouchers from HUD. We have and support the Scottsville school apartments, housing choice vouchers, family unification vouchers, project-based vouchers, permanent supportive housing, and housing for special populations.

[01:08:36] We provide down payment assistance. We have housing development policy, which focuses on density bonus and affordable housing thresholds. We have shelters that we support for people experiencing homelessness and domestic violence. provide emergency financial assistance, housing repair and preservation, primarily through contracts with AHIP, which is the organization that does most of that work in our community.

[01:09:02] We support a community land trust, navigation services through the Financial Opportunity Center. We leverage other people's money as often as we can, and we have supported construction with financial support, including grants for nonprofit developers and tax rebates for all developers.

[01:09:19] This is simply one sort of deeper dive into an area in the strategic plan that the board has made some significant investments in. Thank you. Thank you. To this point, we've covered the entire five-year plan on both the revenue side and the expenditure side.

[01:09:37] But before we turn it over for a board discussion, which is the most important part of this work session, I thought I would summarize some staff findings we had looking at this just to help frame all of this information. Really, that summary of the revenues is that outlook is partly sunny, partly cloudy.

[01:09:53] There are always signs on the horizon that can be troubling, but we are also seeing positive signs as well, and that's something we'll continue to monitor. The expenditure drivers really are aligned with the strategic plan. We did not cover every single dollar that would be in the five-year plan, but the overwhelming majority of where the funding goes, and especially where the new increases go, are included on the previous slides we've covered.

[01:10:15] As I mentioned earlier in the presentation, our out years are increasingly out of balance and time and planning on the county side, but not losing that takeaway of those prior commitments and obligations, year one and year two are greater than recent plans, and those prior commitments are really driven by the strategic plan, as we discussed, the opening of new facilities, the public safety investments, and with that.

[01:10:41] so before i turn it over to the chair with the board i'll turn it back to the county executive for some final comments andy thank you and board i've got two slides that i want to go into a little more detail about and it is specific to safety and well-being goal number one in our community we want a safe community and first i want to talk just a little bit about the the federal money that i mentioned earlier that we have leveraged uh since since i've been here as County Executive. I found it very interesting when Andy went back and looked over the course

[01:11:16] of several decades. Number one, the exemplary service that we've received from our volunteer fire departments in Alarmar County. They have saved Alarmar County government millions and millions of dollars over the course of decades in their service to this community. And I really can't think that it can, I don't think it can be overstated the significance of the service that our volunteer fire departments have provided all across out more county every volunteer fire department is important to the community they serve and these men and women have been absolutely

[01:11:50] amazing with that being said uh this board has has noticed over the course of in in recent history a struggle uh in this county for our continued service delivery of fire rescue services across out more county government our county government took on as a funding strategy uh the the strategy of going after federal fema safer grant dollars strategically and we now have been successful

[01:12:24] these are competitive grants and we now have been successful in four separate rounds of funding through the federal government and you can see on this slide that that adds up to 57 full-time staff across Albemarle County over the course of several years. And board, what this money does is it pulls federal money in, leverages federal money that has the effect of lowering the local cost specific to our fire departments, picking up more of the operational burden

[01:13:03] Monday through Friday, days, nights, and weekends. This federal money comes in, it's front end loaded, And then it slowly goes away over the course in life of that FEMA grant.

[01:13:20] There's a lot of work on behalf of our finance department and our fire rescue department to make sure that we stay copacetic with all of the requirements with this federal funding. And we've been successful now on four separate rounds. And this feathering in of federal money, it delays the full impact of the local obligation over time.

[01:13:46] You can see with this effect of the four grants as they've been obligated to us in different cycles, that over the course beginning next year all the way into fiscal year 30, that we've got a local obligation that will start in this coming year at 2.3, and it will top out in fiscal year 30 at $6.5 million.

[01:14:09] This strategy has paid off quite well for the county as we've continued to work in partnership with our local volunteer fire departments in trying to make sure that we're able to serve all 725 square miles in Almar County.

[01:14:26] I just want to highlight the significance of the federal money, our ability to be competitive with it, our ability to stay in line with federal requirements. But as this board knows, several years ago when we went into this, we knew with our five-year financial planning that as we reached fiscal years 26 and 27, we would feel the financial obligations begin to be a reality for Albemarle County.

[01:14:57] The next thing I want to do, again, with safety and well-being, I want to move away from the federal FEMA Safer Grant money, and I want to step back just a little bit, and I want to highlight more in this area of the obligations that we're now facing, not just in fire rescue, but across public safety.

[01:15:23] And this is not all inclusive, Board. We've got obligations outside of this, but what we've tried to do is capture some of the most significant cost drivers in this goal. And this, frankly, we see a lot of service delivery to our community on a day-to-day basis.

[01:15:41] I've mentioned briefly the regional jail system upgrades, the debt service and operations associated with that will begin in fiscal year 26, just under $1 million, and by 2030, it tops out at $2 million. The courts, operations, facilities, and security.

[01:16:00] When I came in 2017, the staff briefed me and said that the county and the city had been in discussions since the early 2000s about the need to invest money and to upgrade our court systems. I'm proud to say that when I drive up there and go by there, that we see our work.

[01:16:20] We see it, and it's becoming a reality right before our eyes that we're going to open this shortly. Next year, we're going to need almost a million dollars in operational funding for security and operations, and that pretty much is level over the next five years.

[01:16:36] The Harts expansion is a great example of, as calls for service both in fire and in police have gone up significantly over the last three years, someone could ask what are you doing to curtail the cost of police and fire services with the call volume increase and i think our investment in the hearts team is a great example of us trying to do more to address issues upstream with the increased calls for service specific to mental health distress and and you this board doubled the footprint with creating a second

[01:17:12] hearts team in this past year you continue to be committed to our workforce and that's evident by the uh i think we're in about our fifth year of the public safety pay plan and we've experienced increase uh an increase in the strength of our applicant pools and our retention rates have remained remain very strong i talked earlier about the safer grants we've talked earlier about the the Birkmar Ambulance, the fire pharmacy.

[01:17:38] Board, you took a tour of the Public Safety Operations Center within the last six months up at Fashion Square Mall, where we are now into a five-year with an ability to renewal for an additional five years for the space up there.

[01:17:57] And embedded in that space is a fire pharmacy, where we are now dispensing our narcotics, our drugs to all of our fire rescue crews across the county this is an unfunded mandate that was handed down both by the federal and state government and due to some cross-departmental work we've been able to step in and take this over also north garden they came to you last year during the budget process and that was the driver behind the fourth fema grant board when we examine this goal this is so much of the obligations that we have committed to in order to keep our community safe and also to address the well-being of our community as things in our

[01:18:37] community has changed through COVID and after COVID. With that, board, I'll turn it back over to Andy and he can wrap up. Thank you. I'll now turn it over to the board really for their reaction.

[01:18:54] We've provided some guiding questions about just, you know, what is the plan doing well and what they've been missing? This is not to say that we would solve everything today. There may be future policy discussions areas to explore further it was really the time for the board to kind of see how that financial picture and the strategic plan line up and have the pace that moves forward and we're happy to answer any questions but this is really the kind of time to just kind of listen to the board thank you we will go through our order that's a great provocative presentation supervisor lupisto kirtley please thank you very much mr bowman i really appreciate it and mr

[01:19:32] Richardson, very much this whole plan. I think it's very well laid out in black and white, frankly. The question is the funding and such. You've addressed all the pertinent needs, things that we're focusing on. I do have just a couple of questions. On slide number 26, affordable housing tools, down payment assistance.

[01:20:01] Are you referring to rental or purchase or both? Oh, and also Ms. Dimmick, thank you for your permission. Down payment assistance is available to folks who are buying or purchasing a home.

[01:20:17] So it's for purchase, okay. Yes. Thank you. The other question I had regarding on page 14, goals, safety and well-being, community assistance program, and human services navigator.

[01:20:36] Could you, for the benefit of the audience and myself, go into a little more explanation, please? Certainly. The community assistance program refers to the Albemarle County Emergency Relief Program, which was funded by the board last year with $260,000, I believe, not of general fund last year.

[01:20:58] But it provided emergency relief support to community members that were facing a shutoff notice or an eviction notice. And so it was a one-time financial relief program. There was some additional dollars that came into that last year from ARPA funding.

[01:21:17] So we ended up, I think, with closer to $480,000 that was distributed during the last fiscal year. And it was renewed in the general fund budget for this year, so we had $260,000 in the coffers for this year.

[01:21:32] The board also made a decision to move $170,000 of additional money into that relief program two board meetings ago. So the money starts with $260,000 and then has, at least in the last two years, gotten an additional infusion for emergency relief.

[01:21:51] Generally, it's only available to folks who are facing an eviction notice or a shut-off notice. Okay, you said for evictions, and what was the other one? A shut-off notice for utility. Shut-off notices, gas, and electricity. Okay, thank you.

[01:22:07] And your human services navigator? Human services navigator is somebody who is not tied to a mandated social service program, but somebody who can simply provide assistance to somebody, a family in need, or an individual in need who doesn't know where to go for help. So a connection for how to navigate through the mental health system of care.

[01:22:27] So they're not connected to one of our mandated programs, but there's somebody who shows up at the front door to the social services department and says, I'm confused, I need help. While we have 170 staff in the social services office, they're all dedicated and tied to a very specific mandated service.

[01:22:43] So we haven't had a lot of resources to be generically or generally helpful to people in need in our community. And this is a start towards being able to do that. Okay, so we have funded that or we're... Yes, indeed we did. Okay, thank you. Thank you. All right, thank you. That's all. If I may just clarify, just because there's a lot of history around that funding on the Community Assistance Program, in the current budget there's $260,000 and that is ongoing funding, just in case that wasn't said.

[01:23:10] There's a lot of history. Thank you. Supervisor Malek. Thank you. And thank you again, staff, for helping us to avoid surprises. it doesn't mean that we don't get challenges and the drug box issue that you mentioned is the perfect one which has thrown all 96 counties in virginia into complete and total disarray and imagine the challenges that we're facing take that down to a 5 000 person community who doesn't have an extra hundred grand lying around to be able to do something that should never be happening to

[01:23:44] begin with in in my personal opinion uh the only good news for some of those other communities who are still thrashing about is that the inaction is postponed until April 1st. For us, we've had the ability and the wherewithal to be able to meet the obligation and be ready for it, but it still is going to be just an example of the other punishing things which are happening, and I'm very, very concerned about the security of 29 locations as opposed to one hospital, but that's for another day. So I don't know that there's anything missing, but I will just add a couple

[01:24:24] of personal things for um thinking about the sort of my number one mantra is start what you finish i mean finish what you start start what you good lord wake up start what you finish what you start so we hit the county has invested significant dollars across various cip items and over several years many of them and some of them are sort of nearing the end and just need to be finished before we start new projects that then end up diluting the ability of other ones to be finished.

[01:25:02] So I hope that we will think about doing that in order to, and especially when we're facing what may not be very easy to deal with budget situations going forward this year. But I certainly appreciate all of the effort to get us started today on a good footing and we'll look forward to the months ahead.

[01:25:25] Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor McKeel. Yes, thank you. Thank you for the report. Well done and very informative. I do have just a question on slide six, and this is really probably, Andy, more for the public to help understand this slide.

[01:25:49] But when we're talking about the gaps that we're looking at, the revenue gaps, in 26, a 3.1 percent, and I'm not going to read them all, but in 27, a 5.2.

[01:26:04] So those gaps are specific to that year. Correct. Just for the community to understand that those are not cumulative. That's correct. If fiscal year 26 was balanced at zero, then that 5% would go down to a 2% gap and so on, cascading through the plan.

[01:26:22] Yes, so they're representative of each year. Yes. Okay, that was just for clarity. And on 16 and 17, let me go back and find my pages as well, 16 references climate action plan.

[01:26:44] And then we have on page 17, of course, our stream health initiatives, which we've been really needing, you know, wanting to get to for a good while to complete. mitigating communities' capacity to respond to disasters.

[01:27:02] Could you just perhaps, I know the community is very engaged in climate action. Could you just help a little bit on clarifying exactly what this might mean? Because I know the public looks at this and it's, yeah.

[01:27:20] So I'll speak to a little bit about what is currently funded. In the environmental services portion of facilities, environmental services, I obviously have staff who handle a number of programs from water protection to climate action to other items.

[01:27:37] With climate action funding, there is ongoing funding to support some of the partnerships. There have been grant programs that have been awarded out for some of our community partners. There's also been one-time funding that I know has been used for purposes such as low-income weatherization in partnership with Albemarle Housing Improvement Program.

[01:27:55] They've also taken on initiatives like the chargers that are out in the parking lot of this county office building, getting a grant from Dominion to reimburse us once implemented. So those are some of the initiatives that have been implemented that, and this is contemplating that some of those have been funded with one-time money, as they were one-time expenses, just contemplating that there may be something different after fiscal year 27 that we may need to be positioning the board for.

[01:28:18] Okay, that's helpful. Thank you. You were looking at... I was just making sure that Ms. Wall, thumbs up from her, so thank you. Okay. All right. Good enough. I was looking at body language there. And the only other question I have is about the, I guess it was slide, let me find it here, slide 26.

[01:28:44] We talk about the community land trust. And we certainly, with our affordable housing tools, we certainly hear a lot from the community. And is that in your wheelhouse?

[01:29:02] I saw Andy looking over at you, so I started to look at you. Well, Stacey's over there. Somebody else. Okay. All right, anyway, just trying to look at when we have the requests from the community about completing our affordable housing policy that we've approved and how this plays into that, can you just speak to that briefly?

[01:29:27] You understand my question? I don't think I do. Okay, that's okay. So we hear from many community members that we need to have a land trust or something similar to that.

[01:29:43] And we have passed an affordable housing policy, our housing policy. Can you speak just a little bit to what that might look like or where we are, where implementation, what might be happening? Yes. Is that better?

[01:29:59] Yes, thank you. Thank you. That helps tie the two things together. But there is a community land trust already in Albemarle County, operating in Albemarle County, and the board has supported the community land trust on a number of occasions with grants, generally either through the ARPA competitive funding, but also through the traditional ABRT process.

[01:30:23] The conversation around whether the county ought to have its own community land trust is a policy conversation for the board at a future time and is not robustly on our radar at the moment. And that was just to try and help the public understand the conversations and where we are right now.

[01:30:44] Always one of the questions is whether we should run it or whether we should support somebody else who's running it. And I think that that's an open question at the moment. And so the board's historic decisions have been to support the existing land trust with additional funding. And certainly if we decided we would run it, we'd need staffing.

[01:31:01] Indeed, we would. Just a comment. And that. All right. And I think those were my questions just for mainly public clarity. I don't specifically see anything that's missing. I think you all have done a really good job.

[01:31:17] I'm sure at 2 o'clock in the morning while I'm sleepy tonight, I'll think of something. That's always the way it works. But thank you very much. This was a great presentation. Thank you. And it starts our budget discussions in a really informative way.

[01:31:33] So thanks. Thank you. Supervisor Proeck. Thank you. I'm someone who believes in especially about things that are relevant and important, being as direct as possible and not trying to hide the bag at all.

[01:31:50] So I want to communicate as clearly as possible for the sake of any public who is following along When I view this report that I think is deeply informative and very helpful, the one sentence takeaway that I think we should be looking at is we are facing either somewhat significant increases in real property tax or very substantial cuts to government services that would be, frankly, very challenging to identify at the scale that would be needed to close the gap.

[01:32:24] And that is a pattern that is going to repeat, excuse me, at least until 29. Is that a fair characterization that each year from now until 2029, we would be, it is necessary that the board either increase significantly, either increase taxes or engage in really significant cutting?

[01:32:55] Supervisor Pruitt, thank you for the question. I believe that when we take a look at the five-year budget planning, the financial planning, looking at the revenues and expenses, that we're seeing some challenges this year and in 27 that we've not seen in past years.

[01:33:13] And so we're going to continue. We're early in the process. We don't have our revenue assumptions nailed in. That will happen over the next 30 to 60 days where we get into some detail about what revenue assumptions, both through reassessment and natural growth, what that looks like. But when we go back to Dr. Bailey's presentation back in October and then we look at the early work that Jacob and their team have been doing, I would tell you that what I see is a significant challenge in balancing and maintaining all the obligations and maintaining all the services with the revenue that we see

[01:33:52] coming in the door right now. I see it as a significant challenge for us. Thank you so much. I think it is very easy to look at this report, and I certainly, like the immediate response, the one word kind of descriptor I would give to this report is grim, right?

[01:34:07] It is very challenging, and it reflects, I think, serious realities that the community is going to have to grapple with over the coming five years. I would, and I must remind myself of this too, remind public to temper this with the realities of the spending we are facing are because of the realities of significant, expanded, and improved services throughout the county.

[01:34:34] So it is not grim. It is the tradeoff that we have bargained for as a community. These are the costs that are reflective of living in a kind of high-quality and outstanding community like we have that has fire service, that is reliable throughout an entirely large county throughout all our rural areas, which is not a thing that is guaranteed, which is not a thing that is legally required.

[01:34:57] I like to throw this out sometimes because I think it's important to remind ourselves. We think of timely fire service and, indeed, coverage by a fire department as something that is expected, as something that is required. It's not. There are plenty of communities throughout our country that do not have fire services, and this becomes a cost that is borne otherwise by the community.

[01:35:19] And not just through losing their house to fire, but also this is something that was quite directly put on my plate recently when I had a constituent reach out because she needed an affidavit saying that she had fire protection for her insurance company because they were going to significantly increase her annual fees.

[01:35:37] So while we do ask the public to help pay for this through taxes, it's important, I think, that we remember that this is coming at an offsetting benefit. This is coming through significantly decreased insurance fees for our residents throughout the community, especially for our rural residents.

[01:35:57] I also do want to just note real estate property tax always feels like a zero-sum game that we do play with our community because it is a cost that is borne directly by members of our community. It's a cost that is borne that directly relates to their housing cost.

[01:36:17] This is coming in the form of a question. So I know lobbyists, specifically people who reflect the development industry lobby and the housing lobby, will often suggest that the costs of real estate tax increases are going to be borne directly by renters in rental property in a kind of one-to-one relationship.

[01:36:47] I'm calling my county phone. That was what that vibration was. um i am skeptical of this um that is a direct one-to-one relationship for for rentals especially for for larger multi-family rentals um this is something i would like to be better equipped to understand though um if that question makes sense so a better understanding of how directly um property tax increases real estate property tax increases translate into higher rental prices for renters, especially in larger multifamilies, because I think this is something we need to be prepared to answer.

[01:37:28] I've mentioned this before, but also as we are looking at potentially having to seriously consider an increase in real estate property taxes, I would be more curious, I would reassert my curiosity in what processes we have that can limit the burden of real estate property tax increases on lower-income homeowners, such as in the form of a tax rebate after issuance.

[01:37:58] I know we have very limited authority currently before taxes are assessed, but I do know that some localities rebate partially taxes for low-income homeowners. That would make me, frankly, much more comfortable being free with the lever on that if I knew that I could mitigate some of the harms that face lower-income taxpayers.

[01:38:20] Those are the main questions I have. I do just want to note and confirm, because there's a term of art, and I've talked to constituents who get these things confused. We just spoke about the community land trust, which is through the Piedmont Housing Alliance, and is, frankly, at this stage, I think a very small operation, and that we have supported in the past, but do not have, to my knowledge, ongoing funding commitments at this time.

[01:38:51] correct me if I'm wrong, we do not have ongoing funding commitments at this time, but we have supported in the past. This sounds like, but is importantly distinct from the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, which we have and is funded at about a little over $2 million in ongoing funds this year and has previously been funded in $5 million increments and that there's significant community pushback to change some of our governing documents and increase the funding for. Those are distinct things community land trust not something I think the board is trying to take on right now but affordable housing trust fund both have the word trust in

[01:39:31] the affordable housing trust fund is something I think we are much more immediately grappling with the scale of funding that was a statement not a question those questions about the ability for the county to do a low income rebate that nexus between property taxes and rents we can take those as follow-ups of staff to report back to the board and I'll share for public transparency. Whenever there are Q&A with the board during the budget process, we also publish those full responses on the website so that everyone can see how that dialogue is

[01:40:02] continuing. Thank you. Supervisor Calloway. Thank you. Just to build on the final point about the trust fund, which Supervisor Pruitt explained the difference between the two, we do not have a trust fund in place. And I'm tired of it. It's snuck into our language, though. We have a contingency fund or a housing fund that we put dollars in it is not a trust fund there's a very specific reason why trust funds are used around the country to you for affordable housing it's it's not indifferent

[01:40:38] from economic development funds that allow you to build revenue off of it a housing a contingency fund a fund that we just dump money into a drawer for a specific use does not allow us to invest and build revenue from and that is why it is such a critical tool especially when you get upwards of 20 30 40 50 million eventually into a fund like that it starts to produce revenue for itself then you don't have to pull property tax or other tax revenue in it starts to offset that so i've been becoming concerned over the last year or 50 or year 15 months that we've started

[01:41:17] to use the word trust fund we do not have a trust fund in the county um it's not on our housing tools the speaker pointed out it was properly endorsed when we voted on housing albemarle so at some point just when i look at a five-year financial plan and there are tools out there that help us attack an issue that we think is a crisis but also helps us diversify revenue then we should be having that conversations we should have had it already um so that just sorry that was a trigger more from building off of supervisor pruitt's point than than response to

[01:41:54] a five-year financial plan. But I hope that that point is understood. And if there's no disagreement about it, then we have to start having, we have to figure out what we're going to do about that. You specifically asked what is missing or what was the other one? What does the plan do well? My guess here, if I point out anything that's missing, it was just missing in this presentation because knowing your team, I can't imagine anything is missing. You guys do a thorough job and figuring out especially on the five-year financial planning stuff so i just want

[01:42:30] to start off by saying i suspect it's out there on a couple of things that i'm going to say well i didn't hear about this today um but i my i'm imagining that it's been discussed um so i'll just go through my notes now um for page eight your your revenue graph which goes from oh seven to present do we have i mean we balance our budget so when we look at a revenue when we look at that type of graph it's it's not just a trade-off to say well that's also the expenditure graph over that period of time because the revenues coming in in a year could

[01:43:09] could go beyond your costs so have you done a graph from 07 on that does a similar exercise as that graph for expenditures? You make a good point because this shows the actuals and actuals can vary from the budget but we could take a follow-up if it would help the board to prepare where does that look like budget to budget for some of those comparisons for the general fund and helping understand where some of those changes were. I think it's trickier to do a graph like this for expenditures so I don't a part of it for me is you know really looking at the nosedive

[01:43:45] there during the great recession but expenditures and revenues are different animals yes and we always look at historical trends on on the revenue side i don't recall us ever really looking at this type of well at least this time frame for expenditures and i think that may be helpful for us to understand um how expenditures work how costs i mean our services what we're paying for how that changes over time um if there's any trend information there i don't know you might say well Now, I don't know if that would be worthwhile.

[01:44:17] We could put something together, because certainly while the majority of our costs, roughly 75% are our personnel costs right now for county government. But there have been changes over time where the board has made investments in things such as water resources, certainly cost of services, such as we've talked about the evolution of the fire rescue system.

[01:44:36] We have new functions. There was not, once upon a time, the broadband office. There are examples out there. But I think the point, too, on expenditures is, you know, I'll play this out in an example. In fiscal year 2022 and fiscal year 2023, there were very strong revenue growth. One of the strategies the board took, you know, coming out of the pandemic was taking that growth and applying it to one-time sources as you can.

[01:44:59] So I would expect part of the expenditures wouldn't necessarily correspond to that year, but say as fiscal year 2023 ended strong, the board said, what can we invest in a one-time nature into capital, into housing, into economic development, broadband to drive forward those strategic initiatives but we could certainly put something together that helps to tell that story yeah two budgets ago the what you're saying is how we've kind of pocketed some for the the following year which was a good which was a good strategy well thank you for that um come back to that for fire there's a lot of focus on fema and and what we've

[01:45:37] been doing in fire and safety this is not for today but i suspect this has been building in my brain as we you know this is the kickoff to the budget season so when budget rolls around i'd like to see not just through fema but in total investment in development area fire services versus rural area fire services this was triggered by our conversation the last board meeting on comp plan about how if the development area is going to be tasked with taking on all of the growth that there is a difference in opinion about what service delivery is.

[01:46:17] I think in this budget cycle, as public safety rightly is going to be a focus, that we need to see historically, or at least over the last five years, how we've invested along those lines, which seem to have heads nodding when we were talking in the comp plan a few weeks ago.

[01:46:36] And I'm not trying to telegraph any sort of viewer opinion on this, but it's information we need to start looking at in that way. And it may just still be, you know, before we raised the real personal property tax last year, we were debating, well, should we do North Garden or should we do an ambulance?

[01:46:59] And that's right there. That's a rural service versus a development area service. And we had to raise revenue in order to do both. And that's continuing coming out of that, that I think we need to just be mindful of that as we work in the budget through this.

[01:47:19] No, that's for schools later. Now, because we've obviously invested in FTEs for fire specifically beyond what was funded through the SAFER grant.

[01:47:41] So that part to me is like, I don't want to get lost in thinking that's all we've done, fire personnel, is just the SAFER grants. I mean, I get why it's here because it's delaying the cost and the burden down. But I think that the whole picture, you know, is for myself, not to mention everyone watching or as they start to tune in on this, need to understand what the total investment has been.

[01:48:06] The SAFER grants are really a mechanism in which to achieve that total investment. Yeah, I expect we can put together an analysis that will be responsive to that. Because the FEMA SAFER grants, if I had got the chart right, there were 47 FTEs went to rural area, 10 went to development area.

[01:48:22] So right away, you know, that's not a proper way to think about that because we could have invested outside of the SAFER grants because we've had not the volunteer issue. And when we've added staff in the development areas, that number is likely very different.

[01:48:41] Because I think the SAFER, obviously, we've used the SAFER to help us accomplish the rural piece. So I don't want the argument or the face of it to seem like, oh, it's so heavily slanted because it would be wrong to just look at it from that standpoint.

[01:48:56] I think what's missing in the plan, or at least what was presented, goes to a portion of the comment in the trust fund piece. But revenue diversification, financial tools and planning that allow us to build revenue for the county, not just through tax increases or property value increases or even economic development or local economic activity.

[01:49:21] What in-house, which we have started to do over the last couple of years to build some capacity, build some revenue based on our own financial standing, the fact that we're a triple-triple-A, et cetera. In today's consent agenda, you had the discussion piece of the current portfolio statistics and what was built out of that.

[01:49:44] That's revenue. So, you know, I don't know that five years ago – I'm assuming this is coming from something we've started to do. I can't remember. I don't think this existed five years ago. This report at least wouldn't have existed. But if we're starting to build some revenue out of investments, then I'm not hearing a lot of discussion about that strategically to go, how can we continue to do that? Not just be satisfied with what we're currently doing, but to continue to grow. Because $3 million, that's quarterly earnings, by the way, on that particular investment pool.

[01:50:18] So if there are other ways, whether it's this portfolio or not, to help us get a couple of extra million dollars every year, that goes a long way to some of the things that this board sometimes would like to do, but doesn't in the face of bigger priorities.

[01:50:36] The emergency assistance fund would be a great example of that. If you could build an extra $500,000 out of an investment portfolio, they could go to something like that. And it's because those smaller budget items sometimes get lost when they're up against the Giants. So I'm just saying that I expect that you, like I said, that's probably just missing from the presentation.

[01:50:56] I know that's not missing from your thoughts, but I'll give you a chance to respond if you'd like. Mr. Sumner, would you like to go first? Sure. Jacob Sumner, Chief Financial Officer for the county. Supervisor Galloway, thank you for those comments and picking up on the work that our Office of Investment and Debt Management is doing, particularly in how we are structuring our investments and utilizing those funds we have on hand.

[01:51:20] And that is a relatively new initiative. Really, in 2024, we took a very strategic approach of moving our available cash into more fruitful investments, Still maintaining our liquidity, still maintaining our safety, but being able to leverage those dollars in larger returns.

[01:51:39] Now, one thing that we are very cognizant of, and as we see the interest rate and environment fluctuate over the years, is that we tend to see those revenues as one time in nature. Unlike some of our other revenue streams that are pretty consistent, our investment income can fluctuate based on the economic environment and the interest rates.

[01:52:00] But that is something that we're looking at specifically for helping with our one-time costs that may relate to capital or some other programming like that. But that is, I thank you for recognizing that in the Treasury report or the investment management report that we had today because that is a very new initiative that we have structured and started.

[01:52:21] And I think, obviously, how you're treating it as one-time in nature initially is right. But when we're 5, 10, 15, 20 years down the road, you know you're going to start looking at that and going, all right, there's a base here that we know we're going to get. And you could start treating that base as ongoing in your revenue projection.

[01:52:38] And then any fluctuation can be in whatever cushion beyond it. I mean, I'm not a financial expert, but that seems to be reasonable to think that you could start saying, okay, that's probably going to be there every year. But thank you. All right. So this is then the bigger, just this is more commentary.

[01:52:56] I'm not looking for any reaction here today, but this is more kind of giving you an idea of which this individual supervisor is thinking as we go to budget season in terms of priority. Having gone to VACO, the NACO stuff, of course the housing piece, but even going back to the national conference over the summer, affordable housing is just in every conversation.

[01:53:25] It's not just in a housing conversation. It's in everything. If an economic, I've heard more about affordable housing and economic development meetings than I have in housing meetings over the last six months. And it's starting to occur to me, you know, when I look at our strategic plan and I look at our circles, and I think these are the right three circles, education and learning, safety, well-being, workforce, and customer.

[01:53:52] I think you've got the right three highlighted. I have an agreement with that. When I'm starting to go, oh, I didn't realize, catch on. I made an error in judgment, in my opinion, is that affordable housing falls under quality of life. Housing likely should be under, housing in general, should probably be under quality of life.

[01:54:16] The affordable housing issues that we're dealing with are not quality of life. They're public safety and well-being. So we're treating it, I'm really cognizant all the time of our strategic plan, how it aligns to our budget.

[01:54:35] And then when I tell folks in the public, if you want to see what's really prioritized important to your elected officials, see what they choose to do during budget time. And that thread to me is very important for what I think I do as a supervisor, and I think all of us think that way. So if affordable housing remains linked under quality of life, as if to say that if you're spending 60% of your earned income towards housing costs, that you just have a lower quality of life, and that that's not a public safety issue or a well-being issue, that's wrong.

[01:55:07] And I got it wrong when we did our strategic plan. So what I'm saying is that we can't go back and redo the strategic plan. We can have conversations about strategic plan and whether or not what I'm saying is correct or not and debate that during the next strategic plan if I'm still here.

[01:55:26] But the idea is that this budget time, affordable housing, and for folks that are struggling and suffering from that, that is a priority to me that raises to the same as not being able to provide fire service in areas. I'm just letting it known that as a supervisor, that's a priority going into the budget season.

[01:55:46] And I will be looking for ways, just like I've had priorities in past budgets, to help address that. Other supervisors, I mean, we all have our priorities. So as part of, in addition to the five-year plan, I'm just trying to telegraph so you're not caught off guard in two months or three months.

[01:56:06] Like, well, where did that come from? If it didn't link so intricately to everything else, then it might stay under quality of life. But the fact that that could, I mean, it hits our local economy big time if folks can't be housed.

[01:56:21] The economic outlook report that we received from Dr. Bailey was saying that poverty has decreased in our county, which means that we've forced people out. I mean, you just can't see the wealth that we have here. You can't see we're up to, what was it, $500 and some thousand dollars for area.

[01:56:40] All six counties in the TJPDC are over $400,000 right now in median housing sales price. So we're not just forcing people out of Albemarle. We're forcing them out of our entire region. And we have two choices. We can accept that or we have to do something to offset that.

[01:56:58] And to me, that goes right to budget because public subsidy is a big portion of how you hit affordable housing. I'll continue some of this conversation point as we continue to work through the comp plan. but i would think that all of us should be seeing it as something that goes all right we have to really address this in ways in our budget we have all these tools it is known nationwide that there's no one thing it takes all the tools we're doing it takes more in those list of tools and there are a lot of tools not on our list that we don't have yet and all of that takes resources um so in

[01:57:34] in line with what i believe would be important for public safety relative to not just fire but police climate resiliency and dealing with emergency and assistance planning that that affordable housing needs to rise to that level and we just have to deal with that in our financial plan our and our in our budget so that's a little bit of a soapbox but um thank you for uh letting me say those things that's all i have right now thank you um uh where to start uh i'm gonna sort of build on

[01:58:09] some of those comments and then come back to mine. So I get a little less worried about which of the six circles have red around them. And I do see in quality of life, the housing, but I also see in safety and well-being the things like the community assistance program, which had the funding for eviction and cutoff services, which is related. In that regard, I did have a question, and that was We had a comment earlier about $800 is not enough.

[01:58:40] Is that what that refers to as far as what we provide? We're looking at Ms. Dimmick. Please, there's a question for you about the $800. I'm sorry.

[01:58:58] Perhaps if you could repeat the question, Chair Andrews. Well, I'm going through different comments, but I did have questions that relate to them, and so we were talking about what's in housing, safety, and well-being versus in quality of life. But there was a question raised in a public comment earlier about $800 not being enough.

[01:59:16] And I didn't know when we talk about our community assistance program, is that what that's referring to as a limit to how much we provide an eviction or come? Yes, sir. So I will acknowledge that there are two ways to operate an emergency assistance program.

[01:59:34] And there's no data that supports one over the other. One way is to use all of the funds you have available to solve someone's problem completely when they show up, which would likely mean that you would spend 100% of your funds in less than the first quarter.

[01:59:52] But you would solve a problem for the people who walk through the door. The other method is to titrate out how much you provide over the course of a year so that you have money for somebody who is in an emergency in June. And that's the method that we've chosen to use as our administration for ACERP.

[02:00:13] And so that means based on the number of folks who ask for assistance, we identify the amount of money that we think is the average amount that we ought to provide per person. If we also, if we had all of the applications for assistance at one time, we could then assess them based on vulnerability and make those decisions, but we don't have that either.

[02:00:34] And so we have to identify something that is both defensible and somewhat arbitrary as our guidance for doing that. Okay. Thank you for that clarification. I certainly understand that one of the biggest problems we face is not having the crystal ball as to what we're going to need. Yes, it would be nice if you all could work on that.

[02:00:52] Just, again, bringing things back to comments that have previously been made about the trust fund. I know that we're not really going to discuss the trust fund extensively at this point, but I'm still trying to wrap my head around the idea of setting aside something along the lines of $10 million as to whether or not that's a per year or that's a fund and if it's a per year, certainly the needs that we're seeing are great enough to probably use it up every year so I'm not sure how it grows from there except to the extent that it might be used as a loan fund or something but that's a conversation for a different day

[02:01:27] but I wish I understood better the comment about how this grows. A minor thing, again, we talk about cost and benefits, and it's helpful to me to see where sometimes we get these savings, and I really appreciate the fact that you highlighted those as you went through.

[02:01:46] There is a new one, of course, coming. It's the implementing the Albemarle Employee Care Clinic, and I don't know whether that is an additional perk primarily for the benefit of employees or for the benefit of our health care expenditures and how that works.

[02:02:04] Both, I guess. You're exactly right, Chair Andrews. I think it's both an offensive and a defensive move by Albrecht County government. And I'll remind the board that we are in partnership with Albrecht County Schools on our health care plan.

[02:02:20] So that's important because together with Albrecht County Schools, we're probably approaching 3,600, 3,700 staff. And so we've got a nice base of employees plus covered lives.

[02:02:39] And this is not cutting edge, but I think it's best practices. When we were doing our initial work on scoping the cost and the operational steps to put an employee health clinic in play, we went across the Commonwealth and we talked to consultants.

[02:02:58] And we were surprised at how many local governments in Virginia have already done this. And so it's two things. It's on the health care side, and Mr. Sumner has been working really hard to put this together. So he can backfill anything that I don't say that I should.

[02:03:17] But we're removing barriers for our employees who need to access health care. We are getting, with the proper pushing out of information on hours and location and the availability and the services, we are able to get employees and covered lives and families into a clinic that's focused on our work population and getting them in, getting them what they need, and get them back to work.

[02:03:49] It's very convenient. We're removing the barriers and we're getting people in and out. It's not to replace the primary health care doc. It's not to replace the specialist, the internist. It's really to remove barriers.

[02:04:04] The second thing it does is it does help to hold down cost. It's intuitive when we think about it that when we put a clinic in place that would almost be like an urgent care type of clinic, but it's an in-house program, and we're going to offer these opportunities, these services at cost, that we get our people in early, we get them seen, and we're able to catch things that maybe an employee otherwise would not go and have checked out. So you're going to see, you've seen healthcare clip since COVID at about 10 to 12 percent in

[02:04:41] terms of the inflation associated with healthcare. What we hope is going to happen over time is we're going to see that begin to slow down just a little bit. So we're hopefully going to get people who are taking more ownership in managing their health, managing their numbers, because we're removing the barriers. We're making it as cost neutral as possible. But then also over time, because our people are more healthy and they're managing their numbers, we hope to see the overall cost go down. Because we're now in year two of seeing some pretty significant cost increases

[02:05:16] with our self-insurance fund, which means basically that we have our fund, we have somebody administering it, but we're not buying our health care retail off the shelf, if that makes sense. And I applaud the effort. I think that's exactly the kind of thing we need to make sure that we keep things under control and improve our future prospects.

[02:05:38] I'll go back to the questions that you asked, of course. What does the plan do well and what may be missing? I think, you know, this has done an excellent job, especially the way it ties into the strategic plan and is in format and presentation a consistency over the years so that I can go back and look at how this has compared in previous years, which is something I think it does really well, but it's also something I'm going to highlight that's perhaps missing or could use a little bit additional information.

[02:06:10] So on slide 6, you have the sort of the grim picture, if you will, that shows the mismatch between revenues and expenditures. And I guess I would note that, you know, in our current budget, essentially the same slide appears, I think it's page 29 of the existing budget book, but in an earlier year version.

[02:06:36] and there are differences and some of that you know it is in our existing budget but still it may be to carry over before we decided to put in for the additional safer grant bring on the additional uh people for both north garden and seminal trails so there are expenses and needs that weren't in that that said this is where people will start to look and say okay this is this situation how does this compare the previous projections where where did things change and some of that is going to be reflected in a rapidly increasing health care cost that you mentioned

[02:07:11] just a minute ago and other inflation factors perhaps that weren't anticipated in those numbers. It's just something I'd like to make sure that we pay attention to so we can explain where these things come from. Thanks. I believe it was at one point last year we did a comparison to prior five-year plans and how that compared. And I know one of the insights I quote Dr. Bailey, who's with us a lot too is that exercise of planning things will always change and this is one for me as a kind of a you know still a budget analyst in my younger days in the heart of coming out of the pandemic and how we were able to adapt as circumstances change around us and how do we

[02:07:51] keep that eye to the future and kind of always consider in scenarios what if things get a little better what if things get a little worse so we can provide that follow-up but i also want to share some of the staff's mindset as we continue to watch this through our quarterly reporting and as we build financial plans. And make sure you understand that I really appreciate the fact that I can look at these together because they're prepared in such a consistent fashion that I can see how your thinking has evolved and planning has improved.

[02:08:20] Thank you. I received your question with that intent. Okay, thank you. We have additional comments. I'll turn it back to the board. Supervisor, LaPista Curtin. Yes, I'm going back to page 26, down payment assistance. I, my opinion, I have concerns regarding that if we don't already have a list of people ready to go into homes, so, because this is for ownership.

[02:08:50] I know we've been focusing more on rentals and assisting people with their rentals, being able to get into a rental. If this money were used for emergency relief or for rental down payment, or if it's down payment assistance, is it specified for a specific group, or is it just in general?

[02:09:16] Those are the questions I have, but I would like to see that maybe, and I don't know how much money we're talking about. These are tools. Pardon? These are tools. Oh, these are tools, right. But, I mean, I would like to see that go more for, this is just me, emergency relief or rentals, because I'm not sure how viable our down payment assistance for ownership has been in the past.

[02:09:44] It hasn't been. So I don't have a lot of hope for the future, but maybe I'm wrong. The down payment assistance program that we have supported in the past is actually operated by Piedmont Housing Alliance. And so they have a balance of funds that have been previously allocated to them for down payment assistance that they make available to the public based on area median income.

[02:10:09] So it's means tested by income. And if folks qualify, they can take advantage of down payment assistance from the county, usually as an opportunity to match down payment assistance from another source. The amount is quite low that they provide based on the agreement that the county established with them many years ago and is less and less meaningful as the housing price goes up.

[02:10:36] So I don't think there's a shortage of folks who would be interested in qualifying. Their ability to use that down payment assistance to actually get into a home is pretty limited. So there's an opportunity to revisit how those funds get used at the Piedmont Housing Alliance level, but those funds have essentially left the building and are now being operated by Piedmont Housing Alliance.

[02:10:59] Okay, so those funds have left the building. Yes, ma'am. That's what you're saying. Okay, then that's fine. I'm just, I guess, more concerned really about emergency relief and for getting people into rentals, like with the down payment on rentals, something like that.

[02:11:16] So, thank you. That's all. Thank you. Supervisor Malek. Thank you very much. I had a couple of follow-ups. So, I think that originally the down payment assistance fund built up when developers were allowed to buy out their obligation to build a unit.

[02:11:34] And we lost the $150,000 unit and got $16,000 in cash. I've never been in favor of that, and I don't know if that's where that is in the whole housing stuff. I think that it's still a live opportunity, so something else to work on in the future.

[02:11:49] Just going down the notes I made as others were speaking and asking, the slide 17, mitigation of risk, what jumped off the page to me was when we have emergencies, back to the derecho in 2011, there was a discussion in the after action reports about upscaling the capacity of some of our public buildings, fire stations, schools in the rural areas, schools in the,

[02:12:21] I mean, Admiral High School was the only place that had the capability of taking people when we had the 12 days of 96 degrees and no power after the derecho. And there were many people who just were too far away, too old, too frail, would not go. And so there was a thought at that time about diversifying the availabilities of shelters.

[02:12:42] So that's what jumped into my mind, was were we doing some risk mitigation by improving the ability of our fire stations all around to be able to provide that kind of assistance, even for people who need water and don't have any opportunity to get it.

[02:13:00] So that's just something for the list going forward. Let me zoom down here because there were a couple of other questions. The 2007 spike that someone commented about the dive in investments in the recession, the 2009 budget zeroed out $100 million in capital that we're still not recovered from doing.

[02:13:21] So that always, whenever I see that graph and the fall, I realize how it may have been a survival mechanism at the time, but all it did was just put us in a so much bigger hole as we go along. I'm looking forward to what I think is coming, which is the difference in responding to the growth area investments for fire and rescue, for example, as opposed to the rural areas.

[02:13:47] I'm looking forward to that information because just in making a rudimentary list, looking at the fire stations, we have 11 stations and their staff who serve the growth area and four who serve the rural area. And all of those, except for very recent investments, were all built with donated dollars.

[02:14:06] So that's a pretty good split already, I think. And I'm looking forward to how those play out. And I agree with the comments about the affordable housing. It is almost like the workforce umbrella that we talked about fitting in all the other buckets.

[02:14:23] Affordable housing fits in all the other buckets, too, for our own staff as well as for our workforce in the community. But having lived in Massachusetts for many, many years where their primary thing at town meeting or whatever was just to throw money at something, I have learned the hard way that we need bona fide solutions for housing.

[02:14:45] We don't just throw money at it and expect it's going to go away. If it was easy, somebody else would have already figured out how to do this. So I'm looking forward to figuring out what all the other communities are doing and what we are doing that we might be able to do to be able to make some bona fide full statements going forward.

[02:15:02] and thank you very much. Thank you. Supervisor Prove. One quick one and one longer one. We were discussing the potential cost savings around the clinic as a way to offset the kind of growing costs that we've seen in healthcare, and you mentioned something that you've addressed with this board before, which is that, especially since COVID, but generally, healthcare costs on our insurance plan have increased significantly year to year, and because we have such a large workforce. That's a pretty significant cost that we have to anticipate. I'm just curious when we look at the projections for the five-year plan that you've shown us, is that baking in an assumption

[02:15:41] for health care costs on the insurance plan, or would we additionally have to add any shifts from that? We're at a point in the year where I would say whether it be with real estate assessments or other things, we're planning what the plan year 26 rates could look like. So at this point, we'll look at the performance of that fund, how it relates to the policies of that.

[02:16:06] There would be, as we've seen for the high-end cost, the next couple of years, what we typically see in other localities, it's not a one-year blip. It usually takes a few years to work through that before things return to a normal trend. I thought that would add. If either of you gentlemen to my right would like to add anything, please do so.

[02:16:24] I would just add that in the five-year plan, as that is also tied to our employee compensation, but in our workforce goal, that is built in.

[02:16:41] I think as you look further out in the five-year plan, it's going to be harder to have more of an articulate number of what that looks like. But looking particularly at our most recent history of increases, that is what we've built the base off of for those increases, and I've carried that through the five-year plan.

[02:17:00] And I apologize. I said I'd have two, but you just made me think of another very quick question, and this can be a yes or no, do we have additionally a baseline assumption for cost of living for salary for employees that's baked in? Yes, that would be included as part of goal one with all of that and the benefits that go with that as most of our benefits grow on salaries with the exception of health insurance, as a percentage, I should mean.

[02:17:25] That's very helpful to know and to think about as we plan forward. The one other thing is I think we had kind of a fundamental, substantive question that arose between comments from two different supervisors that I just want to dig into a little bit more with Ms. Dimmick's help, which is Supervisor Galloway painted a picture of an affordable housing trust fund that has an element that is self-watering, right?

[02:17:52] It is able to perpetuate and sustain its own investments. And Chair Andrews questioned how that would work uh absent just annual re-infusion of the same amount of funds and specifically mentioned one of like a small handful of ways i know it could happen i can think of if the fund is structured as a loan fund as opposed to a grant fund which is how we currently disperse um if it is the identified place where we put money from proffers if it's the identified place we put money from cash in lieu if it's the identified place which we put recordation fees

[02:18:30] which is actually a zero-sum thing because we're already using recordation fees but i know some localities do that and if there is a principle that we reserve that we take interest on those are the only ways i can i know of that make trust funds self-watering or self-perpetuating and i'm curious if that is a fair characterization or if there's a key thing we're missing as far as how we would sustain investments without the same amount of infusions each year um i i think you're right in terms of the self-watering aspect i think the definition for trust fund includes lots of

[02:19:04] varieties of ways that people support affordable housing. So there are trust funds that are self-watering that are often based on a significant principle that then generates interest that is either used in all the ways you described as loans that come back or as significant investments in affordable housing. But the primary sort of baseline definition for a trust fund is that there's a dedicated source of revenue for it. And so technically, we meet that definition because of the way we have funded this with our cash-in-lieu payments. That hasn't been a significant financial

[02:19:43] driver for the trust fund, but technically it meets that definition. So I think there's lots of conversation to be had about sort of what happens when you do have a substantial amount of money is that money that you stash in support of building a balance that then could be revenue generating or invested, or do you spend it? And we have had a sort of backlog of requests for affordable housing funding in this community in the last five years that sort of demanded use of whatever available dollars we've had. So we haven't gotten off the starting blocks in terms

[02:20:18] of having that big conversation about the way a trust fund might operate in Elmoral County. thank you thank you i was just thanking you because that was very helpful what you just shared with us yes is there something further than from presenters well mr summer's got a slide that he can pull up if the board would like to take another minute to talk a little bit more in depth about this so we we did take a look at uh housing trust funds and different examples of housing

[02:20:57] trust funds you know throughout the commonwealth and other states and and as ms dimmick explained There's kind of a basic definition to a housing trust fund, but there are multiple ways in which it can be implemented in localities. With several of the attributes that are in the sub-bullets that you see on the slide that are different depending on the location and the locality and the needs of the community and how those priorities are set.

[02:21:25] And so as we did a survey and looked through some other examples, we'll see differences in housing trust funds and really how they're utilized for eligible projects. Some of them can be for construction or rehab, and some of them are just for preservation of affordable housing.

[02:21:41] There's different examples of the beneficiaries of the trust funds, who's eligible to participate, who's able to receive the funds from the trust. The distribution of those funds is also varied from locality to locality, whether it's a loan-based structure or whether it's grants-based structure.

[02:22:04] And really, what Supervisor Galloway was talking about earlier is really the funding source. There are multiple ways to fund housing trust funds, whether it's an initial endowment almost, and then the source of the ongoing funds is the interest growing up on that endowment.

[02:22:23] Other localities have it where it's a dedicated tax to fund a housing trust fund. That could be used for any of the loans or grants. As we mentioned, the cash and loo payments earlier. And there are times, and I think there's a recent example in more in the Richmond area of a one-time large lump sum investment into an affordable housing fund that then is time limited where they want to spend those dollars over a set period of time for five years or 10 years, whatever the specific needs are.

[02:22:57] So the takeaway from this slide is, yes, there are elements of housing trust fund that are in multiple localities, but it's varied based on those localities' needs and their priorities for the community.

[02:23:14] And so I think as we continue these conversations about affordable housing trust fund, I would look that as we have conversations around these different elements and what that looks like and i do believe that uh an important element of that will be the the funding source thank you i look forward to that discussion one just one very additional short question to follow up on this i believe we talked about this very briefly during budget but um we are talking about ics currently grappling with the goal of how are we going to get that initial amount of seed in an affordable housing trust fund that can help it sustain some of itself that's

[02:23:53] how we structured this. We, in the past, have always funded our fund, whether we call it a contingency fund or a trust fund. We have funded it primarily out of direct general fund revenues, which is out of our operating budget. When you compare it to how Richmond structured it in the past and what I know other localities do, have done major infusions out of capital or in the form of a bond so that they can pay down the initial costs of filling up that pot over time

[02:24:29] so it's not a massive 10, 20 million dollar line item that comes up on a budget. Is that a feasible way we could approach this? Do we have room left in our capital debt service to even accommodate something like that? I just suggest that. That's a great question and a great suggestion and I think it goes right to the conversation about the different funding sources. As you alluded to, if you take on long-term debt to have seed money for a program like that, it really impacts our

[02:25:05] debt ratios and our financial policies. And it works towards that conversation where we're putting our dollars with a housing component, but also with a capital component. And so those are Those are complex conversations that revolve around multiple priorities, really structured around the strategic plan.

[02:25:27] But that is another tool that is not listed as a funding source on this slide, but one that we can look at and provide more information on. I appreciate that. Thank you. I also just kind of wanted to make sure that view was put on the record, so I appreciate that. Thank you.

[02:25:44] If there is nothing further, then we are set for now and ready to take a 15-minute recess. Thank you to the board for all your time and input. We appreciate it. Thank you very much for your presentation. Now or later?

[02:26:05] He's in a wheelchair.

[02:42:45] That is my wheelhouse. All right. Welcome back, board. Our next item is another, an action item, but an action item to schedule a public hearing to consider adoption of an ordinance to modify real estate tax relief for elderly and disabled persons.

[02:43:05] And this is being led by Ms. Jennifer Matheny from Chief of Revenue Administration. Welcome. Thank you. Good afternoon, Chair Andrews and board. I'm Jennifer Matheny, Chief of Revenue Administration. It's my honor to be with you this afternoon to request a public hearing, be scheduled to amend Elmore County's Chapter 15 of taxation, specifically to modify the real estate tax relief for the elderly and disabled program. I appreciate this opportunity to be with you this afternoon on what most of you know is my favorite topic. I have about 10 slides to share

[02:43:44] with you regarding our program. This agenda will provide an overview of what we'll go over to request this public hearing. Staff is requesting the board consider modifying the program criteria for tax year 2025 prior to the application and program information being distributed in January.

[02:44:07] We feel this will simplify the application process and avoid changes later in the tax year after approvals have been issued. Based on the application cycle for existing applicants, this program undergoes that three-year review process that we talked about previously. And for tax year 2025, it will generate a larger three-year review than our other years. And we kind of call this our bubble year, just based on when people started in the program. So we will have at least

[02:44:41] 500 full applications that we have to process in 2025. And so our hope is to get our information out with the updated, if it's approved, changes so people don't get a letter with one approval that we then in April or May are sending them another letter. We feel like that's going to hopefully simplify it. So we'll do an overview of the current program, look at the proposed program updates and then request the public hearing. So let me start by reviewing the current

[02:45:17] program. I do want to share that my team and I believe this program is definitely one of the most important offered by Albemarle County. We find assisting these applicants rewarding knowing we're helping them be able to remain in their homes. Most of the participants in the program would not be able to afford these taxes to be able to maintain the home ownership in Albemarle County, and we get to witness firsthand how this program is life-changing for those individuals and what a positive impact it has on the community. So with the current program, the applicant must

[02:45:55] be at least 65 years old or totally and permanently disabled. They do have to own the property as January 1 of the tax year. Applicants' property cannot be used for business that they're seeking the relief on, and then we have certain income and financial net worth criteria that they must meet.

[02:46:17] Currently, the net income maximum is the $88,800, and the financial net worth is $305,000 maximum. This table shows you those thresholds for the percentage of relief based on your income, and I want to point out that the net worth excludes applicants, does not exclude applicants with greater than 10,000, I'm sorry, greater than 10 acres. So if I have 15 acres and I apply and

[02:46:50] I'm approved for tax relief, then I will get tax relief on my residents plus 10 acres. Then I'll pay taxes on anything over those 10 acres. But we do have people in the program with greater than 10 acres. So now let's look at some statistics from 2024 program. When the income and net worth limits were raised last year, it allowed more people who applied to be eligible to participate in the program. So 95% of the applicants met the criteria and were approved for tax relief.

[02:47:28] That's up from 94% from the previous year, 2023. I did want to highlight, though, from 2022, this approval percentage was 89%. So these changes truly are making a big impact in what we're seeing. And it's a positive impact. The data I provided to you for this meeting was before the deadline was completely processed. If you remember, first-time applicants can have until October 31st.

[02:48:03] So I had to get some numbers to you slightly before all applications had been processed. So you'll notice these numbers are a little different than what you saw on the information I provided. We have 857 households participating in the program. That's the biggest change. We had a handful of applications in process. And that's a total dollar amount of $1.9 million that was awarded in relief. The average income for this year's applicants was $33,359. And the average

[02:48:39] net worth is $54,500. Those are both averages. But I think this definitely indicates that the program is currently designed is helping those that are most vulnerable. To illustrate that point further, 74% of the applicants did receive 100% relief, and only 6% of those applicants were at the 50% threshold. You've seen this chart before. I just wanted to share it again. This is updated

[02:49:14] with the 2024 relief numbers, and this orange line shows you the average tax bill based on the 2024 average assessed value in the county of $436,300. This chart reinforces the current program design is helping most of the participants that need the help they're below the average and this is looking at only people that received 100 relief again indicating that we are helping those

[02:49:46] who are most vulnerable so let's look at proposed program updates based on feedback from the board in the winter and spring meeting sessions we're recommend recommending changes to the existing ordinance from that feedback and we've developed those changes to expand the program and we've we've always kept these three important points in the forefront of what we're looking at to expand we want it to be reasonably understandable so for that we're looking at increasing an income limit

[02:50:26] and increasing the financial net worth we want the changes to be proven in financial management and would be included in the fiscal year 26 recommended budget and what we're recommending we're expanding the relief by about 120 000 anticipated and this can be implemented in tax year 2025 with minimal administrative and system impacts we can make this happen easily for

[02:50:59] 2025 this recommendation that i'm sharing was included in the draft of the financial plan that Mr. Bowman presented earlier today. So for the past three years, the Board of Supervisors has tied the income criteria to 80% of the area median income for a family of four. The metric tied to the affordable housing policy using the same approach for calendar year 25, that limit would

[02:51:29] increase to $97,650. This again expands the program in a manner that's reasonably understandable. It can be implemented with minimal cost, and our current tax system, we can flip those limits and make that happen quickly within our system.

[02:51:54] It continues to impact the total participants. It has an increased cost, but it's reasonably predictable, as we've been monitoring this over the past few years.

[02:52:11] And it would increase the greater band. We're widening those amounts in terms of the income so there will be more people within those bands and estimating that expanding about $60,000 in relief.

[02:52:28] Currently, the financial net worth is at $305,000 based on the update from 2024. We are proposing that we increase that for calendar year 2025 based on inflation that we've adjusted.

[02:52:49] since the $200,000 that was effective in 2007. The past two years, updates were an initial step to increasing this. And having received some data on this from moving to 312, this is still much unknown, but the staff has more confidence in our ability to predict how much expanded relief we could expect from this change.

[02:53:16] We would anticipate for fiscal year 24, this expanding about $60,000 in expanded relief, which is totaling the $120,000 that we're projecting by making these changes. And again, it's easy to understand.

[02:53:35] It's staying with that same chart. We're just increasing the limits to expand the relief that we're offering. Our intent is to bring this back to the board on an annual basis to maintain the 80% of median income and rate of inflation.

[02:53:54] we talked about that last year and this concludes my formal remarks this slide highlights what changes we're recommending for 20 for calendar year 25 for tax year 25 to be considered for public hearing the green represents the current program and the blue represents our proposed changes i do have a recommended motion for the board on the next slide but i'll now turn it over to chair andrews for questions thank you we'll go through our order of course recognizing that the motion will be to schedule a hearing as opposed to actually approving anything tonight

[02:54:32] so the supervisor lupisto currently no questions thank you supervisor malik thank you uh this slide will be fine so the income level goes up more than the net worth goes up so am i just not understanding something is it possible that someone whose income goes up will then disqualify on the net worth side because of that $3,000 difference if they had qualified before, for example?

[02:55:06] It is possible. You can't be over the net income limit or the net worth limit. Those limits would eliminate you from the program. Is that what you're asking?

[02:55:21] Yes, and the math is a different math to get to each one, and that's why they're different? That's correct. But income is a component of net worth. right? Or not? No. Not if you've spent it. Ah. So it wouldn't impact the not qualifying with the net worth if they were one of the lucky ones who had gone to 97.6 on the income side. I'm sorry.

[02:55:52] So my question is, are there completely separate categories, income and net worth? Yes. So the income increase does not impact their net worth numbers, because that's something else other than income. Because I thought it did when I did my balance sheet for months years ago. It may be helpful to explain how you determine net income and that okay okay so the net income limit we're increasing that based on the average median income right we're 80 percent of that so that's how we arrived at that figure but how you determine whether someone's eligible whether

[02:56:26] they look at tax returns or what yes so and so then when you apply for tax relief we do have to have supporting documentation to verify your income, so that can include tax returns if you file tax returns. A good percentage of the applicants in this program do not file tax returns. Then for that income, we'll also ask if there are any W-2s or your benefit statement. You could have done an IRA distribution. All of those things are reviewed as part of this process to

[02:57:03] identify your total income. Military pension, any of those things? Any kind of pension, railroad pension, we look at all that and adding that up to get to your total income. Right. The net worth are the assets you have. And we're tying that number to inflation and recommending that go to 312,000 where it's currently at 305. And for that, we ask for the same things. Not the same things, but the same type of verification. We're looking for bank statements, investment statements.

[02:57:37] We get, you know, sometimes it's property that they may own in another locality. Then we also review their personal property bills with Albemarle County to see what other property they have that makes up those assets. But it's asset-based as opposed to income-based. That's the most essential thing. I was trying to mush them together to think that one was going to lead to the other and it doesn't so thank you very much for that uh slide five i've always tried to understand the slide out on the right and so would it be possible that one of these one two or six

[02:58:15] people is someone who has land without improvements on it that doesn't qualify because it's over the 10 acres and that's where they're so they could live in a tiny little house on 10 acres but they have 50 acres of mountain land that is why it's the higher relief that is possible i did uh look at this before today's meeting i was curious as to what these applicants look like and i can say on that tale from six two and one the youngest person is 84 years old and in each scenario

[02:58:53] except for one they were married and their spouse is now deceased and they've owned these properties a really long time great well and so one of them one of them they own a property that does have more than 10 acres so they're on here is 100 relief but they're still paying a tax bill because they have greater than 10 acres and that's what that was designed for to keep some guardrails right great yes thank you for all your work because it's explainable and it's really helping

[02:59:32] the people who need the help and i'm so grateful for that thank you thank you supervisor mckeel um thank you for this and i guess i'm not trying to put you on the spot but i'm taking away from your presentation that you were really comfortable that what the what we have here and before us is actually reaching the people that need to be helped in our community yes and you have a comfort

[03:00:05] level that um that you have the ability to determine whether this is accurate you're getting accurate information and fair information on everyone yes to the best of our ability the staff is really good at picking apart anything that doesn't quite seem right or if there's issues and they'll always escalate them to me or my deputy chief and ask us to look at work my whole career was in banking and so was my deputy chiefs and so we're bankers by nature so when we'll see

[03:00:41] something we'll be like oh wait you know that seems odd and there have been things we have had a situation where someone applied and said this was their primary residence but then when we got their bank statements all their purchases were happening in north carolina and so then we're like we need more documentation on this something doesn't seem right that you're in that north Carolina residents that often yeah and so my team does a phenomenal job and they I have some very experienced people on my team they've been with the county 29 years and at least some 10 it's it's a

[03:01:21] very experienced group who is really good at noticing when something doesn't quite add up because from that checking account statement, we often see where there's some kind of payment coming in, you know, whether it's a dividend or, you know, there's an ACH that's posting that account, so then we start asking more questions. Yeah, and that's very helpful because we want to help the people that need help. Absolutely. But we want to trust but verify. That's right. That is exactly right. Yeah. And so some people, many of them, it is just a social security statement

[03:01:59] and showing what their benefits are. And you see that when you look at their bank statement or other supporting documents. And not so much about us approving the public hearing to go forward in another meeting, but do you feel like you're able to reach out to the community or advertise in the right way?

[03:02:23] Do you think the right people are hearing about this, I guess, or is there something that we could do to improve? And maybe that's just a hard question to even answer. I don't know. I was advertising all last fall. That's a great question. We can't just depend on Ann, though, to be honest with you.

[03:02:39] That is a great question. So my team and I have been trying to find the right places to go. And we have gone to, we've actually sent out flyers from some of the local food bank areas into different neighborhoods.

[03:02:59] And so I get the flyers to the right person, and then when they're doing those boxes, they'll get those in there for us. We distribute them to churches, and we've spoken at Java. My staff and I have gone to Java meetings and made presentations.

[03:03:18] And I think this 857 is reflective of our efforts and the efforts that you all have. Because you are seeing an increase. It is definitely increasing. And Abby's going to get us on 29 News first spot in January so we can promote, hopefully, maybe some changes.

[03:03:36] Even if there are no changes, we can still promote the program if these are approved. But if you all have any ideas, please get them to me because I like being in front of people and talking about the program, and I have staff that enjoys it too. I went to the town halls.

[03:03:52] I made myself available. I had a couple people come up and ask for information and took my card, and that's great. The more we talk about it, the better. But we definitely are seeing an increase in the number of new applicants, and that has to be from the outreach and the discussion.

[03:04:10] So that's really good. And in my mind, I had Java, and so you're already doing that. Yeah. That's great. And you think about community centers like Yancey Community Center. That's where we go. Yeah, you're catching all of those. Yeah, we are definitely connected in that community, and Ed's a huge champion for everything we do, and he makes sure it gets out into the community.

[03:04:32] And that's one of the food pantries that we send the flyers out through. I'd always make sure they get in the boxes when I send them down. Well, it's really hard to reach people now, and it's not getting any easier because I don't know if you all have noticed, but the news now, our television news on weekends has changed to Harrisonburg News, and I'm assuming that's because there aren't any reporters in this area working on weekends.

[03:04:56] Yeah. Very different. So we try to get on those community spots. I'm just saying, it's a different world out there. Anyway, thank you very much. I appreciate this. Sure, sure. So if we have ideas, we could just send them to you. Send them directly to me. If you need me to show up.

[03:05:13] We did a community day, and we had great success with that for neighborhood. And so my team went there and set up a table and talked to people. So, yeah, send it my way. Thank you. Supervisor Proop. I want to just begin by saying how much I know.

[03:05:29] I appreciate, and I'm sure the other members of the board appreciate this program and the work y'all do. And truly, it is amazing how frequently it comes up by people who don't know the program exists saying, oh, this would be a good idea. Someone should do this. And we can say, oh, well, you're in luck.

[03:05:46] I remember I was at Supervisor Malik's campaign announcement last year, and someone in the audience said, well, why aren't you doing this? And she was able to say, we are. We are doing this. Here's how you can learn to apply. And that, I think, just speaks to how badly the community wants and supports this idea.

[03:06:05] I do want to just have two questions, and first, one quick kind of policy statement, one little thing to say from my stump. And so I'm going to start with that, which is this is the main – we were just talking extensively about the tools in our housing toolkit.

[03:06:22] This is the main tool we have in our toolkit, really the only one I know of, helping specifically the elderly, which is a population that's growing in our community. I want to highlight that because it is also exclusively limited to homeowners, which means we have a massive blind spot in county policy in how we help and support elderly renters, which in turn creates, I would say, some pretty perverse incentives for the individual.

[03:06:48] We have a community where individuals are much more likely to want to stay in their home, even as they have a lot of needs to downsize because they are reliant on support that they get and there is not a complementary support for renters on the back end. And I see that as a pretty clear and definable need that we are not addressing.

[03:07:07] There are also, I think, racial equity concerns when you're limiting something to homeowners, especially elderly homeowners who we know are disproportionately significantly white. So the questions I have. First, can you remind the board how we are defining disabled for the purpose of this? Are we using the kind of, I would say, broad-ranging interrogation that the ADA uses, or is there a separate state-level standard? They have to be, one, they can be qualified in receiving disability benefits that puts you as disabled. That's one. Or we can get two

[03:07:46] notarized affidavits from board certified doctors in the commonwealth of virginia and if we have two of those we can deem the person disabled for the program thank you um second you've talked about how when you look at the people who who currently avail themselves of the program they feel like the right folks that uh you see like the imprimatur of need on each individual case i'm curious if

[03:08:19] there are instances of the inverse, if you have applicants who have come to you who you've been like, oh, this is not our target demo. This is not who we want to be approving. And yet you find yourself having to because of the structure of the program. Does that happen? Has that happened?

[03:08:38] I don't want to get into individual's business. I don't need what those instances look like. But I'm curious if there are countable numbers of times that has ever happened. know and anytime that i have someone we've had someone apply where we were like we've uncovered something or there's been an issue with the documentation they provided they were not approved for the program once we did our due diligence that is all i have thank you yeah i think it's a great program we have been through discussions about tweaks about this in the past

[03:09:15] and i'm thinking that this is not a time to try to tweak but obviously we have considered whether there would be a limit on how much so that we catch the 8,000-plus, whatever. But it hasn't been a problem. It hasn't changed, and I'm glad to see that.

[03:09:31] We've also talked about the balance between these. There was one thing that I just wanted to ask because I was very curious, and this is on slides 7 and 8, and Supervisor Malik sort of alluded to it, but she went in a slightly different direction. The fact that you project going up by income of nearly $10,000 has a $60,000 impact on our budget as a county, as my understanding is what this means.

[03:10:00] Yet, next slide, increasing the financial net worth limit by only $7,000 similarly has a $60,000 impact. And I just found that, wow, that's interesting, and I didn't know how that, is that an estimate?

[03:10:17] Is there data based on where applications have been that suddenly this 7,000 is going to throw enough people in that it's going to make a difference? It truly is an estimate, and we're basing that on how much we've seen it increase based on the past two years that we've made these changes in terms of what comes to the table to apply.

[03:10:40] And so probably proportionally, I would agree, the income limit is going to generate more than 60. And that financial net worth is probably going to be less than $60 in that window. And the bottom line is the $120 is the only number that really matters for our purposes, so I appreciate that.

[03:11:00] Yeah, it was an estimate. Okay, I'm just fine curious. And that's where her professional experience in that, her staff, really comes in handy. Supervisor Malek. So another off-the-wall thought, taking to a different extreme based on Supervisor Pruitt's question.

[03:11:18] It would take a different program, I would assume. for a landlord who certified that they were going to keep rents at a certain level to then have some kind of adjustment for those units. I mean, it sounds absurdly complicated, but I'm trying to figure out a way to, rather than just handing out money, which is helpful to those people.

[03:11:41] And maybe that's the simplest thing. But anyway, I don't have any more to offer than that. It's probably better just to put it away. Now that I've tried to explain it, I'm thinking, you know, I should have just not taken this there. anyway crazy thank you uh so you had a uh motion at the uh yeah so the staff recommends that the board schedule a public hearing to consider the adoption of the attached proposed ordinance so moved second we have a motion from supervisor malik second from supervisor mckeel without

[03:12:16] objection at the clerk we'll call the roll miss mckeel yes mr pruritt hi mr andrews yes mr geck he's not here miss lapisto kirtley hi and miss malik yes thank you thank you thank you thank you all very much great this brings us a little bit different today

[03:12:42] to the county executives report happy thank you members of the board i wanted to go through the

[03:13:28] november county executives report thank you for the opportunity to be here this afternoon and i'll start out by talking about the albemar county staff attending community events through the county This fall, Albemarle County staff have connected with over 3,000 community members by attending 14 events across the county.

[03:13:51] This includes events focused on back-to-school, culture and arts, sustainability, and other community gatherings. These events have allowed our staff to gather input, share county initiatives, build partnerships with local organizations, with the support of 26 staff from departments all across Albemarle County government.

[03:14:11] At these events, staff posed a question of the day to engage our attendees. For an example, at a back-to-school event, kids shared thoughtful ideas about being community heroes, emphasizing kindness, helping others, and protecting the environment.

[03:14:27] Also this fall, the Communications and Public Engagement Office launched a new public engagement internship program. We had two UVA students that were here and engaged with best practices and principles and experienced practical applications through public interactions at events, and they analyzed feedback that we received from the community.

[03:14:52] The internship program will be implemented again in the spring and in the summer. This is an example of us tapping into UVA and seeing a lot of the students that are there that are interested in getting some on-the-ground practical experience. Our IT leadership group launched.

[03:15:12] The technology leadership group was launched by Information Technology to ensure the county's major technology systems support our goals and improve how we deliver services and operate across departments. This group brings together IT staff and department subject matter experts to collaborate on systems upgrades, technology needs, and improving the processes.

[03:15:37] Meeting quarterly, the team promotes shared accountability and streamlined change management, ensuring technology improvements, and supports the organization's evolving IT needs. Board, this is a really good example of us working cross-departmentally, also connecting our internal service departments with really their primary customer and that's the external service departments roderick and his team do a wonderful job and this is a really really good example board you've seen this this before this is our women in government affinity group meeting

[03:16:14] the almar county women and government affinity group held its second meeting of 2024 continuing its mission to empower and support women within our organization established this year the group focuses on fostering relationships building networking and mentoring opportunities to enrich the professional experiences of women across all the departments this recent meeting allowed participants to recognize shared experiences they explored mentoring opportunities and again building our strong connections across all the departments in the organization so this group represents albemore albemore county's commitment to creating an

[03:16:51] inclusive and supportive workplace encouraging personal and professional growth with all of our women who are in public service. Our Office of Management and Budget received the Distinguished Budget Award from GFOA, Government Finance Officers Association.

[03:17:12] Earlier today, Mr. Bowman was here along with staff who were in the audience. Pictured here, Thomas Unsworth, Ryan Davidson, Laura Van Zandt, Tia Mitchell, and Andy Bowman. Almar County received the distinguished budget award from gfoa the high this is the highest recognition in government budgeting validating our commitment to transparency and excellence the reward reflects on the use of the budget as a policy document financial plan operations guide communications tool meeting rigorous national standards i'll also point out tia mitchell who presented yesterday at

[03:17:51] the economic development authority the eda and i heard she i heard last night i got emails from staff that she she did an outstanding job in supporting the work of our eda so this is a good group of folks right here and they connect to this board i think in a really good way this is an update from resilient together resilient together a collaboration between albemore county the city of charlottesville the university of virginia recently marked its first year a progress report summarizing the first year is included in the facilities and environmental services quarterly report that the board is already recognized as part of your consent agenda.

[03:18:29] In October, the city and county planning commission held a joint session where staff shared updates and led a discussion on the project's efforts. The team also recently launched the climate resilient cohort funded by an EPA environmental justice grant.

[03:18:46] This initiative partners staff with ten community-based organizations to develop strategies that will address the needs of vulnerable population. The approach leverages these organizations expertise and community relationships to ensure inclusivity and resilient planning. The following organizations are participating in the cohort: Community Climate Collaborative, Cultivate Charlottesville, Habitat for Humanity Virginia, International Rescue Committee, New Roots, Jefferson Area Board for aging. So we appreciate the collaboration and the partnerships. I also had some additional ones

[03:19:25] that I didn't pay attention to. Local Energy Alliance Program, Market Central, Piedmont Housing Alliance, The Haven, and Virginia Clinicians for Climate Action. So thank you for that partnership. Our Benefits and Wellness Fair. These are some of our great employees from Human Resources. It includes Matthew Lawson, Kimberly Price Chambers, Vanessa Stengel, Nikki Marshall, and Stephanie Henderson. Almar County hosted a benefits and wellness fair in October. We're offering our employees valuable information about benefits and wellness resources.

[03:20:00] These fairs support our employee retention by helping our staff make informed decisions, especially ahead of open enrollment. We just finished open enrollment. It's aligned with the calendar year as opposed to the finance fiscal year. And so really for added accessibility, All the presentations that we had this year were live streamed, recorded for those unable to attend in person.

[03:20:22] Or do you know that we do a hybrid work environment, and so employees could have been working from home that day. They could have also been in a 24-7 rotation and not been working that day. So the videoing and live streaming and taping these for later also helped for more people to participate.

[03:20:38] One of the tables at the fair shared information about what to expect from the upcoming employee clinic opening. 2025 our board's already talked about that today and uh and this is an opportunity for me to give a quick update on the employee clinic leases are signed for both locations that's at peter jefferson parkway and 29 north the first clinic will open at the end of february with the second following later in the spring services will include primary care physical therapy a registered dietitian behavioral health occupational health strong collaboration between the county and public schools

[03:21:16] our county service authority and it's a we have ongoing communication clear communication to our employees to keep this front and center so that they will remember and keep this at the forefront of their mind as it relates to a benefit that can help them the purpose of the clinic is to enhance our overall health of employees and their families these are things that we can measure board and i I know you know that, provide dedicated quality health and wellness services to employees and family.

[03:21:44] And then Chair Andrews asked the question earlier, we're also taking this as a big move, I hope, in the right direction to manage our rising health care costs. Mary Stebbins, who is our Director of Social Services, has recently been recognized for her work with the National Association of Social Work Board.

[03:22:09] She's been involved with the National Association of the Social Work Board since 2010, contributing to the development and oversight of social work licensing exams used in the U.S., Canada, and other countries. Her work ensures that social workers meet minimum competency and ethical standards, protecting clients and enhancing the quality of services provided by licensed social workers.

[03:22:32] Mary's contributions include writing, reviewing, and improving exam questions, ensuring that they meet rigorous standards and inclusion of official licensing tests. This role reflects Mary's expertise and commitment to advancing social work profession, providing valuable insight that strengthen Albemarle staff's expertise and reputation.

[03:22:51] So it's a real opportunity today for us to recognize Mary, and we appreciate her contributions. I've talked to several board members about our recent recognition of Veterans Ceremony on November the 11th, Operation Greenlight.

[03:23:09] Operation Greenlight is a program of NACO, the National Association of Counties. Our county office building was illuminated with green flood light bulbs to recognize Veterans Day. American Legion Post 74, with support of the Board of Supervisors and county staff, held a wonderful ceremony to honor our veterans on Monday, November the 11th in Lane Auditorium.

[03:23:30] We had our entire local delegation that was present. We had all of our board members that were not at VACO that were present here, as well as city council, including the mayor, and it was a wonderful event. The auditorium was quite full, and as I told one board member, there were more wreaths honoring all of the branches and services and work than we could almost fit in the auditorium.

[03:23:53] I think it's just a wonderful ceremony. And I do appreciate all the staff that supported that. I want to recognize the board did get an email on this, and I do want to recognize Lieutenant Colonel Kerry Walls, who will be retiring at the end of November with 27 years of dedicated service to Albemarle County.

[03:24:13] In his career, he held assignments all throughout the Albemarle County Police Department. He was a key conduit to the county executive's office on a number of initiatives, including our work to strengthen our safety and procedures with our board meetings and all of the work that we've done over time to strengthen our safety and security of the building, our property, and so forth.

[03:24:38] His most recent position is deputy chief of police. I'd like to note the photo is with Deputy Chief Wall's nephew, Tyler Walls, who was sworn in as a police department officer in May of 2024. I'll go off script just for a minute, and I'll also recognize Andy Muncy, who is here tonight helping with safety and security of the building.

[03:25:02] And I learned earlier this week that Officer Muncy is also planning his retirement, I believe, at the end of November. and I just want to say that you will be missed in our community and you will be missed in this organization. And I do appreciate him sharing that with me earlier today.

[03:25:18] In fact, I think I sort of tricked him into telling me what was going on. So I appreciate that. You know, board, I think I'm ending the presentation and so I'm going to talk just for a minute about customer service in this organization.

[03:25:35] I think this board is good at you all have a nice eye for customer service in this organization because this board is a very active board you're connected to our community but you pay attention to the services that we provide on a day-to-day basis i think that you've got a a good uh uh practical application of that with miss metheny who just reported to the board a few minutes ago about the the tax relief program and you you saw her really speak from the heart to this board about how important that program is to her and how important it is that she uh conduct outreach in this community and make sure that people understand it we've got another

[03:26:13] gentleman i think that that he uh exemplifies our customer service covenant in this community it's josh mentor and he is our security specialist and he is he is at the front door of this building he he is at the front desk of this building and i like what was said on the slide he uh he's He's counted on every day to provide top-notch customer service to everyone that visits the McIntyre office building on a regular basis.

[03:26:43] This picture was taken earlier this week, certainly Josh didn't know, but we had a gentleman who was here and he needed county services in the building and staff just so happened to look out the window and they saw Mr. Mentor go out of the building, go into the parking lot and he was helping this gentleman as he was coming in and leaving the building also we staff in this building did not know that we were going to talk about our customer service covenant which is we want to be empathetic we want to be professional and we want to be responsive to the community that we

[03:27:20] serve and I think Josh does that every day we received an email today from an employee in the building who said i overheard josh speaking with the resident at the front desk the resident was asking about where to go regarding wheels and land deeds josh was very courteous advising the resident on where to go and even what floor to go to in the courthouse the resident sounded nervous when coming in but after speaking with josh the resident clearly was more at ease it was truly exceptional customer service that josh provided he's a pleasant and interactive person with the folks that come in and out of this building on a day-to-day basis. So, board,

[03:27:57] I did want to showcase our customer service, and really, I couldn't ask for someone to do a better job at the front desk and helping people come in the building on a day-to-day basis. So, board, with that, that's just a quick look at some of the things that are going on in Albuquerque County this month, and I'll be happy to try and answer any questions. Thank you.

[03:28:18] Outstanding. Thank you very much. And thank you for keeping us updated on everything that you all are doing and what our employees are doing. It's very much appreciated. Thank you.

[03:28:34] Thank you. Supervisor Malek. Thank you. So, absolutely wonderful. Is there still a phone number outside of the door where someone who truly needs help getting out of their vehicle? When I saw the picture of Josh helping somebody, reminded me of the polls. When you're an outside poll watcher, you have to almost run over to people who are struggling to get out of their car to say, we can bring the poll person out to you, please. If you're more comfortable, please stay in your car. But I don't know if there's a way for them to call a phone number like they did during COVID. I don't know. Abby and I made

[03:29:08] eye contact and she'll follow up downstairs to see if there's any instruction on the front door on how to access if people need assistance. If not, we can explore that with Josh and see if there's something we can improve. Signed close enough to read at the handicapped spot.

[03:29:24] That's good. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor McKeel. I would just add to that conversation, I know at my polling sites and probably everywhere, the phone number is placed by the handicapped parking spots so that if you pull up to the handicapped parking spot, The phone number is right in front of you that you can call for our help, which is an appropriate place.

[03:29:50] I mean, if you think about where to put it. So, yeah, but this was a wonderful report, and thank you very much. I really appreciate it. And I really have thought many times as I've entered downstairs, and Josh hollers hello, and we chat for a few minutes, someone at that desk, and certainly Josh has done a great job, was really a great idea.

[03:30:14] And I thank you for doing that, Jeff. You made that change for us. And it's all worked beautifully. So thank you. Supervisor Proof. Thank you so much for the report and for all the great work that's always going on. Congratulations to Lieutenant Colonel Walls and Officer Muncy on a successful career and a happy retirement.

[03:30:35] And I just want to join everyone else in saying, yeah, Josh is really great in this, like, really critical role, right? three-ish years ago when i first was like i'm gonna start showing up to board meetings as a citizen you know he's the very first employee in the county government who you interact with as a as a citizen and coming into like a large kind of imposing government building you fundamentally walk in the door and feel like you're in the wrong place right like that is the citizen experience you go into a courthouse you feel like you're in the wrong place they're intimidating spaces um and he is like such a perfect personality to diffuse that trepidation there and uh does a

[03:31:13] great job. So I'm glad we highlighted it. Thank you. And ditto. I mean, I very much appreciate the presentation. And then I get the last slide also hits me because I know every time I come in, he's just so friendly. And I enjoyed that even before he would have any idea who I was. I appreciate that. And the retirements make me sad, but Officer Muncy been great so i hope you have very many happy years ahead um thank you yes sir anything further from i just wanted to tell ann that the the lights in my backyard have been green

[03:31:52] or were green around that period of time right great great for this brings us to number 13 from the board committee reports and matters not listed on the agenda and this is normally what we do at the end but we're going to do it now to save time start with Supervisor Lupisto yes thank you I just wanted to report on the newly forming Albemarle County Fire Rescue Foundation and we've just turned in our articles of incorporation to the SCC

[03:32:31] and then after that we will be getting an EIN and you know the other things we need to form the 501c3. So far, so good. That's going well. I did want to say also that the new fire rescue team of recruits, that the top person there, I just found out from Chief Eggleston yesterday, the top recruit there is a woman.

[03:33:02] I just wanted to mention that because of the fact that we're celebrating women in government, right? Great. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Malin. Thank you. I have sent everyone an email just to give you the links.

[03:33:18] This is the time to sign up for steering committees at VACO. Even if you were on one last year, just please indicate your continued interest. And also at National Association of Counties, people can attend for free Saturday, Sunday, March 1 and 2. Those are the legislative steering committees at NACO have basically the same topic names as the VACO ones.

[03:33:41] We've changed some of the VACO names to match up better with the NACO counties. And if you either know in advance that you would like to be appointed to one of those, let me know. I can connect you with Dean who takes care of that, Dean Lynch. Or you can come and try it out and see if you want to go further.

[03:33:57] The paid conference is still in D.C. March 3rd and 4th. I've only gone to the paid one once in 17 years. The others I've just gone as a freeloader on the Saturday-Sunday, and it's really great. The legislative conference, they do the platform work for the July annual adoption, which is July 11th through 14th in Philadelphia, so not too far away.

[03:34:18] A year away, 2026 is in New Orleans. So there you go. Planning ahead. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor McKeown. Supervisor President. Three quick things. One, a report out from the TJPDC, the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission, something that has been shared by a few different localities.

[03:34:41] governing bodies is kind of how they respectively are weighing the two kind of different diverging paths that are offered as far as energy um and there's i think an interesting trend that is emerging of what is what is blue energy and what is red energy um this was really i think uh well articulated by a member of the fluvana board uh highlighting how his residents are generally quite opposed to solar for a variety of reasons, or he frequently hears opposition to solar.

[03:35:14] But they have, in the same breath while saying that solar is problematic for the harms it introduces to water quality, supporting and endorsing SMRs, small modular reactors, which each of these has their costs and trade-offs.

[03:35:30] But it's interesting both seeing how our neighboring localities are kind of engaging with this. There's going to be significant SMRs being deployed into Louisa as part of their data centers that they are having to now power. Seeing kind of the political dimensions that are emerging around kind of the diverging paths to meeting the state's clean energy goals, because these are the two main solutions that are out there right now.

[03:35:57] I would also like to share that the Village of Rivanna CAC has recently, I believe about a month ago, reached the ability to have a quorum. And so we're in the early discussions of actually planning on what that initial meeting is going to look like and what the key topics and expectations are going to move in with.

[03:36:19] And I'm excited about that. And also one final thing that I had intended to mention during the initial announcements, but I forgot, today is Transgender Day of Remembrance. This is a holiday each year, or holiday, an observance each year for the transgender population, recognizing the disproportionate gender-based violence that is faced by members of the trans community and also the significantly increased rate of suicide amongst members of the trans community.

[03:36:48] There is a vigil this evening at 6 p.m. at the Beautiful Idea, which is a bookstore and art space and market on the downtown mall. And there is additionally a 7 o'clock potluck dinner that is specific for members of the trans community immediately following.

[03:37:08] Thank you. And two things. I guess I just want to say, again, the vehicle conference was very informative. And I want to thank Anne because in the agricultural and rural affairs, we were able to add water conservation and legislative priorities, which I felt was a win right from the very beginning of the meeting for me.

[03:37:34] There was a lot of focus at this meeting in completely dispersed sessions on data centers, solar, land use, energy. And, of course, there's a JLARC study coming out December 9th on data centers that I think will be very informative. And there was a lot of discussion about legislative pressures to adopt permit by rule rather than local control for solar, which affect the solar that way.

[03:37:58] I also wanted to mention the, I said it before, that we had a Ravana Solid Waste Authority meeting yesterday. And we got a report on sort of future challenges, and we also got a report on sort of recent successes.

[03:38:13] I would say one of the successes, the electronic waste and the appliances and mattresses and all the program bringing these things in amnesty days has drawn gangbusters and really brought in a lot. And it's been, you know, ongoing success and increase in participation.

[03:38:36] But that said, the note was that, for the most part, in terms of landfill, we used the UNRICO Old Dominion Landfill, which, as is reported, opened in 1994 with a capacity of 35 billion tons, and as of last year, had 7 billion tons available, and is expected to have a remaining permanent life of 17 years, but that Virginia has, according to the VDEQ report, 21 years left of capacity in its landfills.

[03:39:14] And so this is something that, if not this board, certainly future boards are going to have to wrestle with some of the concerns there. In addition, there were discussions of ongoing additional problems with leachate and PFAS and things like that that affect our ability to continue to store and dispose of waste.

[03:39:37] So, eye-opening session. Maybe that data will encourage the General Assembly to look at discontinuation. Oh, I'm sorry. Maybe the discontinuation of our acceptance of trash from New Jersey.

[03:39:54] New York. And Newark, exactly. New Cape Town. Because that's what we've been doing now for years, which I have never understood. I mean, I get it. the fact that they're making money off of it, but it's not necessarily a great practice for the state. And the only other comment I would make is that it does occur to me that the JLARC studies are now piling up.

[03:40:16] It would be nice if we could encourage the General Assembly to implement some of the recommendations in the three JLARC studies, the third one coming in December, that they will now have in their wheelhouse. I will also say the SWAC meeting I attended, we're focusing very much on recycling, which is hard to do in a rural area except for convenience centers, thank God.

[03:40:45] But in the urban areas, we don't really have a lot of the recycling bins in other areas that they have recycling bins. And it's really not for sure whether or not everything we're putting, when they do put something into a recycling container, that it really does get recycled.

[03:41:06] That's very questionable. So that's something I think they're looking into. Also looking into ways that the county can save money by going into 100% recycled paper. That would be a good thing for our climate initiative. But you'll get more of that later when their letter comes out.

[03:41:27] Thank you. Well, I will say that several of the major trash haulers in this community do provide recycling. Now, I can't speak to how, but what I find is in the two neighborhoods that I drive through all the time, there are very few people that are willing to pay $8 a month for the recycling.

[03:41:50] To get the separate green bin or whatever it is. You can tell because they get a different bin, and it is amazing how few people actually take advantage of it. In our community, it's shocking, in my opinion. Some of this was also addressed in the report yesterday, that certainly the amount of actual plastic that gets recycled that gets thrown into the bins and actually ends up being recycled, even glass and aluminum and a much lesser extent paper-cardboard, The numbers are not what we'd like them to be, but I will say that our approach, which is not to have a single recycling container where it then has to be sorted

[03:42:30] and often gets contaminated and ends up with very low recycling rates, our approach is my understanding of using, at least at the materials utilization center, at the recycling centers, separate containers where people do the separation on their way in is much more efficient and effective at actually making useful recycling insurance.

[03:42:50] Well, and there are countries that make it a priority and will give you, if you recycle and you, I mean, the models are out there, if you recycle properly and consistently, they give you a break on your property tax. That's how they get it. And they are recycling it.

[03:43:07] Anyway, it is, you know. And another lovely concept would be producer pays. So instead of dumping all the trash responsibility on the end user, us, the people who are sending out all those plastic bottles, cardboards, et cetera, can be prepaying for the cost of recycling.

[03:43:24] And that's the best model, because then they would address it. Good luck with that, right? I don't think so. Thank you. With that, Board, I think it's time to turn to our closed meeting, if 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 of the Code of Virginia, under subsection 8, to consult with legal counsel regarding specific legal matters requiring legal advice relating to the decision of the Board of Zoning Appeals in case number VA2024, TAC 0002.

[03:43:59] Second. We have a motion from Supervisor Pruitt. Second from Supervisor Malek. Without objection, the clerk will call the roll. Ms. McKeel? Yes. Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Mr. Andrews? Yes. Ms. Lapista-Curtley? Aye. Ms. Malik? Yes.

[03:44:14] And we will move to 241. Okay. Welcome back. Do we have a motion to come out of closed session?

[04:59:47] Yes. I would like to move the Board of Supervisors certified by a recorded vote that, to the best of each supervisor's knowledge, only 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. Second. We have a motion from Supervisor Pruitt. Second from Supervisor Malik. Without objection, if the clerk will call the roll. Ms. McKeel? Yes. Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Mr. Andrews? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. Deisto-Curtley? Aye. Ms. Malik? Yes.

[05:00:18] Our next item is matters on the agenda but not listed for public hearing or matters previously considered by the board or matters that are pending before the board. Public speaking, we have sign up? We do. We have one person that signed up, and I don't think we have anyone online. No. Okay.

[05:00:34] All right. So I think you're familiar with this, but I will run through them briefly. During the time set aside for matters on the agenda but not listed for public hearing, individuals may address the Board of Supervisors concerning matters previously considered by the Board or matters that are pending before the Board, other than items listed on the agenda for public hearing.

[05:00:55] Individuals are allowed an opportunity of up to three minutes to speak. Timekeeping is conducted through a timer and light system. The green light will go on when you begin speaking, which begins your allotted time. The yellow light indicates you have one minute to finish speaking, and the red light indicates your time has expired and you'll be asked to end your comments.

[05:01:14] When addressing the board, please state your name, and if you live in Albemarle County, your magisterial district or the organization you're representing. All comments are live-streamed, recorded, and published on the Almar County website. Welcome, Sue. Sue Friedman.

[05:01:31] Deja vu. Yes, I'm Sue Friedman. I'm proud to be a member of the Rio Magisterial District. And I'm here this evening representing the Charlottesville Area Alliance. And I first want to introduce Brooke Hughes. Brooke is in a UVA intern program placement with CAA for this semester.

[05:01:52] So we're benefiting greatly from Brooke being with us. And she's going to provide our annual report as I utilize my three minutes wisely. First, we want to say thank you very much for your continued support of the Charlottesville Area Alliance and the goal to create age-friendly, livable community here in our region.

[05:02:15] Your support makes it possible for us to engage citizens and bring voices forward around the Age-Friendly Community Initiative. You may know and you may not know that back in 2015, five community organizations, one of which was the Alzheimer's Association that I led at that time, realized that there wasn't really an opportunity to focus on senior issues, senior citizens in the community, and that population was growing dramatically. So we banded together and started Charlottesville Area Alliance,

[05:02:53] and it's very important, I think, to know that we are not a non-profit. We did not want to compete with other non-profits. We are an alliance of businesses, governments, and organizations that support age-friendly community initiatives.

[05:03:10] And Albemarle County is one of those supporters by resolution of support several years ago. So what we're doing is looking at ways around eight different domains that the World Health Organization developed and that the AARP in this country promotes that you can create age-friendly community.

[05:03:35] And so we are very proud at Charlottesville Area Alliance that we were selected last year by AARP as their number one priority in the Commonwealth of Virginia for age-friendly community initiatives.

[05:03:51] and with that we've been gifted several valuable consultants last year and this year and have focused on bus transportation walkability pedestrian and bike friends friendly as well as housing and really again thank you for your support around all of these issues and helping the elderly and senior housing relief as well so in closing for 2025 we're going to continue with transportation housing and we also offer our annual report for you as a review i'll be sending

[05:04:25] it as a pdf and i also want to send the walk audit report so you'll get those in your email thank you so much thank you thank you sir thank you sir okay lord this brings us to our main event for the evening work session on the ac 44 development areas land use draft actions And this is led by Tanya Swartzen-Druber, Planning Manager, with Michael Lawrence, our Director of Planning.

[05:04:56] Welcome. Thank you. Good evening, Tanya Swartzen-Druber, Planning Manager with Community Development Department. Tonight, I'm here to speak with you about the AC44 Comprehensive Plan, specifically the Development Areas Land Use chapter and the actions in that chapter.

[05:05:18] Tonight, we'll review the chapter's objectives, our discussion topics focused on the actions, then review the PC feedback that we heard earlier this month, and review the upcoming schedule.

[05:05:38] Just as a reminder, the last time we were here, we talked about the tools and policy for the development areas chapter, but tonight we'll be solely focusing on the goal statement, objectives, and actions, which are represented on pages 33 and 35 in the draft chapter.

[05:06:00] The topics that we would like your direction on are here on this screen. We also printed a copy out for you at your place in case you'd like to make notes. And then this slide will be up at the end as you'd like to discuss these topics.

[05:06:23] First, we've seen this slide before, but just a reminder that as this chapter was drafted with community input, input from the pc board direction as well as collaboration amongst our partner agencies a review of our previous our current comp plan and best practices and we were guided by the principles developed in phase one so each one of our chapters has a goal statement that reflects

[05:06:57] what we want our community to be like objectives that have been updated to be more measurable and established targets to identify what we're aiming to achieve and actions that will state how we will meet our objectives.

[05:07:17] Here is a quick summary of our goal statement. Just as a reminder, we did previously have several different goals, but we went ahead and combined those goals into one overarching statement. And this does reflect our community input and the priorities that we have heard.

[05:07:39] To summarize the objectives we're working to achieve, we're looking to increase the use of infill and higher density development, adaptive reuse and redevelopment in the development areas, increase the number of jobs in housing units, invest in existing neighborhoods, and increase tree coverage.

[05:08:08] The direction topics really focused on four different areas of the actions, and these are the incentives for redevelopment, parking requirements, site design, public realm standards, tree coverage, replacement, preservation, and street trees.

[05:08:25] Just a summary of how this draft chapter is different from our 2015 plan. We had the 12 neighborhood model principles. These have been replaced with the community design guidelines, which we will be discussing at a future work session.

[05:08:46] We've standardized the set of land use categories that we are carrying forward. We are now at 13. We have reduced the number of centers across the small area plans to 30 with a hierarchy of standard place types.

[05:09:03] And we're really trying to focus that mixed use and commercial requirements in our activity centers instead of requiring that mixed use with every zoning amendment or development that comes through. And then, of course, we are focusing on gross density instead of net density going forward.

[05:09:28] A few more summary items from as far as actions go. There's a greater emphasis on investing in existing neighborhoods. We're also placing a greater focus on replacing tree coverage and more strongly encouraging infill. As mentioned, we're going to cover this in the transportation chapter. Previously, we were going to cover parking in the transportation chapter, but we

[05:10:04] really thought that the land use chapter would be a better location and pairs well with the actions that we've already shared so we'll go ahead and talk about that tonight evaluating our parking requirements may be one way to incentivize development within the proposed activity centers not only because it's expensive to build but also because there are several negative effects of over parking like increased impervious cover which affects our heat island effect and our stormwater

[05:10:37] runoff also takes up space that could be used for buildings and other uses and may even result in teardowns of historic buildings it breaks up the walkability it also reduces incentives to build smaller and more affordable structures because like i said building parking is expensive and those costs need to be recuperated at some point many localities across the state are updating their parking requirements including both big cities and small towns. Some municipalities have

[05:11:12] even done away with parking requirements in their urban core letting the market decide what kind of parking needs to be included. A few local examples of our current parking requirements. A lot of these were established many years ago and don't always make sense. So we've included a few examples here.

[05:11:32] We could expand upon the existing alternatives allowed in our zoning code, like we could allow shared parking or even require shared parking. And we could also implement some transportation demand management.

[05:11:52] These are additional recommendations we could incorporate into this chapter along with the actions that we've already shared. Again, we could require that shared parking specifically in the activity centers.

[05:12:08] We could look at only having the parking maximums in especially the regional centers. We could look at if an application or a project supplies some transportation infrastructure, perhaps the parking reductions are allowed if other infrastructure is provided, including maybe even bike parking requirements.

[05:12:35] We also could look at stronger design requirements for safe walkability through parking lots. We hear a lot about using older shopping malls or surface parking lots for development, which presents some good opportunities, but also some challenges.

[05:12:56] Many of the challenges might include required rezonings, which we know take time, money, and you all review every week or every time you meet. Sites need to be large enough to accommodate the construction.

[05:13:13] They don't have the ability to stage off-site and is often much more expensive than greenfield development. Some of the opportunities, though, are that development can be in areas that don't require disruption of existing structures or businesses and also allows for innovative parking or different parking configurations.

[05:13:40] We went ahead and did a parking lot analysis in our development area and specifically thought it was interesting that when we did this analysis, overall in our proposed activity centers, 25% of the land is currently occupied with parking lots that could potentially redevelop.

[05:14:07] This is a little bit different in the Rio 29 small area plan, which has a little bit higher ratio, which is expected at 39% of the land. Another topic we didn't get to discuss during our pre-C meeting is office to housing conversions.

[05:14:29] We plan to discuss this during our housing chapter discussion, but given that it's been frequently brought up, we thought it would be helpful to add to today's conversation. To encourage these types of conversions, we could allow residential uses by right and or at higher densities in commercial zoning districts. And with board direction, this could also be incorporated into the comp plan update and the zoning modification project. A recent example that was just approved by the

[05:15:05] board this month is the Woodbrook Drive special use permit. It's currently a dentist office, and the project proposes to tear down a building and replace with a new building of up to 15 housing units with the office on the ground floor and a shared parking agreement. As a preview of the housing chapter, an action is recommended in that chapter to encourage adaptive reuse of existing buildings in the development areas for conversion to housing including office and commercial

[05:15:42] buildings depending on direction this could be incorporated into the development areas chapter if we're looking at a potential zoning change to allow higher density these also provide these conversions also come with some challenges which not unsurprisingly can be costly and difficult to retrofit to meet current code requirements and residential may not be a permitted use in the current zoning category. A few opportunities include addressing a significant

[05:16:20] need for housing with a reduced need for the housing for the office space that we're seeing across the county. Housing in areas with existing infrastructure and services already provided And grants, loans, and tax incentives are also already available for these type of conversions.

[05:16:45] Building on Action 1.6 to establish an incentive, which lists a few examples, we can incorporate PC and board feedback on other recommendations or separate actions, and several ideas are listed here.

[05:17:02] Our main challenge is using the DA's land efficiently while also ensuring quality of life and community resilience in the development areas, including protecting the natural environment.

[05:17:23] It's important for a variety of reasons, including ecosystem services. We just talked about parking reform, so I won't cover that, but trees have been shown to increase retail sales when they're added to commercial areas.

[05:17:43] One example localities have been using is essentially a transfer for development rights for trees, allowing tree replacements to happen in a different key location outside of the project boundary.

[05:18:02] We're suggesting that we prioritize protecting healthy native trees and tree clusters and groves in open space and especially stream buffers. And other challenges with balancing environmental protection and development is lighting.

[05:18:23] We all enjoy our dark skies and seeing the stars, but we also need to balance that with a safe, conducive urban environment. Also noting that green infrastructure is a great way to integrate environmental protection into development through amenity-oriented lots and creative site design, native ecosystems with community facilities and public properties, and even public realm standards that can include street trees and green stormwater management.

[05:19:01] I'd like to give you a brief summary of the Planning Commission input that we heard on this same topic. The Commission suggested that we reduce parking requirements for non-residential uses focused in activity centers.

[05:19:19] And I should mention this was at their November 12th work session. Additionally, they'd like to continue to identify incentives for development within priority activity centers and consider allowing residential by right in activity centers, or at least some of them.

[05:19:40] Also wanted to broaden objective four, which is the one related to tree coverage to cover environmental stewardship and resilience more generally in the development areas. The commission did note that incentives could involve public funds like P3s, while others do not require direct public investment like density bonuses. With that, just going over the next month

[05:20:18] or two on the schedule. Like I said, we've already been to the PC on this topic and we're here to you in front of you tonight to hear your input on development areas land use actions. We are going to PC to talk to them about the tools for rural area land use on November 19th, just yesterday, and then again for goals to discuss goals, objectives, and actions on the 10th with the entire chapter before you next year. Environmental stewardship will be our next

[05:20:57] chapter and discussing with PC the middle of next month and back in front of the board at the end of january with that i will go to the direction topic slide and open the floor for questions and comments thank you thank you we will go through our order starting with supervisor lapisto currently thank you very much i appreciated the presentation regarding bullet number one um because this is parking requirements for activities centers but then on one of the other

[05:21:37] slides earlier slides you mentioned allowing by right parking for residential and activity centers and so what I'm asking is is bullet number one are you just addressing reduced eliminated parking requirements for activity centers totally or would that include residential also I think the suggestion um is to look at or the most likely way we could consider looking at parking reduction

[05:22:14] is to start with the activity centers because that's the most likely place that it would make the most sense but there's residential and focusing on commercial in the activity centers right correct i think we would primarily focus on the on commercial requirement on parking requirements for commercial.

[05:22:36] Okay, so if that's the point, then I have no problem with that, looking at reduced parking in the activity centers for commercial. Incentives for redevelopment plus higher density. I'm very much in favor of higher density in the activity centers, and that, I guess, would be dependent upon how high the developer wants to go.

[05:23:03] I realize they can go up to four stories or five stories, And then if they go past five stories, it requires other material. Yes, and for bullet point number three, in the development areas regarding tree coverage, and I don't know if this is the correct place to bring it up or not, because regarding tree coverage, I think if the activity centers have businesses on the first floor,

[05:23:40] residential on the top. I think we have to be cognizant of the fact that trees are wonderful, but there has to be enough space between the business and the trees or if it's along a main street. As we experienced on Route 20, we have wonderful trees in front of the businesses and you cannot see the signs. Thereby, the businesses won't do as well if people don't know that they exists there so i think that's something to be cognizant of and maybe when you say tree coverage

[05:24:13] it could be scattered or perhaps some other kind of greenery in between some trees so thereby you can see signs on businesses that face the street thank you that's all thank you thank you supervisor malik i was so organized but i'm not because what you presented to us was not i didn't have that before and so i'm a little out of it but i will try to respond um so 33 and 35 are where you gave guided us to go and so i guess i have a couple of comments about just activity centers period

[05:24:52] because i think there's a wide difference among different activity centers and so the one i've heard about i mean just in in the crozet growth area down to the which is a form based code for the downtown zone old trails activity center versus and jb barnes activity center radically different from the little baby one proposed for wick and pond which might be a coffee shop but is not going to be dry cleaners and other stuff and so people are alarmed by the fact that they're all put together so i think some information to distinguish what their characteristics of

[05:25:31] different ones would be would be very helpful to uh promote understanding i think we have clover lawn the harris teeter area old trail downtown and wickham's the fourth one and i think that is all that there are and what people were told originally was that it was the same activity centers as described in the 2021 master plan adoption so assuming there are no changes from that then i think we're okay um the downtown crozet district the dcd4 base code did dramatically

[05:26:11] reduce the parking requirements upon its adoption in 2010 and did not have a solution to what's been going on since so there is that gap where we still have lots of people who lack sidewalks and can't or someone you know who just had knee replacement as i did a couple of years ago you can't hike a mile carrying your groceries and if there are no sidewalks then you can't do that either so i think we need to be careful about how swiftly we expect to transition away from vehicles for all of

[05:26:48] the areas in the whitehall district at least so that there is some flexibility for people and they therefore do need to have places to park and if they can't park at well i mean the when the square construction begins next year we're going to be figuring out how to do a lot of things real quick because that's going to be essential for the success of that project so we may get some great experience on remote and shuttles versus other things that that may help

[05:27:20] in the overall learning process for the community at large but because of that experience and there are more than 100 people who park every day on the gravel lots where jb barns is but that's going to be doing other things very soon. So dealing with that is what's clouding my concern, I mean contributing my concern for the first bullet is that we have to have individual consideration and if we want our approved rezonings to succeed then we have to be able to help where needed and get

[05:27:59] out of the way to allow. I mean one of the great takeaways from COVID was the restaurants who exploded out onto their parking lots under tents with heaters. And it was fabulous and allowed the restaurants to survive and keep going. People loved it because they could, in safety, get out and get out of the house, which was really great. And I think did contribute a lot to people out walking around who had not necessarily been able to do that before. And it was not the end of the world that those parking lots had some tables on them instead. So that's a positive thing that I'm

[05:28:37] holding in my mind as we go forward. Not very coherent here. Okay, so the second bullet, in addition to the different characteristics of the individual activity center, there still has to be room for life. Our growth areas will fail totally if we ruin them by allowing them to be so jam-packed with no grass, no trees, no place to walk around, no place to play. People won't live there anymore and then we will have really failed so that's why i sound like the grumpy old gus here

[05:29:17] but i do think we cannot just wipe out our requirements for the amenities that everybody should have regardless of their income and regardless of the density of the project which means that some of the lots are not going to be suitable for everything and sometimes i think we give too many allowances to allow really substandard pieces of property to be considered as useful, equally useful as something which truly has fewer constraints.

[05:29:55] So the higher density has to depend, in my opinion. Some of the concern that I'm hearing about of the net density versus gross density is when you take, and one of these, wait a minute, number two somewhere, it was on a different page that i was not directed to look at but i think it was on page 24 it was talking about when you have multiple designations on a property you're still supposed to be able to cram in the same number of units even though three quarters of the property is floodplain steves or some constraint all that does really in my mind is to create a situation where totally constrained

[05:30:35] inappropriate pieces of property are now all of a sudden becoming targets for massive overbuilding So I don't want to, I want to respect the topography and respect the needs of the environment, the buffers, all that kind of thing.

[05:30:52] And it's where I see this sort of overly broad wording is pretty scary. Let's see, let me go down here. The, regarding the parking, there was another one at page 25.

[05:31:14] It talked about some study from Rutgers that lowering the mandated parking requirements automatically brings about reduced rents. I would like to see the data for that because I cannot. The rents are going to be market-driven, and if somebody has lower cost, there's no obligation unless it's required for them to have reduced rents.

[05:31:34] So those just, X does not go to Y on that one. And I was reassured on page 33 where I talked about considering the surrounding context when you're talking about reviewing applications in centers, which is sort of the short phrase of what I was talking about so roundabout earlier, that each one is different.

[05:31:55] um certainly for the district i represent people have been hollering about the loss of the mature standing trees and being them replaced by something with the diameter of my wrist and that's not appropriate it's terrible for ecosystem services and allowing an oops with the bulldozer to demolish huge areas of buffer with no punishment is really not helping us because it means those oopses are happening over and over again because people get away with it. So I do want to see

[05:32:31] really strong recommendations. I love the concept that we're having here about tree coverage, especially on page 35, I guess it is, 36, and making those be written firmly enough to actually be successful will be really important for the community as a whole. So I think I've sort of answered your bullets. And we'll go, I'll stop there. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor

[05:33:02] McKeel. Sure. So to get at the three bullets that you have on the screen, I am definitely supportive of the first bullet, reducing or eliminating parking requirements for activity centers, parking requirements in general. And this is just an aside, but I was shocked because I think it was Julian that told me as a result of their discussion on the Planning Commission the other day, $75,000 per slot on a structured parking garage these days.

[05:33:41] $30,000 to $50,000, yes. $75,000 is what he said. I had been quoting $30,000, but he said, I don't know if that's actually, but that is shocking, just saying. I don't know what the number is, but he said he was told $75,000.

[05:34:00] is what it is up to um having said all that so we definitely need to reduce or eliminate parking requirements in general i agree with that completely and um and i would like i said in just a few minutes ago for activity center and other locations in the development area as well i'm with both of those exactly how that might play out or look like i'm not ready to commit to exactly but definitely believe that's a good thing incentives for redevelopment and higher density in activity centers. I am supportive in concept of what you're saying there,

[05:34:40] but help me understand, and maybe this is the right place to ask this. We have had several locations over the years where we've had commercial on the bottom and supposedly residential over top, and they failed. So help me with that a little bit. The dental office sounds great, but at the time I was hearing them, they all sounded great. To be perfectly honest with you,

[05:35:15] can you just comment a little bit on that? On having the commercial on the bottom and the residential on the top as to the public interest in that or the public desire to have that, or have they failed because of economic situations that were beyond the control?

[05:35:37] I think it's a good question to ask. Certainly there has been a mixed track record. I think you can go to places, shops, or I'm thinking of the Fort Pump down in Richmond has a couple of these places where the upper floors have remained vacant.

[05:35:57] The other places, it has worked. I think opening up the opportunity for this to work in our community is something that would be good. Definitely, I'm trying to think of numerous examples of where it's worked in the county and certainly in the city.

[05:36:17] We've seen it more workable. I think part of the trick that we need to be able to do here is bring some of the density towards these walkable centers. It's one of the things we're trying to create. Definitely, I recognize that the financing of them can sometimes be difficult with a mixed-use building.

[05:36:38] And I'm not saying I'm against it. I'm just curious. certainly didn't work at stonefield now that wasn't during an economic downturn and i understand that but north point struggled and they've gone back to the drawing board um so i'm you know i'm just just curious about it go ahead no i uh it's not without challenges in the market i think it's a great idea i just was curious to hear what you your thoughts were balance between efficient use of development areas and quality of life plus environmental stewardship, including

[05:37:16] tree coverage. Balance between efficient use of the development area and quality of life and environmental stewardship. And I understand, I guess, where you're going with that balance.

[05:37:33] Having said that, are we saying here that in the development area, we're going to have to sacrifice certain things for the people that live in the development area? I mean, I may be taking you down a road that you but if you go back to you go to slide 19 please my radar went up 19 as a person who lives in the development area we need to use land efficiently in the

[05:38:12] development area so as we protect the rural area is that really is that really what we want to say to the people who we were trying to get to live in the development area that they they need to live there so that we can protect the rural area and i understand it may be just syntax or just the way it's worded but i'm cautioning you because when i read that ann's nodding too thank you ann my red flag went like this i don't think we want to tell people that the development area is where they should live so that the people in the rural area can be protected or that the rural area can

[05:38:50] and i understand we want to protect the rural area but we ought to want to protect the development area and the people that live in the development area as well and i'm probably being hypersensitive here understood but my my red flag went up on this and i i think part of i grant you what you're suggesting of the it shouldn't be a completely other either or i do think though part of the question we're asking here is um obviously what protecting water quality and the tree buffers that are associated with water with streams and the critical slope systems that are associated

[05:39:30] with the streams and really trying to design with the site to the extent possible are always going to be guiding principles and things we're trying to protect in the development area. But I think it's trying to make sure that there's a, that we recognize the need to balance all the protection that we might be looking for in the, of all the environmental features in the development area and recognizing that there will be sometimes impacts to features that may not be directly associate with water quality or buffers along streams and and looking that is a balance of

[05:40:08] trying to deal with that and and trying to use development areas efficiently as possible i know we've talked about trying to get that percentage of each parcel that meets its development potential up a little bit and this is a question of how far do we push that envelope as a community and it's It's important to hear from you all if it's, know that we need to always be maximizing the environmental protection versus that other goal of trying to, within reason, use the development area efficiently.

[05:40:41] That's an important guidepost for us to have as a staff level of where do we start to draw those lines between trying to use the development area efficiently and protect everything environmentally. I don't think that that draw line should be that after something's been developed or redeveloped, that it doesn't have inviting green spaces, that it doesn't have amenities in it.

[05:41:08] I think that the livable component of the urban form needs to be there at the end of the day, regardless of whatever grading or other impacts are associated with it. Well, I would agree with that because right now the development area doesn't have very much green space. But having said that, at least the old development area that the newer does.

[05:41:28] Jody. Thank you, Supervisor McKeel, and thank you, Michael and Tanya. And Jody Filardo, Community Development Director. I just wanted to add a thought. I think, Supervisor McKeel, you and both, Supervisor Malik, have kind of hit on both ends of the spectrum on this particular topic.

[05:41:50] Really, I think this is wording. The wording was intended. it was really intended to say we want to encourage people to live in the development area so it has to be functioning and fabulous and a place people want to come and that then enables us to focus housing in the development area for people and that then enables us to have more open space and watershed protection in the rural area so it isn't about making the development area like so also because we want to protect everyone who's in the rural area and not the development area.

[05:42:27] It really is. We want to make it fabulous in the development area so people think it's great living there, and that enables us to direct more of our housing growth and density in the development area. Thank you, because I know what you're trying to say here, but what I'm saying is this is not the way to say it.

[05:42:45] And we are hearing you, and we will fix the wording. Thank you very much for the feedback. Thank you. all right um and let's see where were we did i answer the bullets i've lost right now i think you did let me get back to that slide okay all right thank you thank you supervisor prove let me begin by saying uh grit and maple pine in pantops are the two examples i can think of they're right next to each other where this is successful the the um commercial space on the

[05:43:22] bottom uh commercial public space right like restaurants and stuff uh with things on top and they leap out at you when you drive by them because you realize that you see it successfully so infrequently um it almost feels alien it's like oh i'm gonna drive to where my my gps says grit is oh i've parked in someone's apartment building oh there's grit okay um so yes those are the two examples i can think of um but but it is important to have that to do that i agree yeah it's a it's a lovely community but um uh pedestrian infrastructure there notwithstanding

[05:44:01] as we recently learned um on the highlights here um so let's begin by saying i've indicated this previously but i i personally think i'm in favor of an elimination of commercial parking requirements um there is a slide previously where you talked about specific options for how we could um engaged with the idea of parking reform can you go to that sure it had several helpful ideas can you can you help me make sure i understand what it means when we talk about shared parking

[05:44:39] like from a regulatory standpoint can you kind of define it for me and what it might look like sure so um so this is where two uses that might have different different hours that they're open or folks are utilizing the parking can actually share the same lot and so you can actually reduce the burden of parking of providing parking for both business and condos or residential for example

[05:45:14] by sharing that parking during different hours i believe an agreement is required a legal document that is required to put that in writing and is forever in stone so it's really about operating hours usually for example perhaps a church and residential area could share parking and so this slide throws out the idea of requiring shared parking i could see how we might be in a position

[05:45:51] to require shared parking if things are coming to us for approvals and we're having to vet them I don't see another context in which we'd be able to do that, right? Especially if we're not having county-enforced minimums, right?

[05:46:06] We can't say you don't have minimums, and also if you're within X many feet of each other, you have to share your parking. Is that about right? That's my understanding. Okay. That is disappointing because, like, shared parking makes sense. one of my favorite businesses in charlottesville is um sugar bear which is a really like nasty area to park in and they have a small parking lot that they share with hogwall and ravanna river company um and it fills up instantly and i'd love to be able to use the parking right across the street but they're very jealously possessive of it um it's a shame that we don't have a hook to to get

[05:46:43] this other than basically through the zoning approval process um so yes uh in favor of uh Removing commercial parking limits and would be in favor of examining and reducing, especially within the activity centers, examining and reducing the residential parking requirements, not eliminating them.

[05:47:06] I don't think we're there yet. I don't think the will is there yet. And that would also, I believe, what I just said would also obviate the issue that you suggested, potentially creating parking maximums in regional centers, correct?

[05:47:23] that that wouldn't matter if if there were no commercial um commercial requirements okay um can you tell me what a public realm standard is i i did some googling but i'd like to know what it means in in the minds of county planners and what it would look like for us okay um for us public realm is usually the area between the face of the building and in parking um usually in an urban

[05:47:56] situation and it often includes a planting strip for trees sidewalk also area for benches and whatnot it again usually in an urban situation is is when we call when we say a public realm having said that generally public realm is anything that is outside of private property you could consider public realm but when we say public realm in this situation we're really

[05:48:30] thinking about the streetscape sure and basically the things that feel part of the built the shared environment that are nonetheless private correct could nonetheless be private um this is going to feel a little broken record from our last iteration um of of review as in at the beginning of the year not last cycle like last week rather um but i remember there was a little bit of uh shared concern maybe even consternation about um about measurability and uh and capturability of

[05:49:08] completion of actions uh measurability of objectives and capturability of completion of actions um i i don't know that it seems like that concern has been addressed i i do look at the objectives and they aren't measurable or quantifiable um and uh for the most part the actions seem to be like i can check the box and say whether or not they have been accomplished or not there are exceptions though and that specifically comes with the ones and there's there i can think of ways that these could be changed but it does create a kind of weasel escape that we can't hold ourselves to the fire on on the coordinate and collaborate ones right

[05:49:48] it's very easy to say oh i collaborated with the with the town of scottsville and not have anything to show for it not have done anything but i had a conversation with them we collaborated um so i might suggest that i don't know i understand the instinct as someone who has written the word collaborate many times in a planning document um but i don't know that is helpful in a document that we're going to use to hold ourselves accountable and i don't know what quantifiable objectives might look like for these ones i think these are the right kinds of objectives but uh i do think it is challenging if we are not going to create a standard by which we

[05:50:25] can measure them other than saying oh well we did eight out of nine identified actions that's the only way in which i see these being quantifiable um and i do see that as being a shortfall but i'm sorry you seem like you were about to reply i was just gonna say that it is our intention as part of the appendix to develop measurable objectives and metrics for those objectives we just haven't gotten to that part yet um let's talk about incentives for redevelopment higher density um specifically let's talk about incentives for redevelopment um what leaps out to me when i hear

[05:51:04] this because it's where my mind's been a lot lately is redevelopment for housing um that is to say housing to housing redevelopment redeveloping housing as more housing um in which case i don't know that there need to be incentives because that's where the market is already um it's it's quite easy to do someone quoted me at the um 25k versus about 300k for a redev versus a new build um per unit um and so i'm not sure what the goal there for an incentive would be but i also

[05:51:42] recognize that might not be what we're talking about we might be talking about things like the what's that what's that chinese restaurant on 29 that people complain about all the time that right i imagine that is maybe more worth fishing for with this um with this line um which would also potentially entail a change in use right is did we get the name for it about there we go um i i generally have um it gives me pause when we're talking about dispersing the public purse

[05:52:21] for private developers and what the reasons we're doing so and whether or not we've done enough to identify the urgency of the need and the fact that that will go toward a publicly realized goal. So I guess in a vacuum I have a hard time fully biting off on that.

[05:52:42] I would need to, I think, have a better understanding of what that would look like and what the stated objectives of those redevelopments would be. And I guess I just feel like I need to apologize for not having more of a sense of clarity there. Because, I mean, obviously I am in favor of certain kinds of incentives.

[05:53:00] We've spent quite a long time talking about a housing trust fund, which is an incentive for a private developer. But I think in a vacuum, not knowing what specific types of redevelopments and how those would be targeted and what the shape of them, i might i might have pause uh being able to support it as a concept outside of additional details which i realize is challenging because it's a long-range five-year planning document um yes balance between efficient use of development area i don't know that i need to go into much

[05:53:36] detail about that um were were there additional slides talking about opposing choices um on that not necessarily opposing choices because i i say that say in contraposition to the parking discussion where where we were given like several different specific ways to approach that and skin that cat i don't think there were any alternatives uh like set of alternatives that were given for this i just wanted to make sure i wasn't missing anything um and i do want to just highlight we've

[05:54:12] talked a little bit about it talked about in public realm standards talked about it between previous comments by board members but tree coverage is has to be an essential part of how we think about becoming a more pedestrian friendly world right i the the cutover um uh i'm blanking on the name of the road uh six over 64 just um i think 64 i'm terrible at road numbers um just west of uh wegmans that we are pursuing a smart scale project for that is going to result in a long

[05:54:46] path that is going to go from Wegmans to, like, past Cavalier Crossing to the county offices, roughly. Stagecoach Road is where it's supposed to terminate. I'm so excited about that project. And also, I know I can't imagine a single person using it because there is no tree cover right there because it is on a major highway. And that is increasingly a prerequisite for anything to be walkable. And that is going to become more so true as we move forward. So I think that is appropriately emphasized. I also do just want to add, I really

[05:55:21] appreciate that we have a whole action just for the town of Scottsville. I think it identifies the right focus areas. These are the things that come up most frequently. Bob Crickenberg will gladly share that the thing that I talked to him most about are different collaborations and points of concern in the town of Scottsville. So parks and trails, right emphasis, public infrastructure that's the main thing i get calls from down scottsville about um and uh enhancing human services and affordable housing projects doesn't sound like something that you might think that town scottsville would like but boy how do they people love the scottsville town apartments

[05:55:56] so yes um i think that's everything and i reserve the right to have more to yak on about after everyone's done okay thank you professor galloway so i feel like i was missing at the beginning of Are we just talking about these three bullet points?

[05:56:14] Yes. No, the entire list of objectives and actions on those pages? Everything. The objectives are 35 through 33. You might have to do another pass because I was wondering why these four. It's like, wow, I'm just starting to feel guilty. These are the clarifying questions.

[05:56:31] Direction time. Well, then I'll just do what everybody else has done because it sounds like you might have to do another pass because most of what I have to talk about really has nothing to do with this slide. But you need this information. These are specific areas that we're looking for clarification.

[05:56:50] I mean, I'm good here, yes. I do think I need to weigh in on the comment. I think we have been telling people that we're having them live in the development area to protect the rural area. I think the wording is right. I don't think we like the wording, but it's what we've been telling people.

[05:57:07] That's right, and I don't like that wording. Well, it's all 1990s wording, and we need to change it. This might get me into trouble, but I appreciate what you were saying, Supervisor Malek, about, well, because they live there and we have the quality of life and with the environmental features that we want all of this. But in a constrained development area, we can't have it all.

[05:57:25] Because we have a constrained area, we won't be able to get the density that we need without expanding it. At some point, it'll top out. And if you don't start sacrificing, so it means you put your development area on it unless we start saying, well, you just can't live.

[05:57:42] So I can't have any trees in the development area? We have a lot of trees in the development area. Not in my world. Well, if you actually look at the Google map of it, right? Now, it's not public accessible trees. Maybe that's the issue.

[05:57:58] And there's a lot of trees in the rural area that are not publicly accessible trees. Most of them. So, you know, this will get me into big trouble. We should stop pretending that, you know, to Neil's point earlier, when he was talking about different transitional bands, this lasagna method actually means it's not just clear-cut urban versus rural or development area versus rural, that you can have graduated pieces.

[05:58:26] But this county decided there's going to be a hard line. That's development area that's rural. And when you do that, you stop allowing a certain amount of things, a certain amount of mix. And there are places where if you don't tear the trees down and then build it up and then replace with trees or try to protect them, then it's going to change the cost of it.

[05:58:47] I'm not saying that I'm ripped down all the trees and don't want all of that. But in constrained area, it's going to be very difficult to provide it all with the growth that we're still continuing to see come into our area. And if we don't just own that, and maybe disagree with me, I mean, I guess at some point we just think, oh, I can't move the Charlottesville region because there's nowhere else to go there's nowhere else to live well that's that's not going to happen where has that happened i don't want to interrupt you but to to your point about neil's lasagna i would

[05:59:24] really like to look at is there a way that at some point in some areas we could talk about three maybe not four but three because that would help me a lot with lamb's road and trying to get some of that having said that i don't want you know but i'm just saying that i'm not against it actually we We want all business redevelopment to happen in the development area.

[05:59:46] We're not satisfied with 58% of the density being built out in the current development area. We want a higher percentage of density to be in the development area moving forward. That's what the whole development area utilization review is about. So the question becomes, well, then, you know, we say efficient use.

[06:00:03] Efficient is not what we're trying to do. We've been damned efficient in a lot of ways. We need to be proficient. We need to start being, to maximize the development area more, or it puts a strain on the development area to the point where, okay, you can't do anything else, where else, then it has to go somewhere else.

[06:00:24] And the sense that all will just stop, it doesn't just stop. I think we have to own up to the fact that we have to allow for the density for both business, whether it's development, new development, redevelopment, for both housing and commercial.

[06:00:39] that if we don't start allowing that to happen in our planning efforts in a way that's going to get what was the number 30 at the last meeting we had the 31,000 or 32,000 projected new folks coming right and at 58 we were saying are you happy with 16,000 of them going to the rural area well if you don't provide them a place to go in the development area then that's where they're going to have to go and there's not enough density out there for that so but what we haven't done is we haven't approved some of the developments that have come to us that had affordable housing but

[06:01:17] okay but what what the valerie longs and clients of the world do or bring us things that are at 50 percent density with a lot of open and green space in them because they know we like that and we'll be more likely to approve the upzoning because it doesn't max out the density which ticks off the nimbies which but so we have to start doing this in a way that says that says specifically what we are trying to achieve let's get as much into the development area as we can so that we don't have to expand it to protect the rural area and i'm not bringing all this up and being combative or

[06:01:56] being very animated because i disagree with that sentiment but if we're going to achieve that then we have to start just saying that a little bit more plainly and then planning for it accordingly and i don't know that we're we're necessarily doing that okay i mean but you know this will i don't want development areas with low quality of life i would you know i think clearly when developments go in i think they've been doing a good job of environmental stewardship

[06:02:33] beyond just tree coverage and putting in things. But we have to, you know, we have to at some point own up to, well, what are we going to do as a county to put in the public realm spaces versus just waiting for the editor of approach of other people to develop it and put it in, which is what the whole small area plan is about.

[06:02:54] Now, we've done all that work, and we're waiting. We're waiting for something to come in before we can put a public space in there. So, I mean, it's a frustrating part reading through this document right now, and this is where a lot of my other comments go.

[06:03:09] When I read through this last week when I didn't realize we weren't getting to objectives and actions, I read through the whole document, then got to the goal statement, the objective and actions, and I thought, am I in the wrong chapter? There was a huge disconnect between the goal statement, the objectives and actions for me relative to what I had just read before I got there.

[06:03:33] So that's where a lot of my notes and comments would go after this slide is there that's going to start speaking to those things. Because I think some of the ambiguity, some of the things that have been there have existed in the past, and it's been 10 years, and we haven't really, I don't think anybody could say I'm satisfied with the way the needle's been moved. I don't think we are. I hate to be pessimistic or whatever I'm being, but it's where I'm at.

[06:04:02] So I'll just stop there and I don't know what you're going to do relative to a lot of other comments. We will be going around again. Chair, could I give just a very quick hand on the ball on this like back and forth point we had? Then I will go. Yes, I will just make a very quick comment, which I feel like now I want to, in light of that exchange, briefly like explain my own thinking on this because I realized I hadn't thought about it critically enough, which is when i think of like what it means to balance quality of life within the development area i i truly don't

[06:04:37] think i'm thinking of like making sure we have adequate top lots in our um in our sub developments that we authorize because i frankly do see that as kind of wasteful it is it is not um it is not maximizing the land and it's frankly not amenities that seem particularly desirable to me most of the time i don't see how like this x by x triangle awkwardly between two private roads benefits me i think and like this kind of goes to what i said during the montclair thing right the the development itself and it becoming like multiplicative and uh closer in proximity to each other is itself a

[06:05:14] like cascading amenity it is itself a like improvement of quality of life in my neighborhood what i would think would improve my quality of life you know just just south of the city on avon would be denser development so it feels more urban so that i have closer proximity to other kinds of built environment so that I have more walkable spaces, and that does involve living more on top of each other than people already are.

[06:05:43] So I hear you when you say that what we're actually not wanting in the urban area, in the development area, what we're not asking for is to have more open space or amenities.

[06:05:59] It might actually be the opposite. What our policies are demanding is the opposite. And I do wonder if that doesn't have to be necessarily in tension with the idea of improving quality of life, if that makes sense. I haven't gone yet.

[06:06:20] We are going to go around again. But, you know, continuing this vein, I guess I will ask to go to slide 19 before coming back to this slide. Just because this seems to be where you need to use land efficiently in the developing areas.

[06:06:35] And then the question of to protect the rural areas as well as ensuring. I mean, you took out the words to protect rural areas while ensuring high quality of life instead of while. I mean, we use the development areas to create a high quality of life.

[06:06:51] So I have always looked at this as a, and I'm going to hearken back. I don't know if everybody's seen it or not, but Neil Williamson, who was here earlier, has written more about lasagna and talked about sprawl as not having a definition. Well, I think it does in the sense that I think that – and he follows it with an example of some people saying, well, would it be sprawl if you could walk to a coffee shop?

[06:07:15] If you could walk to a coffee shop and that's the kind of neighborhood you live in, then I don't think it's sprawl. The question is when we get to some of these possible transition areas, they look like sprawl because they're not walkable. They're not tight. They're not – the different available resources are not close by.

[06:07:34] You can't add, you can't cheaply put in the water and sewer infrastructure if you have to spread it out more. You're more dependent upon a car. You have more difficulty putting in transit. And so these are the things that kind of define quality of life for me in the development area, that you have those possibilities that we can build an area that has, you know, good transit and amenities and walkable coffee shops and things like that and other resources.

[06:08:04] So I guess that's why I look at this a little bit differently and look at the trade-off, if you will, between rural areas and development areas as one of we need density in the development areas for good quality of life and for amenities. So now back to slide 23, I guess.

[06:08:22] So I kind of want to answer these questions from that perspective. And when it says reduced or limited parking requirements for activity centers, yeah, I don't think generally parking is a good use of space, but it's a necessary use of space.

[06:08:38] And, of course, when we talk about residential areas, if you don't expect the parking to be provided to some extent, then you're going to take advantage of public space for the parking because it's necessary for people to have somewhere to put a car.

[06:08:53] Maybe you don't need two spaces for every single place, but you need to be concerned about whether it's being provided for people who are going to live there, unless it's such an activity employment center that you expect that there are a significant number of people that don't need a car there with transit available.

[06:09:12] Now, when it comes to commercial, I do think the market probably should take care of this. However, I think you gave an example, and I would give, like, even top-notch up the road as an example where, you know, you get some businesses, they're tightly together, there aren't a lot of parking spaces in the front, each one claims two or three, and then they police all day to see that nobody's parking in their spot.

[06:09:33] So obviously, you know, that's why you bring up the idea of shared parking and other things. But, you know, yeah, I'm very much in favor of trying to find ways to reduce our dependence on parking requirements as part of development.

[06:09:50] And I see the second bullet as incentives, not a question of redevelopment and higher density. It's something we're looking for, but what are the incentives? My first thought is, what can we offer as a county that it's more efficient for us to offer than it is for the developer to offer?

[06:10:13] And so, you know, it's a question of whether somehow we have an ability to bring resources or people together to help offer these incentives and that we can do it better than a commercial developer could.

[06:10:30] And so I think that we need that. I don't think that necessarily some of these things go in without incentives, but it's really a question of finding the ones that will be efficient for us to offer. Maybe some of that is in how we permit these things, because obviously if we can do it in a way that's less expensive because we want that kind of activity center, then we want to make sure it's less red tape for them to do that.

[06:11:00] And balance between efficient development areas and quality of life, I think, has addressed. I'm going to make one kind of bizarre off-the-wall comment about trees. I happen to also serve on the board of an institute called Scudic Institute, which works at Acadia National Park.

[06:11:17] And Acadia National Park is seeing a great deal of environmental stress on some areas. And to the point where the acronym now used in the national parks is resist, accept, direct, RAD. And it's a recognition that when you start talking in some of the discussion in the Planning Commission about making sure they plant the same trees that were there before when they took the trees out, this is a 20-year plan.

[06:11:44] And I can't not guarantee you that those same trees that were appropriate for that environment when they went in are going to be the appropriate trees 20 years from now or even sooner. And that's what's happening at our national parks is they're starting to look at other species that can survive the changes that are occurring rather than relying on the same ones.

[06:12:09] Now, I don't suggest that we're in the business of the experiments that they're doing because that's what they're charged with as scientists. but we should be aware of the results of those and and be cognizant that things are changing that's just a side comment and now we'll go back through because we really do need i think to think about the goal statement objectives and actions to address the rest of the development area chapter because this is our chance to talk about this chapter so the supervisor piece of credit so

[06:12:43] we're going back are we having new slides or going nope no it's just a question of whether So you had other things in this section that you feel that weren't addressed. I do agree, and I'm glad you mentioned about the tree, like what was appropriate 20 years ago. It may not be appropriate now.

[06:13:00] And it may be a bush, depending on the situation. I mentioned before about street-level stores, you may not have trees. You may have some other kind of a bush or some other kind of greenery there. flexibility, and Supervisor Galloway hit on something that I hadn't thought of, is maybe people live in the urban area. They want to live in an urban area. They want it to be more city-centric type environment. They don't want it to be like the rural area. That's

[06:13:35] why they're living in an urban area. Maybe it would be closer to work. Maybe the coffee shop the excitement of what's going on there um and that's that's something i think we we do need to look at and address and i just had an idea is maybe have areas where let the developers come in or ask the developers what would you do here knowing our restrictions and wanting 20 well eventually 20 you know housing affordable housing but how would you how would you do it

[06:14:11] you know we keep giving everyone examples i'd love to see some examples of how would you put in a development here that meets our criteria but is something that is thriving that people would want to live in thank you thank you thank you so i've gone back to collect some things that i didn't report before um to me the six so someone mentioned about the first floor versus residential upstairs. There was a period of some number of years where it was required in all mixed use,

[06:14:49] and it was a fiasco because bankers would not loan money for any condo situation where there was a commercial on the first floor and upstairs was required. So it took like five years for the J.B. Barnes project to get rid of that very cumbersome early requirement that had been laid on. So let's try to avoid that kind of trap again. People often refer to the accommodation of the downtown mall, but that was organically happened. It wasn't something that came in from a greenfield and everything was put up and looks all brand new and it had to meet some arbitrary

[06:15:23] standard. Everything is a little different. Everything's interesting and eclectic is the word that causations like to use about their crazy downtown and they love it for that reason because each building of its different era represents a different part of the history, which is important.

[06:15:40] To me, how far to push the density versus environment balance, it's to benefit the residents who live there is the whole reason I'm trying to hang on to these amenities. It's not because, just like the rural area is not for the frou-frou scenery, it's for the survival of the people who we want to attract to live in this urban form where you'd have shade from trees to walk on the sidewalk when it's 100 degrees 90 days in the summer or 55 days or however many 72 days however many days above 90 we had this past summer which is absurd so this is really important while we're on trees one thing i forgot to mention

[06:16:19] is i was very impressed with somewhere in this chart appropriately sized because old trail was built with the design standards put in in 2005, 6, 10, whenever. And it was left up to the developer to choose, do they want to have oak trees every 60 feet or a more appropriately sized redbud or something every 40 feet? They had to buy more of the smaller trees and they wouldn't do it.

[06:16:52] So now we have neighborhoods all over Old Trail. The trees are 15, 18 years old. They are every year having to spend thousands with the tree companies to come and prune them the sidewalks are bursting up because these trees are planted in a little four by four foot grass area between the road and the sidewalk they're planted within six feet of the foundations and more eight years ago at least residents came to me we came to county staff oh they said oh well we're you know we're not dealing with that now because that's a zoning redo and we're not doing that now but It's up to the developer was the way it was left.

[06:17:28] So I'm very interested in seeing that kind of planting as few wrong-sized trees as possible, that choice going away because it's a real burden on the residents and the success of the neighborhood if we allow the totally wrong-sized things to be planted.

[06:17:50] So what are the incentives for redevelopment in higher density? What can the county offer more easily is one of those options It shows up in here, I highlight every time I saw a structured parking in these pages 33 to 35, I thought, oh, that's great because that is something with a PPP that we could actually do something meaningful that would help a whole lot of other things to happen.

[06:18:12] So if that's what people are partially referring to, then I'm happy to throw in my support for that issue. It's not so much specie by specie that I'm concerned about because I think all the white oaks are dying here because of 72 inches of rain in 2018 and three years of drought.

[06:18:30] and we're losing white oaks all over the county. And so species are going to change, I'm horrified to say. So we need to be just making sure that we're planting things that are appropriately sized, that have the best chance of surviving here, and making the kind of decisions that we make throughout the plan that create wonderful, livable, welcoming spaces where kids can play and old folks can sit in the shade and everything in between.

[06:18:59] So that's where I'm going. Thanks. Thank you. Supervisor McKeel. Yes, and I'll just follow up quickly with a couple of the comments just off the top. I definitely agree with you, Jim and Ann, about the trees. I mean, I've lost oak trees in my yard, and I'm replanting them, certainly not putting back oak trees.

[06:19:20] So just to think that we have to do everything like we've always done it, we have got to start looking at this through the lens of climate change and how things are changing and what we actually need to do differently, and that's really critical. and to get to, and this is just a comment to go back to what Mike was talking about, I have never understood why we have all of these proposals that come to us with tot lots and dog parks.

[06:19:49] I don't like either one. I mean, I know, but that's what I'm saying. So let's kind of rethink what we're actually requiring. I think dog parks are awful. I wouldn't take my dog to a dog park if my life depended on it, unless I had hip waders and medication for infections.

[06:20:14] I'm just saying as a nurse. So when I look at a proposal that has a dog park and even a tot lot, I mean, we can do better than this. Come on. So let me look over my notes here.

[06:20:32] Connectivity seems like, and I need to go back, I guess, to the objectives and actions, but I had a couple of notes about certain things. It seems like connectivity. We always say we want connectivity, but every time connectivity comes up, the neighbors don't want it or we don't want it, and somehow or another it goes away.

[06:20:49] And I think in the development area, we want to encourage connectivity. So we are part of the problem because we're allowing the neighbors to say, don't want to be connected to that neighbor because I don't like the way he looks or I don't like his house or I just don't want that traffic. And so the connectivity we're losing, I think, now that's not to say it's an absolute. There are times when I think it's appropriate, but I do wonder sometimes if we're not losing something with connectivity. You know, we used to say that we wanted lots of

[06:21:25] different ways for people to drive around so that the traffic spread out and we all weren't on 29 or hydraulic um and it's that's the same way you know you you offer different ways that people can drive or walk and it reduces the impact um that everybody being on the same road or on the same sidewalk. So connectivity I'm thinking about. And I know I noted in here somewhere, oh, here it is,

[06:21:59] update the county's lighting requirement. We really have to get to that. I have a neighborhood behind my neighborhood, and you can stand in the road at two o'clock in the morning and read the newspaper because there's so many lights. It's whack-a-doodle. We don't, and I understand that people want lighting to make themselves feel safe, but can we please look at our lighting ordinance that's decades old and bring it into the, to somewhere, and that would help us with our dark

[06:22:39] skies, but it doesn't mean that every neighborhood has to be totally dark. It's just that we need to address in new ways and everybody now uses these what are built-in timers and things go on at dusk and they go all you know i mean it's just and i don't know how you get around that but yes but the problem is when you buy the products right now that's what they come with and they're terrible um i turn mine off every night um but lighting i would point out i'm just trying to go between my notes in this very quickly.

[06:23:16] Now, wait, let me go back over here now. Oh, coordinate with VDOT for approval of urban street standards. I used to say 15 or 20 years ago, VDOT is great on interstates, and they are terrible in the urban areas.

[06:23:37] I think they've gotten a little better, but we need to work with them a lot more because there's more work to be done with VDOT on helping us build and develop our network of roads that aren't huge, you know, hydraulic road. People go 60 miles an hour down hydraulic road because you feel like you're on an interstate. Maybe we ought to look at ways to bring those roads in and you can do that with bike and pedestrian lanes. If they're not so wide and you don't get a sense

[06:24:12] on an interstate, traffic will slow down. Traffic calming? How could we look at some of these areas that are already existing, build some infrastructure that people want that also accomplishes slowing folks down? But I do think we need to somehow or another have a concerted effort with VDOT about building their highways, their roads in our community. Okay, so I've talked about VDOT.

[06:24:43] I have a star beside lighting requirements, so we've gotten that. Monitor the proportion of development occurring within the development areas compared with the rural areas. I think that is a really good idea, and we talked at one point, I think, Ned, you brought it up, about when we had a proposal, why didn't we have, yeah, you know what I'm talking about, Why didn't we have the data on where we were on that proposal?

[06:25:20] Just like we talked several years ago on economic development when we were going to be rezoning something and we said, has this been run by our economic development folks because what are we trading here?

[06:25:36] Is this a good trade? And I still think that's a good idea too. So maybe we need to look at our executive summaries and what we're actually putting on our executive summaries that would help us make decisions.

[06:25:53] Of course, the other thing I have circled on here is 3.4, transit routes, walking, and biking. And I think that goes without saying. I had somebody the other day that said, oh, we couldn't possibly put a development in this particular area because there's no transit route there.

[06:26:08] Of course, there's no transit route there. There are no people there yet. build it and it will come. Please stop saying that we can't do something somewhere because there's not transit. I'm the biggest transit person in the world, but you're not going to get transit until you have the people, right? I'm sorry, but Ned's laughing. I don't know.

[06:26:29] You want to say something? There's some places where there are people and the transit hasn't come. Well, that's true. That's true. But I would say that the problem with that is we haven't figured out how to we're going to pay for transit and our transit authority i'm hopeful if we get that before us next month that we can all approve the authority then we can look at how are we going to pay for some robust transit because we can't keep paying for transit out of our operational we can't afford it i mean it's just having said that okay transit but you're right right now it is kind

[06:27:01] of funny ned that we talk about that and it's not very robust um circled under action um street tree requirements to provide appropriate spacing. So I really do think that this gets back to what you were talking about, Jim, about planting the same types of trees. But I do think that we do need to look at our plants in general, whether it's trees or whatever we're requiring, to make

[06:27:33] sure that they are adaptable to climate change and where we are, and not just assume that we do what we've always done. And I think the rest of these are probably, I think those are fine. I don't have to talk about those specifically. And I guess with that, the only other thing that I would say is I appreciated Ned's frustration about density. But I would say that not all, but some of that

[06:28:12] is our fault because we have not approved. We've not been willing to approve some of the neighborhoods with the density that came to us and by the time it's gone to the cac's and the planning commission and then gets to us and all of the communities around are upset the density goes down the density goes down and the density goes down and so i'm going to take some of that on my own shoulders that we if we want density we have to be willing to say to the folks that are sitting

[06:28:46] in that audience where density is important to us and we're going to approve proposals that have high that have appropriate density high density and not just water it down to where it's acceptable or it's because you're you're ending up you're getting developments that are neither twix nor twain i mean they don't solve anything you just have more more residential units but they're not solving the problem. I guess with that, I'll stop. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Pruitt.

[06:29:22] Thank you. I want to look at 3.1, which is a very specific action. Like it almost stands out for how particularized it is, which is about making it possible to have things like mobile drink stands and kiosks along bike routes. That's what I read that as. Are they not already? I don't, What's going on with this?

[06:29:51] This is such a particularized thing. I guess I'd like to know a little bit more about kind of the history of where staff came up with this. Did we say it at some point and it was captured from this? I'm looking at my colleagues to help us.

[06:30:10] 3.1. It's very particular. I'll be admitted, you know, being still relatively new, a lot of the goals, action statements were carried forward from discussions before I got here.

[06:30:29] Why don't we get back to you on that particular one? It's an interesting thing because it's something I like the idea of. And I'm also I'm having a hard time even picturing it, I guess, in any of our communities. I'm having a hard time finding where the where the public greenway that we're going to pop a little barista shack on.

[06:30:50] You know, I lived in the Pacific Northwest for a while, and there's the thing in the Pacific Northwest where every public parking area or, like, commercial parking area has a, like, one-staff-person espresso shack there. That's what I'm picturing in this. I don't know that's a bad idea.

[06:31:06] I just don't know that there's a commercial infrastructure for this to support it. I'm not sure where it's going. I could potentially see it, like, at certain parts along the Rivanna Trail, but I don't know. We can also already do these things in commercial parking lots, is my understanding. Anyway, sorry, well, if they have self-contained electricity, like a lot of these.

[06:31:28] Please use your mic. Oh, sorry, yes. Yes, thank you, Supervisor Pruitt. Ben Holt, Long Range Planning. I just got a note from a fellow staff member that this related to the Freebridge Lane area and just proposing that there are more amenities for pedestrians using the greenway.

[06:31:52] There are other examples of localities that have done this successfully, like Roanoke. I also know in Atlanta, on their green belt, they have little commercial nodes that serve users. That's another successful example.

[06:32:07] I was a frequent user of the Washington Old Dominion Trail in the D.C. metro area. It has a lot of these. This kind of speaks to what former Supervisor Price came and talked to us about. It rhymes with what she came and talked to us about, about the Camino.

[06:32:23] Yes. So I appreciate the idea. I guess I'm just a little curious how supportive the commercial environment is of actually buying off on this. But if we're standing in the way of it, then sure, let's get rid of it.

[06:32:41] Speaking of things that maybe we're standing in the way of, I want to kind of go back again to the question about incentives. And specifically, you know, I think we can agree that certain types of redevelopment might require incentives because it is more profitable to sit on the land.

[06:33:01] I'm not sure that there's the business case, if we're thinking about ourselves as a business, which we shouldn't, but I'm not sure there's the business case for incentives for higher density, where density is already allowed, if we're talking specifically residential density.

[06:33:18] because higher density in and of itself is a massive incentive for an individual developer. So I guess I don't see the scenario where we are getting anything out of paying for greater density, other than maybe to get over the seven-story hump, which I'm not sure there's a massive desire to get over.

[06:33:41] I think we need to recognize that density itself is the incentive there. In fact, that's the enabling legislation from the state understands it that way. The one that we use to get our inclusionary zoning standards is understanding increased density as the incentive that is given in order to, that they then have to pay, the developer then has to pay an inclusionary zoning standard for.

[06:34:06] And plenty of other communities I know will actually like use greater density as a bargaining chip in order to have greater affordability standards or to increase proffers. um it is the thing that the locality gives so so i'm not sure there is i would have to be thoroughly convinced that there ever actually is a need for for incentives for greater density um so just kind of to i think tie my thoughts together on that because i know i i kind of

[06:34:40] left that hanging and i think some other supervisors address that um i think i think supervisor galway did a very good job illustrating that i don't know that we're fully grappling with the fundamental tension of tree coverage tree coverage specifically is where i kind of want to land on this because we have a whole we have a whole objective on it and i'm i'm not even sure the more i sit here and sit with myself how i feel about it um because fundamentally it is

[06:35:15] intention with our own stated goals of improving build out um and specifically the things that i would wonder about are the the need to preserve uh existing forest blocks within the urban area um and this kind of thing i'm not saying i'm opposed to those but i think we haven't fully grappled maybe as a board with the tension there um i i do think street trees as i already alluded to are kind of necessary in a warming world um except for in scenarios where the building height

[06:35:48] in the surrounding area is so high that it obviates uh the need for street trees which i don't know we're anywhere there yet in in our own development area am i making sense on that right like in in dc i don't need a street tree because the buildings are tall enough that i have shade right um we're not there um maybe they're there on parts of jpa and that's the only place i can think of um so in the meantime we do need for for pedestrian viability to be possible in the urban area which we're saying is a core part of how we need to construe the urban area as a place where

[06:36:28] you can walk and bike i think we need some amount of tree cover for that um but i'm not sure that preserving tree canopy within a new sub development is something that is wholly tenable right and this kind of goes back to our discussion about top lots about other types of amenities because this is where they are preserved in developments.

[06:36:52] They're preserved as part of a preserved amenity space, right? That is the context in which we retain old-growth trees in new developments. And it seems like if we're saying that we don't like, if we see a certain amount of wastefulness in preserving those spaces, then I wonder if maybe we need to reconsider our own stated desire to preserve those tree canopy spaces, especially when, as I think was really well pointed out, I've talked about this in the rural area, but it's also true in the development area.

[06:37:23] Most of it's freaking private. People can't use most of these, a lot of these tree canopy blocks that exist. They're not benefiting from them other than, say, the one person whose backyard it is in. Anyway, my syntax is breaking down, which means I've been talking too long.

[06:37:44] Supervisor Cowell? I just don't want people thinking I don't want any trees. I like trees. we should have trees. But, you know, it may be an uncomfortable conversation. But when we're talking about the development area, all these things can't be equal. And maybe the priority of one over the other change is based on the particular area we're talking about within the development area. But we did define the development area. I mean, there's the big by-right project that's going on right by the river behind Belvedere. Wonderful wooded area,

[06:38:22] trail was going through there, and it's just clear cut. And I have to say, well, it's the development area it was r4 it was zoned that way um why well our comp plan um so there's a certain level of going all right well we have to accept getting rid of all of that tree canopy to allow that r4 development there's a lot of folks that would say r4 wasn't dense enough for that probably that area um so you know supervisor mckeel made the point well you know i have not tried to suggest

[06:38:58] it was somebody else's reasoning to get us here the board gets is tasked to take the responsibility for it but since we're working on this comp plan this is where we have to pivot and do it a little differently or think about it differently so that folks can count on us to uphold to the plan as they bring projects forward and then us not go it's easy for it was easy for me coming on this board in 2018 to go oh well i disagree with that comp plan i wasn't here to do that iteration well now this one i'm involved in i have to you know all the complaints of the old comp plan i

[06:39:36] have to pivot and rectify to figure out how to put changes in here um but i just don't i sometimes fly off the cuff and um fly off the cuff is that a mixed metaphor um um i don't want people saying that i'm against trees or don't think that's important but who's taking responsibility for them we attempted to put some some flowers at the rio 29 interchange and that's you know if you put them in and you don't really have the staffing or the right approach then it becomes it becomes an eyesore so if we're going to put these things in these public places and it's we have to be very

[06:40:15] clear who's going to take the responsibility for the upkeep because it's a tough environment for those type of things to live in trees on rio road um well that that's a that's a whole other piece so let me try to do this without having to go through every goal and objective but i don't and i and i honestly ask this not trying to put anybody in the defensive so but when i read all the goals or all the objective and action items i ask the same question first let me just get the document in front of me and i'll use one three as my example here because this is where it first

[06:40:51] popped up and and i asked it because i don't know what the hell that is like i don't know what urban street standards that are considered consistent with DRPT multimodal design guidelines are. I don't know what that is. So for me to look at 1.3, the question I ask on every single one of these is how does this achieve the objective? So 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, that's the same question I ask myself every time that I start taking my notes. So versus sitting here and going through every single objective and asking you how does that achieve the objective, where is that background

[06:41:28] work that happened to get it listed here to begin with, that it was decided to be under DALU1. And if that hasn't been done on all of them, then it needs to be. And I think the board needs to see that. And this is my response to having some time since the last session of really being frustrated with the disconnect of reading through the chapter, then getting to the stated goals and objectives and going what what what is this like i understand tree coverage is an objective i get

[06:42:05] it i understand but if you read the whole chapter up until you get to the goal statement there's not a mention of there might be a little tree piece in one of the set you know the spots but there's really no mention of that so you'd have to think well the overarching goal of climate climate change and resiliency and our concern about the environment is what leads to that i can i can make those threads. But I don't know, even inside of those, if each one of those actions helps achieve the objective. And without understanding the rationale of that, I can't tell you whether or not it makes sense or if I agree whether or not it should even be in this chapter. To drive that point home a

[06:42:42] little bit further, just go to the LUPEC one, 1-9. Continue participation in LUPEC in the third three-party agreement, including by coordinating with the University of Virginia recommended land uses for areas A, B, and the development area. Okay. I understand what that is and what that means. The objective is increase the use, increase the use of infill, higher density development, adaptive reuse, and redevelopment of development areas. Now, I'm starting to try to walk the rationale of that particular one to the objective, and I can kind of fill in some of the holes, but somewhere I'm assuming the back work was done that said, this is why 1-9 exists under

[06:43:19] this objective um that's a lot of work you guys are doing a ton of work on this but i just kind of presumed that that had happened to get to this state or to this point without that information you know when we um when we work on uh you know our budget document for example all of the background and the rationale is there for an objective or an initiative in a budget to then say well do i agree with this or not so it's i feel a little bit like i'm working within the dark on some of these because some of them i read them i don't even know what they mean

[06:43:54] so an explanation of the objective or the action is is needed for me and i don't know what approach we take for that i don't know if i am supposed to be sending maybe i should have sent all these questions in ahead of time and tell me what this means tell me what this means but then that's going to do a lot of one-off work and i don't you have never usually operated that way in the past on anything. So I guess in the interest of time tonight, that's a lot of my questions. How does this achieve the objective and what's the rationale behind it? So I guess I'll ask, now I'll stop

[06:44:30] talking, ask the question. Does that rationale behind each one of these actions exist that says this is why or how it'll achieve the objective? It does exist. How do we get that? I don't know that it was documented. There was a lot of conversation, a lot of discussion internally to come up with these objectives, as well as the actions. So, you know, I look to...

[06:45:03] Well, you know, I don't know if I look to Ms., you know, I feel like I need to start looking to Mr. Richardson or Ms. Filardo, because what I'm asking for is, it's a lot to work but without without it then then how did they get on this list and then how am i supposed to judge it the other part that i'm struggling with right now is we and it looks like in the next piece we're going to do it all in one fell swoop the chapter and the actions and objectives on the rural land use one which is good i think trying to do this in separate pieces for this one in some ways was okay but in other ways it was it was a little difficult um but we're also dealing

[06:45:40] with the chapter we asked for a lot of stuff in and i'm not seeing all that yet so now i'm dealing with goals and objectives to a chapter that i know already is going to change so now i don't even know if these once i understand them will align up to so i mean we're going to have to go through some some rounds of this to eventually wrestle and work all this out but in the meantime and i'm not saying that we need you i mean i don't think we need staff up here at a public meeting going one one here's what that means here's how it adjust i don't know that we need that but we probably need a document that shows it when we get when we get state code that's changed we get a red line version

[06:46:17] we get a rationale we get what the new language is and we get the through line back this is the comp plan we need that level of detail and information to understand it and then be able to react to it and decide whether or not in my opinion i don't know if others agree with me or not so i'll stop on that i still got other items okay but you wanted to make a comment is that Yes, just to address Supervisor Galloway's comment, I think that's a very good question to ask of staff.

[06:46:49] I think that's an important thing for us to include. I think there's opportunity for us to go into some of that detail and rationale within the appendix. As Tanya mentioned, there's been a lot of collaboration between staff, also partner agencies. Just as an example, that particular action that referenced the DRPT guidelines, that comes back to the genesis of the activity centers and our conversations and working with our consultants, EPR, on this comprehensive plan.

[06:47:23] They helped develop those DRPT guidelines, this Department of Rail and Public Transit, I believe. these improved standards for streetscape, for pedestrian environment, that's what it's getting at and incorporating that into VDOT reviews and then the VDOT standards. But I do agree that perhaps providing that type of context within the appendix would be helpful. Well, let me be clear what I'm asking for. So I appreciate the explanation. So now I understand what 1-3 reading that line

[06:47:58] means. But how does that increase the use of infill, increase higher density development, increase adaptive reuse and redevelopment in the development areas? So that's the, you know, I need to understand Rasheed Lyon, so thank you for letting me understand it now. But more and critically, I need to understand how that now accomplishes the stated objective. I don't know how it does. Thank you, Supervisor Galloway. I'm understanding, I think, what you're talking about, And I'm hearing two different things.

[06:48:31] One is we need to make sure that we're not using unintelligible acronyms for things when you don't know what those are. So we'll fix that because that is something absolutely we will do. Well, I appreciate that. BRPT, I know what that is. Well, I know you do, but maybe the public may not, right?

[06:48:49] So we will fix that. the connectivity and the rationale for that particular piece being connected to that particular objective, I think we can do a better job of perhaps adding another sentence or some other language in that action so that that's logical. Part of what comes with those DRPT standards is multimodal transportation and grants and the opportunities for those. That enables us to then

[06:49:25] support the density in these development areas. So the rationale, we know what we thought we were putting that together to express, but we didn't say it. So let us go back through these things and see if perhaps by adding a phrase or a sentence or something that makes that better.

[06:49:47] That's fair, but I'm not asking for that rationale to be included in the document. I'm asking for that rationale so I can determine, does that align with the stated objective? and do I agree with it? And I hear you. So I'm not necessarily looking for the end goal to be extra words or lines or explanation in the document itself. I'm saying for work session work where a board member, for myself, going, all right, well, what does this mean? All right, I understand what it means now. I've read the objective. I understand the objective. Now, does this connect to that objective? Do I agree that it rises to the level of being in a state

[06:50:25] action in the comp plan. So I'm looking for the background work to help me make a determination of whether or not I agree with what's listed here or not, not just for public consumption or public understanding. Okay. Does that make sense what I'm asking for? I'm a little bit confused because I'm trying to figure out, and it just may be that I'm not catching on here, but I'm wondering how can we make that better is what I'm trying to figure out if we aren't adding language into the document itself.

[06:50:58] So here's, maybe I'll just have to try a whole different place at this. And if I don't succeed, then we'll take it offline and have further conversation. You all have done a lot of work with each other, with the public, with the planning commission, with a lot of people. That's the collaboration. And through all of that, this is what the result was.

[06:51:16] I have not benefited from any of that. Understand. So I wasn't in for those conversations. I haven't listened to all the planning commission meetings. I don't have all that information. I don't know that any of you did. Maybe more have attended that. No, I don't think any of you do. Yes. So, you know, for me to have that and understand why that got selected and put here, you all have connected some lines and some threads that I don't see yet.

[06:51:41] I need help seeing them so I can decide whether or not I agree with it or not. How about this? Would it make sense for us to take that direction under advisement and then go back and look at what is in these action steps and how they tie.

[06:52:00] Because otherwise in these meetings, and I'm just, this is the first chapter. I'm telling you, every single chapter that comes in front of me, I'm going to be asking on all of the actions. All right, what's the rationale behind that? How does it achieve the objective? So I think in the long run, from a public meeting standpoint, it's going to save a lot of public meeting time.

[06:52:20] Because I've got probably more than half of these actions. that's my question. How does this achieve this astated objective? And I'm happy to go through that and do that and start asking those questions on everyone. But it would probably make sense if that was provided as part of the work we're doing, then we can just decide, then come in and go, all right, now the conversation in the public meeting is, I don't think 1.5 is on target here and here's why. Right now I'm trying to go, how does 1.9 achieve this objective one in this chapter? And I don't, like the Lupec one, I really don't know if I know the answer. So that's what

[06:52:57] i'm asking for i'm sorry to belabor the point but i think that's important to have no i i appreciate the clarifications because that will be helpful to us as we leave this meeting so thank you staff report is needed to go with it and the other thing that i would really love is to have the presentation because we all had something completely different than what's on here and that immediately throws me into a state of panic so that would be great even if it's the same day but just at least to be able to have those things read and printed out in front of me so that I can look at them.

[06:53:29] Absolutely. I'm going to avoid all my other questions that are targeted specific to that big one right there, but I do have a few others. For one, four, and I'm just going to start moving through some other stuff, so you don't necessarily probably need to. Okay, thank you. You can go to the back and find something to throw at me, I suppose.

[06:53:48] One, four, this is that light. Some of the other folks had mentioned the lighting requirement. I really think this is backwards. Safety first. It has to be up front while adhering to the dark skies or trying to reduce spillover. It says update the county's lighting to reduce lights.

[06:54:04] So the up front part of this, I think, matters. To reduce light spillover, glare, and excessive brightness while still providing a safe environment for pedestrians. No. In the development area, we need to provide a safe environment. And there are places along 29 and RIO specifically that the lighting is terrible.

[06:54:26] And it has produced, it's been part of problems. There are some of you sitting at the dais that have told me driving down 29 like I have, where you almost hit somebody because you can't see them. And that's 29, for God's sake. Okay, well. Elevation, where the lights are.

[06:54:42] But, you know, I think the safety and the safe environment piece has to be up front on that. And that, to me, I'm stating for this supervisor is a priority over light spillover, glare, and excessive brightness. That we have to make sure the folks moving in and around these areas where there's so much, especially at this time of the year, when the bulk of the traffic is still moving between 5 and 7, and that's when the bulk of your pedestrians are moving.

[06:55:09] And I don't think this is a – I think it can be accomplished. We've been doing a good job of it, especially with new lighting technology. But to say that we're – you know, that the lighting requirement here is to protect anything other than the people that are living there. And I'm not, you know, you might disagree, well, I don't know, and maybe you're taking it a little too far here on the way it's stated.

[06:55:29] But I want that safe environment for pedestrians and bicyclists up front. Jumping in just for a second, doing the downlights for the people's safety on the ground accomplishes everything else. Because right now, all the lights are going up, and I'm seeing it from Greene County.

[06:55:47] That's why I said I think it's there, but it's almost like we're saying the safe environment is the secondary here. I want it the priority. and i just maybe i don't people don't agree and i'm overreacting to it um but that's i'm worried about the wording on that one one eight all right one eight monitor the proportion of development occurring within the development area compared with the rural area if the proportion of residential development begins to increase in the rural area develop options for further encouraging and

[06:56:21] directing growth to the development areas and discourage subdivisions in the rural area if we do the comp plan right, this shouldn't even be a stated action. And this goes back to the earlier tee-off that I did about the state. We're trying to put this stuff in the development area.

[06:56:42] We don't want increased development in the rural area. This is almost like the backup because if the first one fails, we'll make sure we have the backup in place and the backup's not even defined. So if we succeed in what were stated goals for this chapter, for the development area, This should be a given and should not even be in here.

[06:57:03] Now, monitor the proportion of development occurring within the development areas should be in that development utilization review that comes forward with each application. So I am expecting at some point to see that particular item as a stated action item under one of these objectives in this chapter.

[06:57:19] That each application will come forward with, A, development utilization review so the board can determine with each project where we'll be, et cetera, et cetera, are related to the larger goals of the development area land use um i picked out on the mobile the mobile food i picked up on the food trucks your mobile piece it's actually working quite well in places but it's all car traffic and not pedestrian and bicyclists i love the tacos gomez is over there on on burkmar oh my god the alumbrus right but it's all car traffic pulling into the parking

[06:57:55] lot but i mean they must be renting a space there so the business is there i mean it's wonderful to see that stuff moving up now eventually the multi-use trail will be on burkmar other places might go oh i could supplement a little income by renting out to a food truck the food truck's less overhead i mean that's a great little economy that i see happening in a lot of places especially with those so i'm just calling that out that anything we can do to to support that is a good thing now in terms of the other you know kiosks food drink stands i don't know what those are necessarily but man a mobile library that parks next to a food truck and you're waiting

[06:58:30] 10 minutes for your alumbra to cook and go to the mobile library i mean that i love the organic nature of how that stuff's starting to pop up um there's somewhere i wrote down go further with incentives we keep talking about incentives but at some point we have to start defining what they are and putting a timeline on ourselves to develop them and i guess i'm just got cold feet over the developer incentives for affordable housing and how long that took to get those in place but we have we can't put something in a comp plan that says we're going to put incentives in place because we use the word incentives for a lot of different things in here, parking structures and redevelopment

[06:59:08] and housing and business. We have to get more specific on these. And if we don't know what they are, then we have to say we're going to know what they are by this time, I think. I mean, that's my opinion. There are no draft actions anywhere in these objectives, at least explicitly stated, to help the missing middle residential component. I listened in on a session yesterday that the Weldon Cooper Center did about population movement in Virginia and growth and where they're going and all of that.

[06:59:42] And one of the points one of the panelists made was we have such an aging population that are because people are living longer, they're staying healthier, they're in their home longer, a single-family home. New homeowners who are younger, when they enter the market, what they want is a single-family home.

[07:00:02] They don't want a townhome or a condo. They want a single-family home. But since folks are living in them longer, they're not becoming available, and there's no real starter home at the beginning of the piece, especially in our community, that's that home that you get for your first five years to be able to then move into the bigger home or the other home.

[07:00:21] So we say that in our comp plan that we have that need for that missing middle, but I don't really see anything in the objectives that says this is how we're going to get after allowing that missing middle component in here. So I'm looking for some actions or at least call-outs, perhaps in the rationale of how this achieves the stated objective.

[07:00:42] It could be in there. I just don't know yet. Yep. Two, three, identify and fund capital improvement program projects that would support activity center development, such as a multimodal transportation, et cetera.

[07:01:01] How? We do this. This is a timing thing. Sometimes I wonder how we plan in our capital improvement plan for something that's outside of our control. If we have to wait for Rio, like I keep using a small area plan in Rio 29, we've said we'll take over and commit to maintaining public spaces in that small area plan.

[07:01:22] So if somebody comes in and does a redevelopment and they put a plaza in or whatever, we've said we'll take that on, they'll convert it over, we'll maintain and do the upkeep on it. The board took action on that. But how do I, if somebody actually redevelops and it's not parked in the CIP, then it takes a whole other amount of time to make that actually happen.

[07:01:44] So I'm just, that's more a timing question, like how, and you probably can't nuance it to be necessarily in this state of action, but I think that's just a call out to say we need to think about that a little bit better so that when it does happen, we can immediately swoop in and be prepared and take that over.

[07:02:02] This is a question, the parking lot percentages that you had in your presentation, I should have asked this earlier, for the RIO 29, you called out the parking percentages for the small area plan. Did you include the dealer display as parking lot or just true parking lots?

[07:02:20] I mean, I know they're parking lots, but their display is different than a customer parking spot or a residential parking spot. I wasn't involved with it exactly. Yeah, I got you. I was just curious because I was. I'm sure it was a parking area.

[07:02:37] That's what's in our KIS polygons. I'll judge what they used. And then objective four was the piece. This was on the PC page. I didn't catch the page number. the PC comments. Oh, yeah. Broaden objective four to cover environmental, yeah, yeah, I definitely agree with that. They're saying broaden it so it's not just tree coverage. Correct. Because water movement, water resiliency, especially drainage infrastructure, all of that. So I think that I don't want to, I should have used the forest for the trees metaphor there.

[07:03:17] But, you know, there's, I think, broadening it to capture, to Anne's point of view, why not, why can't we have it all in the development area but right now we're focused on one element when i think we could be more than that of how we're providing that type of environment within the development area um and should state it state it here um that means um and again i appreciate all the work i know this is tough especially bringing it to us and then you never know what you're going

[07:03:57] to run into when you bring it to the board so i appreciate all the work and the effort but the things that at least just speaking for myself the things that i'm asking for are are important to me to try to determine if I think what's in here is right or not. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[07:04:13] Thank you. I do hope and appreciate that this level of scrutiny will help us in future chapters. So I do think that's why it's valuable to take the time now and recognize what we are looking for in terms of consistency and clarity.

[07:04:32] And I don't think I'm going to add anything in particular to what's already been said except to say that I agree with many of the comments made. I did mark down Mike's comment, Supervisor Pruitt's comment about incentives for higher density is different from incentives for redevelopment, and I appreciate that comment.

[07:05:01] And I also want to second Supervisor Galloway's comment about monitoring proportion of development occurring within the development areas compared to the rural areas. We already have, and you noted, 1.8 without mentioning 1.7 already says update the land use build-out analysis as set up for the development utilization review.

[07:05:23] So that was in there, this was added, and this is, in my opinion, also not really needed and not necessarily helpful and not necessarily relevant to how we want to evaluate our success. In particular, I didn't like the idea of it's a difference between a subdivision and just building, what does it mean?

[07:05:43] If somebody owns a property in the rural area and has a right to build a house there, I'm not going to penalize the whole comprehensive plan because somebody built a house in the rural area where they owned a lot. But I'll stop there because I think we've got a lot to chew on.

[07:06:00] And I'll ask for brief additional comments if there are any. Yeah, I just wanted to thank staff because I really like this objective and action, The way you framed this so that we had something to actually go to to talk about. I just like this.

[07:06:15] This particular part of the process was good. I just really liked it. It was workable. I didn't get lost in a whole presentation. So thank you very much. Thank you. One quick question. Someone mentioned something EPR.

[07:06:31] What are they? Who are they? What did they do? Is that where this generic language came from that we've never seen before? So my suspicion hackles went up. So please help me. EPR is a consultant that has been helping us with the comprehensive plan, mainly in doing some analysis, helping us with maps and graphics and public engagement.

[07:07:00] In particular, they're based here in Charlottesville, Bill Winch, Viagra Villa, and some of the other folks, probably themes that you've bumped into over the years. My new bill is a traffic planner, but not as anything else. Okay. Yes, we've given you a lot to chew on and to redo, reconfigure, give us more information.

[07:07:29] So when will we get another bite at the apple? Is it December 10th? No, that's a rule. Yeah, it's important to kind of sort of... Pardon? I said I think it's important to kind of remember like the larger strategy we're trying to do here. So there are 10 topic chapters. Let me start even back before that. Three parts of the comprehensive plan. The first part is very introductory. The second part just talks about the development area policy and how it manifests itself in the rural areas and development areas broadly. And then it really gets down to part three where we're

[07:08:08] being very specific. There's 10 chapters. We've just been working on the first of 10. We tried to break this particular one into two chunks, one sort of more policy stuff and then this discussion of goals and objectives and actions. The remaining ten chapters, or the remaining nine chapters, we'll be bringing them to you in their entirety, sort of a policy component and something similar like this with goal statement, objectives, and actions. And we'll try and work through those through the spring. We'll be trying to be cognizant of the board's agenda with

[07:08:43] the budget but we're trying to get to wrap this thing up in towards the june time frame at that point you'll get you'll get to see the changes we've made gathering this discussion with you all at that time okay and i just don't know how the rest of the board feels because to me the development area land use rural area land use those are for me those are the two most important things i mean everything else is important also but those are really important as far as because that involves development of all kinds i just didn't know if we were going to spend a little

[07:09:20] more time on that or if i need to have another private session please chair if i may thank you jody filardo again um just wanted to let you know that we weren't quite sure how these meetings were going to go with you all. We really appreciate the amount of detail and the ferocity with which you've gone after these things because this is exactly what we needed. What we had done in planning with the county exec's office is that we had moved forward with some plans through

[07:09:58] February as to this cadence of when we were going to be bringing you these things, when we're bringing them to PC, when they were coming back to you all, one of the things that we weren't sure about was the very answer to that question, when will we bring you the things you've already reviewed, already put back together again, if you will, so that you can take another look at it.

[07:10:22] We had intended to take a look-see at where the process was at the end of February. So, given the amount of feedback we've gotten from you all, which is very valuable, we need to get back into these documents to put all of that back together.

[07:10:44] So, I would expect that probably somewhere around February, you'll start to see these chapters that we've gone through prior to that come back out to you. And then we are going to give you a new schedule for the remaining chapters.

[07:11:01] As Director Barnes had shared, we are hoping to get to you in the June-July timeframe for adoption of the Comprehensive Plan. But depending on the enormity of the changes or enhancements or the adjustments that you all would recommend, that may not be advisable.

[07:11:22] We may need to come back to you after you've seen how we've put together our responses to your directions and suggestions. You may tell us, hey, we want another bite at this in a public meeting. So slow roll this a little bit because we're trying to move too quickly.

[07:11:42] We're trying to get through a lot of chapters in a very short period of time. So come February, we have a pause point where we, staff, are going to assess with the county executive's office how we are doing and how they are hearing from you how you think we're all doing.

[07:12:03] And then we'll come back to you with a revised schedule if we need to slow the cadence down a little bit so that we – because the staff that's in front of you today is the same staff that has to put all this stuff back together again. And so if we keep this kind of robust cadence going, we may not have enough time to get into the depth of some of these suggestions and fully move that along in final form in a fast enough pace so that you all know we heard you and we've made the adjustments so that you can see them.

[07:12:39] so i i would say you'll hear from us in february with kind of a um an update on what what's next or where are we going next but that's that's my best effort answer to that question tonight thank you i think that's very helpful and i do want to i think we all thank staff because you all have put a lot of work into this and it's much appreciated thank you thank you it's our pleasure and i think we all have to understand that we're doing the comprehensive plan, yet there are things that are going to appear outside of the comprehensive plan that maybe have already been acted on like

[07:13:15] housing compelmoral that need to be revisited, but they won't necessarily be included in the comprehensive plan except by reference as we change them before or after. So you just can't do everything every time, I guess is what I'm trying to say. Thank you, Chair. Yes, you have additional comment no it's a question do we want to or does it make sense and i'm not looking i don't think we have to decide it tonight but during budget season you know we all ask extra questions and we direct them by email and a lot of times it's this kind of this rationale stuff

[07:13:51] seems to me to link up perfectly with that like oh will remind me what this program is and that sort of thing like we do in the budget would it just make sense as a process point to save maybe staff time and board time to implement that process where we would email a designated person those questions you know i know that in budget time andy or jacob whoever take the time they get the responses written in and then they send those back to the board and then we have them but we don't necessarily have to deal with it in the public meet it still takes staff time but now you're dealing with a question where you can schedule i got these six questions i have to

[07:14:28] answer and you can kind of schedule your day versus now taking this free-for-all and going back. I'm just throwing it out as maybe a way to be more efficient so that in the big scheme of things we don't slow things down because it could still be happening and it still can be public just like it is because we have a process that we do for budget time as well. I think that's a great idea but does that sound good? We can certainly take that under advisement Chair Galloway. We do have a couple opportunities through engage albemarle we've got an ask the planner option in engage albemarle so let us see if we can create that infrastructure i think that sounds very

[07:15:06] reasonable and logical i just have to think through how so we'll figure that out thank you all right is there anything further if not we will adjourn all right our next regularly scheduled meeting is on Wednesday, December 4th, 2024, at 1 p.m. in room 241. Okay, and I just want to note that it's room 241, not laying on a tournament, will start. Opportunities for the public to access and participate in this meeting are posted on the Albemarle County website, on the Board of

[07:15:46] Supervisors' home page, and on the Albemarle County calendar. Participation will include the opportunity to comment on those matters for which comments from the public will be received. Mr. Chair, I'd like to take a moment, as we get ready to adjourn, to ask our deputy county executive trevor henry and our master police officer andy muncie to please come down front earlier this earlier this evening we briefly took a minute as we were doing the county

[07:16:26] executive's report to recognize uh master police officer andy muncie and when we went to break mr henry pulled me aside and he said you know jeff uh we can do a little better than that and i said yes sir we can and uh i want to do i want to take a minute to talk about this police officer who will be graduating a class later this week.

[07:16:47] Could you talk just for a second about how that's going to work and kind of what the work goes into that, if you don't mind? Absolutely. Andy Muncy, I'm our County Police Department. Tomorrow, actually, we'll have eight recruits graduating from the Central Shenandoah Criminal Justice Academy.

[07:17:06] And then on Friday, we'll be swearing them in. So we've been working on trying to get our full staffing up. So that'll take care of one cycle. And then come January 6th, we're going to be sending six more to the academy. So it's an ongoing cycle that we constantly try and work and battle with, but we're making good headway, and I think we're headed in the right direction.

[07:17:28] That's great. That's great. Thank you. Members of the board, Trevor Henry, Deputy County Executive. The tradition in the military, when you have a farewell of a sailor or soldier, is often to give that person a challenge coin.

[07:17:45] That's also very common in public safety. The county several years ago has adopted that. We have our own challenge coin. And really, it's on behalf of the exec's office and the board. We'd like to thank Andy for all the work that he's done over 28 years.

[07:18:01] 16? 16 with another agency and then been here since... 12. 12 years with the county. And we wish him nothing but fair wins and following C's. Thank you.

[07:18:25] We did officially... He's already done it. You just left...

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