Coraggio Consulting
Albemarle County Board of Supervisors Regular Second Meeting, Wednesday, March 19, 2025

Date: Wednesday, March 19, 2025
Place: Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, Virginia
Length: 4h 22m (video)
Official meeting video (Granicus): https://albemarle.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=1&clip_id=1316
Official agenda: https://albemarle.granicus.com/AgendaViewer.php?view_id=1&clip_id=1316

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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[00:00:00] Good afternoon. I'm pleased to call to order this meeting of the regular meeting of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors on the 19th of March, 1 p.m. in Lane Auditorium in the back of our county office building. I'd like to note at the dais we have Supervisor Mike Pruitt of the Scottsville District, Supervisor B. Lepisto-Kirtley of the Ravana District, Supervisor Diantha McKeel of the Jack Jewett District, Supervisor Ned Galloway of the Rio District, Supervisor Ann Malick of the Whitehall District, and myself, Jim Andrews, representing the Samuel Miller District.

[00:00:30] A quorum is present. We're also joined here by the county executive, Mr. Jeff Richardson, and the county attorney, Mr. Andy Herrick, and our clerk, Ms. Claudette Bergeson, and senior deputy clerk, Mr. Travis Morris. Also, let me please welcome Albemarle County Police Officers present, Master Police Officer Jerry Schenck, and Officer Trent Cole.

[00:00:50] Thank you for your service here today and every day on behalf of the citizens of Albemarle County. We very much appreciate your help with our safety and security. If all present could now stand as you are able and join us in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

[00:01:21] Thank you. And if you could now join me for a moment of silence. Thank you.

[00:01:52] Borden, as always, our first item is to adopt the final agenda. I have not heard of any suggested changes to the agenda. We're looking for a motion to approve the final agenda. so moved second we have a motion from supervisor mckeel second from supervisor malik without objection if the clerk will call the roll ms lapista currently i miss mallet yes ms mckeel yes pruitt i mr andrews yes mr galloway yes thank you um this takes us to um first item brief announcements by board members going through our speaking designated speaking order for this

[00:02:27] meeting we'll start with supervisor galloway i just want to say thank you to the entire team of staff who were out last evening at our at the town hall that was held at the center regarding the budget i heard we had a nice turnout and i think folks appreciated having not just the access to the staff members who were there but also having the information that were that was there anytime we're doing a tax rate increase in addition to the assessments hearing how the dollars are being spent is clearly important and it was confirmed again last night And I appreciate the residents coming out, the questions that they had.

[00:03:05] And if the remainder go as last evening's went, it was time well spent. I think everybody will get value out of it. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Malek? Thank you. Yes, I look forward to more of the same and hearing from more people.

[00:03:21] A couple of announcements. Issues have come up in the trails in Crozet that were built by the Crozet Trails crew, as well as trails around Mint Springs Park. about off-leash dogs. Trails are for dogs on leashes and owners are required to pick up and remove any deposits left by their dog. We have had incidents of one dog on leash and several running free and dangerous situations result. So please understand dog parks are where dogs can run free or on your own property, but not on county trails. Secondly, there have been some

[00:04:00] issues of vandalism in the Crozet area and perhaps in other parts too, please remember to lock your vehicle and be especially careful not to leave the keys of one vehicle in another vehicle because that's how that second vehicle also gets stolen. So these things are happening.

[00:04:17] At Home in Shenandoah is a program about the collaboration between the stewards of Shenandoah National Park and the surrounding counties and emergency agencies. That program will be virtual and it is on the 27th of March at 6 30 p.m. And there's a registration easily available at the SNP website. Speaking of websites, there's also a terrific website up about the Crozet Square and Oak Street improvements project so that residents from around the area can understand ahead of time before they come to Crozet where the roads are going to be closed for

[00:04:54] the road work that's going on there and how to keep everybody safe and happy. And I thank you. And one last very important thing, the Regional Workforce Board had our combined elected officials, CLIO it's called, and the business group, the Regional Workforce Board meeting yesterday.

[00:05:15] And we learned that Sarah Morton, our Executive Director for the Workforce Center, is the Chamber Innovator of the Year, and she will be getting that award tomorrow. She has, by sheer force of will and attracting a wonderful staff of very hardworking people, turned around the fortunes of this local federal state collaboration to provide really good job training and soft skills for many, many local residents and advance of the unknowing of what's going to happen with federal dollars, are working very hard to have grants and also be flexible and

[00:05:53] nimble and able to provide services as things change. So I was very proud to be part of that meeting yesterday. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Pruitt? I have nothing at this time. Supervisor Lupista, perfect. I just wanted to say thank you for the staff because I know they put together a really nice presentation for the town halls. I'm looking forward to having two of mine that'll be upcoming. And there's a lot of work that has gone into those town halls to explain to everybody what we're doing regarding the tax rate increase, potential tax rate increase,

[00:06:31] and the assessment. So, I encourage everyone who is interested in our budget to come out to the town hall meetings. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor McKeel. Yes, just one item. JABA is offering free planning services, one-day-only planning services for folks that register. Simple Wills, durable power of attorney advanced medical directives documents are prepared on site for you and the date is april the 9th from nine to three o'clock in the afternoon it's a great

[00:07:07] opportunity to have people that really are good at what they do help you with some of these really important life documents um that's april the 9th um at on hillsdale drive at the job office you just need to register. April the 9th from 9 to 3. Thank you. Thank you. And my announcements, as always, as a representative at the Ivy Solid Waste Authority, is that they have just started the signups for the free e-waste collection day, which is not until April 19th from 9 to 3 p.m.,

[00:07:43] 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Ivy facility. But this is one that you have to sign up for. There'll be, In addition, several for those who are into spring cleaning that'll follow that, including the hazardous household waste, furniture and mattresses, appliances and tire collection, which I'll have more to say about.

[00:08:03] And of course, I am looking forward to the first town hall that's sort of combined with the Scottsville district tomorrow night at Monticello High School, 530 to 730, which also is live streamed. so you can sign up if you want to hear it online.

[00:08:21] I understand it'll be streamed through Facebook as well as county webpage. And then also we'll be at Yancey Community Center in a week, March 27th. So, but there are others, of course, but those are the ones that I'm particularly going to be attending and interested in meeting people. Thank you, Supervisor.

[00:08:38] Yes, I forgot to mention that our plastic bag tax is well on its way to working very well because there is a list of the streets in Albemarle County that are going to be cleared of litter twice a year.

[00:08:54] I know some streets of our, that's already happened and the people are very pleased. So our plastic bag tax is really working well. And I thank the staff for setting all that up. Thank you.

[00:09:11] Board, this brings us to, well, our next item is proclamations and recognitions. Not seeing any on the agenda. item seven, public matters previously considered or currently pending before the board other than scheduled public hearings. So matters from the public. We have some signups and I'll turn it over to Chairman Keel. We do. We have eight people that have signed up, no one online. So everyone is in person. And I'll start with our requests for directions. Matters on the agenda, but not listed for public hearing. During time set aside for public comment on matters previously considered or currently pending before the board, individuals may address the Board of Supervisors

[00:09:51] 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. A sign-up sheet is managed by the clerk's office. Timekeeping is conducted through a timer and light system at the podium.

[00:10:08] 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. In order to give all speakers equal treatment and courtesy, the board requests that speakers adhere to the following guidelines.

[00:10:26] 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 materials may be given to the clerk. If representing a group or organization, you may ask others present to raise their hands in recognition.

[00:10:44] Speakers may not share any unused time with another speaker. back-and-forth debate is not permitted, and please do not speak from your seat or out of turn. All comments are live-streamed, recorded, and published on the Almar County website. And our first speaker for today is Vicki Bravo. Vicki, you're going to need to pull the mic.

[00:11:08] Just the microphone, please. Yes. Thank you. Sure. My name is Vicki Bravo, and I'm representing IMPACT, and I'd like to ask everyone who's here today to support affordable housing to please raise your hands. Thank you. We've been talking for years about the crisis in affordable housing.

[00:11:30] We've talked about a national best practice, the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, which would make outside funds available to help build affordable housing. On average, $8 for every dollar invested by a county. We've talked about why the figure of $10 million annually is important. It would allow for building, for making it possible to build 300 homes. Homes, more than a structure, more than

[00:12:06] just units or apartments. Homes are where we should have a safe, stable place to go at the end of the day, a place to make memories, a place we can count on to rest, play, do our homework, spend quality time with family and friends and mark important events. In an article in the journal Bloomberg Hopkins Public Health, Dr. Sandra Newman of the Institute of Health and Social Policy writes, the most prevalent housing problem affecting low-income and modern-income children is the

[00:12:46] portion of the family's income spent on housing. They explain, when a family spends too much of its income on housing, children's nutrition, enrichment opportunities, and cognitive development can suffer. And when kids experience eviction, it's worse. $10 million would contribute to improving health and safety. $10 million so that 300 families won't have to worry from year to year,

[00:13:20] month to month, or even day to day, where they will sleep. Everyone deserves a safe, stable, and affordable place to live. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Colleen Swingle Titus. Welcome. Thank you. Here we go. Hello. I'm Pastor Colleen Swingle Titus of Park Street Christian Church, located at 1200 Park Street, Intersection Cutler. I've served there for 10

[00:13:58] years of what many call the little church with a big heart, a faith-centered community who seeks to faithfully serve the needs of our little corner of Albemarle County. We put our heart, time, and dime in providing one, if not only affordable, full-day Christian preschools for families who serve many in the community, such as educators, civil servants, and health care providers. We are also seeking to build, and the eight-year struggle is real, 50 affordable housing units in partnership with Piedmont Housing Alliance on our property that just kisses

[00:14:33] the city and county border. It is the latter that I wish to address also as a member of impact, and that's affordable housing. We know that building resources are meager, but no more so than the affordable housing, which 50% of my congregation faces daily, made up of chaplains, social workers, teachers, city workers, and senior citizens living on fixed income.

[00:14:58] All challenged with either moving to, thus commuting from, neighboring communities, working three to four jobs to cover their living expenses, and our seniors who are faced with moving away from their families are moving in with their adult children, not to mention some, including my sister who now lives in Waynesboro, works for the city, looking to have to work into her mid-70s.

[00:15:23] Big talk about your concern and caring for this blue dot city in the heart of the Blue Ridge requires integrity, ladies and gentlemen. And I pray for those whom you serve that it matters to you. Thank you. Thank you.

[00:15:39] Next speaker is Tom Eckman. Good afternoon. My name is Tom Eckman. I'm from the Ravonna district. As Vicki said, housing is a basic human need.

[00:16:00] Here in Albemarle County, thousands of families and individuals don't have access to safe and affordable housing. Every year at Potchum and in my church, I meet men and women who are working and have jobs, but yet they have nowhere to live.

[00:16:20] Why? Because they can't afford it, or the housing in their price range just isn't available. This is really staggering to me. We live in a rich community for some. I'm sure you guys already know this, but in Albemarle, the average price for a home is $800,000.

[00:16:40] That's the average price. So what we really need is more modest homes, especially for households making $80,000 a year or less, and also single individuals making $40,000 and less.

[00:16:56] Housing has gotten worse due to inaction and missed opportunities in Albemarle County. Back in 2017, 18 years ago, there were 6,600 families that were one paycheck away from losing their homes. Today, that number is over 10,000. A housing trust fund with $10 million in it could help alleviate this problem over time. As Vicki said, it would build 300 units per year.

[00:17:27] We did it for 10 years. That would be 3,000 homes. Why is there 800 other communities in the United States with housing trust funds? It's because they work. Let's get one started here and let's fund it with $10 million. Thank you.

[00:17:49] thank you the next speaker is mark van meter welcome hello my name is major mark van meter and i'm with the salvation army having served our five five county region for 113 years we are a community that has flourished but not for everybody the salvation army has a 55 bed

[00:18:24] emergency shelter for both men and women there are also nights during the winter time when patch the community's low barrier emergency winter free shelter is not able to accommodate everybody and it is on those evenings that the salvation army opens our doors and up to 16 individuals will sleep on chairs and the floor on those evenings simply said more emergency sheltering is needed in our community the salvation army in response has developed a comprehensive solution to increase emergency shelter capacity by replacing our current Ridge Street property

[00:19:03] with a new 114-bed high barrier emergency shelter and by adding a new year-round 50-bed low barrier shelter. The two shelters are located on Salvation Army properties and they will strengthen the continuum of care to help those unhoused neighbors in our community thrive.

[00:19:22] The low barrier shelter will be a safe place to sleep, have a meal, use the restroom, and shower. The High Barrier Shelter will be an expansion of our current facility. It will be a longer-term shelter for men, women, and families in an environment that supports their journey to escape homelessness.

[00:19:41] We will call this new facility the Center of Hope. It will also include seven apartments for unhoused families. These apartments will allow for long-term stays in preparation for independent living in our community. The Salvation Army cannot, and nor should we, be solely responsible for this.

[00:20:00] And as a result, we are actively engaging Blue Ridge Area Coalition for Homelessness and Patchham to create effective, efficient, and sustainable resources to better serve our unhoused neighbors. Enacting this comprehensive solution requires significant capital investment.

[00:20:19] According to Martin Horn, the low-barrier emergency shelter on Cherry Ave, to repurpose that property will cost approximately $3 million, and the new high-barrier shelter will cost approximately $28 million. To date, we have $14 million committed, $6 million in hand for the project.

[00:20:38] We have proposed a request for $3.5 million to the Albemarle County supervisors taken from the county's Affordable Housing Investment Fund. It is my hope that you would consider this as the Salvation Army meets the needs of those in our community doing the best that we can.

[00:20:56] Thank you so much. I would like to submit my notes to the county clerk. Thank you so much. You can just hand them to Claudette. Thanks. Neil Williamson.

[00:21:14] Good afternoon. My name is Neil Williamson, and I serve as president of the Free Enterprise Forum, a privately funded public policy organization focused on Central Virginia's local governments. I believe the late great rocker Tom Petty may have gotten it best when he said, the waiting is the hardest part.

[00:21:35] Every day you see one more card. You take it on faith, you take it to the heart. The waiting is the hardest part. Yesterday, the world celebrated as NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and SUNY Williams returned to Earth with a soft splashdown off Florida's coast.

[00:21:51] Nine months after their faulty arrival craft upended what was supposed to be a week-long stay on the International Space Station. Before those astronauts took off, the Free Enterprise Forum struck out on a wayward journey of our own. In the summer of 23, we met with property owners who were interested in converting underperforming commercial office buildings into residential uses.

[00:22:13] To keep the project affordable, the cost of rezoning was prohibitive. So they asked, why could they not be permitted to convert by right? This would require a five-word change in the zoning ordinance. In the fall of 2023, I spoke to Albemarle County staff who indicated, well, that seems like a good idea, but they could not work on it until the board endorsed the concept.

[00:22:34] In February 2024, after six months of work behind the scenes, the Albemarle County Board of supervisors unanimously enacted a resolution of intent to change their zoning ordinance and allow residential uses in an office commercially zoned land. This would be like docking at the space station, a significant effort to get that far. There's much work yet to do, but to get the ordinance changed, we have a plan. Today, the office commercial residential concept is floating in limbo like Butch and SUNY were until yesterday. Since the adoption of the ROI, we have been told

[00:23:12] staff simply does not have the capacity to make a five-word change. And those potential affordable units will have to linger as underutilized commercial office buildings until the entire zoning ordinance can be written, perhaps 2028 or longer. For a board that literally jumped through hoops to rezone their own pet Rivanna station property in record time, a board that is considering dedicating 0.4 cents of a proposed tax increase to fund an affordable housing trust fund, we do not understand why you will not choose to prioritize achievable affordable housing by dedicating staff

[00:23:49] time not money to make this change literally over a year after the roi nothing has happened for the projected 100 families that might live in these commercial office residences tom petty was right the waiting is the hardest part thanks for the opportunity to speak thank you francis leave and Thank you. I'm Frances. Can you hear me?

[00:24:24] It's really difficult. Just turn yourself to pass it around. Oh, you're having trouble speaking. Yeah, yeah. We can hear you fairly well. If you want to try it. Keep the microphone up close.

[00:24:40] Yeah, yeah. Thank you. I'm a member of the impact. We have waited, as Mr. Williamson said, We have waited many years now for an affordable trust fund, affordable housing trust fund.

[00:25:00] We deserve better attention to this overriding need in our broad county. The housing we need is for those slipping through the cracks who are workers, who can get back to work.

[00:25:26] They are not long-term homeless. You can turn lives around in our county. Residents, I say residents, but they may be homeless. I hope I am right in calling them residents. Thank you.

[00:25:54] Thank you. And our last speaker for today is Savi O'Flynn. Closer every time.

[00:26:14] Closer every time. That's great. I'm making progress. I'm 5-0 Flynn. I'm a Climate Justice Policy Manager with the Community Climate Collaborative, C3. I am here today for two reasons. The first being I am here to support the Housing Coalition ask of investing in affordable housing and supporting the Housing Trust Fund.

[00:26:33] As we all know and have, you know, I've spoken before, housing, investments in housing are also climate investments. Investments in housing density help to reduce emissions from energy usage and they help to reduce emissions from transportation. So housing is a climate issue and we need to invest there from the climate perspective. My second reason for being here is to again draw your attention to the fact that there is no new money recommended for climate action

[00:27:06] funding in this budget. The $200,000 that does appear is a reappropriation from financial 2022, as far as I understand it. I'm concerned to see in some of the presentations that $1.6 million is being described as climate action and environmental sustainability, street sweeping and litter pickup. Those are not climate action strategies. $200,000 reappropriated is the real amount that is being recommended for climate action and it is not new money. Municipal emissions are only one percent of the county's entire emissions. The investments in municipal decarbonization

[00:27:44] should properly be viewed as a model for funded community decarbonization programs. The gap between our current and our target emissions is increasing year by year. It is not dropping, is increasing. This is happening as we are failing to plan to invest in climate programs and climate funding. Emissions have a cumulative effect. The more emissions we allow to be released now as we fail to invest in climate action, the worse the impacts those will have in the future. We see the impacts of failing to invest properly in housing or in schools, as Supervisor Galloway has pointed

[00:28:22] out we need to make these investments now to prevent paying more for them in the future I asked at the town hall yesterday at the centre in Belvedere why climate funding has never been recommended in the budget since the adoption of the climate action plan supervisor Galloway explained that the executive has not yet been directed to do so by the board so I am asking the board to direct the executive to plan for climate action funding with a one million dollar Climate Action Plan Implementation Fund that matches the cities. It will allow the county's climate program to partner with the city's programs. It will increase the access to new

[00:28:59] climate benefits such as bike vouchers, e-bike vouchers that the city already has set up that county residents cannot participate in. We should not be surprised that we're failing to meet the goals when we fail to plan to fund them. So please support a $1 million Climate Action Plan Fund.

[00:29:17] thank you that's it thank you uh board uh we can now move to item 8 the consent agenda uh have not heard of any changes to the consent agenda so looking for a motion to approve the consent agenda so moved second motion from supervisor mckeel second from supervisor malik without objection if the clerk will call the roll miss lapista currently i miss mallet yes miss mckeel yes mr pruitt hi mr andrews yes mr galloway yes thank you uh board this brings us to our work

[00:29:54] session, which will take up the remainder of the afternoon. A lot to discuss on the budget and tax rates, and to help us through it all, again, is Andy Bowman, our assistant chief financial officer, and Jacob Sumner, our chief financial officer. Welcome. Thank you to the chair for the introduction,

[00:30:17] and good afternoon to the board. One moment while I pulled the presentation. So, as the chair indicated this afternoon is work session number four on the fiscal year 26 budget process. By my count, since the county executive released the budget, we're entering the 13th hour of public meetings on the budget process. And I know that the board of supervisors from the depth and breadth of their questions spends a lot more of their own time going through the budget process. Last night

[00:30:56] was the first public town hall and those will continue next Thursday at Monticello High School and then continue into the next week but today is an important milestone of the budget process because it's the first time the board will be asked to take action on anything that is to propose a budget for advertisement on which a public hearing will be held in april also to propose tax rates for advertisement which will have a separate public hearing in april those tax rates are important because they will set a cap on what the board can ultimately adopt the board can adopt the advertised rate or less but they cannot exceed that there are three portions of today's work

[00:31:36] session that are planned the first of which is to continue some remaining chapters from prior work sessions we've designed the budget work sessions to focus on those that are the most significant budget drivers and related to the tax rates first the board has completed those reviews and we'll finish up with those final remaining uh chapters of the book here next we'll have some updates from prior work sessions as we do every year there's a series of technical adjustments that we will recommend the board incorporate into the budget process and i'll I'll walk through those one by one and explain them.

[00:32:08] The next is really the time of the board to really turn the county executive's recommendation into the board's proposed budget for public hearing, really any board adjustments that are requested. That discussion will then lead into the board action to propose tax rates for advertising and the budget for public hearing.

[00:32:27] So with that, I will go ahead and continue from the remaining chapters and prior work sessions. And I also appreciate the board being patient as we skipped order in the book and chapter compared to some other years, again, with the intent to help the board work through the largest changes in the budget first. So we'll go into the general fund and we'll go to the community development department. And since it's been about a week since we've seen the slide, or if someone's listening and just tuning in for the first time, the chart on the left is the general fund, which the community development functional area makes up 4%. On the donut on the right, we can see that that functional area is made up of the community development department, our transit agencies who

[00:33:06] work together and make our transit system. And then we have economic development and some other community agencies. Economic development was discussed at the March 12th work session, so we will not be going through that again today, but the rest of the chapter we do want to connect on. So first up is the community development department, and this is not a department where there's a lot of big dollar changes, excuse me, this year, but what is really in effect is moving forward the strategic plan projects the board has already directed on. The comprehensive plan, other ordinance updates and also the core systems modernization project the new community development system went live in january and is now operationalized and continue to move forward so

[00:33:46] while the dollar changes are not notable as other departments we reviewed certainly that department's connection to the strategic plan is strong through their work plans for the rest of the community development functional area i'm going to introduce ryan davidson the deputy chief of budget who is going to come to the podium and speak about the transit agency contributions and i do want to thank many of our transit partners who are here in the audience today for their partnership throughout the year. Welcome, Mr. Davis. Thank you. So for the transit agency contributions, the amounts listed on this slide here are really not about changes in services, but rather about the

[00:34:25] continuation of existing services and existing service levels. I'm going to start with Charlottesville Area Transit with CAT, because based on the timing of the city budget process and the completion of the final request to the county, Charlottesville Area CAT was listed as initially being level funded um as a full review was not able to be completed prior to releasing the recommended budget in the intervening time between now and um when that uh the budget was released we have interacted with cat staff county staff city staff and have come up with a recommendation um there was a million dollars which was placed into a transit reserve which

[00:35:03] is not uncommon with what we've done with some of our transit partners in previous budgets to be able to complete these full reviews after that further review with cat we have we're recommending an increase of eight hundred and twenty two thousand dollars in the county's contribution to cat there's a couple of main reasons behind this the biggest reason or one of the largest reasons is five years ago cat came up with a plan as we went into the contribute into the excuse me into the pandemic of creating a spend down of federal pandemic relief funding over time. FY26, as we've spent that down, FY26 is the first year where we're not expecting any

[00:35:41] federal pandemic relief funding in the transit budget. So we've fully spent that down. And for comparison in last year's budget, that was close to $600,000 worth of pandemic relief that was being shared between the city and county contributions, lowering those contributions.

[00:35:56] Another big reason for this increase is the salary and benefits related costs. Like the county, the city has experienced a large health care increase that's comparable to what the county has experienced. Also, as you may be aware, there is a collective bargaining contract within the Charlottesville Area Transit. That's approximately $1.3 million for the cost of that contract for each year. It began in January of 2025. So that was the first six months of that contract. And so coming into 26, there's the full cost of that contract. So we had a half a year's

[00:36:33] costs that we were looking at absorbing in FY25 and then the full year's cost of that contract moving into FY26. In addition, there was some FTE additions added to the CAT budget. And so based upon that and that review with CAT staff, that's where staff landed on the $822,000 recommendation. While the CAT timing was slightly delayed for the budget this year, I do want to point out this isn't really uncommon with how we have have some of our other uh regional partners such as the regional jails and those things where they present us with a preliminary budget and then

[00:37:08] as their boards meet and as their uh governing bodies meet they refine those budget requests and then move and they change and sometimes we come back with these requests so so while the timing was a little bit um awkward this year um it's not totally uncommon for this kind of thing to happen. The next piece I want to talk about is microCAT. This fully funds this county's obligation for our third year of the microCAT program. We were here just a couple months ago, I believe it was, talking about the metrics around the microCAT program. And at that time, we expressed that we had just recently learned that we were able to extend that initial grant.

[00:37:47] So we had, as we've talked about in some previous work sessions, we are going to be experiencing some savings in FY25 for this and based on those those savings and us looking at the the new cost of the contract we were able to reduce what we had in the the recommended budget down by about $440,000 to about 1.3 million dollars per year on that contractual cost for FY26 so we will be while it's not as much of a savings as we were seeing in FY25 we are still seeing savings in 26. Finally with our other regional partners showing an increase of about $200,000 this is really just for the county's obligations to continuing the current services, not an expansion

[00:38:24] of services there as well, and then some smaller amounts for our other regional transit partnerships that are fully funding their requests. At this time, this really wraps up the community development functional area, and I'll turn it back to the chair for any questions in this area. Thank you.

[00:38:40] We'll go through our order. Supervisor Galloway? I mean, I don't have any questions. It seems pretty clear. I guess I'll make a couple comments real quick. I should have made this comment the other day when we were together with the school board um but i'll say it here just because i know i see garland in the back hello garland and team um the i wanted to bring up that albemarle high school is one of is the i think at the time based on a previous presentation was the one of the highest destinations for microcat in the rio pilot area and in looking at the budget and how much we have

[00:39:20] outlay for future school bus use the efforts of the regional transit partnership with taking a lot of us to champagne urbana and thinking in the long term of how having one system not just quickly benefits what our dollar usage is now but could be a way to save in our own capital program uh or find efficiencies at least both in the not just the cip probably the operational side as well and microcat could be could be an answer to that um so i think i'll send a note to the school board i wanted to say that in front of them but but we said a lot that day so one less thing that day for me was going to be fine. But I want to call that out because I think,

[00:39:57] you know, as more and more I think about it, I was in support of having one efficient system anyway, but it's just working through this budget that keeps coming back to mind. The other thing, the other comment I would like to say, sometimes, and this is, I mean, it's just how I feel about it.

[00:40:13] I've been supportive of collective bargaining. I've been supportive of that for a long time in the future. I just don't want us to start reacting to collective bargaining like it's some bad thing. If it's increasing wages for people, it's increasing things. I mean, I see it as a positive for the workforce to be able to do.

[00:40:29] And yes, it comes with a cost, but I think that's a cost worth bearing. So sometimes in these presentations, we hear collective bargaining as if it's a different way of phrasing that it's a way for folks to have to increase their livelihood. And in an area where we have affordability issues, I think increased wages is not a bad thing.

[00:40:46] Thank you. Thank you. Professor Malik. Thank you very much. so do i understand correctly that the cat service is not there are no new routes no new service provided it's strictly the increased cost for those improved wages which i understand but one thing to add is the collective bargaining is being used as an excuse for a lot of things nowadays and i just i'm glad that mr galloway uh clarified that percentage so answer my first question then i'll go on thank you i will look at mr williams for not of approval but my understanding was yes that this is just the existing continuation of existing services, not the expansion.

[00:41:27] And while he's walking down, I'll ask my second question, which is the fare-free was to be at the beginning when COVID was on, and what is the plan for having fares return? I think Mr. Williams is actually best to speak to both. Thank you, Ryan.

[00:41:42] Garland Williams, Director of Charlottesville Area Transit. Can I ask your second question first with regards to fare-free? We went fare-free when COVID hit. that was a kind of an emergency. And then we applied for a grant. Um, that grant was granted through four years, four years, um, four years that there will be a reduced level of funding from the state. The fifth year is all on the city and the county to fund that. Um, that was a five year agreement. So four years, they would provide some level of funding. The fifth year, the city and the county would pick up the total costs. Um, that number was about a half a million dollars

[00:42:22] between both city and county for revenue projections. That number is going away. So we're in the, this is the last year? This is last year. So next fiscal year is the first full year that the city and the county has to pick up the full cost.

[00:42:41] So that is in your projections. Or we go back to, so next year, fiscal year 27 is still year five. So 27 is the year that we can go back and add costs. If you want to, we can start charging, but 26, we cannot. So this budget we're discussing today is the year five of the city and county having to share to provide free transportation.

[00:43:03] And does that decision also impact the microcat being free? It does. And so for the same timetable, then it'll be for the fiscal year 27 budget that the county will be able to decide if we're still going to be giving rides without any means testing or anything else. Okay.

[00:43:18] Thank you. In regards to the first question about, so in our projections, there is a number, it's pretty much stagnant, and the only caveat is in the Route 2, we are trying to do the split, which requires an A and a B, which gets a service to the jail.

[00:43:40] So that is in our numbers, and that's the real change that is for additional service. Well, for people wanting to visit family members, that's really important. Yes, ma'am. glad you're thinking about that and look forward to hearing more about that and i guess that is all my questions right now thank you both thank you supervisor pruitt um on the garland before you run off i just want to make sure i'm correctly understanding so it sounds like from what you're saying this 800 000 figure realistically 500 of that is just the phasing out of the fair free

[00:44:18] model and only 300 of that are attributable to wages or am i misunderstanding just uh supervisor Pruitt, the 500 was for the total system, not just for the county. So if you're thinking about the percentages of riders in for each one of these routes, I think your percentage is like almost 40%, 39%. So 39% of the 500 would have been credited to the to the county. So closer, actually, I guess, to inverting those two numbers I just threw out.

[00:44:49] Thank you. I think that's the only question I have. And I would actually just kind of echo some of the comments that Supervisor Galway, I know, meant this is really broad blue sky discussion about what the next 10 years, realistically, of the RTA of Carta planning would look like.

[00:45:07] but i i agree i think a single consolidated coherent system seems to offer a lot of plus sides right we know that we pull down an increased rate of federal dollars the more our ridership increases a great way to increase ridership is to make all those college students our riders and to make all those school students uh who are getting uh to class every morning and every afternoon uh our riders um and the one other thing i would just add is i think if we approached it from that angle earlier um now i'm putting on my carta hat instead of my board hat but the sooner we adopt that into our our planning and our thinking i think will be helpful because

[00:45:46] it creates a forcing function for us as a decision-making body and how we think about serving rural locations in that if we are committing ourselves to a consolidated system that combines schools then we are naturally forcing ourselves to say oh i have to serve as destinations certain rural locations i have to serve as pickup points i have to figure out how to do uh disaggregated pickups for rural students um and i think that will help us coherently think through how to make a superior product and one that we can market frankly to to our neighboring localities who have different different concerns and frankly that this the concerns that we would

[00:46:24] identify through a school pickup system would be i think much more mirrored to what nelson county Flubana County, my experience. Thank you. Supervisor Lepisto-Curtley. I'm a big proponent of the microcat system, and to be used in rural areas, to be able to expand that would be extremely beneficial. I think the school district has actually gone to some smaller buses because some of these roads you just can't go down. Some of these rural roads you just can't go down, turn around with the large buses. It's extremely difficult. A lot of the roads

[00:47:01] aren't even paved. So anything we can do in that area, I think, would be very beneficial. And I do look forward to the Regional Transit Authority coming to fruition. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor McKeown? I don't have any real questions, and I appreciate the comments that I've heard up until now. Just to say that looking at, especially in the urban ring, where CAT is very active and it gets back to what Ned was saying, getting the school students

[00:47:37] on the public buses, which happens in middle school and high school in many localities, helps the school division bring down their operational for transportation and helps our citizens. So I'll just let that comment stand and I'm good. Thank you very much.

[00:47:54] Thank you. I'm also supportive of what I'm hearing from the other supervisors in hopes that we can come up with a throughcard to a broader system that perhaps will be more efficient. Although I recognize that I will continue to hope that we treat the development areas and rural areas differently in terms of what services are provided.

[00:48:15] And of course, when we get to the point where fairs become an issue, then means testing of some sort would be appropriate. and i trust that we are looking at an increase of 822 000 and that will be reflected in technical adjustments later in the presentation and that's where we'll hear about how that affects the rest of our budget but for now i understand these needs thank you and garland can i just ask while garland's here because this is a really good time we garland we talk about this a lot the fares a lot at the regional transit partnership can you speak to the challenges around fares since we're

[00:48:54] talking about fares thank you very much surprise mikhail um so we did a a quick analysis um the questions were asked about you know how does fares pay in if you look at our budget we've we've normally allocated um a projection of about four hundred thousand dollars for fare collection the last four or five years, we haven't gotten anywhere close to 400,000. And if you're taking, and it's called a fair box recovery ratio, if you look at how much we're recovering in relationship to how much we're spending, that number in most larger systems is 20, 22, 23%. We're in the single

[00:49:31] digits. We're at four, maybe 6%. That is abysmal. We're spending more trying to collect the 400,000 And we're spending on staff time, the vendors to pick up the money and the equipment to clean and all that stuff.

[00:49:50] We're spending almost just as much to collect the $400,000 with staff time and the armored car pickup, which is pretty expensive. There's a contract to do that.

[00:50:06] And then there's the contract with the vault that, you know, we have to collect the information and hold it. So it's a pretty expensive endeavor. And we have seen the not collecting, our ridership has actually gone up because there's the fear of folks not having 75 cents, which is what our base fare was.

[00:50:26] Not having 75 cents and not trying to take a ride or trying to jump the back and take a ride anyway. So we are having issues with some having to call the police on some issues. So we've kind of eliminated some of that things by not collecting fares.

[00:50:45] But it's a decision that the elected boards of the city and the county would have to make a decision on. But we ask and we talk about, is the juice worth the squeeze? We're only collecting $400,000, and it's really not helping to really offset our expenses.

[00:51:03] And that's been true. Consistently. Yeah, consistently. And I just thought this was a good opportunity to have that discussion with the board, because we talk about that a lot at the Regional Transit Partnership, that you spend money, more money than you're actually bringing in.

[00:51:20] Now, there are all kinds of nuances in that, but I just thought it was a good opportunity for him to address that. The only other point I'll make while Garland is here is what is really important with the transit systems in this community, and we have five, is that they all are under one big umbrella, and by that I mean that they're using one app so that our users are not having to go to different apps, right?

[00:51:50] Validation is a little different word and means many things to different people. But what we want is we want a big umbrella so that people, so that the riders have a seamless situation and are not having to go from app to app. So that came up in our last meeting with Carta.

[00:52:08] Yeah. And we're looking at it. So possible. If we have enough money, we can probably make it happen. the it's really um these proprietary systems sharing their information and feeds um that's the piece that we've got to work through yeah but it's it's really we just need it seamless for the riders extremely helpful for the riders yes exactly and i just am taking advantage of having garland here to have him make a couple of comments for folks uh for understanding i appreciate that i don't know that it impacts what we're looking at the budget today but um down the road

[00:52:43] distinguishing microphone gap and all the rest is going to be part of our discussion and we'll have you back this week i'm sure thank you thank you thanks garland i think we can move forward all right with that we'll move next to the parks recreation and culture chapter uh this makes three percent of the total general fund uh could be a surprise or a budget fund fact that the parks department is not the largest portion of the parks and recreation and culture chapter that is the regional library system that is our largest regional partner. Also included is the CACVB,

[00:53:19] the Regional Tourism Bureau, and some other cultural agencies. In the parks department, we have included the operating costs for the full year of Biscuit Run and the upcoming Rivanna Village Park. There is a, it'll clarify, this adaptive recreation program, that is the total amount that is provided to the city of Charlottesville. This is a jointly run program with them to partner in serving those who need those services, and the county pays for the cost the program based upon our participation the increase year to year is about thirty two thousand dollars more than dollars but really what a lot of the work effort is in in the department of parks and recreation is continuing to implement the cip projects with we heard about the other day with

[00:53:57] the ongoing darden tau park field rebuild the next phase of biscuit run in the urban park then finally we have added funding to expand the county's invasive species management there's $33,000 to that program. I'll add that just for general awareness, the county has received from the state approximately another $100,000 that will be one-time money to augment those efforts.

[00:54:21] Moving next into our regional partners in this area, we have the Jefferson and Madison Regional Library. There are no service changes in terms of, you know, really FTEs or library hours or anything next year. This is funded based on the county share of the overall system for the five libraries and based on the county circulation the personnel costs are like many areas of the budget one of the drivers there for their salaries and mr davidson alluded to the city's health care cost increasing quite a bit jmrl employees are part of the city's health plan are impacted by that as well next we have the charleston admiral convention and visitors bureau this is a calculation

[00:55:00] that is to the dollar by the regional agreement where they receive funding based on prior year transit occupancy tax revenues. And so as we had in fiscal year 24, a very strong year of those revenues. As a result, in fiscal year 26, the CACB will receive a significant increase by formula for that. Finally, in this chapter, there is a funding category for cultural arts and festival agencies. In the fiscal year 25 budget process, about a year and a half ago, the board approved some direction to really streamline that process. Before, it had more than a dozen criteria,

[00:55:37] very large review team and what the board ultimately approved was really reclassifying these agencies into the category shown there and really to as we talked about in human services agencies really break away from some of the past emphasis on you versus existing funding and so as a result of that review there are 17 agencies that total eighty five thousand dollars there's a technical update to one of those i'll speak about later but that is a result of this process so with that i'll turn it again back to the chair for any questions on parks recreation and culture. Thank you. And then we'll go through our order. Supervisor Galwick? I don't, I have no

[00:56:13] questions here. I can't put my hands on the breakdown page, so I'll skip that for now. But I will reiterate what I have said in the past. We have three nationally ranked and extremely well funded festivals that are not located in the county to the greatest extent. There are some book festival things that go to the schools, which is huge benefit. The other two are not. And yet we are giving the largest amounts of our agency money to those two festivals so that's a concern to me i'd rather be supporting um festivals and that happen in the county with taxpayer money

[00:56:51] thank you supervisor pruitt um for the operating cost of biscuit run um i just want to make sure i'm fully understanding what we mean when we're saying operating costs because i know we also have ongoing work on future phases of biscuit run that do involve like fte hires and when we look at operating costs, I'm not sure if that is encompassing the continued work on creation of this, like the ongoing process of creation versus what is being spent on management of existing

[00:57:26] parkland. Thank you. That's a good question. And to clarify, operating costs are really just the day-to-day operations of the parks. Now, certainly there are employees of the park recreation who will spend their staff time in the development, but any sort of construction, expansion, next phase the park. All that is funded through the capital budget. The day-to-day mowing, maintenance, basic repairs, that's all taken care of from the operating budget. Okay, that's all I have.

[00:57:51] Supervisor LePiesto-Kirtley. Yes, I just have one question on slide nine. Did I hear you correctly? You said there's 33,000 to expand the invasive species management program, which I think is fantastic because we do have a lot of invasive species and people are volunteering and really working hard but you also said there's a hundred thousand dollars that has been added to that from the state yes there's a state uh forestry grant that we receive funding from periodically one time and there's about a hundred thousand that with the parks and recreation is going to be applying

[00:58:27] towards that use as well to augment those efforts okay so that would be a hundred and a hundred and thirty three thousand yes that hundred thousand is not part of the budget it will likely be received and appropriated this fiscal year okay thank you very much know the questions. Supervisor McHugh. And my question was about that too. Just let me ask to clarify. So the grant has not, we haven't, the grant hasn't been accepted yet. We're waiting to hear, or we know we're getting that grant. We fully expect to get the grant. Oh, okay. That's nuanced, but that's a grant. Yes. All right. Thank you. That's all. Thank you. And I have no additional questions. So

[00:59:06] thank you very much. So with that, we'll move to the administration functional area. So this comprises 6% of the general fund, two-thirds of that. It comes from the Department of Information Technology and the Department of Finance and Budget.

[00:59:24] This also includes the boards of supervisors, executive leadership, the elected registrar. Just a few changes that I would highlight in this area. First, in the IT budget, this is not just the IT department. IT carries all of our organizational costs for all of our systems.

[00:59:41] that includes the new financial management system that will be coming online just within the next two weeks now. And as that becomes operational, the operating impact of that will appear within IT. Next, I would like to note that the voter registration and elections budget that is fully requested based upon the registrar's request. And I should note that that is a big decrease and that's actually pretty normal based on the number of elections and primaries year to year. It's common to see more fluctuation in that budget. And just for the simple explanation, in fiscal year 25, there was a presidential election. There's not going to be one in fiscal year 26. And so that's

[01:00:18] why we see such a change there. The request is funded. Finally, it's a relatively small in the scheme of the $480 million general fund, but I just wanted to call in case the board receives questions. The board's operations and their office are up a bit. That is about $30,000 for the you know continued cost of existing meeting minutes preparation as we looked at what the market value of providing those services are that is an update that we anticipate in the next year and that is what the the primary reason for that increase next year again just want to make sure the board is aware should they receive questions and with that i will turn it back over to the

[01:00:55] chair for any questions on administration thank you and again through order supervisor galloway i have no questions professor malik no questions thank you supervisor pruitt no questions uh supervisor lapisto currently okay point of clarification the board meeting minutes support is that for the uh additional i think part-time person we hired for to catch up to our board minutes or is this just a cost extra cost of doing business this would be the uh the ongoing cost of minute preparation. Okay. In the current fiscal year, there was, the board had some one-time

[01:01:34] money for, I believe, some catch-up of minutes. I may be using the wrong phrase, but really now the ongoing cost of what that will be to provide that service will be higher than it was in previous years. Okay. To catch up. But once we catch up. This is really the ongoing cost of what it will be in future years. I would not expect to drop off barring a change in the market cost of those services when we get to fiscal year 27. Thank you very much. No other questions. Thank you. Supervisor McKeel. I don't have any questions. I will just point out that we're talking about 6%

[01:02:05] of our budget, and this is one of the departments or designated areas that we hear the most about from constituents, is you're spending too much money on administration, especially for the school division side, and their number is under 10% as well. I can't remember exactly what it is, but forever, as long as I remember budgets, our administrative costs have been very low, especially if you compare it to the businesses would die to have an administrative overhead

[01:02:41] of these percentages. I'm just saying. So it's really important that the community understand what's involved in this percent, what was actually funded, and the percent itself. We are not administrative heavy, is what I'm saying. Just a comment. Thank you.

[01:02:57] Thank you. Just one clarification on this slide. My understanding is the board meeting minutes support, the 30K is in addition to what was in the proposed budget, the draft that we've been looking at. And is that true for the 450K as well? Is that already reflected in? Yes, all of these figures are included in the fiscal year 26 recommended budget. As previously given to us?

[01:03:21] Yes. Okay. Not quite being all at this point, but we'll go on from there. Thank you. All right. So The next section I'm going to speak to, but I want to highlight that this really speaks to the efforts around just kind of the change management and improving the organization's performance that has led through the Office of Performance and Strategic Planning.

[01:03:48] Our Chief Operating Officer, Christy Shifflett, is actually in transit from another locality right now and will probably be here in 20 minutes, but I'm going to do my best to do my best Christy Shifflett impression and do her prouds. She and her team are a very key partner in the Department of Finance and Budget, so I We've got a lot of riding on this presentation, but more seriously, when we think about performance and strategic management, this is more than just one topic.

[01:04:12] There's really a lot of layers to this. And when you think about what does it mean to re-engineer and manage performance for effectiveness and customer service demands, this Board of Supervisors was very progressive to establish that team to focus on the organizational project management and performance and strategic planning years ago.

[01:04:30] With decreasing revenues and increasing expenditures, it's no longer optional to be lean, it is a necessity. And as our organization and community, we move to a future marked by increased digital integration, resource conservation, and customer-centric approaches that we've been very intentional to navigate the transformation and to ensure a focus on board and community priorities. Christy and her team of performance and strategic planning, they use a process improvement methodology that is designed to eliminate problems, remove waste and inefficiency, and improve working conditions to provide a better response to customers' needs.

[01:05:05] This approach enables us to fix and optimize processes that unnecessarily will drain our resources within the organization. Their team focuses on any areas where there may be overproduction, overprocessing, long waiting times between handoffs, training staff, and at times, repurposing staff in roles and responsibilities.

[01:05:24] And sometimes it can drive cost containment as well. So these are just some of the examples of the strategies that Ms. Shifflin and her team work with throughout the entire organization related to our goal six. So this is a slide that is from the county executive's presentation, and I just want to show some of these examples, how they are articulated in the current fiscal year 25 and beyond.

[01:05:50] So in that first thing, we talked about a full-time equivalent employee re-engineering. The county has implemented a more strategic approach to staffing and vacancy management. There are 11.7 full-time equivalents that are eliminated, reflecting that shift towards efficiency. There is a process now, a new review process that's evaluating the vacant positions before refilling ensuring that every role is aligned in current needs as we've learned as our organization and community changes the the structure and the positions in our government many years ago may not necessarily be the ones that we need tomorrow i will clarify this process does not apply to

[01:06:26] uniform positions and fire rescue and sworn positions and police we're not doing that because we need to maintain our public safety readiness for those positions and from the fiscal year 25 adopted to fiscal year 26 recommended budgets the total fte change is down 5.7 ftes we have the 11.7 that are vacant and eliminated and we have the six police officers that are added to that for that net of down 5.7 county departments committed to 500 000 in annual annual cost savings this time a year ago in fiscal year 25 that has been captured and i'll speak to that in a second

[01:07:03] And in addition, in fiscal year 26, there is an additional $500,000 for a total of $1 million across two fiscal years. Those strategies include is that, again, that position re-engineering, making sure that our staff are aligned with priorities. I talk a lot in the budget how the budget is aligned with the strategic plan.

[01:07:20] That doesn't stop the dollars. That is how are we using the existing dollars as well to align those to those strategic efforts. Also, the low turnover savings and that impact. How can we reduce our costs, even our kind of fixed costs, by making it better to hire and train and get people on board and faster with improved processes?

[01:07:39] Systems modernization is one we've spoken at length with the board about. This is really invested in technology to enhance our efficiency and customer service by replacing our antiquated systems. This has included the human resources information system, which is streamlined not only out of the system, but also our processes.

[01:07:55] Our chronos timing keeping system, where we're able to improve our payroll and timekeeping accuracy. The community development system to replace that with modern training and development. And finally, the financial management system that will be going live in two weeks, replacing multiple antiquated financial systems.

[01:08:11] Finally, there's the space management strategy. The county is currently assessing how we use our office space and partners with facilities environmental services to make sure that we are able to maximize the efficiency of our existing footprint and minimize future expansion cost. And by optimizing how and where employees work, we aim to minimize future capital investments in our office space and supporting those workforce needs.

[01:08:32] So with that, this is the detail of where those FTE changes have happened. This is right out of the budget document showing that, again, the 11.7 positions, some of those were vacant at this time last year. Some have become vacant since.

[01:08:48] And as we note in the strategy, all of those reductions are actually outside of public safety. And the only additions this year are the police officers to show the math from getting to 11.7 to the net of 5.7. so finally on this slide this speaks to the commitment that staff made to the board of supervisors about this time last year to identify at least 250 000 of ongoing savings in fiscal year 25 and today then have a by the time we get to fiscal year 26 an additional 500 000 of savings

[01:09:25] these examples on the slides we can see some of those where we've implemented new systems we can see others where we've been able to look at how how existing staff are deployed and how vacancies can be reprogrammed. And the impact of that has met the commitment to save that funding across fiscal year 25 and 26. And again, an additional $500,000 is included in those continued efforts in fiscal year 26 as part of the recommended budget. So with that, I'll turn it back over to the chair for any questions. Supervisor Galloway? I don't have any questions on this.

[01:10:03] I just think it's important to track over time the costs that go in, because I think you're heavy upfront on costs and takes some time to discover the efficiencies later. But we do have to continue to track it so that we can, when we finally flip it, if you would go, now we've paid for it. And then it starts becoming a true, true savings down the road. Thank you. Thank you.

[01:10:24] Supervisor Malik. Thank you. I appreciate all the progress that's been made in all of these. And at some point, if someone could remind me and perhaps others who lost it, where the sort of per department positions list.

[01:10:40] This is regarding slide 16 that I probably saw it somewhere and you don't have to dig for it now, but I would love to be able to go over that list of where these positions are exactly. Thank you. Supervisor Pruitt.

[01:10:57] I don't believe I have any questions. Thank you. Supervisor LaPistro-Curley. I will say that on slide number 14, the three issues I like the very most, and I will continue to support that are technology solutions, customer service enhancements, and repurposing of staff roles.

[01:11:18] I think staff has done an excellent job in all three. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor McKeel, sorry. You're going to let me speak. I just wanted to thank you for slide 16 for the clarity of exactly that slide shows exactly what we're doing.

[01:11:38] And I appreciate the way you framed it because it's really clear. I was a little more confused with the school boards. The way they described it was a little bit more confusing, I think, certainly for me. I'll speak for myself. But anyway, this is really, I appreciate this.

[01:11:55] The other thing I would, just to comment that I really do appreciate staff's hard work on what I think of as a continuous improvement model, which means you're always looking for efficiencies. And it's really good that we're seeing them clearly described in this year's budget.

[01:12:13] It's really important for the community to see that. So just a couple of comments. Thank you, Jim. Thank you. I guess, while I look at this, the only thing that I do really appreciate that we get to a net position and we see what's gained and lost, but I'm not fully understanding where the administrative positions have gone and what they entail.

[01:12:34] And for example, I know we've had some departures, and I think I raised this question before. just want to reiterate again that, for example, a climate position, equity positions, these are all still maintained. But what positions are we, where did we save? Yeah, the, the, I think a lot of that will speak to, I'll start on the human services, I'm sorry, human resources reorganization and the financial management system. We've learned that through Department of Finance and Budget and HR as we have implemented those systems and also learned what it takes to have a local government

[01:13:08] HR. Those have been the positions that have been from there. And we have, I can pull up in this meeting, those 5.7 and specifically what they are, but the majority of those would be in HR and finance and budget. And I will clarify to Supervisor Malik's question, page 87 and 88 of the general fund expenditure summary chapter. That is where this information lives. I apologize, I did not clarify that as we headed into this chapter. But the 87 and 88 has the chart with the back history of several years where FTE changes are. Thank you. That answers my question

[01:13:45] as well. And I just want to add a comment. I appreciate the idea that some of these savings will come later, so we're looking to keep track over time. But I think it's more than just flipping costs. There's also measurable potential improvements in service, and those are something also we want to keep track of and be able to point to in saying what efficiencies these new modernization systems have brought on. So thank you for that. And we'll move on. Thank you.

[01:14:17] All right. So with that, that really wraps up the review of the fiscal year 26 recommended budget in the general fund for the CIP and the school's budget. We're next going to return to some updates from prior work sessions, really being as the final stage before the board proposes a budget to end some tax rates. So I alluded to this earlier, but every year about this time, we'll have a series of recommended technical updates. The way I view this slide are if we knew about this when the county executive's budget was finalized, they all would have been included in there. But

[01:14:52] just as the budget in the world keeps moving, we learn new things along the way. So I'm going to walk through these one by one. They are technical in nature, but they are also notable to explain how this uh this plays out so working down the list at the very top uh school resource officers we heard that the public schools have included in the school board's funding request two additional sros the schools under the mou with them provide the ongoing cost for those two officers that totals 252 000 that is revenue that will be coming in to the county and we'll have an expense that

[01:15:26] i'll get to a little bit later in this slide the next slide the next two items that have to admit are corrections we do our work very carefully very carefully in finance and budget but we've discovered in our calculations of how we allocate our technology fees to other partners and how we are calculating what are those eligible expenses to be reimbursed by the water resources fund we previously overstated what those were and so as soon as we realized that we wanted to take the opportunity to one make sure those were isolated incidents there was no impact in the current year this was just a one-time situation and that it was correct in both circumstances but that will decrease some revenue that was planned to come into the general fund

[01:16:06] no impact of services this is really just some cleanup and i apologize to the board that we did not catch that sooner the fourth item i want to mention is it's been about six weeks since we finalized our revenue projections for the county executive's budget so we got together with our our revenue team and department of finance and budget to ask ourselves for better or worse has anything changed in our revenues filings anything we've seen in the last six weeks that would change our revenue projection and right now the answer is no we everything is really running on track what we thought would happen six weeks later we're still at that exact same spot but i did want to let the board that we continue to monitor our revenues on a regular basis even much more

[01:16:44] frequently than the quarterly updates the board receives and should we ever come back we can see something different we'll of course bring that to the board's attention but right now we're really right where we expected to be as of early february finally we shouldn't say finally next we move to the expenditure technical adjustments the first adjustment which is the largest is a change to the albemarle charlottesville regional jail that is a budget process that is happening concurrently with ours and what we have learned from the regional jail is that the timing of the debt payments for the regional jail renovation are going to be a little bit later than we thought And so I would encourage the board to think of this as a one-time savings because we'd expect that to be in 27.

[01:17:23] Just the full impact of those debt savings will be a little bit later than originally anticipated in fiscal year 26. What we have next on the expenditure change is the expenditure side of the school resource officers. That $479,000 includes the $252,000 funded by the schools for ongoing cost.

[01:17:43] And it also includes the one-time cost that under the MOU were provided by county government. So vehicle, equipment, everything associated with a vehicle is factored into that number. We then have a smaller adjustment for the Blue Ridge Juvenile Detention Center.

[01:17:59] Again, as they work through their budget process, their share is slightly up just under $30,000 based on the county share and where we project their budget to be. The next item is two agencies due to eligibility requirements that we caught right before the budget was released.

[01:18:16] The board knows they have a series of eligibility requirements. And we realized for two agencies, which are in the human services funding process, Reclaim Pope Initiative, and for the arts and cultural process, Crozet Arts, we would recommend removing that funding due to eligibility. Both of those agencies were notified of this this February 25th as soon as the budget came out, and they understand where we are, and they understand our requirements.

[01:18:39] And that's, again, based on the board's current standards, that's an update staff would recommend. Finally, for the transit contingency that Mr. Davidson has highlighted earlier, that was $1 million. A portion of that is recommended to be allocated to CAT, and that remaining contingency is no longer needed of $177,000, and that is recommended to be eliminated.

[01:18:59] So the net result of this to the reserve contingency is after all these changes, some one time, some ongoing, is that what's available for the board to continue to refine, whether that be today or all throughout fiscal year 26 the board would have a reserve of about $200,000 ongoing and just under $700,000 one time and if the staff would recommend all these technical adjustments be incorporated into the budget and I'll be happy to turn it over to the chair if there's any questions from the board on any of these items. Thank you. Supervisor Galloway. I

[01:19:33] don't have questions here. Supervisor Malek. Thank you. So just on 19 again so the extra 220 in the school resource officers. That's for the vehicle and equipment. So $110,000 per officer. To clarify, that's actually for the salary and benefits of the officers. Well, that's the $252,000 up above.

[01:19:54] Yes. The total is $478,000. So I'm figuring the difference is the equipment. Sorry, I did not follow your math. Yes, the difference is the equipment. Okay. Wow. That's a lot. Okay. Thank you. That was my only question. Supervisor Pruitt. I don't know that I have any questions. Just to having not encountered SROs in our budget previously, because of when I joined the board, it does strike me as almost surprising that the school division is kind of able to wag the dog as the tail here in imposing one-time costs that we are not recouping from them, right? I understand

[01:20:30] and appreciate that they are holding the salary ongoing as we move forward, but I guess I'm just surprised that we hold the one-time costs from a decision that they make. That's all I have. Okay. Supervisor LePizzo-Crutman.

[01:20:46] I have no comments. Thank you. Supervisor McHugh. No comments or questions. And I think I'm understanding, just to clarify one more time, when we had our presentation about CAT, the 822K, was that not something that we had already anticipated or was it already anticipated in the budget?

[01:21:06] At the time, and this is really about time, and when we had the finalized recommended budget, we had a request from CAT that was still under review based on the timeline of the city's budget process. so we yeah we level funded cat and included a million dollar contingency and that full million dollars is not needed gotcha thank you that's the clarification i needed uh with that we can continue thank you so something i want to clarify uh is really the school funds updated gap and i've coordinated with my counterpart ms kumazala who's at the presentation on monday because the schools

[01:21:44] if we remember on that previous slide they have a large share of that technology license fees that we've updated. So their expenses have gone down about $189,000. So they're aware of that. And this was something we actually discovered on Friday after they finalized their budget. So to clarify now, the funding gap in the far left side now is about $558,000 in fiscal year 26. The board may recall that a portion of those funding gap was solved through some one-time measures. So really the recurring gap the schools have is about $1.5 million beyond fiscal year '26.

[01:22:22] And I spoke to this verbally, but I want to put on the slide the question from the supervisors of if the board were to need to raise the tax rate to solve that gap, what would that be like? And so I've got two columns here. First in blue, or kind of dark blue, is if there were two-tenths of a penny dedicated to the schools, that would generate a little over $600,000, which would provide enough for that funding gap.

[01:22:47] for just fiscal year 26. The recurring gap, if there were 0.5 cents that were dedicated, that would generate 1.5 million, which would broaden up beyond 26. In column green, we look at then what would those pennies look like if they were allocated by a formula, which it would be the 54% of that change in revenue is going to schools, 36% to lower government, and 10% to capital and debt. That would be four-tenths for the fiscal year 26 gap, and then the ongoing gap would be 0.9 cents. This was something that because it changed the school's gap and because it changed my answer on Monday, I want to just put this slide out there to clarify the board so they understand

[01:23:25] where they are as they prepare to propose a budget. So with that update, this really begins the consideration of board's requested adjustments. There's really a few categories if the board is desiring changes that I may, if I could suggest to the board, thinking about if they're looking for changes in the budget. Are they of an ongoing nature? Are they of a one-time nature? Or are they really outside of the general fund and more of a capital adjustment? Shown here on the slide are the amounts of the reserve contingencies before. Those are available for the board,

[01:24:02] but the board also does not need to allocate those. They are available all throughout the fiscal year should there be something come up mid-year unanticipated that needs to be addressed. Certainly the other option out there would be to reprioritize anything else in the budget that is already out there the board is not providing any direction to you know kind of reduce or take something out of the budget yet but that would always be an option if the board were looking to add something in to reallocate what is in there whether that be for the the one time the general fund ongoing one time or in this case in the capital budget capital projects so before i turn it over to the board discussion i think it'll be helpful if i could just walk through the slides

[01:24:42] remain there really are no new slides but just to kind of recap the board what's ahead and then what are the motions the board will need to take uh be requested to take today well i'm sorry one more comment uh i need to clarify in the cip adjustments just to remind the board what i shared on monday there's a 1.9 million dollar strategic advancing strategic priorities reserve in the cip this was created in fiscal year 20 with the intent to be one-time strategic uses and it is really to the board's discretion of when and how that is allocated decision does not be made on that today as it has sat there for some time it has been used for the examples on

[01:25:21] the slide and that is full cash funding that can be moved whether it be within the capital budget or to another fund at the board's will so before we get to any board action when it comes to setting the rate for the advertisement and i'll come back to these slides at any point if the board needs me Reminding that we have these rates in the recommended budget, the real property, which is a four cent increase and how that was allocated with three point two cents dedicated to public safety, point four to housing and point four to education.

[01:25:52] Personal property returns to the pre-pandemic rate of four dollars and twenty eight cents. The board spent a better half of its first work session looking through real estate tax revenue assumptions, the increases and also highlighting that as part of the ad, the second from last bullet there, that lowered or effective rate is point or 81.3 cents per $100 of assessed value. The board of supervisors has approved a tax relief program and expanded that as of January, and the board includes relief from that for anyone who qualifies. We're going to run these reliefs quick because they're not new, but personal

[01:26:30] property, we also discussed the impact and the history of returning to the pre-pandemic rate of $4.28. Now that rate applies not only to personal property, but business tangible personal property, machinery and tools, and other personal property. There is relief and that is provided by the state as shown on the slide where you receive full relief for a vehicle assessed $1,000 or less, partial relief at 42% for the value of a vehicle between $1,001 and $20,000, and then no relief for any value of a vehicle over $20,000. The value of a penny on the tax rate for real estate and

[01:27:07] personal property and machinery and tools are shown on the slide. So if the board desired to make a change in either direction, up or down, there would need to be a corresponding change in expenditures if it were to go through the split as follows. The board could also make a change in dedicated pennies, where if it was about each tenth of a penny on real estate would be about $310,000. A tenth penny of a penny would be about $10,000. You can look at that 10% on the slide to see where those numbers come out. So when the board is ready, I'm not going to expect any immediate action here, but this would be the motion the board would need to read to set the

[01:27:43] motion on the tax rate. Moving next to the budget, just to recap where we've been. We started in these work sessions looking at the total recommended budget of $642 million. We explained why the budget was relatively flat due to the change of capital and the timing of projects. We focused most of our time on general fund revenues, walking through general property taxes, walking through state and federal revenues, and also talking about the board's ability to raise other taxes, which is very limited out of the Dillon rule.

[01:28:14] The board has spent the better part of the last several work sessions walking through the largest piece of the general fund, which is the transfer to the school division. We had spent about two hours with the school board on Monday. We talked about the capital improvements program, and the board has walked through diligently all of the chapters and functional areas in the general fund shown here on this donut chart.

[01:28:35] I want to highlight, because we talked about the CIP in total, these are the CIP projects in fiscal year 26 that would be appropriated in May should the board approve those. And we've also color-coded these to highlight the very first line. We have our obligations, maintenance, and ongoing programs.

[01:28:52] But all of those projects beyond that, how do they align to the goals to the strategic plan to make progress on those goals? I will note that goal two is not shown here. That goal is not as infrastructure-heavy as some of the other ones. So I'll just highlight why there's the one not shown there. Then finally, we have the same chart for the CIP.

[01:29:11] Again, this is the same information that has been in the board books and we reviewed before, just a different way to look at that as we look at the history and the timing of projects, how they have played out over time. And so finally, we would have any budget amendments, those we've reviewed today, and if there were any board-recommended adjustments today, we would fold that into the proposed budget as well.

[01:29:31] And we would then end with the proposed motion here on the slide for the budget. And so that's really, this is my last slide that I have today, though I can certainly jump to anything the board needs to. But at this point, I would turn it back over to the chair to really begin that discussion of any amendments that are desired by the board to the proposed budget.

[01:29:54] And then when the board is ready, we can walk through the motions on the tax rate and the proposed budget. Thank you. Go time. Supervisor Galloway. What'd you say? Go time. Well, I feel like I've got an advantage because I had the chance to attend a town hall last night and get some more information from folks.

[01:30:16] but happy to speak to this. I think I'll speak to the tax rate first and the advertised rate. And then I'm going to mention a couple of thoughts or ideas that I don't think have to be decided today. Some of it needs more information from staff. But those ideas that I'm having or the brainstorms I'm having work within the confines of sticking to the 89.4 in the advertised tax rate.

[01:30:43] Not saying I wouldn't be open-minded if other folks wanted to make a request to just, you know, but it would be based on the rationale. But I'm prepared to say the 89.4 would be what I would support to advertise for the tax rate. Some of that rationale and what I mentioned by listening to folks last night, I pulled back up Peter Lynch's numbers that he sends out to us by our neighborhoods and some of my older neighborhoods, especially like Berkeley's 13.7, Northfield's, this is their assessment increase this year 13.7 the county average is five and i don't want to get

[01:31:22] lulled into that number without understanding what i'm hearing from folks but berkeley was 13.7 still meadow 12.2 northfield's 11.3 airport acres 9.7 carsbrook 9 wakefield 8.4 and these are some of those neighborhoods where the homes in those older neighborhoods are actually are still i've made this point before like along northfield those are some of my most affordable homes when they go up for resale. So when I see them in that double digit, that 10%, and they're all well above the average, and I'm not mentioning like Lachlan or Belvedere or Dunlora, they're all

[01:31:57] above the 5%. They're in the six to eight range. Woodbrook's at 6.9%. That's one of the older neighborhoods with affordable homes in it. So I could definitely sit here and say that we could increase the tax rate, and here's what I would suggest it pay for. But given the situation of the rising assessments over the last few years i think that this year with with the four cent increase what it's being dedicated for and with the assessments and explaining that that folks while definitely um voicing frustration and experience the pain are still open-minded to

[01:32:34] hear what it's paying for and open-minded to accepting that um now we haven't heard from everyone we don't have to make any final decisions today we still have a lot of process to go through but that's where i'm at today on the tax rate and why i wouldn't be ready to go further than the 89 for now that being said i am interested in out years of dedicating or at least directing the county executive for the following year to dedicate the 3.2 to public safety for growth reasons and for uh to at least give us the insight of getting the report that we were talking about for strategic purposes um to inform it because i don't if that if if we get information back that says well you

[01:33:13] don't really need to do the three two it might need to be maybe it could be one and a half or something like that but i think it's time to start dedicating dollars to the public safety piece just in similar way that we think about not just growth um it's both maintaining growth and what what the demand is especially on police and fire um but getting ahead of and helping get them caught up to where they should be i don't want to just maintain a status quo of the current situation i want it to improve. Of course, I'm interested in the point for remaining dedicated to housing in

[01:33:50] the out years. And if, you know, I'm open to conversation, if we want to talk about moving that around, I think the dedication in the future years can be maneuvered and certainly would be open to some discussion on that. So that's where I'm at on the tax rate. I think I would like this out there. This is a brainstorm I've been having for a handful of months, even goes back further than that but the presentation on the cip this past week um with we have 72 million dollars of capacity in the cip and we saw what the cost would be for the debt service on that i'd like staff to

[01:34:27] work on at least for consideration because i don't i don't know all the ins and outs of what this would mean but i think i i know at least some of it um for next year we we've got 35 million dollars set aside for transportation leveraging over the next five years and that's important we need it there. It needs to be set up to be able to do road projects and such. We've got a lot of other millions of dollars in the queue. I think we need to figure out a creative way to make our CIP work for our affordable housing needs in the community. So I'd like to see what the ramifications are and

[01:34:59] what the possible uses could be. And I don't know what the numbers would be, but I'm not saying $72 million or $35 million, but I think this is a place where we could look at, in my mind, I've been thinking $10 million for the first year and then $1.25 for years two through five to get to $15 million over five years. It's not the same as our housing fund dollars because it's in the CIP. It would leverage us different things, I believe, in terms of construction, land acquisition, helping with type of things in similar fashion to the transportation leveraging program.

[01:35:37] We don't necessarily know in the out years what the transportation projects are going to be that those leveraging dollars go to. So to me, this is where I think it opens the door for us to get creative in saying, well, if we're partnering with a developer, perhaps we could use some debt to help do that and move some projects forward. And it allows our both one-time funds that we're putting into a housing fund and now the ongoing $1.2 million to stay there as cash to use for a lot of the requests that come in to satisfy those requests. Part of this brainstorm is about trying to bridge what I've always seen is an inherent conflict. I know we're going to be getting some

[01:36:16] information on a trust fund and this board's going to have to decide what they want to do and then what it could work with. And I think a trust fund's very flexible. You don't have to decide, oh, it's only to be used for this. I think it can be used for multiple things to achieve what it's designed to do. But you always want to try to get initial investment in it. But we also have these dire needs where you don't want to just sit on the cash. So we have to be able to bridge to some future years and still be able to use the resources we have at any given time. And I think our CIP is the mechanism I'd like to explore to try to do that in some way or

[01:36:50] fashion. And then it buys us a little time where depending on what it is and the legalities of the CIP and how we think about that from a finance perspective, the trust fund and the CIP could work in tandem if not alongside each other. So a lot of this is conversation for a future day when we get into the trust fund which i know is coming up and for some other things but this is something i think the board should consider i'm not asking for decisions on this today i don't think we have to decide this today but for this budget obviously by the time the budget closes this is a proposal i'm going to throw out on the table uh and at least interested in having more information for

[01:37:25] myself um uh and see where other board members and what they think about the uh the only other program that i'm interested in and i'm sorry i did not ask for this it was it's on reflection after the human services um presentation um khaki i think i left early that day and i and we were closing in on time um but this year thinking and i'm trying to remember what did it in the report that day but the emergency assistance fund that we've had um the way it was presented this year

[01:37:59] it landed on my ears to say well wait a minute i know we've there's been a lot of advocacy to try to push dollars into that program but what i'm what i'm curious about is with with this year i remember last budget year saying well if we need more we have some reserve funds that we could go to to put more dollars in it if we needed to do it and we even moved the sewer to septic dollars over to that fund and then we put the sewer to septic into the into the uh into the budget this time around but it didn't occur to me last year and i apologize i mean every people were saying it so I'm not saying it wasn't being said.

[01:38:35] It was just I didn't hear what I was being told. The dollars that go, I'm interested in knowing what the data or the information is on what we've done to serve, who we've served with the dollars we've had. And I don't need this now.

[01:38:50] This is not a, I'm not looking to make this decision or going to ask the board for it because this is, I'm working within the parameters of 89.4 and would stay within that on any ideas of how to pay for stuff. But I'm saying is that given the money that we've used in the past and how it's assisted folks, that per person or per instance amount, is it really achieving what we would hope it to achieve by design?

[01:39:18] Are we covering 60%? And I know there's different things that they can apply for. But if I'm in an emergency, and I've certainly been in financial emergencies in the past, and I've had folks to be able to help it out. And if there's a program there that can give me 60% or 80%, people would be grateful for the percentage of it.

[01:39:36] But I guess in the past, I never thought about that clearly enough to go, well, if we have a program set up to really get people out of it, are we helping them halfway to get out of it? Are we helping them the whole way to get out of it? And I'd like some more information on that. You know, to me, this is driven in the same interest of what we've done for our tax relief for the elderly and disabled.

[01:39:57] We've changed parameters for that. We've thought a lot about inflation, what the dollars are going to look like, how it can go further to help folks there, because we hadn't updated it until a couple years ago. And that's hitting differently, and I'd like some more information on it to think about it.

[01:40:12] So I do have thoughts, but again, for my fellow supervisors' ears, if there's any recommendation or something that comes out of that information, I would still work within the confines of where we're at with the recommended budget at the 89-4. But for me, those are the big things that I would call out as a change, and then again for today, I'm ready to support the 89-4 as an advertised tax rate.

[01:40:35] Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Mallon. Thank you very much. Certainly, as an upper limit, I will not be supporting anything higher than the proposed increase for advertisement. I'm hearing, even without having a town hall yet, I am hearing very similar concerns from my wide-ranging ages and economies of the Whitehall District residents.

[01:41:04] So that is just something that I'm always in mind of increasing the burden on folks in their 80s and 90s, and I do not want to be driving them to go live in the valley because they have been taxed out of their $5,000 house by a $5,000 tax bill over all those years because the house is 55 years old or something like that. I would be, and I raised this the other day, and I will reiterate this for people to think about as far as the extra beyond the 3.2 for

[01:41:40] public safety. If that stays in the budget, I would propose that it all be sent to housing because I am very supportive of building up a fund from which interest can be used and the principal maintained and grow. Because in that way, there is an infusion, which does not then become a future burden every year on those same constituents I was just speaking about, who say, I'm struggling to pay, and yet you're proposing to take my tax money to help somebody

[01:42:15] else when there's nobody helping me. So that's just the reality of what is out there. And there are many people in Albemarle who are living all different circumstances. I'll just put it that way. I'd be very interested in hearing all the information, which is coming from the requests that Supervisor Galloway has just mentioned. And so I will stop there.

[01:42:43] for now. Thank you. Supervisor Pruitt. I'm going to start with things that I agree with my peers on. And so I want to start with saying I've spoken before in favor of the idea of being thoughtful about how we use debt in the realm of affordable housing. This is a tool that I know many other localities rely on more heavily. Granted, they do so more heavily in part because they have PHAs that are actually constructing housing. But I think there's innovative ways that we can think

[01:43:17] the issuances of debt. I continue to be someone who thinks that a low interest or zero interest loan model makes the most sense for how we would disperse funds from AHIF. And I would raise that the idea of issuing 20-year debt from AHIF that is zero interest that we are then funding through 20-year notes basically creates a system where we have constructed a self-watering fund that we are

[01:43:50] only paying interest on, that would otherwise be repaid by developers as they pay on their 20-year note that we issue them. That is very intoxicating to me as someone who wants to lean into the idea of funding affordable housing.

[01:44:08] And I haven't heard a very strong reason why we can't do it. So I would raise that again. I know I've mentioned this in years past, but it's helpful to hear it from across the dais. I spoke about this when this issue first came up, and I will reassert it.

[01:44:28] I don't think it is internally coherent for us to be dedicating 3.2% ongoing to public safety. This creates a situation where our assessments are dictating how many firefighters and police officers we have.

[01:44:46] A year that assessments go up, regardless of whether or not that's affecting population or community needs, That means we are necessarily having to hire firefighters and police officers. A year where we might have a recession, been hearing talk, a year where we might have recessions that affect property values, suddenly I have to fire police and firefighters.

[01:45:06] I don't see the, it does not strike me as a needs-driven approach to how we address community safety, and I don't see the need for it other than, frankly, political for us, saving us face in the future when we do need to.

[01:45:22] hire a fire uh public safety professionals and give us that political top cover right like if we are honest with ourselves all future dedicated funding streams the only reason we do that is for political cover right and i don't mean to blow open the bubble for everyone right but the idea of the school split is for political cover it prevents the uh necessity of having to have arguments with uh and back and forth and extended negotiation we'll say extended negotiation not arguments with the school division each year because we have a spending split in the same way

[01:45:57] the only reason we would consider one of these dedicated splits dedicated dollar amounts would be for the political cover or for the political assurance which is why i'm still in support of the 0.4 percent for housing because i do want that political assurance it is harder to kill something once you've uh written it in as policy like that um so that's kind of my position on all these things? Those are, I know, key questions. I would also raise the thing I say every chance I get,

[01:46:28] which is I worry that we have too much inactive capital that is not being used to serve immediate needs. And just to walk through the public for what I'm referring to, we set aside 10% as our operating reserve. This is critical, and I'm not suggesting it's not critical. This is critical for us to maintain our debt and in an extraordinary circumstance could be accessed to fund critical services. But it's mainly there to preserve our debt and credit ratings. We have an additional reserve for contingencies, which helps cushion that. And it also allows us to access it in the

[01:47:07] case of an emergency. This was doubled two years ago from what it currently is. And that split carries forward. If our revenues go up, then one additional percent of our revenues going up continues to go into that reserve for contingencies. On top of that, we have a strategic priorities reserve, which is at almost $2 million.

[01:47:25] This is basically a cushion on the cushion for things we want to do. And on top of that, we have other funds that are also forms of, frankly, inactive currency that we hold in case there is an emergency. And the one that I've raised concerns about, recognizing the critical work that we do through economic development, I have not seen a compelling case made that we are going to draft down our current economic development fund that we're carrying over of about 3 million and we're adding another million on top of that.

[01:47:56] I cannot rationalize adding that when we have other sources, we have duplicative sources of contingency funding and we are adding an additional amount of funding onto a third fund that we do not realistically expect to draw down.

[01:48:15] And I mentioned that because there are urgent needs. I do believe that the Housing Trust Fund will operate at its most efficient if it is at $10 million. I do believe we can and should probably comfortably double, but at least marginally increase our emergency relief program funding. And you could do that just by adjust. You could do that latter bit simply by adjusting one of these funds, right? A third of the money that we're dedicating to expand

[01:48:48] the economic development fund would double would double the emergency relief program um i'm not sure i have support from this board on the on any of these concerns but i would just suggest that this is money that we are frankly not using that we sit on in case of an emergency and we've continued to put more and more pillows under under our proverbial you know mattress with a p under it um and we identify new ways to add another mattress every year um while we have really urgent community needs. And also, you know, I've said this once or twice before, but when I say

[01:49:25] things, I mean it. When I have said in front of a thousand community members that I am willing to support 10 million into the housing trust fund, I mean it. So I would be willing to advertise higher than this. I would strongly suggest that that come on balance from personal property tax rate, because it is my understanding that we can do so in a way that is less harmful on the public uh less harm it has progressive taxing elements even though it is still a regressive tax all our tools are aggressive but it is less regressive than real property i would be comfortable with

[01:50:03] at least a 30 cent increase on the real proper on the personal property tax rate and order funds are these priorities and um i would look to real property for the uh other outstanding needs that being said i can count noses so i will turn it over so that we can continue to collect initial opinions and have a debate. I just ask to clarify, what did you say about the tax rate, the amount? I said about 30 cents, although honestly, I could probably be convinced more.

[01:50:37] 30 cents would be a little over two and a half million on the personal property. So that would be what, 458? Yes, thank you very much. I have a question for Supervisor Malik, because I thought i heard you say you wanted to take the 3.2 cents and put that into affordable housing is that no okay out of the 0.8 that's left over to put the whole 0.8 into affordable housing okay okay all

[01:51:14] right and i knew from i knew that that's what you meant but that's what i heard so i just wanted of that as a point of clarification. I do find it intriguing Supervisor Galloway's can take on putting the using the CIP for affordable housing knowing that that could also be in we could get benefits from that exchange being able to it's a force multiplier for more affordable

[01:51:49] housing. So that I'd be, I'm very interested in hearing more about that. I'm just going to say it, I'm in favor of the 89.4. I would not be in favor of raising that at all. The constituents that I have spoken to, the two big issues that have come out were more funding for schools. I've not heard any pushback regarding public safety. That is something that at least my constituents consider are extremely important. So that I support the 3.2 cents going into public safety. I would

[01:52:26] actually be a little bit different from Supervisor Malik in that I would put, my thinking, I would put the 0.8 into schools. And the reasoning is because they have a shortfall gap for this year, they're going to have a bigger one for next year. That is something that we can do to help stabilize them in the short term, you know, two years. Whereas affordable housing, which I also support, but we have to find another way to be able to do that. We have affordable housing units that are

[01:53:03] in the pipeline that are coming through, but it takes a long time to build those. What, 18 months, two years by the time we get the permits and such? It takes a while to build those. So maybe there are other ways to slowly build up something and maybe move our process faster.

[01:53:24] That could actually cut the cost of affordable housing. I think if we had the permit process, it wasn't as fast continuing to work with AHIP and for the affordable housing. But those are my feelings. As of right now, I'm sticking with the 89.4, and then if we move around anything else, okay, we can discuss it. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor McKeown. Yes, I can say just right off

[01:54:03] the bat, I am interested in the 89.4 and no higher, and I think where I'm interested in is looking within that to make any adjustments that we make. So I'm in favor of the 89.4.

[01:54:19] And just to piggyback on what Ned said, if I look at my assessments, my wealthiest neighborhoods went up the least and my affordable neighborhoods went up the most, which is very concerning.

[01:54:37] So I'm not sure if the two districts are a trend. Maybe we have to have three districts to say that that happened but we're a trend the older neighborhoods in Crozet exactly the same yeah exactly so that's very concerning for all of us I think in all fairness to say that um I am very supportive of the 3.2 dedicated to public safety um I think we've been talking about for years now the lack of uh firemen and um and police officers so I the 3.2 I am sold on that I think that's a

[01:55:16] great. And I think our public is sold on it as well. I have not had my town hall yet, but I can imagine that that's what I'm going to hear. I do think we need to remember that we have the study that's going on this fall. And I had to pull it out because I always forget what it's called, but it's the Public Safety Staffing Study Review. And that will play out over this fall.

[01:55:49] and we'll be hearing about that. That's an opportunity for us to come back next budget cycle. Well, I won't be here, but next budget cycle for you all to look at how that might affect what we're doing with the 3.2, right? We'd have an ability to adjust it, to change it from dedicated, whatever it might be, but we have that at least in our wheelhouse for this year, and I think that's critical. I do agree with Ned about looking at the debt through the CIP

[01:56:25] for affordable housing, and I am very interested in getting more information about that. I think that could be a good avenue, perhaps. Don't know enough about it right now as to how that might play out, but I'd really like more information back. And I will say that that plays in for me a little bit about the 0.4 and 0.4 going to schools. If we can use the CIP to leverage more

[01:57:00] money, I just would have to, I'm willing to think about some of these, right? I'm not going to say absolutely because I really do think it's important to fund schools. So the 0.4 and 0.4 going to schools, if we could do something else to leverage the affordable housing, just, but I'm not saying one way or the other. I just want to hear more information about it. And I'm just looking at my notes. I'm sorry. I think it's really important that we get to a trust fund or something,

[01:57:36] some sort of a dedicated funding for affordable housing. I also would like, I agree with about having more information about emergency assistance fund. In a way, I'm looking at that fund right now as a safety net that we might very much need, given the chaos at the federal level, we are going to be the safety net for our community.

[01:58:07] So looking at more information from that, and that gets me to where I am with Mike's suggestion about not being comfortable with all the money we're sitting on. We may need that money. Having been in that position multiple times and the school division being in that position multiple times of having to give back money and not realizing. But I am very concerned about what may be coming down the highway over the next year and what we may be looking to need to fund. So I'm very happy with what I'm saying is with our

[01:58:45] funds that are, as you described them, inactive. I'm happy to have them because I think they could very well become really active over the next 12 months. And I'm just kind of addressing some of what Mike said, because I appreciate what you, thinking differently, I appreciate it. Having said that, I don't think at this point in time I agree with it. Given a year when we weren't in such chaos with the federal government and possibly the state, at least for now, I might be more interested

[01:59:24] but economic development funding for me is a way to diversify our tax base, which also helps the folks that I have that live in these affordable neighborhoods. While it takes a while, it does help to diversify.

[01:59:43] And I'm interested in that diversification. And I also see the economic development fund is somewhat of a, And maybe staff can say if I'm stretching the point, but I do think it's somewhat of a safety net for some of our community.

[02:00:03] And I'm not looking at it through the human resource, not human resource, social services viewpoint, but we have used that in the past to help businesses and to help some of our communities. So I guess the bottom line is, well, I think you understand where I'm.

[02:00:19] Nod your hand, Andy, if you're keeping track and you understand where I am. I would need to verify in history, but certainly economic development funding has been used in the past. Now, whether it was local or pandemic relief, I can't quite recall off the top of my head. Yeah, but it has helped small businesses, certainly, and local businesses.

[02:00:40] So anyway, in my head, maybe not a huge amount, but I think we have used it in the past. Having said that, I would really like Andy to address for us right now, because we know what we have in some of these, um, uh, additional monies. We have some additional monies and we have some funding that we could move around, but we have June's coming up. And in June, we're going to see an influx of new monies because of the, if it sounds like to me, we're supporting the tax increase in some way or another. So would you address for us and for everybody just to remind us

[02:01:19] of what that June tax... Thank you. And so just to clarify this, when the Board of Supervisors, though they budget on a fiscal year, which is by the Code of Virginia, also by the Code of Virginia, we set our tax rates on a calendar year basis. And so when the Board takes action in April to set that rate for the calendar year, because Albemarle collects taxes in June, that will impact both fiscal year 25 and fiscal year 26. So what staff would project if the board were to adopt the rates as recommended for real estate and personal property, and also factoring in just

[02:01:59] the most recent assessment, there would be a total of $11.1 million collected really as one-time revenue in June. What staff has recommended as part of the county executive's recommended budget is for that 11.1 to be split through the normal funding allocation formula. With $6 million that would go for the schools and to the school CIP. $1.1 million just for general support to the CIP.

[02:02:24] And then finally, 36% or $4 million to county government. That would be allocated $3 million to affordable housing and just under $1 million for the Economic Development Fund. That's really interesting to keep in mind, and we don't want to lose track of that.

[02:02:41] And we would have the ability to change that around a little bit, recognizing what's one-time funding. I mean, we're always careful about that. But I am, but there is a recommendation on the table from staff and from the county executive. So I just want us to remember that June is coming.

[02:03:00] But that's in the budget. It is in the budget. I understand that. That's right. It is in the budget. But I'm just saying that we need to remember that June's coming. It's in the budget. But we have the ability to do some tweaking of that if we wanted to. Yes, the board may change that recommendation. Yes, we could. I'm just pointing it out. Thank you very much. I'm done.

[02:03:24] Thank you. I'm going to attempt to summarize and sort of add my comments at the same time. There are two actions that we need to take. One is on the tax rates and one is on the budget. I'm hearing, I think, enough consistency on the tax rate, but I'm going to point out some things that I think are less consistent on the budget side. And that I agree that with the proposal to advertise the 89.4, which I think gets us to the support needed for that. There was a proposal made

[02:03:59] by one supervisor to address a question of increasing the personal property tax rate, but I have not heard any support for that beyond the 428. I haven't heard support from that from any other supervisors. So at this point, I think that we're comfortable with the tax rates that have been recommended as the advertised tax rates for this year. But before going to that motion, I'd like to just talk a little bit about the budget side of this, which is where I am hearing

[02:04:34] a little bit more disagreement and some things that need to, I think, be addressed. Now, one of the questions I'll have is which of these need to be addressed as far as adopting the proposed budget and which don't? So the first one that I'm going to ask about as far as addressing it is whether or not the 3.2 cents is dedicated on the tax rate or not. Big implications for future years, but my understanding is that there's no implication actually for this budget year.

[02:05:07] So it is something that so long as we're in agreement that the 3.2 cents goes to public safety, do you need for us to have made a decision today or a recommendation today even as to whether that's an ongoing or not because the it's really the change in the value in future years of that 3.2 cents uh it would be a beyond the fiscal year 26 budget and we can certainly bring that back to the board but we do not need to revisit that today unless the board would like to okay thank you uh now then there's the 0.8 cents and here is where i'm hearing uh some support

[02:05:43] for possibly putting the continuing the 0.4 split between housing and schools uh putting it all in to housing or putting it all into schools. And I'm not sure what the consensus of the board is, so I may have to look again to sort of determine, because that has significant budget implications as far as what we're going to advertise as our budget. I personally would lean towards the 0.4.4 as proposed. I think there's probably three at least on that side, but I'm not sure if there are

[02:06:22] for. Can we say anything else before you finish your nose counting? As long as you let me finish afterwards, because I still got other things to nose count on, if that's all right. But please, go ahead. No, I was just going to say that the reason that I'm supportive of my suggestion is because in fiscal year 25, the school budget got an extra $14 million. And in the proposed 26 budget, they're already getting an extra $20 million, which is why it seems to me that that 0.4 extra

[02:06:55] increase from the split could be better put to use to provide getting us closer to some revolving something or other for housing, whatever that feature is. I just wanted to point that out. I understand. And at this point, I'm more counting noses than trying to look at continuation of the discussion of two reasons. But if you have additional information, please.

[02:07:17] I just want your point of clarification when you said about the 3.2, is the difference for dedicated means that it's solely for public safety, but if it's not dedicated, then it goes to the split? Additional increases will go into the split.

[02:07:35] It's just a question of next year, assessments will go up, and as those assessments go up, that amount goes into the split. Or if they have to do a calculation before they do the split, they'll say, OK, 3.2 cents, that amount goes directly to public safety before you start doing the calculation, if I'm correct.

[02:07:54] The same would apply for any other portion of this money that is dedicated. So, for example, the 0.4 cents has been proposed to be dedicated so that in the future, right off before you even think about how much increased assessments go to the split, the amount that goes to the 0.4 increase will go to affordable housing.

[02:08:11] Okay. So before finally addressing the 0.4 versus 0.8 in different directions, the other topic that I'm hearing considerable discussion of is approaching affordable housing through the CIP.

[02:08:32] Now, I'm also in favor of that concept, but I am not sure what it means for this year's budget. I am looking at the slide that was up before, slide 21, and asking the question since, I mean, let me start off by prefacing that I believe that we need to keep the 10%, 2%, that there are strategic reasons for that.

[02:09:02] I also agree that our economic development reserve is for things that will help our tax base and need to be acted on quickly. And therefore, even though we may have not expressly identified where that's going, I'm not in favor of trying to tap into that.

[02:09:21] But there is a CIP adjustment of $1.9 million and a CIP advancing strategic priorities reserve. is that something that would be available potentially for an affordable housing trust fund yes if the board wanted to repurpose that 1.9 million to housing that would be an eligible use i would just encourage the board as a one-time revenue just to ensure this used for a one-time expense right i understand i understand but it is cip money so that it yes no that doesn't get us

[02:09:55] where we hope to be, but at least it's a possible use of that that could go into this budget. The trouble is, it does, of course, mean that that reserve is no longer available. We have a limited amount of reserves. I guess to ask the question a different way, where else would additional CIP money come from to go into affordable housing in the fiscal year 26. As in for the 5% match and ongoing debt payment? Is that what you're saying? Yeah,

[02:10:32] because there's not just issuance of debt. There's also obligations, immediate obligations that go with issuance of debt. My understanding. I would make the comment since I brought up that idea. Now for today, we're setting the rates. We don't have to decide. We are also proposing the budget. We can change that. We're not finalizing the budget today. So we can make these decisions on some of these ideas for late. That's why I didn't need to bring up. And I mean, we've got time to consider that. So today it's just about the rates. But to your point, when I

[02:11:09] said that, yes, if it's debt and the debt service at $72 million was like 3 million or something in the presentation last week. So a $15 million debt service, if it was all debt, would be in the brainstorm earlier, it was like 500 grand or something like that. So it would be under a million i was a little off in the brainstorm earlier uh about to to fund the debt service annually on about 15 million dollars would be about 1.2 million so the one you know and that's for the whole the whole 15 million but that could be a use for that strategic priorities reserve to

[02:11:48] fund that debt service but that's the type of stuff that having these brainstorms you know i don't have all that information yet i don't know if i would rather use 1.2 million for debt service or for a project that needs to go out and get done right now. But I don't think that we have to decide that. I agree we don't. I only bring it up in part because I want to make sure that we focus on CIP, that we recognize that it has potential budgetary implications, and if it required any revisiting of the tax rate, we would have to do it now. So we'd like to be able to make a recommended budget that at least we think is close to what we can work with

[02:12:27] in terms of the revenues and how they'd be dispersed. But that said, those are my comments. If you have any additional thoughts, it does look like we're ready to move forward on both. But go ahead. Well, I have a question.

[02:12:43] What does Supervisor McKeel say when she goes first? She reserves the right to come back based on what everybody else says. But I want to clarify what Supervisor Pruitt threw out a number, That if $0.30 was added to that personal property, I think he threw out two.

[02:13:02] It would be about $2 million? $2.9 million is what that would be. Bad napkin, Matt. I have a team behind me right there. Almost $100,000 per. Yes, correct.

[02:13:22] Something in between. I mean, it doesn't necessarily have to be. No, but we do need to address the issue as to whether we're considering additional personal property tax. I will make the additional comment then if this is being considered is that while I'm very concerned about being more progressive and less regressive, there does come a point where when I look at the variation in homes and the variation in automobiles, that I see a greater variation in homes and see a greater burden on those who have really nice, fancy places.

[02:13:56] And so I'm not convinced that simply because the state provides relief for the lower portion of the car value, that there's a lot of potential progressive aspects to the personal property tax. Your point is well taken, which is why I was open to using a blended one.

[02:14:16] I just threw out point three to start that conversation, because now we're talking about it. Yeah, I appreciate that. Yes. And we're also going up 26 cents already from last year to this year, which is that hit is already built in. Built in. So that's a pretty significant hit.

[02:14:32] Again, I look to my right and left and see if there's additional support for changing that. Yeah, I've been talking to other supervisors in other counties trying to, because I remember a year ago we got a presentation on that. But if the Google machine's right, it seems like the highest in our PDC footprint is Greene County at 450 per 100.

[02:14:56] And Nelson's probably the lowest at 279, although I don't know what Louisa's is. Seville's 440, Fluvanna's 410. That's all I could kind of quickly look at. But that's been a conversation I've had just with other supervisors to understand where they're at relative to where we are.

[02:15:15] because they a lot of them did not end up reducing this rate during covid and actually i wouldn't say regrets the right word but they when they heard of that idea they did some other like things to give relief in similar fashion that albemarle did they'd actually provided a mechanism for that well they did locals too because like yeah green county actually sent out some rebates even though they didn't change the rate yeah um i would be i mean this is for advertisement so i'm not committing that i would be in support of that but um i'd have to go out to another town hall, I would imagine, if I'm supporting that. But that's not something I'd be

[02:15:51] opposed to for advertising. I mean, it's advertising's putting it out there and seeing how people respond. But I would not be interested. We can dedicate a portion of that tax to a specific purpose? Yes, the board would have the ability to do that. Just to confirm? Because I would not be interested in doing it but for a dedication in addition to the 0.4 on the property for affordable housing. This is the personal property tax? The personal property, yeah.

[02:16:19] I mean, I was, you know, I kind of honed in on the real property tax rate and didn't brainstorm that thought. But, I mean, I don't think it hurts to have the discussion or to see how the public would react to that.

[02:16:37] But it will take more votes before we could consider. Well, as Mr. Pruitt said, he said some of our decisions are for political cover. I'd offer that all our votes are for political cover. Every yes or no I've ever said on this dais has been for that reason. I'm a politician, right? Yes, Supervisor Matt.

[02:16:58] Just a couple of comments to make sure that I'm not misunderstanding, because I've always assumed that the 10% reserve is the cash flow reserve between June and January. And that is not a slush fund. That is how we pay our bills and pay our salaries and things like that. And then the 1 and 2% are for the emergencies. So that means that to me, that 1.9 CIP available that's in there now is when one of our projects has a giant jump in cost halfway through or something that similar to the transfer that happened for the budget last year we were able to keep the project going instead

[02:17:34] of shutting it down because we didn't have enough money allocated those are the that's sort of what i had understood to be correct about that if we could get more information from mr richardson or someone about the dedicated pennies. It has never crossed my mind before that hiring would be done when it wasn't needed or firings would happen if the revenue fell based upon a dedicated penny.

[02:18:06] I don't think that's right. And I just wanted to get clarification on that because obviously the need for the staff or not is based upon data and all that kind of thing. And certainly even during the recession when the money fell tremendously in 2009 nobody was fired and we still the people moved around in the county staff to where the needs were when the development side fell off there wasn't the need for as much permit processing but there was tremendous need and inspections and other things so people certainly did lots of cross training if they

[02:18:45] were wanting to stay so do you have anything to help me with on that or someone i'd look to mr bowman and see if you could pull the slide up that we had in the work session that explained what you went through earlier this week on the out year analysis of the dedicated 3.2 cents do you remember yeah i'll need a moment to pull that into this presentation um right if you buy me a couple minutes policy i mean the sort of textual part of it as opposed to the dollars point of it because if there is a need for hiring somebody they're not going to be hired it's just because

[02:19:22] we have 3.2 cents of revenue in there is not going to cost those kinds of decisions. Am I correct about that? I think that I'll try my best to address your question, Supervisor Malek. When you look at the 3.2 cents beyond 2026, it's about $9.9 million. The value of a penny is $3.1 million. Next year, the value of a penny is going to be just a little bit more than that.

[02:19:52] maybe it if we look at past trends and and as a as opposed to national recessions and so if we if we earmark that money into the 2027 time frame as andy modeled on monday you're basically saying we're going to continue to capture the growth in that and continue to earmark it to public safety and and and that's what we're saying and it was several hundred thousand dollars because the value of a penny is now around three million dollars if i'm

[02:20:26] remembering correctly it was about three hundred thousand dollars uh uh that that we that we modeled that would continue to be plowed into public safety and not go through the 54 36 10 split that's assuming what that makes an assumption on is that we're going to continue to see increased need in public safety for increased investment. In the eight years that I've been here, I've seen that every single year. I've seen that in personnel. I've seen that in operational

[02:21:00] cost. I've seen that in their space needs. I've seen that in their equipment and infrastructure needs. And there was an article on the front of the Wall Street Journal last week that had a fire truck on the on the top half front page and it was talking about the cost of fire trucks and how much fire trucks have gone up over the last several years public safety infrastructure it is is it is very inflationary it's it it's outpacing i think normal consumer inflation and so i think it's a safe bet we're going to do the staffing study that's going to come back this fall but i think

[02:21:39] it's a safe bet to conclude that we're going to need additional public safety dollars earmarked as we go into 2027. Now I'm going to stop there, and now I'm going to flip a switch and talk about schools just for a minute. And I want to remind the board that there's several things about the school's budget going into 2027 that I'm concerned about. The first thing is the local composite index. We learned in visiting with schools every two years that there's a reset at the state level with a local composite index. Last year, the schools lost $10 million due to the reset on

[02:22:19] local composite index. And that $10 million has carried over, that $10 million loss has carried over into this year. And the superintendent of schools said to us, he said, I'm concerned that next year when we hit the reset button for yet again, another year, that we may lose more. On top of that, we're keeping an eye on state and federal funding that's coming to schools. And then the final thing is is that we're prepared to open two new schools in fiscal year 27 so i think we're going to see you know we showed you that out your slide on 2027 and there are some things it's

[02:22:56] not our obligations do not look as heavy as they did in 2026 but it's too early to tell how it will look but i i believe that um uh i believe that in summary that we will see some some some stress of need in the world of public safety in 2027 and i also believe that we'll continue to have to work hard with public schools to figure out what we can afford to do for them as well and and in that time i've talked andy andy's pulled that up uh mr bowman you can probably hit the hit the key point there quicker than me but i do want to remind the board what that looked like because it is

[02:23:33] it is complicated thank you for that and thank you to miss dunn from the front row for the thumb drive but i'll say that the board does not need to decide this today they have the option to revisit but i also understand this can impact the the messaging and the tax rates and the other decisions they have but in essence we talked the other day really about two options the first option would be to just following the normal split if they have that 3.2 sentence changes that is shown in column a and that is what the recommended budget is based on option b is another approach the board could

[02:24:09] take and really it's the value of that change in 3.2 cents which would be about we project to be about three hundred thousand dollars in fiscal year 27 there if it were not split there would be essentially a gain to public safety of three hundred ten thousand dollars now i think it would be very safe to say historically that there's probably been never been a year at least in my time in the county it's now 20 years that we've never had an increase in total public safety expenditures of at least that amount but this is really uh for the board to decide because either approach is fine from a financial planning perspective the board owns the allocation of

[02:24:45] shared tax revenue formula and the board may revise that as they see fit thank you very much we could move on but we also had scheduled a recess at three and it's now about 3 25 perhaps we should take that 15 minutes and then come back and consider the moment thank you 15 minutes

[02:25:18] thank you experience i'm going to go around one more time just to see if there are any additional comments before we look to uh making one or both of these motions uh starting with supervisor gallatin um i'll i'll just make this comment because it was discussed a little bit and it's not a i don't think it impacts any of the decisions we have to make today but given that i did have the luxury of the first town hall meeting last night that the um the conversation about looking

[02:25:57] at the reliance on the purse the you know the real estate tax rate and how it's jumping to 68 percent um to to the point of the economic development and the monies we're putting there that that diversification of revenue and the importance of economic development and how little we've done because we've only been doing it for like really for eight years um was was a big deal to people that was an important point out there last night um so it's something that uh i just want to throw out there that that the other piece that somebody had mentioned was like you know just trying to

[02:26:33] figure out innovative ways given we're a dylan rule state of to get creative with tax policy but you can't really get but so creative um and to find it in other ways especially when they cap certain things on localities but i'm just offering that out there because we talk about the monies we're putting into economic development, well, I mean, that's a lot, that's, as I said, as I said last night, that's a long game to figuring out how to take the pressure off of the real estate tax rate, but it seemed to be of interest last evening. Thank you. Supervisor Malek.

[02:27:06] Just a couple of thoughts. I'm happy with where we are here, but the 88-12 split of the residential versus commercial is so powerful, and the fact that without the ability in the EDA fund to be able to act. We can't rezone something in five minutes, but we can, in a several-month investigation due diligence process, find out about making an investment that can draw down triple the money from the state, or also in the case of the EDA funds that were used to facilitate projects at Southwood that then drew down triple the money from the state and $30 million grants from

[02:27:46] philanthropy. So that's, to me, what the benefit of that is. And when I hear counties having a 60-40 split and ours that is 88 12 we've got serious work to do in that way and i don't want to i'm not considering painting over places or bringing in smokestacks but we have to be able to have some ability to act when when the right opportunity comes along so i think that's uh i i am also very interested in what mike was saying about the 20-year note and the revolving fund but i just that's the extent of everything that i know about it so i would like to know about that sometime

[02:28:25] future too supervisor um i i think i'm counting noses and understand that we don't have adequate support to advertise more on personal property either but i'm going to because we're going around doing comments final comments and it seems like that should be what we're talking about and i'm not sure that's what we're talking about so i'm okay yeah so i'm i'm not going to go into more depth on that since it seems like we have agreement to just accept the advertisement that is already on the screen. I am somewhat frustrated and disappointed for the reasons I've already

[02:29:03] mentioned with our our lack of willingness to be just a little bit more bold. But I appreciate everyone's concerns and why we're in this position. I do just want to briefly clarify because I've heard several people re-invoke after I discussed my concerns with the additional funding for the Economic Development Fund. I do just want to make clear the position I had was not to in any way reduce the amount that we are carrying over, which is $3 million. There are $3 million sitting in the Economic Development Fund right now, which is more than twice what we've ever spent in a given year

[02:29:40] on it. I was only suggesting that the additional allocation of $1 million additional funding to the economic development fund does not seem warranted at this juncture. Because again, I did not hear anything compelling that suggested we were going to tap the reappropriated funds for the economic development fund within this year. And so I just don't understand why we'd further plow in additional money. I agree with all my peers' points that this is an engine that allows this county to reduce the burden on individual taxpayers. I just don't think we're going to spend $3 million this year.

[02:30:19] and i haven't heard suggested from miss kilroy's presentation that we're going to spend three million dollars on it this year um and so i think that additional one million of infusion could be better spent um and other than that i'm not sure that there's additional comments i need to make other than that i would um as we continue through the you know this is the tax advertising process and we're going to continue to consider tweaks to our budget right this is also the day that our budget becomes our budget, not the county executive's budget. So I appreciate the chairs reminding everyone of that, right? That's also what's happening right now. So as we continue to

[02:30:58] tinker around the edges of our budget, I would say the thing that now feels within the realm of shaping is ACERP, the Emergency Relief Program. ACERP is funded at $260,000, which is meager and does not in any way meet the scale of the need that we know and have identified as out there.

[02:31:22] And it would be in the scale of the budget and the numbers that we are discussing with the existing programs and anything that has been presented to us on the screen today, radically increasing that as a percentage of its current funding would be a rounding error in our budget.

[02:31:40] Doubling it is nearly a rounding error in our budget. So I would urge the board as we go in this remaining month or so to identify additional opportunities to increase funding for ACERP, which has incredible benefits to the people it affects and potential cost savings in the way it unburdens other public service and public safety needs by keeping people housed. That's all

[02:32:08] I have. Thank you. And Supervisor. Thank you very much. I am in favor of just to get right out the gate of what we have proposed so far. I'm not against ACERP at finding if we can find some additional monies to support that. I think that's actually a good thing because it

[02:32:40] helps people. I still am in favor of switching the 0.4 for affordable housing to the schools. i see that as a more immediate need i do know we have affordable housing units in the pipeline i'm not sure how many and when can you can you just shout it out this is actually a question i was going to raise as well because it seems like we're talking about some of these things as if we don't really have the pipeline in front of us so the kakidemic chief human services officer we

[02:33:19] have 2,250 units that have been approved for building that are in the pipeline. Of them, 15% are strictly affordable. I think we've talked about the fact that there they are up there. So actually 2,520 actually are all affordable units. Of those, I think it's really important to know that 15% of those are deeply affordable. So they're generally done by nonprofits. The rest of them are at 80 percent ami and under the previous requirements and so that's 15 percent

[02:33:53] those are also the best case scenario of building and we're just sort of understanding what the percentage of actual built units is to approved units so this is these are approved units of up to a certain amount but we're finding that's closer to something like 60 percent of the units are actually built. And so that's one of the reasons why I identified these pipeline numbers as being a little bit squirrely. When you say 60% are actually built, is that because of the board because we usually approve 58% or is that just reality that they say they're going to do it and

[02:34:30] then they don't? I suspect each project has a different set of reasons, but it's not board related. These are the board approved units. So that's actual construction experience. And so some of these also represent units that you all approved and have never been built. So they've just been in sort of permanently in the pipeline. That's why it's hard to understand exactly how many units are coming on board. In addition, of course, we're in the process of getting our affordable housing study completed with the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission, which will revise what the target number is for the number of affordable units that we need in our community to meet the existing need.

[02:35:09] And when will that be available, that study? They just got their big bulk of funding from the state, so I would give them eight to nine months to complete that. Okay. So next year for budget time, next year we'll know what we actually need to do to fulfill our requirement, and we can act on that.

[02:35:33] I'm really in favor. I'm really interested in hearing Supervisor Galloway's suggestion regarding with the cip to be able to incorporate that for affordable housing um but i think schools have a need now i don't think it's going to get any better if we ever pass that one cent sales tax or the referendum for the one cent sales tax if that ever gets passed that'll be as um uh county executive richardson has said that'll be a game changer and then we can adjust from from there

[02:36:12] I don't agree with the EDA. I think the EDA, those are monies that we're investing in our future, and sometimes things take a while. I mean, the Home Depot, we helped that, but that didn't pop up in just a few months.

[02:36:29] I mean, that took a long while to actually negotiate that whole contract, get them here, and be able, frankly, to be able to react quickly, to be able to anchor and secure that position. because otherwise if we wouldn't have had the money there, that wouldn't have happened.

[02:36:46] So that respectfully, I think, is important. But you heard my viewpoints. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor McKeel. Yeah, I'm comfortable with where we are with the advertisement rate for the real property and personal property.

[02:37:03] And I will say that my understanding is, and I'm looking at staff, there's going to be more information coming back to us based on what our discussion was today. Yes, and probably this would be a good time to clarify that. Yes. I think the, I probably missed something in my notes, but I think the two things I've heard very clearly, one is the discussion around, I'll call the capital and borrowing related to housing that could be possible.

[02:37:33] This is one where we have some direction, but we can take a staff to bring back what that would look like. I think this is one, if it would help staff in terms of the time and when to bring that back knowing that there is a planned or intended to be planned i'm not sure if it's been said yet discussion around housing trust funds is that really part of that discussion or is this part of really building into a future budget work session that would be when it decided it's part of the budget process i think some clarity from the board will help staff prepare so that we can be responsive to best support you all i'm gonna go around our ned has something he wants to add

[02:38:07] well i know we all will get around in a second okay uh i don't mind sharing some of my time with folks that they want to address because Andy's addressing that question. So, I mean, I get that. Yeah. Okay. So we will go around on this as far as whether this is a trust fund discussion or something. All right. So the trust fund has got a lot of airtime from advocates, both elected advocates and community advocates. A trust fund is a single tool that can be used to solve a problem

[02:38:43] that you need multiple tools for um i don't need to rehash all of that so we have to figure we are not currently utilizing the trust fund as a tool so bringing that forward is to learn and understand it better so that this board will finally make the decision are we going to put it in place or not which we endorsed when the housing albemarle passed we did endorse it in that but we're going to get further clarification and re-endorse it the cip notion is saying that understanding that how do we attack other issues in this county regardless of what they are. We use one-time

[02:39:20] monies that we usually get from surplus. We use ongoing monies that go into the general fund and we have a CIP. This year, we were starting to expand into the actual ongoing operations. So if we take away the dedicated penny, which I don't support for affordable housing, then we're only relying on one-time dollars. So I'm introducing that now let's get to that third area and understand how can we utilize our cip to leverage getting things accomplished to attack the affordable housing issues so i see it as it's all under the umbrella of trying to figure out how to to help

[02:39:54] the affordable housing issue but they're not all one in the same item if the cip monies can be used in coordination with a trust fund yeah that then then then we have to figure out how uh why but if for this reason if for some reason this board was like well we're not going to put a trust fund up we still have to figure out how we could use the CIP, in my opinion, to try to leverage getting some more done in this community to attack the issue. So I see them as, you know, all attacking the same problem, but just different prongs. And we have to understand what all our options are to get at it. Clarifying that is very helpful. Thank you. So that's great.

[02:40:33] Unless there's additional comment, I'll go next. My only question is what's possible? Because staff said, do you want it now or a little bit later? And I don't know if now is possible. for in the next month is possible. So that's the first question. Well, yeah, I think that we're discussing the budget, the trust fund concept, frankly, and I'll give my opinion on this since I'm going to go next anyway, is that the trust fund has many aspects to it that probably will need to be discussed. But one of them is setting aside monies in a CIP-like way so that

[02:41:08] they can be used in future years, set up for borrowing and repayment and revolving loan type of arrangements. And so I think just getting to that is a huge step towards a trust fund, even if it's not called that or it doesn't have all the procedural things that might otherwise be considered. Just quickly, and I'm sorry, because Andy helped me answer my question.

[02:41:37] I'm happy to support what the recommendation is as far as the overall amount, the details. we do this every year. We go back and we adjust. I don't mind advertising what we have in front of us, right? Because we haven't even had our town halls. There's only been one town hall. I want to have my town hall and hear what my folks say. And then I'm happy to come back and work within what we've advertised and maybe move it around some. I don't know how that might happen. So I'll just let it stand at that. Thank you. I do believe that, you know, I'm trying to keep track. And I

[02:42:14] am not i'm not hearing uh four votes currently in favor of changing the split from 0.4.4 to 0.8 for either schools or entirely for housing and so i would propose that we would consider the budget as that until we get further in our discussions and perhaps change that along the way which can be done but we still have to advertise a budget thank you um i will just to carry on with some of the concerns uh there's a one million to the economic development fund um that uh i agree

[02:42:52] should be economic development but i i have heard occasional mention of the possibility of a project that's an economic development project that includes housing and so there's still a possibility there we in in either case we have the issue that we haven't always identified exactly which projects these future uses are going to. I do appreciate the comment made about identifying housing projects that we already have in the pipeline projects that we could further support if we had money for housing. My understanding is what you're saying when you say, well,

[02:43:29] we've got these 2,500 in the pipeline. We could affect changes in this process if we had the funding to do so and the right developer relationship as far as getting from 15% to 20% or otherwise affecting the affordability? It's possible that there are projects in that pipeline who would benefit from additional capitalization. I'm not aware of that. They're not knocking on the door for that. I think they've sort of approved with their existing financial pro formas and are moving ahead. We do have four projects. We anticipate requests from

[02:44:05] the affordable housing fund two of them in the near term one of them represents continuing support for southwood as part of a performance agreement for phase two that would include cash up front in addition to tax rebates somewhere between 1.5 and 2.5 is what they floated for for that number that they might come to us and request and then the second is for the preservation of deeply affordable senior housing on pantops 90 units that are at the end of their current light tech period of affordability the project owners are going to apply for light tech credits next year

[02:44:43] and would like to have local support in order to do that that is somewhere between 1.2 and 1.5 depending on what their overall light tech request is and again that would be preservation of those 90 units right now they're rented at 60 and 40 ami so they're kind of a rare deep subsidy existing unit the other two projects are floating out there but we haven't had contact with them so we don't know exactly how soon they might come I anticipate that they would make contact with us sometime in fiscal year 2026 but I'm not sure whether the funds would be they would expect

[02:45:19] those funds to be yielded in 27 or 28 it's their longer term housing projects so that those are the four projects we know about for the housing fund. And I'm not going to, I mean, since this is just for budget discussions at this point, the budget document did talk about Salvation Army's requests as something that could be considered in the future with housing funds. And that's something that I just say, you know, I think is a very important project and I'm interested in hearing more when the time comes, but I'm not saying that would change our budget in any way at this time.

[02:45:58] With that, the only other comment that I'd like to make is that I am also supportive of the idea of recognizing that the emergency relief fund is inadequate. We have on slide 21, again, the one time reserve for contingencies of 678 and the ongoing.

[02:46:14] We can't really expect to use those right now without tying our hands. But I would hope that when the time comes, which it could within months into the fiscal year, a month or two, we consider additional relief, emergency relief, as those funds become available.

[02:46:34] With that, if there are no other comments or concerns, I think we are ready to move forward on motion with respect to the 2025 tax rates proposed.

[02:46:51] So there's a motion on the table. Someone would like to make that motion? Go ahead. Sure. I move that the board advertise the following rates for public hearing for the 2025 tax year, 0.894 for $100 of assessed value for real estate, public service property, and manufactured homes, $4.28 per $100 of assessed value for tangible personal property, 4.28 per $100 of assessed value for miscellaneous and incidental, tangible, personal property

[02:47:30] employed in a trade or business that is not otherwise classified as machinery and tools, merchant's capital, or short-term rental property, and that has an original cost of less than $500 and $4.28 per $100 of assessed value for machinery and tools.

[02:47:51] Yes. We have a motion from Supervisor Lupita Kirtley and a second from Supervisor McKeel without objection if the clerk will call the roll. Mr. Kirtley? Aye. Ms. Mallett? Yes. Ms. McKeel? Yes. Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Mr. Andrews? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Thank you. And we have an additional motion?

[02:48:13] We do. And perhaps before we go to that, I'm going to maybe talk about the if-needed work sessions to be responsive to Supervisor Galloway's clarification. there's really two topics of the housing trust fund and then also how those dollars could potentially go farther in the cip uh just huddling with staff um to make sure that we're able to kind of you know do our best work to support the board um perhaps if we were to bring that back on monday the 7th would give us a little more time than to prepare for a week from tonight on

[02:48:48] the 26th um and then i'll say if needed at the end of the meeting i would ask the board to consider whether they would like to hold the wednesday march 26th work session or not the board does not need to decide that now but i think that could be staff's approach in terms of when we bring that housing discussion related to cip and borrowing back to the board um if that would be agreeable to the board supervisors i like that we would be through half of our town halls by then um as well which is helpful and certainly if there's other questions or topics or acerp or whatever that could be brought by the board at that time as well on april 7th uh but just trying to manage

[02:49:25] expectations in terms of our turnaround and when the and how we can support the board through the uh next couple of months to finalize the budget thank you um yeah so we're looking at the april 7th additional work session to talk about these topics but in the meantime uh we still would be advertising the proposed budget um do we need to uh or are we advertising the budget as proposed uh by the county executive are we advertising with any amendments that we've discussed i i'm not sure exactly what yeah I had not clearly heard since we can change it anyway yes yeah I've heard

[02:50:04] today and if we can I'll look to Mr. Herrick if we need to revise this motion but we've heard agreement from the board of supervisors on the staff recommended changes that we covered earlier and that we've heard ideas from the board about amending the county executive's budget I haven't heard a clear consensus on any one particular change and so I would interpret that to staff is that there are no changes at this time though certainly the board has every right and the ability to continue to modify that okay that's reasonable in that case we're looking for a motion i'll be glad to make it i move that the board authorized staff to advertise for public

[02:50:44] hearing the fiscal year 26 proposed budget which is the same as the county executive's recommended budget including any staff recommended changes and any additional amendments made by the board of supervisors okay we have a motion from supervisor malik second from supervisor mckeel without objection the clerk will call the roll sir curtley aye miss mallet yes miss mckeel yes mr pruitt aye mr andrews yes mr galloway yes thank you what is next today uh so at this point it really would be unless the board would like to hold the wednesday march 26 understand that

[02:51:23] as a scheduled meeting the board um that could be canceled if the board would desire to i'm i'm inclined to think that we would like the benefit of the information that staff will be able to bring to us on April 7th and therefore the March 26th is unnecessary. I would also share with the board I potentially have a scheduling conflict on 26th. But the 7th is my birthday. Who's going to bring

[02:51:54] the cake? So I propose that we would meet again I guess it's the 2nd of April I think is our next meeting and then the 7th. And that is everything? So Mr. Chair if the if the board is looking to cancel the march 26 meeting and is wanting to commit to that now that should be in the form of a motion and a vote on the port on the part of the board to cancel the march 26 meeting if the board is wanting to commit to that now i would like to move that the board of supervisors

[02:52:28] cancel the reserved space on the march for march 26 for a meeting second in favor of my birthday sorry we have a motion from supervisor pruitt a second from supervisor mikhiel not seeing any discussion without objection the clerk will call the roll so currently i miss mallet yes miss mckeel yes mr pruitt hi mr andrews yes mr galloway yes great so uh with that i'll just ask if the county executive or cfo would have anything to add before we uh wrap up this work

[02:53:06] session well i know we need to move on because we do have a closed session and and it's always at risk at opening something up and creating uh confusion but on the 7th related to supervisor galloway's initial idea this evening about the exploration of a cip or cip like housing trust uh fund strategy uh i'm trying to manage the board's expectations we can be prepared to talk

[02:53:44] about that on the 7th to the degree that we are able to talk about initially but we may not be prepared to give you final recommendations on things to consider in this year's budget and so i'm looking first at supervisor galloway i've already got an affirmation from supervisor mallet does that meet your expectations i mean i think so i don't i mean today's the first time we've talked about it yeah and um and and there are other models but uh you know and we want to be as far along and try to answer as many questions as we can what the board's intention is and what

[02:54:24] i look and listen to the conversation is the ability to leverage that's what i'm hearing the board say we're looking for an ability to leverage and in fact supervisor galloway made mention of a parallel track and that is our transportation leveraging money that we set aside and that we match through the state that's in years past and so what we're looking at doing is leveraging money but that also involves uh debt service uh and it in it and we need to explore and understand the framework of that and so we'll do that and we'll try to uh talk about that to the

[02:55:00] degree that we've been able to refine our thoughts and and get some assistance if we need to for an example with Davenport our our our advisors our financial advisors they may be able to give us some some things to consider from a framework standpoint so I'm seeing that that's okay with the board yeah that's excellent okay let me make sure that Mr. Sumner is that okay how I frame that okay super thank you thank you thank you with that so we will follow beginning tomorrow night at Monticello high school from 5 30 to 7 30 the series of town halls on what is now the board of

[02:55:37] supervisor's proposed budget. That will come back on April 7th for that work session and April will also follow with the public hearings on the 23rd and 30th on the rates and the budget. Just again thank the board for all their attention and time and the very thorough discussion for what has been our fourth regular work session with the board on the 26th budget. Thank you. Thank you. With that board we're looking for a motion to go into closed session from Supervisor Pruitt. Yes I would like to move the board of supervisors convene a closed meeting pursuant to section 2.2 text 3711a of the code of virginia first under subsection 6 to discuss and consider the investment of public

[02:56:16] funds related to a performance agreement with bonomus incorporated where bargaining is involved and where if made public initially would adversely affect financial interests of the county second under subsection 8 to consult with legal counsel regarding specific legal matters related to a performance agreement with bonomus incorporated which requires the provision of legal advice by such counsel and third under subsection 29 to discuss the renegotiation of separate public contracts with Crozet, Newtown Associates, LLC, and Bonamuse Incorporated, each involving the expenditure of public funds, where discussion in an open session would adversely affect the

[02:56:52] bargaining position or negotiating strategy of the county and the board. Second. I don't know how to call that one. Motion from Supervisor Pruitt, second from Supervisor Lupisto currently without objection if the clerk will call the roll is the piece there currently she called the roll that's you yes miss mallet yes miss mckeel yes mr pruitt hi yes yes thank you good evening

[02:57:29] welcome back uh supervisor pruitt has a motion to bring us on a closed meeting out yes i would like to move the board of supervisors certified by recorded vote that to the best of each supervisor's knowledge only public business matters lawfully exempted from the open meeting requirement 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 Malek. Without objection, if the clerk will call the roll.

[02:57:56] Ms. Lapista-Curtley? Aye. Ms. Malek? Yes. Ms. McKeel? Yes. Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Mr. Andrews? Yes. Mr. Allaway? Yes. Thank you. Board, next up is a report from the county executive. We have a report this evening? Yes, sir. I sure do. Abby, thank you very much. Board, thank you for the opportunity This is the busiest time of the year for the board, and I do appreciate CAPE and the work they've done with the departments for us to take a second to check in on some of the good work that's really happening inside the organization that without just a minute to

[02:58:35] take a look at it, we might not otherwise notice that it's going on. Again, lots of going on. So thank you for the opportunity. First thing I want to share with you this evening is our Albemarle County Fire Rescue and the American Red Cross, Central Virginia chapter joined forces with the Sound the Alarm campaign to ensure that homes having working smoking alarms, that they have these at no cost.

[02:59:00] The team of staff and community volunteers recently helped 56 residents stay safer in their homes by installing 29 smoke alarms and replacing 13 batteries. So I like this program and the reach out and and all of the proactive safety work that's going on okay in collaboration with the virginia department of aging adult protective services launched the campaign to raise awareness on the signs of elder abuse the campaign was targeted awareness effort it was funded by a forty thousand dollar grant and developed in collaboration with the virginia department of

[02:59:35] aging the campaign focused on recognizing signs of elder abuse using digital audio and tv ads to reach a broader audience over 800,000 impressions were generated effectively increasing awareness and engagement with this critical issue targeted digital ads are allowed have allowed the team to reach key demographics focusing on individuals in areas more likely to interact with the elderly population this is a picture that just happened in recognition of international women's day and this is in lane auditorium the women in government affinity group hosted a mentorship focused event

[03:00:14] attendees shared personal experiences and met with mentorship highlighting the value of both giving and receiving support in their careers the event fostered connections and encouraged meaningful discussions reinforcing the group's mission and empowering and supporting women inside of Albemarle County organization and this is just a snapshot of the of the folks that were involved that day and I did have a minute to step in and listen to some of the the commentary and it was really really good or this is albemore county's roadway litter collection program that

[03:00:52] has been funded by the plastic bag tax it's completed two successful cleanup rounds removing over 2600 bags 2600 bags of litter from 640 miles of roadway in albemore county the first cleanup was in december and it collected 1564 bags from over 300 miles while the second round in early spring removed just over 1 000 bags covering 342 miles top litter accumulation areas included north milton road old lynchburg road hydraulic road and route 29 near fort near fortune park road

[03:01:31] as the spring growing season begins vdot and adopted litter highway groups will take on litter collection with their next major with the next major county cleanup scheduled for late fall Ravana Solid Waste Authority recently hosted a Tire Collection Day at Southern Albemarle Convenience Center for Albemarle County residents.

[03:01:53] 38 Albemarle County residents participated in the event. This year included the first ever Southern Albemarle event, expanding access to responsible tire disposal for more residents. RWSA staff reported that customers were appreciative of the opportunity, and they are deeming the first annual event a true success.

[03:02:12] Albemarle County hosted a large-scale tabletop exercise for private dam owners, an innovative approach to help local dam owners to meet the emergency preparedness requirements.

[03:02:29] The event brought together key partners, including facilities and environmental services, fire rescue, parks and recreation, RWSA, Ravana Water and Sewer Authority, DCR, VDEM, ECC, and 24 dam representatives.

[03:02:44] By consolidating required individual exercises into an orientation event, dam owners could more easily fulfill their DCR-mandated drills, while emergency management staff engaged with multiple owners all at one time. Strong participation, positive feedback. The initiative has the potential to become an annual event, reinforcing Albemarle County's leadership in supporting self-resiliency and proactive flood risk management and emergency preparedness.

[03:03:14] And I would like to especially thank Greg Harper and Fez for developing what I think is a really good, innovative public outreach approach. This is a picture that is an Almar County Police Department hosting a retired Navy SEAL combat wounded veteran and best-selling author Jason Redman to speak with our officers at our 5th Street County building.

[03:03:39] This is a continuing education opportunity. Jason shared powerful insights on leadership, resilience, and overcoming adversity, lessons that resonated deeply with law enforcement with both their professional and their personal life.

[03:03:58] Phase one of the Quartz Complex project is nearly completed. Phase one of the Quartz Complex addition and renovation project is making significant progress with a focus on renovating and preserving the historic Levy Opera House and constructing the new 58,000 square foot General District Courthouse.

[03:04:18] Interior and exterior work on the General District Courthouse is close to completion with drywall finishing, painting, casework installation, which is all underway. masonry work is almost complete, glass storefronts are being finished up, and landscaping is already underway for entrance plaza pavers. Renovations at the Levy Opera House are also continuing with mechanical, electrical, and plumbing work near completion. Drywall installation is now in progress. A ribbon cutting event is in the works with more details to come soon as we get closer

[03:04:52] to the finish line with this project. This picture is a public engagement on the three-notch trail master plan it is officially kicked off the engagement efforts include dedicated project web page for the community to provide input staff recently presented the project at the mobility summit engaging stakeholders and raising raising awareness about the trail's potential impact on connectivity and recreation the master plan process will incorporate public feedback and ensuring the community's vision and need uh needing to help shape the future the future of

[03:05:29] of the trail and board unfortunately because of the size of our organization we we cannot formally recognize every single employee in this organization that retires but we do try to capture and keep the board as up to date on individuals that are in front of the board in key spots in the organization where they provide assistance to the to the board and is out in the field and the board recognized them, and this is the recent retirement of Howard Lagomarsino after 20 years

[03:06:02] of service with Albemarle County Fire and Rescue, and in overall an incredible 45 years of service across fire, law enforcement, and military roles. Howard recently announced, and we celebrated his retirement from the county. His dedication and leadership has definitely left a lasting impact on ACFR, as well as the community and the broader organization. And I do want to say something specific about Howard. I met him for the first time in 2018 at the one-year anniversary where

[03:06:41] we had to activate the EOC at the University of Virginia on the August 11 events. And I was over there between 11 p.m. and midnight on the weekend, and there was probably 75 to 100 people in the building. And I saw Howard for the first time, and he had a great big smile on his face. And he was coming in for the midnight shift. And I went over and talked to him, and he had such a positive energy about him, such a positive manner with how he interacts inside the organization. And he also carried that in the field with him with everybody that he come into contact with he he is a true

[03:07:20] public servant and he will be missed in this organization and so our best wishes go out to him and his family and certainly have offered him the opportunity to come back and see us i believe that's the report and as always abby does a wonderful job of packaging this report getting it to the board because this board is super active with your cac's and the work that you do in the community we want you to be able to have this have the talking points and be able to pick things that are most relevant to you as you push information out into the broader community if you have any questions this evening i'm happy to answer those uh but again this will be ready

[03:07:57] for the board it'll be in your email box probably later this evening thank you uh we'll go through our questions uh supervisor galloway thank you jeff i don't have any questions and i just know every time i saw the fire marshal truck i always envision howard's face in there so i wish him all the best in his retirement thank you thank you i would agree that um howard may have thought even though he was too polite to say it that i was a real thorn in his side for many years on open burning everywhere and i see one of my open burning colleagues out there in the audience as well

[03:08:30] but he appreciated so much the value of controlling the barrels and what really convinced him was the repeated breaking of the rules when people would throw their plastic milk jugs and other repulsive things into the burn barrel which then let all this really awful toxins up into the air and the increasing of the setbacks between open burns and houses really has made a huge difference and I think he trained up Micaiah and and Tripp really really well too so we have good success going forward thank you very much for letting us know that Supervisor Pruitt I first wanted to say how

[03:09:10] I really appreciate all the news of how the new Southern Convenience Center in Keene is getting getting its use now that it's open. So I appreciate seeing that about the tire day. And I join my peers in wishing Howard all the best of luck in his future endeavors and that they be restful. Supervisor Lapista Kirby. Very good presentation. And I was really excited about the plastic bag tax and how many bags of litter we've already collected. Regarding the dam owner's

[03:09:46] workshop that was for private dams correct because we have a number of them which of course i didn't know till my friends told me that they have one and so i think this is really is going to be an excellent program to let people be proactive in keeping their dams up to snuff and mr harper greg harper's a really good county contact if any board member gets questions from the community on private dam ownership and regulations and connections, I feel confident that if we're happy to connect Mr. Harper to anyone in the community and he can provide information or help,

[03:10:22] we are happy to do that. Thank you. Supervisor McKeel? Yes, that was really great. And when you, I know we'll get a copy of the presentation to share, and I hope it'll have the notes. And just because the data, especially around the pickups, is really important to go with it.

[03:10:42] So thank you very much. I agree with Bea that that was a really great idea to bring our dam owners in. It always sounds funny to say dam owners, but anyway, you all know what I mean. And, you know, it just occurred to me, Jeff, with the opening of the courts and the Levy Opera House and the work around that, I hope that we have something in the old Levy building that speaks to the history of that building.

[03:11:15] Because the Levy's in this community helped save Monticello at one point. They were such an important family in our community. It would be great to recognize the family. And that's probably already been thought of. But I'm just suggesting it.

[03:11:33] You know, there's a great documentary, The Levy's of Monticello. same family. So anyway, just a thought. And thank you very much. Thank you. I very much appreciate the presentation. Also was going to actually focus on the education program for dam owners and wondered if they just keep a list and know how to identify and contact all the different people who might be involved in that because it's a pretty important service and really appreciate it. So thank you. Nothing further than board, this brings us to a public comment on matters previously considered are currently pending before the board other than

[03:12:12] scheduled for public hearings and vice chairman keel will read the rules and introduce the speakers and i'm getting out my instructions to read we have one person in person and we have one person electronically so um so let me read how we what we would how we would appreciate the presentations to go. During the time set aside for public comment on matters previously considered or currently pending before the board, individuals may address the Board of Supervisors concerning

[03:12:50] matters previously considered or matters that are pending before the board other than items listed on the agenda for public hearing. Individuals are allowed three minutes to speak per public hearing item. A sign-up sheet is managed by the clerk's office. Community members physically present for the meeting will speak first, and then those who are attending the meeting electronically will speak. For those attending in person, I will announce the speaker, and for those participating electronically, the clerk will announce each speaker before it is their turn to speak.

[03:13:24] For in-person speakers, timekeeping is conducted through a timer and a 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 in order to give all speakers equal treatment and courtesy the board requests that the speakers follow the these guidelines when addressing the board state your name and if you live in almar county your magisterial district address comments directly to the board as a whole any written statements or other supporting materials may be given to the clerk if you make your comments through zoom please you may upload

[03:14:02] written comments through the e-comment portal or email your comments to the clerk. If representing a group or organization, you may ask others to raise their hands in recognition. Speakers may not share unused time with another speaker. Back and forth debate is not permitted. All comments are live streamed, recorded, and published on the Elmira County website. If participating by Zoom, press star nine to let us know you want to speak, then press star six if I'm a landline to unmute.

[03:14:33] If by Zoom, please remain muted until you are called on to speak. And our first and only speaker in person today is Gary Grant, who's already coming down. Welcome. Thank you.

[03:14:49] Please adjust the microphone. Thank you. My name is Gary Grant. I live at 3765. Gary, we can't hear you very well. You need to speak into the mic. Thank you. And trying to find a place to hold. I guess it'll stay there. Okay. My name is Gary Grant. I live at 3765 Bleak House Road in the Rio District, and before I begin my remarks, I have to tell you, a county employee complimented me today on my sense of humor, something that I've never been accused of previously, all right?

[03:15:22] So I want to let you know that that happened today, but it was after I had written this already, so there is no relationship to that compliment and what I'm going to tell you. Last fall, I scheduled a professional logger tree cutter for January of this coming year to cut and remove an acre of trees from my seven acre property.

[03:15:46] I did this to raise funds in advance to pay you for my expected real estate tax assessment increase and your potential increase in the tax rate on my portion of Albemarle County. A logger needs a year's lead time because he's that busy.

[03:16:05] I set this up ahead of time because I suspected what would be forthcoming from U6, from the county executive, and your assessor. Good thing I planned ahead. Your assessor smacked me with an 11% assessment increase.

[03:16:21] Your county executive hit me with four cents more in his recommended tax rate increase. and you six this afternoon followed through with the exact financial punishment that your executive recommended. When my tax bills are due this June and December, you will get my money. Meanwhile, I will wait obediently until next year to be reimbursed with my portion of the proceeds from the acre of trees that will be cut down that you share crop with me. Having fulfilled my annual

[03:16:59] tax burden to you, I will remain on my rented Rio district property whose mortgage I paid off in the previous century without demanding or receiving any government subsidies or trust funds from you to do so. So say goodbye to another acre of biodiversity, another acre of carbon sequestration, another acre of soil conservation, another acre of watershed protection, and another

[03:17:33] acre of natural beauty in Albemarle County. And if you would be so kind, please take your hands out of my pocket. Thank you, Gary. Our next speaker is a person who's speaking electronically, Claudette Coleman. Can you hear me? That was Kathy Coleman. Just, yeah. Okay, I'm here. Yes, we can hear you. Okay, great. Thank you for this time. My name is Kathy Kuhlman. I live in the

[03:18:07] Rivanna district and I'm here advocating for the reinstitution of horse trails at Biscuit Run Park. The original state plans for Biscuit Run Park unambiguously assigned the park to have horse trails. A county representative stated to me that in 2018, a survey was conducted and it showed no interest in horse trails at Biscuit Run. I have personally talked with multitudes of local horse enthusiasts, the Virginia Horse Council and the Albemarle County Extension Agent, and only a

[03:18:46] single individual can recollect any type of a survey. This survey clearly did not get to the many local horse enthusiasts or the Virginia Horse Council or Extension Agent. We've all been waiting for the Biscuit Run horse trails to open, only to be stunned that the trails were eliminated.

[03:19:07] We ask that the horse trails at Biscuit Run be reinstituted as was originally planned. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Thank you. With the board, our next item are two public hearings.

[03:19:28] Next items, starting with the Spotlight Declaration 56 24 brownsville road parcel 56 26 e1 and this is being led by jaylen boone property compliance

[03:19:41] officer welcome good afternoon chair andrews and board my name is jillene boone the property compliance officer for albemarle county i am joined today by lisa green the manager of code

[03:20:20] compliance i will be presenting one property for your consideration today as a blighted property authorized by the Code of Virginia. On December 11th, 2024, the board approved the resolution of intent authorizing today's public hearing regarding this property.

[03:20:40] I'd like to start with an update on some properties since we were last before you. Over the last year, staff brought you various properties for consideration. Of the initial five, four have been abated, which are shown here.

[03:20:56] The remaining property at 5005 Rolling Road was recently sold. staff has been in contact with a new owner who indicates they they intend to demolish that structure soon of the three properties abated by the county two of the three property owners have reimbursed the county on 2941 rolling road staff has placed a lien equal to the sum of our expenses you may remember this chart illustrating our spotlight process the property before you today

[03:21:30] has a history of reoccurring zoning violations. Last year, staff spoke with the owner and her son to discuss property conditions. Based on GIS records, staff sent a certified letter requesting an abatement plan from the owner. To date, no abatement plan has been received. Today, you are considering an ordinance to declare 5624 Brownsville Road as blighted. Now, we are going to show you the vicinity map and present the condition of the property.

[03:22:01] Here is an aerial view of the property, located in the rural area in the Samuel Miller District. This property is uninhabited, dilapidated, and deteriorated, and as such, endangers the health, safety, and welfare of the residents in Albemarle County.

[03:22:21] Next, we're going to show you a series of pictures of the property. These shots were taken facing the north and west. You can see that most of the house has been taken down. These photos were taken February 10th, 2025.

[03:22:42] Here are shots of the same house facing the south and east. Please note most of the house is gone in the south view. Though without a response, a written response, an abatement plan from the owner, the county will abate the blighted structure.

[03:23:02] We will verify the abatement plan. We will confirm the costs and we will execute the plan and recover those costs. This completes my presentation, and I will have motions should you decide to pursue the ordinance.

[03:23:20] Thank you. We'll go through our order for questions, starting with Supervisor Galloway. Specific to this particular one, I don't have any questions. I may have different questions or some comments at a different time. Supervisor Malek.

[03:23:37] Thank you, and thank you for your work on this. As a property formerly in the Whitehall District, it's been on our radar for a long, long time, as Lisa knows. Just incidentally, is there any recycling of materials in a case, perhaps not here, but where door frames and things like that could be usable again, or is everything just demolished generally?

[03:23:57] Or do you have any, is that part of your thought process when you're doing a contract, depending on the circumstances? Today, that's not been part of the conversation. We're just, it's about just remediation removal.

[03:24:13] Okay, thank you. Certainly entertainment. Supervisor Pruitt. I'm just thinking if you're interested in recycling materials like door frames, I know a certain tire factory that has more than enough material for you, piled high all throughout.

[03:24:32] So I appreciate that that kind of work might impose additional costs. So I have no questions. Supervisor LaPiesto-Curtley. Yeah, thank you very much, Ms. Boone, for your presentation. Just wondering, when you recoup the cost, is that a lien against the property or just outright, here's a bill and pay it?

[03:24:52] So we've been fortunate that two of the properties owned by the same owners were able to just, you know, after we sent them the bill, they paid us back. Now, for the one property, we are going to put a lien. Okay.

[03:25:08] Yes, to recoup the money that we have sent on that property. Thank you. Senator McKeel. Yeah, I don't really have any questions. And I could be way wrong on this, but it is interesting that one property owner paid the expense.

[03:25:23] And that may just indicate that sometimes these property owners just don't know what to do, and they're frozen. And by us taking it over, they're willing to repay us, right, because they just didn't know what to do with it. So it's just a comment.

[03:25:40] Yes. And we're very appreciative when anyone repays us. Yes. Thank you very much for the presentation. And, yeah, I recall that previous one where we were told even that the property owners were fine with it being abated on their behalf and that they would hope to reimburse.

[03:25:57] I have no other questions. So with that, I will open the public hearing. Do we have anyone signed up to speak? Okay. Then I will close the public hearing. And the matter is back before the board. Any additional comments or questions? Then if you could put the motion up.

[03:26:16] I, being a supervisor for the Samuel Mill District, move the Board of Supervisors to adopt the Spot Blight Ordinance in the form of Attachment F for the property at 5624 Brownsville Road. Second. We have a motion from me, a second from Supervisor Malek, without objection if the clerk will call the roll.

[03:26:35] Ms. LaPiesto-Kirtley? Aye. Ms. Malek? Yes. Ms. McKeel? Yes. Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Mr. Andrews? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. With that, Mr. Chair, I didn't want to speak to it while the public hearing was open, but in my understanding of the Spotlight Ordinance, we can acquire this property.

[03:26:58] That's one of the options, yes, sir. And I'm only bringing this up. I didn't want to delay this because it sounds like with the two property owners that paid us back, it worked fine. They own the property. It's not blighted. They keep it there. But if these come forward, especially in the development area, but I'd also be interested in the rural area to learn more about acquiring these properties to keep them in, because then other localities show how they can get creative in turning those properties into permanent affordable housing opportunities.

[03:27:28] Right. And again, that is a part of some localities' spot blight abatement plans. The role for the board is to declare the property blighted or not, but then the locality has an abatement plan, which may involve demolition. It may involve acquisition of the property. But again, that's one of the options that the county has.

[03:27:48] I think I would need some education at the appropriate time, whether it's even a written education sent to us about how you choose to do what we've done with this property or some previous properties or acquiring the property, because that's something I'd be interested in learning more about.

[03:28:05] And if you'll indulge me, Chair, I would wholeheartedly agree with Ned because one of the Urban Ring neighborhoods that I'm very familiar with has a property that's already been declared blighted years ago.

[03:28:20] It's still sitting empty, and it would make a great affordable housing for someone or a family. So if we could sort of think about it through that lens, Ned, it would be wonderful. Let me ask then, we could also use the fact that there is this lien eventually of the foreclosure.

[03:28:39] That's true. So if the county's expenses in demolishing or improving the property are not repaid, then it becomes a lien on par with tax and it can go to a delinquent tax sale if it's not repaid. So I mean, it could wind up in that destination eventually anyway.

[03:28:56] That's different from the county acquiring it. That would be a sale. So that would be another way. I mean, I guess that would be an unintentional acquisition because the county's intention at this point is not to acquire this property. But again, if the county incurred expenses, placed a lien on the property, the property wasn't repaid, eventually it could be collected in the same manner as taxes through a judicial sale.

[03:29:18] County Executive Head. Just that as the discussion by the board has unfolded, what we would do as follow up as i would be looking to miss wall that we that we're receiving the board the direction that you have an interest in taking a look at properties like this that are in that are resident residential areas and and you know it's a there's a business uh analysis to be done and then um and talking to the appropriate folks in the county and helping the community development to coordinate with them on their work that they're doing as to whether or not it looks like we'd be interested in in moving

[03:29:53] forward for the reasons that the board has said so and as mr harrick said in some other communities that could be not it's not just part of their spotlight program but it could also be a piece of the affordable affordable housing puzzle either by purchasing and reselling with certain restrictions or in-house doing work with it whatever the case may be but we're certain we can certainly explore that and then not hold up community development with their work but also inform them of what we're doing as a result of today's direction.

[03:30:27] Ann, do you have anything that you would add to that? No, sir. A win-win for everybody. Yeah, exactly. Thank you. Great. You guys good? This brings us to our next public hearing, which is SB 2024-18, the Charlottesville Community Church project.

[03:30:44] This will be led by Ms. Rebecca Ragsdale, planning manager. Welcome. Good evening. Thank you, Chair Andrews. I need a sec to get situated here with the chair change.

[03:31:02] i'll say rebecca we're having a little hard time hearing you or i am maybe it's just me but i said thank you and good evening i was just gonna ask for a little uh patience here while i get this slide show up as i'm switching over from jolene thank you uh i'm as you mentioned rebecca ragsdell and i'm presenting this special use permit for a religious assembly use and i'm doing that on behalf of sid shoaf who couldn't be here tonight this item has been reviewed by the planning Commission, and they recommended approval, and we will go over the specifics of the request along

[03:31:42] with anything that has changed and updates since the commission meeting, but this is a use for up to a 500-seat church. The property is located along Pebble Drive, which is accessed off of Route 20 south, and it is adjacent to the Avenity Estates neighborhood. It is zoned about 6.8 acres,

[03:32:09] Excuse me, it's 6.8 acres in size, zoned R1 residential, and the comprehensive plan currently designates it as Office R&D Flex Light Industrial, as is a bit of the area to the south of it. This is an aerial view of the property that shows the adjacent properties, including Avenity Estates, as I mentioned earlier.

[03:32:37] There are several institutional or non-residential uses along this stretch of road, some of which you've seen recently, such as the amendment to the Kappa Sig Sigma Club location to the north, and then we've had some rezonings to the south recently. The rural area is across Route 20 there on the bottom right of your screen. The proposal, as I mentioned, is for a 500-seat religious assembly church and it is this is the concept plan before you and it demonstrates what we refer to as

[03:33:15] the major elements the the guiding features of the plan that would we would be looking for when it moves to the site plan step so in this case the front of the property along route 20 would include provisions to accommodate a future shared use path the pebble drive would still be used shifted a little bit in the first section of it to do some rebuilding and realignment.

[03:33:43] There is a planned right turn lane from 20. And again, the open area in the front would not be used. There is a primary building envelope in the middle of the parcel and then a parking envelope to the rear. And there have been provisions made for landscape and screening along the perimeter of the properties both for mitigating impacts to the the neighbors such as divinity estates and then along the frontage to accommodate architectural review board comments

[03:34:16] at the commission we did hear from several neighbors and they have included their concerns regarding the the impacts and activity along pebble drive but that is why the landscape buffer is required that will be required to have evergreen screening in accordance with our standards that we would for a commercial site there were a couple items that have been updated on this concept plan since it went to the commission and that includes the provisions for the future shared use path to

[03:34:55] provide that right away along 20 and make sure that it's graded and ready when we are ready for that to be constructed. This is a provision and something that has been provided, as I mentioned, the other applications along the corridor, you may recall most recently 1928 Avon, that have made plans for this future shared use path. In addition, there was one other change to make it clear that should this landscape buffer area adjacent to Avenida Estates need to be disturbed for the development of the site that that disturbance is allowed and they will put back the landscaping to

[03:35:35] provide that screening. This is an exhibit, this is an illustrative exhibit of how the property could develop that was included in the application information. And the applicant will go into greater detail, of course, about their specific proposal. We reviewed this against the criteria in the ordinance for special use permits. Religious assembly uses are and institutional uses are seen commonly in residential zoned areas and we found that with the landscape buffering and the provisions of this specific proposal that we did not believe it would be detrimental or cause

[03:36:15] significant change in character of the area and as a non-residential use excuse me as a non-residential use in the area it's it's contemplated in the the land use designation of the comprehensive plan as a secondary use as institutional uses are. We have recommended approval. I won't go through in great detail, but these conditions of approval are available on slides should we need to reference them. But they address, like I said, the major elements, features, if you will, of the concept

[03:36:49] plan, the maximum number of seats, and it addresses the pedestrian connections that we would be looking for. There are actually three connections that are required. One is the shared use path along 20. The second is the connection from 20 up into the parcel. And then the third is a connection where right away was left to Avenity Estates for an interconnection.

[03:37:21] And as we typically do, we have provided an expiration date in terms of when the use must commence or it will expire. And we've mentioned the positive aspects in our summary in terms of the special use permit criteria, our evaluation of impacts, and the master plan. And I will pause for any questions, and I have motion slides when we get to that point. Thank you. We'll go through our order, Supervisor Galilee. I don't have questions right at the moment. Supervisor Malik.

[03:37:54] Thank you. I may perhaps have to wait for the applicant as well, but there seems to be a significant elevation across this property. So number one is where the recreation field is looks like that's going to require a whole lot of cut and fill. And then it's like a 60 foot increase just across the building envelope on that short space. So there's going to be significant disturbance on a fairly steep slope. And so I want to ask if how the staff is addressing the sort of high risk construction phase for this the second question is about the elevation change to the north

[03:38:33] and the impact of a street right on the border with lots of traffic right on the basically at the second floor level of the people who live in the neighborhood to the north and as I said you can punt some of those to the applicant if you choose or any information you have to share about that thank you would you like to wait for the applicant or would you want you if you there's something you can you jump in and answer that's great and otherwise i will ask you to bunt it i think they can probably address it in more detail and may have slides that can address it but

[03:39:08] that's one of the reasons for the changes to pebble drive is to there is there is the steep grade as you mentioned but to improve it and bring it into standards in terms of the slope and the grading we're anticipating they would work with the grade but that you know the concerns about um cut and fill and grading there would there would be site plans this is an entrance corridor so aesthetically that will be reviewed by the arb but i think i'll i'll leave more details to the applicant we don't have a i don't have a conceptual grading plan in my slideshow i see

[03:39:45] all right thank you supervisor um i i will admit as someone who drives by this all the time i was surprised to learn when i read through the packet that pebble drive is a public road is there any like history behind that like it seems baffling that it is a public road right it's just a spur that goes to nowhere i believe it's private but i will have to double check that maybe i misunderstood

[03:40:17] i am covering for sid but i can double check that it was recorded in the 1950s in terms of right away to be able to access that rear of the parcel i think we have that information in here but it's not i don't think it is public okay um i may have misunderstood that um i can you speak to the existing structures on the property yes so they included in their narrative that they

[03:40:52] may use the existing house in the time in in phases of development they have asked for the instead of coming in incrementally for special use permit increases they've they've sort of planned ahead for their future expansions but it may be developed in phases where they use the existing house for office. Okay. Thank you. That's all I have. Thank you. Supervisor Lopisto-Curtley.

[03:41:14] Yeah, I have no questions at this time. Thank you. Professor McKeel. Thank you, Rebecca. I did note that one of the concerns by the neighbors was drainage because of the slopes. And you can just speak to drainage issues are always addressed by our staff as the plans come forward. Yes, our engineering staff would review the site plan water protection plans to make sure that drainage is handled appropriately on site not impacting the adjacent owners that's a requirement yeah um and

[03:41:54] i have some other questions for the applicant so thank you thank you i have no additional questions so we will open the public hearing and in this case again we have we have someone signed up to speak so we'll have the rules but the applicant of course will present first and vice chairman can we read the rules? Yes. So we have no one online and we have one person to speak. And so I will get out the instructions. During public hearings, the board will acknowledge speakers

[03:42:31] addressing the item listed for public hearing. Speakers are limited to one appearance of three minutes per public hearing. Applicants are limited to a 10-minute presentation of their proposal and are allowed a five-minute rebuttal at the close of the public hearing. Timekeeping is conducted through a timer and light system at the podium.

[03:42:48] 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'll be asked to end your comments. In order to give all speakers equal treatment and courtesy, the board requests that speakers adhere to the following guidelines.

[03:43:07] When addressing the board, state your name and if you live in Elmar County, your magisterial district, address comments directly to the board as a whole. any written statements or other supporting material may be given to the clerk if representing a group or organization you may ask others present to raise their hands in recognition back and forth debate is not permitted and please do not speak from your seat or out of turn all comments are live streamed recorded and published on the almar county website and our speaker tonight is jenna maranto well we're first have the opposite oh i'm sorry i forgot applicant and i read the

[03:43:42] applicant instruction, so do come up. Sorry. Collins Engineering, welcome. He's very anxious to get to the speaker. I apologize. No worries at all. Thank you very much. Again, my name is Scott Collins, Collins Engineering, representing Charlottesville Community Church. Also with me is Pastor Bill Bray. If you all have any questions for him, he's available as well.

[03:44:08] Scott, tip the mic up to you. Sorry. There you go. A little bit better. Maybe even a little higher. Cause you're tall. There you go. Yeah. And there's the whole, the, everything's kind of loud, kind of, it's hard to hear. There you go. All right. Thank you.

[03:44:27] This is great to be here tonight to talk about this project. It's kind of unique because typically when I'm talking about a church or this type of use, I feel like I'm always talking about it going in the rural area and talking about traffic or impacts on the rural area and surrounding properties.

[03:44:43] This is in the development area, which is great. This is where something like this should be because this is here to serve the community on this side of the town. It's very, very, very much needed. What's also very unique about this project is they currently reside and operate out of Mountain View Elementary School, which they've been operating for the past 15 years, which is only 500 yards from this property.

[03:45:10] So it's not like they're completely relocating to the site. They're just moving south by about, yeah, about 500 yards in order to finally find a home for their ministry. And, you know, talking about phasing, much like any church, it gets phased every time.

[03:45:29] So the idea is, yes, to keep the house operating for the first phase and build the sanctuary. And, you know, this church will probably evolve over, you know, three, four or five phases, just like any church. And, you know, anywhere where it just, you know, it kind of comes, construction kind of comes as funds available and as the need arises.

[03:45:49] So that's what's unique about this. But going into some specific things that have come up that y'all were talking about, I want to talk about Pebble Drive for a minute. Yes, the current situation of Pebble Drive, it is a private road.

[03:46:06] It does serve this site, and it serves the properties behind this site, which don't have road frontage on Route 20. It is a gravel drive. It is very steep and is not in very great shape at all. I can't even drive my car up hardly.

[03:46:22] um but that's why we're repaving it it's not going to be a gravel drive anymore it's going to be a paved roadway we're actually putting it in a turn lane a right turn lane from route 20 for a desol lane and then we're going to have a landing there so anytime you do a landing you know where the road ties into route 20 it takes up a little bit more land which is why we're taking the road and twisting it into the site a little bit to give a curve to give us more room So that approach up the hill won't be so steep.

[03:46:53] And by doing that, we also are moving away from the Vennity Estates property, able to keep more of that buffer area and also keep the grades relatively the same. So we're not building up the road or cutting it down next to the Vennity Estates.

[03:47:09] We're just widening it out into our property at the front part of it. And by the time we get back up to where the church starts, it's basically at the same grade of that driveway. And we just and again, it's paved and it's and then it starts to fly down right there.

[03:47:25] So this site does definitely slopes up from Route 20 and then sort of levels off at the back. So this makes the most sense for us to put the parking lot in the rear of the site and then use sort of that transition between the flat area and Route 20 in order to step the site down with the building.

[03:47:43] So that's how we designed it. And that also helps out with what the county wants to see as far as meeting A or B requirements and screening the parking from Route 20 with the building. So that works out really well. As far as drainage, we're going to have sort of collecting all the runoff from the parking lot and little swales in the medians, much like you see at the JPJ Center, and then kind of routing that down.

[03:48:12] and so a lot of filtration will occur sort of localized up in the parking lot area and then we'll take that and pipe it down to sort of a sort of a dry swale brass swale right there at long route 20 before we release it into the roadside ditch so that's how we're planning on handling water quality and the tension on the site which works out pretty well as far as the Buffering, certainly we're maintaining a lot of that vegetation along Pebble Drive between us and Vinny Estates. Vinny Estates also is working on, so I hear they're working on putting in

[03:48:49] the required landscaping that they haven't put in yet from the original site plan. The way that project was designed, they had a six-foot-high privacy fence, which was installed about five feet or six feet off the property line. And then between that fence and the property line, They were supposed to install every 30 feet as a deciduous tree, and then in between those trees, two evergreen trees.

[03:49:16] So that was going to be a completely buffered area that didn't really happen per the plan. So I think everybody's working on getting that straight too, which only adds to the buffering that we're providing as well, which is great. Other than that, I think I've answered all the questions that I've kind of heard, but I'm here to talk about anything else as well.

[03:49:40] We'll go through our order with questions, so starting with Supervisor Galloway. Thank you. Great, thanks. And is your understanding that that buffering that was supposed to be done on the other project came to be in the analysis of this project? Yes.

[03:49:56] Or they just hadn't got to it yet, or it was just like, oh, they haven't done it? We noticed that they hadn't had done that. It came up during the community meeting about the questions about screening, about our property, screening between the church and the estates.

[03:50:13] And then when I went out there and looked at it, I noticed that that screening that was required with their site plan hadn't been installed. And even portions of the fence that was required under, I think, three or four lots wasn't installed either. So I think staff is working with the builder who built out that development to finish the landscaping.

[03:50:35] Thank you. And that's all I have right now. Thank you. Superventor Malek. Thank you. So you mentioned or someone mentioned the phasing for the 500-foot eventual sanctuary, 500 seats, sorry. So will it be built as smaller sections in the building added on to, as many of us have done to our houses over 50 years?

[03:50:56] or will the big building be built and only part of it fitted out at the beginning? The idea is to build the sanctuary first and to build it to the capacity. The full. The full capacity, and it will just be the sanctuary, and then you'll have the existing house, which the day-to-day offices will operate out of.

[03:51:15] And then as phases come on, they hope to build like a North X and more of a Sunday school classrooms and maybe eventually a gymnasium or some kind of multi-purpose room. Approximately how big is a 500-foot sanctuary?

[03:51:33] 500 foot? A seat. Oh, 500 feet. What's the matter with me? Yeah. Let's see. 7,000 or 8,000 square feet. Okay. All right. I can picture that compared to something around the corner from me. All right. And the connection to Avenity, the stub out, I forgot to look for that on the plan.

[03:51:53] Is that halfway up or where is that located on yours? Yeah, so what's also very interesting about this property, This was property was supposed to be part of Avenity Estates development. They had worked out a contract to purchase this and develop as a section of Avenity Estates.

[03:52:09] But the owner passed away a little bit into the rezoning process. And the son took over the property and didn't feel right about selling it. So he held on to it. And, you know, we always kind of said, you know, ultimately, this is the best time to develop it.

[03:52:28] And but he just didn't feel comfortable about it and ultimately, you know, sold it five years later. And Charlottesville Community Church bought it. And so I think that's everything I have. Thank you. Great.

[03:52:44] Can you tell us a little bit about the rec facilities that are going to be facing on the Charlottesville Road side of the property? Oh, the recreational facility? You know, basically, you know, be a kind of a field, maybe some playground equipment, you know, It's something that's geared toward, that can be used by the church during their different aspects of, you know, Sunday school or, you know, any programs.

[03:53:13] But also, you know, it's still available that, you know, it can be a community asset as well, the idea. Yeah, I'm a little surprised to hear that because I often picture these kinds of things as being fenced around.

[03:53:29] So, I mean, is that a commitment y'all are making? You saying it being a community asset, this is the first time I've entertained that possibility. So could you speak a little bit more to that? It's a church and the church is always looking for opportunities to reach out to the community and for them to work with.

[03:53:48] You know, the nice thing about this church is they have a lot of the residents are within the southern portion of Albemarle County and within this area. And so the idea is, you know, it's walkable and a lot of people come over there. I guess, you know, they've been operating out of Mountain View Elementary School, which, you know, those that recreation, all the recreation amenities on that site or, you know, that school are, you know, basically available for, you know, community people to use off hours.

[03:54:15] And it's kind of the same with this. You know, if some kids show up and start playing with the playground, you know, they have their parents there, you know, the church is happy to see it and maybe they'll come in, you want to be members. Sure. Is there fencing for this area? it would certainly be fencing around the playground okay um believe that's all i have at this juncture yes i have a question uh this regarding the screening if avinity doesn't uphold

[03:54:48] their portion of the screening are you then obligated to uphold your portion yes we're still upholding our our portion of it that's i mean both should be required frankly both are required well but will they do it well they they'll be worked on they're having to work now i'm hoping that works okay thank you haven't done it yet thank you supervisor mcmill very interesting because i was going to ask the same question is it was the recreational field intended for just

[03:55:25] the church or could the community and families and the community use it and you've answered my question i think yeah yeah that's great um one other question i had was um where is your construction site going to be i mean how are your your construction entrance it will come off pebble drive okay so it'll come off of pebble drive no you know the many many people do not like construction at the end of the day when the construction's over often they really do like it i'm just speaking in general with general but so i'm trying to figure out where the construction

[03:56:05] entrance is and the impact on the neighbors, although it might be temporary, how the impact would be. So it's going to come in this entrance I see right here off Scottsville Road. Okay. And that makes sense. My only other question is, since you're paving that road and you're taking over that road, it's going to be private, but it's your, you all will be providing maintenance and snow plows, plowing, and all of the things that are needed along a road.

[03:56:40] Right. Yes. I mean, it's ultimately a private road, so it's shared by the church property and two properties behind, which is more, right now, just a single family sort of a farm, acting farm. So, yes. I mean, ultimately, at this point, snow plowing will probably fall in the church.

[03:56:58] Not that we get a lot of snow these days, but we do get a lot of snow. All right. And that's all I had. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, I guess I had a question that was related to that, in that you said that this would be done in phases, but so where in the phases is the road paving?

[03:57:16] Is it going to just be first graveled and then used as a construction road? And then at some point, you've got to pave it, but you're still not done with all the phases. So that can be problematic when you're trying to work using a paved road, because it's tough to do that with construction equipment.

[03:57:33] Certainly. Yeah, the first phase will definitely be the construction of the road, the entrance road, the turn lane, the parking lot, and the sanctuary. Because they need the parking lot and the sanctuary need the road. As the current condition, the road wouldn't be acceptable for the members to travel up there.

[03:57:54] But for construction, it will be used until it? Yes. That's what I just wanted to clarify. But my understanding is, of course, it is a shared road, but is it currently being used as primary access for the people behind? Okay, that's what I thought. Thank you.

[03:58:11] I have no other questions, so we can, I think, turn to the public comment. Now my part is. Thank you. There will be a rebuttal second after that. Gina Maranto, you're the next and only speaker. Yes, hello.

[03:58:27] I'm Gina Maranto. I live at 3652 Moffitt Street and Scottsville District. So I'd like you all to imagine, roughly speaking, the distance between my back door and the back doors of 21 houses along Moffitt Street and Pebble Road is about what we are right now.

[03:58:49] There is currently a hedgerow that is a quite thick hedgerow that is about, I want to say, about seven or eight feet tall. I have a six-foot plastic vinyl fence, you know, about 10 feet out from my back door.

[03:59:08] Pebble Road, at its current height, brings cars in. It's probably about five feet above my back elevation, or the back elevations of most of the houses that go up the hill.

[03:59:24] And so when traffic comes up Pebble Drive, you see it as if it's driving through your living room. Literally, when trucks come, it's as if they're driving through my living room over the top of my six-foot fence and the eight-foot hedgerow.

[03:59:41] When you're in the second story of these houses, you look down onto Pebble Drive, and the traffic is also coming through your rooms at a very close distance. So imagine on a Sunday, ultimately, however many years from now, 200 cars coming in and out of that property, it's going to have to be very thick screening.

[04:00:08] I have gone to both the previous meetings and asked why Pebble Drive, given the degree of re-engineering that will have to be done to make that passable, why it could not be moved to the other side of the property and have gotten no coherent answer about why that's not possible. So I would ask you to seriously consider the impact. And considering that construction may proceed for many years, we're going to have very heavy equipment coming through there. And any time

[04:00:42] a delivery truck comes up that road, because it's so steep, they have to gun the motor, and it's very loud, even with your double-pane windows and doors closed. So I just ask that you would consider whether there is any compelling reason why Pebble Drive has to be the entry road, whether it couldn't, since it has to be re-engineered completely, as I understand from Mr. Collins and others, why it could not be relocated to accommodate the needs of the people and the 21 families living along that road.

[04:01:20] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Jenna. With that, we can ask Mr. Collins, do you have a rebuttal, comment, additional comments, before I turn it back to the board for more questions or comments? Sure.

[04:01:36] I guess I can address that. Basically, Pebble Drive is an existing private right-of-way, so it serves those properties behind there. And if we sit there and reroute it through our site, It sort of divides our site up into a tough way to get it to develop it, to use it.

[04:01:56] And that road is an existing condition. It's been there on the property. It was there when Avena Estates was developed. And I feel like we're making it a lot better by our improvements, especially by paving it. And the way we're paving it, it's not going to be higher than it is.

[04:02:16] and for the most part it sits pretty level with the existing vegetation so thank you i'm going to go through the order again to short closing the public hearing to see if there are any additional questions or comments for the applicant or other for staff starting supervisor galloway yeah i don't have questions i guess i would just make a couple of comments the um i was i'm well i'm not glad to hear that the other project didn't put the screening in there have been other development projects where they don't leave room for that they put the fence then when the next parcel develops the people that then live there come and say well why isn't that place providing the screening it

[04:02:56] sounds like both properties here have the responsibility for some screening so i mean that needs needs to be put into play um i certainly appreciate the the comment from the public speaker about the uh the road but this is if you move it then you're kind of putting that to the other side developer to deal with in similar fashion to this but the fact that it's the public right away I understand that this I would just call out as a good reason why in our conversations in the comp plan when we've asked for development area application like a scorecard that would come

[04:03:35] with the application because frankly this is development area that we're putting in a use that's going to in is not going to allow us to hit the maximum densities we want for residential in the development area and we need to start contending with that so we're at 58 we're going to put a church use in so my question is well what's putting allowing a church here preventing us from doing and if you know just as the property sounded like it was originally planned to be part of Avenity maybe another developer might have put it in who put as many units as dense as there in Avenity in there so in some ways the church use might be a blessing for the folks who live there

[04:04:14] because they're going to get, you know, less probably impact than what the fully scaled out development would be from a residential unit standpoint. But we need to make sure that when we approve these, that we understand the impact to the larger development area and trying to meet the unit capacity that we're trying to do. So to me, this is the perfect example of that. I can't, I don't think this would have redeveloped into commercial activity, but given the school or whatever that's down there, we are giving up, we're just giving up residential capacity here.

[04:04:46] So I want to make sure we're recognizing that as we move forward with them. But otherwise, I'll be supportive of the application. Thank you. So I want to clarify that it's a private right-of-way serving the house that's up at the top on the next parcel.

[04:05:03] So I guess I feel it's a pretty compelling statement from the neighbors that the whole new entrance could go on the south side where there is nothing, or the west side, south side, where there is no development at all over there. And then, you know, connect to the house at the top easily enough.

[04:05:22] I guess in the last several years, there's been a lot of awareness in the Whitehall District of the impacts to residential areas when drastic changes in vehicle motion happen. And especially where there are hills and the engine sounds going up and the braking going down, that it's not something that feels trivial to me.

[04:05:48] It feels like it's going to have a big impact on those residents. So I guess I'd like a little more interest or discussion, perhaps, if possible, about having the entrance on the other side. And I did not look well enough at the topography.

[04:06:04] I'll try to find that file and see if it's perhaps flatter over there anyway. But that's all I have right now. Thank you. I'm sorry, but did I misunderstand? You said it was a private drive. They said it was a public right away. He just said it's a private drive. He just said it was a public. It's right away from the properties behind.

[04:06:20] private right-of-way to the owner of the bus but the neighborhood and the house of the box well it's like a an easement held by the the adjacent property the staff report indicates that it's a private right-of-way that was dedicated in 1955 and it does serve a property to the rear um of the subject property but when you said earlier i was mistaken i was mistaken i was corrected one house up there i i apologize for that supervisor that was my misunderstanding well i mean well i made my comment okay um and i will say now that's my turn to talk actually um

[04:06:58] that i think the statement you made on that is still appropriate if anything it might constrain it further right um i because i had the same thought as in um yes maybe it does seem at first prudent to to re-engineer where the road is but then we're putting that same burden on the adjacent property, which I think is currently like, here's the truth, right? The Avon-Scottsville Road wedge is some of the last remaining undeveloped or lightly developed property in a really booming

[04:07:35] part of my district. It is going to get eaten up, right? This is the infill that we're going to see over the next generation. And I strongly suspect, not knowing him, that Mr. James B. Murray Jr. will be compelled at some point in the near future, or will feel himself compelled at some point in the near future to sell in order to develop out that property. I'm seeing faces, maybe someone else does know this man whose name I'm just bandying about.

[04:08:03] Childhood, yes. Point being, this is where we're seeing growth. I would assume, I think it has otherwise been gestured at i would assume that this is some place that we will see the adjacent properties also growing um and so that is kind of robbing peter to pay paul i think trying to re-engineer it which isn't to downplay what i know is going to be probably uh some real frustration especially

[04:08:37] during the construction phase um that is part of living in the development area um i i feel like the project. I've made kind of something of a personal charge to myself to not vote no on a church unless I see a really, really compelling reason not to, having been pretty close to seeing what it looks like to get approvals and capital plans through on churches and feeling quite sympathetic to that process. So I see nothing else that would really raise my eyebrows on this

[04:09:12] project and i'm going to be supportive i too will be supportive because i don't see the necessity frankly since the area in the south will probably be developed in the future so it's it's one six and one half dozen of the other but i do believe that if the affinity estates neighborhood or the developer for that area provided the proper screening like they should have in the beginning

[04:09:43] that would be less of a problem and the screening you're going to be providing a 12 foot screening total with both properties i think that's going to be adequate and i think once it's done as we've all seen construction all over i think once it's done this would be a very good amenity for frankly both neighborhoods. That's what I see. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor McKeel. Yes, I too am supportive, recognizing that construction is never fun. Lived through construction myself,

[04:10:21] and it impacted my neighborhood several times. I do agree with Ned, though. This is another situation where we are losing the ability to build some affordable housing, recognizing that This is what it is, but it is something for us to think about as we go through these approvals because we really need housing and certainly affordable housing.

[04:10:48] But I'll be supporting the project. Thank you. Thank you. And I share the concern that this is a parcel that would have been a great place for additional housing, but I don't own the parcel.

[04:11:05] We don't own the parcel. The church does, and this is how they've chosen to pursue its use. If there is nothing further, I will close the public hearing. The matter is back before the board, but I think I've heard several comments already about how people indicate on this.

[04:11:22] So unless there's additional comments, I'll look for a motion. I have one comment. I notice we keep saying, well, this has been a great place for affordable housing, but evidently the people that owned it before just decided to sell to the church. Am I getting that right now?

[04:11:38] So that's unless we change that and and say, no, this is only for housing and you can't build something else. I mean, we're we're going to call it stuff. We're definitely not call it stuff.

[04:11:56] We don't have a lot of options there. But churches have been, you know, that's a community need. And they certainly have proven to be good neighbors, at least in my district, as far as I'm aware of. I don't have any problem with the use. No, and I'm thrilled for the neighbors in the community that they're willing to share their playground, and so it's good.

[04:12:17] So, this is in the Scottsville District. I'd like to move to adopt the resolution as provided in Attachment E to approve SP18, Charlottesville Community Church. Second. We have a motion from Supervisor Pruitt, a second from Supervisor LaPiesto-Curtley.

[04:12:32] Without objection, if the clerk will call the roll. Ms. LaPiesto-Curtley? Aye. Ms. Mallett? Yes. Ms. McKeel? Yes. Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Mr. Andrews? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Board, that brings us to item 16 from the Board Committee of Reports and Matters not listed on the agenda, starting with Supervisor Galloway.

[04:12:55] And I made a couple of comments earlier during the budget time, but I thought it was the one gentleman last night in the town hall brought up asking, not, you know, just are there innovative ways in talking about revenue diversification in the county from a taxing perspective and it's not one any specifically called out a dylan rule state understanding that there's ramifications about that um but it's been definitely resonating since that gentleman made that comment last night and i've even started looking out and even hit a couple people with some questions here today but i thought it was uh interesting that during going to like vaco and

[04:13:34] naco conferences i hadn't really heard of those but i also wasn't looking for those um so i'm just calling that out as something for everybody to kind of think of or brainstorm and if you see ways of getting at uh not that we're we're searching for new taxes per se but taxes that are hit people differently um and are a little bit more uh uh you know not just hitting the property tax all the time so i just thought i'd mention that as one of the call outs from my tent from the town hall meeting thank you supervisor maryland one thing related to that one thing i've learned from constituents over the years is the emphasis on primary business, which is what's described to me

[04:14:13] as bringing in outside dollars to our community, not just selling to each other, but actually making a widget and selling it to somebody in another place and bringing those dollars home. So I think that's been a focus of our new-ish and growing economic development focus, and I appreciate what it's been doing. And I don't have any meetings or announcements right now. Thank you.

[04:14:37] Supervisor Pruitt. I thought it might be worth sharing with the board. So I was invited to one of these empty chair town halls that are happening kind of across the country in nearby Goochland. And it was a political event, so I don't want to go into that, but something a lot of members in the audience shared with kind of the empty chair representing the congressman were individual stories of impact about current or pending cuts from federal government in individual lives.

[04:15:06] And the widespread nature of this was really striking, the industry kind of cross-cutting effect. And one that especially stuck with me was talking with an individual afterward who is a clinical child psychologist, and she is in fact the only one in Louisa County, and that was a very deliberate choice.

[04:15:28] A significant portion, about 60% of her incomes come from Medicaid patients. And this becomes relevant, not just because of that loss of those clients, but also when she loses 60% of her client base, she no longer has a business.

[04:15:47] And this echoes and sounds in a lot of the other kinds of individual stories. So I mentioned this, especially Pruden, when we're talking about tax base and revenue diversification of this being something that this board should be concerned about, wary about and watching how the tides are coming in because i think it's a very real possibility that over the next four years we start seeing not just increased demands on our social services increased demands on what we do to support people in this county but also quite frankly we might see

[04:16:22] serious kicks to the to the legs of our stool of revenue um as individual industries individual businesses have some of their means of income taken away because they are in some part dependent on federal services. Supervisor Lupisto-Kurtley. I have no comments. Yeah, I just have a quick comment or just some information to share. I double-checked, remember the other night in the

[04:16:57] work session, I said about 20% of our inmates in ACRJ had a high school diploma, and I double-checked that with Colonel Coomer. And he said, in fact, it was around 20%. But he said, and this I found interesting. He said that they have 6%, 6.5% have GEDs, which is, it's great to have a GED, but only 6%. But he said it was, and I thought this was interesting. I didn't realize this. He

[04:17:33] said it was really hard. That 6%, they had been able to verify because they were able to contact the high school and verify that the person either had a GED or a high school diploma, you know. But he said it's very hard to find out that information because the inmates are not always forthright when answering the question if they have a high school diploma, because if they say they do not have a high school diploma, they're required to participate in a GED program. And I didn't realize that i'm just sharing that information i didn't realize they were required

[04:18:09] it's just an interesting just thought i'd share a little information with you i've been meaning to ask you when you said the 20 have a high school diploma in my mind i thought an 80 do not have that right and it's an approximate so 26 73 whatever wow okay but it was interesting because I didn't realize that they were required.

[04:18:32] I knew that we had GED programs, but I honestly didn't know that we were required. Anyway, I just thought it was interesting. The other thing that I'm going to bring up one more time is that I really hope that at some point over the next year or so, at some point, we can deal with manufactured homes because they are a great option for affordable housing and they really need to be in the rural area because the development area is too expensive the property is just too expensive so if we can somehow or another get to that i'm just i'm going to probably keep saying it and

[04:19:08] saying it and saying it but thank you jim i appreciate it thank you um i'm a little surprised that i know it and yet and maybe i shouldn't but has brought up the fact that many of us went to the affordable housing summit uh last week and uh i really appreciated that opportunity and heard a lot of great things and supportive of a lot of what we are trying to do with affordable housing and I deeply appreciate what that we are trying to do but I do want to point out that I went to one session on comprehensive planning and was told some statistics that I found shocking I guess a

[04:19:44] little bit maybe not surprising completely but still according to what I was told in this session There were 4 million empty bedrooms in the United States in 1970, when the population was 203 million people.

[04:20:01] There are now almost 32 million empty bedrooms, a factor of 800% increase compared to then now, with only a 63% increase in populations. We're now 331 million, but that shows that the number of empty bedrooms has increased dramatically.

[04:20:21] Of course, it's because of the number of people who live in smaller nuclear families, aging, maybe having space for kids to come back, but they're not there living, or single parents where they have to have two houses for the different families.

[04:20:39] So that was fascinating. And in addition, the statistic was given that, and this is no surprise, really, that 85 percent of people lived in single family owner occupied homes in 1960. That's more like 65 percent, or at least our single family owner occupied homes were decreased substantially since then.

[04:21:01] But he said that there are predictions, and these are nationwide, not Albemarle County, that there will be a glut of unoccupied single-family homes on the order of 15 million by 2040. Anyway, who's the thought?

[04:21:19] As a very quick note of just something, some data I have tucked away in the back of here from a master's dissertation I wrote once. On a region-by-regional analysis, the southern Appalachia region, which we are not part of, but we kiss, we kiss the southern Appalachia region, there has been slight increase in single-family homeowner occupancy over the last two decades.

[04:21:45] That, when you analyze it, is entirely, more than entirely, attributable to the expansion of manufactured housing. It is greater than the amount that was gained. Yes, it's important to recognize that manufactured housing means something different than it used to mean as well.

[04:22:06] So I'll look to the county executive if there's anything further. I'll look to the board if there's anything further. If not, we will adjourn to April 2nd, 2025, at 1 p.m. in Lane Auditorium.

[04:22:21] Opportunities for the public to access and participate in this meeting are posted on the Albemarle County website, on the Board of Supervisors homepage, and on the Albemarle County calendar. participation will include the opportunity to comment on those matters for which comments from the public will be received. Thank you. Good night. Thank you.

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