Coraggio Consulting
Albemarle County Board of Supervisors Regular First Meeting, Wednesday, May 7, 2025

Date: Wednesday, May 7, 2025
Place: Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, Virginia
Length: 5h 37m (video)
Official meeting video (Granicus): https://albemarle.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=1&clip_id=1340
Official agenda: https://albemarle.granicus.com/AgendaViewer.php?view_id=1&clip_id=1340

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 2026-10-14. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:03] Good afternoon. I am pleased to call the order of this meeting of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors on the 7th of May, 1 p.m. in Lane Auditorium in the McIntyre 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 Dianz McKeel of the Jack Jewett District, Supervisor Ned Galloway of the Rio District, Supervisor Ann Malick of the Whitehall District, myself, Jim Andrews, representing the Samuel Miller District.

[00:00:27] quorum is present. We're also joined here by our county executive, Mr. Jeff Richardson, our county attorney, Mr. Andy Herrick, our clerk, Ms. Clendette Burgerson, and our senior deputy clerk, Mr. Travis Morris. Also, let me please welcome, among many here, the two police officers who are on duty, I guess, today is officers Caden Painter and Tavon Richardson. We thank you for your service and all of the police officers present here today for your service and the work your colleagues do for us every day for our safety and security. If all present could now stand as you are able and join us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

[00:01:03] States of America, to the Republic, which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. And I now ask that you join us in a moment of silence.

[00:01:36] Thank you. Lord, our first action, of course, is to adopt a final agenda. I'm looking for a motion.

[00:01:53] I haven't heard of any suggested changes, so if there's a motion to adopt the final agenda. So moved. Second. We have a motion from Supervisor McKeel, second from Supervisor Malek. Without objection, if the clerk will call the roll. Ms. McKeel? Yes. Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Mr. Andrews? Yes.

[00:02:08] Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. Lupisto-Kirtley? Aye. Ms. Malek? Yes. Thank you. Board, then, our first item is a brief announcement by board members, and we have our order, of course, for the day. and we will start with Supervisor Malik.

[00:02:25] Thank you. The only announcement I have is that this weekend, Mother's Day weekend, is the Arts and Crafts Festival in Crozet, the 36th one, and both Saturday and Sunday, 10 to 5, and hopefully people will go. Maybe it won't rain, but I want the rain at my house, but I hope it doesn't rain in Crozet.

[00:02:43] Thank you very much. Thank you. Supervisor Lupista Kirtley? I have nothing at this time. Thank you. Supervisor Calloway? No, thank you. No announcements today. Supervisor Pruitt? A few brief announcements. Now that it is summer, I would like to just remind everyone in the audience that it is a great time to visit our local farmer's markets.

[00:03:03] Most of them are open on Saturday. The Scottsville Farmer's Market is open at the Scottsville Pavilion every Saturday and has a wide variety of things. But additionally, there's quite a lot of Scottsville district farmers who sell at the Ix and City Markets because I think they can probably get a little bit of better prices up there.

[00:03:20] And so for that reason, I would invite you to not just patron our incredible farmer's markets here in the Scottsville District, but also in the city because you're still supporting our Morrow County businesses. Additionally, while I'm talking about the Jim of the James, I would like to make sure the audience is aware that May 14th is going to be the Scottsville Board of Supervisors joint meeting.

[00:03:44] So that's the 14th at 7. And that is actually going to be in Scottsville on Valley Street in the historic Victory Hall. Additionally, this is actually not in my district, but I'm going to exercise a little bit of privilege as a comic book nerd, as a big fan of indie comics.

[00:04:02] So National Comic Book Day was this Saturday, and we were very excited to be able to celebrate one of Albemarle's own, Hello Comics, which has been nominated for an Eisner Award. The Eisner is like the kind of the Oscars of the comic world. It's mostly for writers, artists, publishers, but every year they do offer one spot for the spirit of independent sales, right, for an independent comic book shop, and Albemarle County's Hello Comics, which is in the Rio District, has been nominated this year, which is an incredible honor.

[00:04:37] Additionally, I would like to just share briefly, so I was one of many members of the community in Amaral County, I know because they identified themselves as such, who joined our congressman for one of his second telephone town hall. I mention this in part because there was a caller from my district, from the Scottsville district, who called and expressed some concern about something that I'm sure other people in the audience have concerns about and that we will touch on later today, and that is the tax burden she's facing. She shared concerns about her local real property tax burden, and she shared it because we don't always know who the right person to bring our concerns to. She shared it to our congressman. So I would

[00:05:16] mention this because she brought this up. Wouldn't it be great if there was some way that we could have tax relief for the elderly and the disabled? And I was sitting there on the phone. There is tax relief that is available for the elderly and disabled. Please just literally throw it in Google. Call the front desk in Elmoral County. There are so many people who are falling over excited to help you get hooked up with the tax relief that you deserve if you are a qualifying person who is elderly and disabled is having a hard time making their real estate property tax increases. It's something we actually revisit every year to make sure that we appropriately

[00:05:51] raise the qualifying amount for that. We've done that already this year to make sure it's actually hitting as many people as possible. So that is available. And lastly, our congressman made a response to this, noting it was probably a local issue, but also that this is something that he is disengaging to try and reduce overall costs in federal government as a way to keep tax bills down. And so I reflect this to the community. That is not correct. A federal cut done as federal cost saving does potentially reduce your income tax if they actually reduce the deficit, which is

[00:06:26] not always what happens. It's not actually what's happened in my lifetime. Reductions in federal taxes actually are likely to increase the demand for local services because we are not getting contributions from that, right? We have talked about several times how we are benefiting from the FEMA SAFER grants, right? And that was a major way that we hired the significant expansion of fire and rescue staff that we have. That is federal money. If there are cuts in federal services, we would have had to have done that entirely using our own money, which likely would have been realized

[00:07:02] through personal property taxes. So it is helpful to always remember that this is all part of one big continuum. If someone is trying to sell you on the excitement of, oh, we're cutting taxes at the federal government, so now you'll pay less, that might be true on your income tax bill. But again, hasn't been in 20 years. But what is going to happen is your local government is going to have to step up to foot the bill more, and that is actually going to come and get you. So I just raised that up for y'all, because we're talking about taxes today. And that's all I have. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor McKeel. And I just want to piggyback on what Mike said. Thank you very much and the true the um the accompaniment to that is it's the same thing for the state yes

[00:07:42] when i was first elected 28 years ago the state paid 70 percent of public education they are paying now 30 i'm sorry reverse that the state was paying yes 70 of public education they're now paying 30 so we are picking up the difference between 30 and 70 it is unconscionable And that is why our bills for public education are so high is because the state is no longer paying their fair share.

[00:08:17] So when the state reduces your taxes, it comes right on down to the community, whether it's schools or services. And so we have double hit, Mike. We have the federal government and we have the state. And after us, folks, it's your HOAs and your homeowners associations because that's what will be left.

[00:08:38] Insurance providers. your insurance providers that's a good point too didn't mean to get on my high horse but might got me excited about this having said that I don't have any announcements more mundane announcements for the day of one is just to remind people that the Ivy Solid Waste and Recycling Center is continuing with their collection days and Saturday is this Saturday's appliances next Saturday's tires. I encourage people to use those services, those three days. I also want to just make a shout out to a SWAC member. The Solid Waste Alternatives Advisory Committee has a student

[00:09:16] member this now, Zachary Lansman, and he just won one of the UVA Sustainability Leadership Awards. He's a PhD student, co-founded Junk Lab Z, which recycles lab materials into furniture. And he won that award, and I was quite pleased to hear about it, so I wanted to make sure we made note of that.

[00:09:34] And that is all I have, so anything further? Okay, thank you. Then our next item are a couple of proclamations and recognitions. We're going to begin with recognizing the upcoming National Police Week, and I'll turn to Supervisor LaPiesto-Curtley to read the proclamation as a motion.

[00:09:53] Thank you very much, and it truly is an honor for me to be able to read this proclamation. So Police Week is May 10th through the 16th, Whereas in 1962, President John F. Kennedy signed the first proclamation recognizing May 15th as Peace Officers Memorial Day and the week in which it falls as National Police Week, to pay tribute to the law enforcement officers who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country

[00:10:26] and to voice our appreciation for all those who are currently serving on the front lines of the battle against crime. And whereas the safety and well-being of Albemarle County citizens being of the utmost importance to the prosperity and livelihood of Virginia's families and communities and police officers throughout the Albemarle County are dedicated to protecting and serving Albemarle County communities, our neighborhoods, schools, and families.

[00:11:01] And whereas police officers risk their lives each and every day in order to ensure public safety and enforce the laws of the land. And whereas Albemarle County values the courage and devotion of our police officers as our collective prosperity depends on the integrity with which our law enforcement officers maintain peace and security.

[00:11:27] And whereas Police Week and Police Officers Memorial Day are opportunities to honor the officers who have fallen in the line of duty and recognize the sacrifices made by the families of those officers and the families of those who continue to protect and serve our communities.

[00:11:48] Now, therefore, be it resolved, be it proclaimed, that we, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, do hereby recognize May 10th through 16th, 2025, as Police Week and May 15th, 2025, as Police Officers Memorial Day in Albemarle County, and call these observances to the attention of all our citizens.

[00:12:17] signed the seventh day of may jim andrews chair abamala county board of supervisors second we have a motion from supervisor lapisto kirtley a second from supervisor malik without objection if the clerk will call the roll ms mckeel yes mr pruitt i mr andrews yes mr galloway yes miss lapisto kirtley i miss malik yes thank you and i understand we have several officers present, but in particular, our Major Randy Jamerson, Deputy Chief of Police here to accept this proclamation and to help us recognize all those present and who serve. Thank you.

[00:12:55] Good afternoon. Chair Andrews, members of the board, Mr. Richardson, thank you for allowing us to be here today. National Police Week is a time to remember and honor the following officers who have died in the line of duty, as well as those who've made the ultimate sacrifice during their career. It's a time to express gratitude to law enforcement officers for their service, dedication, and commitment to keeping our community safe. Let us take advantage of this opportunity to celebrate the lives of the men and women whose hard work, dedication, and sacrifice remain as an inspiration to us all. Thank you to the board for recognizing National Police Week and all that you do to support the Albemarle County Police Department. To my colleagues here today and for those serving across our great nation, may God always keep you safe and return

[00:13:35] you home to your families each and every day. Thank you for choosing a career to serve and protect others. Thank you. Thank you. And if you remain a woman, I'm sure there are comments that people would like to make from the board, starting with Supervisor Malik. Oh, thank you. When I was little, there was one Sheriff Bailey that he was our public safety person and parked himself generally in the area of Barracks Road Shopping Center so as to be able to respond in all directions when the call came in during the night. So we have come a long way. And I think that I'm so proud of

[00:14:10] all that you and your officers and department has achieved in that last 70 plus years because it's so important to all of us and i'm so lucky in my neighborhood to have animal patrol people and regular and officers all up and down the roads and just seeing the vehicles out of the front yards is also a wonderful thing reassurance for for everybody so thank you and carry on and stay safe thank you thank you supervisor lupiz de kirk i think it's so important that we maintain an outstanding reputation that you all have in the community that's what people appreciate and

[00:14:45] i will tell you speaking of taxes uh i have not heard any any pushback when we said the 3.2 cents goes for public safety which is police and fire i haven't heard any pushback they really appreciate what you all do we have good public services here and that's something we hope to continue and i just want to do a shout out in fact i'd like when we're all done i'd like all the police officers to come up front as i give you the proclamation thank you supervisor gallivine well deputy chief jamerson and not to undercut you or the chief but the chair said there were

[00:15:25] only two officers here on duty today so the rest of you get the day off i'm assuming misspoke on that so i think it's well deserved and enjoy the beautiful day outside um i will simply say that I am so proud to be a supervisor in a county that has the police force that we do because of the individuals of who each and every one of you are, but also of how you choose and how you police in Albemarle County. And the supervisor wants you to know that there's never going to be a political wind that blows strong enough to make me feel otherwise. So thank you all for stepping up to serve our constituents and to protect our constituents each and every day.

[00:16:01] Thank you very much. Thank you. Supervisor Pruitt. Thank you, Major, for being here and for everyone else who has come out. And thank you so much for the work that y'all do every single day for this county. I've said before, and it comes up sometimes during the context of budget, right, that one of the greatest strengths that Albemarle County offers is the incredible professionalism of its staff, by which I mean we have people who are the envy of the Commonwealth, folks who are offering an outstanding level of customer service, and folks that are excited to do the work that they do here in the county. And I think that is true nowhere more than in our police force

[00:16:40] here in the county. Y'all are, I've said this before, y'all are the very first arm of government at the local level that most members of our community are likely to interact with. Rightly or wrongly, people have come to rely and expect a lot from the police. Y'all become kind of the first point of contact for a whole range of services that go a lot further beyond, you investigating property crimes and doing police and speed enforcement.

[00:17:07] There is a lot that we as a community have started to expect of y'all, and that means y'all are really the first line of the fence in how we interact with and how we manage our community. And I think the fact that we have such a supportive community, such a community that is so thrilled to be living in Albemarle County reflects on the incredible quality of service that you deliver on that front every single day.

[00:17:27] So thank you so much. Thank you. Supervisor McKeel. Yes, thank you for being here. And those in the back, thank you for being here. It is really true. We really are so appreciative of the quality of the police force that we have in this community. I have citizens that come up to me.

[00:17:46] It's not unusual for citizens to come and say, I had a dealing with a police, an Alamara County police officer. And while I might not have liked the ticket or I might not have liked this, they were professional. They treated me with respect. And thank you so much.

[00:18:01] So thank you to all of you all that are here today. And I would just point out for citizens that would like to have an opportunity to learn about Elmira County Police Officers and the Elmira County Police Department, we offer every year, or at least the last several years, we have offered a Citizens Police Academy, usually in the spring, and that's a great opportunity to learn more about how our police officers work, the office works, how the officers work, and some of the regulations and rules and what it's all about. So it's a great opportunity, and everybody should take advantage of it. Thank you. And I'll

[00:18:41] just echo the words of gratitude expressed very well by fellow supervisors. I don't want to put my foot in my mouth again with the sense that all of you aren't here for us, and very much appreciate it. Thank you very much.

[00:19:18] Because I can take a picture if we need one. Anybody. Thank you very much. Appreciate you being here.

[00:19:37] Board, this brings us to our second proclamation, this one for this week, recognizing this week as Public Service Recognition Week. And Supervisor McKeel will read the proclamation as a motion. Yes, and I'm happy to read this. And I'm looking out in the audience, and I see a lot of our public servants in the audience.

[00:19:53] So, yes, Public Service Recognition Week. Whereas public servants serve Americans daily at the federal, state, county, and city levels. These unsung heroes do the work that keeps our nation working. And whereas public service is among the most demanding and noble of professions.

[00:20:13] And whereas public service recognition week is observed annually to celebrate and recognize the valuable service that public servants provide to the nation. And whereas over 900 Almar County local government employees work tirelessly to serve our residents, businesses, and visitors, providing them with an outstanding customer service while maintaining careful stewardship of the resources with which they have been entrusted.

[00:20:43] And whereas we appreciate the many accomplishments and contributions made daily by these public servants. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed, we, the Almar County Board of Supervisors, do hereby recognize May 4th through May 10th, 2025, as Public Service Recognition Week and call upon the Almar County community to recognize the significant and important contributions that public employees make to our community.

[00:21:10] Signed this 7th day of May, 2025, Jim Andrews, Chair, Almar County Board of Supervisors. Second. We have a motion from Supervisor McKeel with a second from Supervisor Malek. Without objection, if the clerk will call the roll. Ms. McKeel? Yes. Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Mr. Andrews?

[00:21:26] Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. LaKeesta-Kirtley? Aye. Ms. Malek? Yes. Thank you. And I understand we have several members of the staff here to accept the proclamation. Jessica Struther, Tax Court, Jay Chaudhry, Child Welfare, Margaret Malaszewski, Lieutenant liz gomez and i'm missing somebody so if one of you wants to help me out here good afternoon supervisors nice to see you thank you so much for this proclamation thank you for your service as

[00:22:03] public servants and for the time and effort you give to our community please identify yourself as well thank you lieutenant elizabeth gomez on behalf of the committee and our employees we appreciate very much the support for the board and their work that we do every day. It means a lot for us to hear your remarks. Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon. I'm Jay Chowdry with Department of Social Services. We are excited about this week's activities, which have included the opportunity to tour our newest park, Biscuit Run, on Monday, employee snack breaks on Tuesday and

[00:22:42] Wednesday, and our annual employee picnic coming up this Friday. We hope that you will be able to join us there. Hi, I'm Jessica Strother with Finance and Budget. So a lot of employees have joined us today to hear this proclamation read aloud. Will everyone who's here today as an Alburo County employee please stand? Even those who are just here. So on behalf of everyone who's here

[00:23:19] today and everyone who's out there serving our community, thank you for this proclamation. Thank you. And Supervisor, we'll make remarks if you just remain a moment. Supervisor Malik? Yes, thank you. For 17 years in the audience and then my 18 years on the board, I have seen so much wonderful work on the part of all the Elmall County staff in all the different departments, and I'm so appreciative of all that you do.

[00:23:43] Our world evolves every day, and you all evolve with it, and it's a big challenge, I understand, but thank you very, very much. Thank you. Supervisor Lupisto Kirkland. I'm going to keep it short and sweet. Bottom line is we appear, at least myself, we could not do it without you all.

[00:24:00] There's just no way we could do our job without the support, intelligence, help from you all. Thank you. Mr. Professor Galloway. Well, unfortunately for you all, the chair didn't leave any sort of opening for you to get the rest of the day off, so it'll just be good to do that, unless the county executive has something to add, not to put him on the spot.

[00:24:22] Last year, I remember mentioning the work The Call to Service by Robert Coles, which is a wonderful book on those who step up to do public service in a variety of different ways. And I, this year, again, was flipping through that particular work as I reflected on this.

[00:24:38] But each and every one of you is so important to our community. And Supervisor Lupisto currently hit the nail on the head when she said you make our lives easier, not just because we're dealing with constituents, but because we can enact a strategic plan because we know who we have that can put it into action.

[00:24:56] So I appreciate everything you all do to help us further the vision of the county and appreciate the effort you have in serving our constituents each and every day. Thank you. Supervisor Pruitt? Thank you all so much for being here, for all the work you do for the county. I won't go to the incredible effort of repeating myself, because you've already heard, but I think we do have truly some of the most exceptional customer service, some of the most exceptional staff that you could possibly have as a county in this commonwealth.

[00:25:23] And I know that's because of the incredible work and talent that y'all bring to the fore. You know, we go through peaks and valleys of what the cool, what the sexy kind of career for people who are like entering and beginning into their career. And we've been through a long, dark period where the cool thing for everyone to do is to go be like an investment banker, go be someone who works as a tiny cog in a machine, making a billionaire, a double billionaire.

[00:25:48] I truly believe that hasn't always been the way, right? County government, state government, federal government, that has been an incredibly prestigious thing at so many points in our history. And it is something that we see, unfortunately, sometimes under attack as being a thing to aspire to.

[00:26:04] And I think right now we're at another inflection point in our history, in our culture in this country, where the incredible value, the incredible skill that people who work in local government, people who work directly with people in their community one every day, that skill, I think, is starting to become much more appreciated and noticed in the culture.

[00:26:25] I think we are on fast track to become the new sexy field to be working in right now. So I'm excited about the incredible talent that is going to continue to join this county as we move forward. So thank you all so much for getting in ahead of the curve, right, before all these new kids come and try it.

[00:26:43] Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor McKeel. Yes, thank you all for being here. And I will point out to the public that you are often here, and you're not here just from 9 to 5. You work shifts, police, fire and rescue, but many of you in the audience may come in at 8 o'clock in the morning, and when we have board meetings, you're still here until 9 or 10 o'clock at night.

[00:27:07] And I think the public fails to realize that. So we certainly appreciate your work. You really are appreciated, I think, by the members of our community that interact with you and have the opportunity to really have FaceTime with you.

[00:27:25] And certainly we appreciate you because you really make us look good. So thank you very much for your service. It really is a calling. And to be perfectly honest with you, you could leave for the private sector and make more money and not have to possibly work as hard.

[00:27:44] But we appreciate you being here. Don't leave. thank you thank you and again i echo the remarks of my colleagues uh we very much depend upon you and we know we can because you're good at what you do and we're very grateful thank you don't

[00:28:02] go anywhere i want to give you the proclamation i'm not sure thank you board will now turn to

[00:28:37] public comment on matters previously considered or currently pending before the board other than scheduled for public hearings and vice chair mckeel will read the rules and introduce the speaker. I will, and hold on just a minute. Let me just get myself together here. It looks like we have no one online, and we have four people that are present. So with that, let me read the rules. Matters on the agenda, but not listed for public hearing. During the time set aside for public comment on matters previously considered or currently pending before the board, other than

[00:29:16] scheduled public hearings, individuals may address the board of supervisors. Individuals are allowed one opportunity of up to three minutes to speak on 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. The green light will go on when you begin speaking, which begins your allotted time.

[00:29:39] The yellow light indicates you have one minute to finish speaking, and 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. When addressing the board, state your name and if you live in Elmoral 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. Speakers may not share any unused time with another speaker. Back and forth debate is not permitted. Do not speak from your

[00:30:19] seat are out of turn, and all comments are live-streamed, recorded, and published on the Almar County website. Right, and our first speaker for this afternoon is Stephen Herrick. Welcome.

[00:30:36] Mr. Herrick here. Don't see him. All right. Our next speaker, Gary Grant. Welcome. Please adjust the microphone. Thank you. Since you invited me to engage, I decided to come back and engage again

[00:31:13] the buttons out of the tables out in front there. Gary Grant, Rio District. April 30th, 2025, last Wednesday, board members, one of you said the following during your videotaped 6 p.m. public meeting, and I quote, we do not know how, I never know how, anyone's going to vote on anything until I get here, because sometimes we change our minds. September 9th, 2020. The same supervisor

[00:31:47] on the board at that time said the following at that videotaped public meeting, and I quote, I think most of us, by the time we get there, if we've done our homework, we already know how we're going to vote. So which is it, Madam Rivanna Supervisor? Do you or do you not make up your mind about how you will vote on the public's business before getting to board meetings? At the same time, would you like to apologize to the public and to the board members from Ryo, Whitehall,

[00:32:26] and Jack Jewett for what you stated on videotape on September 9th, 2020? Additionally, board from your public meeting last Wednesday night and from your six budget town halls this spring, who among you deep professionals has tallies to prove how many a lot is when you refer to phone calls, emails, and input from county residents you say are demanding so many services? This question can also go to your county executive who repeatedly used budget town hall slide number five

[00:33:05] that he said represented the many services county residents demand from county government. There were, by my count, 40 different services on that slide, none of which, except for 60 days of police and fire calls, has ever been backed up by an actual number of phone calls, emails, and what your Samuel Miller supervisor calls, quote, informal feedback from Albemarle's approximately 115,000 residents.

[00:33:36] And yes, Mr. Chairman, you were correct last Wednesday night when you opined, and I quote, the tax rate is somewhat painful. Gee, thanks. Somewhat. Thank you.

[00:33:52] Thank you. Next speaker, Karen Mann. Welcome. Thank you. Karen Mann, I'm a resident of Fluvanna on the Scottsville side.

[00:34:10] And first, I want to thank you for mentioning the Scottsville Farmer's Market. When I'm not a pastor, I'm also a farmer and a vendor at the Scottsville Farmer's Market. So, yay for that. I'm the pastor of Sojourners United Church of Christ here in Charlottesville and coming because my congregation and I were deeply disturbed when the ICE agents entered the Albemarle County Courthouse on April 23rd and arrested those two men.

[00:34:35] I speak from my perspective as a Christian pastor, but I know that many faiths share our belief that we are called to care for our neighbors and especially for our immigrant neighbors. In fact, the Bible is abundantly clear that caring for strangers is central to our faith. My church is committed to the values of radical hospitality, inclusion, diversity, and justice, and our beliefs compel us to work for the beloved community, a community where all people, regardless of faith, ability, identity, race, ethnicity, or even legal status, can experience justice and live without fear.

[00:35:07] The actions of ICE in our courthouse contribute to a culture of fear in our community and intimidation. They deny justice and do nothing but harm our community. Our regional body of our denomination, the United Church of Christ, is part of a lawsuit against Trump's executive order that reverses decades of protection for sensitive locations that restrict ICE from conducting immigration raids or arrests or other enforcement actions in schools, hospitals, houses of worship, and courthouses. We believe that raids conducted in churches violate the sanctity of our places of worship, but we also believe that raids in schools, hospitals, and courthouses violate the sanctity of our public

[00:35:47] common life. These raids are cruel and unjust. People have a right to worship, to go to school, to get medical care, to conduct their civic duties without fear or intimidation. You do not have to be a person of faith to believe that all human beings should be treated with dignity and respect. This is just a basic moral value. I know that other residents of Albemarle County and the surrounding county's community join me in wanting to know what our county government is doing to protect these sensitive areas in our community and ensure that people can go to worship, go to school, get medical care, and conduct their business in our courthouses without fear.

[00:36:23] And so I want to know, have you signed a cooperation agreement with ICE? Was the county aware of and what was your role in what happened on the 23rd? And what will you do to prevent future incidents like that from happening in our community? I'm asking you to demonstrate courageous moral leadership in the face of the xenophobia and racism that is coming out of our federal government and help our community be a place of justice and dignity for all persons. We are all humans deserving of dignity, citizen and immigrant alike. Thank you. Thank you. The next speaker is Diane

[00:37:00] Brown, and I believe this is Towns. Just wanted to make sure I was catching it. Good afternoon. Thank you for inviting me here, allowing me to speak here today. I want to share with you a letter that I addressed my supervisor, Board of Supervisors, Ms. B. Lopisto-Curtley, about six months ago.

[00:37:25] I reside in the Rivanda District. I was born and raised in the city of Charlottesville. And, of course, I could tell you when I was little, I went to Lane High School, and the walls permeated a lot of controversial stories from that era, but I'm not here to talk about that today.

[00:37:43] I'm here to share a letter that I wrote to Bea six months ago. From the Castle Hill Plantation in Keswick to the Birdwood Estate on Garth Road, through ongoing research, I continue to make discoveries about both my mother and father's ancestral contributions to Albemarle County.

[00:38:10] In doing so, I have come to the realization that descendants of ancestors who were enslaved during the transatlantic and domestic slave trading systems will need a repository to preserve our communal research findings. I believe that a world-class repository is needed to preserve and safeguard the lived experiences of those individual souls who are often forgotten and excluded from the American history narrative.

[00:38:41] An African-American museum that would sign, I can't read the small writing, so bear with me, align our communities to work beyond performative words and move towards a more actionable, transformative means of working together will serve as a great way to bring tourism to our area.

[00:39:03] I would also continue to invest in Elmira County's social history image and add to future economic portfolio. I appreciate your consideration, feedback, and fostering an ongoing collaboration regarding conversations about this.

[00:39:21] I was also a member of the Almar County Historic Preservation Committee between 2019 and 2000, I think it was 22, and I worked a little bit on the beginning stages of phase one of the comprehensive planning, but I would also like to include this letter for the record from some descendants of George Gilmer.

[00:39:48] We write in support of the proposal for a museum highlighting regional African-American historical experiences to be located in Elmeraw County. We, the undersigned, are directed since of Dr. George Gilmer, former owner of Park Mill, now the location of Penn Park, who enslaved persons to operate his forced labor farm there.

[00:40:06] We believe that such a museum is sorely needed to bring these stories to life. Thank you. Okay, so that's the letter that... Please leave the comments with the clerk so we can have them if you can. there's more to the latter but thank you for your time thank you thank you and i'm going to try one more time stephen herrick is mr herrick in the room then that's okay and that's it uh thank you uh board we uh now are up to the uh looking at the consent agenda and i haven't heard of any items

[00:40:40] uh recommended to be polled uh otherwise uh so before it's up to a motion to adopt the consent So moved. Second. We have a motion from Supervisor Lupisto-Kirtley. Second from Supervisor McKeel without objection if the clerk will call the roll. Ms. McKeel? Yes.

[00:40:56] Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Mr. Andrews? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. Lupisto-Kirtley? Aye. Ms. Mallick? Yes. Thank you. Board, we have a full afternoon ahead of us, and we're going to start with our six separate actions relating to the 25 calendar year tax rates, fiscal year budget.

[00:41:19] pay scales, annual resolution of appropriation, borrowing resolution, and capital improvement plan. So to lead us in that, we have Mr. Andy Bowman and Mr. Jacobs on there, our Chief Financial Officer and Deputy Chief Financial Officer of their order.

[00:41:36] Welcome. Thank you to the Chair for the welcome and introduction. We have today action to conclude the fiscal year 26 budget development process. There are six separate actions the board will be asked to take today.

[00:41:51] But before we get to the brief staff presentation of those requested approvals, I'm going to ask the county executive to walk through the highlights of the budget that the board has reviewed through their numerous work sessions, public town halls, and various public hearings. So with that, I will turn it over to the county executive, Jeff Richardson.

[00:42:10] Mr. Bowman, thank you. And members of the board, thank you. I think we are at the final step in the process of the consideration for the fiscal year 26 budget. I would like to take an opportunity at this moment to look back into the audience at the many public servants that represent all the departments and just recognize what a wonderful team that we've got.

[00:42:31] And for those of you that are still here this afternoon, thank you very much for your work on the budget. Thank you for your work through the department's hard work back through the budget and finance team. Our budget and finance team, I believe, is here today with us, and I'd like to recognize all those folks.

[00:42:47] It's a very long and demanding process, and you folks have done just tremendous work to be responsive to our board, to be responsive to the county executive's office, and I'm very grateful for that. So thank you very much. Board, I'll try to be as brief as I can, but this budget has been a lengthy process that's got a lot of moving parts, and I'm going to take a couple of minutes just to highlight our budget and talk more in detail about some areas just to make sure that there's no final questions from board members as you make your final considerations today. All of the slides that are in front of you today have been in front of you. They'll be in a little bit of a different

[00:43:25] order based on some of the comments that I'll be making. This is fiscal year 26 balanced on these tax rates. The two top, which are real estate and personal property, represent where the tax rate increase recommendations came when you received the manager's budget back in February. Real property moving ahead by $0.04 and personal property being restored to $4.28. And you've had past discussions about that rate, which stayed at $4.28 for, I believe, about two decades.

[00:44:01] The board cut this during the COVID pandemic because of the unusual nature of that pandemic and what it did to used car prices. Last year, we restored it partially. We've recommended that the remaining recovery of that be put into place to go back to $4.28. Food and beverage and transit occupancy both stay at 6% and 9% respectfully. So if we take a second and just remind the public and the board one more time, the $0.04 on real property taxes, we've recommended to the board

[00:44:39] for consideration that the heavy weight of that, 3.2 cents or 80 percent, will be devoted to public safety. Core service delivery, core service delivery in public services, it's about 10 million dollars next year to pay back FEMA grant-funded firefighter positions that we've competitively gone after since fiscal year 21. I'll talk more in detail about that. It also is about new police officers and fully funding our public safety pay plan to maintain workforce stability.

[00:45:15] Four-tenths of a penny devoted to public schools. This is over and above, and I'll talk more specifically about the total amount of new funding that is in this budget, but an additional four-tenths of a penny, which is $1.2 million in fiscal year 26, that brings that total amount for schools to $14.3 million, which represents a 7.3% increase year over year. And then finally, affordable housing. All of these areas have gotten a lot of attention during the budget work sessions, but affordable housing, four-tenths of a penny, which is for the first time ever consideration

[00:45:50] of ongoing funding, $1.2 million that would be devoted to affordable housing. And that's where the four cents goes if the board approves that for next year. Okay. This is probably the slide that we've leaned on the most over the last several budgets.

[00:46:08] As the board knows, we do budget annually, but it's responsible to do multi-year budgeting. We do do multi-year budgeting. It's where we're forecasting out expenses, revenues, and I'll underline obligations. What are our out-year obligations?

[00:46:25] Many of which are tied to core service delivery board, and so it's responsibility of local government to provide these services for the safety and welfare of the public that we work with every day. I want to outline a couple of things when we look at multi-year budgeting and we look at fiscal year, in this case, 24, 25, and 26. I want to talk for a minute about the Albemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail. Renovation funding to improve facilities conditions. It's for the first time in 50 years. So a lot of these investments are once in a career, for me, a 30-year career. So you're looking at investment in our regional jail

[00:47:05] partnership with cities and counties, and you're talking about renovations where there have been no renovations to the facility for 50 years. Emergency communications, 911. The county's operational cost share for that service next year will grow to $5.3 million annually. And I'll underlined to the board, that is core service delivery, but also it's in partnership with the city of Charlottesville and the University of Virginia. That partnership has been alive in this community for a long period of time. We have three independent police departments, Charlottesville,

[00:47:42] Albemarle, and the university. But somewhere along the way, someone said, let's save some money by housing all of these folks under one roof, and you're going to provide services at less cost, and it's going to be a higher level of seamless service and when you're calling 9-1-1 seamless service is important. Ravana Solid Waste Authority. Next year we will devote 2.9 million dollars that will go toward recycling services, solid waste, household hazardous waste disposal. This board is good about advertising these days that are provided to our county residents all through the

[00:48:19] County for these types of services. These services cost, and we pay for those services back through Ravana Solid Waste Authority. And finally, Jefferson Madison Regional Library. Our service share for operations next year, $5.9 million. And these are services that are provided to the citizens and community members of this county. So that's just an example of obligations and ongoing operational cost that we provide in order for the services that are provided to the

[00:48:54] community. And I would underline that in a lot of these cases, we are partnering with other agencies, the city, the university, in order to hold our costs down. Okay. I've shown you this several times as well as Mr. Sumner and Mr. Bowman, and that is we will forecast out five years.

[00:49:15] And we talked about this last fall. We talked about it going through the winter, early planning for the budget. And we showed about a 3.1 gap from expenses to revenue going into next year. That equates to about $13 million. So much of the gap is driven by core service delivery, public safety, the stuff that we've talked about already today.

[00:49:39] And then when you go out through fiscal year 30, you see that it grows. and we are modeling revenue growth and we're modeling what we know to be our obligations and expenditures all through those five years. So we knew we needed, we were at a time where we needed to address that going into next year. So I'm going to dig in just for a second. You can go to the next slide and talk a little bit more about our obligations and our investments. Board, you do multi-year budgeting with us and you do multi-year planning with us. We have a five-year

[00:50:13] strategic plan. We've talked about that. We're about halfway through the five years with this strategic plan. It embodies our board direction. It identifies our biggest opportunities. It identifies our biggest challenge and our problems. And so much of this and what we do in our strategic plan is also core service delivery. And what I would say with this budget tied back to the strategic plan. With the emails that I've seen, all seven budget town halls, I've been to six, is that we've heard from the public who have said, we need more than what you're providing.

[00:50:50] This budget doesn't do enough. And then on the other hand, we've heard quite a bit from people who have said, we need less. We want less taxes and we want you to cut. I've not counted to give you numbers on how much what people have said and what the weight has been, but it's been significant both with people saying you need to do more than you're doing and others who have said I'd like to see you cut. So going back over in summary again we've gone after 12.7 million dollars in federal

[00:51:23] funding beginning in 2021. These are grants that come in and pay for firefighters on the front end and then these grants slowly go away. And so we have hired 57 firefighters over the last four years through this federal FEMA money. And what this has done is it's allowed our fire and rescue department to maintain adequate fire and emergency service call response all through Albemarle County.

[00:51:52] It's allowed us to maintain the necessary and adequate response times and personnel that need to be on the scene to attack the situation. We've done this strategically with federal funding, and it has allowed us to jumpstart the process as we have seen a decline, a slow but measurable decline in volunteer services.

[00:52:15] This slide is really to represent the positions that have been added, 57 grant positions, and alongside that, 40 general fund positions that have been paid for totally out of local government money.

[00:52:31] These grants have helped service delivery across all areas of Albemarle County. We shared during our budget town halls that from January 1 to March 8, Fire and Rescue received 3,488 calls for service. So we have a very busy fire rescue system. If Dan Eggleston were up front right now, he would say we enjoy having a combination system, and that is both paid professional full-time staff with us, as well as professional volunteer staff that supplement all through Albemarle County. The role of the volunteers have been significant and instrumental

[00:53:11] in keeping the county safe for decades, and it's somewhat an opportunity on public service week for me to take a minute to sincerely thank every volunteer, every man and woman in this county that has and continue to volunteer through fire rescue through our volunteer fire departments.

[00:53:29] They save Albemarle County taxpayers money every single day, but these grants have helped us to supplement and maintain service delivery. And again, I say it's all across Albemarle County. Finally, as it relates to the performance metrics, we do track performance across Albemarle County.

[00:53:49] Fire and rescue, we do a really good job. It not only informs us on how our standards for service delivery, are we meeting those standards, but it also better informs resource deployment strategies for the future. In our fire rescue department, we do have an outside consultant right now that we're working with that is looking at our fire service delivery all across albemore county they'll come back this fall and give us a report on how are we doing how are we using our resources it will be after the budget but it will help inform us in budget years to come okay we've

[00:54:26] also recommended funding in the police department this board knows that we're looking at uh uh hiring six additional police officers this would be the most this would be the highest number of police officers that we've added to the police department since fiscal year 16. We've added 13 police officers since 2021. In the same time that I shared with you earlier that we've had almost 3,500 calls for service in fire rescue, during that same time we've had almost 16,000 calls for service in the police department. That's January 1 through March 8. Calls for service in both departments have

[00:55:06] steadily inclined since COVID. I did a little bit of quick math because out of the 15,900 calls for service, 170 have been designated as priority one. That comes in through E911 as an immediate threat to human life, whether the incident is in progress, just occurred, and it will require an additional officer. Over that period of time, on an average, seven days a week, that's about three calls per day. These six officers will go two more officers per shift, and what we will see

[00:55:44] is we will see improved response times, we will see second officer response times also reduced, and we will see the distance being closed between response areas. We also have the same consultant that will be here and reporting back to us this fall on how are we using our police services through the county, and are we maximizing resources for the services that we provide.

[00:56:09] These are core services that our community, we believe, needs. Okay? This map really is just to emphasize, and we talked about it during the budget town halls, that the county is 726 square miles. We cover a large area of both urban and rural area, and distance resource response times are critically important in both fire and police for us to be able to adequately serve our community.

[00:56:39] Okay. I want to take a minute, board, and just remind the board and our public about our increased funding for public schools. Citizens will stop me and say, where are my tax dollars going? And I will start every time with our relationship with public schools. Ms. McKeel said earlier that the state has backed away over the course of time with funding for schools and that she remembered correctly that's about 30%. Local funding is now just over 70% for local schools. We recommended for next year $14.3 million of additional operational money. That matches really closely

[00:57:16] to what they've got for the last two years. For the last two years leading into this year, We have provided them with $27.6 million in new funding for public schools just in operations. In addition to that, we also are ready to obligate $6.2 million of one-time money for health care costs as they share in our health care fund.

[00:57:39] And then finally, we also continue to be committed to public schools with our capital improvement investments. We're in the process of opening next year two new schools. We're building a third. We are funding school buses to support transportation needs.

[00:57:55] And finally, we believe that we are also trying to match their needs with renovations and maintenance. We continue to rank favorably across the state with per-pupil funding and low class sizes. I think we're committed to public schools, and I think our budget shows that. This board has talked a lot about affordable housing.

[00:58:15] You may talk about it more today. You also have a dedicated work session on the 21st of May to talk more specifically about the framing of affordable housing. trust fund and what that means. Really what we're looking at in fiscal year 26 is $5.2 million to be earmarked for affordable housing. We also want to point out that this adds to the $17 million in housing investment over the past five years. This slide has been in front of the board, in front of the budget town halls, and this takes a deeper dive into where that money is going.

[00:58:55] board uh two weeks uh two meetings ago we talked about climate action and environmental sustainability uh this board is considering uh program funding for fiscal year 26 at 2.25 million dollars uh we have had a cross-departmental leadership team that's uh that has been developed to work advance steps for the next uh climate action task our deputy county executive ann wall is here, and I'm going to move to the next slide, and I'm going to let Ms. Wall talk to the board

[00:59:31] a little bit about what our early work has been in this since we last were before you. Ann, thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Richardson. Ann Wall, Deputy County Executive Board. Today, we'll talk just a moment about climate action pool funding, which includes $221,000 of existing funding with a proposed increase of $300,000. We asked the facilities and environmental services staff to go back and to develop some recommendations on how best to use this funding for current and proposed

[01:00:07] activities under the climate action pool. Our focus was on projects or programs that had tangible and definable admissions reductions. The focus was also on items and programs that were actionable and fiscal year 26. In the coming months, we'll come back to the board with specifics on the programs related to funding levels and time frames, as well as what we believe would be admissions reductions as a result of those programs. We anticipate using the funds in the

[01:00:41] following buckets. First, a bucket about continuing existing programs, the Energy Resource Hub, as well as the community resilience cohort grant. Those were funds lost from the FEMA grant. The second is in building admissions reduction improvements on county buildings that result in admissions reductions as well as residential home energy improvements. Vehicle admissions programs might include public electric vehicle charging, employee carpooling programs, and e-bike vouchers and finally we would also look at a bucket related to community-based programs and

[01:01:19] that would be the community climate action grants. We see benefits across the board for that for these programs many are have co-benefits for example the residential home energy program would allow to for continuation of affordable housing. So I'm happy to answer any questions from the board related to this proposal and again we would come back to you in the coming months to provide specifics about each of these programs and funding levels as it relates to this additional funding.

[01:01:50] Okay, so we will pause and go through our order for questions on this particular topic, starting with Supervisor Malik. I look forward to the details on the buckets and the extra homework time before we talk, so we'll be well prepared. But I'm grateful that the weatherization is clearly indicated because that is, as you say, key people in their homes. Those most affordable homes are often elderly homes with elderly residents, and they need help to stay there. Thank you.

[01:02:18] Supervisor Lupisto-Curdon. I look forward to your report this fall. Thank you. Supervisor Calloway. Thank you. Nothing at this time. Supervisor Pruitt. Thank you. For the public, that is to say the camera in the back, the main new piece of information here today is this slide that's here. Everything else we've generally heard in the 30-some-odd hours of work we've done.

[01:02:42] I'm pleased with kind of the direction we're going here. I will confess I'm being lobbied from two different angles, one from the head of the Charlottesville Bike Library, Mr. Karp, who is asking for an e-bike voucher program, but also from my husband, who is asking for an e-bike voucher program.

[01:02:59] So I'm pleased to see it's considered. There's some policy considerations that I think will go into that, and I'm excited to dig more into this as the funding comes online. Thank you. Supervisor McHugh? I don't have any questions.

[01:03:14] I just really appreciate staff coming back to us today with more details because we did add additional money at the last meeting or next to last meeting, wherever it was in the process, and it's great to see this, so I appreciate your sharing this information.

[01:03:30] Look forward to more. As I do as well. Thank you very much for this. I'm almost finished, Mr. Chair, and I will turn it back over to the board. It's an additional $1 million that's in our economic development fund.

[01:03:49] And I believe what's most important that I would say is not so much where we are at this minute, but the work that we have ahead of us. Again, I've referred one time already to May 21st, where you will, on May 21st in the afternoon, you will receive details on cost for service study through the Weldon Cooper Center at the University of Virginia.

[01:04:08] That'll dig more into detail about what the true cost for services are in our community. And I think we need to pay attention to that moving forward because of our leaning in and commitment to economic development, where it is zoned appropriately in our development area, and how we can attack a balanced and more diverse tax base.

[01:04:32] Again, I've talked about the fact that we're 11.3% commercial and industry, and I would like to see us over time work our way back into the middle teens or even the 16% to 18% range and then I believe that that over time can pay dividends for this county government as we continue to grapple with affordability. So I think this $1 million is necessary for our economic development team. We're working hard in a number of areas. We appreciate that consideration.

[01:05:00] Board, you've been good to our workforce since I've been your county executive and our team really appreciates that. I think you are close enough to the work on a day-to-day basis to where you see the commitment of the men and women in this organization. It's a tremendous team.

[01:05:19] They do really good work, and so we've recommended a 3% cost of living adjustment to our staff. We are grappling, like most employers, with increase in health care costs. We are fully self-insured, and we partner with our public school system, and we appreciate their partnership as we lean in hard to investments in wellness.

[01:05:42] One is the recent opening of our two health care clinics here in Albemarle County. We have about 3,600 employees with schools and local government, so we're plenty large enough to support our health clinic, especially with our covered lives and families being just over 6,000.

[01:05:59] And so over time, we should see a slowing of growth in our health care fund, and that will hopefully give us revenue to do other things with and help us in a wide variety of areas. So thank you for that continued support. I do get questions from the public about is the county doing anything to look at cost savings and efficiencies.

[01:06:20] I think we certainly are. We're adding six police officers in the police department, but we are also, in addition to that, cutting almost 12 positions across county government for a net loss of six positions with approximately 800 staff in local government.

[01:06:38] We're committed to an additional $1 million in annual cost savings going into next year. It is embedded in the work that we're doing on a day-to-day basis. It's embedded with our systems modernization work, with our efficiency studies, and how we're utilizing our space, our planning, and how we design our processes to better serve our public.

[01:06:59] So I appreciate the work that continues to go on. I appreciate the board's shared commitment to doing the most we can with the money that we have. And I appreciate this work because this is real work by our staff where there is real cost savings. Okay. Finally, board, just again, I remind our public, I remind the board that we do a lot of stuff. Local government does a lot of stuff. We have an ambitious five-year CIP. This is our capital improvement program. This is where we take on debt. This is where we pay for our infrastructure. And we've got a lot of things that we do on a regular basis to try to positively

[01:07:37] affect the community that we serve. I've talked a little bit about this earlier, about the things that we're involved in. And again, this is just a representation of that. I did not talk much earlier about courts construction. Again, that's a generational type of project where I think the county and the city have been working for several decades, working toward new courts construction. And we're in the process of planning for the opening of those new courts soon. All right. This is a slide that the board has seen. It's posted just outside of lane it's for performance metric driven slide of the things that we do every day many of the

[01:08:16] people that were in the auditorium today if you had time for each person to stand up and say what do you do exactly you'd see connections back to this board of some of the services and the things that we do every day to serve the albemar county citizens and community so i'm certainly proud of our organization i would be remiss if i didn't tell you that we're already looking into 27 and beyond so our obligations and our work in the out year funding the out year budgeting will continue we're going to open two new schools in fiscal year 27 we're going to continue to keep an eye on state funding as well as federal funding and issues we have a revenue sharing agreement with

[01:08:55] the city that should require us to work very closely with the city and we do on a regular basis to try to do more with less we have key partner agency relationships and agreements some Some of those agreements and costs have gone up significantly, and we need to continue to work favorably with those agencies to do the best we can with the money we have.

[01:09:15] I've talked about FEMA Safer Grants, and again, this board has said, continue to watch the turbulence at the federal level as it relates to local service delivery, and we will continue to do that. And so finally, just the wrap-up slide, and that is it's a combination and a balance of striking economic vibrancy, good service delivery from our organization and really trying hard to lean into our community and listen to their issues, their concerns, and try to respond as favorably as we can, bringing the board options to consider on quality of life issues.

[01:09:53] And that's what we'll continue to do. I believe that's it, Mr. Chair. I'm going to turn it back over to you. Mr. Bowman, I believe, is going to go through really the six steps. But before you do that, if you have any questions on where we are with our budget, The staff that's here can answer any questions that you have.

[01:10:10] I know that I was a little long-winded, but it's been a long budget process. It's been demanding, and I do appreciate your time. Thank you. And, Board, I would like to go through our order before going through the six different motions that we have to have, but I'd like to then all those in order and then come back if there are any additional final comments.

[01:10:29] But just before starting the motions, we'll look through our order again. Supervisor Malek, any additional questions? questions on the presentation no i don't have any or anything related to what's coming but we'll right we'll go through the motions directly from there uh supervisor yes i do have a question um i've been hearing a lot from my constituents who don't who it's not clear to them if our assessments are going up so much you know over the past couple few years our assessments have gone

[01:11:04] up a lot why doesn't that cover the cost of what we want to do and this is real this relates to increasing our tax rate why aren't the high level of higher level of assessments and and it varies by district also even though it's a i think it's five five percent for the whole county but then it varies amongst districts and areas, but why isn't that covering the cost? If we can answer that, I think that really would be, that helps people understand, because that's a question that

[01:11:42] I get a lot. Supervisor Lupisto Curley, it's a question that I get with regularity from the community, and it's most oftentimes tied back to residential taxpayers who are looking at year over year over year assessments, and they're measuring how much their tax bill has gone up, let's just say in the last four years. And they're saying to me, that should be enough to pay for local government services. And I get, I understand that. And I get where they're coming from. I think that as you can see with this budget, there's several things. We have an extremely ambitious

[01:12:14] capital plan, most of which is devoted to core service delivery. When we look at courts, when we look at jail renovation, when we look at investment in recycling, solid waste, convenience centers, when we look at investment in three new schools, we've done renovations, we've done expansions, but three new schools over a five-year CIP, and that doesn't even take into account the operational money that we'll need to open those new schools. So I think when we look at

[01:12:53] at the timing of some of these projects, some that have been in consideration in design for over a decade, knowing that we were going to have to make investments at some point in time, that when you couple that with just a significant increase in cost for service delivery since COVID, operational increases, demands for service that have increased, and then on top of that, the decline in volunteerism across Fire Rescue. That's difficult for any organization. Even with high assessment growth, it's difficult to cover all of those costs without a tax rate consideration. I believe that's my

[01:13:33] answer. I'd look at Mr. Bowman and say, do you have anything to add? Because I'm sure I've missed something. No, that's a very good summary. Thank you. Yeah, I understand. And I know when I first came on the board back in 2020 that a number of these things weren't even we were looking at them or weren't even set so they came to fruition in the last you know several years which also involved COVID but they came to fruition over the last what four or five years so that wasn't

[01:14:07] something I won't say that we didn't anticipate it or the county didn't anticipate it but definitely came to um we had the board making a decision on whether or not to go forward on these things so which was a good decision because these are all things as i look at them these are all things that are needed thank you thank you supervisor galler i have no questions supervisor pruitt uh mr chair would now also be kind of the appropriate point for general comments kind of on the budget i i mean i feel like we have a series of six and i'm not sure how i would even

[01:14:45] target them, right? If that makes sense. Right. I mean, obviously, every motion has the opportunity for comment, but I was hoping that we would do the comment either before or after. I appreciate it. Recognizing that other supervisors might do it at a different point, I think I'm just going to quick put my the budget comments right slotted in here. And that's, I just want to kind of first acknowledge the thing I've talked about before, which is we have frustratingly few levers with which we can pull on to pay for our services, and unfortunately, the ones that we have been

[01:15:20] afforded by the General Assembly, by the Constitution of the State of Virginia, are incredibly limited. All of them are regressive in some way, and we have to choose between kind of a menu of bad options to find the best option for how we can fund the core services that we provide.

[01:15:40] I think this board has done a commendable job of trying to do that, and we recognize that that causes hardship on real people right i don't want to overlook that real hardship um that being said there's two key points i want to make first it is helpful i think that we remember that we are adding four cents today but we have this is the first tax rate increase that we have done in i believe six years six years um and the significant cost burden that people are well cost burden is the wrong term of art, the significant increased costs that people are

[01:16:18] seeing in taxes are almost entirely the result of critical market forces. We cannot control those market forces that make housing assessments go up and that make your tax burden increase significantly, which we know since 2010 has increased on average across the county by about 46%, which is a little over 3% per year, which is challenging. And that has been mostly concentrated in the past five years. That being said, the way that we can engage on rising assessments is something I think this board is trying to do, right? We have a limited amount of

[01:16:55] control on the supply side of housing, and that is what is creating your high assessments, right? Your high assessments that keep climbing year after year are because we do not have a supply that is meeting the demand that we have in this community. We have an intensely desirable community, a place that people want to live. And the data shows that we do not have the housing to support that.

[01:17:16] If we want to stabilize the climbing assessments, if we want to eventually cut down on your assessment costs, a key part of that strategy has to be making sure that there's housing opportunity in this community. And we are engaged on all the, I think, correct ways to try and make that happen. And we are going to be discussing even more of them later today. But I just want to throw that out there. The critical part of reducing your real property tax assessments is going to come from what we can do on the housing side, not what we're doing with the relatively marginal tweaks of our property tax. And second, sometimes we hear these assessments have increased

[01:17:52] so much over the past six years. My assessments have increased 50%, 40%, 30%, 60%, and there's no change in county services. Since I have joined the county, which is not long, joined the county government there has been radical increases in county services so i have a very small list i'm sure anyone else here when we go back around on these other votes will rattle them off but we have opened a massive park i believe what might be the largest park in the county in an urban area

[01:18:30] that is uh complicated to build in and we're going to continue to expand that and continue to operate that. We have funded a microtransit service in two of our most densely populated areas. And a microtransit service is not a cheap thing to operate. It has a relatively high cost per ride, but there's a really strong community demand for that. We have expanded our police forces, both the regular and the combined response, kind of hitting a variety of different community requests for that. So the more social sensitive heart team has also been expanded and formed really during this time. We have three new schools. While continuing to support existing

[01:19:09] continued operations and renovations, we have had to completely start reevaluating how we provide fire and rescue service with an aging rural fire force that has to be almost reimagined, right, because we do not have the replacement personnel for them, significantly expanding the professional services in the rural community. And fundamentally, we have a more expensive world. I think that is of detail that we don't talk about as much, but the costs for what we do are increasing. I think one of the best examples we can see is there was a 23% increase in our health care costs, right?

[01:19:45] That's not because of anything we did. That's not because of any choice we made. It's just the world is becoming more expensive faster than our dollars are becoming more valuable. There are reasons for that. They're not reasons that are in the control of Albemarle County, but we know that the wealthy are going to figure out how to always become more wealthy and that's going to make things more expensive for us. And so the last thing is that we have continued to be a employer. One of the largest employers in the county is the county. We've continued to be an employer that actually offers pay parity, that keeps up with the rising cost of living. That can sometimes feel frustrating

[01:20:23] if you're not employed by the county, but I think that is our duty as a progressive, as a quality, as a good employer to actually make sure we are keeping up with the cost of living because if you are going to say oh well our housing costs have increased and the cost of our wages haven't well then you should believe that we should be making sure our wages are increasing to match that so that is kind of my my broad full broadside defense of our existing budget final one on the record and i will shut up for the rest of these six motions thank you thank you supervisor mckeel i don't have any questions right now, and I'll make some comments later. Thank you. And I don't have any

[01:21:00] questions, but I will have some comments. But at this point, we're ready to start making some motions, I believe. Yeah, I would suggest, probably just for the flow, I'll go through what all the six of these motions mean, and then I'll turn it back to the board for action, so I can sort of step out of any board discussion or any other questions that come up. Because while these are all separate, they are also all related.

[01:21:21] So to walk these through very briefly, again, just to highlight the total fiscal year 26 budget. All funds, our operating funds, capital grants and others is balanced at $638 million. We have spent most of our time in the 30 some hours of public meetings on the general fund budget because that is where tax revenue comes in, particularly property tax revenues. It's a primary funding source of other funds and that's where the board has the maximum amount of policy discretion. General fund is balanced at $474.4 million. For the public Look, listening, since the time the Board's proposed budget in March, there have been changes.

[01:21:59] On April 7th and the 23rd, across those two meetings, the Board of Supervisors took one-time funding from the CIP Strategic Priorities Reserve and allocated to the three sources at those amounts shown on the screen. This is a reallocation of funding rather than new revenue.

[01:22:16] There is a county executive recommended adjustment that I would say is technical in nature that was included in the Board's packet. And this is really, we've spent time talking about the one-time transfer into the health fund and the portion of the $6.2 million that is provided by county government to the schools for the health fund.

[01:22:35] School staff have requested that $6.2 million be provided in fiscal year 25. So this is not a change in the amount. It is not a change in the intent. It is only a change in the timing. And so in June next month, we will bring back a budget amendment as long as part of other changes that we'll bring back for that action.

[01:22:52] So that, again, no change in the amount or intent, only timing. Finally, the school board is prepared to adopt the budget tomorrow night. And we're also included in this updated budget the anticipated some changes, one of which I already talked about on the prior slide of the time of the health fund, and also a small change, relatively small change, in some anticipated state and federal revenues that are being updated.

[01:23:17] And again, the school board will take their final action on May 8th. If there are any final changes desired by the board today, though they could always be amended mid-year, Those are kind of the three sources with the reserve contingencies on going in one time and the remaining CIP Advancing Strategic Priorities reserve that would be available that are not allocated to other projects.

[01:23:38] So with that, I'll get to the six actions, first of which is the board is requested to approve the tax rates for calendar year 25 that are funding the fiscal year 26 budget. The county executive went through these amounts and the basis in detail. So when I come back to the slide, the recommendation for the board's motion will be on the screen.

[01:23:58] And I'll continue to move through these before we take these actions. Next up is the fiscal year 26 budget, which is the proposed budget plus the summary changes that I've highlighted on the previous slides. I do want to comment that just based on the timing of updates from when we published the agenda's materials and the preparation of the board's agenda materials in mid to late April, we have provided an update to the board and the clerk to make sure this reflects all the most recent changes.

[01:24:25] So attachment B is the proposed budget. pay scales as we spoke about compensation the board is best practice approves pay scales on an annual process as part of the budget so that has been prepared for both the classified scale and all the related public safety schedules are reflected in attachment c moving on to next is the annual resolution of appropriations under virginity code the budget is just a plan the appropriation is the legal authority to actually spend funds and so a resolution is prepared to one match the budget to enact that illegal authority for funding from July 1st through June 30th.

[01:25:06] I do want to call attention that there are a few examples where the county executive is delegated authority to move funds that are administrative in nature from specific purposes to another. For transparency, we always report this in our quarterly financial reports. This is not a change from a prior year, but I do want to disclose that for purposes of transparency.

[01:25:25] Finally, this also sets forth, and this is not a change from a prior year, expectations of outside agencies who receive funding. This is something that community agencies agree to when they apply and will ask to be re-agreed to before funding is released to set expectations of them for reporting and other compliance that may be needed. The next attachment is probably the longest title one, but all we are really doing here is allowing the board to fund capital projects with bonds from future bond issuances. And again, the one that is approved annually. And then finally, there is the

[01:26:01] approval of the CIP. We've discussed before that the capital improvements plan is a five-year plan. The first year is adopted and appropriated, and those projects will move forward. Years two through five of the plan, or fiscal year 27 to 30, those are refined every year. So we've reviewed those as the planning standard, and if approved, this becomes the planning basis as we begin to build next year's CIP from fiscal year 27 to 31. So there's still that flexibility, but it does signal intent for staff to work through the planning and future phases of projects.

[01:26:36] And so with that, that concludes my comments, and I'll turn it back over to the Chair and the Board for any questions, discussion, and to go through these motions. Thank you. Or do we want to have any further comments before making the motions, and we can have comments afterwards? Okay. Supervisor Mallett.

[01:26:54] Sure, questions. On your slide 31, the new information from the state, as far as the school budget, is that change then reflected in a future transfer from local government into schools, the extra $0.3 million that they will be getting from outside sources?

[01:27:11] I think the board may recall at the time of the proposed budget, the school board had about a gap of approximately half a million dollars or so. So as part of other changes that they have made to balance their budget, which is reduced expenditures and increased revenues, those together all balance their budget.

[01:27:29] So this additional $0.3 million does not impact the amount of funding the county government is proposed to provide the school division. I see. Thank you. Thank you. Any additional questions? Then we're looking for a motion to adopt a resolution to set the calendar year 2025 tax rates in the form of Attachment A.

[01:27:48] So moved. Second. We have a motion from Supervisor McKeel with a second from Supervisor Malek. Without objection, if the clerk will call the roll. Ms. McKeel? Yes. Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Mr. Andrews? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. Lapisto-Kirtley? Aye. Ms. Malek?

[01:28:03] Yes. Thank you. Next, we have a motion to adopt the fiscal year 26 budget in the revised form provided at your places. Yes, Mr. Chair, I just wanted to clarify, and maybe the finance team can clarify this.

[01:28:21] My understanding is that the proposed resolution would be the FY2026 budget resolution in the orange sheet, rather than attachment, being a finance staff could confirm that. Yes, the updated version, correct. Okay, so not attachment B, but the orange sheet provided.

[01:28:38] Right, not attachment B, the orange sheet. Looking for a motion. So moved. Second. Motion from Supervisor Malek. Second from Supervisor McKeel. Without objection, call the roll. Ms. McKeel. Yes. Mr. Pruitt. Aye. Mr. Andrews. Yes. Mr. Galloway.

[01:28:53] Yes. Ms. LaPista-Kirtley. Aye. Ms. Malek. Yes. Thank you. And, Board, we are looking for a motion to adopt a resolution to set fiscal year 26 pay scales, and this is in the form of attachment C. So moved. Second. Motion from Supervisor McKeel.

[01:29:09] Second from Supervisor Malek. Without objection, if the clerk will call the roll. Ms. McKeel? Yes. Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Mr. Andrews? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. LaPista-Kirtley? Aye. Ms. Malek? Yes. Thank you. Board, our next motion is to adopt the annual resolution of appropriations, and this is in the form orange sheet that has been placed at your stations and, again, slightly changed from what was an attachment D.

[01:29:35] So moved. Second. We have a motion from Supervisor Malek, second from Supervisor McKeel. Without objection, the clerk will call the roll. Ms. McKeel? Yes. Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Mr. Andrews? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. Lapisto-Kirtley? Aye.

[01:29:50] Ms. Malek? Yes. The board, the next is to adopt a resolution of official intent to reimburse expenditures with proceeds of a borrowing in the form of attachment E. So moved. Second. We have a motion from Supervisor McKeel. Second from Supervisor Malek. Without objection, the clerk will call the roll.

[01:30:06] Ms. McKeel? Yes. Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Mr. Andrews? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. LaPiesto-Kirtley? Aye. Ms. Malik? Yes. Thank you. And finally, board, we have a motion, we need a motion to adopt the fiscal year 26 to 30 capital improvement plan in the form of attachment F.

[01:30:23] So moved. Second. Motion from Supervisor McKeel. Second from Supervisor Malik. Without objection, if the court will call the roll. Ms. McKeel? Yes. Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Mr. Andrews? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. LaPiesto-Kirtley? Aye. Ms. Malik? Yes. Thank you.

[01:30:40] And with that, I will turn to the board to make any additional comments. First of all, I'll ask if staff has anything further. Thank you to the board. Thank you. Thank you very much. And Supervisor Mallett? Thank you. So I will just share some things that I didn't do earlier.

[01:30:57] First of all, regarding the presentations today, there were a couple of things I wanted to add. The extra police officers are so incredibly important for that backup because I am never, never out of my mind is a case where an officer had to go to a domestic up and aft and at midnight and all alone for 40 minutes.

[01:31:17] It was a dangerous situation, and anything that I think these extra staff people will make that far less dangerous for our staff. Secondly, the modernization, I know, is very, very expensive.

[01:31:33] And the reason that it has been postponed for 15 years is because it was so expensive, the millions of dollars for software and the staff time that's taken to get it all to work. But I'm very grateful that I think that this is well underway now and many of it nearing completion, which will allow county operations to be so much more effective going forward.

[01:31:58] and also the CIP, so many things were on this list in 2007. And I was told when I came on the board in 2008, oh, the courts were going to have to do it. It's hanging over our head, and we've got to be ready for that enormous expenditure.

[01:32:16] Those kinds of things are almost done. And the 40 years since the jail's been renovated, these are all very, very important things. So those are things I've shared with people when they've contacted me. Just got a phone call, five of one, as we were getting ready to begin today, because I do understand that there is a lot of burden on people of all different incomes for the increased costs which have happened.

[01:32:46] I will push back briefly to say without stringent rules in place about how new housing will be used, I do not see that it would change the cost of housing or taxes at all. Over the last 40 years, we have seen that people want to live here and often they return with their pockets full of money from other places and other jobs and the market rates go up because of that.

[01:33:12] I've never seen any explanation that will help me understand how that supply and demand works in our particular county. But as I said, I've heard a lot from people in emails and in phone numbers about the burdens and I want to explain what I see.

[01:33:31] I talked a little about the perfect storm that has happened, these core services that will be expensive but providing better service to our residents. The obligations we've had. I will say from a Whitehall District perspective, the FEMA firefighters have been essential to bring back daytime service coverage to Station 4 in Earliesville, which can then back up Station 12 and Station 8 in the urban area, but also reach the mountains in a reasonable length of time.

[01:34:01] and also Station 5, where there are now 10,000 more residents than there were 10 years ago, and they're running multiple calls in the daytime, and the volunteers are still struggling at night. But I am so grateful, as others have said, for the long-time work, 115 years for the Crozet Volunteer Fire Company, and they are still going, but they can't do it all alone anymore.

[01:34:25] Every year, new people move into Albemarle, but for the last 20 years or more, it's been about 1% per year. So that 1,500 people per year, while it builds up, has not been as astounding as the 4,000 to 5,000 people per year in the last three years.

[01:34:42] All of a sudden, we have many more people, many more units, many more people, many more services to provide. People have asked me, who's living in all these new apartments and things that we see on Route 29 as they go to work? Well, it's the 15,000 new residents who are living there and in Crozet and all the different districts where there's been so much growth.

[01:35:05] But colleagues from years ago were very clear that higher populations mean higher budgets, mean higher tax rates. We cannot build our way to prosperity. We have to understand that the cost for residential does not pay for itself. And I look forward to the further discussion at the next meeting and more details about the $1.39 in costs for every residential unit dollar that is paid in.

[01:35:31] And that is, I think, a quite small number compared to the 50 years ago amounts in other places. The penny is not, to me, as important as the budget because a penny in Lancaster is $400,000 and a penny in Fairfax is over $32 million.

[01:35:48] So it's not so much the rate. It's what the rate has to be in order to get the budget that we have whittled down and worked on and added to, in some cases, over the last many, many months. So anyway, let's see here.

[01:36:06] And as I mentioned earlier with the Capitol, I do not want to repeat the errors we made in 2009. And I will say we because I was not able to get a second on any of the motions to prevent the tax cuts in those days. 2009 and 2010, symbolic tax cuts reduced the availability of $5 million in Capitol for those years, which could have been $50 million in borrowing, which could have brought about projects, additional classrooms, public safety, sidewalks, bridges, and the Crozet Library, which in itself costs $3 million more to build when we finally built it later.

[01:36:43] So I do not want to look away from the capital projects which are still in the queue because we are not putting sufficient money into capital to keep them rolling along. And I've talked about all of that. So I will stop there, but I thank you all for your partnership.

[01:37:02] I think that the staff effort has been tremendous. The Board of Supervisors' effort has been tremendous. And six board members with six different opinions, and we have worked well to find a place we can meet. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor LePisle, perfect.

[01:37:18] I just want to say thank you to the staff who put together this very, very difficult budget, not only for us, but for the community at large. It's much appreciated. This is not easy, but I feel this is something that we need to do in order to serve our community.

[01:37:35] But thank you very much to the staff. Thank you. Supervisor Galloway. Thank you. I will also echo the thank you to staff for the work. I mean, the budget is the biggest responsibility we have year in and year out. I think it was apparent in some of the notes and feedback I received after the town halls that citizens who walked in left more informed than they did coming through the door and appreciated that.

[01:38:03] It's not so much that that turns them around or maybe necessarily agrees with any acts or votes that we may take, but they are better informed as to at least the rationale that is behind it, and I think that's important. I also want to thank citizens who did attend the town halls, who've emailed us, who have perhaps called and or made some comments, even one-on-one at different times that were just out in the community.

[01:38:29] I do appreciate and take all of that feedback and input to heart leading up to a vote on the budget. This is my eighth year and my eighth budget that I voted on, And every single year that I've made that vote, assessments have gone up. We talk about it more, I think, over the last three years because, frankly, citizens have been clobbered the last three years in terms of the rising values.

[01:38:51] But it's not lost on me that values were going up the years before that. The offside of it is this year that the increase in the tax rate and adding to that burden of rising assessments with an additional piece that we're going to take, I had to balance against what I saw as the other burden, not to provide the services that we're going to add with these additional tax revenues that we're bringing in, namely the public safety piece.

[01:39:24] You know, you can very easily in public safety, I think, with police and fire use scare tactics. I've made this comment before where it's like, oh, the big emergency or the big deal. It is becoming more and more increasingly of concern to me that we're not even close to the big deal and we're past capacity on a day in and day out basis in this county and if we do not do or take the actions or the steps needed to provide that service which unfortunately you don't necessarily see unless you're in the emergency event or in the event that i think the citizens would agree

[01:40:03] that even though this burden of increased hitting your monthly budgets i see that as critical to do to keep all of our, not just our residents safe, but those of us who are serving in police, fire, and all of our first responders. It is not lost on me that increasing the tax rate makes it less affordable for houses. It's just fact. Your higher tax rate, whether it's assessments or whether it's a tax rate that we've now voted on, it makes it more expensive to live in your particular home. I think that this year I've been pleased with the conversation about tax revenue

[01:40:40] diversification. And I think it is imperative that the board, not just in our economic development work and our AC44 work, but on a regular basis, look to what we are going to do. I love the public speaker today, Ms. Towns. She used in her comments, she talked about performative words versus actionable steps. And I think this is a wonderful place to apply that context.

[01:41:09] We have to make sure we're not just using performative words about diversifying the tax base. We have to figure out a strategic plan and take actionable steps to lower the burden on our taxpayers that's coming from where they live and from their property. I'll have more to say about that as we're working on the housing chapter today, and I'm sure in the next coming meeting when we get into economic development and the economic development plan.

[01:41:37] I see this budget as doing some very critical things, but there are still a lot of things we're not able to do. To my point earlier about the things that you can see, that there could still be things out there that residents feel they want and need, but won't see us working on because of the restrictive nature of this particular budget.

[01:41:58] And I want to make sure folks know that I think somebody, I won't call out the name, who is a very critical eye on everything that we do and say, was appreciative of the fact that we have a SPEAR report that shows us actually reporting out what steps or what actions we have achieved based on our strategic plan. And I think that's important to continue with our budget as well. Citizens know that I've said to them one-on-one, I'm happy to sit down with anybody in the budget book to talk about the importance of any particular line item.

[01:42:31] But, you know, I think it is contingent on us to prove it. Are we doing the best we can with the tax dollars we receive and are those tax dollars going to the highest and best use based on our strategic plan. So I feel that we're doing that with this budget. I stand behind my vote and obviously I'll be turning to those that had the final say, the voters of my district, and they can pass judgment from here on out. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Proeck? Thank you. I've I've already made most of my comments, but I do want to very briefly thank two groups of folks.

[01:43:07] First, all the members of county staff who have been heavily involved in this process, not only in the tremendous, the hundreds of hours, I'm sure, that went into preparation of the budget before we ever even took a bite at it, but also in the hundreds of man hours that have gone into continued support of this community engagement process and ongoing process.

[01:43:27] I mean, boy, how do you go into any one of those town halls? There's a lot of staff who are coming in on a weeknight, on a school night, and putting in their hours to make sure our community is well-informed. That leads me into the second group of folks who I really want to extend some appreciation to, and that is we get a lot of voter communications right before today, but we don't get nearly as many before that, when we're actually making the substantive decisions, before a lot of these kind of decision points are already in our rearview mirror, right?

[01:43:59] Because there's very little wiggle room we really had today, right? We've already committed ourselves to a lot of other decisions. So I want to thank specifically those folks who have been deeply engaged as members of the public in the budget process up till now, really throughout this.

[01:44:15] I want to thank Syve in the audience, who has been deeply engaged in the process. I want to thank the members of Impact and Livable Seville, who have been deeply engaged in this process. I want to thank Mr. Grant, who has been deeply engaged in this process. And I like to be held accountable, right?

[01:44:31] I got elected to be a political representative, and that means hearing hard criticisms. And so, you know, that feels like I'm doing my job when I'm hearing that in front of me. So I appreciate that level of engagement from the public. That's all I got. Thank you. Supervisor McKeel?

[01:44:47] Yes. Thank you. And I do really appreciate, as all the supervisors have said up until now, staff's involvement in work. I know much of this work happened off hours, on weekends, and certainly sitting in meetings with us into the evening while you also had a full day of work.

[01:45:08] And I really appreciate that. I want to follow up a little bit on what Ned was talking about because I don't think people were talking about a significant raise in the real estate property tax.

[01:45:25] And I don't think people really have a sense of what our staff has to do during the year and the challenges they have and why we need to increase the number of police officers, increase the number of fire and rescue folks.

[01:45:40] I just want to just briefly go through our emergency operations center activations this year. We had five. We had three snowstorms that had to be dealt with. We had a national day of protest that had to be dealt with through the emergency management response.

[01:46:03] And we had a National Weather Service red flag warning that had to be dealt with. In addition to that, we also had a single plane crash with a fatality. We had an active shooter incident at Harris Teeter. We had two shelter-in-place incidents at UVA.

[01:46:24] One was an all-day manhunt for an individual wanted on a violent felony charge and a reported knife-wielding person. We had a cat bus into a residence. Rivanna Reservoir searched for a reported human.

[01:46:41] We had a bomb threat and evacuation at Henley Middle School. We had five significant fires. We had a suspicious death investigation where two homeowners were located inside their home with gunshot wounds.

[01:46:57] We had a monitored and provided appropriate oversight into five area protest demonstrations, including two at McIntyre County Office Building. These were just the notable incidents that our firing rescue and police and staff, facilities management folks, had to respond to.

[01:47:19] These were just the notable. And that was in addition to the increase in service calls and the increase in responses that Jeff Richardson went through, the higher percentages. So there is no doubt that our community is challenging, you know, the events in our community are challenging our staff, which gets to what I think back up to what Ned said.

[01:47:46] We are now past our capacity, and we really needed help, hence the increase in the property tax rate, the four cents. I also just want to make a couple of other comments if I get my notes here.

[01:48:03] Mike spoke earlier about our program for the elderly and disabled, and I just want to make sure I clarify that everyone understands those are two programs.

[01:48:19] It's elderly and or disabled. So sometimes I think people can think if you're not disabled, but it can be a little confusing. So there are two programs. They're tiered to help folks, and we adjust them to inflation every year now.

[01:48:38] So those programs are available, and people should look into them. And I did want to just comment. I have to make a comment. This is my 28th budget. Even for me, that's astonishing, I guess is the word.

[01:49:02] And I have seen ups and downs. I've seen property increases. And I've seen years when, because of recessions, property values went down, which is also pretty scary. So we have to think of it from both sides of the ledger, because I had for years, my property value was going down to where I was beginning to panic.

[01:49:26] And it took almost nine years for my property value to come back up. That was a lot. So I'm just glad that I didn't have to sell or go into a nursing home or something during that period of time. So I think people need to just put a perspective on this if possible.

[01:49:45] But I certainly sympathize with folks. I think most of us have said we do. I could not sell my house right now and buy another house in Albemarle County for what I would get for it. I'm in that boat. I really appreciate people's concerns. I'm a retired person. I really do understand that.

[01:50:07] But at the end of the day, the county, we have to provide services that are needed for the community. Those services are broad and in a wide range. Not everybody agrees on what those services might be. Some people don't want it. Why would we spend money on parks? Other people really want parks, so we have to balance all of those requests and needs. I had someone the other day that said to me, how dare you spend my taxpayer dollars to put a bridge over 29 north

[01:50:41] for pedestrians and bicycles? So people have different views of what's important in the community. And I just will make a comment that, again, I'm going to go back and stress, When I ran in 13, our revenue, the percentage of our revenues that were coming in from the commercial side was about 17%.

[01:51:14] We are down now to 11%. That only shows that the bulk of those revenues are coming really from real estate taxes. We have to figure out how to even up that burden.

[01:51:32] I'd like to see, to be perfectly honest with you, Jeff mentioned a number, but I'd like to see it up to about 20 or 25 percent. That would really help people that own property. But we're not going to do it without economic development to diversify our tax base. And I hear folks saying all the time, we don't want all those strangers moving in. We want to build walls. We want everything to stay the same. Staying the same is not a good place to be. The world moves on. I don't expect my doctor to give me the same treatments he was going to give me 20 or 30 or 40 years ago.

[01:52:10] I expect my doctors to move on. I expect our county to move on. We've got to figure out how to make adjustments. Doesn't mean we have to throw the baby out with the bathwater, but we have to learn to accept some change and make some adjustments as time goes on.

[01:52:27] And I think, I have another sheet of paper, and I'll stop in just a minute. I'm sorry. But I do want to point out that Mike was really correct. Who you vote for counts, but not just at the local level.

[01:52:47] Local level is important, but Congress and the state are critical because if Congress is reducing taxes and the state is reducing your taxes, then those services that those taxes are paying for come back to the locals.

[01:53:05] And that only makes life worse for people in our community because you have to pick up the difference because somebody has to be the safety net. I can remember following a car into the parking garage at the University of Virginia, an employee at the University of Virginia, and the bumper sticker was this big, and it said, raise my taxes, lose my vote.

[01:53:30] And I thought, could I just stop her and ask her, who does she think pays her salary? It did seem a little ironic. Now, nobody wants to pay more taxes, and I'm not advocating for huge increases in taxes, but at the end of the day, we are a commonwealth, we are a country, and we have to figure out how to have a safety net for folks and how to make the services run.

[01:54:00] So anyway, with that, I'm going to stop. Thank you very much. Oh, and one more comment. I see an auditorium that's certainly not full of people, but there are a good number of people here. I believe I see less than five people, to include the reporter, less than five people that are actually not our employees.

[01:54:23] Now, I recognize that there are a lot of people listening probably online, but to your all's point, we need people to get involved as much as you can because I think if you understand the budget and you understand what we're trying to do with the budget, I think it makes it a lot clearer as to why we have a need to have additional tax increase this year, even after assessment increases.

[01:54:52] Thanks. Thank you. And, Board, I just want to echo a support for a lot of the comments that have been made, especially thanking the staff for the hard work throughout all of this, and thanking the public for the feedback we've received. One of the hallmarks that I haven't heard mentioned specifically today is that I think that we've been very transparent.

[01:55:12] And the transparency is part of good government, and I think it's been extremely helpful if you look through all the times that we've spent together on this, how carefully we've laid out how things work. We've got the 300-plus page budget book that explains all of that.

[01:55:28] And with that, of course, it is, as I said, painful to increase taxes, but at the same time, those services, not having those every second on police or fire matters, and not having those services also could be quite painful.

[01:55:43] I very much appreciate feedback, but specific feedback is always best. And so, you know, caution people as they look through this and are concerned that as you address the issues, knowing what it is that you think we didn't fund that we needed to, what it is that needs to be cut from the budget, those specifics help drive the process and early on in the process can help us.

[01:56:10] But with that, again, I echo comments of the supervisors. We know we're looking to diversify our revenue sources and looking for efficiencies, but I think we're doing an excellent job and I appreciate all the hard work. Thank you. Supervisor, Mr. Curley. Yes, I didn't want to leave this conversation without actually giving a shout-out to our constituents.

[01:56:32] They're the ones that called us. They're the ones that emailed us. They're the ones that asked us questions. They're the ones that showed up at our various town halls to find out what was going on. I feel very comfortable knowing that our constituents feel comfortable contacting us and finding out answers.

[01:56:54] None of this is easy, but at least they take the interest in calling us, and they have faith that they can call us and get an answer or find out if they have a problem. We always try to help them, but I really do like the increased community involvement.

[01:57:14] Also, I have told constituents, as other members of the board have, that we need to increase our commercial development, and we'll do that through the EDA, and that will really relieve the tax burden on real estate.

[01:57:34] Once we're able to do that, it's a long-range plan, but we have high hopes that that will happen. And once again, a thank you to our constituents for nothing else and putting up with us. And if there's nothing further from staff, then we'll move on to the next item.

[01:57:53] We are well behind at this point on our agenda, so I would like to urge the board to recognize that as we go forward. Our next item is a discussion of move safety, Blue Ridge safety action plan, possible action on that plan.

[01:58:11] And this is being led by Jessica Hirsch-Valloring, our principal planner for transportation and welcome. Appreciate you being here. Good afternoon, board. Jessica Hirsch-Valloring, principal planner with Emerald County Community Development.

[01:58:26] I'm joined today by several colleagues, Gorion Gorgievsky of the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission, and John Oliver from Kimley Horn. John and I are really here to help answer questions. Gorion is going to be doing the presentation. He is going to present on the Safe Streets for All safety action planning process. He's going to go over the content of the Move Safely Blue Ridge safety action plan and talk about next steps. County staff have been highly involved in the safety action plan process throughout, and we're really pleased with the final result,

[01:59:03] Move Safely Blue Ridge Action Plan that's in front of you. After the presentation, we encourage the board to ask questions, give feedback, and if you desire to request changes to the Move Safely Blue Ridge Action Plan. If there's no significant changes, you are welcome to use the resolution you have to adopt the plan. And I'll hand it off to Gorian now. Thank you. Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, members of the board. My name is Gorian Gergievsky. I'm a regional planner at the Thomas Jefferson planning district commission working on the move safely blue ridge initiative even though this is

[01:59:41] a regional initiative the plan is developed in a way that provides specific jurisdictional chapters and today we are going to talk about albemora county right next to me is john oliver he is the transportation engineer from the kimley horn team and part of the project team today's agenda will include the background of safe streets and roads for all program albemora county's leadership commitment, the planning process, the emphasis areas in the high injury network,

[02:00:12] public engagement, proposed solutions, and next steps. Move safely Blue Ridge is the region's plan to reduce roadway fatalities and serious injuries for all road users, regardless of their mode of transportation. In 2021, a law was signed that became the bipartisan infrastructure law.

[02:00:34] That law established the discretionary safe streets and roads for all federal program. And that program supports the United States Department of Transportation National Roadway Safety Strategy and its vision of zero fatalities by 2050 using a safe system approach.

[02:00:53] This slide highlights Albemarle County's leadership commitment. From 2018 to 2022, 875 people were killed or seriously injured on the county's roadways. Albemarle County's board recognized that on February 7, 2024.

[02:01:13] Adopted a resolution to reduce the number of total fatalities and serious injuries by 50% by 2045. I just want to mention that that goal also aligns with the state's goals and also supports them.

[02:01:29] This adoption of the plan is going to be a key step in achieving that goal for Albemarle County as it will open the door for implementation funding in future rounds of the Safe Streets and Roads for All federal program. The adoption of the plan is the requirement for that funding.

[02:01:48] Before I talk about the planning process for this project, I want to acknowledge the project team who besides TJPDC represented staff from all of our jurisdictions as well as VDOT. Their feedback and collaboration was very valuable in developing not just the planning process but all of the components in our safety action plan. Through these components, we identified the issues and opportunities, we established priorities, and developed strategies that led to the development of the draft comprehensive safety action plan, all that supported by three rounds of public

[02:02:23] engagement. Ultimately, this entire process serves as the foundation for development of the final plan. I mentioned the period of 2018 to 2022. That refers to the crash data for this project.

[02:02:39] That crash data is structured around 13 identified emphasis areas, which are the key factors that contribute to fatalities and serious injuries on the county's roadways. I want to mention that these emphasis areas use multiple risk factors. And what that means is that if somebody was driving under the influence, had a roadway departure, and was not wearing a seat belt, then they will be categorized in all three emphasis areas. But the ultimate goal for the emphasis areas was used for the project team to get their information about safety needs and potential solutions.

[02:03:18] Another strategy that we developed was the high injury network methodology, which serves as a map that shows the highest concentrations of crashes that resulted in fatalities and severe injuries. So from 2018 to 2022, 72% of those crashes occurred on just 7% of the county's roads.

[02:03:41] Just for your reference, the tiers that you're looking at on the map are ranked by the severity of the crashes. So Tier 1 would be the most severe crashes, and Tier 4 would be the least severe crashes. I mentioned the public engagement for this project.

[02:03:58] That was a crucial element for the development of this plan because the public feedback was very important, very valuable. We did that in three rounds, from which two were with a survey. In round one, we identified the region's issues and opportunities.

[02:04:16] We went out to where the public was and asked them, what are the issues that they think they face every day on the roads? In round two, we followed the same steps. This time, we engaged in strategies. We asked the public what are the types of solutions they think would be most valuable for the development of the project and to reach our goal.

[02:04:40] We're currently in the round three of engagement, which is the review of the draft safety action plan. Some of the key locations that we visited in Albemarle County to do our public engagement include the Rivanna River Fest, the Albemarle County's Farmer's Market, and the Church of Our Savior Food Pantry.

[02:05:04] I want to thank all those places for enabling us to do our outreach for this project. We also conducted a roundtable discussion with farmers and ranchers from the region with the help of the Virginia Farm Bureau.

[02:05:20] The goal for that was to seek feedback on transportation safety, including farm vehicles. So the next part of the presentation is the key part that we're going to be discussing to that, and that is the potential solutions.

[02:05:37] Again, I want to acknowledge Albemarle County staff and VDOT for their continued collaboration and helping us brainstorm through all of the solutions that we're going to discuss today. So we have seven spot-specific improvements.

[02:05:56] These are high-risk intersections within the county. Some of them were site visits that we conducted for these projects. So the first one is the I-64 and US-29. I do want to acknowledge that for this location, the proposed solutions are to close the US-29 northbound left-turn lane onto I-64, add warning flashers and transverse rumble strips, conduct a speed study to create a reduced speed limit zone.

[02:06:26] But I do want to acknowledge that VDOT has an ongoing effort for this location, so these solutions would be temporary until VDOT comes with their project. The next location is going to be the US-29 and Greenbrier Drive.

[02:06:43] For this location, we're suggesting to relocate our transit stops at pedestrian crossings and implement adaptive signals. The project three is US-29 and Woodbrook Drive. The proposed solutions here are to remark lanes on the eastern Woodbrook Drive at pedestrian crossings and implement adaptive signals.

[02:07:09] The next one is A4, US-29, from Woodson Store Lane to Rabbit Valley Road. The proposed solutions here would be to construct R-cuts on Store Lane and Rabbit Valley Road, extend the left-turn and right-turn lanes on US-29.

[02:07:26] The US-29 and Airport Road, the proposed solutions here is to implement adaptive signal controls. The next two, the All Trail and U.S. 250, as well as Hydraulic Road and Lambs Road.

[02:07:45] Sorry about that. So these were added with feedback from Albemarle County staff, and we recognize that the data supports these projects. But the proposed solutions here are to add pedestrian signals and phasing for US 250 and all trail or implement a module roundabout at that location.

[02:08:13] In hydraulic road and lane, this would be to upgrade the crossings implemented LPI, which is leading pedestrian interval, phasing, and to reduce the turning rate and implement no turn on red.

[02:08:28] the next category of potential solutions are the systemic improvements these could be implemented across the entire network of the county and they include the edge line treatment central line rumble strips curved delineation and high friction surface treatment to deal with roadway departures and then advanced warning signs and markings at intersections for driver awareness the candidate locations for these safety potential solutions are documented in the

[02:09:07] safety action plan. The last category that I want to talk about today are the policies and programs. These are the non-engineering solutions that could be implemented through various partners. We have several categories and example solutions here identified, but there's over 30 in Comprehensive Safety Action Plan. These examples include red light cameras and intersection, high visibility saturation patrol for impaired driving, and to

[02:09:42] update appropriate speed limits for all road users. As I mentioned, with the adoption of this plan, Albemarle County will be eligible for applications in the future, Safe Streets and Roads for All program implementation funding. There's There's currently one round ongoing with applications deadline at the end of June.

[02:10:07] And there's going to be another application cycle in fiscal year 2026. But the availability between the two rounds is $2 billion. This safety action plan will also help with smart scale application, the highway safety improvement program, and revenue sharing.

[02:10:28] The project team also planned to do an annual update on the Move Safely Blue Ridge website to further refine our crashes with the data and then to refine our strategies in the future as needed. Through the adoption of this plan, Albemarle County would be able to provide and create a safer and more efficient transportation network for all road users in the county, not just living in, but also traveling through.

[02:11:03] Thank you for your time. I'd be happy to take any questions. Thank you very much. We will go through our order for questions and also any concerns one would have before considering the adoption of the plan. So we'll start with Supervisor Malik. Thank you, and thank you very much.

[02:11:19] And I apologize that until I got to town today, I was not able to download the 50 megabytes because that does not work when you have three megabytes down in your broadcast. But I will catch up. Quickly, adaptive traffic signals at Airport Road, can you help me understand what that is?

[02:11:37] Is it for pedestrians or is it for something else? I will refer to Mr. John Oliver. When it comes to the engineering part of the project, I think this will be the best person to answer those questions. Yes, ma'am. So all of these signals up and down 29 are owned by VDOT and operated by VDOT.

[02:11:54] Adaptive traffic signals is just using more up-to-date technology that can change the timing live as traffic changes. the more we know we can do to address congestion the more we can reduce some crashes right if you if there's a queue in front of you you're more likely to have a rear end crash as opposed to if you have more green time so adaptive is just going to change with traffic patterns as opposed to having you know timing from 7 a.m to 9 a.m that flips to a different timing adaptive is just a lot more dynamic through the day which means we can respond to vehicles quickly but it keeps the sequitization which is really really wonderful right now you can actually get all of them green if you're careful.

[02:12:30] Yes, and that does a good job of talking to the next signal upstream, downstream. And I'm especially thankful of your comment about the appropriate speed limits because that's a struggle and I'm interested to talk to Goryan later about what VDOT's comments were about that because it's very difficult to get them to reduce speeds even when going 55 in a country narrow road is not appropriate.

[02:12:53] So anyway, thank you very much. Thank you. Supervisor Lupita Krum. If you could go to slide 12 please that's 11 one more thank you the other way okay well the red light cameras at intersections um we're mainly talking about 29 correct that's the major focus of everything and we're talking

[02:13:30] and that would be one of the things we could do at adding red light cameras at the intersections are we talking about possibly intersections at other in other places other than 29 i mean yeah they could be implemented at other sections not necessarily just 29 but based on the based on the crash data is uh where these locations are going to be identified but they don't necessarily have to be implemented just on us 29 they can be implemented at other locations as well okay um high visibility saturation patrol for impaired driving with that are you talking about

[02:14:08] police officer police enforcement yes this will be through law enforcement okay and are you doing studies of any other areas rather other than 29 or is i take it that's a major focus because we do have problems in the rural areas right i mean looking at this plan it wasn't just 29 that was identified as a road with issues we took the whole entire crash data for albemore county and develop that through the high-injury network.

[02:14:43] So we could look at other locations through the systemic improvements, if that makes sense. I'm not sure if I answered your question. Right. Well, you have a map, and that's the one that shows all, yes, right, that one.

[02:15:00] I mean, 29 is the major area, but there are other areas in almost every other district where there's high impact or crashes in that. Is that something that would be possibly a phase two of what you would possibly do?

[02:15:22] Well, phase two would be the implementation funding. And as I mentioned, through the adoption of this plan, so the systemic improvements that are outlined in this plan, would be used across the entire network. So I don't think we have any specific intersections for other areas in this plan, but the locations for which I can't think of them right now on top of my head, they are identified in the safety action plan that were parked through the high injury network.

[02:15:53] Okay. And is, oh, there's a term, traffic calming. Is that part of also what you're proposing or will be? John, do you want to take this one?

[02:16:09] So I'm going to flip to the systemic improvements. So none of these immediately address traffic calming and speeding. Speeding, as we heard, is a large concern. As a design engineer, one thing we want to do is physically, what can we do to slow down traffic besides a sign alone?

[02:16:29] Because we know there's limited things we can address with just the signs. So some of these other systemic improvements to address speed could be some traffic calming. But, again, we're trying to follow the data, like Dorian said, of where are these corridors that are overrepresented by crashes, while traffic calming usually is applied to more residential, slower-speed facilities that are not really represented with a lot of these crashes that are more dangerous in terms of high injuries and fatalities.

[02:16:56] Okay. Thank you. That's all. Supervisor Gowler? Yeah, I don't have questions. I appreciate the work of all the different jurisdictions that were involved. I know the transportation staff and the PDC working to bring this forward. Yeah, I think as have had the chance to speak to this or get reviews on this over the years at the NPO, the traffic calming, even if it were on the radar, you can't commit yourself to what a community may not vote for.

[02:17:24] So you can't put an intervate because if you want to put in a cross a speed hump, you've got to have that community vote and have petitions to meet that. So you can't put that in as an intervention and a plan if you don't have that piece done. So I like that this stays at the things that we can just implement.

[02:17:41] I mean, your rumble strips, your edge line treatments, things like that have proven to work pretty well in deterring some things that otherwise would become unsafe. Having just that little rumble strip at the center line or on the edge calls you to get back onto the road.

[02:18:00] A lot of the other interventions here, I think what is also noticeable is that getting these type of things in, if we were successful in the planning grant, will happen over and beyond what we typically can do. We don't typically do this stuff in our own transportation planning unless it's part of a smart scale that we win, and then it's just within the defined area of the smart scale application.

[02:18:25] But when you're talking about doing some of the pedestrian things like on Hillsdale or green briar i'm sorry green briar and 29 these are things that we won't have on our radar because frankly they're too far down on the list and we have bigger things that we're going to try to get after i know looking at some of the other jurisdictions that i would have suspected it's the same for them that they're going to be going after the big ticket items that we have to do through revenue sharing our six-year plan the rural roads rustic roads smart scale etc this will allow us, if we can get these dollars in, to really put some high-impact type things in areas that the data say identifies where they're needed.

[02:19:06] The last comment I'll make is that one of the offshoots of this is a new grant is being put forward that the MPO just voted on and the TJPDC voted on this past week, or past two weeks, between UVA and Honda.

[02:19:21] So it's going to impact all of the six jurisdictions again. Well, no, I'm sorry. The study area is going to be restricted to the MPO, which is primarily the city of Charlottesville and Albemarle. But the data will be owned by the PDC and available to all of the jurisdictions because they're the person seeking the grant.

[02:19:39] End of the day, there's no cost to the localities. Honda and UVA are the ones putting forward the matching monies to do this. And it will be doing, without getting into the full extent, I can send information later if you want to learn more. But it's going to do really high-level analysis, even with virtual reality and putting people through situations to determine how pedestrians and bikers think about interacting with something.

[02:20:06] So, you know, Mike, being the young guy he is, has better reflexes than I do. And he might make one decision when he approaches an intersection, whereas I might make something different. They're going to study all of that at the end of the day to be able to determine, all right, how can we design intersections or treatments for places other than just picking the book off the shelf that has, here's how you design an intersection in an urban area.

[02:20:30] Now it will be well defined by more enhanced data from that. So I think that's something you all will be interested in, but the fact that we'll be able to, they're going to actually be studying Albemarle and Charlottesville areas so that we can learn more through this grant. It's been done one other time in Ohio. I think it's something that both transportation staff and all of us will be interested in as they go through with the study, provided they win the grant.

[02:20:51] It sounds like they're afraid we'll get it, but we've already taken the action to put it in the deadlines in June. So more to come on that. And I just want to say that roundabouts are also traffic calming. And we've put those in a number of places. I wasn't even thinking of...

[02:21:08] We have to understand that these are things that they went to each jurisdiction to fall within line of what the grant application said relative to what potentially could be available through their implementation grants. So us going for a roundabout in this type of study is not the right venue for that.

[02:21:23] No, I'm not saying go for a roundabout. I'm just saying that roundabouts are part of traffic calming, and we do have a number of those along with it. But don't look for projects in this particular grant. Got it. They're outside of the scope of what the grant can do and or fund.

[02:21:40] That's part of understanding what this grant was designed to do for us. Supervisor Prook. I have no questions other than to just challenge Supervisor Galway's estimation of my reflexes. I will have you know I've been run over on four separate occasions as a pedestrian or a cyclist.

[02:21:57] It ain't there. Holy cow, you need to stop walking and biking. Not in Alamor County. Knock on wood. Supervisor McKeel. We should wrap you in bubble wrap. Maybe he should participate in the study.

[02:22:13] Let's get hit the VR stuff. I want to volunteer, too. Where are the headsets? First, I really want to just thank Ned Galloway because Ned's participation on the MPO and down TJPDC brought this study to our attention so that Albemarle County could actually participate.

[02:22:34] So I thank you, Ned. I don't remember if it was my brain that's like, I can't remember what I had for breakfast. but it was a couple of years ago. Anyway, but I do want to thank Ned because I didn't even know it was out there, and Ned brought it to our board, so that was great. I found this study fascinating.

[02:22:53] I found some surprises in it, but a lot of it was what my gut said was really going on. I mean, we get that sense. In the areas, certainly, you identified, made perfect sense. Just a couple of questions, and I am all, I'm not opposed to adopting this at all.

[02:23:12] I think it's a great idea. I just want to ask a couple of questions. Red light cameras. The General Assembly won't let us put in red light cameras. We have the authority for two. We have two in school zones. No. No, those are speed cameras. Oh, I'm thinking speed cameras. I'm reversing them in my brain.

[02:23:29] I'm sorry. So we can put in the red light cameras. Yes. Okay, thank you. It's the speed they don't like because of the, yeah, I got it. Sorry. So SmartScale, we're talking, you all were talking about SmartScale, and I understand the difference in what we're talking about there.

[02:23:48] The signalized lights are wonderful. So when we're talking about this grant and its multiple counties, so the city of Charlottesville has agreed to participate in this grant.

[02:24:05] So signalizing their lights with our lights would be, that would be part of this work. Yes. Potentially, yes. Yes. So what we've had in the past is, I'll just say it, you know, Charlottesville was supposed to signalize some of their lights 10 years ago with ours, eight years ago with ours, and they haven't done it yet.

[02:24:27] So this is, I'm just thinking, because those are some of the challenges that we have at our borders and at our intersections, which are some of what you're naming here, when you look at the city and the county. So this would be a way to move forward some of those. Exactly. And that is not necessarily outlined in the document, but it can certainly serve as a collaboration between the county and the city to implement that.

[02:24:53] That's great. Yes. Okay. I don't think I have some notes. I had lots of notes here that I thought, but I'm not going to belabor it. I just think this is a wonderful report. Data is always good so that we can impact the areas that we need to and look specifically.

[02:25:13] And I really do appreciate the look at the region because we all drive from one area to another pretty seamlessly. And so we have to fix one area here if we're going to really impact the whole region. So that's great.

[02:25:28] Thank you very much. Thank you. I'm very supportive of this. And I also had in my notes to thank Supervisor Galloway because I know that you brought it to our attention in the first place. I think it pays double the dividends to us in the sense that not only will it help our smart-scale applications and revenue sharing make stronger proposals, but also that it makes available additional funding for these kinds of projects that wouldn't come into a smart-scale project, as you said.

[02:25:56] So I appreciate that it's a focus on safety, not just on congestion. So much of the time we talk about congestion, but really safety is key. And, again, I found it a fascinating reading as well and appreciate all the work that went into it. I was just going to make a comment.

[02:26:13] When we have congestion, though, we have safety problems. Oh, yeah, absolutely, absolutely. They kind of go together, at least in my world. Mr. Chair, let me make one last just to clarify. But you came up in talking about the city and the light, so two comments. The regional planning grant was an effort by all six jurisdictions, and it was a way that each jurisdiction, since they did the match, it cost them less if they would have done it individually.

[02:26:38] The implementation grants is left to each jurisdiction to decide if they want to go after. Now, you would think that they would because the plan to get the safety planning was really part of the work to do all the data collection. So to utilize the lower amount to get that information, it really doesn't make sense to go forward with the implementation study, but it wouldn't be a regional implementation grant this planning grant will could branch out into six different implementation grants based on what they put forward then winning the grant you would think if you win the grant and successful then it's not your local dollars there might be

[02:27:17] some match to be able to do some of the things that you talked about yeah i get that right yes sir and just to clarify the match is going to be 80 percent federal and 20 percent local oh that's that's promising i like that thank you um thank you very much if there are no further questions we can move on to a recess i don't know well sorry sorry wait a minute wait a minute yes we do have to adopt the plan we did we did say that we were going to uh we're all in favor of

[02:27:50] it so supervisor gallow do you have a motion for us um if there's if there's a board consensus behind it, it would be a motion to adopt the resolution of commitment to roadway safety goals. So moved. Second. Second. Okay, we have a motion from Supervisor Galloway, a second from Supervisor Malek. Without objection, the clerk will call the roll.

[02:28:11] Ms. McKeel? Yes. Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Mr. Andrews? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. Pisto-Kirtley? Aye. Ms. Malek? Yes. Thank you. And now we will take a recess, and if I'm looking at that clock, I would say a quarter of. We should be back and ready to work.

[02:29:05] Sorry. Welcome back. We have a work session next on AC44 Draft Housing Chapter, led by Tori Kanellopoulos, Principal Planner, with Stacey Petty, talking about housing. The board is going to make the comment that this is preceding a discussion in a couple weeks on the housing trust fund, so we'll have more discussions on this.

[02:29:27] We have a limited amount of time this afternoon to try to complete what we can before we go in to get our closed session, so please take it away. Thank you. Good afternoon, supervisors, and thank you for the introduction. Again, Tori Kanilopoulos, principal planner on the long-range planning team, and joined by Dr. Stacey Pethia, assistant director of housing.

[02:29:48] We'll be sharing the presentation today on the AC44 draft chapter for this topic. So we'll start with a quick summary of previous board feedback from phase two on this topic, share an overview of what we've heard from the community on this topic, share a brief overview of the chapter and some of the things that are included, share our upcoming schedule, and then have a couple of focus topics for the board's discussion.

[02:30:14] And that's along with the rest of the chapter and general comments on the chapter content and objectives and actions. So I'll share these again at the end of the presentation. But these are the two questions that we're asking for specific board feedback on.

[02:30:29] There are some recommendations related to the first question from a land use standpoint about where we should encourage higher density housing, but we wanted to ask for board input if there should be more detailed direction in the comp plan. So that's for looking at future area plan updates and applying land use designations to the future land use map.

[02:30:53] So that could include applying the middle residential land use category to more locations. So we've heard that for activity centers and mixed-use areas, those are good places for more housing, but we would like to know if there's other factors that we should be taking a look at as well.

[02:31:08] And then given some recent development applications, we're looking if we should have information in the comp plan that would help guide review of projects that come in that are for affordable housing that are outside of the development area boundaries, such as a proposed manufactured home park.

[02:31:25] So again, that guidance is not in the comp plan now, but we're asking for feedback on whether it should be included. So looking at previous board feedback on housing, we heard that there are more strategies needed to encourage missing middle housing types and smaller housing units, which also supports aging within the community, to encourage housing and activity centers and employment districts, as shown in the development areas land use chapter, and to preserve existing housing units and prevent displacement, and that includes manufactured home parks, and then also addressing concerns with property

[02:32:00] maintenance and ensuring property owners maintain rental units. We also heard options for implementation could include using county-owned land for affordable housing and land banks and land trusts, that we need to make sure we have data and metrics to track progress over time, and then noting the overlap with other chapters and comprehensive plan topics like economic development and transportation. So these are the community input themes that we heard during phases one and two, and that includes a strong need for a variety of housing types at a variety of price points, including for housing household sizes that are getting smaller, first-time home

[02:32:39] buyers, and aging community members, having more multifamily housing and accessory units, and then looking at housing affordability in the rural area. There was generally feedback that we should focus on maintaining existing units, but there was some community interest in other types of small-scale housing. And then coordinated planning for housing, land use, transportation, economic development, and parks and recreation. And again, that overlap with walkability and how we lay out our neighborhoods in the development areas. Also heard about the importance for maintaining existing homes and aging in place, including smaller units and units that have

[02:33:17] elevators and accessibility, the need for assisted living, especially in places that are walkable and that have transit, and then helping people maintain their homes with weatherization and energy efficiency, and how those topics also tie to climate action, including places to charge electric vehicles, and then again, how we lay out our neighborhoods and how that can improve walkability and other transportation options. So the goal of this chapter overlaps with the AC44 framework, and those four sections are shown on the screen. So again, the significant overlap

[02:33:51] with things like economic development, the ties between jobs and housing, climate action, transportation, and affordability, and then noting that housing is a foundational community need. There are seven objectives in this chapter, so I won't read all of them. Many of them are also within Housing Albemarle, which Stacey will talk a little bit more about, but it includes increasing the overall housing supply and a variety of housing options, the overlap with activity centers and land use, preserving and maintaining housing, and addressing unmet needs for people that are living unsheltered.

[02:34:29] So now I'll turn it over to Stacey. Good afternoon. Excuse me. Really, housing staff worked with planning staff to really make sure that Housing Albemarle was directed uh really reflected in the comprehensive plan um a lot of the work we did was to consolidate uh just to make it easier to read um the housing policy itself is about 100 pages long so this really kept the the main goals behind it and consolidated some of them to make it

[02:35:02] work better um and uh the the housing out more will be adopted uh into the comprehensive plan as an appendix when it's adopted. I'm going to have to look up there because I forgot my reading glasses.

[02:35:20] I'm sorry. Really, the housing at Albemarle really identified several priority activities to undertake after the policy was adopted, and those are reflected on the screen here. The county staff has really worked to achieve several of those.

[02:35:37] One of the priority activities was to increase the number of permanent supportive housing units within Albemarle County. That is currently underway now in the VISTA-29, formerly known as Premier Circle. And looking over the activities that have happened to date, staff have really accomplished about 40-ish, 30 to 40 percent of the activities listed in Housing Albemarle.

[02:36:04] Those have been removed from the comprehensive plan as they are already in play. And so what you see here is what is moving forward within AC44 itself. Some of the new activities that are included in this chapter but not directly included in Housing Albemarle are ties to housing around activity center, providing more detailed guidance for area plans and updates, including missing middle housing, adaptive reuse of existing buildings, So transforming old commercial spaces into affordable housing or market-rate housing

[02:36:42] and placing a greater emphasis on climate action within the housing chapter. If you remember, Housing Albemarle really focuses strictly on affordable housing, and so looking at households earning incomes at 80% AMI or below has been the focus to date.

[02:37:00] So AC44 expands that to really cover the entire housing spectrum. Thank you, Stacey. And then just looking in a little bit more detail about the overlap with the other comprehensive plan chapters for transportation, making sure housing is connected to daily destinations.

[02:37:18] The planning commission talked about transportation last night, and that chapter will be coming to you all soon. But just noting that looks a little bit different in the rural area and the development areas, but it's still needed for both. And then for land use, having those future land use categories, which recommend different housing types, and then how we designate those on the future land use map.

[02:37:37] thriving economy. Of course, housing is where jobs go at the end of the day. So having housing for that variety of spectrum of needs, and then community facilities to support development and new housing. So just a quick look at the schedule. The Planning Commission discussed the housing chapter on April 8th, and then we had a lunch and learn for both housing and community facilities chapters on April 24th. Transportation, as mentioned, that was discussed by the commission last evening and will be coming to the board on May 28th. We also have an in-person community meeting on May 22nd at Journey Middle School. Then there's the cultural resources chapter

[02:38:17] going to the commission on May 27th and to the board on June 4th, and there will be a virtual lunch and learn for that topic in June. So we like to include this slide toward the end just for folks that may be listening and encourage them to go to the website at engage.albemarle.org slash AC44. That's where all of the chapters are being posted, and there's opportunities to provide feedback online. And as mentioned, events like the May 22nd transportation event will continue to be posted there. So these are the two discussion questions that we are asking for feedback on.

[02:38:54] I'm happy to start with those and then also leave time for feedback on the rest of the chapter, especially the objectives and actions, and happy to take any questions. Thank you. Thank you. We'll go through our order address both of the questions on the slide if you will then we'll come back and go through the actions and objectives and other comments on the chapter so to start with this idea of again factors to analyze in the case of outside development areas and in the case of inside where activity other other locations so supervisor malik okay so i was looking at my

[02:39:33] email for this in advance but i didn't find it so the first one is in the growth area when we do the master plan updates that are coming then i guess for middle debt is somewhat somewhere in here you made a comment about the middle density that was part of was told to everybody when the crozier master plan was done that this would be generalized growth area everywhere else when that was adopted so that's high priority because that's what everybody's already been told and i do hope that that will be continued on um but all of the other egs i mean i don't have anything i guess in

[02:40:13] addition to those except nowhere are we talking about sort of the way that that environment or green space or something can be woven in so we're not just creating a concrete jungle but actually creating make maintaining what natural features we can in order to make it the places desirable

[02:40:39] to live in. And then for the second bullet, the reason historically why public water and sewer has been essential is because on very small lots, you cannot have a well and septic, well and septic, well and septic without having calamity. So I don't really have something in addition to what's historically been done. A lot of the staff report on an earlier application talked about all the

[02:41:18] things that were i think important to the future residents there uh in addition and somewhere in the staff reports that was talking about modular housing as opposed to manufactured and how that is the element that i would hope would be emphasized because it allows residents to have equity as opposed to just be stuck in a exploitative situation so i guess i'll stop there because I was, now I'm ready.

[02:41:51] Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor McIntyre-Kermit. Yeah, so as far as number, the first bullet, the activity centers and mixed-use areas, are you talking about, I think Supervisor Malik brought it up, are you talking about in the development area or in the rural area?

[02:42:11] Yes, the first one is focused on the development areas. Okay. I agree with activity centers and mixed-use areas. Yes. transit walkability. I mean, that's one thing that I think is important. But I don't want to limit it to that because maybe there's a suggestion that comes up in the future area plan that we haven't even thought of now. Maybe there's a new way of constructing some

[02:42:45] kind of a home or tall apartment buildings that we're not even thinking of. But what you have written there is, that sounds pretty, that sounds good to me. The outside the development areas, that I think would, at least for me, would almost have to be on a case-by-case basis. Once again, I agree with sewer and water is the driving factor. So if you don't, if you have a group of,

[02:43:23] If you have a manufactured home park or a large development area, medium development area with a number of units, you want to be able to provide that water and sewer. So I think the water and sewer is actually going to be driving the train, so to speak.

[02:43:44] That's it. Thank you. Thank you, Supervisor Calloway. The first question is a little confusing for me. And part of the reason is you're asking us what other factors we should include, but we act like all of these are in place. where we don't really have this in place in great ways in any area in the development area.

[02:44:03] We're starting to get there in some of these, so we're trying to achieve an ideal. So to sit there and I try to identify what the ideal factors are when the ideal factors don't exist anywhere is problematic for me. So the fact that it's the development area is the factor that should allow more housing in our future area plan updates.

[02:44:27] And then if we're going to get into a small area plan, then unfortunately those small area plans are going to have to get at it. Now, how we've done small area planning over the last 20, 30, 40 years is probably not how we want to approach this to the point we received from some advocacy groups that we can't wait that long.

[02:44:45] But each area can in and of itself define what could be allowed there. I've made the comment last week about the Berkmar Road project and how Berkmar between Rio and Hilton Heights is becoming kind of what we envision these centers to be.

[02:45:06] Because at least on that side of 29, people can actually work, live, shop. Entertainment's a stretch, unless you like going to the comic book stores, right? I mean, there's not a lot to do from that standpoint.

[02:45:23] I mean, there's some restaurants and things like that. But it's actually starting to be what we would say we would hope would happen. So walkability to centers, employment districts, well, the ones that we would identify right now don't necessarily have great walkability there. So I think we just have to accept the fact that, look, if it's housing and it's development area, we got to get after it and identify if it's an area that doesn't necessarily have these factors yet, what's the game plan to get those factors put in place?

[02:45:53] It's the classic infrastructure chase in the project or vice versa. Just thankfully, I feel like we do have infrastructure that's in place and some that could get ahead of it. Now, what you're going to do with small area plans and the different master plans, that's probably a different conversation.

[02:46:13] But that's how I think I feel about that. I mean, I get what you're after here, but let's not pretend something exists that doesn't. Let's approach it from here's what we know exists. we need more housing we need these things to come along with the housing so let's just call it what it is and get after that and figure out a game plan um i don't this second one goes back to a meeting i had during the rural area chapter the board probably needs to have a conversation how the rural area is going to help achieve the affordable housing problems and we don't i don't

[02:46:50] think it was clear that night i don't think the rural chapter addresses it i don't think this chapter addresses it. So in that case, that's not on staff. That's not staff's burden. This board has to discuss, all right, affordable housing is an issue in our county. The county is not the development area. So if we're going to attack the problem, we have to have a development area plan. We have to have a rural area plan. And to my knowledge, it can't just be maintaining and rehabbing. That's just how I feel. And I'm not going to rehash our mobile home park night. I made a lot of comments that evening of how I felt about this. But you

[02:47:28] probably are going to have to come back to this board, not necessarily as part of the AC44 chapter. And that's probably going to have to be a work session in and of itself of how to grapple with that particular conundrum. Thank you. Supervisor Pruitt. For the first focus question, I think Supervisor Galloway did a good job of articulating why this was giving me a hang-up, which is implicitly by saying, oh, what factors will we use to identify where to create more housing in the development area? The implicit thing that that begs is there's places in the development area that we're not going to be thinking about how to put

[02:48:06] more housing. And frankly, we're not in a position, so long as we hew to our stated positions on the development area's size, we're not in a position to really say no more anywhere in the development area. We have a really, this is a planning concept, right?

[02:48:27] And where do we have space in the development area to do kind of blue sky, green field planning? It's nowhere, right? We're not going to be like, oh, well, here's a transit stop and there's no dense housing around it. Let's zone it dense housing so it becomes dense around it.

[02:48:43] No, that place doesn't exist, right? Almost everywhere in the development area is built out in some degree. And what we have to do, like the only way with our current boundaries that we're looking at deployment of housing is infill, increasingly creative, increasingly challenging infill, and re-dev, right?

[02:49:06] Projects nearing the end of their useful life and getting to the point where they're like, well, are we going to bulldoze it and build even higher density? Maybe, right? That is on my mind because it's very prominent in part of my jurisdiction, right? in the Biscuit Run precinct, there's quite a lot of re-dev speculation going on right now.

[02:49:24] I just got a reporter asking to talk to me about a re-dev going on in the Biscuit Run precinct. That is the direction of our housing so long as this stays the same. So I raise that just to say I have an answer to this, but it almost approaches the question in a way that is challenging to answer, if that makes sense. That being said, yes, transit. That's one of the big ones, right?

[02:49:48] So I used to live in the greater D.C. suburbs. I lived in the black D.C. suburbs, which is an experience I think every white person should have at least once. It radically changed my personal politics, being one in a 98% to two kind of community.

[02:50:04] But I was in an area that was near a blue line stop, and several developers over the previous 10 years had made a really concerted effort seeing D.C. home prices skyrocket, like our prices are skyrocketing. TO WORK WITH PRINCE GEORGE'S AND MONTGOMERY COUNTY GOVERNMENTS TO BE LIKE HEY LET'S TALK ABOUT ZONING IN THESE AREAS LET'S TALK ABOUT WHAT WE CAN DEVELOP HERE AND THERE WERE A REAL EXPLOSION OF MODERATE DENSITY WHAT WE WOULD CALL MISSING MIDDLE HOUSING OPPORTUNITIES THAT WERE NEW CONSTRUCTION IN THE PROXIMITY TO THOSE KIND OF IN REACTION TO THAT AND FRANKLY IT WAS REALLY

[02:50:41] SUCCESSFUL THERE'S BEEN POLITICAL BLOWBACK THERE WAS AN EFFORT TO TRY AND BAN TOWN HOMES IN PRINCE george's county in part as a response to this in part due to i think some racial tensions that were perceived there because it was white folks moving in um setting aside that it's very clear that's a very effective way to fight our climate goals to uh deliver affordable housing and to deliver it in a way that people are actually really excited about because you can have whole new planned communities that actually meet all these goals around it um i think we need to be

[02:51:16] be realistic with what our employment districts actually look like, where they are, and how that can be tied in. So I live right next to an employment district, an employment district. It is a very small stretch of industrial use on Southern Parkway. I like when we talk about employment districts and having transit hubs and housing nearby, but it is a small enough footprint that it does not make sense for transit to deliver there. And it is, again, a small enough footprint and a complex enough topography that it doesn't make sense to have denser housing there

[02:51:53] too so i am skeptical around the idea of employment districts also this really just begs for conflict of uses issues when we're coming to rezonings right we touched on this very briefly with the broadway master plan but like employment districts are often industrial areas right um in ways that are fundamentally incompatible with certain residential uses.

[02:52:16] The most defensible use of zoning is to combat potential nuisance and these incompatibility of uses, and I do see that with close proximity to certain types of employment districts. I think there's room there. If the employment district is mostly foot traffic-driven commercial, great, cool.

[02:52:34] I don't think anyone would disagree. But if we're talking about a high concentration of warehousing and a brewery, not a a place that is actually frying and cooking stuff in a way that can be disturbing, then I think there's compatibility of issues there.

[02:52:55] The second one, so I'm hearing this striking my peers kind of in a complicated way, and I think that makes sense. The thing, when I think to the times that we have grappled with the question of housing and affordable housing in the rural area, and specifically, you know, the mobile home park, What I remember as an issue was that our code fundamentally didn't contemplate the possibility.

[02:53:23] Like, if we were in uncharted territory, we were, insofar as it contemplated, it contemplated in the negative, right? But just the idea of a mobile home park in the rural area wasn't contemplated. And so we were put in the really uncomfortable position of not having any kind of, you know, limiting factor with any decision we made.

[02:53:42] How would we apply it the next time? we were put in the uncomfortable decision of kind of having to, it felt like craft policy on an issue of first impression. And I think the way to handle that issue, if that is an issue we're facing, is to actually grapple with it in a policymaking context. Actually say, okay, well, if we have certain intuitions about maybe there should be limited housing uses in the rural area that aren't currently permitted. I think we all have some degree of that intuition, but we don't know what it would look like and we don't know how to manage it against the very real competing

[02:54:17] concerns that Supervisor Lepisto currently brought up, for example, around water and sewer, fire and rescue, transit, right, everything. If we want to be able to weigh those concerns in a concerned policy discussion, then we need to do that. And if we want to do that, then I think it is prudent that our comprehensive plans say we want to do that. So I would be supportive of saying in the comprehensive plan that supervisors will examine the possibility of rural how affordable how factors to consider in reviewing affordable housing proposals

[02:54:57] outside of the development area with the understanding that that's not committing us to an action on that other than that we will actually frickin sit down and talk about it directly and do so in the context of maybe a staff recommendation here's some ways we have thought that we could balance these concerns. Here's some postures that could come to you, etc., etc., and we could actually make a decision about this instead of treating every developer, every community-led instance as an issue of first impression that we have no guidelines and we have not developed our own criteria for evaluating. So I think it makes sense to include there, even as I recognize it's

[02:55:36] a hard subject, and I don't think any of us are prepared to say what those factors are, but that's what a comprehensive plan is for. It's to create a mechanism by which we hold our own feet to the fire on steps that we think we need to take for the community. So, sorry for taking so long on that. Thank you.

[02:55:51] Supervisor McKeel. Yes, and just because I know we're running short on time, I will say that I agree with Mike and with Ned about what they're saying. With regard to the second bullet, I think we need to have more discussion about this. I think definitely we don't want to end up in a position like we were last time where we had what probably could have been a good proposal, but we just, we hadn't had any discussion about it. We didn't know where we were going with it. We had, we just have to figure out the criteria and have more discussion. So I agree with the two folks that mentioned that. Bullet one,

[02:56:28] I'm not going to push back a lot on this other than to say that in 1971, my understanding is we had 48 acres, I'm sorry, 48 acres, 48,000 acres of land in the development area. And we now have about 23,800 acres. And we know in the, some of those acres in the development area, aside from this, the ones that we have now are not developable. They're never going to be developed. I think this

[02:57:07] board needs to have a serious discussion about how we can exchange some property. And we've had that just just we've tinkered about that around the edges and I know people grunt and shout hair on fire but the at the end of the day if we're going to have more affordable housing we have to have some serious discussions about what we can do to do something different to get some affordable housing in our community and a middle well anyway and I'm just going to let it go with that for today but I would appreciate that discussion as well at some point we've already established a

[02:57:43] criteria, I think, that we've agreed on it. So I just think that there are areas that will never be developed in the development area, and we need to think about not allowing this amount of land to continue to just plummet. Thanks. Thank you. Yeah, my feeling on it is to some extent these questions seem like they're revisiting topics that we've discussed. So development area was discussed, and for each of the different land categories, there were designations of, well, six to 12 units here, up to 34 units per acre here. And I wouldn't propose that we necessarily

[02:58:23] revisit those in the housing chapter. But at the same time, I'm really open with respect to the first question as to finding ways to increase the density in the development areas. And I've not hung up on the idea. I think we have to say that it's possible that activity centers or commercial uses and other amenities will follow the development if it's an appropriate location for doing that. I mean, it may be that the location just isn't ever going to be amenable to walkability or transit or anything, and that's a different issue. Which also brings me to the

[02:58:59] second question. Again, we talked in the previous chapters about criteria and what it would take to recognize when we would need to want to swap or otherwise look at rural areas versus development areas. And so I guess I look at that question and say, well, the factors I would consider are the factors that lead to the possibility of accessibility, services that can be provided, walkability, transit, water and sewer, which was mentioned.

[02:59:30] And so those are the criteria for considering affordable housing proposals. at least on large-scale affordable housing proposals, wide open on the idea of accessory units in the rural area and other things that don't necessarily interrupt the concept of a rural area.

[02:59:47] They just provide additional opportunities for people to find affordable units without necessarily developing specific affordable neighborhoods within a rural district. And so, again, though, that's the case-by-case and the need for an additional discussion by the board, I think, is paramount here.

[03:00:08] We can't just, at this point, come to an agreement on this, I think. I hope that helps. Then additional comments on this? I have a couple, if there's time. Well, we're going to come back and go through the order on these questions.

[03:00:28] So I guess I would just point to, someone mentioned topography, and I think that that is really important, especially for the second bullet when we're determining, but also to say that there are lots and thousands in the Whitehall District of older, smaller homes, some on very small lots, some on larger properties.

[03:00:49] Many have multiple houses in the same family on one place. That sort of concept, I think, is where there's the septic capability is perfectly organic. You know, it's happened already. So that – and there are also – there are two duplexes, which I'm aware of, that were built before the zoning was changed, and they seem to be very successful.

[03:01:12] I think that common water and sewer with care can – a receptacle can be done for two units, maybe not more, depending on what the Board of Health decides at the time. So those are certainly possibilities. In one of the earlier discussions, someone mentioned Chesterfield.

[03:01:28] So if someone could put on your to-do list to find the details for their Modular Home Parks criteria, I think that would be very helpful because then we don't have to reinvent the wheel. And that's all I have. Thank you.

[03:01:44] You said Chesterfield. I think it was Chesterfield. Someone else on the board brought it up, and I don't remember, but I tried to find something and couldn't, so I'm hoping staff can. Chesterfield has specific manufactured home or trailer park zoning classes. They have, like, three or four different zoning classes.

[03:02:01] I don't think they exist on the map by default. You have to rezone into them, but it creates kind of a framework for what those should be. But they had criteria. If they have an ordinance, they have something we can start with. Yes. Good. Thank you. Thank you. Then I think the next item is to go through the materials that were provided for this.

[03:02:21] If it's okay, I propose that we'd actually look at the implementation objectives and actions first to look for comments that are specific to those, And then we can go back and do general comments on the text of the chapter. If we were to get through the first and then see where the latter is going, it might help with the timing.

[03:02:40] So with that, we'll go through our order, and we will look at all these objectives and actions, many of which we know are taken directly from Housing Albemarle, and ask for comments from supervisors as to any of them. Please, starting with Supervisor Mal.

[03:02:57] Thank you. All right. So we're looking at objective one on your list. And in my notes that I sent in, I have just a reordering. We'll get back to that, too. But so what you're calling objective one right now.

[03:03:13] The 1.2, I know during the Crozet master plan, because there's at least half of the Crozet growth area is old neighborhoods with wonderful affordable houses, workman's houses around the mills, et cetera.

[03:03:31] And the concern from the residents at the time was that they not be replaced with five-foot space around them in a great big building. So some kind of footprint compatibility to what was there before was something that was discussed by staff during that master plan process.

[03:03:53] 1.5, I'm absolutely, where there's infrastructure available, absolutely think that smaller lot sizes would be something to emphasize because I know with Chris Fuller's thing, one of the first obstacles he had for his development right across from Crozet Park was that the lots were smaller than what our minimum lot was, but it was going to be houses all around in a sort of colony with a shared open space that would have been very successful, I think.

[03:04:27] And 1.6, I assume you're, or are you talking about the 14-foot high first floor and then in these commercial changes to keep the first floor at least commercially capable, structurally wise, and then residential up above or something like that.

[03:04:49] So that was a question, if that's what you're talking about there. I think we were considering both options, fully residential or keeping commercial on the first floor. So it's meant to be flexible. okay but these are referring to existing buildings yes that's correct got that and am i doing just objective one no we're doing the entire okay let me turn the page oh okay all the objectives got it okay so on page 16 then um when there were several church

[03:05:21] owned properties that went to the legislature last year the legislature debated a lot because what their determination was, was that church properties can't be treated differently than regular ownership properties before the law. So I just wanted to make sure that we are thinking about that when we're talking about certainly helping the process along for a church property who wants to put in housing or something like that. That's different than giving them extra rights or something that ordinary applicants would not have because I think we would be sued.

[03:06:01] 2.1, again, the modular is something that I think is perfectly suited to what we're looking for with far lower costs and also the ability for equity to be built up, which is important. 2.3, where do we protect the NOAAs in the process anyway?

[03:06:23] I haven't really seen that term, the naturally occurring affordable housing. So that's certainly for the 50% of grossay, which is old houses. Where do we take care of them to make sure that the people who are living there in their old age actually can have a chance to stay?

[03:06:43] I think that it's really important to have protecting the affordable units we already have is absolutely the highest priority. And then at the bottom, 3.4, I'm glad I wrote all this ahead of time. Is this referring to just growth area or RA also for 3.4?

[03:07:05] Just to the development areas. Okay, then I will scratch out that question. Okay. Very good. Now, let's see. There's another page. Now we're on to page 17. Other than renumbering the objectives, that's all I have. Thank you very much.

[03:07:23] Thank you. Supervisor Lupisto-Curdo. Thank you. Item 1.6, encourage adaptive reuse of existing structures like underutilized commercial or office spaces for conversion into housing in the development areas,

[03:07:48] Which leads me to we have large parcels, well, not many, but some large parcels of land where the infrastructure, frankly, is decaying, Albemarle Square, Fashion Square, et cetera, et cetera.

[03:08:04] Are we relying on the EDA to, you know, contact the owners to see what can be done on a large scale for housing there? Or would this be something that would permit that? I think this was meant to be a little bit more kind of high-level and flexible, so I'm not sure I know the detailed answer to that question.

[03:08:31] No, I don't mean to get into details. I'm just wondering, I guess that would suffice for that one. Item 2.5, I'm asking the collaboration with community partners, including faith-based organizations and institutes of higher education on affordable housing developments.

[03:08:56] they would use or underutilize land in development areas such as parking lots? Could that be used for privately owned, like, for example, the faith-based organizations that have land that could be used to build additional affordable units?

[03:09:20] Yes, absolutely. The point behind this is to encourage new partners to come forward and consider building affordable housing on their properties and work with the county to do so. Okay, perfect.

[03:09:36] Thank you. I think that was the missing piece. Thank you. 3.8, actively facilitate and encourage. Well, no, that would be an advisory group only, right? Just an advisory group for the board.

[03:09:54] Correct. And staff is coming back to the board on May 21st to talk about housing trust funds, and this will be part of that conversation. Got it. Thank you. Let's see. Okay.

[03:10:15] Oh, I have a problem with 6.1. I'd want to, it says to have served as safe and designated shelters for overnight parking for household experiencing homelessness.

[03:10:31] So we're saying that they would be staying in their vehicles in this area. Is that what we're saying? Okay. And I'm, have we consulted with the police department? What I'm worried about here is if everybody knows that there are people in this certain area that are homeless, I mean, frankly, that could be a point of people going and harassing them or breaking into the cars or I'm thinking of it from a not very safe area.

[03:11:07] I mean, unless we have police around there. But if it's just open like that, then that's kind of like a calling card. Hey, we have all these people here, and they're homeless, so they may not even report things. And that's a very important consideration. What staff would do is look at programs like this across the country and see how they are managed.

[03:11:26] Okay. Okay. And, okay, merged. and I think it was 6.6, collaborate with community stakeholders on initiatives that address system issues, contributing to homelessness and advocacy for policy changes, policy changes that dismantle institutional barriers.

[03:11:52] Would that be something better handled or also handled legislatively? I'm sorry, can you repeat that last part of the question? Okay. Would it be, would 6.6, since we're talking about contributing homelessness and advocacy for policy changes that dismantle institutional barriers, is that something we should also go forward with legislatively? Would that help?

[03:12:21] I think we need to have that conversation. That's not a conversation at least housing has had in any great depth in working with community partners to figure out the best route forward. Okay, and then lastly, 7.1, we're talking about community center kitchens and gardens, et cetera, but associated with private spaces in our communities, I guess I was asking.

[03:12:51] My question is, like, where would we do this? There's a lot of examples, a lot of communities that consider themselves to be intentional communities, So they are people that choose to live together in a more communal atmosphere, will have a centralized kitchen.

[03:13:09] So you would have individual households would have their own kitchens. But there would be sort of a great house, a clubhouse, so to speak, that would have kitchen facilities that families could come together every night and have a shared meal. So they would cook together, contribute once a night to groceries and get together that way.

[03:13:28] So that's where this idea is going to. but then also having sort of a space within a community that you could have a shared community garden instead of each person having their own, you know, small vegetable lot in their backyard. They could have one larger community garden that would help provide food for the entire community.

[03:13:48] Interesting. We have a living example of that in Emerson Commons, which surrounds the veterinary hospital on 240. It was a larger piece of property. The old private house is now the clubhouse and big kitchen for big parties, and they have 30 other units around the fringes.

[03:14:06] Right, but it's more like a clubhouse, right? Well, it's the same thing. It has a much bigger kitchen. You can have multi-generate, you know, your big Thanksgiving or whatever. But they have individual houses all around. So it has been, I guess it had to have a rezoning in order to be created 10 years ago, but it is very successful.

[03:14:23] Okay, well, the way I'm reading this, and tell me if I'm wrong, I'm thinking of affordable housing that maybe they only have a hot plate or something like that. They don't have a full working kitchen, and yet there's a local larger place where they can cook meals and everything like that.

[03:14:43] Are you thinking of what Ann is thinking of or what I'm saying? It could go either style. Traditionally, what happens is that you have individual homes with their individual kitchens, and it's a way for people to pool their resources.

[03:15:00] So instead of one household spending, you know, $200 a week on food that they may or may not be able to eat completely fast enough before it goes bad, everybody could pool money together, buy food in larger quantities in bulk, and then share meals together.

[03:15:17] It's a way for people, particularly older people who may be living alone, it's a way for them to have companionship throughout the week. It's a way for communities to support each other that you might not. Many of us go home at the end of the night and shut our doors and don't talk to our neighbors.

[03:15:33] So it's a way for people that really want to have that social interaction to come together, provide support for each other, potentially be able to provide daycare. So it's an intentional community is what they call themselves. Okay, look forward to hearing more about that.

[03:15:49] Thank you. No other questions. Thank you. Supervisor Galloway. I'm just going to give my, because each of these individual, I do appreciate that this called out, like, what's in Housing Albemarle versus what's in some of the actions here.

[03:16:10] I think that just made this a lot easier to contend with. But I don't really have a whole lot of nitpick to go in here and say, oh, 1-1 or 1-2. I mean, in general agreement, but I think there's, like, different tweaks on how we view it. So I don't necessarily know yet how to get at that, but I'm going to talk through some of these and see what we come up with.

[03:16:32] Generally speaking, we did receive correspondence from a couple different organizations that signed off, the PEC and Indivisible Charlottesville. In general, I pretty much agree with their take on that. I particularly want to call, and I'm not going to go through each one of those or have to make a comment on each one, but I particularly liked the point about workforce housing versus affordable housing, as if we're trying to suggest that people that fall under the affordable housing piece aren't in the workforce so that's that's a good point um so i think that we need to recognize that

[03:17:07] workforce housing does hit the whole spectrum um and i think that's when we're talking about ami really factors in because even calling out seniors um we if we make it a presumption that all seniors are at 40 or 50 percent ami we still have workforce folks that are 40 and 50 percent ami So I think it's dealing with the level of affordability that that brought forward.

[03:17:34] I forget which objective calls out the incentive piece. It's also in the correspondence. We have a developer incentive plan. And I'm going to make this similar comment based on some sort of housing overlay for the development area that's a one-size-fits-all.

[03:17:49] I really do not think a one-size-fits-all approach works. I just don't think it's pragmatic. In our economic development world, and I was a proponent and supported our developer incentive program, but we tried to do it as a one-size-fits-all.

[03:18:05] And the whole point when I voted on that and said let's keep the flexibility baked in is just each project is going to be so damn different that the flexibility is what's going to be needed and the county does have to make a decision. If 15% doesn't get it done and it takes a different number, then we have to make the decision of whether or not the output, the number of units, is worth the subsidy we'd have to give over for it.

[03:18:30] It's exactly how we do economic development projects. We do not have a one-size-fits-all approach to economic development projects. Why are we trying to force in a one-size-fits-all approach to either our incentive program or even a one-size-fits-all housing overlay in the county?

[03:18:48] to the point earlier about how some of these employment centers don't exist and some organic things are going to happen to bring it together, I think certain housing densities should be allowed, and how we get at them may have to be a little bit more flexible than just saying, here's the one-size-fits-all approach for the whole development area.

[03:19:07] I don't know how that translates into these goals and actions. I haven't got there yet in my brain. I think a lot of the things that are in here are trying to get at that. So the ADUs, like 1-1, you know, the last time you talked about affordable dwelling units and just allowing it by right, I think the by right notion got shot down, if I remember right, and the special use permit was kind of teetering on, if I'm not confusing two different topics.

[03:19:37] So some of this doesn't get at that. Like 1.1 doesn't talk about, are we moving this from special use permit, which means we're putting in basically another regulatory process, which we know slows things down and makes things more expensive. Or can we just say it could be by our right anywhere in the development area?

[03:19:54] Can I interject for one moment? Yeah. So 1.1 is actually talking about an affordable dwelling unit program, which is different from accessory dwelling units that you're talking about. so the small units in the backyard or your basement those are accessory dwelling units the affordable dwelling unit program is that's one three yes yeah so affordable dwelling unit program is a type of inclusionary zoning so so i yeah excuse me for speaking to one three but that's my point about the one one if we just say this is the one over development for the adus for

[03:20:31] the whole county we i mean you remember when you brought that forward to us before um like there could be a different overlay for the 29 corridor than there could be for pantops is what is what i'm saying absolutely yes i understand what you're saying but um one one is speaking specifically to a type of inclusionary zoning so what it would do is take the proffer system that's now voluntarily offering 20 affordable housing it would make it mandatory that's what one one does so understood my concern is we we've attempted to make it mandatory for the rezonings we've put an incentive

[03:21:08] program in place that's supposed to close the gap and we have had no applications come in with the exception of two that are trying to work at it and my understanding is they're not meeting the goal that there's going to have to be a conversation at the time in terms of flexibility with those particular items so that's kind of where i'm what i'm getting at you're kind of getting right at my concern if we implement in the comp plan this one overarching idea does it work against us in trying to just get more units on board i don't know and i'll be interested to hear what supervisor

[03:21:47] puett can maybe build on on some of these kind of thoughts um i think in all of these actions i'd rather start seeing us getting at actual unit goals and this gets to the comment earlier about performative words versus actionable steps so when we talk about like i'll use the developer incentive plan. Like we put that in place to try to move the needle from 15% to 20 and from 80 to 60.

[03:22:16] And we put this out there and whether or not developers understand it or don't or agree with it or don't agree with it's besides the point. I think we just need to say we want to start getting a certain number of units in place every single year that qualify for affordable along the spectrum. And that our action steps should be we need to take any and all steps to make that happen versus coming up with all the plans before we get the applications that we base it against, if that makes sense.

[03:22:45] So, for example, if we said we want to put 1,000 affordable units in play by the end of 2026, then that says we're going to do all the things necessary to make that happen versus let's spend all through 2026 coming up with a new developer incentive plan or inclusionary zoning policy and then wait around and see if those units can come online based on what we come up with.

[03:23:09] I'm trying to change what we're focused on. If we want to get 1,000 units and we have to come up with a certain amount of subsidy, we can or we can't. But if we can't afford to do it in a given year, we'll have to accept that.

[03:23:24] But at least then we're saying, well, maybe we could do 600 units or 500 units and then dictate a DMI. I don't know if any of this is making sense, but this is a struggle. It's what's struggling. I'm struggling with trying to come. We're coming. We spent all this time and effort coming up with programs and plans.

[03:23:40] And then who knows what bureaucracy that's creating around the programs and the plans that's adding to an already complex situation. And if they don't work, then we've wasted all that time just getting to where we're getting at. So in my mind, the next step is that Housing Albemarle needs to go through the exact, which this calls out for, and you've got it in here, it's an action step, to go through the same exact approach that we're doing with Project Enable.

[03:24:07] I like the call out of economic development and housing being connected. I think that's appropriate. But I think it's time. We're four years next month to a housing album row. So if we're going to update the plan every five years, what I know what that means is we'll wait until the fifth year, then we start doing the planning, so then it ends up being seven or eight years before we get it out there.

[03:24:28] So every five years doesn't mean every five years. It means we start the planning every five years. So I think this needs to go through the same level of scrutiny. Project Enable, we're bringing in consultants. We're doing a whole different level of scrutiny. We know a hell of a lot more about economic development than we did five or six years ago.

[03:24:47] I'm not saying that you know a heck of a lot more than you did five or six years ago, because a lot of us are catching up with you. But this board knows a lot more about affordable housing than it did five or six years ago. So I think it's time to, in addition to the things we're going to be doing on the 21st and some of the momentum that's going already in those areas, pulling together housing albuquerque and go, yeah, we've got to get started in tandem or on the heels of or parallel to the project-enabled piece, because then these steps turn into, I think, will turn into more actionable steps than the performative words.

[03:25:24] We're going to encourage or incentivize people to do density, blah, blah, blah. Well, that can be a very different thing, I think, under a different level of scrutiny. To the advocacy groups that sent the letter, I'm just making a request to them.

[03:25:43] They have two items in there about wealth creation and renter protection. So any more wealth creation beyond, like, the habitat model or the land trust models and things like that, or renter protections, or even if you all were thinking broader than just homeownership, there seems to be that there's a knowledge deficit for me on that, Or at least I need my scope broadened because I'm not picking up on exactly what local governments do.

[03:26:15] Rent or protection, I could understand what a government could do. For wealth creation, like are there call-outs to other communities that are doing that beyond just doing land trust model or habitat type of things where you get the equity back that you're in? But I think of renters.

[03:26:31] I had a renter who was talking to me about units and where they were coming online and stuff like that. And that person was talking to me about how do I get to the point where I can save the money to be able to get into a housing piece? But if they're not the beneficiary of the land trust or the habitat model, is there something the government does to help them create wealth beyond that?

[03:26:54] And I don't know that there is, but that's the knowledge gap. Housing overlay.

[03:27:15] I think I've called out what I'm going to call out. I may have missed something, but I'll review my notes here. Supervisor Pruitt. Thank you. I first want to, just because it was the last thing said and it's still fresh in everyone's mind, I was also intrigued by how the advocates kind of focused in several points on wealth generation.

[03:27:39] An example of a county intervention that creates wealth generation is actually our failed previous version of inclusionary zoning. That resulted in wealth generation, as in it had an affordability component that applied for the first-time homebuyer and that then vanished on resale immediately.

[03:27:57] resulting in several people doing an immediate flip with a windfall. I think they're getting at, frankly, an element of that, but moderated over time with a consideration for potential reinvestment, as in something similar to the Piedmont Land Trust's model, which allows a capture of a percentage of market profits in addition to their equity.

[03:28:25] I appreciate what they're stabbing at with that, And I think deed restrictions, which I know are talked about specifically in here for affordable units, are the right way to go. I would suggest to this board a really challenging truism that we need to always keep in mind thinking about housing, which is homeownership as wealth generation and homeownership as an affordable housing option are fundamentally incompatible and at odds.

[03:28:56] it is a continuum that they have two poles and if you are trying to use home ownership for wealth generation and that is the policy direction you are going then you are also fundamentally making home ownership inaccessible um so that is not really something we can escape and the american model has historically been to think of housing as an investment um and it has created challenges over over time and home ownership has become more and more of a rarefied and a genteel privilege rather than something that is kind of the standard option for housing affordability.

[03:29:34] So I think vis-a-vis lease restrictions, deed restrictions, I'm sorry, then I think what makes sense is probably what we will land on with this, which is something that feathers out over time. We don't want a single sharp fall off of, oh, got to hold, like it's a Dogecoin or something, got to hold until the 10-year mark or the 30-year mark, and then all of a sudden my my equity gets a like $200,000 market boost, something that feathers out of, you know, you get 5% of your market capture with every passing year. Sorry, that got real wonky. That doesn't

[03:30:08] need to be in here, but I just wanted to speak to that because I know it's something on our mind because it's something that the public brought up. Help me out with 1.4. Are we legally able in the context of a, so currently we use bonus density in the context of non-buy right, as in things that are requesting a zoning map amendment. That is when this comes up, because they're asking for right. A zoning map amendment is bonus density, and we negotiate that, and there is a inclusionary zoning standard that attaches there. I did not, I was not under the impression that our enabling

[03:30:47] legislation allows us in a by-right situation to capture an inclusionary zoning additional if they are offering bonus density above that. Is that currently allowed? Because, I mean, that sounds sexy to me, right? Help me understand. We do currently have bonus factors that we, that county uses for a number of different things, one of which is affordable housing. Okay. And it's typically done in by-right development. A developer will come and ask for an increase in density. I believe it's up to 30 percent increase in density and in exchange for that they agree to provide 50 percent

[03:31:25] of the units gained under that additional density as affordable housing okay i i like this and what i would want to see as we again i will always remind us that our zoning code is discordant with our own comprehensive plan and that results in an unusual posture by which we review everything because we review everything as a ZMA, which is busted.

[03:31:49] You shouldn't need a ZMA to build at target density. And that informs our own view of the existing inclusionary zoning standard as being part of the process. But it's not, right? It's not default part of the process. It's only there because everything is a ZMA.

[03:32:07] So what I would hope is that we get 1.4 right. And it sounds like we might already be there, in which case I'm like, why does it need to be in here? Because 1.4 should be how we're doing inclusionary zoning. Is that fair, right? Like in a universe where our zoning map is consistent with the comprehensive plan, then we wouldn't have as many ZMAs.

[03:32:28] And you would still have people wanting to build more because they get more money when they build more. And so we'd still want to have that inclusionary zoning standard. So 1.4 seems really compelling and important and should be like the crux of our affordable housing inclusionary zoning policy, and it's just not because our zoning code's messed up.

[03:32:45] Sorry, that went from being a question into a rant because I think the answer is just yes, that's correct. Okay, thank you. Sorry, I had some tea. I'm more caffeine than I'm used to these days. Help me out with 1.5. I read that and it almost sounds like a gloss we would put on the zoning code revision after the crosswalk, which sounds complicated, right?

[03:33:11] And we're running into the issue again of like these speak to other parts of the comprehensive plan but are living in their own silo. Because 1.5, right, this is apply missing middle land designation to additional locations in the development area. And I hear that. I hear that as a distinct goal. I'm thinking, oh, is that after we've already gone through our individual CAC-led process for small area plans and then we apply that? Or are we saying that needs to be part of that provision that was a question i think there are a couple of options for doing that um and one of the things that we're looking at right now with the comprehensive plan is how are we going to do

[03:33:50] those area plan updates in the future in part some of the you know challenges you all have mentioned with you know the time that it takes and how they can get staggered and so one thing that we've looked at is are there things like land use that we can do a little bit more holistically especially for plans that haven't been updated in a while okay thank you i'm supportive of this i i think it is hard to justify so long as we have our restrictions on the development area the existence of single family zoning it's also redundant because we have hoas and so the ability to apply

[03:34:25] a a higher density underneath existing builds i think is something that is going to do us good in the future and that seems to me like what missing middle residential would be primarily for Again, because we have existing build out in this community, but applying something for future redevelopment of existing communities, future possible redevelopment of people's individually owned homes.

[03:34:46] I think that is what I see as being the value added there. Okay, here's a challenging one for me, 1.8. I try not to bring my work too much into my work, but I'm a fair housing lawyer. this is a fair housing question and it does not seem to actually have any key action items linked to it and i'm not super familiar with this portion of housing album all but i mean i read our own analysis of impediments and our comp our plan and i i look at it i'm like well it seems like

[03:35:23] mostly you're saying the problem is affordability um and not necessarily grappling with what fair housing is about, which is like segregation and racial discrimination and discrimination based on -- I mean, you list them all, but like I'm thinking the ones that are actually very present, disability, accessibility issues.

[03:35:46] So like there are action items that this kind of begs that I'm not sure this board is like thinking about, but that would be like, are we implementing a housing testing program? A lot of localities do. Our neighbor does. Are we creating a civil rights ordinance? don't know if we have an independent civil rights ordinance I don't know if we're empowered to I know cities with charters are and I know urban county management mount manager localities are I don't know that we are are we going to seek fat approval the affair to review our own administrative complaints like

[03:36:22] Charlottesville is seeking currently and like Fairfax can currently but we cannot. That would be really bold. It would be really cool. It would be potentially a little expensive, especially if the FAP grant disappears. But like a really big way we could master our destiny, are we going to join Charlottesville's FAP program, which would probably be the way to do it, I would think, right? Merge their human rights office or merge their human rights board and potentially have some staff mutual support because of the overlapping locality there. And they have, I can speak, having spoken with members of their Human Rights Council, Human

[03:37:00] Rights Board, Human Rights Commission, Human Rights Commission, they have contemplated the possibility of a joint Human Rights Commission, because it would frankly be very efficient. We don't have such a thing, because we don't contemplate fair housing issues in Albemarle County. We don't really talk about it. We're a very white community. It doesn't come up very much. And would we do affirmative enforcement? We can. We can sue as an aggrieved person under the Virginia Fair Housing Act and the Fair Housing Act, and counties do. I don't

[03:37:38] think we're contemplating that. I don't think we're aware that we can do that, but we can. And so I guess what I'm, I would really like to see particularity around 1.8, and maybe that particularity needs to come in the form of an actual discussion around a policy program. And so I guess I would say maybe the suggestion there is that the language be geared toward the formulation of an actual fair housing program on behalf of the county. Because I don't think I'm unfairly characterizing this, but I don't think we have one. No. Until recently, we had worked with Piedmont Housing Alliance. They have now stopped.

[03:38:18] To the best of my knowledge, they have stopped doing that fair housing monitoring compliance for our area. So we are currently not doing that because they are no longer working. And the state does some, but I wouldn't assume they're just doing it here.

[03:38:36] Maybe they are, but I think the state also might only do race-based testing right now. I don't think they're doing the full gamut. Okay, that's all I have for objective one. I'm sorry, I will go faster. Housing objective to a member of the public pointed this out. I think it's a good point It's not necessarily material but permit the weak word It's the very first word in the objective that could be enabled that could be encouraged. Um I Think we should look at 2.1 and in light of the conversation. We just had maybe consider removing the last four words

[03:39:16] That is in the development area and as we talked about mobile housing parks aren't really feasible in the development area mostly because of utility hookups if we're going to talk about mobile housing parks we need to talk about mobile housing parks period so maybe even more than four words just buy right um not buy right right we would probably do a ZMA around it to put it in one of these zoning categories that we don't have yet that would be how I would think it would make sense but point being we don't want to strictly cabinet in the definition here to the development area 2.4 what do

[03:39:54] I have here? Can you help me understand 2.4 a little bit better? So I read this, and it makes sense. 2.4 makes sense to me if we are a community that owns public housing, but we're not. And so I'm not clear what I'm doing with 2.4, or what am I committing in county to? So are you familiar with the project that Piedmont Housing Alliance is pursuing on Cherry Avenue? A little bit, but enlighten me. So it would be a low-income housing tax credit project for affordable housing, and

[03:40:34] and including space for a community grocery store. So that's what that is looking at. Down for it. I agree with the points that were made previously about 3.1.

[03:40:50] I think updating the housing policy every five years makes sense. We need to actually frickin' do it, and I don't have experience has not taught me to think that we will do it on that time frame, and I think we need to, right? We're already getting tremendous pressure.

[03:41:06] It is being realized through a proposal from my district, I think, but tremendous pressure on our existing inclusionary zoning standard and the developer incentive program. I think there's market factors that are playing in there that aren't necessarily related to it, but still. We're getting tremendous pressure, and it's been a year, a year and change, right?

[03:41:25] So five years minimum, I think, makes sense. Five years is already quite a while, but I recognize it's hard to get the data to do re-evaluations. Oh, here's a note I made. When we say housing policy, there's not like a document I pull off the shelf that says housing policy.

[03:41:43] It's a constellation of, maybe I'm wrong, but I think of it as a constellation of discrete individual policies and programs. So I guess I would first say, am I out of whack there? Is there a single thing that I can pull off the shelf called housing policy?

[03:41:58] And if it is a constellation of documents, like, I guess, how are we defining what's in and what's out in that review process? So the housing policy is housing Albemarle, and it is a complete document, and I think that's about it.

[03:42:15] In that case, then I might be maybe less supportive of this line item as written because what I would think is housing Albemarle I don't understand as incorporating the discrete decisions and, like, metrics and, like, implementation criteria that you've built around as individual objectives, right?

[03:42:38] Like Housing Albemarle does not contain within its text the idea that if you rezone more than 10 units, then you have to have 60% AMI in at least 20% of your units for the new density units, right?

[03:42:54] But that is a standard that we have created based on the text of Housing Albemarle, but it sounds like I'm not clear if that gets revisited every five years or just the enabling text. Do you see kind of the question I'm getting at? I do. So the idea is that, like a comprehensive plan, which is a policy document, a housing album model would be reviewed every five years and be updated where necessary.

[03:43:18] So it's the same concept as a comprehensive plan, just for housing. Okay. I think I'm following. Can you remind me what the Virginia Housing Community Impact Grant does? Is that the new one that's, like, tied to economic development? I believe so. Okay. The one that Youngkin announced, like, earlier this, or like a year ago?

[03:43:35] Yep. sure um i'm looking at 3.6 which i think is on the next one um this i mean this just got me thinking doesn't it's not captured entirely in here but um we it is my kind of assumption that at some point in our not terribly distant future 2045 we will have to seriously grapple with the realities that our development area have created. And we will likely face a significant rezoning and one that

[03:44:13] should be substantial rather than nibbling around the edges. I think it's important that we look at that as a really cool opportunity to have a new core, a new activity core of this community and have the policies in place that will help the planning process that will be really intense that HAVE TO CONTRIBUTE TO THIS, RIGHT? JUST TO BE VERY EXPLOSIVE, I'M SAYING, LIKE, IN 2050, I THINK WE'RE PROBABLY GOING TO LOOK AT, LIKE, RIVANA FUTURE, AND WE'RE GOING TO SAY, DAMN, THIS NEEDS TO BE ALMOST ITS OWN SMALL TOWN OR CITY AROUND IT, AND IT'S NOT SET UP TO SUPPORT THAT. AND WE WILL NEED TO CREATE A NEW DEVELOPMENT AREA AROUND IT, NOT NIBBLING AROUND

[03:44:51] THE EDGES OF OUR EXISTING DEVELOPMENT AREA AND FURTHER EXACERBATING THE CLIMATE STRAIN OF THAT, but a single coordinated planned community. That will be a complicated planning endeavor, and when we are at that point, it's really critical to me that we have all the constituent parts of that that we would want so ready and geared up.

[03:45:12] And I mention that because thinking about the Virginia Housing Community Impact Grant, that would be a perfect candidate for that grant program as it's ready. But we don't want to be scrambling the year that we're finally going to move on potentially exploring that really huge whole-of-government planning process.

[03:45:30] We don't want to be scrambling for the constituent parts, the constituent housing policies, the constituent transit policies that we're going to need. So I guess I just mentioned that kind of philosophizing for a moment, just to highlight the urgency and the continued relevance of these discrete housing policies and that we need to have them ready.

[03:45:49] They need to be in an exquisite form because we want to be able to be kind of a generational planning example for when that moment that opportunity strikes one day um 4.4 um this kind of is a is a through line of a lot of these but i would suggest that 4.4 should probably have specific actionables um we don't have a non-displacement plan for non-county subsidized units we probably should have a plan including specific like or policy including specific criteria that we would expect

[03:46:25] out of redevelopment proposals, including specific resources that we are ready and willing to offer. I would want that to be something that, you know, comes in the shape of something that the board considers, thoughtfully. Yes, you're leaning in. Yes.

[03:46:40] The staff is working on that. Yeehaw. All right. 6.1. 4.4. Involuntary displacement. 6.1.

[03:46:59] This is a good idea. It may require an incentive program. It may be worth including that it may require an incentive program to work or not even necessarily using that language, but with like including deploying of county resources, right? Not even necessary a monetary incentive, but somehow implying that if we want this to happen, we're not just going to be having conversations with local partners and property owners.

[03:47:25] we're going to actually be potentially willing to put skin in the game because it would be a cheaper intervention than the other ones, right? If that involves a payment to someone, providing certain resources, providing certain tools through social services, then it would still probably be cheaper.

[03:47:45] 6.2, I like it. I would highlight first that while the problem is most acute with LGBT young people, it is not exclusive to LGBT young people, Queer people experience housing in a higher rate and in a way that is more acute and that is across all age ranges.

[03:48:05] There's a very high amount of trans sex workers who are homeless, and that is including in our community. It is a pernicious and pervasive problem. And it is being exacerbated by changes in federal policy. The only new federal rule that has been proposed to come out of HUD so far, They've claimed to do a lot of things, but the only actual policy that they're claiming they're going to change, they still haven't started the rulemaking process, but is related to trans folks in shelters.

[03:48:38] And it's potentially inviting a conflict of laws lawsuit at the state level because it is illegal under Virginia law to do what Scott Turner is proposing to do. I raise all this, sorry, both because I wanted to talk about it, but also because I would like to see, again, a concrete objective.

[03:48:57] What I might highlight is we don't talk about whether or not we're going to look at the barriers facing these populations, identify them, see what we can do about them, and whether or not we would want to commit outreach or marketing resources to try and better access these communities. Objective seven still feels a little funny to me.

[03:49:19] I heard the explanation already. I don't see how expanding, making it easier for the resources that intentional communities want speaks to the objective that's written there, if that makes sense. I'm just going to let that hang in the air.

[03:49:38] I'm not sure I need an answer right now, but it seems like a mismatch between action and objective. And it is also strange that, frankly, such an odd, I'm not opposed to it, but an odd action is sitting alone on its own objective. Which brings me to, I'm sorry, I have one last thing.

[03:49:55] This is the last thing. But I have two things that I think warrant additional objectives. They were brought up by members of the public, and I've tried to flesh them out a little bit more. But members of the public in the letter that's already been referenced, there are a lot of things they said I disagreed with. But this is one I think is correct, which is we need discrete objectives related to senior housing and to tenant protections.

[03:50:17] I can actually go through, off the top of my head, going from probably obvious to more radical, think what we should include in tenant protections. Use, and you don't have to write this down because there's a recording.

[03:50:33] Use available county tools to ensure tenant conditions remain within legally required standards. This is something we've talked about. This is something I know we're doing existing policy around, but it's really just because those are things that the members of the board who are here elected right now are doing. And if we disappear, there's no policy holding us to the fire on that.

[03:50:52] I think it would probably make sense to move the tenant displacement thing here. Develop plans in collaboration with legal aid, courts, and landlord stakeholders for eviction, reduction, and diversion. That is something we can do. That is something we care about. It's something we're doing in some ways, but we could be more intentional about our strategy around it, and we could enshrine it in policy.

[03:51:13] Deploy a tenant resource kit to advise tenants on their rights, services available, and raise complaints to staff and board. A pretty standard thing that a lot of developed communities, that a lot of cities, almost all cities, have. I don't know that we have. We could certainly do better on it. And finally, facilitate tenant organizing through outreach and connections to residents, providing resources and guidance on legal rights, instructing on change management, and facilitating organization formation.

[03:51:42] That's a big one. That's unusual. That is one of the most impactful things we can do to actually fight rent increases using our existing powers. That requires no additional legislative authority. That is something we can do that would empower existing folks on the ground to be better advocates for their own right and to better combat their own local rent increases and to better fight for their own anti-displacement requirements.

[03:52:07] Senior housing, I did not have as much time to start scratching out things, But I've said before that I think so long as we have a tax credit that is specific for seniors, or sorry, a tax relief program that is specific for seniors, we should reckon with the inequity that that makes.

[03:52:23] It makes it impossible. It makes people trapped and unable to downsize, unable to move into condominiums or assisted living if they are relying on that. So I think the answer to that would be a pilot vouchering program. I think that exploration of that deserves reference in the comprehensive plan.

[03:52:45] And there are certainly other needs and demands that are unique to the senior community where they are working with limited income that should be mentioned here. I just didn't have time to do the research for it. Sorry. That's all I have. I appreciate the generosity of the time. Thank you.

[03:53:01] Supervisor McHugh. Yes. And I will say that several folks have brought up items or suggestions that I've never even thought of, right? I mean, I'm just saying. And I'm not going to go through and repeat all of them, but I did find some of them very interesting.

[03:53:18] And I'm just going to leave it at that because we're running out of time. But I will say, so if I go back to objective, the group of ones, I really do support the accessory, and I'll use accessory drilling units because they're developing a set of performance standards because that is really the only way that I would be willing to go along with this, right?

[03:53:46] We've got to be clear about the neighborhoods and what we're doing. But I appreciate you putting in the set of performance standards. I had a note that the density bonus ordinance does not seem to be working.

[03:54:04] That goes back to what Ned was talking about to some degree, and I'm not going to belabor all of that, but I do agree with what Ned said on that one. And 1.6, utilize commercial or office spaces for conversion and housing.

[03:54:21] I think that's a really great thought. I leave that to you guys on how to make that happen, but I really do like that idea. Let me keep going fast here if I can. 2.1, I agree to take out the development area piece because the cost of land in the development area, this is never going to happen if we limit it.

[03:54:43] So let's see what we can do and how it might work. given the parameters that we know we need, the criteria that we've talked about, right? And let me just, I'm trying to skip down here pretty fast, Jim. The update to housing policy every five years, absolutely.

[03:55:03] I'd love to see it looked at more often than five, but realistically, I get it, but I am a big supporter of that. And just because I'm not mentioning something doesn't mean I don't agree with it, just so y'all. Let me see here.

[03:55:22] I'm a little concerned about 3.8, an advisory committee. I would not, I worry a little bit about that would be, could be a delay, I've seen, but I'd have to have more discussion about that.

[03:55:39] Where are we here? 4.2, a huge yes, rental inspection district program. And maybe because my district, if you go back to the Allistata, you can see what I'm talking about.

[03:55:55] And I was thrilled to see the Allistata in here. Thank you, thank you, thank you. That was lovely. But, because it's just really important. So my district has many of the older, and we are having a huge problem with this, and quality of life.

[03:56:11] And what we have had is people swoop in and buy all this up, and they're renting, and they are not taking care of their property. and they don't even sometimes live in the area. So we've got to figure this out for my folks in the Jewett District. We really do. And I'm sure many of you all have areas as well, but I think I have a large group.

[03:56:34] And let's see. I said yes to 4.3, and I'm trying to see why I did that. Oh, that's the Landlord and Tenant Act. And I agree completely. Seniors, tenant protection, we hear that all the time. We've got to figure some of these out to help protect our residents.

[03:56:52] I agree about the displacement. It would be good to look at that. I'm just trying to go through your gym real fast. And 6.1, I never really thought of such an action.

[03:57:11] I really would have to have a more better understanding of what it entails. But if you can show me some models, and I think you said you were going to do that. 6.2, I agree with Michael and what he was talking about with those. Let me just see here.

[03:57:27] And that brings me almost to the end. Shared space initiatives, community centers, and I would say yes to that. I think that's a great idea. And that was as fast as I could do it. Thank you. That's good. I don't know if I can be as efficient. So I don't have a lot of specific comments because I do like a lot of what's in here, but there are some things that I'm maybe not seeing as much as I'd like to see of.

[03:57:52] So, for example, just doing a quick word search, the words buy right. The words buy right appear only three times in this entire thing, and those are for the buy right development in 1.4 effectiveness, and then the buy right of the manufactured homes, and then the buy right in 3.1.

[03:58:12] And so I just feel like there needs to be some focus in this on trying to expand what can be done by right. Also, it doesn't seem to me that we have much in here that suggests that we're finding any ways to streamline processes to make the processes easier so that affordable housing and housing generally can be developed with a little less red tape.

[03:58:35] So I would like to see some, and yeah, I did word search for the word permit and other than other uses of the word, there was nothing in here that talked about the permit process. So those are just a couple things that I highlight as, I think, missing from the document maybe that could be considered.

[03:58:53] But otherwise, I heard a lot from other people that I really like. With respect to, let's see, yeah, my comments for 3.1 are also about the fact that it talks about ensuring the feasibility of affordable housing needs to be built through rezoning applications instead of a reduced number through by-right development.

[03:59:16] I'd like to see some of the possibilities of increasing the number being more by right. So, again, that's that same comment made it a different context. Back to 2.1, just in the allowance for a manufactured home, I'm okay with taking out in the development areas, but I see a big difference between a manufactured home.

[03:59:39] Actually, you have in there distinctions between manufactured, modular, and mobile. And the tax treatment of those, the fact that they're different is very important. I see a difference between a manufactured home by right and a manufactured home park. And I don't want to imply by this that I'm saying, oh, I think a manufactured home park is something that should be allowed by right.

[04:00:01] It's really a whole other big issue when we start talking about the density of a manufactured home park. So I didn't see the word park here, and I interpreted this to mean just somebody that's decided to use a manufactured home process to build. The problem is the distinction between manufactured and modular, one's personal property, one's real property, and it makes me nervous a little bit.

[04:00:25] So I'd like to learn a little bit more when we make that change of that. But I do think it's worth considering and should be part of our plan. I also agree with the comments, just to make it quickly, that I think we have a problem with wealth creation under our current.

[04:00:48] our older process where you could just flip the house. But I also think that maybe there is a process to feather in that we should consider. But that didn't rise to the level of my initial comments, but something that came up in the discussion.

[04:01:07] I'm going to jump all the way to seven, where it's an increased affordable and accessible housing options in the community. And then it just has this one objective, which seems very narrowly focused for what the one action seems narrowly focused for the objective that's there.

[04:01:26] But focusing on that does remind me that if we look at the statistics, and you have some of that in here, and I think I've been looking at it elsewhere, houses have gotten larger, much larger. Households have gotten smaller, much smaller.

[04:01:42] And so I'd like to see something in here that reflects participation by the county in a process where we might allow for more households of larger size, somehow allowing people to pool their resources together.

[04:02:01] I don't want to create, you know, some of the apartment complexes where you have 12 different students trying to all live in one apartment. But at the same time, I think that shared living spaces, and that seems to be suggested by 7.1, might help do something to reverse this trend that is that we just keep having larger houses and smaller families in them.

[04:02:23] And that is part of our affordable housing problem, honestly. And I'm really appreciating the comments by all supervisors and leave it at that.

[04:02:41] Obviously, I think the other thing that could be in here, we've already talked about tenant protections, is whether or not in this context we ever include more about seeking legislative authority to do things. And I do think this is an area where we want to seek more legislative authority as part of our plans.

[04:03:01] Thank you. Board, we're at 520, and we have talked about a closed meeting. We have people here waiting to talk to us for a closed meeting from staff. We also have lots of pages here of text.

[04:03:20] And I would like to do something a little bit unusual. That is, propose that if we have something really, if we can limit our comments for a couple minutes each, then we can try to get out of here in 10 minutes with everybody talking and still not have to necessarily come back.

[04:03:37] But if we really feel like we have to come back, we'll have to come back either on the 14th when we talk about the Affordable Housing Trust Fund or on the 28th when we're talking about transportation, which is a somewhat related chapter. So with that, I'll turn to Supervisor Malik and ask anything here that you really feel like you want to...

[04:03:56] I have sent my annotated thing to everybody. That's very helpful. But I will just emphasize, just looking at page 2, because I noted it before I got to the end where Objective 7 only had one thing, I made that number one.

[04:04:14] I mean, that's a perfect umbrella for the whole thing because it then leads to... The objective, but not necessarily that one action, which is part of the problem. No, no, no, that was when I tripped over it, but I think this is a perfect title, if you want. I'm just throwing that out there. Objective 4 become 2, Objective 5 become 3, and I'll stop there.

[04:04:34] Okay. Supervisor Lapista-Curvin. I have no other comments. I mean, some of the comments that were made I mostly agree with, some want more information, but I will bring up one thing, and that's, too, I think it's extremely important that we look at the permitting process, because the longer it takes for us to approve anything, affordable housing or not, that costs the developers more money, and we're not going to get it.

[04:05:03] And I think we've seen a number of projects that have actually fallen out of favor that have just fallen by the wayside because our permitting process took too long. So that's one thing I wanted to emphasize. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Gallagher. Well, I think, obviously, the staff having a chance to take what they've learned today and bring it back to us, this chapter is going to merit, just like others, another run-through.

[04:05:27] So I don't feel too pressed to get it all in today or even in a week because it's going to have to come back through us again, I'm assuming, with these changes in it. So we'll get another swing at this chapter. Yes, am I wrong? Yes, I'm wrong, or yes, it's happening?

[04:05:43] No, you'll have another chance. I think I wrote this down, and Bea just made a comment about the permitting process, but my question I wrote down is who's reviewing the process at the board, planning commission, A or B level once it's passed staff?

[04:06:00] Do we need some sort of work group that's board members and planning commissioners that go, hey, you know, staff's done their work. applications in what's the timeline to get through the board's process because that who's reviewing that maybe you all are reviewing that but you know the permitting for buy right is one thing for rezoning zmas all those things how it's going through camino is all staff level it'll track it will probably track the information needed at the board levels and all that but it's probably going to take a few board members or a few planning commissioners the clerk's office the attorney's

[04:06:40] office to go all right how the hell do we tighten it up once it gets through all that first phase or first whatever um so i'm just throwing that out there for consideration because that's something that may need to be looked at thank you supervisor pruitt i have nothing to add supervisor mckeel yes just quickly the objectives one through seven i agree with ann about objective seven and when i read these i made a note reduce redundancy i always like it when we can skinny

[04:07:14] down. And some of these, it seems like to me, were redundant or could be combined in a more effective and efficient way. So that was my overall. And then the other point I wanted to make again was I'm thanking you for the ALICE data, because this is the first time I've really seen the ALICE data in any document that we have that's significant, right? Except for the documents that were just about ALICE that Siri produced for us years ago.

[04:07:47] That's critical. There are communities across the country, United Ways and different groups, that use the ALICE data as to where to put funding. I'm just saying because those are the communities that are in need. And I would say maybe not always funding, but certainly attention like a rental service district or something like that.

[04:08:10] And with that, I'm through. Okay. Thank you. My only note that I had in here was that when we looked at priority actions, I didn't see some of the low-hanging fruit that I thought we had been talking about, such as the accessory units or the conversion space ideas.

[04:08:31] And so those strategies aren't specifically called out there, but they are elsewhere. So anything further? I will just make everybody mad by saying we used to meet a whole lot longer. nine in the morning to nine at night was a regular thing and we got a whole lot more things done and if the board is slowing things down because of not being able to get on our agenda that is one option oh i see oh as far as getting approvals yeah i agree that's the process i agree

[04:09:01] all right if nothing else further from staff thank you very much we will turn to supervisor Professor Pruitt for a motion to go into a closed meeting. Thank you.

[04:09:20] I would like to move that the Board of Supervisors convene a closed meeting pursuant to Section 2.2, TAC 3711A of the Code of Virginia. First, under subsection 1, to discuss and consider appointments to various boards and commissions, including, without limitation, the 5th and Avon Community Advisory Committee, the Jefferson Area Board for Aging Advisory Council, and the Solid Waste Alternatives Advisory Committee, and second under subsection 3 to discuss and consider the disposition of publicly held real property in the Whitehall Magisterial District where a discussion in an open meeting would adversely affect the bargaining position or negotiating strategy of the county and the board.

[04:09:55] Second. We have a motion from Supervisor Pruitt, second from Supervisor McKeel. Without objection, the clerk will call the roll. Ms. McKeel? Yes. Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Mr. Andrews? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yep. Ms. Lapista-Kirtley? Aye. Ms. Mallon? Yes. Thank you.

[04:10:10] So I'd please encourage everyone to, I know you didn't need a break here, but to assemble again quickly so that we can try to keep on our 6 o'clock schedule as well. Okay. Thank you. Welcome.

[04:10:25] We'll try to get started. Apologize again for our late start. But we have first, before we do anything else, we have to come out of closed meeting, and we have a motion from. She's looking for it. Okay. She is looking for it. The AC is definitely on now.

[04:10:43] It's in your email. It's in email. All right. Just a second. All right. I'm just going to, oh, you could read it. Okay. You can read it right from over my shoulder. I move that the Board of Supervisors certify by a recorded vote that, to the best of each supervisor's knowledge, only public business matters lawfully exempted from the open meeting requirements of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act and identified in the motion authorizing the closed meeting were heard, discussed, or considered in the closed meeting.

[04:11:19] Second. We have a motion from Supervisor Lupisto-Curtley, a second from Supervisor Malek. Without objection, the clerk will call the roll. Ms. McKeel? Yes. Mr. Andrews? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. Lupisto-Curtley? Aye. Ms. Malek? Yes. Thank you.

[04:11:35] And we do have one motion coming out of closed meeting. Vice Chair McKeel? We do. I have a motion to appoint some residents to our boards and commissions. To the 5th and Avon Community Advisory Committee, Benjamin Lynch. to the Jefferson Area Board for Aging Advisory Council, Elizabeth Boyd, and Solid Waste Alternatives Advisory Committee, or SWAC, Betsy Soulsby.

[04:12:00] Second. We have a motion from Supervisor McKeel. Second from Supervisor Malek. Without objection, the clerk will call the roll. Ms. McKeel? Yes. Mr. Andrews? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. Lopisto-Kirtley? Aye. Ms. Malek? Yes. Thank you. And next item would be a report from the county executive.

[04:12:16] Is there anything at this meeting? No, sir. Not this evening. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Then that brings us to public comment on matters previously considered or currently pending before the board other than scheduled public hearings. And I believe we have at least one sign-up.

[04:12:33] Okay. Check to see if the person is here. Just because last time we had a... Oh, yeah. Alicia Linehan is here. And you can... She's going to read the rules. I'm going to read the rules, but you can come on up since you started. Did I already...

[04:12:49] No, no, you didn't. No, you're fine. I'm just going to read. I'm going to give you the abbreviated rules. All right. During the time set aside for public comment on matters previously considered or currently pending before the board, other than scheduled public hearings, individuals may address the Board of Supervisors.

[04:13:08] Individuals are allowed one opportunity of up to three minutes to speak at each board meeting. Timekeeping is conducted through a timer and light system at the podium. The green light will go on when you begin speaking, which begins your allotted time. The yellow light indicates you have one minute to finish speaking.

[04:13:23] The red light indicates your time has expired, and you will be asked to end your comments. The board requests that speakers adhere to the following guidelines. When addressing the board, state your name and if you live in Almar County or Magisterial District. Address comments directly to the board as a whole.

[04:13:39] You can give any written statements or other supporting material to the clerk. If representing a group, you may ask others present to raise their hands in recognition. Speakers may not share any unused time with another speaker. And back-and-forth debate is not permitted.

[04:13:55] All comments are live-streamed, recorded, and published on the Elmore County website. So with that, would you introduce yourself? And you might want to adjust the mic. It may be a little low. Can you hear me? My name is Alicia Linehan, and I live in the county in the Scottsville district.

[04:14:12] As I said, my name is Alicia Linehan, and I appreciate the opportunity to speak this evening. I'm submitting these remarks as a retired attorney, an American citizen, resident of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and your constituent.

[04:14:28] The action taken by agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Wednesday, April 22nd at the Albemarle County Courthouse and their subsequent threats are profoundly troubling and dangerous for everyone in this community.

[04:14:44] The administration and Governor Youngkin are intent on labeling all immigrants as dangerous criminals, committing assault, rape, and murder without regard to the facts or law. This is evidenced by the egregious mistakes made by ICE in recent weeks.

[04:15:01] Kilmar Abrego-Garcia, rendered to El Salvador by mistake. American children, one undergoing cancer treatment, rendered to Honduras. In Oklahoma, a mother and her three daughters were terrorized when 20 heavily armed men executed an apparent no-knock warrant on their home by mistake.

[04:15:20] These examples fly in the face of public safety, as did the action on April 22nd, which was even more dangerous. A courthouse is a sacred space and serves everyone, regardless of their immigration status.

[04:15:37] When it becomes dangerous, we are all affected. We should know who is arresting us and why. The individuals fail to show their identification and the warrant to the subject, which simply does not withstand constitutional muster.

[04:15:52] One ICE agent was allowed to wear a full face cover, which is a violation of Virginia law. Clearly, an investigation is called for. Going forward, due diligence is required to ensure the lawlessness that occurred in court on April 22nd doesn't spill over to a public...

[04:16:09] I was going so fast. To a public school, a library, a hospital, the jail, or even here. Another ICE action took place on Sunday, May 4th. One of the agents was wearing a balaclava. These events will increase and are intended to terrorize all of us, our immigrant and refugee neighbors, their advocates, and anyone who is standing up for decency, democracy, and the rule of law. The actions of the federal government are becoming increasingly aggressive and lawless.

[04:16:39] the residents of this county this state and this community need and deserve heroic leadership will you accept that responsibility since march thousands of people have lined the streets of the city and county to protect and defend democracy we will stand up for you when you stand up for us thank you thank you okay thank you uh board we have three public hearings this evening we'll to start with the first is a proposed change of the branch lens polling place and this is going

[04:17:13] to be presented by lauren eddie general registrar and director of elections welcome how are you all this evening i think claudette has she's got the presentation great is it here a little bit of a adjustment to the mic if you pull the mic down yeah i can't hear you you just need to speak into

[04:17:37] there we go that's not me great sorry one more here we go this is me thank you okay so just a quick overview of um what we are proposing the branch lands precinct is in the rio district and the current polling place is the hillsdale conference center which is located at 550

[04:18:10] hillsdale drive the hillsdale conference center gave us notification that they can no longer serve as a polling place for the county so the electoral board along with the registrar myself we have identified a new polling place that we feel satisfies all code mandated requirements and that new place is harvest church of god which is located at 1025 rio road east if you can see on the map here the green check mark is the new polling place the harvest church

[04:18:47] of God, where the red checkmark is that's the current polling place, the Hillsdale Conference Center. They are approximately 1.8 miles away from each other, so it's not that much more distance for voters to get to the new polling place from where they have been going. And our goal is to obtain approval from you guys to move the Branchlands Precinct from Hillsdale Conference Center to the Harvest Church of God. And I am happy to answer any questions that you may have.

[04:19:18] Thank you. We'll go through our order with questions before opening the public hearing. Supervisor Malek? No questions. Thank you, Laura. Supervisor Lupisto-Curdly? No questions. Thank you. Supervisor Galloway? I do not have any questions. Thank you. And Supervisor McHugh? Thank you for the presentation, and I don't have any questions. Thank you. Thank you. I have no questions as well.

[04:19:39] So at this point, I will open the public hearing. Okay. Do we have anyone signed up to speak? We do not. Okay. Then I will close the public hearing. All right. All right. And if there's nothing further, then we need to have a motion and then the board opportunity to comment.

[04:20:01] Well, so if the board wants to have discussion first, but if the board's ready to proceed, it would be adoption of the ordinance attached to the staff report as attachment B. Attachment B. And this is Rio District, so I'll... I don't... I'll make the motion, but I do want to make one request.

[04:20:18] Sure. I think knowing where the church is and where the K-TEC polling place is for Dunlora, and it may already be in the plans, but I would hope that the signage at both locations would direct them to the other location if they're going.

[04:20:34] Because all the folks at Belvedere, especially if they're new, I mean, if you've been there for a decade, then you'll know where to go to vote. But for folks that are new, they'll just see the polling place, and then that could create a lot of extra work. And the branch lands... I mean, we're talking 400 or 500 people at most vote there?

[04:20:52] 1,300. 500? No, it's 1,300. That many vote there? Well, I mean, they don't show up. They're registered to vote there. I'm talking about the actual traffic. Yeah, yeah. Typically, I think in the presidential, we had about 500 voters there. But if you're staffing a place and all of a sudden you're getting, because the Dunlora is a very, very large voting turnout, you just want to overwhelm the people working the polls at the branch landsman directing traffic.

[04:21:16] So I think there will be efforts to actually get at the folks in branch lands to let them know. It will kind of be on the ground efforts, but anything you can do Election Day would be helpful, too, just with the signage. We are in the planning stages now. Awesome. Thank you so much. You're welcome. I would then move to adopt the proposed ordinance attached to the staff report as attachment B.

[04:21:40] Thank you. So moved. Second. We have a motion from Supervisor Galloway, a second from Supervisor Lupisto Kirtley. Without objection, if the clerk will call the roll. Ms. McKeel? Yes. Mr. Andrews? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. Lopisto-Kirtley? Aye. Ms. Mallick? Yes.

[04:21:56] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, everyone. We appreciate your being here for this. So my understanding is that we have a sign-up that was somebody signed up at 1, but they meant to be here at 6, and now they.

[04:22:13] I've got you. So we're going to reopen the matters from the public for one additional speaker? If the chair, that's up to the chair. And I feel that they had signed up, but we had called the name at 1 and didn't realize that they were expecting to be here at 6. I see. So we'll go ahead and you heard the rules, so if you just call the additional name.

[04:22:32] This is back to matters from the public. We have one other speaker. So we have Stephen Herrick. Whose name was supposed to have been called previously, but there was some confusion. Please welcome, again, the same rules you heard before, three minutes. Okay. Stephen Whitman-Herrick, Scottsville District of the County.

[04:22:49] What should we do if suddenly surrounded, or see others surrounded, by people in ordinary clothing who, without showing legal authorization, attempt to force us into a nondescript vehicle? For many years, I worked for an international human rights organization.

[04:23:08] I supported the freedom of people all over the world, including those under authoritarian rules in countries like the USSR, Chile, and China. Their arrests were often like the scenario just described. Never did I expect this to happen in our county.

[04:23:26] Self-defense training typically advises never to allow an apparently random stranger to coerce you into a vehicle. Moreover, in recent months in multiple states, there have been arrests for impersonating ICE, and even when ICE identity is confirmed, what an officer says during an arrest may not be true.

[04:23:50] ICE officers have often misrepresented who they are, what legal authorization they have, and sometimes misrepresented themselves as local police. In our county, we're facing ICE conduct inconsistent with due process.

[04:24:08] This undermines public confidence in and inclination to be helpful to law enforcement. That, in turn, undermines the broader shared goal of both law enforcement and the public, that of reducing crime.

[04:24:25] Federal authorities do not normally conduct law enforcement operation in cities and counties without first alerting local authorities. And when ICE conducts itself in ways that contravene local norms, local authorities can formally protest as some local jurisdictions previously have.

[04:24:48] Federal authorities do not normally conduct a law enforcement operation in cities and counties without first alerting local authorities. And when ICE conducts itself in ways that contravene local norms, local authorities can formally protest, as some jurisdictions previously have.

[04:25:06] I realize that county authorities do not conduct a law enforcement operation. I'm sorry, I just said that. I realize that county authorities do not control federal law enforcement and that Virginia circuit courts must allow Commonwealth directives.

[04:25:22] However, as local officials, you likely have far more influence on them than the rest of us do. There are at least two things you could do. One, with respect to Section 10.115 of our county code, you could publicly decline to prosecute those who nonviolently challenge ICE officers when they fail to provide bona fide evidence of their specific authorization to arrestees before attaining them.

[04:25:49] Two, you can decline federal and state federal requests for county operations. comments if the time has expired we okay thank you thank you appreciate it thank you uh board this brings us to our second public hearing which is sp 2024 1 crozet independence day celebration on this being presented by uh rebecca ragsdale planning manager welcome again and uh let you take it from here so thank you and good evening um uh like you said i'm rebecca ragsdale one of the planning managers with community development and i'll be presenting this item for you this

[04:26:28] evening and going over the particular request as well as some site history and context for you. This is a request for a temporary non-profit event or a temporary event hosted by a non-profit.

[04:26:44] In this case, it's the Crozet Community Association. I think we're all familiar with the Crozet community's celebration around the 4th of July and some of the other community activities that they host. In this case, this would be limited to, this request and this special use permit would be limited to one event, and that would be a 4th of July community celebration. It would be an event that would end by 10.30 p.m. It would be located at King Family Vineyard. It is one that with this special use permit request, they are anticipating

[04:27:22] growth and popularity of the event they can accommodate more attendees than the previous location in the county which was at crozet park the event moved last year to crozet park because of the the blast zone or the launch zone if you will for the fireworks celebration needed to be larger and with the park being in the middle of the development area development had begun to occur such that it was no longer safe to launch fireworks from that location but the king family

[04:27:54] site law offers plenty of room for that in this case wanted to go over the location the site is at the edge of the development area zoned rural areas to the west of half mile branch road accessible from 64 and then also jarman's gap road in terms of the development area accessibility this site I mentioned I would give you a little bit of history about this site it is primarily used for agriculture which includes as you may be

[04:28:30] familiar with obviously the vineyard and also the polo events the property excuse me the vineyard was established in 1998 and the property was put under conservation easement in 2000 and it has been a location that has hosted a number of events that are larger events that has included pink ribbon polo which was one of those was another nonprofit sort of once a year event that was larger and then of course there is the weekend polo events that run the spring

[04:29:06] through the fall I mentioned that the last year's community celebration was hosted here that was allowed and was smaller and was allowed through the zoning clearance process that's an administrative type of permit and still allows us to review a set event set up and final details of the event in this case this is an aerial view of the property primarily the event will be on the vineyard property around the polo the polo field but there are other

[04:29:43] properties that provide access to the property so that traffic flow will work for the larger event but in the red box is the primary event setup area and there will be not only traffic control points on Half Mile Branch and Jarman's Gap but also at 250 and Hillsboro leading up to the event there will be message boards that are required by VDOT so we'd like to go over the applicable criteria for special use permits and anything specific for the use that's being

[04:30:20] requested. So with this request, this is the more general special use permit criteria, and we've analyzed it, you saw in the report, as it's applicable to a once-a-year event. And we have found that we don't expect any detriment to surrounding properties or permanent change in character of the area. And public health, safety, and welfare is covered more specifically in the supplemental regulations, which I'll go to next. And then in terms of consistency with the comprehensive plan, the primary use of the property will still remain agriculture, and this event will

[04:30:59] not conflict with that or cause any harm to agricultural operations either on this property or adjacent i mentioned the more specific regulations those are found in section 5127 for temporary non-profit events and they are really focused on safety one of our main concerns with these types of events and special use permits in general so in this case the ordinance requires that close coordination with our public safety agencies and that has included albemarle county

[04:31:33] Police Department, Albemarle County Fire Rescue, the local volunteer organizations with Crozet Volunteer Fire Department and Western Albemarle Rescue Squad, and also VDOT. There are other agencies such as the Health Department and a building official that may be involved that would regulate food service for the Health Department, and then there are certain thresholds where a tent permit may be required.

[04:32:00] They have spent a number of meetings and months going over that with those agencies so that everything that those agencies could be concerned about is covered. That includes crowd control, number of crowd managers, traffic management, making sure emergency vehicle access is well laid out, and discussing the command and control and communication the day of the event, just to name a few of those things.

[04:32:32] In addition to the fireworks permit that will be required, fireworks are covered under the fire code and not part of this set of regulations for the event itself. In this case, drilling down into the very specifics for this request, We believe that with the special use permit conditions that define those requirements that are already in the ordinance or set the event parameters that it can continue to be a safe and successful event.

[04:33:10] So that includes limiting the event to only once a year, allowing a little bit of time before and after the 4th of July in case there is the need to reschedule or rain event, an end time for the event, And then that requirement for zoning clearance each year, that is where we are confirming the final plan each year.

[04:33:34] We have the parameters of the plan set now, but any little changes would be confirmed. And the zoning clearance would be sort of a final step in the process where we are able to confirm that all of the other public safety agencies are, again, each year happy with the event set up and plan, and that everything is lined up that's necessary leading up to the event.

[04:33:58] So they have submitted that already for this year's event. And, again, that final step with the final review and approval will happen each year with the clearance process with those approvals from the public safety agencies, both on-site and then off-site traffic management.

[04:34:17] Some of these other conditions are mirroring the supplemental regulations that you've already seen. We're not recommending that we establish any procedures for a bond, but we can do that if we should ever need to, if cleanup after the event ever becomes a problem, which we don't anticipate.

[04:34:37] Excuse me, I'm trying to advance the slide here, but my mouse is not cooperating. So in summary, we believe that this is an event that we can recommend approval of. The Planning Commission recommended approval, And there were more questions but no concerns at the community meeting that was held.

[04:34:59] And as I mentioned, the details of the event management plan have been worked out such that we're comfortable recommending approval. And in terms of concerns, we recognize it's a bit more traffic than we would want on a regular basis, obviously, for Half Mile Branch Road.

[04:35:15] But as I mentioned, there will be traffic control in place with the police department managing that. and then VDOT has been part of the process to make sure that signage and any necessary measures are in place for safe traffic flow in and out of the event to avoid backup.

[04:35:36] So with that, I will pause for questions. Thank you. We'll go through our order. Supervisor Mallory. No questions, but thank you for working with our community representatives who have done such a good job to get organized here. And I just understand the concern of traffic, But I will say that for the last 20 years or more, on this particular day, everybody comes knowing that it's going to be a crowd.

[04:36:03] That's almost the whole fun of coming, is seeing people you haven't seen since last year, and that people do take a chill pill about getting out. So I'm grateful for that. But I also recognize that the winery has historically done a really, really good job with traffic control and making sure that people, especially at the exits on Half Mile Branch, which are a little goofy.

[04:36:24] Better in the nighttime where headlights give you better warning than during the daytime. But I have no questions. Thank you. Supervisor LePizzo-Kirtland. No questions. Thank you. I'm supportive. Supervisor Galloway. Just a couple of it. This is more curiosity probably for general fireworks events than this specific one.

[04:36:43] Do we support the community event with the backing of the fire and all of that, or is there a fee that must be paid for that to offset the cost? There is a fee for the fireworks permit. But does that offset the outlet?

[04:36:58] I mean, I'm assuming there will be a truck out there, there will be staff out there, there will be generally overseeing the event. Yes. Well, I mean, we have the combination system in the county, but in this case the fees are there is only one fee and one permit for the fireworks itself, and there's not additional fees for some of the staffing that would be necessary from the fire rescue combined system.

[04:37:27] So there's likely a cost we take on, but we just do that in support of the event, whoever's holding the event is what it sounds like. I believe so. Because there's other places that have, I mean, there's others than this applicant that are doing this, and we probably support it in the same way.

[04:37:44] That's my curiosity. Like, are we offsetting that, or are we just saying, and this is not in judgment, it's just, I don't know. Well, for the police department, there is a process for the overtime. Just like they are right now. Yes, thank you.

[04:38:00] For fire rescue, I can't answer that question as far as our career staff. Because I know Birdwood does an event. We back that up. I'm just, like, again, I don't know, so that's why I'm asking. We can follow up with you and make sure that we bring that information next time. And is there some sort of, in the event the catastrophe happened, especially with the dry conditions and something got off site somehow or something started on site and it wasn't contained and there was off property damage, is there insurance that they take on that covers that?

[04:38:30] Well, there are the inspections before and after the event and the radius, but yes, there is an insurance policy that's required. So if the worst did happen, then that would kick in to cover any costs if the worst case did happen for these type of things. And again, I just don't know. Yes, that is part of the fireworks permit process is to confirm that insurance policy from the licensed fireworks, yes, sir.

[04:38:53] The licensed fireworks operator may not be the technical term, but that's part of the process. Thank you. Supervisor Pruitt? My understanding is that this would endure a change in ownership. Is that correct?

[04:39:10] The special use permit, yes. That's all I have. Supervisor McKeel? i had a similar question to ned and i'm going to go on and ask it anyway and it doesn't really impact my vote tonight but if we all of a sudden have an extremely dry cup six weeks or whatever it might be can do we have the ability to stop this the fireworks at the last minute i'm just saying or you know maybe the day of or something like that i mean it's always concerning you know We were eight inches behind in rainfall a couple of weeks ago,

[04:39:48] and I'm just wondering what our ability is to say, no, you can't have it tonight because the conditions aren't safe, or you can't have it tomorrow or the next day or something like that. If I might attempt to answer that question, and sort of in reference also to Supervisor Galloway's questions, the questions that you both are raising are more fire protection questions that would be answered under the fire code.

[04:40:08] There are permits for having fireworks displays. It would be up to the fire marshal to enforce that, to make those determinations. The question before the board this evening, as you probably know, is just the land use decision. I understand. A special event. So I'm not sure that Ms. Ragsdale would know the answer to the question or any of the staff on.

[04:40:25] But we've covered ourselves for safety, for the community, if we have a dry situation is what I'm. And I think that would be at the discretion of the fire marshal to make that call. And that's fine. And I'm hearing the answer is yes, as determined by the fire marshal.

[04:40:41] I think it would be up to the fire marshal. Unfortunately, I don't have the answer to that question, but the fire marshal would. Thank you. I have no questions. So with that, we'll open the public hearing. And do we have anyone signed up to speak? We do.

[04:40:59] Okay. But we have the applicant, Mr. James King of King Family Vineyards. Welcome. And I'm going to read the rules that apply to the public, well, to you tonight. You are limited to a 10-minute presentation and are allowed a 5-minute rebuttal, which you're probably not going to have to use.

[04:41:24] But the timekeeping is conducted through a timer and a light system. The green light will go on when you begin speaking, which begins your allotted time. The yellow light indicates you have one minute to finish speaking, and the red light indicates your time has expired, and you will be asked to end your comments. All comments are live-streamed, recorded, and published on the Elmore County website.

[04:41:44] You're welcome. Thank you so much. My name is James King, co-owner of King Family Vineyards in Crozet, Virginia, part of the Whitehall District. Thank you so much for your time and consideration this evening, and special thanks to you, Rebecca, and your team at Community Development. It's been a pleasure working with you all to make sure this event is a potential success if we have it.

[04:42:05] I'm joined by a friend of mine, Tim Tolson. He's the president of the Crozet Community Association. He is going to be running this event. We are simply hosting, trying to host. This event has been going on since after World War II, and the fire department has run it for many decades, and they turned it over to Tim.

[04:42:23] As Crozet grew in the last decade and a half, the fire department is no longer able to support the event itself. So Tim and citizens of Crozet have taken on the task of ensuring that this event continues to be a great celebration and a community gathering place for us and Crozet.

[04:42:42] I read about the housing encroachment from Mike Marshall's Crozet Gazette probably in 2023. And in it, he said, well, maybe a large landowner nearby will step up to the plate. And we are just that, and we're trying to step up to the plate to help save this celebration.

[04:43:02] Last year, we did host the event with Rebecca's guidance through a zoning clearance, and it was a great event. Everyone had a great time. there were some uh some issues i guess exiting the parking situation um and we had it we had a pretty good plan but as a marine veteran i can say uh every every plan uh never survives first contact with the enemy and the enemy was a lot of cars leaving at one time so tim tim will tell you if he speaks tonight that um i think it took them about a decade hosting the event at claudius Crozet Park nearby to kind of dial in the parking just right. And so I think, I believe,

[04:43:40] with the collaboration that we've done with Ms. Ragsdale, Fire, Police, VDOT, all the community partners that are here to ensure public safety and welfare, that we have a better plan. And it will continue to get better every year. And I think the conditions that were laid out by community development and this board to say that you know we want to require you each year to do that zoning clearance I think that's a good thing and I think you're doing your jobs by ensuring that we're doing our due diligence as a host as a co-host to ensure that we have that

[04:44:17] proper communication with all these community partners to ensure that everyone attending and nearby is safe and that's our goal so I'm going to turn it over if Tim you have anything and just turn it over to questions if you have any. Thank you so much. Thank you. We'll go through our order, Supervisor.

[04:44:34] Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I was just going to address, I'm Tim Tolson. I'm the president of the Crozet Community Association, and I was going to say that the fire marshal, the assistant fire marshal, always decides literally right before the fireworks launch at 9.30 or 9.45 p.m.

[04:44:50] whether we launch those fireworks or not. And the Crozet Volunteer Fire Department always has a brush truck on site. in case things do get out of hand after the start to launch. So it's a very safe event in terms of the fire and rescue.

[04:45:10] And there's even a pond at the King Family Vineyard that has a hookup for fire, for water, if more water is needed for runaway fire or something. So we feel like we're better protected at the park than we are at the King Family Vineyard than we are at the park.

[04:45:32] Thank you. Thank you. Do you have any questions? We'll go to questions. Thank you. I'm sorry. Supervisor Malek. I don't have any questions, but thank you all for your preparation. Yes, ma'am. Supervisor Lupisto-Curtley. I have no questions, and it was great seeing you again.

[04:45:50] Supervisor Galloway. I have no questions. Thank you. Supervisor Pruitt. I have no questions. Thank you. Supervisor McHugh. Thank you for answering my question. because it is you know we can turn on the dime yep thank you very much yes ma'am i have no concerns questions so thanks sir thank you thank you you have an opportunity to rebut but like we said it's not really relevant uh then i will close the public hearing and the matter is back before the board uh supervisor malik uh running looking for a resolution here are there any other comments

[04:46:28] before we get to the motion okay all right i move adoption of resolution to approve sp2024-1 cross the independence day celebration seconds we have a motion from supervisor malik second from supervisor lapisto currently without objection if the clerk will call the roll ms mckeel yes mr pruitt hi mr andrews yes mr galloway yes miss lapisto currently i miss malik yes thank you thank you uh board this brings us to our third and final public hearing for this

[04:47:01] evening zma 2024 for flow steep slopes amendment and this is being presented by again miss rebecca ragdale welcome thank you um for putting up with my double header this evening um this is a rezoning request and it is specific to the sleep steep slopes overlay district um so i will be going over the site and the relevant history and the specifics of the request including the recap of the Commission action and what updates we have since it was heard by the Commission this is an

[04:47:38] overall vicinity location map if you will it is three parcels owned by flow automotive group that are oriented to route 250 and then they they drain and are on the sort of the back of the property is on the hillside of Pantoms Mountain and we will go over the the natural features a little bit more it's a primary primarily a commercial area but there is the carriage hill apartment complex right or condo development residential community right behind it and then

[04:48:13] the ravanna river along the edges of pantops with this forming the border with the city so in this case this is a map and an aerial of the critical slopes or excuse me steep slopes overlay district and the parcels are outlined in white it is three different tax map parcels 14 14a and 14e and the request is not only to change the slopes as they're located primarily on 14a and 14 but to also amend

[04:48:45] a prior proffer this area of the site here in yellow was subject to a the first steep slopes overlay district rezoning actually in 2016 we created the overlay district in 2014 so this is an amendment to not only that overlay district but a prior set of proffers that were that covered all three parcels i mentioned this is a area with heavy commercial zoning that's all the red there the purple is a the plan development mixed use commercial and then the brown is residential and

[04:49:25] that is the carriage hill development as i mentioned before this is the site again adjacent to 250 richmond road so this is the zoning map and then this is the pantops master plan which the red again indicative of the commercial recommendations for the property but it is commercial mixed use our master plans include a lot of different mixed use categories that you are familiar with in terms of what you've been discussing with AC44, the brown is community mixed use. And then the green areas are representative of the critical slopes and

[04:50:03] other natural features that are between these properties that Flo owns and the Carriage Hill community and then go down towards the Rivanna River. So switching back to the focus of this request which doesn't change the underlying zoning it's focused to the overlay district these are the three parcels again showing the topography lines and some of the natural features everything in green is designated as preserve slopes and then the yellow is managed and in

[04:50:37] this case we have an intermittent stream where the majority of the preserve slopes are part of that area draining to that stream that goes down to the rivana river it doesn't have a stream buffer based on the category of stream that it is and because it's in the development area and not within a watershed water supply drainage area and the prior as i mentioned we that is how the the area of managed on one of the properties came to be was an amendment to that prior district or excuse me, that prior steep slopes designation.

[04:51:15] So I wanted to spend a little bit of time, you know, we've talked about kind of some of the characteristics of this property. The ordinance guides us in terms of whether we give slopes that are greater than 25% a managed or preserved designation in the development areas.

[04:51:31] So preserved, just because you might check one of the boxes for managed doesn't mean that they automatically have to be managed. And we look at the overwhelming characteristics of the slopes. And in this case, when it went to the Planning Commission, the request was the entirety of those managed slopes on all three parcels.

[04:51:54] And I'll show you in a minute how that request has been refined. But in this case, it does include slopes that have been disturbed with prior actions that were lawfully permitted under prior ordinances.

[04:52:11] But it is also part of the Pantop's hillside system, although it has been disturbed, an area greater than 10,000 square feet for the slope system overall. And we wanted to make sure that those characteristics of preserved slopes with the proposal that they either eliminated slopes that still had the characteristics of preserved from the request, but also mitigated any impacts to them.

[04:52:42] So all that to be said, this is the current request, and it's outlined in red. And we believe that that is limited to slopes that were really part of prior man-made disturbance. And that includes the area around the stormwater pond that I'm pointing to.

[04:53:01] I'm sorry, got to get my pointer. The area in red is the area that they're requesting. It's 15,704 square feet of preserved slopes to managed.

[04:53:17] And it is the area that's around an existing stormwater facility and the area that is between the flow property and the parking and back of what is now called the honey car facility. So it has eliminated any requests to the preserve slopes on 14E.

[04:53:40] Those slopes would remain. And then, like I said, they've significantly reduced it from the prior request that went to the Planning Commission. in terms of their requests and i think they've aligned their requests more closely with those characteristics or including those slopes that are aligned more with managed slopes than preserve slopes and in this case this is just referencing that prior proposal and what they've eliminated in terms of the area and reducing their overall request from the change from preserved to managed

[04:54:17] In this case, this property also has a prior proffer that required a 2.47 preservation area to offset any impacts to the disturbance of the slopes and to impacts to any water features.

[04:54:37] In this case, they have asked to amend that proffer and they have replaced it with a proffer to provide enhanced stormwater. Now, in this revised request, as I said, the change in the slopes designation is only to this red area, which some have referred to as the hook or cane shape, but there's no.

[04:55:02] And then this area will remain as preserved slopes and not able to be developed. In this case, I mentioned the proffer. It has been replaced, and the request now is an amendment which would provide stormwater treatment on-site equal to twice the total phosphorus load that would have been provided by that 2.47 acres of forest land cover.

[04:55:32] 2.47 acres, again, is the entire area in yellow. But in this case, we're really not losing the entire area because they're no longer requesting that preserved area. And in terms of the uses that are allowed, with preserved, they're very extremely limited.

[04:55:50] It can't be developed to the underlying uses that are allowed in that zoning district. But with managed, they can, but they still have to comply with all of the design standards in the steep slopes overlay district, which we included in your packet, and then as well as this enhanced stormwater management.

[04:56:11] We think that allowing this will also improve the conditions on this site, will also improve conditions such that the downstream erosion and things that have been happening on site will not be exasperated further.

[04:56:27] We have engineering staff here this evening. I should have mentioned that. They've been out to the site several times. The applicant has, we really worked closely with the applicant since the Planning Commission to refine the request such that it can now be supported. And summarizing again why we're able to support the request now, because it's limited to those slopes we think meet the characteristics of managed.

[04:56:54] And also they have offered a substitute, if you will. We're not going to lose anything that we had with that preservation area, and it provides equal to or better protection. So I will pause for any questions now. Thank you. We'll go through our orders to Supervisor Malik.

[04:57:10] I'm sure it's in there, and I missed it. What is to be gained by this change? Is there more paving, more building, or something? I must have looked at the wrong map in the packet. Well, we didn't, unlike some of your other rezoning requests, there's not a detailed concept plan because it's a change.

[04:57:28] Oh, I didn't miss it. Oh, goody. To the overlay district. So I don't think you missed it, but the intent is that this back area would be available for more parking. They're trying to get more parking on the site. If you've been out there, you can see they're kind of constrained, but they do have a need for more parking.

[04:57:45] So it would be a totally impervious area. And would that new impervious area, if it came forward sometime in the future, would it have its own stormwater requirements on top of what is already being provided? Yes.

[04:58:01] Thank you. Okay. That means good. appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Lapisto-Curdley? I have no questions at this time. Thank you. Supervisor Galloway? No questions right now. Supervisor Pruitt? I have no questions.

[04:58:18] Supervisor McKeel? No questions. I just want to make sure I understand your previous question and my other thoughts on this is that the 2.47 preservation area had a managed slope in it right before this slide nine i believe uh so that managed slope was part of a preservation area proffer what could have been done with it but for the removal of the proffer and change to a new proffer i mean is you there's a lot of distinction here between preserved and managed but i but

[04:58:55] looking at the overall preservation area i'm trying to understand what could have been done with a managed slope inside the preservation area well given that the uh preservation area applied to it with the proffer it was then recorded as part of the stormwater management easement or required open space easement but now this would provide flexibility in that managed area as well to develop more parking any of the by right uses that are allowed could now be

[04:59:30] available if they amend the entire preservation area that's already in place for stormwater purposes. I mean, would it be fair to say we're losing kind of both areas because the managed slope was part of a preservation area previously? Okay. Then, of course, my other question is to understand better what the phosphorus treatment is capable of, which I may hear the applicant or the engineers talk about that. And I guess the question I thought Supervisor Malik was asking

[05:00:08] is that there's an additional required permitting related to the actual use of the property down the road. Yes, the proffer would be an additional and more stringent requirement than what would have to be complied with in terms of all of our site plan requirements and the water protection ordinance and state regulations for stormwater.

[05:00:32] They would come back with a site plan that would go through the by-right site plan process. When does the phosphorus kick in? Is that treatment required immediately as soon as this is opened up for removing the slope or changing the slope?

[05:00:49] Or is it only when they actually go to use the property? It is applicable to new development. It doesn't require any measures unless they come in with a new site plan. But one of our engineering folks here could go to the podium.

[05:01:08] If you'd like more layman's explanation regarding the total phosphorus load reduction. Thank you. Good evening, members of the board. Greg Krastiniak, civil engineer to plan reviewer. The question about the development of that total amount of phosphorus reduction is done during the site plan review of the plans and the computations that will follow.

[05:01:32] So it'll be a regular process of development that we normally do for any project that will determine that pounds of phosphorus removal that's required for this particular project. And the phosphorus is coming from washing cars? It's a measure of pollution coming from vehicle use and impervious use from roofing of buildings, from parking lots, common oily substances that are on the surface of asphalt, all that kind of thing.

[05:02:02] Any kind of pollution is a way to categorize the pollution that's going to be coming off of any developed site. Supervisor Malik. I forgot to ask, what about the sediment and nitrogen as far as the treatment of this enhanced treatment?

[05:02:19] So everything's going to get filtered? Is this like an on-site alternative septic system? Well, it is a standard. In the standpoint, it is a requirement to do your treatment for all components, measuring sediment load.

[05:02:37] We mentioned phosphorus a lot, but everything is taken into consideration with that. A key point with this is that a lot of times you'll hear about phosphorus or buying nutrient credits. In this case, they're committing on this particular proffer to do the treatment on the actual site, which is an extra benefit to the immediate local area, if that answers your question.

[05:02:58] Yes, thank you. Does that treatment then at the edge of the property, is that how that works? They capture whatever is coming off of whatever surface that they put there and then treat it right there? Yes, sir, that's correct. There's an existing, as Rebecca pointed out, there's an existing basin that was constructed in size for the development at that particular time.

[05:03:20] And so the engineers will size properly and work with staff to review it. And we'll get to make sure that it meets the requirements for the new footprint, the new impervious, however they reconfigure the parking and whatever new impervious area that they add.

[05:03:38] Thank you. You're welcome, sir. Are there any additional questions? If not, I will open the public hearing. And do we have anyone signed up to speak? Then the applicant is represented by Kelsey Schlein, Shrimp Engineering.

[05:03:54] Welcome. and i'll be honest with you i think you know you know the rules you know the rules you have 10 minutes and you have the lights so we'll save a little time thank you i appreciate that and while um the screen is switching over and i'm pulling up my slides um just kind of hop into the discussion you just had but um uh good evening uh chair injuries members of the board my name is kelsey schlein i'm a planner with shimp engineering um here with me tonight is justin shimp he's the engineer on the project and we're here representing the applicant on this project which is flow 1357

[05:04:33] and flow 1381 llc trying to get full screen up here there we go okay so before i hop into my slides i kind of just want to pick up on the discussion that was um just had it seems that there's a lot of you know questions about um you know potential loss of a preservation area so the 2.47 acre preservation area is not only a proffered commitment currently as a result of the 2016 rezoning that took place, but it's also a DEQ open space easement. And so even though if

[05:05:12] this is approved tonight, the new proffers would be in place that we've proposed, we cannot release that DEQ open space easement until we formally modify the plan and submit a modified stormwater management plan as well. So that easement is actually going to remain in place until we have a new plan approved and can actually release that easement to then satisfy our new proffer, which we've proposed, which proposes providing basically twice the amount of on-site phosphorus

[05:05:48] reduction, which is basically the way to think of it is twice the amount of on-site quality treatment of pollutants than what the current open space easement is providing. So I hope that provides just a little bit of clarity of there's kind of two layers currently to that preservation area. It's a proffered commitment. It's also a DEQ open space easement. So we need a formal plan to amend that um so just before uh kind of hopping into some of the details of the of my presentation i just kind of wanted to provide an overview of flow companies um and their impact in

[05:06:23] albemarle county um so flows operate in albemarle county since 2003 they currently have 15 franchises um they employ 426 people in albemarle county um and they their dealerships serve many counties in the surrounding area. They have more than $24 million of investment in Albemarle County and with all the projects that they currently have going on, they're expected to have capital improvements in excess of $33 million. And so this request tonight will permit them to

[05:06:58] expand this location. Ultimately, the request before you tonight is obviously specifically just to the slopes and i'm going to go into greater detail on that because i think that we've i really want to thank staff for the coordinated effort on this i think we have a much better application than we did at the planning commission we've made some responses did a site visit and walk with staff and i think that we're you know really in a good place now to of redesignating slopes that you know really kind of more so capture the characteristics of managed slopes rather than

[05:07:35] preserves and I have some more details that we'll go into on that but for for now this this redesignation is really is an economic development opportunity for flow to be able to continue to utilize this site and also meet some manufacturer requirements that come from flow Toyota for how many on-site spaces to have. So this will help them to become more in compliant with those regulations that come from corporate for these types of sites. And as Rebecca noted, if you go

[05:08:12] out to the site, you can see that they are currently slant for parking spaces. It is very tight out there. And over the years, this site has operated as a car dealership and has been developed and operated in some type of sales capacity since the 1960s and so as it's developed and built out over the past 60 years you know regulations have changed formalized you know parking striping and curb and gutter requirements have all come online and that all those current

[05:08:48] requirements aren't embodied on the site because it's kind of expanded before our modern day regulations of how things are built in the development areas of Albemarle County. I did also just want to note just some of the planning commission discussion because it probably looks a little confusing that we left the planning commission with a unanimous recommendation for denial but then are before you tonight with a recommendation for approval from staff. So I just wanted to call out just some key text of the minutes from the planning commission and this was after they made their vote for a unanimous decision, or vote for denial, which I will

[05:09:27] say was for a redesignation of all of the preserved slopes on the property, not just the 15,704 square feet that are before you tonight. So what I've highlighted here is just kind of the follow-up conversation that was had by the Planning Commission after the formal motion was made um where there was just a few comments that just noted um that that there was strong support for the for the revised uh proposal which is the proposal that's before you tonight so i just also wanted to take note of that um and then in in response to that conversation

[05:10:07] um and in the weeks between the planning commission meeting and before you tonight We revised the rezoning request to be specific to 15,704 square feet of preserved slopes. And then we also provided a proper statement for on-site stormwater treatment to provide two times the phosphorus reduction than would be provided by the 2.47 acres of open space.

[05:10:30] And just kind of hopping into some of the characteristics of the slopes that we're proposing to redesignate. So just for context, this is the flow Mercedes site. Now, if you kind of rotate that site like 20 degrees, so this is Route 250 here, what I'm calling out here is the Flow Mercedes site plan, which underlaid here is the steep slopes overlay map.

[05:10:57] So what you're looking at here is a grading plan to establish the stormwater facility. And so you can clearly see, you know, this grading is man-made, is shown on an approved site plan. These slopes in this area do not have characteristics of natural slopes.

[05:11:17] And so that's just what I wanted to call out here for the stormwater facility. And I have a few other examples kind of just moving around the slopes that we're requesting to redesignate. Here, we're looking at the former auto superstore, current honey car site.

[05:11:33] So you can see that there's a grading plan kind of going up to the edge of the property. And I also have Carriage Hill here, which kind of wraps around and kind of continues on this continuous connected slope area. And so you can see there at the rear of Carriage Hill, all of that is man-made grading in that area as well.

[05:11:56] So we do feel that these slopes definitely designate the characteristics of managed slopes and not preserved in this area. one item that i also wanted to call out is the location of a spring on carriage hills property and so i think that this is also kind of a good support for our redesignation here because what we've done is actually the better image here that shows this 100 foot offset from the spring location. So this stream is not subject to the stream buffer regulations. It's an intermittent

[05:12:35] stream in the development areas. However, what we wanted to demonstrate to staff was that the slopes that we're proposing to redesignate largely show evidence of prior disturbance. They're pretty much all shown on prior grading plans of approved site plans. But then there is a spring location, and if we were to put a hundred foot buffer off of that we would not be redesignating any slopes within that hundred foot area um and ultimately i think with the with the improvements here it it does sound maybe a little counterintuitive to um to say that by developing this site we we might in

[05:13:14] fact improve the water quality in this area but if you walk down behind uh this this site um pretty much all the properties around it developed long before we had modern stormwater regulations in place. And so there is a huge pipe that outfalls in this location that is just completely unmitigated runoff and has eroded out a gully over years and years of years of collecting unmitigated stormwater runoff, and so in this case, by improving that, we've kind of worked through

[05:13:52] some conceptual plans to kind of capture that water, slow it down, and stabilize a lot of these slopes in this area, which ultimately are unstable in certain areas. So that is all that I have for you this evening, and I appreciate the opportunity to present this project to you.

[05:14:15] Thank you so much. Thank you. We'll go through our order. Supervisor Malo. Thank you. And thank you for raising the outfall issue because my question I forgot to ask earlier also is, will your new stormwater facility also be able to handle the quantity, velocity of the extended parking and all that kind of thing, in addition to the side, the easterly one that you're going to capture and run down there?

[05:14:43] Yes. Yeah, so we're going to basically, and Justin, feel free to hop in if you'd like on this more engineering-specific question. So the existing outfall pipe, we're going to bypass our current facility, but then stabilize with riprap and channel stabilization of where that pipe outfalls.

[05:15:07] And then our facility is going to capture all of the quantity runoff from our increased impervious area. So there won't be any more going through the gully once you're done? That's correct. Good. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Leopisio-Curley. I have no questions.

[05:15:23] Thank you. Supervisor Calloway. No, I think just could you go back to where you're proposing what the lot will look like? So there'll be a connection then, not just where the current one is, but through that back area from the Toyota lot as well?

[05:15:42] Yeah, there's kind of an existing kind of narrow connection through there. So we'd be expanding upon that. So that both sites could access this. Yeah, but where you says approximate existing in the actual words or the managed slope is, they'll actually be able to drive into that area and connect back there too?

[05:16:02] Or is that closed off? You're talking about this area here? Yeah. No, there'll be a grade difference there. Oh, so that won't be a continuous lot. That's correct, yeah. So it's really just the Mercedes lot that's... Yeah, this will be the main access point here. Shared lot.

[05:16:19] It's a shared lot then? Most likely. i mean i think that's it'll yeah likely be shared between a few dealerships and that all that all utilize this space and it looks like a lot of the tree screening that exists on carriage hill will remain obviously obviously you're going to be getting rid of some trees does anything remain between your stormwater and their property line um not they i mean they have a lot of screening on their property um themselves um but in and this is all conceptual we will have to comply with whatever, with screening regulations that are in the site plan regulations of Admiral

[05:16:56] County, so we'll have to adhere to all of that, which, but conceptually right now, I mean, we're showing, you know, grading fairly close to the property line, but I will say that during site plan review, we may have to add some screening to comply with the regulations and the landscape ordinance. Well, I mean, the area just to look at has not been in great condition either with what collects down in there, not the water approach, you know, beyond just the water flow.

[05:17:25] Thank you. Supervisor Proop. I don't believe I have a question at this time. I'm realizing I had a question for staff that I neglected to mention earlier, but I think I've asked this before. You were going to ask it now.

[05:17:42] It strikes me that this did not receive a community meeting because it is immediately adjacent to some pretty prominent residential properties, and it does have the potential to be construed to impact them and i feel like i've asked this before what kind of criteria if we have hard and fast criteria for establishing what does and what does not need a community meeting i think the answer this answer i've gotten or the sense i've gotten is that's kind of a heuristic qualitative case-by-case decision can you am i correct in understanding that

[05:18:15] it we it depends on the nature of the request if it's a very if it's a more narrow technical requests, then we don't typically require community meetings. There are a few instances where we've waived them for something like this and for certain types of special use permits, but the abutting property owners were notified. It just didn't include the broader 500-mile radius that we would have in this case. We haven't received any public

[05:18:55] comments um 500 mile pardon how far is the radius 500 feet it's what did i say okay well thank you 500 feet is the development area um rule of thumb in terms of these types of requests but it is um it is done uh more commonly we have community meetings but if it's a very narrow request we don't or technical in nature i appreciate that i guess so i had cause earlier today in a

[05:19:27] conversation with one of my peers to analogize this to another commercial industrial property in the Scottsville district that is also going through a technical amendment, the fill request in the Woolen Mills area, that did receive a public meeting. And frankly, it was a very productive public meeting. There was quite a lot of concern raised in it. And I think it is likely going to result in a better quality product uh that is going to the planning commission well it would have it didn't because the planning commission meeting was like two days later

[05:20:03] but i guess i raised that because i i am not one who who's normally super thirsty for more process um but in this in this circumstance i do wonder because we we went through some pretty substantial changes between planning commission and getting it to here because there were serious issues that are discovered, and I wonder if we might have been able to nip that in the bud by opening up for a community meeting, because it does seem in retrospect like it might have been warranted. And I guess I would also just raise, it is always a little troubling when we have a discretionary process, or a discretionary step in how something is delivered via process

[05:20:43] to the community, if that makes sense. The fact that whether or not the community gets a chop at something is a discretionary step, rather than something that we create a clear and articulable standard on does raise some concern to me, if you kind of pick up what I'm laying down there, right?

[05:21:00] The process should be predictable, even if the decisions aren't. That is no question I have for you, though. So thank you for being here. Thank you. Supervisor McKeel? No questions. Thank you. I'm just trying to understand that a little bit better.

[05:21:19] I see the proposed stormwater management facility, it lends itself to very well dealing with anything that comes out of the new parking spaces does it and you may have answered this before i just want to make sure i heard correctly does it does it impact any of the other upstream areas the existing parking will run off make its way from say the toyota lot into that uh because it looks like it's just mercedes and and i take it it will come all the way from the other end of

[05:21:53] the property or not yeah so we'll this this facility will will basically be capturing um all the runoff from the expanded parking area and then kind of all of the um runoff that is naturally you know going to kind of flow this way across the property here are there existing drains anywhere else on the property that we're taking that flow anywhere else which has always just been running out the back there there is some curbing on mercedes i believe because that was actually subject to a plan, but I mean, the rear of Toyota and much of Toyota is just, I mean, yeah, just, I mean, pavement, no curb and gutter, no inlets.

[05:22:33] The old rules. Yeah, exactly. And then I guess, yeah, it looks to me that the proposed facility then will also protect what's below it, and that is an improvement over what was there before, and I appreciate that because without it i think you also already had that runoff coming from those areas into that gully yes okay yeah and there's like there's no stabilization measures there at all right now i don't have any other questions well that asks then i just that opens up the question right there at

[05:23:10] the corner of the honey car because that's a fenced off portion if memory serves they've got a stormwater pipe actually going under there right to there to that obviously to that but the natural water flow was just going and hitting that that corner right there that hard right by the two managed or whatever there and it would just spill over the side so you're going to put a wall there and parking so you're going to be collecting the water will basically pour off that side onto your site right or is it a drop or is it level it's got to be lower than i can't imagine you built that up

[05:23:49] justin shim engineer i'll try to answer that yes the answer is there is some flow that comes off site onto us in the parking lot. Some of it does pipe out under various drains that go sort of under where our parking lot would be to the existing washed out gully. So it's kind of a balance there. We will be capturing some extra area in our facility to basically treat the two times we're required to treat. That's how we'll accomplish it, basically. So there are some areas right now untreated that we'll be picking up to remedy that proffer, basically. So you're going to get all of their runoff from their parking lot. That's correct. We'll have to engineer our

[05:24:26] facility to handle the runoff from off-site and treat that to mitigate for the open space easement value that just for some context the state gives a kind of a number a theoretical amount of treatment you get out of an open space area it's not actually treating anything per se if the water is piped into a ditch and flows straight through it you don't really get any treatment per se right now on the other hand if water is sheet flowing through a pristine forest you get treatment but this is not a pristine forest it's a road in gully basically so we're We're basically going to use that math as though it was a pristine forest and then treat that quantity in some kind of stormwater pond, capturing the water that flows in kind of from all directions.

[05:25:06] But it's mostly from the honey car side and from the back of Mercedes. The Toyota, we could end up putting in some kind of drain in Toyota to pipe the water over to us to meet that requirement. We haven't gotten quite that far, but we'll treat the water by capturing some areas that already flow to that general direction into the stormwater facility.

[05:25:24] And what does the stormwater facility do as far as treatment? Is it just holding it, or is it actually? This one will probably be either a biofilter or an extended detention facility.

[05:25:39] So the biofilter has kind of a soil media that allows plants to grow. You've seen them around. And sediment gets caught up in the biofilter, and nitrogen and phosphorus sort of filter out through the plants, basically. Extended detention basins is sort of like an engineered wetland that has a similar effect.

[05:25:59] You design it so you have certain holding areas where sediment's captured, you have various aquatic vegetation that gives you a treatment. The state's worked out a calculation, basically, for all these items. We go by their rules and prepare a calculation, depending on the site's specific circumstances.

[05:26:18] Thank you. Additional questions? Do you have time for additional rebuttal or comments, if you choose? No, thank you. Thank you for all the comments so far. Thank you.

[05:26:35] board this matters I will close the public hearing then and the matter is back before the board this isn't surprised me this in the Scottsville district I guess I didn't yeah I didn't expect that didn't didn't used to be is now do we have a are we going around or is there a motion for the screen I asked if there were any other additional comments if anyone wanted to make any but I think we can go straight to the motion then excellent I would like to move to adopt the ordinance attached to the staff reports as attachment f to approve zma 2024 4

[05:27:11] second and this is okay then that incorporates the newly submitted proffers and all that okay we have a motion from supervisor pruitt a second from supervisor malik without objection if the clerk will call the roll ms mckeel yes mr pruitt hi mr andrews yes mr galloway yes miss lapisto So currently? Aye. Ms. Mallett. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you, Ms. Reisner.

[05:27:41] Board, this brings us to, from the board, community reports and matters not listed on the agenda, but the very first item that we need to address in that context is a request for a letter of support for the Botanical Garden of the Piedmont-Chesapeake Bay Small Watershed Grant application, And that has been forwarded to, it's also at the, yeah, in the, this is pink, magenta, fuchsia, magenta, all right, all right, fuchsia, I was thinking fuchsia, I was thinking fuchsia.

[05:28:15] And so we need a motion to approve my signing of this letter of support. So moved. Second. We have a motion from Supervisor Malek, second from Supervisor McKeel, without objection if the clerk will call the roll.

[05:28:31] Ms. McKeel? Yes. Mr. Prewitt? Aye. Mr. Andrews? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. Lapista-Kirtley? Aye. Ms. Malek? Yes. Thank you. Then board will go through our order for additional committee reports and matters not listed. Supervisor Malek. I don't have a committee report, but I have a question to leave for people to think about, and that is what can, should, how.

[05:28:58] We use the courthouse events. Is there a response we should make? Collectively, we've gotten some admirable information from John Whitehead and other speakers, and I'm at a loss of how to be effective.

[05:29:18] So that may be something we don't want to address today, But I just wanted to put the question out there. Appreciate that. We'll continue through our order. People can comment in response to that if they choose. Supervisor Lupisto Curley?

[05:29:35] Yes, just a quick update from my CACVB meeting regarding our Cho Airport. And I did not know this, but we have 29 private planes that are hangared at Cho Airport.

[05:29:50] They spend more time there than any place else. And those are the only ones that have to pay taxes to the county. I did not know that. I thought everyone did, but nope. Those are the only ones that have to pay taxes. And also, CHO, the activities are estimated to be $30 million annually now.

[05:30:09] And our passenger traffic is almost $700,000 a year. And that was back in 2024. That was last year. So it's definitely an important part of our community. and growing and they've got plans for that and so really proud of really proud of our airport but we do need to enlarge. Dr. Galloway again if there's any comment on that request. I will send out some additional info on that UVA Honda grant piece. I think some of you will find that

[05:30:49] interesting. Just have to go in and grab it out of the packet from the PDC and the MPO but I'll send that out so y'all can see it and i mean again they have to apply for it and get the grant but it looks promising but we'll see if it actually occurs um yeah thank you supervisor i would like to share with the board that we are closing out we're getting ready to close out vadi 2021 here in the year of our lord 2025 which is exciting um and there's going to be quite a lot of work to finish up 22 as well which I'm very excited because boy howdy a lot of the outstanding projects are in the Keene

[05:31:28] area in the southern part of Albemarle so I'm very excited to see those going up and I would like to actually engage with the previous question the matter before that's been put before the board for discussion by Supervisor Malik so I have so far been frankly referring constituents who have reached out to me to the county's existing statements, existing statements of county policy.

[05:31:58] When it's applicable, I've forwarded the information for the public basically immediately after the election. I reached out to both our county attorney and the chief of police to kind of clarify what existing policy is, what we currently do, and what we can do, right, kind of what is in the universe of the possible.

[05:32:22] And when it's been appropriate, I've worded those answers, which were given to us directly as members of the board. And I've also referred them to my statements that were made on the 23rd, 24th, as well as the other statements that other members of the board made there.

[05:32:41] Based on, frankly, conversations I've had with council, I don't see much that is in the universe of the possible re-policy, right? There is not much we could do to adopt a stronger policy related to our relationship with DHS.

[05:33:04] And there's, I mean, there's, I think, a strong argument to be made. There's also not room in the other direction that doesn't violate, that does not appropriate our forces for the federal government, which is inappropriate and not to be done. The only other thing, so I see policy as being largely foreclosed just by the universe of what can be done.

[05:33:28] And the only other avenue of response is the political avenue of response, which I think is also appropriate to discuss here. And this board will recognize I'm not someone who's ever found wanting for spoiling for a fight.

[05:33:45] I love a fight. I don't see the value normatively in having a public or a splashy fight here. It seems to make the situation worse, right? There were two seizures in an Albemarle County courthouse because Albemarle County is represented by a bunch of Democrats.

[05:34:05] That is my thesis. I don't have the ability to prove that. But I think that is consistent with the other actions we've seen taken across the country. And I raise that to say a big statement. Anything resembling action from this board, I don't think serves to reduce the harm facing our citizens.

[05:34:29] So I think the scale of action we've taken so far is probably, I think, the most appropriate. But I am welcome to hearing that challenge if you think that's accurate. No, I don't have a challenge. I just wanted to. I think it's.

[05:34:44] The police chief's response is adequate for sure and complete. I also just want to say I appreciate you raising this as a question kind of for our discussion because there's an intuition, there's an instinct almost to have this as a conversation discreetly in like one-on-one calls or something or with county staff or council.

[05:35:07] I think this is a thing of community concern that warrants being discussed openly at the dais. And I think that's part of what we're hearing complaints from. That's part of what the location of this frustration. I don't know. I sometimes like to just reassert, no, actually, I am an elected partisan official.

[05:35:27] We, part of our job is to have those kinds of conversations and do so publicly. So I appreciate that we could have kind of, I don't know, an airing on this. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor McKeown. Just a comment, and I do thank Ann and Mike for this, but my experience since 2016-17 has been certainly 17.

[05:35:55] We have a big red bullseye on our back. And I want to make sure that we do nothing to make that big red bullseye brighter for the people that we represent and the people that live in Elmar County and the city of Charlottesville, because it could be very dangerous.

[05:36:13] I'm just being very blunt. And I just realized today that the Transportation Secretary, Sean Duffy, has sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Transportation saying you will comply with ICE and all federal laws or you risk funding.

[05:36:33] I didn't know that would come out. So I would suggest that we take a look at that ruling, too, just so we have it in because transportation funding is something. Anyway, I want to keep our community as safe as possible.

[05:36:53] And that doesn't mean making a bullseye bigger for political. I mean, and I get it. It's just, anyway, enough said. Thank you. Thank you. And I appreciate the comments that have been made. Obviously, we take actions as a board.

[05:37:10] We speak as individuals, but we take actions as a board, and we need action by the board in order to represent anything of the sort. So with that, I think we've said what we need to say. Is there anything further? If not, then we will adjourn to May 14th, 2025, 7 p.m., Victory Hall, 401 Valley Street, Scottsville, Virginia, 24-590.

[05:37:35] With a joint meeting of the Town of Scottsville, opportunities for the public to access this meeting are posted on the Albemarle County website, on the Board of Supervisors' homepage, and on the Albemarle County calendar. Thank you. And it will be nice to meet with the Scottsville Town Council. We have not done that for a long time, so I'm looking forward to it.

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