Coraggio Consulting Albemarle County Board of Supervisors Regular First Meeting, Wednesday, April 1, 2026 Date: Wednesday, April 1, 2026 Place: Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, Virginia Length: 4h 44m (video) Official meeting video (Granicus): https://albemarle.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=1&clip_id=1475 Official agenda: https://albemarle.granicus.com/AgendaViewer.php?view_id=1&clip_id=1475 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [00:00:00] Good afternoon, everyone. I call the Atmar County Board of Supervisors to order for our April 1, 2026, No Fools, 1 p.m. meeting. The supervisors present at the dais are Supervisor Mike Pruitt of the Scottsville District, Supervisor Ann Malick of the Whitehall District, Supervisor B. Lepisto-Kirtley of the Ravanna District, Supervisor Sally Duncan of the Jack Jewett District, Supervisor Fred Missel of Samuel Miller District will be joining us virtually. [00:00:36] We will handle that here in just a moment. Also with us are our county attorney, Mr. Andy Herrick, our county executive, Mr. Jeff Richardson, our board clerk, Ms. Claudette Borgeson, and our senior deputy clerk, Mr. Travis Morris, is in support today here as well. [00:00:52] We want to thank our Albuquerque County Police Department officers who are present with us today, Officer Joshua Penn and Officer Joshua Cox. We've got the Joshua team today. So thank you, gentlemen, both for being here with us. As I said, Supervisor Missal would like to participate remotely. [00:01:12] And in accordance with applicable board rules of the procedure, Rule No. 8B1D, enacted pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, we will need to vote him in so that he can participate remotely. Prior to the vote, Mr. Missal, could you please state your location? [00:01:32] and your reason for your request sure thing thank you can everyone hear me okay yes sir great uh thank you i am fighting a a virus and i am located at my home in the samuel miller district i appreciate this combination this accommodation thank you all right thank you very much board is there a motion to permit supervisor missal to participate remotely so moved seconded all right the motion has been made and seconded uh without objection if the clerk would please call the roll Ms. Mallett? Yes. Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Ms. Duncan? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. Lapista-Kirtley? Aye. [00:02:10] All right. Very good. Mr. Missel, you are in the meeting. Thank you. And thank you, board. All right. If everyone would now please rise as you are able and join us with the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States and the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [00:02:37] All right, thank you. And if now, if everyone would please join in a brief moment of silence. Thank you very much. All right, board, we need to adopt our final agenda. Are there any changes or edits to the final agenda? All right, go ahead. I move adoption of the agenda as posted. Second. [00:03:13] All right, the motion has been made and seconded. Without objection, if the clerk will please call the roll. Ms. Mallett? Yes. Mr. Missel? Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Ms. Duncan? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. Lupisto-Kirtley? Aye. All right. Thank you, board. We will now move to number five. Brief announcements by board members. Where did my order go? All right. Supervisor Malik. Thank you very much. This past Sunday was the spring concert for the Admiral High School Jazz Band, and it was at [00:03:49] the Paramount this year, and it was fabulous. And Greg Thomas, who had been their leader for many years, was back as a visiting artist, as well as John Durst and lots of other folks from Richmond and D.C. Andrew LeProdt is the new musical director, and he is following along in a great tradition. Secondly, on the 17th of April at 11 a.m. will be the rededication of the Dogwood Memorial at McIntyre Park, and all are invited. Next, Bill Moyer of the RSWA, Ravana Solid Waste Authority, did a report on the fall special collections days, and I'm saying this now to [00:04:27] encourage people to participate in the upcoming April Special Collections Days. For household hazardous waste, over 1,000 vehicles, and in two days, 30,000 pounds of hazardous waste. That's a lot. 123 pounds of furniture and mattresses, 25,000 pounds of appliances, and 113 deliveries of tires, all from 124 Albemarle County residents. So this is a great service. It is a budgeted [00:05:03] expense for Ravana, and I hope that all citizens will take advantage of that. And another little report to go with that on the 2025 recycling and reuse, 156,000 pounds of tires for the entire year. [00:05:20] scrap metal, 268,000 pounds. Vegetation waste, 19,208,000. These are things that compost on the site and is available for use after. Mixed paper, also over a million pounds. Cardboard, almost 2 million pounds. Glass, 767,000 pounds. And that glass that goes to McIntyre here and the convenience centers in Albemarle and then to Urbana actually goes to a reprocessing plant in Virginia. It is not thrown into roadways. It is actually made into other bottles, which is very cool. Plastic is [00:05:58] failing, 235,000 pounds, because now there's no place to sell it. Metal cans, 235,000 pounds. So just wanted to put those out there. The Solid Waste Advisory Committee is working hard on ways that we can do better in the future, and I look forward to reporting more on that. [00:06:17] that's all i have thank you thank you supervisor lapisto kirtley yes thank you very much um i just wanted to say that our cleanup crew cleaning up uh around the county is now in progress i know they were on uh profit road and i know they're going throughout the county this is the program that is paid for by the plastic tax plastic bag tax and we are doing a lot of uh cleanup we do it in the spring and we do it again in the fall so a lot of that is being cleaned up and we're really i think it's a really really good program so we're really appreciative of that because we don't want [00:06:55] anything remember when you throw something out your window it's going into the waste and into this river you're drinking that water from the river so let's be careful let's not throw anything out just leave it in your car until you can toss it away um and one other thing don't forget to vote. It's our right. It's our obligation, in my opinion. April 21st, I understand, is the deadline to vote. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Missal. Just a brief announcement on Friday, April [00:07:30] 24th at the Hillsdale Conference Center. The Jefferson Area Board for Aging will be continuing their Embrace Every Season series. And if there's interest in more information on that, it is available on their website and it is focused on caregiver stories lessons on care family and end-of-life decision making so i just offer that uh for the for the listeners thank you thank you supervisor pruitt well supervisor lapisto currently stole what i think we've all come to understand is [00:08:05] my thing to talk about talking about elections um so with that out of the way i guess i would only highlight it is it is easter this weekend it is a time that a lot of people take uh time off And it also just happens to be the time of the year that God likes to remind us all that we live in the South. [00:08:21] We are going to have 80-degree weather consistently through Saturday. So as you are enjoying perhaps a little bit of time off over this week and weekend, for those who are able, please make sure to also be thoughtful and conscious about your exposure to the heat and weather. [00:08:37] Make sure you're wearing sunscreen and exercising in ways that are responsive. That's all I got. Supervisor Duncan? I have nothing. All right. I do not have any announcements today. We will move to item number six. We do have two proclamations on our agenda. The first is National Child Abuse Prevention Month. We have both Dr. Mark Mendelsohn, the Foothills Board Chair, and Brianna Valentino, the Program Director, with us. [00:09:05] We will have Supervisor Lepisto Kirtley will read the proclamation in the form of a motion. The board will take a vote, and then we'd invite our guests to please join us at the podium and make some comments. And we can, yeah, if you all want to come down and come on down now, and you can be in the front row. [00:09:24] We'll wait until you're there before we'll read the proclamation. Welcome to you all. Well, I just want to say that having been a CASA volunteer for five years before becoming a supervisor, I'm very proud to read this proclamation regarding National Child Abuse Prevention Month. [00:09:53] Whereas Child Abuse Prevention Month is observed each April to raise awareness of the importance of preventing child abuse and neglect and to affirm our community's shared responsibility to support children and families. And whereas child abuse and neglect remain serious public health and social concerns affecting children and families across our region and preventing and early intervention efforts, including education, family support, and community engagement, help strengthen prospective factors for children and caregivers. [00:10:28] And whereas strong families, supportive relationships, and engaged communities contribute to positive outcomes for children and collaborative partnerships among families, schools, community organizations, faith groups, health care providers, law enforcement, and departments of social services enhance our communities, coordinate a response to child abuse and neglect. [00:10:53] And whereas children's advocacy groups, centers, excuse me, CACs are codified in the Code of Virginia as part of the Commonwealth's response to child abuse and neglect, serving as the neutral child-focused setting for forensic interviews, medical examinations, family advocacy, and multidisciplinary team care review. [00:11:16] And whereas our area, our area CAC, Foothills Children's Advocacy Center, has partnered for 20 years with law enforcement, the Department of Social Services, and the Commonwealth's Attorney's Office, conducting an average of more than 300 forensic interviews annually to support criminal investigations and prosecution efforts. [00:11:44] And this community recognizes the importance of continued awareness, collaboration, and resources to support children and families impacted by abuse. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that we, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, do hereby recognize April 2026 as Child Abuse Prevention Month and urge all community members, organizations, businesses, and institutions to renew their commitment to protecting children, supporting families, increasing awareness of child abuse [00:12:20] prevention resources, and participating in activities that promote child well-being. Signed this first day of April, 2026, Ned L. Galloway, Chair, Abamorah County Board of Supervisors. [00:12:37] Second. All right. The motion has been made and seconded. Without objection, if the clerk will please call the roll. Ms. Mallett? Yes. Mr. Missal? Mr. Missal? Yes. Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Ms. Duncan? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. LaPista? Kirtley? Aye. [00:12:58] All right. Thank you, board. And we would like to ask our guests, Dr. Mendelsohn, to come first and invite you to make remarks. First of all, thank you very much. I'm Mark Mendelson. I'm a pediatrician and board chair for Foothills Children's Advocacy Center. Thank you so much for the recognition. It's amazing work that we do, and to recognize the work in this proclamation means a lot to us. [00:13:27] So on behalf of our staff, our board, and most importantly, the children we serve, thank you very much. I'd like to briefly just remind people that we're adding, hopefully, a fifth arm of the Foothills Children's Advocacy work, and that's mental health services that we hope to add over the next year. [00:13:45] So along with the other four arms that you described, I just wanted to let you know that we're working towards that goal, too. So I'd like to introduce the people that are here today, our head of the medical evaluations, Dr. Jenny Andrews, is here. She is a board-certified child abuse pediatrician. [00:14:04] We have Adichelle Godoy, who's head of our family advocacy, who serves the caregivers who have to learn how to deal with the situation that they've unfortunately been put upon. And then Robin Goldstein is our development person. And then finally, Brianna Valentino is Director of Programs, and she's going to speak for a couple of minutes. [00:14:24] Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Thank you so much for recognizing April's Child Abuse Prevention Month. Again, my name is Brianna, and I'm the Program Director over at the Foothills Children's Advocacy Center. April is really a time for us as a community to come together with a shared commitment to protect children and ensure that they grow up safe, supported, and heard. [00:14:48] Nationally, about one in seven children experience abuse and neglect each year. Many cases do go unported, which means that the true number is likely even higher. In Albemarle County, there were over 1,800 reports of suspected child abuse neglect in 2025, which resulted in hundreds of those reports requiring further investigation and intervention. [00:15:08] Each of those reports represent children and families in our own neighborhoods who need support, protection, and care. Some children face an even greater risk. Children with disabilities are significantly more likely to experience abuse, Often it rates two to three times higher than their peers. [00:15:25] Youth who identify as LGBTQ plus are also at an increased risk, particularly for exploitation and harm. These disparities call on us to be especially intentional in how we showed up for all children. But prevention is possible. [00:15:41] Child safety is strengthened when families and communities build protective factors. Things like tangible supports in times of need, social connections, parenting supports, an understanding of child development, and an effort to nurture children's social and emotional competence. These are the conditions that helps families thrive and also reduce the risk of abuse. [00:16:01] Prevention is also really about people. Every adult in this community has a role to play in creating environments where children feel safe enough to speak up. When a child discloses abuse, our responses matter deeply. We must be the adults who listen without judgment, who respond with care, and most importantly, who believe them. [00:16:22] When children trust they will be believed, they are more likely to come forward, and that can be the first step towards safety and healing. We appreciate the commitment to strengthening families, supporting caregivers, and also an effort to build a community where every child knows that they are valued, protected, and heard. [00:16:38] Thank you so much for your time and for the proclamation. Thank you very much. I'm going to invite board members to make comments and or ask any questions. Supervisor Malik? Thank you. I would just say how important it is, the job you're doing for providing training for your staff as well as for families to be able to navigate when they find, instead of just blowing it off. [00:17:03] I mean, it reminded me of 20 years ago when my child came home from high school and reported something to me about one of her friend's parents. And when I asked somebody else who I assumed would know more than I, the immediate response was, oh, that can't be right. So that made me realize that this is what you all face every day. [00:17:22] Thank you very much. Supervisor Lapista Kirtley. What you do is invaluable. You're saving the life of a child. You're preventing them from abuse, from neglect. And I so appreciate that because every child deserves to be happy, have a safe, loving home. [00:17:43] So I cannot thank you enough for everything you do on behalf of our children. Thank you. Supervisor Missal? Thank you. I couldn't have said it better. The work that you're doing is beyond critical, and I just am grateful for the service that you all provide to a most vulnerable generation and age group. [00:18:08] Thank you. Supervisor Pruitt? Thank you again to echo my peers' comments so much for the work that you all provide and the rest of your team. I know it is a deeply taxing field to work in. It is kind of constantly rubbing an exposed nerve every day of that work. [00:18:28] And I know that is challenging and know that the work that you and your team do is deeply appreciated. Thanks. Supervisor Duncan. Just echoing the comments of, you know, thank you guys for the work you do. I have, you know, five kids of my own and I teach and so I know how important working with kids are and listening to them and being a safe space. [00:18:48] And so I'm really grateful that you guys do that. I joined my colleagues in their remarks and endorse, I think, the phrase that when you mentioned social-emotional competence, when you said that, I hadn't quite, you got me spinning here a little. We think of reported cases of abuse as the extreme things that you might be able to notice if you were witnessing it, and don't think of the more subtle forms of abuse that if you have an adult who's not socially-emotionally competent, of how that could impact a developing child who is learning how to be socially, emotionally competent and what the long-term [00:19:25] impacts of that could be. That's something to really think about and reflect on. But again, we appreciate you all being here today. I've been asked Supervisor Lepisto Kirtley to bring the signed proclamation down to you all. And thank you again for everything that you do and for being here this afternoon. All right. And we will move to our second [00:20:03] proclamation today this is a proclamation recognizing dark sky week we have with us among others christine putnam the member of dark skies peatmont and we will have supervisor malik first read the you can come on i mean you can wait or come down supervisor malik will read the proclamation uh and then we'll uh vote and then uh invite you to make some some remarks you all can come down to the front row if you'd like to join by all means thank you all very much proclamation recognizing dark sky week as emotion whereas the aesthetic beauty and wonder of a natural night sky is a shared heritage of all humankind the experience of standing beneath a [00:20:43] starry night sky inspires feelings of wonder and awe many people in amara county live under a dome of light pollution excessive artificial lighting at night that disrupts natural darkness and may never experience the visual wonder or ecological and health benefits of living under a dark sky And whereas light pollution has scientifically established economic and environmental consequences, which result in significant impacts to the ecology and human health of all communities. [00:21:11] And light pollution represents a waste of natural resources, amounting to roughly $3 billion per year of wasted energy in the United States alone, and contributes thus to climate change. And whereas Albemarle County has adopted the Biodiversity Action Plan to protect the many species which rely on undisturbed night environments to hunt, mate, and thrive. [00:21:31] Amaral County is home to Fan Mountain Observatory, operated by the Astronomy Department of the University of Virginia. The southernmost edge of Amaral County is less than 10 miles from James River State Park, which is one of the four Virginia state parks designated as an international dark sky park by the International Dark Sky Association. [00:21:50] Whereas peak spring bird migration falls during dark sky week, and 80% of migrating birds fly at night and need starlight to navigate. whereas the International Dark Sky Association is the globally recognized authority on light pollution and has created International Dark Sky Week to raise awareness of light pollution and provide free education, resources, and solutions to the public to encourage the protection of and enjoyment of dark skies and responsible outdoor lighting. [00:22:19] Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that we, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, do hereby recognize April 13th through 20, 2026 as International Dark Sky Week and ask each resident to join us not only in observing and pondering this important week, but also in raising awareness and support for protecting our precious dark sky resources. [00:22:39] Signed this first day of April, 2026, Ned L. Galloway, Chair. Thank you. We need a second. All right. Is there a second? Second. All right. The motion has been made and seconded. Without objection, if the clerk will please call the roll. Ms. Mallett? Yes. Mr. Missel? [00:22:56] Yes. Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Ms. Duncan? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. Lepister-Kirtley. Aye. All right motion carries. Thank you board and Ms. Putnam if you'd like to come up. All right well thank you guys so much. This is the third year that we've come before you and the third year that you have supported this International Dark Sky Week proclamation so really appreciate that and recently we have an updated comprehensive plan where there are multiple references to the county's commitment to addressing light pollution. [00:23:31] We hope that the updated lighting ordinance will adopt best practices as recommended by the Illuminating Engineering Society and Dark Sky International, resulting in an ordinance that is both effective and enforceable. [00:23:48] In fact, Dark Sky International has recently released their updated model ordinance, which uses best practices to ensure public safety while also reducing wasteful lighting, because most of our spaces are overlit with light that actually never reaches its intended target. [00:24:11] And although the current ordinance requires that commercial lighting be fully shielded so that the light shines towards the ground rather than up into the sky or creates blinding glare for people out to the side, unfortunately, there are many businesses that end up replacing lighting or updating lighting that does not comply with the current ordinance. [00:24:39] and i see many examples of this uh this goes unchecked unless somebody makes a complaint so we would like to ask that more effort be made to educate businesses so they understand how to properly comply with the ordinance this we are a long way to reducing this growing problem of light pollution and i imagine it would be a much more cost-effective approach than making a complaint and sending a compliance officer out to educate people and it would be nice if businesses [00:25:11] could make the right decision before they have to replace that lighting so thank you again for your time and your support for responsible community lighting practices that not only protect the dark sky but also the health and well-being of people and our neighbors which include of course all living things on our planet so thank you so much and would you like to introduce your guests that are with us these are all wonderful advocates of dark sky protections [00:25:46] and uh really i don't know we could introduce everyone one at a time but um they all join me in um thanking you and hoping for that strong that update of the ordinance and better enforcement and all the things I had mentioned, unless somebody wants to add something. [00:26:06] And we do have some handouts for you. And you can happily give those to the clerk, and we'll make sure we receive. Thank you, guys. Thank you. We're going to see if the board has comments and or questions. Supervisor Malik. Thank you very much. [00:26:21] Carol, if you have extra things at the table outside, you might catch a few other distributions as people come to the meeting. Thank you all very much. And I was particularly struck by the third year of the proclamation. It's the third year is time to get on with it as far as because I know that your committee, National Heritage Committee, has been seeking updating the ordinance for years, especially addressing LEDs and the way that they function. [00:26:44] I mean, when a particular gas station opened in Crozet, one could sit in your car on 250 and read the newspaper with the lights off because 100 yards away, there was so much light pollution that spilled out. And that was just two years ago. So I'm very grateful for all the work that you're doing. [00:27:01] I believe in the butterfly effect, and so I know none of us is immune from what is happening to the greater ecology as well. And I will just take a minute to remember in the late 80s and early 90s when my children went through fifth grade and Emily Tuning had a stargazing unit that they did, and they had to map all the constellations for like a month. [00:27:21] Out in Earliesville back then, it was still very dark. We could see the Milky Way regularly. And the classmates from the city would come out and slide the towels in the backyard and look at things there because they could not see it at home. And it has clearly not gotten any better, unfortunately. [00:27:39] So I really appreciate all of the work that you all are doing, and we will charge on. Thank you. Supervisor Lephisto-Curtley? I really appreciate everything you do, and I try in my neighborhood. I turn off my lights. Of course, I've been robbed three times. No, just kidding. That's not true at all. [00:27:56] But I'm very conscious of that because here in Virginia, you can see the stars. And I don't think people really, really appreciate how seeing the stars, how important that is. You go out to LA, Los Angeles, you don't see any stars. [00:28:13] Every once in a while, a few times a year, you don't see stars because of all the light pollution. And you know you're getting into Los Angeles in an airplane maybe a half hour before you even land because it's all lit up. That's not what we want. We want the dark skies are important. [00:28:30] It's important for our wildlife. And just a quick question. Have you notified the news agencies that this is Dark Skies Week so they can let everyone know? We hope that the counties, since we do have means of communicating with our citizens, will help us with that. [00:28:56] But, yeah, we probably should count. Can we give them your phone number? Absolutely. You got it. Thank you. Supervisor Missal? Great. Thank you. [00:29:13] Well, first of all, a really quick story. I can't help myself. I grew up as a kid living in a suburb of Philadelphia. And every summer we would go to Maine to the northwest part of Maine. And I realized in the summer there were stars. And the rest of the time, the rest of the year, I wasn't so sure. [00:29:30] And so moving down here, I live in the rural area, and I am just incredibly appreciative of not just the ability to see stars, but just the impact that the lack of clutter of visual light sources has on you as a person. [00:29:47] And I'm grateful for the work, and I think it's important that we're recognizing it, and I really appreciate the opportunity to raise awareness on this subject. I also agree that education is key, you know, having been in the development world for decades. The full cutoff light fixtures have been part of our narrative, right? [00:30:05] And it's something that we've always included in our developments, and it's absolutely essential. I would challenge us to think about what's next. Is that still the best standard, or are there other things that we can be thinking about that might hold people accountable, developers accountable, but also, you know, continue to improve on what we are so blessed to have as an asset in Albemarle County? [00:30:31] Thank you. Supervisor Pruitt? Thank you so much for your continued advocacy on this issue. It is not lost on me that dark skies have a host of very, I think, practical, tangible benefits, right? light exposure squirrels up animals. It messes with our health in ways that you have to think about how it happens, but it does happen. That's all true, but the thing that makes me really staunchly in this corner is the qualitative and the intangible. I think it is important for us [00:31:04] to continue to preserve the opportunity for future generations to have encounters with grandeur and and with the sublime i've talked during this before about like my memories of going out with my little constellation book with the glow in the dark stars in it um with my parents in the front yard where i grew up and was able to see the stars and map them and i don't think that can be done anymore in the place i grew up um and i don't think as someone who wants to have children one day in albemarle county i don't think i should tell them well wait [00:31:44] until you're 18 and you can go on a transatlantic cruise like I did to see the Milky Way again. That shouldn't be the only way that people have the opportunity to have these encounters with the sublime. So thank you again for your advocacy. Supervisor Duncan. Yeah, I have been lucky since we lived in Elmoral County to live in a place where we can just walk outside and see the stars and sometimes I forget that not everybody can because it feels so normative to just, you know, see the sky. So I really appreciate it. I think dark skies are very important. I also want to point out you guys obviously know this but for the public you know you can go to the observatory [00:32:19] they have free public um nights that if you you know haven't used the large telescope there and haven't seen the skies that you can do that which is really great um and obviously you know driving up to skyline drive you can see the stars but yeah it is just it's really fantastic and we should be doing more to make sure that more people can enjoy it um i would remark that you know i'm always impressed because i live in the development area and i have since i've been here with the exception of some few years out at the lake lake monticello um but even last night as the moon was [00:32:59] what it was last evening walk taking a walk and i tend to purposely do my walks where i return home after it's full sunset dark um and how much you can see even where where i'm at right now is only probably a mile from 29. And this would be back where it's near the railroad in Huntington and Carsbrook and that kind of area. And it was funny when somebody mentioned the migrating birds because something flew, I caught it, peripheral, flew over me. I'm assuming it was an owl because it was large. [00:33:32] And also if it wasn't, then you guys might start questioning my sanity because there's not a lot of other things that I could explain it as. But the fact that that was even noticeable though in a peripheral. And the comment I guess I'd make is that a lot of people, especially in the neighborhood where I'm currently at, turn their lights off. So it's not just like they've got their street lamps and their driveway lamps or even their porch lights on. A lot of the light that was coming were coming from inside the house, but their exterior lights, they're even keeping off as they live there. People come home, they get inside the house, they're turning the light off after [00:34:09] dark. Very dark out in this. And I've noticed that because there's not a lot of street lamps and things up there except near the road. So I think that's a good thing. While there could obviously be improvements made, the fact that that's the case, even being so close in, I think, is a testament to the efforts being made to achieve what the Dark Skies Initiative is all about. [00:34:31] So we really appreciate you all coming and joining us here with us today. Supervisor Malik will bring the proclamation down to you if you would like to accept it. [00:34:59] Yeah, yeah. Well, the other group's unhappy now that they didn't get their picture. Well, you're in the dark. [00:35:16] And we appreciate both such folks that came out today for the proclamations. Thank you all. [00:35:31] All right, board, we will move to public comment on matters previously considered or currently pending before the board other than what is scheduled for public hearings. [00:35:47] We do have a few folks signed up today. During the time set aside for public comment on matters previously considered are currently pending before the board other than scheduled public hearings individuals may address the board of supervisors concerning matters okay that's redundant other than items listed on the Jennifer public hearing individuals are allowed one opportunity of up to three minutes to speak at each board meeting the sign-up sheet is managed by the clerk's office timekeeping is conducted through a timer and light system at the podium the green light will go on when you begin speaking which begins your allotted time the yellow light indicates you have one minute to [00:36:23] finish speaking the red light indicates your time has expired and you will be asked to end your comments in order to give all speakers equal treatment and courtesy the board requests that speakers adhere to the following guidelines when addressing the board state your name and if you live in albemarle county your magisterial district address comments directly to the board as a whole any written statements or other supporting material may be giving given to the clerk If representing a group or organization, you may ask others present to raise their hands in recognition. [00:36:53] Speakers may not share any unused time with another speaker. Back and forth debate is not permitted. Do not speak from your seat or out of turn. All comments are live streamed, recorded, and published on the Albemarle County website. And I would just remind our speakers when you're called down that you can adjust either the microphones and or the podium itself so that you're able to speak directly into the mic and with that our first speaker today is mr gary grant and our second speaker will be mr rob mcginnis so you [00:37:25] can be on deck sir not my place to do so but uh i would recognize former supervisor sally thomas who was here and i commend her on she's she still is waving at you from there she is okay great Super. Gary Grant, Rio District. April 1st, a tricky day for governments at any level to hold meetings and make decisions about the public's money. Just to be clear, I'm not here to fool you. To date, I've attended three of your five community budget town halls with one more to [00:38:03] come on Thursday night. Some observations. Seemed foolish to hear the former senior center director asked the Rio District Supervisor at the Belvedere Town Hall to look for savings in the budget instead of relying on real estate reassessment increases. [00:38:23] This came from a fellow who asked the Board of Supervisors for and received $2 million from Albemarle taxpayers to help build the membership center at Belvedere. Seemed foolish to hear the Whitehall Supervisor at the Western Albemarle Town Hall tell school board funding activists to talk to their school board about education money. [00:38:49] This, after voting with four other supervisors to advertise a 15 cent increase in the car tax to housing affordability. Seemed electorally foolhardy, but refreshingly honest to hear the Rivanna supervisor answer in two words at the Lakeside Town Hall the following question, what will it take for supervisors to give the schools the money they asked for? Her answer, four votes. Finally, a few [00:39:28] more I'm not fooling comments from this 40-year real estate and real property taxpaying Albemarle resident who took out our own mortgage and paid it off early without any other taxpayers' help. [00:39:44] Don't tax our cars to pay for other people's housing. Keep religious impact separate from government. Any fool can voluntarily pay government more than what's on their tax bill. [00:40:04] Move affordable housing funds into the unaffordable school budget. Perhaps our students will become educated enough to solve all this for us at some future April Fool's Day. [00:40:20] Thank you, Mr. Grant. Rob McGinnis. Good afternoon. [00:40:35] My name is Rob McGinnis, and I'm here representing the Piedmont Environmental Council. My comments pertain to Agenda Item 10, the VDOT Albemarle County Draft Secondary Six-Year Plan. The county's comp plan addresses the value of rural roads, both paved and unpaved. [00:40:52] Rural Area Transportation Action Item 4.3 states that the county, with the involvement of residents, should investigate a recreational rural roads program that supports active recreational and commuter use of rural roadways with low-speed vehicle volumes. [00:41:09] PEC strongly supports this and recommends that the county undertake this important planning initiative, including aligning the Rural Rustic Road Program and the Unpaved Road Improvement Program with the relevant comp plan policies. Why does a county recreational rural roads program matter? [00:41:31] Unpaved roads are essential parts of the Albemarle County fabric. Unpaved rural roads provide low stress places for rural area residents to walk, bike, run, and ride horses. These are places where rural folks can meet, speak to one another, and build community cohesion. And unpaved roads are part of the county's tourism ecosystem, a major industry in Albemarle County accounting for around a billion dollars of annual impact. That tourism is driven largely by the region's scenic and historic character. Residents from other parts of the county in Charlottesville also visit and [00:42:10] utilize rural roads. A number of running and biking clubs use them regularly, including high school teams. Multiple local businesses offer printed guides and group trips. These all contribute to the rural economy. At PEC's recent Active Mobility Summit, leaders from across the state shared success stories about economic development strategies that leverage the outdoors. Albemarle County has an advantage with its scenic and historic rural area, which should be protected. [00:42:41] Thank you for the opportunity to provide my comments. Thank you. All right, and we had no online, correct? Looks correct. All right, we will close matters from the public, and that will take us to our consent agenda. [00:43:00] I'm not aware of any items that need to be removed. Any? And I know you would like, so I am going to call for discussion because I know some remarks would like to be made on one of the items. So is there a motion to adopt or approve the consent agenda? So moved. [00:43:16] Second. All right. The motion has been made and seconded. I invite further discussion. Supervisor Duncan? Yeah. I just wanted to point out one thing that maybe only a handful of people in the county are as excited about as I am, but meeting minutes are really important. They are a really good source for government transparency, but also for local government history. It has been challenging at times to find meeting minutes of the Board of Supervisors, And so I'm very excited that I got to approve my first set of meeting minutes and that we have meeting minutes from this year that are getting approved tonight. [00:43:53] And so the clerk's office has done a good job of working really hard to get our meeting minutes updated. And so I just wanted to recognize that we are doing that, and I'm very excited about it. Thank you. Are there any other points of discussion? I will just echo how important the literal format that we have is because it really tells the story of what happens as opposed to just the topic, which really doesn't help us. [00:44:18] So thank you for bringing that up. Any further discussion? All right. If the clerk would please call the roll. Ms. Malik? Yes. Mr. Missal? Mr. Missal? Yes. [00:44:34] Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Ms. Duncan? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. Lapista-Kirtley? Aye. All right. Thank you very much. The consent agenda is approved. And we will move to our presentation today, number nine, the Virginia Department of Transportation Quarterly Report. [00:44:53] And Ms. Carrie Shepard, who is also our amateur photographer today, is here. Hello. Hi, good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, members of the board. Pull up my presentation. [00:45:16] Do you need some assistance there? I might. [00:45:39] Where did the mouse go? Okay, great. [00:46:06] So I'm Carrie Shepard. I'm here to provide the VDAC Quarterly Report. I'd also like to, before I get started, introduce a member of the audience that I brought with me. Mr. Matt Machadi, P.E., has joined our team as the Assistant Resident Engineer for Land Use. He's been with us just a couple months. [00:46:22] He came to us from New York State DOT, and we're very happy to have him. So I just ask that he be welcomed, and he's part of our team now, and I appreciate that he's here. So I wanted to introduce him. Thank you. Welcome, sir. So to begin, for the preliminary engineering updates, the Exit 107 Park and Ride project was awarded last December. [00:46:47] Right now, there was a, or current update is that there was a pre-construction meeting held March 24th last week with a notice to proceed on the project of March 30th. The fixed completion date of that project is this coming December 30th. So you should see a lot of movement on that project here very soon. [00:47:04] 5th Street Hub and Trails Project, that is still with right-of-way, but they are expecting to have that wrapped up very soon to meet the May of 2026 advertisement date. 250 and 20 intersection improvements and corridor improvements, that is also still under right-of-way. We expect advertisements still on track for winter of this year to early next year. And the rest of these projects have remained unchanged since the last time I was here. Next, I'd like to talk about our design-build bundles where there is a lot of movement. So the first element of the five-part [00:47:42] bundle, the Route 240-250 roundabout and bridge replacement over 680 Browns Gap Turnpike, that roundabout and bridge reopened earlier this month, or earlier in March, March 13th, with final completion expected midsummer. Old Lynchburg Road, 5th Street roundabout, that is also under construction at this time. John Warner Parkway, Ryer Road roundabout project, and the Belvedere green tea the construction is starting in the coming weeks and for the last element 53 and 20 roundabout the right-of-way plans are under review at this time for our next bundle project the [00:48:19] hydraulic district avenue roundabout and the fontaine interchange improvements and shared use path into the city public hearing was held may 22nd ctb awarded the project early december of last year and the kickoff meeting was held in january and right now the final design is underway So there should be some movement out there on that project relatively soon as well. [00:48:42] I know you'll be talking about this in greater detail here shortly, but for our rural rustics, just to give you a quick summary of what we accomplished last year and what we'll be starting with this year. Of course, we completed Starlight, Stony Point Pass, Sutherland, Glendower Road, Phases 1 and 2, Henderson Lane. [00:48:59] And right now, we're going to be starting work on Blair Park to get that one finished up. Next for our construction activities, 601, same as it was last time I was here, its anticipated completion is july of this summer fontaine avenue construction did start on that in october it's still one lane temporary signal in place the completion is spring of 2027 we also have a bridge replacement project on stillhouse creek road route 693 the construction will begin [00:49:32] april 6 and is expected to be complete by may 15th there will be a detour in place and last we have our route 29 shared use path which has moved from preliminary engineering to construction that construction started the week of march 9th with test boards and then clearing and grubbing will begin and that is all of my formal presentation so i will take any questions or concerns that the board i have one last thing before i take questions and concerns i wanted to give you an update on our paving program that has really taken off recently so [00:50:05] right now plant mix has started in the northwest part of the county also surface treatment that's well underway the southern part of the county is complete they are working in the western part of the county now and then they will move to the north also our primaries will be so those are all the secondary routes with service treatment and plant mix our primaries which will be asphalt that's starting in late june early july and that includes route 20 from willow lakes which is just south of the off-ramp to scottsville to red hill and then we have 250 out in the west kind of near [00:50:44] the Fluvianna County line. We have 29 northbound from Teal Lane south to 760 Red Hill School Road, the northbound lane, if I say that geologically right, Red Hill School Road to Teal Lane, and then the southbound 29 from Berkmar to Hydraulic. The paving map has been updated as well, so that should be available online if you'd like to see the specific routes in more detail. [00:51:08] Okay, now that concludes my formal presentation, and I will take any questions or concerns. Thank you, Carrie. Supervisor Malek? No question, but when the 242-5680 opened, it was immediately such a great improvement. Even during construction, it was an improvement from the old days. [00:51:26] So thank you for all of that, and that's the terrier on the ankle theory. Never, ever let go once you've got a bike because it'll get there eventually. I'm really excited. Thank you very much. Supervisor Lapisto-Kirtley? Yes, I just wanted to inquire regarding the Rolkin Road to 20 along 250. [00:51:46] I know that's been delayed a year or two years, but you're saying now you think that it will. Do you think you will get all the required right-of-ways for easements by next winter, 26, 27 winter? [00:52:05] So you're talking about the improvements at Peter Jefferson Parkway and Rolkin Road pedestrian improvements? Right. Well, no, no, no. From Roelkin Road to 20. Oh, okay. Yeah, the Corridor Improvement Project. That's the biggie. Yes. They've left some extra time in for right-of-way, so that is what they're working towards, yes, is an advertisement at the end of this year or early 27. [00:52:26] What happens if they don't get the right-of-way permission from the businesses? They work through a process to do so. Okay. Thank you. Supervisor Missal. Thank you. Thanks, Ms. Shepard. I appreciate the update. [00:52:43] I have a couple of quick questions. One is, can you provide any updates on, this is coming from a constituent's question, any updates on the old Ivy Road, Bel Air work in general? Is this referring to the Smart Scale project? [00:53:02] It's a combination of that and what's currently going on now on old Ivy Road at the intersection of 250. We do have the old Ivy Road bridge project that's out there that should wrap up this summer. As far as additional improvements, there are some proposed smart scale applications through the county or the MPO that I think are under consideration. [00:53:27] Okay. So this summer is the wrap-up for the old Ivy Road Bridge. Thank you. Yes. Second question is, Burkmar Drive, I want to just clarify in your presentation, I think you said the easement acquisition was starting in the spring of 2027. Is that accurate? [00:53:42] Or was that completing in spring of 2027? The ad date is winter of 2027, so the next step is to acquire right-of-way to meet an ad date of next year. Okay, so I'm sorry, when does the acquisition of right-of-ways begin? [00:54:03] What's the timeline for that? I would have to check for you, but I can get you that information. Okay, that'd be great. Thank you. Those are all my questions. All right, Supervisor Pruitt. Thank you, and I apologize if you said this and I missed it. For the 5th Street Old Lynchburg Road roundabout, is the expectation and target going to be that in this coming summer asphalt laying season that we're going to complete it inside of this calendar year? [00:54:32] Yeah, I believe so. I believe so. But I can check on what the fixed completion date is and let you know. Got it. And in the same way in the past, I was very much squeaky wheel as it got closer about the Glendower Road paving. [00:54:48] I'm now going to start to be squeaky wheel as it gets closer about the Fifth Street hub and trails. Can you give me a little bit of context about what the next few kind of milestones on that are going to look like and how that's going to interface with Joe Citizen, who commutes through that area or who uses the Rivanna Trail Network there? [00:55:13] So for that project, the right-of-way is being finalized. the ad date is still scheduled for may i believe it's may 12th so once it goes to advertisement and it's awarded construction should start roughly three months after that um and then as far as i feel like you're probably asking about specific details during construction and how that might work with current trail users okay um it's also just the the the over trail intersection is one of the most contentious in the county certainly the most contentious in my district and i'm not clear if there's going to be impact on it currently um maybe that is a question that [00:55:49] we'll have more clarity on once once the bid is out uh but if there is a known answer to that such as oh we will make sure not to impact traffic at the at the avon intersection that would be helpful to or not the avon intersection sorry the the fifth street uh intersection that would be helpful to know sooner rather than later because i expect the moment people see vdot vehicles out there i'm going to start getting questions because i get a lot of questions about this intersection already well and it's not going to be vdot doing the project it'll be you know whatever contractor [00:56:26] gets that and they'll talk through those things um maintenance of traffic things like that but but yes i can i can see what i can find out and if if it needs to be worked out later in the process i can let you know um can you also let me know a little bit what ongoing cooperation with different county departments can look like during this process because this implicates parks projects that are going to ultimately connect in. And there's also a DSS element in that I think the project area might be very near some encampments and might actually encompass some encampments in that region. [00:57:04] So I'm just curious what that ongoing communication looks like. If it is there between government agencies or if it's really just a private contractor goes out there and does what they do i i we do our best to coordinate um when we know about these things i mean we've been talking to the city and the county throughout the whole process so if there are details like that that we need to work out i don't i don't doubt that we can thank you supervisor duncan um just a couple of things one i was talking to a friend this weekend [00:57:37] who lives out in crozet and wanted me to pass on just how incredible the roundabout is and how much better it has made it and how much safer it's made it um so that's everybody's very excited that's done um the roundabout at hydraulic and district um do you know kind of how soon after final design is done that construction will start i believe since since that's a design build project um it's going to depend on which element they start on first um and which preference whether that's fontaine or hydraulic so i don't have a good feeling right now which element they're going [00:58:15] to start on um but they usually start construction fairly quickly sometimes they do the both of them at the same time um but i can definitely ask and see where that's at in the process okay thank you uh thank you carrie the um i know you all had a meeting with the community about the construction at the warner parkway and the belvedere green tea this would have been like the 50 like mid-march something like that i think to update them on timelines i think some folks that didn't attend that meeting have asked me about working at night are those projects going to be being done over and [00:58:50] not that i object to that but i'm just i i don't know do you know if they're planning to do construction work overnight i'm not sure about night work for for uh it's close to residential which is why i'm asking right it is which we do take into consideration i i would be i would be a little surprised but i can check on that schedule too with our design build team because i get why you would do it yes but and so i think some folks like that it maybe happens faster and doesn't disrupt the day but it is close in on residential so i was just i think i have some folks if you wouldn't mind following up on that one that would be awesome okay i can do that um [00:59:25] and then just the follow-up on the penn park road i've been nagging about speed study i know some things are being done but i'm not sure where we stand on that one yes it is still and i apologize this has been a bit of a slow process but our traffic engineering department is still reviewing the existing conditions before making the final the final determination i love the engineers do they take my my snarky remarks as data when they consider probably not all right um the [00:59:59] hillsdale where it intersects with rio northfield old brook the double light i mean it's been an ongoing thing the solutions are down the road etc but i know that right now the short term is always looking at the signalization it seems and i got a constituent email just yesterday i was planning to bring up the northbound traffic going on hillsdale and then heading west on rio and getting stuck i mean it's queuing so much that that not all the hillsdale folks are can't be in the left turn lane when it spills to make the left and get on to rio there's not enough [01:00:37] queue there to get everybody that's waiting so they go through another round which okay um but were starting to get caught in the turn so that then when it changes, there's a delay waiting for everybody who didn't wait at Hillsdale. They were caught in the curve. And then the conflict of the southbound coming down Northfields to head south on Hillsdale. The anecdotal observation is I've been noticing on non-peak times that this is happening. So I don't know if the signalization [01:01:13] during the peak times i'm assuming is different because you can just tell by the pattern when you drive through there that some things are different but on a sunday afternoon at two when i see that same thing happening i'm like well wait a minute is the signalization different um i think stuff changes there regularly so i'm just calling it to say hey is there a way to look at outside of just the peak times what's happening with the signals there to see if we're not stranding people in that turn as they head north and west and then block off the people trying to go from north fields down [01:01:51] some of the folks coming southbound on old brook and then heading east on rio it's since there's two lanes there it seems to be enough queuing the way that that light is signaling to let them release i don't know why folks are confused about yielding the folks who want to go left seem to be confused that you're supposed to yield for somebody that wants to come straight across so i don't know if i don't know how to help that uh i mean i guess that's all [01:02:24] driving pieces but anyway that intersection i know is a problem problem area okay um and i'm just asking if maybe we could look at the how the signalization is done maybe some light observation outside even of the peak hours to go maybe we need to adjust something there to help with what's happening because it's just it's a dangerous intersection thank you and then um yeah that's that's all i had i will call out to supervisor missile the two projects that you're [01:02:57] talking about are one of our part of our four smart scale applications the dual roundabouts at canterbury and all of that along with boris head or one app and then the second app is just canterbury and and uh 250 and the one roundabout just throw that out there and it gives me a chance to remind the board that on march 17 it would have been the 20th friday the 20th the mpo had a special meeting where we started to brainstorm with uh sean and the folks at vdot about outside [01:03:34] of the normal ways that we get projects funded to how to start maybe thinking of them differently and and strategically think of how to go to get some elements done. I thought it was a good conversation and a good start. It wasn't a one-off. That should hopefully turn into several other conversations to try to get at things. [01:03:54] So it's online. It's recorded if you wanted to watch. So I'm just calling that out. But yes. One follow-up based on your comment about Berkmar. The sidewalk money from Crozet was swept seven years ago for that project to supposedly complete the pot so that it could be done right then. [01:04:14] It was all in a big hurry, and here we are seven years, eight years later. So that is actually written in stone that it's going to happen. Yes, it's moving forward, yes. And there's money in the secondary six-year plan that was dedicated as well, yes. [01:04:30] I mean, all the telefees and all these other things that have been added on because of the delays, delay, delay, delay, meant the cost quadrupled. Okay, so when people who – the Whitehall District drive by there all the time too and they keep saying you know when's it going to happen so you said construction will begin or this year at the end of 26 advertisements the end of 26 the ad date is winter of 2027 so 18 months away from 24 months away from now okay thank you supervisor lapisto currently yes [01:05:05] i'm still concerned about the speeding traffic and oversized trucks on gordonsville road from 22 up to 231 on Gordonsville Road, is there any way in half of it going up to 22 is 45 miles an hour and then going from when it turns into 231, the other half is 50. Is there any way we could do, I know it's been a few years since we've done a traffic study, but I keep seeing increasing speeding and oversized trucks, but I mean, is there any way we could actually do another speed [01:05:42] study? Put that in. Asking. We can check the crash history to see if that makes sense, but another thing that we also look at is increased development, which has not occurred. Which is what? Increased development. So if the conditions have not changed since the last time we did it, we likely will not do another speed study. But we can check the crash history from the last couple years to see what that looks like. [01:06:06] Thank you. I appreciate that. All right. Very good. Thank you, Carrie. Yep, thank you. The next item, number 10, it says VDOT slash Albuvar County fiscal year 2732, draft secondary six-year plan. [01:06:25] And now Barrick is with us. Oh, and others coming up in support. We've got the A team. Anytime I see Kevin step up, I've got to start thinking of questions to throw at him. He's our legacy information person. Good afternoon. [01:06:43] Alrighty. Good afternoon, Chair Galloway and Board. My name is Albert Karina Plunn. I'm a transportation planner within community development, and this presentation will cover the draft secondary six-year plan for this year, as well as a draft list of roads that will be paved under the Royal Rustic Program, and also the introduction of the Unpaved Road Improvement Program, or URIP. [01:07:06] So, background, the secondary six-year plan is a document that applies to roads in our secondary system. It identifies funding allocated for the next fiscal year and then estimates the available funding for the next five fiscal years. Telefee funding stems from utility companies paying a fee to VDOT to put lines in the right-of-way. [01:07:27] These are being used right now to help fund the Berkmar Drive extension project, the airport road, that Supervisor Malik just mentioned. This plan is updated and adopted by the board annually each spring. The SSYP is heavily informed by the Albemarle County Priority List for Secondary Road Improvements, Unpaved Roads, and is guided by the Albemarle County Unpaved Road Policies and Review Process. [01:07:52] This document was updated in May 2025 to shift responsibility of gathering signatures for paving from county staff to residents. So here is the current rural rest of process. A PAVING REQUEST IS RECEIVED FROM A RESIDENT OR SUPERVISOR AND COMES TO STAFF. [01:08:09] STAFF REVIEWS THE ROAD AND COMPILES A LIST OF RESIDENTS WHO ARE ELIGIBLE TO VOTE. IT SENDS THE LIST AND MATERIALS BACK TO THE RESIDENT THAT REQUESTED PAVING. THE RESIDENT HAS UNTIL FEBRUARY 1ST OF, FOR EXAMPLE, THIS YEAR TO BE INCLUDED IN THIS YEAR'S LIST TO SUBMIT SIGNATURES WITH TWO-THIRDS APPROVAL TO BE INCLUDED IN THE UPCOMING SSYP. [01:08:28] IF ENOUGH RESIDENTS APPROVE OF PAVING, VDOT REVIEWS THE ROAD FOR RURAL RUSTIC ELIGIBILITY. questions. Good. If VDOT approves the road, it is prioritized with the other road requests. If VDOT does not approve of the paving, it is placed on the unable to pave list. Excuse that. That was meant to say if not eligible, alternate opportunity for improving the road will be with the UREP program. The draft secondary six-year plan is presented to the board supervisors in April for comment and feedback. Staff returns in May for a public hearing and adoption. Following the public hearing, the SSYP is adopted and staff returns in June with resolutions for paving each of the roads [01:09:07] as a consent agenda item. These are the six roads that have been requested and verified by VDOT for paving as part of this year's secondary six-year plan. Gilbert Station Road, Jeannie Lane, Murray Lane, Broken Sun Road, Blacks Lane, and Old Sand Road. The Board of Supervisors can recommend to make changes to the draft secondary six-year plan now before the final adoption at the May 20th public hearing. And for the new stuff, so in 2024, the Virginia General Assembly expanded the scope of the unpaved road funds regarding allocation of funds to include non-paving [01:09:43] improvement projects. This change allows Albemarle County to develop a new program that prioritizes improvements for unpaved roads using the rural roads funds allocated every year for more than paving. What was attached in your packet was the draft of the unpaved road improvement program or URIP. It will identify, prioritize, and improve unpaved rural roads in Albemarle County with unpaved road funds that are currently being used for rural rustic it will also be done concurrently with rural rustic europe would be for unpaved roads that have been identified for improvements by vdot and admiral county and would include the roads that were previously considered [01:10:23] for rural rustic but did not meet vdot qualifications roads could not be improved with europe europe and paved with rural rustic funds the same year they will need to be prioritized separately europe roads will not need the two-thirds support of residents since the actual surface of the road would not change. UREP projects will be permanent infrastructure improvements rather than maintenance task orders. For example, resurfacing gravel or fixing potholes would not qualify for UREP funds, but a project where you update some of the stormwater facilities, do major grading, could be some of the examples of what would be a UREP project. It'll be programmed [01:11:00] five years out like rural rustic projects within the SSYP and will be included in the work session AND THE PUBLIC HEARING FOR THE SSYP. VIDA IS CURRENTLY REVIEWING OUR PROPOSAL AND MAKING THEIR OWN COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS. I LOOK FORWARD TO YOUR INSIGHTS ON THE PROPOSED PLAN. [01:11:15] THREE RECOMMENDATIONS TO RUN THROUGH THE PROCESS THIS YEAR ARE BERKS'S CREEK ROAD, BATESVILLE ROAD, AND HAMMICKS GAP ROAD. STAFF WOULD LIKE FEEDBACK ON THESE THREE ITEMS. WE WOULD LIKE TO -- OBVIOUSLY WE HAVE THE PUBLIC HEARING ON MAY 20TH, BUT WE WOULD LIKE TO HEAR YOUR FEEDBACK ON THE CHANGES THAT WERE MADE TO THE ROYAL RUSTIC PROCESS LAST YEAR, provide feedback on the proposed URIP, and provide feedback on the draft SSYP in general. [01:11:42] And thank you. All right. We'll go through to see what questions we have. Supervisor Malik. Thank you very much. So I'm very grateful to all the work to get Senator Perry's gravel road improvements into process finally. [01:12:01] That's really great. And I think that reading the staff reports, I got all wound around the axle with the first report. Then many of the questions were answered in the second one, so I should have read them in reverse because the clarifications I have, there were things in the chart on page 10A4 that said BOS request for paving that I absolutely did not do. [01:12:34] So there were a whole bunch of clarifications on there. I did request maintenance for sure and fixing the ditches and looking at something else rather than just ignoring everything. So when that kind of information gets put out there, I hope that those kinds of corrections can be made. And I'm glad to sit down with somebody to go over those. [01:12:52] But Fox Mountain Road, Browns Gap Turnpike, Wesley Chapel were all maintenance requests, not paving requests. So saying that they're waiting for a resident petition just got everybody totally torqued up. And with that, it's hard to deal with. [01:13:08] Or not enough traffic or whatever. So I guess I'm confused about what does a retained road mean in the chart? it says retained unpaved roads that's where i sort of went down the rabbit hole and i don't know what that means so the retained unpaved roads is meant to be roads that do not want to be paved by residents so what we used to call do not pave list do not pave list essentially okay do not pave list um the the europe it would still the roads on the do not pave list would still be eligible for europe projects right because there's not paving going on right right and that's that's been what [01:13:45] we've been seeking for many many years which is great um are you able i guess i can look them up i didn't have time to look them up ahead of time to have a dot map at some point in the future so we know where without having to go through gis which doesn't work at my house um where all these roads are i didn't realize that there was any part of batesville road that was still gravel so i'm confused about where that section is first of all uh to try to do my homework um but i will We'll try to find a map here and look at while other people are talking. [01:14:18] But the whole process, I'm glad that it's moving forward. I think it'll be very, very helpful. What you described are permanent improvements. So fixing the ditches. Wesley Chapel has places where the ditches are now five feet wide and the road surface is eight feet wide. [01:14:34] And the school bus can't hardly get across, even in one direction. So those are the kinds of things that are permanent improvements that hopefully will be sound enough so that the next guy, the next amateur road grader who goes through there doesn't just put all the gravel back in the ditches again, which is what's causing some of the problem. [01:14:51] And so I really look forward to all of that detail, and I hope that you will report back along the way rather than when it's all done so that we can provide more impact, more input in the future. [01:15:08] Thank you. Supervisor Lepisto currently? uh yes thank you very much for the presentation a couple questions uh one of the roads that's supposed to be under rustic rural that you're addressing is um gilbert station road is it a small stretch or is it the whole thing i'm asking for a reason it's it's the small stretch i believe off the top of my head it's between uh there's a subdivision on the i guess eastern side and it goes down a hill and it curves and ends at the bridge at i believe it's the creek that it crosses [01:15:43] right there okay does it also involve four zero there's a homeowner 4073 gilbert station road he is the only homeowner on a stretch of road so i'm not sure if the chart gives us that information he's is a stretch of gilbert station road that's unpaved small stretch maybe i don't quarter of a mile, half a mile. And he's the only one that lives there. And we went to get, the neighbors went to get his permission and unfortunately he had just passed away. So it's, everything's going through probate and everything. But I'm wondering if that is the section of road [01:16:23] that would cover 4073 Gilbert Station Road. If you could maybe find out and let me know. I want to confirm. Yes. Off the top of my head. I don't remember off the top of my head, but I can confirm. Okay. Thank you. That I would really appreciate. Okay. The other thing is Hammock's Gap Road. I saw that you had something in there. Does that go for paving? Does that go all the way up to where the school bus turns around? Because I understand now the school bus to pick up children has to actually back into a driveway because of the condition of the road and everything. Will that cover that area? So Hammock's Gap Road was paved as a rural rustic [01:17:02] I believe, in fiscal year 23. Right, right, a few years ago. It was paved up to just past the bridge at the driveway. Hammocks Gap, in this case, was referred to as a potential Europe project since rural rustic paving is unable to continue on the road because it's too narrow and there's too much ditches and vegetation on the side to allow for the width that's needed. [01:17:25] But there can be some improvements that can be done to spot improvements in places to make the road better. so for hammocks gap there wouldn't be any more paving it would be looking more to see what improvements can be done and i don't have any specifics right now this is something we work with vdot in the future on this process to uh maybe do a bus turnaround or something like that so we have a more usable road out there okay if you could keep me informed of that that i would greatly appreciate thank you no other questions supervisor missal for the awkward delay hopefully [01:18:03] I'm timing this right, and you can all hear me? Yes, sir. First of all, really pleased and fully support the Unpaved Road Improvement Program. I think that's really critical and necessary, so thank you for that. I'm curious, as the DEQ and the Corps and others modify stormwater requirements and plans, how does VDOT sequence improvements to stormwater on rural roads, for example? [01:18:33] Carrie, do you want to answer that? I am bringing up Carrie Shepard to answer that question. Thank you. So traditional rural rustic roads, based on the guidance and criteria that we have to follow, is exempt from stormwater management. [01:18:53] As far as these improvements to gravel roads, I guess we'll have to look at the specific improvement, but we're not going to be adding impervious surface. So stormwater management should not come into play. We're looking at, you know, larger drainage improvements, widening a curve or providing some additional widening. [01:19:12] So, you know, if it got to the point where we had to consider stormwater management, we would have to have that conversation. But I'm doubtful that that would be the case in a lot of situations. Thank you. I'm just aware of a few areas in the Samuel Villa District, at least. [01:19:28] I think they're in this district, I'm fairly certain, that have significant drainage issues that are caused because of the lack of stormwater management. And I just was curious to see how that all played in. I understand the exemption, but I'm not sure that's always the best choice. [01:19:45] And I appreciate your saying that there maybe are some alternatives to that or some things that could be looked at. The next question I have, the last question, is just a very specific question. And it has to do with a rural road near Yancey. [01:20:04] And I believe there were some complications and misunderstandings between property owners and VDOT. And the road is actually not in the VDOT system. So asking for a whole series of people who have signed a petition and put in front of myself and even Jim Andrews before me, what is the best way that they should move forward with bringing that in or having that reviewed and brought into the system? [01:20:31] And maybe, Kevin, I think you might have actually been part of this conversation, too. for Dawson Lane. Yes, thank you. Kevin McDermott, I'm Deputy Director of Planning, and we have looked into Dawson Lane. It is not currently in the VDOT system, and the county does not have any program to do the necessary improvements that would allow that to be brought into the system. [01:21:01] We've talked with Carrie and the state does not either. So it ends up being on the private property owners that get access from the road to be responsible for any of that, any improvements necessary to bring it to state standards, which would then allow the county to move forward with trying to get that acceptance. [01:21:28] So I'll just say that we would look for those private property owners to hire an engineer to evaluate the road to determine the work necessary for that, to bring that to state standards. And then we could work with them through our subdivision road plan process to then get it into the state system once that work is done. [01:21:53] All right. Thank you very much. That's all my questions. Supervisor Pruitt. I'm not sure I actually have any questions. Thank you. Supervisor Duncan. Hi. Yeah, I have a few. One, I am in favor of the road improvement project. [01:22:12] I'm not a super huge fan of the rural paving project in general. But what I agree with the public comment made of that we should create a recreational road program. But what I would really strenuously request and like to see is the traffic count, including runners, bikers, pedestrians, outdoor recreation, and not just traffic. [01:22:40] A map that goes with this would actually be helpful because, yeah, like the Gilbert Station Road, at first I was like, oh my gosh, you guys are paving the whole thing, but it's really like not even half a mile. But I was looking up the six that are scheduled and comparing them to a Strava heat map. [01:22:58] And so you can see where people are running and where people are using the rural dirt roads. And none of these are on them, so that's fine. But on the upcoming roads, there's a mile of Broad Axe Road that is heavily used by runners. [01:23:13] And you can see that in the Strava heat map. And so I think we should include that in our evaluation of what roads we're paving. allow you know obviously this is a huge running community the public comment actually said a lot of stuff I was going to say about high schoolers and the college students using the roads that we know people value the real roads and so even you know if we include the data that we have that's literally publicly accessible or allowing them input on hey these roads are coming up we might want to pave them do you guys use this because I think we should also take into account the public [01:23:50] good in the public good of having railroads and allowing people to run on them because if we just start paving them and only say oh here's two roads you guys can run on the traffic is already really bad when you have you know three high schools go to run the same road on a Saturday morning the traffic is bad the parking is bad it's not a fun running experience when there's a bunch of people running and so making sure that we are keeping enough unpaved roads that the running experience is good that there's room for everybody um and so including at least including the data on where people are using these roads for recreation and not just cars would be really helpful i [01:24:29] appreciate your suggestion um i'm gonna say this and then just fact check that i understand it this is the new process for getting something that has failed to meet the paving requirement all of your steps so the residential requirement i'm thinking of bleak house road so bleak house road i remember having this conversation it sounds like that if a community votes it down we're saying that that is one of the vdot requirements not met or is there am i confusing that standard with with a [01:25:04] county just process point uh that is the the the two-thirds vote is just the county process point that is not a vdot process that's unique to albemarle um if it if it receives a two-thirds vote in the new process if it receives a two-thirds vote and goes to vdot and vdot deems it ineligible for paving due to a variety of reasons then it'll be ineligible for paving just in general even if it has a hundred percent support just because it can't be done but it could be done or projects could be done with that road under europe which is the point of that so europe is not just for [01:25:39] roads that fail the vdot check it's for unpaved roads in general that want improvements done or i need improvements done my concern is the staff time necessary when a resident requests a road to be paved it triggers everything and i remember us having a discussion because it looks to me now when you follow through the steps which i don't have up in front of me it says that if a resident makes the request you go back to number two but i saw a point about how it's put on a do not pave for at least six years so for bleak house i'm gonna now fact check me i move in on [01:26:18] bleak house i want the road paved a year ago the community said no we put it on a do not pave list i come to the county and go i'm making a request for paving do you say to that person sorry that got voted down last year and you have to wait at least five more for this even to be reconsidered Is that how the process works? [01:26:39] So it would be requested, I guess, 2030 would be the first year to be eligible to go back. Okay, that's good because that's the way I understood it, and it just seemed like that's what was written. I just wanted to confirm that I was getting it right. My questions on the, and I'm thrilled about the Europe funds here, and I don't know if Kerry needs to come back up or not. [01:27:08] So the things that are being done to unpave roads still fall under the general maintenance because it says that there's a punctuation missing, which confused me. Relaying or smoothing gravel, ditch cleaning, maintenance duties will not be eligible under Europe funding because that falls under maintenance, and they're on a schedule and they go, or if there's major issues, there's a process for that. [01:27:29] When you were discussing the stormwater improvements, Are stormwater improvements here specific to doing like hard surfacing? Because to me, it seems like on a rural road, ditch cleaning is a stormwater measure or it could be an improvement. [01:27:46] If the water is just coming down and just going across the road, then fine. It needs to go to maintenance. But if there are some roads where the way the water is routing and the ditch is pushing it onto the road, making you need to ask for maintenance more frequently, It seems like that would be a good situation to go in and go, well, hold on, both through the erosion control measures and how the ditches are working as the stormwater system, quote, unquote. [01:28:17] So these could be details that get ironed out at some point, just so I understand it. But how are you, or has that even been thought about at this point? We have not sat down with VDOT and gone over our proposal yet in detail. [01:28:32] So we haven't ironed out those details about what stormwater, I guess, improvements would be. One thing I was imagining could be culvert replacement and Harry or Matt, if you want to speak up to that. I was just going to say, I mean, I think it depends on the road and the level of improvement that's needed. [01:28:53] If it's just pipe replacements, then we would see that as routine maintenance. But we do have situations where roads frequently flood. And we do a hydraulic analysis and the box culvert that they recommend to be sufficient for that is we have we have no way to fund that type of infrastructure. [01:29:11] So that could be an example where, you know, we could look at places to try to eliminate flooding if it's possible and try to, you know, just look at different drainage patterns to make larger improvements than we would normally through maintenance. OK. All right. I think I understand. Thank you. [01:29:28] Yeah, that was all my questions. Yep, another? Thank you. Your story about Dawson Lane or whoever Kevin mentioned is a real reminder about why we should be very, very careful about allowing private roads anywhere. [01:29:44] Because I know the one in my district, there are five houses on this place. There's no way five people can even pay the engineer, much less repair the road, which was put in in the 50s when there were no rules for anything. And they're now, you know, they're just stuck. So it's a real dilemma that I'm not sure we have the capability to solve right now, and I'm sorry about that. [01:30:06] The thing I did not respond well enough to was the recreational program, which I think is a wonderful idea, as we've all spent a lot of time on Ridge Road and other places. But something to add to your list as you're working on the criteria for that is how trailhead development parking area will be done, because I know it was a landowner who donated the land at Miller School Road and Dick Woods for that parking area there, so all the people running there have a place where they're not going to cause trouble, whereas we don't have that solution yet on Ridge, and so it's a real impediment to the survival of the people who live there when all the teams or the university club brings out 35 cars on a Saturday morning and totally blocks the road. [01:30:45] So those are the kind of sharing issues that we have not figured out how to do yet, but that will be very helpful. And another question which you'll probably figure out later, all right, when you do, I look forward to hearing more how the fund allocation will be happening. [01:31:02] Because what I've seen recently over the last, you know, it's evolved over 20 years, is that there are not enough roads that really want to be, where the people want them to be paved. And so we're now spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to pave things with very few cars on them. [01:31:17] And so I think that this new program gives us an opportunity to actually spend dollars in a much more meaningful way than to just say, well, we have this gravel road money, and for years we were told we couldn't do anything but pave it. Thanks to Senator Perry, we now have a choice. [01:31:33] So I look forward to this happening in the future. And the clarification Carrie just made about Clark Road, there was a really big pipe thing there, but if that was done under maintenance, that sort of gives me an idea that in places where a pipe fails and truckloads of gravel wash out into somebody's yard. [01:31:52] That's still a maintenance issue as opposed to, or could be, as opposed to doing something much more major. But this is very exciting. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right, Supervisor Lapista-Curley. Quick point of clarification, because I've seen on your presentation and then here for Gilbert Station Road, is that under the EURIP, or is that under, will that be paved? [01:32:17] That's a real rustic. The Porsche to Gilbert station on the presentation and to be paved between the bridge and the subdivision is real rustic. Okay, thank you. All right. Thank you very much. Those are still other. Fred, did you? [01:32:33] Oh, hand raised. Supervisor Missal? Yes, thank you. Just a couple things real quickly. Ned, I appreciated your comments and reiteration about the stormwater. That's exactly where I was thinking. You know, those situations where the stormwater is such that it actually causes washout and is a safety hazard. [01:32:51] And then Supervisor Malek, too, I think just reiterating that point, the folks along the road that I referenced, Dawson Creek, would be, I don't want to speak for them, but likely it would be a challenge to go through the process that's necessary to be able to create a safe access to their homes. [01:33:10] And many of them are aging, and it's really challenging for them to even get their mail on a daily basis because they have to walk down to the end of the road where the mailboxes are. So, you know, not an idea for us to talk about today, but I'm wondering if there are available funds at the county at some point that we might consider to help people who are on private roads in situations where there are challenges and they're unable to pay for the engineering, et cetera, et cetera, and upgrades. [01:33:40] but that they might have a source of funds that might enable them to retain a safe access. Thank you. All right. Any additional questions? All right. Thank you very much. Thank you, board. All right, board, we are at our recess time, a little ahead of schedule. [01:34:00] So if we would go ahead and we'll take that break, we can get a little extra time for our budget. So we will take 15 minutes and be back at 50, 250. All right, board, we'll move to item number 11 on our agenda. [01:34:24] Continuing Work of the Fiscal Year 27 Operating and Capital Budget. Mr. Bowman, you're going to lead us through this section, I believe, yes? Yes, I will. Thank you for the introduction. Andy Bowman, Assistant Chief Financial Officer. Today is work session number five on the fiscal year 27. [01:34:43] It says recommended, but it is now the Board's proposed budget. And as I start these meetings, just to recap where we have been. To date, the Board has held a public hearing and four work sessions on the Board. At the fourth work session, the Board of Supervisors proposed a tax rate and a budget for public feedback. [01:35:05] We are in the middle of that feedback. There have been five town halls completed. The sixth one is tomorrow night at Albemarle High School. And then we'll be back with the Board on April 15th for the public hearing on the Board's proposed budget And the board's proposed tax rates, all of those hearings will be on that night, the 15th. [01:35:25] Also, if the board would like to continue discussion anything in the budget, that would be an opportunity on the 15th as well. Today is not the final or even really the second to final discussion because the board has another opportunity to discuss the budget on April 22nd when it is scheduled for adoption. So for today, there is no specific direction or action requested of the board. [01:35:45] If the board would like to provide any direction to staff, that can be incorporated into the materials that will come forward on April 22nd. But this is really just continuing some discussion that the board has had at prior work sessions. So today's agenda and kind of these parking lot topics that are out there. [01:36:03] Last time at the work session, there were about eight or so parking lot topics that the board worked through, some of which the board provided direction, and they were included in the board's proposed budget. I have not included on this slide some of the items just around tax rates, housing, and schools. [01:36:19] Those are larger items that the board is in the middle of getting public feedback on, though the board can certainly discuss those if they would like to. What we have on the slide are some smaller items that the board has discussed but did not give any affirmative direction one way or another. So there's currently items in the budget, but this is another opportunity if the board would like to direct staff for changes. [01:36:42] So first in the general fund, as we discussed last time, the Albemarle County Emergency Relief Program that's administered by the Department of Social Services, known as ACERP for short. This included $360,000 in the budget. The board expressed a desire to potentially amend that, and that's still on the table if the board would like to consider. [01:37:01] Over the last few work sessions, the board has discussed changes to particular human services and arts and cultural process agencies, and that option is available to the board if they would like to pursue it. Looking at the capital fund, the item requested for additional discussion is the Dogwood Vietnam Memorial Foundation. [01:37:19] Staff did have a follow-up to get some clarity with the city on where their approach is. The update, just to clarify, is the city has $100,000 of cash that would be provided to the foundation. They also have an in-kind contribution for the land at the interchange where the pedestrian bridge and ramp would be put into place. [01:37:38] At this time, there is no additional funding beyond that $100,000 in in-kind that is planned to be provided in the city's fiscal year 27 proposed budget. So other topics are really just for the Board of Supervisors to consider as they would bring them. I'll say this is actually my second to last slide. [01:37:55] This will be the shortest presentation I have today. I would just do a reminder to the Board as they would like to consider any changes. This is a slide on really those adjustments that could make to accommodate any items on the previous slide or other items the board may want to raise. [01:38:12] So the reserve contingencies after the board's adjustment last time in fiscal year 27 is currently $663,000. Staff would recommend just keeping $350,000 at a minimum of that just based on historically what tends to come up. But that still provides about $313,000 above that recommended minimum if the board would like to do something. [01:38:31] The Board could also carry that full reserve into Fiscal Year 27, should they desire. On the one-time portion, there's a little over half a million dollars of one-time reserve contingencies that would be available for one-time expenses. And then in the CIP, there is $394,000 in the remaining balance in the CIP Advancing Strategic Priorities Reserve. [01:38:52] So we interviewed last time with the Board with some of the adjustments that were being considered to ACERP and the agencies. From a pure financial perspective, some of those could be funded. or many of those could be funded through these buckets on the slide. But whether the board would like to is really the decision that the board will need to consider between now and April 22nd. [01:39:12] So I can toggle back between these slides. I can pull up other slides from other work sessions if it helps. But really, this is a time for the board just to discuss any other changes to its parking lot or other items they would like to have for the board. And staff is available should the board have any questions. [01:39:29] I'll go just through a round and see if there are questions and or items for discussion, and we'll just see how this goes. Supervisor Mal? Are we going to go topic by topic, sort of in organized? We can do that. Is there anything? Maybe what I would suggest is, is there anybody that's going to introduce anything new to the parking lot or to what's on the screen that we should get that surfaced at least quick so that we know what all things we may have to discuss? I do not have anything new. All right let me just do a check on that then. Supervisor [01:40:06] Lepisto-Kirtley any new items? Supervisor Missal? Okay no new items. Supervisor Pruitt? Oh I'm a little surprised so it's not listed there and I know it's a very central part of the budget discussion so I'm going to raise that AHIF is not not listed in the parking lot. I think it's probably going to displace conversations of acerp also frankly because i i don't know about you i've not been receiving as i have in past years um constituent feedback on acerp and demands for [01:40:42] additional funding that's it's frankly it's a little suesponte it's me identifying this as a concern um and there's only so far i can carry something that i am the main person i'm hearing that from supervisor duncan yeah i would disagree adding a heft to the list all right got it all right well then why don't we go through the items where we're at because i know the board the last time when we were talking about the agencies the board it was kind of left with you can give this [01:41:17] some thought we still don't have to make any final decisions on them today but if there are ideas of how to address those, then we can certainly bring them up or hear new thoughts from supervisors. So do you have that list, Andy, that you want to just say? [01:41:36] I do have a more detailed slide that I can pull. It kind of puts all of these on one page. Slide three does pretty well. It will appear. Yeah, even, I'm sorry, you said slide three. [01:41:53] Slide three in the handout sort of gives us topics to go to if that's where we're supposed to, how we're supposed to organize things, trying not to be disorganized. So I can verbally speak through what they were. And so the Foothills Child Advocacy, there's four of them, I'll say. [01:42:11] Well, five, including the Dogwood Memorial. So the Foothills Child Advocacy Center, they had a request of $130,000. The proposal was an increased funding, but it does not fully fund the request. The proposed amount was just under $98,000. [01:42:28] There we go. And so there is a roughly $33,000 impact if the board wanted to fully fund that request or less if they wanted to go in between. The OAR restoration program, I'm sorry, offender aid restoration therapeutic docket. [01:42:44] I'm up here on the right-hand side of the slide if it helps. There's an impact of a little over $70,000. The board can permit me in some approximated numbers there, which you can see from the proposal to the request. In the arts and cultural process, the Charlottesville Ballet and the band were identified. [01:43:01] The discussion the board had last time, but again, just discussion, no vote was taken to their proposed funding back to the 26th adopted level. That would be $2,500 for the ballet and $3,000 extra for the band. And then you can see the Dogwood Vietnam Memorial, where there is a request of $600, proposed $250. [01:43:20] The city has the $100,000 cash, the in-kind contribution, and nothing sooner. And so if it helps the board just to kind of do some math, if someone wanted to do or the board wanted to do all of those, we'll put ACERP to the side for a second, that reserve contingencies would drop down to about $550,000, and that CIP Advancing Strategic Priority Reserve would have roughly $50,000. [01:43:44] So the financial ability is there for the board. It would just be for the board from a policy decision which items they would like to move forward on or not. So I'll just go through our order, see if there's any response here or new updates from supervisors. [01:44:04] Supervisor Malik? Thank you. Or questions, yeah. For ACERP, we would decide adding more to it would be a later decision depending on how things shake out. Is that – because, I mean, that has been something that I think is really valuable and goes straight to the people as opposed to plans or something. [01:44:22] That's something we've said in previous discussions of this. I'm sorry, Chair. I don't have a suggestion right now, but that's something that I think is incredibly beneficial if we can come back around to that later. Certainly for the foothills and the OAR, if we can do that, I think that would be incredibly impactful for the individuals involved and the sort of wider community benefits for both of those, for foothills and for OAR. [01:44:51] I did do quite a bit of work trying to understand both the chart that was sent out in the question number five and the responses to questions number five and was trying to understand how to make sense of all of the recommendations that were in there because impact on county residents, in addition to whatever the broader community sense is, Impact to county residents did not seem to be at all correlated to the amount of money that's given to agencies. [01:45:26] And I was trying to make sense of this, and I should have forwarded this to other people, and I will do it now. But like Live Arts, their own numbers, 809 county residents, and they're being recommended $12,500. Whereas an agency that says 6,200 county residents is being given $5,000. [01:45:48] Ixark Park in the city has 2,000 residents and is still being recommended to get a whole lot of money. So the Discovery Museum, they say they have 13,000 residents, but I don't know what the source of those numbers is. [01:46:07] There's never been anybody there checking whenever I've taken little people there. So I just want to understand why the amounts are such as they are, and that's sort of a process discussion under the third bullet here on our agenda for today that I'm trying to get some understanding about. I think that putting the valet and the band back to where they were in [01:46:40] 26 would be a sort of reasonable first step because of the impact that they do have. And are we talking about this now or later? You can. Okay. I'm shocked that the new information you gave today about the dogwood, we were told for months that the city SCIP had $250,000 in it for this project. And I'm feeling pretty shot down that this is now, they've pulled the rug out from under that. So I will just add that the benefits go way beyond the old soldiers who are visiting [01:47:18] the memorial because the connection to the shared use path that goes all the way to Rio Point and into the city and connecting the users of the county shared use path along the parkway, the Warner Parkway, into all the facilities at the McIntyre, and then also being able to connect over to the Y over a proper surface and getting safely across the parkway are really good reasons why I think that the investment in the capital in the bridge is incredibly important. [01:47:54] I won't bore everybody with the ancient history on the causes for all of this because the old plans would have, we wouldn't have had to be doing this. But I'll just leave that out there. I'm very much in support of finding extra money, and I thought Mr. Richardson was going to perhaps be able to shake out some couch cushions over at the city side after the last meeting, but you can respond on that if you choose. [01:48:22] And that's all. I'll see what the rest of the folks want to do on that. All right. And as we build here, we're going through the order. You can both react to others, ask questions if you need to, and then have your own item. Supervisor Lapisto-Curdo. [01:48:39] Thank you. Just to go through screen eight right here, the ACERP, I don't have a problem increasing that because I think it does affect a lot of people. [01:48:57] Same thing with the Foothills Child Advocacy Center. That one, I wouldn't mind increasing some. When I say some, I don't mean the entire amount. Perhaps, I don't know, we're negotiating all that, I guess. [01:49:14] The arts and cultural process, Charlottesville Ballet and Band, I would be in favor of going to the FY26, which was proposed, what was done there. The Dogwood Vietnam Memorial, I'm in favor of increasing a sum. [01:49:32] I'm surprised that the city's only doing $100,000. I know that they're doing a land. They said, well, they're giving the land. The land's been given. So that's how I feel about that. But I have another question regarding slide four. [01:49:51] I'm not sure I understand everything. This is potential funding. So what you're saying is ongoing one-time CIP adjustments. These are all amounts of money that we could actually, A, use, or B, use some of it, or C, save. [01:50:11] Is that correct? Yes. These could be used to fund the items that we're talking about, or it could be saved. Okay. So I'm in favor of doing a little, some. I'm not in favor of using all this up. [01:50:31] I think I mentioned before I'm on the saver side. I know not everyone agrees with that, but I'm on the saver side only because I'm really concerned about the next couple of years. I think we're headed for some problems. Maybe locally we'll be fine, but I'm just very concerned. [01:50:51] And I would rather have it and then, as time goes along, maybe allocate some of it, additional monies. That I would be in favor for. Is that something that we could do? Could we kind of like hold on to, let's say, some of it in each category? [01:51:11] And then let's say we realize we really need a fund, really need additional dollars for the disabled and elderly regarding tax relief and such, being able to pull from that and use that at that time should we need it. [01:51:28] Yes, any items that are not, whatever balance is in the reserve contingencies would then become a budget management tool as things come up. Should there be a higher percentage of people who qualify for tax relief or, you know, pick really anything unexpected that could happen. [01:51:46] There's always a few hundred thousand every year that something will happen. But it just becomes a budget management tool for the board that staff would work with during the year as those things come up. Okay, so it's kind of like a safety valve that we've always used and always had. and that way we can help as we know what's coming up, which we don't know at this point, correct? [01:52:09] Yeah, it would be a tool in the toolbox to help that. Okay, thank you. Supervisor Missal. By saying, okay, should I start again? [01:52:26] Yes. Sorry, timing again. Yeah. A few comments. I just want to begin by saying, by my not mentioning AHIF, it was not my intent to not have that on the list. I had assumed that was already being captured as we discuss the possibility of allocating personal property tax or some other funding mechanism. [01:52:44] So I just reinforced that from the supervisors that mentioned it. The second thing I wanted to mention is, you know, as we look at these categories, I'm also in support of increasing the funding to each one of them. I think the challenge I have is that feels somewhat arbitrary, and maybe that is the role that we have to play. [01:53:04] But for example, I think, you know, as we think about Albemarle Corps Emergency Relief Program, obviously a really meaningful program that needs to be supported. And I believe, could you remind me, Mr. Bowman, what do we have in the budget already planned for that program? [01:53:26] $360,000 is what's proposed in fiscal year 27. Oh, sorry. I see that now. Yes. Okay. Got it. Got it. Thank you. And then Foothills, the same. I mean, all of these are very valid. You know, I would say that I think someone mentioned returning the Charlottesville Ballet number to their fiscal 26 adopted number. I think there was a reasonable purpose for it increasing by such a large margin. And I think there was some justification for that being reflected as serving Albemarle County residents. I don't remember exactly what it was. I think it may have had to do with some operating expenses not previously being included. [01:54:05] Seville Band, yes. And the Dogwood Vietnam Memorial, I think we're allocating 250 now. You know, again, and I appreciated Supervisor Malek's comments about the broader impacts that that has on the community. And so I would also advocate for the increase there. [01:54:27] I think, you know, as I look at, was that slide four, or in this case, the potential sources, I may be misremembering, but I thought the recommended minimum was $250,000, not $350,000 at the last meeting. Am I remembering that incorrectly? [01:54:44] Just to clarify, $250,000 is really the minimum of what we've seen, but it's ranged some years a little bit higher. Some years it's been a little bit lower. So staff had a conversation before this meeting to give the board something to respond to and suggest a $350,000 minimum, but the board has got the full flexibility if they'd like to spend that down to $250,000. [01:55:03] That is within the board's discretion. That's good to know. Thank you. And so that leaves with, I guess, about $1.2 million, $1.217 million that we're talking about here. The other comment that I had heard was, is there a way to sort of kick the can down the road a little bit and think about offering funding at a future date? [01:55:24] I would be hesitant to do that, just having been involved with several nonprofits. it's, you know, over my time, I mean, they need to know where this funding is coming from and what that amount is to plan for, you know, you name it, personnel or strategic planning or what they're able to accomplish over the years. So I don't think we really want to push it out. I think we should make a decision and make it now if it's, you know, during this budget season, if at all possible. And then the last thing that I would mention is I know we've got sort of back and forth and we've seen so much input on so many levels from people in favor of increasing personal [01:56:01] property tax to cover affordable housing or not in favor of it like we heard today and have seen in emails. I would just want us to remain open to utilizing some of these funds if there is not consensus that we should be looking at a personal property tax increase. So that I have in the back of my mind as well. And maybe that's the reason we want to make sure this gets on the list. [01:56:21] Thank you. All right. Supervisor Pruitt? Thanks. So I want to just state first that I think we should be trying very explicitly to reach decision points. [01:56:38] Decision points have numbers and finite statements. So I'm going to try and consistently say things that I think tend toward decision points. I also just want to remind my peers on the board as we're talking about funds and save versus spend. Setting aside my own stated, you know, preference for being a spend versus save person, I would remind the board that we have a 10% operational reserve. We have a 2% budget stabilization reserve, and that is before we even talk about any of the funds that we're discussing right now, right? These are not the saving for a rainy day. These [01:57:17] are not the hurricane funds. These are spare monies. They are there to be spent. And so setting aside the amount that our budget office has already said, this is the minimum that we should keep in here for basically rounding errors or unexpected expenses. I'm thinking things like when we have code enforcement due remediation, right, that has to come from somewhere. Excluding that amount that has been set aside, I think our goal as elected officials should be identifying where every one of those dollars is going to go in this budget cycle as best as we can. So I see [01:57:55] that is roughly, you know, around 1.1, 1.2 million that we're playing with. And if staff wants to disagree with me on that or change that characterization, help me out. But that's 315 in ongoing from the Reserve for Contingencies that we have about to play with. About half a million in one time from the Reserve for Contingencies and about 400 in the advancing strategic priorities. Am I roughly correct here? Yep. Great. That's what we're talking [01:58:29] about and playing with, and that's hemmed in the universe we've created with our proposed advertised tax rate. I've previously said that I see myself as already having made the strategic decision regarding agency funding. We did that when we adopted policies that have directed human services on how they would rank and prioritize these concerns. [01:59:00] And so I can agree with Supervisor Lapisto Kirtler on everything she said. I can say, oh, I would like to fund that more, I would like to fund that more, and that's all true. I am not going to vote to fund those things more. I think the only ones I could even countenance are the ones that are basically rounding errors in our budget. [01:59:18] I'm not going to sweat about 3,000 to the Charlottesville band. But I appreciate the point that Supervisor Missal has made in the past on a philosophical point that our role is to be advocates and political actors, and it does make sense that we can be influenced by things that are non-quantitative. [01:59:44] But I also think it's helpful to have a line that we draw. This is the line I'm drawing on this as far as decision-making, and I think that's helpful for how we're structuring our budget. And I say that knowing how many personal people I know in my life from Foothills are messaging me right now. [02:00:00] I got an email while I've been sitting here from a constituent from Foothills. Anyway, my stated goal has been $10 million to AHIF. I know we have a lot of members of the public whose stated goal is $10 million to AHIF. By my estimation, we have, what, $2.5 million? [02:00:20] gap to make up if we have the entire proposed personal property tax rate. That closes about halfway if the entire unallocated amount of funding that we're discussing today moves toward AHIF. That would get us to what? 8.6 thereabouts, of which a decent chunk is ongoing. Talking about the Reserve for Contingencies, the about 315 that would be ongoing. [02:00:52] I think that would be a prudent use of this because it is responsive to one of the most consistent community demands we hear. I would further raise, I've suggested this before, the amount that is in the Economic Development Fund, I think there is a demonstrated need for our Economic Development Fund. [02:01:13] We are using it. There is an obvious economic development activity that we want to support. And I also think we have a lot of tools with which we can be quite agile on economic development that extend beyond individual grant disbursements. A lot of our economic development activity, most of, I think it's fair to say, of our economic development activity does not take the form of grant disbursements. [02:01:35] It's done in the form of tax payments and TIFs. And if push comes to shove and there is some existential, oh, we will lose this county-shaping project because we don't have an extra $1 million in the economic development program, I also trust this county's ability to be clever and agile in how we meet that demand on short notice, even if that money was not available in the economic development fund. [02:02:01] So I believe there is a proposal to fill an additional $4 million in the economic development fund. I would suggest that be $3,000 and an additional $1 million be dedicated to AHIF in this calendar year, which gets us, I think, what, $200,000, $300,000 away from the target of $10 million, which I think is close enough to take credit. [02:02:27] All right. Any other items? No. I mean, again, ACERP is my baby. I would like to see it more robustly funded. I think that is a good place, and I made this point before, right? The AHIF uses a competitive funding model where additional funds during the year, especially smaller dollar funds, don't do anything. [02:02:50] They just go into the pool for next year. Whereas new funding infusions, smaller dollar funding infusions throughout the calendar year for ACERP have an immediate identifiable need where they can immediately be useful. If there are, I'm blanking on the word, but basically savings identified over the course of the year. [02:03:11] budget recalculations. I think it is a thoughtful and helpful place for those funds to live rather than going into another contingency for us to utilize and reallocate at the end of the year. You know, rather than have it sit in a fund for us to argue about every May, I would rather go into a fund where it's immediately utilized for the public good. All right, I tracked some of that. Did staff track some of that as well? Just making sure because we're going to get, It's going to get complicated, I think, as we go. [02:03:46] Supervisor Duncan. Yeah, I have met with a couple of agencies to try and understand sort of the agency funding process, what it's like from their end, why it feels like they have to lobby us now for this. And that has been really helpful when we come back to it this summer. [02:04:05] I do have a lot of questions and thoughts about kind of how the process works. But in general, I still am not in favor of adjusting the money amounts. And sort of for clear decision-making, I would be in favor of putting, you know, a million of this into AHIF and the other two, $300,000 into ACERP. [02:04:28] So when you say a million of this, basically akin to what Supervisor Pruitt suggested? Right, I had one point, too, in my addings, too. Okay, so you two are, I mean, is it fair to say you're on the same page? Yeah. Any other questions or items? [02:04:44] Nope. um who we got next me i'm next oh fred did we do we did fred didn't we do fred yeah yeah we did okay yeah um i have a couple of questions at my town hall uh jacob and andy you were both there and i fielded a question about fuel given the current world situation and we have both diesel and gas vehicles in addition to others i answered that question [02:05:21] about that we and and i want to clarify if i got it right i mentioned a fuel reserve which i might be misremembering from my school board days but then also said that's precisely what a budget stabilization reserve is there for so if you could just correct my own understanding because i don't want to be misremembering fuel reserve that's not existent yeah once upon a time there was a fuel reserve but really when the board created the budget stabilization reserve for the first time around 2017 or so i think a lot of that intent was not having smaller reserves but having a larger [02:06:01] central reserve that's a little more flexible great and so the the essence of the strategy is the same but the terminology of a fuel reserve would be a little dated if that helps clarify you know i don't necessarily see us arriving at final decisions on some of these but kind of it's starting to coalesce to where people are. But I think I want to understand more about what that potential risk could be if there's a way to theorize it. We're already at, what, $5.50, $5.00, something like that for diesel per gallon. We're at $4.00 for gasoline. I don't know if we [02:06:40] have different rates based on how we do things, if there's like a wholesale rate or something. I don't remember a lot of these. I mean, this goes back to my days of thinking of school buses and how that really can impact us. 14,000 miles a day is what you owe me. And, I mean, I have to think of that too. [02:06:56] I mean, I don't know if the school board keeps a fuel reserve. I feel like we did at one point, but then when the policy changed, it may have been the same philosophy that you keep bigger reserves for these type of things. But anyway, the idea of if this goes, if gasoline went to a $5 to a $6, how that hits us. [02:07:16] same with diesel and what the the amounts are because i don't have an i don't have a sense of scale i know it impacts us but i but when i think of a one percent uh we're using half a percent of the budget stabilization we're using half a percent next year so really we only are carrying the one percent budget stabilization right now and i want to think of that number related to this very specific world event that's happening that i don't that i think can be i mean i i don't think we'll be guessing in october but boy things could change big time just in every single day with this [02:07:54] stuff so um i don't i don't know if you have a response to that now but it may be i'm i would think that's a bring back or a send out to us by email we could provide more detail i think if it just generally helps for perspective the county's fuel budget projected for fiscal year 27 now is about 1.1 to 1.2 million and we can get that exact amount when we share that. The overwhelming majority of that is in the police department and fire rescue because they are the ones who are providing services. Certainly parks use fuel, the sheriff uses fuel, our community development inspectors use fuel, but certainly not on the scale of public safety. And so that's one where [02:08:32] just thinking that is within the county, but there also be vulnerabilities where just our transit providers how they would be impacted and other services who have fuels in nature so we can provide some details but that is just like everything in our budget management that's one of the factors we'll need to watch closely in the coming months i i don't necessarily think this changes my mind about because i'm guessing this will fit that under some of the more risky things if they came to pass could exist in the one percent but i feel like we need to [02:09:03] understand that or at least i do and then i want to you know think about how like we're already considering the half a percent for next year that may have to we have may have to be ready to be flexible depending on i mean if some other thing pops up in addition to what we know now which is not out of likelihood i just want to have my head wrapped around it um the the some comments on the agency review because I've been giving some thought about this. The only one that is swaying me right now is Supervisor Pruitt's been calling it a rounding piece. And I'm still persuaded by [02:09:43] the gentleman that came and talked who's not even affiliated with the Seville Band, but gave an actual reason over and beyond the application that I think justifies the $3,000. Otherwise, I'm at the point where I'm arriving to say that I'm holding steady on these agency pieces because I feel like those dollars joining with Supervisor Pruitt and Duncan could be better served in our housing fund than through those agencies. [02:10:10] That's probably not going to be a popular statement with some, but that's my priority, that I think the dollars need to get into the housing piece, and that's where I'm at on it. And I think, though, that enough questions have come up of different kinds. [02:10:31] So I think of the Foothills question is an operational and organizational piece that I have some questions about. Some of the one-year, two-year and the changes we've made, I think, need to be revisited now that we've gone around. [02:10:48] And then some of the population, who they serve, both in the arts and in the agency. There have been enough questions that have come up that I drop into the process bucket that I feel like the board needs to contend with. but i'm not i'm not willing to go in and start selectively picking i i i appreciate and understand supervisor missal's point because i think he he made it very clearly but i'm i don't um i don't join in that for this i don't join in that period um i would rather make sure the process is there [02:11:25] uh and that i can have uh confidence in the process um but with all the questions that have come up that's i need my confidence restored a little bit and how this is how this is playing out when do the agencies find out what is it at the county executives recommended that day is that when they find out what they're getting recommended that day we'll send them an email with the recommendation the budget the process kind of how to get involved if anyone changes at the proposed budget we would communicate that to them obviously it's not final but hey there's been a [02:11:59] change and then they would be notified after the budget is appropriated we would then be working with them for the distribution of funds so i'm sorry i didn't understand did so if i'm the seville band do i find out the day the county executive makes his recommendation what the proposed is that's that's the release date for the first and i was just i never asked that question before i didn't know if they got a heads up or something that this is what to expect the intent is for the board of supervisors to know first and then for everyone else to follow so got it well um you know the thing that i'm really i'm not struggling with this but i want but i'm hyper i'm being [02:12:36] attentive or paying attention to is if monies move from wherever to a hip are they one-time dollars or are they ongoing dollars and i will state right now that i think it's more important to get ongoing dollars into that fund than one-time dollars, where I feel like even getting a lesser amount that's ongoing into the account in some ways is more beneficial than a higher amount from a one-time source because it's ongoing. Hence my reason for some of my votes so [02:13:15] far in considering moving the tax rate to help do this because it commits it to the ongoing dollar amounts. But, I mean, I don't disagree with using the one-time monies for that purpose either. I still have some sense that we should leave $250 or $350 in this, but part of me is wanting to understand that fuel reserve more for that particular question. Because the other types of things that have come from that fund over the years, you bring back to this board for [02:13:52] consideration um there's nothing i'm not thinking of examples where it doesn't doesn't need our say so the only exception would be if there was something very small and administrative and that's in those exceptions i don't think there's many of them we would use county executive authority and report to the board but we would use that extremely carefully because that's not for policy decisions that would be some i don't know if we if we had a transcription error of two numbers flipped in the budget and someone was all 41 perhaps we would adjust that administratively I'm making that up as an example. [02:14:23] The team may have a better example. It's really intended to be the board's reserve for policy uses more than an administrative tool. Got it. Do we know, is the dogwood piece from the city, the idea that they think between the $100,000 and the land donation that that equals $250,000? [02:14:52] Is that their rationale? That's not a critique. It's just I want to make sure. Yes, sir. That's correct. so that's why the 250 had showed up yes sir that's that's exactly the case um the uh where are they at and do we know where dog that group is with relative to um if if they get the just for [02:15:29] ease of conversation the 250 from the city and the 250 from us what that means uh to their efforts to do everything they need to do for the project do we have that like in past when we've dealt with some of these they'll come forward and perhaps have private donors that are willing to match if the city and the county step up and commit to it etc etc it's always been on a bigger scale i'm thinking boys and girls club i'm thinking the why i'm thinking the center but do we know any of that kind of info what may help is now that the county and city budgets are out is we [02:16:07] could do a follow-up with that agency on that particular question that if the county and city budgets were adopted as currently proposed what would be their next steps would that be responsive to what you're looking for yeah i think so because sometimes these projects if they're not you know there's a request especially for a capital project if there's a request even if you meet the request of it if it can't happen for another an out year that could change your decision and when the dollars are needed and the commitment sometimes can be all that's needed [02:16:40] to help so that's kind of what i'm asking the question for if they only get what is currently proposed what does that mean to the life of the project versus if they got an extra like if they got an extra 50 grand from each place does that really move the needle on the game plan is what i'm i guess what i'm getting at because if it's you know if it's a million dollars more or five hundred thousand and i'm sorry that i don't know the scope of the project off the top the the total request all sources was 2.4 million dollars and so but we can take that as a follow-up with them [02:17:14] um because that that doesn't necessarily change the dollars but if it could change when the dollars go out the door which i think could change some of the things that i'm thinking about the only other piece i would add the proposal about perhaps taking the million from economic DEVELOPMENT AND SOME OF THIS MONIES TO GO TO THE AHIF, I'M OPEN TO THAT AS A SOLUTION AND A WAY TO MOVE FORWARD WITH JUST WHERE I'M AT PERSONALLY. [02:17:51] PART OF THE REASON I'M VERY OPEN TO THAT IS I'M NOT SURE, LIKE I JUST DON'T KNOW AS A SUPERVISOR WHERE THIS BOARD LANDS ON OUR PROPOSED TAX INCREASE. SO IF THE TAX INCREASE DOESN'T GO THROUGH, IT JUST SO HAPPENS THAT THE WAY THAT SUPERVISOR Pruitt has bathed this to almost 10 that if for some reason the personal property tax does not pass that knocks us back to five but the new proposal today gets us back to the set is the backup to get us back to seven and a half and that's compelling to me to move from the buckets that you uh you've [02:18:28] suggested i mean it wouldn't be exact but it's close starting close um so i'm willing i'm willing for public consumption to say that I'm very open-minded to that as a way to move forward on that particular item. And then, I mean, it's not up for discussion today, but we do know that we received a letter from the school board chair relative to suggested CIP projects. And I'm not [02:19:05] going to make commentary necessarily on that other than to say that I sat through the school board meeting this past thursday the school board didn't take any votes on the uh so let me start over basically staff made some recommendations much like our staff do here for consideration they did so both on the cip and to start deciding that if the operational dollars aren't sent over what happens on their side they've not made any of those decisions yet as a board but they have started to have some discussion about it the request that came over in the letter was basically [02:19:40] STAFF'S IDEA OR REQUEST OF THE CIP. I THINK THAT AT THE NEXT SCHOOL BOARD MEETING THAT THOSE, BOTH THE RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THAT AND OPERATING WILL GET A FULLER, MORE IN-DEPTH DISCUSSION, PERHAPS EVEN IN OTHER WAYS BY THE SCHOOL DIVISION. BUT AT THIS POINT IN TIME, IN TERMS OF THE SPECIFICS OF HOW THEY ARE SUGGESTING USING THE CIP DOLLARS, IT DOESN'T change my rationale for the bigger purpose of what we have suggested, which I endorsed the past [02:20:14] meeting, which is the risk of how we're trying to be risk adverse to what happens in year three when we think about budgets and how we can start pulling together some cash to really get out a different strategy to get CIP requests done. If they move the high school to an out year, They move the preschool center to an out year. [02:20:41] They pull forward renovations. But, for example, 6.4 of the Albemarle renovations, their total project is like 17.5. So the value engineering, they have not got into those levels of details yet. [02:20:57] I think they just want to know in some ways what we think about it because if they do all that discussion about how to value engineers 6.4 and there's no support for it well then they've could have been discussing other things um and it's just the muckiness of how this process works sometimes so i'm i'm just saying as this current supervisor based on what i've been hearing and giving more thought from the moment that the county executive recommended the budget that i'm only getting more and more convinced that the plan to do the uh the the reserving of it for cip in year one and two be ready for any potential [02:21:36] volatility in year three, and then go full in on the work that I know we're doing for data changes to inform these projects, that I'm almost at the point where I'm ready to say that we shouldn't be doing any CIP projects on either side of the house until we get that information in hand and start informing things better. And that includes county projects. I don't know what that means to us like if i said yeah we're not doing this new school cip project and we're not [02:22:10] doing a local county cip project if it's funded great but if it's not we were on hold until we figure out this information in this data collection um so i'm trotting this out as a new idea and staff has not had a chance to react to that and i'm not expecting one today um but i suspect that as an idea that I myself want to understand what that would mean to us if that were the case. [02:22:38] But those are my thoughts on some of these items, just food for thought. And I guess I'll go back around to see based, you know, you could, oh, I see Fred has, Fred, I'll just go back through the order and we'll just keep having a discussion. If you all want to start having some back and forth with one another, we're not going to be that strict in the order here because this is one of the few times where that type of discussion is helpful to one another to make the decision. [02:23:03] But I will start with Supervisor Malik and then give each person a chance to surface things. Thank you. And I will start with where you just ended, which is until the 1% referenda of sales tax passes, that's another supporter for holding off on anything designated because in case it can't be used for supplanting or paying for already approved projects, we have to wait. [02:23:30] I think in order to be able to qualify, let me go back up to my list here. So my opinion about the whole policy changes, often when policy changes such as for the arts and culture or the social services things, it's a very broad brush. And I think the questions that were asked a couple of board meetings ago showed that there were a whole lot of things that we didn't get because we didn't know when we started. So I'm not personally going to rely on the broad brush approach as being the end of the road. It's just where we are right now. And I think it's [02:24:07] really important that we get a much better process and that we are actually seeing that the dollars are going where the dollars were intended to go and being delivered on time and on budget. So I'm not willing to draw a line and say, I don't want to have anything more to say about this, because it is our job to make sure that the dollars are going in the most effective way, whatever they are. Regarding the, there was a statement that economic development fund is not in cash, but we do not qualify for government opportunity funds without cash. And that's the [02:24:44] 50-50 match for projects. So that is something that we need to keep in mind. I'm not saying anything about the 4 million versus 3 million or whatever, but I just, I don't have a really immediate memory of how that money has evolved over, you know, how it's gone in and how it's gone out over the last couple of years. So that would be interesting, perhaps, if that's easy for Emily to give us or somebody. The same thing goes for the AHIF process, is that there are many, many more questions than answers on that whole process that we talked about a couple of weeks [02:25:21] ago. And so before my money is allocated to that, I would like to be able to support it, but I need to have a much better process laid out of how things are going to be done, the timetable for NOFOs to be released, the opportunity for verification of the claims that people make when they do applications. [02:25:42] And this is one of the, reverting back to the arts and culture for a second, I have forwarded to everybody my little Excel sheet where I just copied the numbers out of Andy's questions number five answers to show the differences and the way, and I have no correlation, no information was provided about why one agency who supports 800 people's participation is getting $12,000, whereas another one that has many, many more is getting much less. [02:26:07] So if we're going to be having some rational approach to this, there needs to be more deliberation or more information provided to the budget decision makers who are supposed to sign off on this because, as I said, that's our job is to get the information and make proper decisions. [02:26:29] the fuel reserve was a fairly terrifying aspect because our fire engines have to be able to get there. And so I would be interested to know if the school board actually has the reserve. We talked about this in 2008 and 9 and 10 when the last recession was, and it was a really big deal back then. It was like $400,000 set aside for fuel for the buses in a special account. So that's something someone else brought up, but I'm very interested in how that turns out. In addition, Let's see. [02:27:05] When the Dogwood application was made, the city and county were asked for $600,000, and Cree Deeds, our senator, brought home $600,000 from the state, and that would have covered the whole project four years ago. It has been mired in bureaucracy ever since, and I am very disappointed that it still seems to be mired in bureaucracy because the price is going up, and as I said, there were other benefits in addition. [02:27:34] So I don't know what the final result will be on that, but I think it has tremendous benefits for our pedestrian transportation system all the way up toward Rio, as well as for the individuals who go there. [02:27:53] And I already mentioned about the CIP, so I will stop there. But please take a minute at your leisure to look at that Excel sheet. I think you will find it interesting. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Lepisto, currently? Well, thank you very much. [02:28:10] There's a lot I agree with what Supervisor Malik said. I did want to ask the Dogwood Memorial, how long has that been there? Is it 15, 20 years? I don't know. The Dogwood? Yeah. I think it's its 50th. 15? 50. 50. [02:28:25] Okay. So that means the land was donated 50 years ago. The land's been city land forever. Right. I will just, if we're allowed to back and forth here. Go ahead. The city gave the land for the Y and got $2 million credit for that. [02:28:43] The county put in $2 million in cash. So paid at the office is my response to this whole thing. So I think that answers their question about them only giving $100,000 because of the fact that they gave the land. It's just dirt. Yeah, they're just keep, okay, I think we all understand that. [02:29:01] 60 years. Oh, 60 years. So they've been using the land thing for, okay, got it. No, the memorial's been in McIntyre Park for 60 years. For 60 years, got it. I liked what Supervisor Galloway said about how the CIP works and how maybe we need to look at that and to evaluate that because I'm not sure I understand everything regarding the, I mean, of course, we all understand the projects that we wanted that are coming in, but the process. [02:29:36] I'm going to also say I would like the same information. If we're gathering information on that, if we're going to redo that, I'd like to see the same thing for our Affordable Housing Trust Fund, for AHIF. How is that working? How is the data working? [02:29:52] How many homes are we getting? How much is being spent? But some actual data on that, because right now it seems like a number has been thrown out, $10 million. I remember when I first got on the board, it was $5 million. [02:30:10] Costs go up. So I guess it's going to be another $5 million probably for next year or the following year. That just keeps going up. I just want to know the numbers. Is it working? Is what we're doing working? Is what we're doing? [02:30:26] Could we look at the whole program and maybe focus on rentals and lower rentals to give people a chance to save money? And then eventually get out of the hole they're in, so to speak, so that they can save money and buy a home if they want. [02:30:44] A lot of people don't want to buy homes anymore. And I realize how expensive they are. But I think we should look at that whole program. And frankly, I think 80% of AMI for home ownership, I think that's high. Except I would be in favor of having something like that for our first responders. [02:31:05] those are the ones you want living in our county when a disaster happens you want them there i'd be happy to like i said i'd be happy to have that for them but i think 60 am i for renters i think that's high i think i would rather put the money frankly into uh lowering that so we can have more people in rentals maybe for a period of time i mean i can't think of the entire thing how to do it now but there are much there are people out there much smarter than me they could figure out how to help the most people that we need maybe and they know this for a period of time they [02:31:44] they've got to work this out so that's my feeling uh about that i'm just not frankly interested in throwing more money at it without knowing the real data all right hold on okay we haven't thrown any money out i know the proposal goes or what it's used for we've been doing this program we're in year what four right five the year we did our first we hit five million we had 20 million dollars in requests for that five million dollars so this is not some random thing that we're just throwing out and i don't think we should be saying that out loud to the [02:32:19] community we just had this conversation for this year's applications the last meeting where it was very clear what the projects were how much and how much was going out the door for what rentals and homeownership, what the units were. So the data is there. Now, if you want it all combined into one comprehensive piece to look over the last four or five years, I would imagine that we can do that. [02:32:42] But I get a little uncomfortable if we start to say things like, well, I don't know where the money's going or what it's going towards. It's very clear where it's going. No, no, no. I know where the money is going. I want to make sure it's being spent in a way that helps the most people. [02:32:59] So is the question that you're questioning the applicants and what they've said and how they're going to use it? No, no, no, no, no, no, not at all. I want to make sure that the monies that are being spent, that we're helping the people that need it the most. And I do believe that 60% AMI is high. [02:33:17] I think it should be maybe 50% AMI, those people we could help, and with rentals. All right. I think perhaps that that's a whole different conversation perhaps. That's what I was going to get. That is a whole different conversation. Process-wise, Albemarle, Housing Albemarle, is at our next meeting. [02:33:35] Where is Ann? Ann left the room at a very – oh, no, she's right there. I couldn't see you. It's the first time that Supervisor Lepisto Kirtley has blocked somebody. First time I've heard that. The Housing Albemarle is coming back for the work plan piece that's coming up in a future agenda, the timing on that. [02:33:58] i'm just at i don't i've asked this a few times and i sometimes get cautious head nods and it's time to start when i when and i hate to say it but as i start to hear these kind of conversations for the board that we have to get this locked in because i don't know what to expect because a process question about housing album or when you start talking about amis and our policies that is handled differently than the ahif program ahif isn't exactly determined by our you come in for a rezoning, you get 20% units at 60% AMI for 30 years. [02:34:37] And this is getting muddy with that. So at the end of the comp plan, we said we were going to immediately move to a review of housing Albemarle because the comp plan said we need to review it and update it every five years. And I remember because I made the request that it would be immediate. [02:34:52] So I'm expecting at a future meeting that we're going to hear the game plan for that. And that's the question I'm asking. So, Ann Wall, Deputy County Executive, I'm up here with Kaki Demick, Chief Human Services Officer. I would mention this to the board. There are two streams of activity that the board will hear presentations about in upcoming meetings. [02:35:11] The first are significant projects related to AC44, of which the update or renovation, I believe they call it, of housing albemoral will be acknowledged. There will also be a future presentation specifically about the update to the housing album model study at the June meeting. [02:35:36] Do you know the date of the meeting? We just started scheduling things. So on May 20th, we'll come back before the board with an AHIF review that will inform our fiscal year 27 distribution process and hopefully will answer many of the process questions that have come up here and at previous meetings. [02:35:53] and then after that we'll look for a time for the AC for the housing albemarle renovation there's one meeting in july there's already a number of things on there so i don't want to make a promise that it'll be june or july but we're looking right now to schedule that right so we got two different process questions that are coming down the pike one would be dealing with housing albemarle which is a bigger umbrella ahif which is specific to the dollars we're talking about in this budget to load up for next year that we've already directed and said we would be addressing and tighten up before we go back out for applications in august if i remember the [02:36:30] timing of that right so your process questions and those data questions i think can get lumped into those different pieces okay um i think that if you feel like you have to wait till then to commit to putting funds into this year's a hiff then okay then that that's clear um but i want i just let's be careful about saying that we don't know where dollars that we've sent out the door we don't know where they're going or what they're doing because that's what i heard no no that's no the the i wanted the data to go with the numbers that we're spending i'd love to hear [02:37:05] from uh stacy how many homes i mean concrete data how many homes uh how many people were all right okay i understand but when you say concrete data you're suggesting the data we've already received isn't concrete you i'm sorry to be getting into this i apologize for that if that's what we have data already and we have to remember what that data is as it comes forward because we've made decisions for these dollars that have gone out the door and it undermines the credibility of those past decisions so i i with all due respect not the intent but i want to police that [02:37:43] as we're considering putting more dollars into a fund that i think is important to get more dollars into if i may uh chair a little bit of back and forth to respond to this uh supervisor lapisto currently we've talked about this before so i'm gonna i'm going to try and differently characterize what you're asking for because i think it's a helpful discussion it sounds to supervisor galway and frankly to me right now like you're asking for more concrete data but having had this conversation with you i think you're maybe asking for a bit more like advice from staff on normatively [02:38:17] is this the highest, if we're saying housing is the priority, is a housing investment fund that mostly does developer-focused grants and loans, is that the highest and best use of our limited county resources to deliver housing as a broad objective? And here, I would want to kind of respond to that, because this is something I say sometimes on the board. At a certain point, we are decision makers who have to reach a decision with really limited information and if we feel like if we feel like we're we should not expect staff to tell us what the [02:38:56] right decision is that is not their goal it's our decision it's our role to kind of weigh in and exercise a bit of normative weight this is you know we we didn't have staff advice or information on rent stabilization as a priority and whether or not that would be a good idea but I'm like, you know, I can go read a study myself. [02:39:14] We didn't have staff advice on whether or not biking at the reservoir was good or bad. And I'm like, well, I think I can go read a study and go decide for myself. And in this, this is another thing where I say, well, that is something that is put to me with a decision maker based on the limited information we have from staff and also from what I can go and learn myself and now to speak now prescriptively, normatively, about my position on this issue. [02:39:40] As someone who knows more than your average bear on this subject, I do think this is the highest and best use is challenging. It is the appropriate use at the stage that we have built out our affordable housing infrastructure in this community because it is a necessary first step for so many other deliverables. [02:40:01] It is challenging for our federal voucher program to deliver results when there are not easy places to place them. This is a huge issue I have in the southern part of my district. Someone gets a voucher, they have nowhere to frickin' go. [02:40:17] There's nowhere that is low enough rent to qualify. And this helps deliver inventory. It also is going to be a crisis I am concerned about. I use the word crisis. We overuse the word crisis. But almost all of our tax credit buildings are built in the 90s. [02:40:35] A huge amount of our affordable housing inventory is from the 90s. They are all about to require redevelopment. all the ones that are done with tax credits are going to likely be sold to venture capitalists to redevelop them for for-profit. That is, we talk about needing to get 10,000 more affordable units. We are about to actually be falling back without continual and significant investment. [02:40:58] So I see this as the important first step. We can then have, you know, depending on how flush we feel, we can then have follow-on conversations about an additional local voucher to really pull down rents in really targeted, concentrated ways for really high need people. We can have follow-on conversations like that. We can have follow-on conversations about making home ownership more affordable for people who aren't elderly but still face tax burdens. But making my decision as a decision maker and knowing kind of what our overall set of resources looks like, I think this [02:41:37] is the first step. And for that, I think this is the scale it needs to be at to be able to reach at. And that is where I put on my politician, my decision maker hat and say, I have limited information. I have what I've been able to learn on my own. I have what I know from the county. [02:41:53] And this is the conclusion I reach and fight for on that. All right. I have no, I agree with that. And I totally agree with that. And I have always known this, we only have another month to make a decision. And so I'm not expecting anything to happen within the next month. I'm talking about for a process for the future, as we're mentioning also regarding the funding for arts and culture. We're talking about that process also. I think that needs to be worked on redone because we've had differing views and who gets what. So that's [02:42:33] something for the future. So yes. Outside of the, is there any other thoughts on this particular discussion before I keep moving through the order. So I think we've got those pathways there. I appreciate the explanation. Sorry, that was longer than I meant to do. Part of deciding where these dollars end up is making sure we have the values behind it of where our priorities are at. So I appreciate that. And we also, like, who is on staff is also tracking with me and the supervisors [02:43:06] these process things that are post-budget type of stuff. Do we have that being tracked as well? Yeah, so our intent would be in the summer, what we've traditionally done, and we would bring back on a regular agenda item, really the community capital nonprofit, human services, and arts and cultural, and bring those as a package for the board. [02:43:27] That hasn't been scheduled yet, but, you know, July-ish is probably what we would aim for, of course, working with the clerk. You know, Ms. Wall and Ms. Dimmick spoke to the other timeline of the AHIFS review would be really separate from those. there'll be some overlap and certainly the housing out more of those so those are items that staff would bring back as a regular order of business following the budget got it and just we always also do a little bit of a review as a board that say hey the budget process we always have reaction and a chance to weigh in on that post budget as well other than planning to put me in a headlock at the next break do you have a other items that you wanted to surface or you [02:44:07] should i move to who's next no i think the headlock is good okay supervisor missile you excuse me um just a couple of comments you know it's it's interesting to think about the process and what supervisor pruitt mentioned resonates and that is you know we should be focused on um making decisions excuse me sorry um and you know the obvious outcome of a three three tie [02:44:44] is really a non-decision. So as I think forward about conversations around AHIF, around some of the other social human services and arts and cultural agencies and how they're funded, etc., etc., and I listened to what Supervisor Duncan shared, which was, well, maybe we take a million and put it towards AHIF and the other 200,000 or so goes towards the arts and cultural. And I'm also hearing people saying we should not be funding affordable housing with a tax increase. [02:45:13] So these are just some random thoughts that come to mind. One is, excuse me, you know, there's the possibility that that 15 cent increase, which was made and recommended, not decision making, but a recommendation was made with a great deal of thought and consideration about the current conditions that people are facing in terms of tax assessments, et cetera, and how to balance that. [02:45:40] You know, maybe that 15 cents, that additional money goes towards, or some form of it goes towards supporting human services, arts, and cultural. And some of the funds that we're looking at now, rather than going towards those, goes directly to AHIF because that is a huge priority for me as well. [02:45:58] I had an interesting conversation with, I will say, a local affordable housing developer that everyone in the room knows today about AHIF. And we were discussing the fact that the funds that are allocated for this year were not fully expended. They were not fully spent. And we talked about the $10 million goal and we talked about whether or not that would be, if that were there, would that actually be utilized year one? [02:46:28] And he didn't make a judgment call on that. But what he did say is the reason that we didn't see it fully spent this year is because there's a bit of a backlog in terms of development projects and the timing of them and their ability to take full advantage of an AHIF fund. [02:46:45] So I just offer this for thought. You know, obviously, these are just discussions. If we made an incremental effort, maybe that's not good enough, but if we made an incremental effort to get from where we are today, let's say it's $7, $7.5 million in the AHIF fund, that's today, and then next year is $10 million. [02:47:07] I'm just wondering what that might look like in terms of the development community's absorption of those funds. And I know we've heard there's a big need for affordable housing, but there's also a pipeline issue that is a reality in terms of applications that the county is seeing. [02:47:24] So I don't know. I'm just thinking through how that might look. But I also do want to make it clear that I am a big supporter of AHIF. And as I focus on this and as I think about this as a supervisor, would be in a position to support increases there. [02:47:41] I'm just not quite sure how those increases will be allocated yet. And then the last thing I'll say, and I used this, I said this before when I talked the first time, is this word arbitrary. And I think someone said, one of the supervisors said that, you know, we need to think more clearly about a process around this somewhat arbitrary funding of favorite or the loudest voices associated with human service, arts, and cultural requests. [02:48:10] And I wondered if there was a more objective approach to this. Again, just throwing this out there to consider, maybe it's next year or subsequent years. If we have additional funds, is there an objective way to allocate those funds that takes some of the more politicized guesswork out of the process? [02:48:32] Those are my comments. Got it. I was going to make a comment. Supervisor Pruitt, that's up to you for a round here. First, I do want to just kind of respond to, I didn't respond to it because I'm about to speak. So respond briefly to Supervisor Missel's suggestion of a more incremental approach. Does our calculus change if we agree collectively to $10 million next year? I've said, I thought pretty [02:49:09] clearly before, I will say it again very clearly, I will probably feel comfortable putting my carving knife away on this year's budget if this board were in agreement that $10 million is a planning consideration that is baked in for next year's budget process. I don't know if that means I vote differently on the property tax increase, because I think that's probably going to be necessary, regardless of which direction we get there. If it's in next year's budget or this year's budget, it's going to have to be a tax rate increase, most likely, to support it. But it means I might put my carving knife away for the Economic Development Fund. [02:49:44] I would be much more, I think, comfortable with a more cautious approach to this year's budget, if I think this Board seemed in agreement on that moving forward. I haven't heard consistent agreement on that, so I will just leave it at that. But that would give me, I think, a little bit more breathing room in this budget cycle. [02:50:06] I will also just -- I want to respond to the -- because so far Chair Galway has been the only person who mentioned the schools in a very brief conversation with him before this. I kind of shared my immediate reaction to the new letter that we received from the schools. [02:50:22] And as has been my theme this year, I think these are immediate reactions that the public deserves to also hear rather than things that we share with each other, which is I found it more frustrating, frankly, because it seemed like a sudden pivot in what the ask was that made it unclear to me what I should even be trying to respond to in order to try and get the school's desired outcomes. [02:50:49] It's not clear to me that there was board consensus on what we received as a new request, right? So for the public, the new request is the full amount, but as the CIP in the control of the schools and no longer for saving for a high school, but now for more short-term renovations of existing high schools, which y'all will remember that when talking about saving in the CIP, I am mostly only interested in saving in the CIP if it is necessary to hit a specific saving goal, such as with the high school. [02:51:27] This also, I think, realized some of the board's expressed concerns previously of school divisions being a fast-moving and inconsistent partner on how they treat their savings. [02:51:44] There was some concern that if they had control over their own CIP set aside for savings that we would not be able to guarantee that it is going to be carried forward in a way that can be actually used for new high school construction. I see this 11th hour on the 11th hour shift in the proposed or in the request from schools as being a demonstration of that concern. [02:52:11] I'm no longer, and again, if I were to say, oh, I'm going to do exactly what school divisions wants me to do with this vote right now, I don't know what the vote I'm supposed to take is, which is a terrible position for me to be in. [02:52:29] And it's also inconsistent with the request that has been put forward to the parent community and that they have been aggressively advocating for, which I've been, you know, actually consistently supportive. oh, I hear you. I hear that you want to see, you have concerns about operating funds, you're concerned about how initiatives that you value might be impacted by a slight decrease in operating funds, so I will support, and I did support in a 3-3 vote, the additional operating funds, and now that is not what the newest request from school divisions asks for. I like to avoid [02:53:04] saying I'm confused on this board. I like people to have faith that their lawmakers know what the hell they're doing. But I am confused on what is expected of me right now from schools. And so I am much more comfortable with the position that the board reached previously now than I was, which is an unfortunate for the school's effect of this new pivot. And I'm much more comfortable with us retaining the entirety of that 6-4 in the CIP than I was previously, which I had previously [02:53:40] voted against um sorry uh I think that's all I have to respond to very good supervisor Duncan um um I guess okay I'll start with schools um I mean selfishly I like the letter because it's 6.4 million for Albemarle High School but I don't think we should be you know governing by our own personal anecdotal desires for the record my son attends Albemarle High School um I mean I'm still [02:54:17] in favor of my original vote but i do kind of listening to all this um and chair galloway had a email response to somebody over the weekend maybe um that was very thoughtful and laid out a lot and frustrating in its logic and thoughtfulness because it really made me um think about what i had already you know wanted um but it was really well done um so i really appreciated that um so i [02:54:51] think sort of my stance on school funding this year would be what supervisor missile had proposed as sort of a compromise of funding this year and not next year i think the idea of doing some sort of joint planning um i guess similar to supervisors puett's conversation about housing and you know staff planning for next year i would feel the same way about schools if we had a plan that we were going to you know communicate more effectively and work together and come to like a common [02:55:27] understanding on how we're going to fund schools in the future i think there is a lot of reasonable argument to be made that maybe the 54 is not sustainable going forward for a county of this size and with this many urban needs um which is super frustrating um because obviously there's still a ton of funding that needs to be done in the schools and there's you know we're making up a lack of funding for so many years in a lot of ways um so that i guess is sort of my thoughts on [02:56:06] the schools um i guess sort of related i think also in order to get at the funding that we need schools and for agency funding you know we just this is obviously unpopular we need more money whether that's through taxes or through more economic or through more aggressive economic development one of the things I did when I was really studying the agencies and kind of talking to them and trying to understand the process is you know they were also talking about their application experience with the city and with like the Virginia Commission for the Arts and Bama works and stuff. And so I looked at the city's budget and I printed out, I used last year's since [02:56:46] they were like already set, but I printed out our agency funding pages and I printed out the city's agency funding pages and they're organized sort of different. So like the bottom line is, you know, not apples to apples at all, but I went through and I highlighted the same agencies that get funding from both of us. And it's incredibly embarrassing. The city funds their agencies so much more than we do. And it's because they have higher taxes. And so if the public wants good schools, I was talking to a couple of people yesterday, two days ago, and you look at the surrounding county [02:57:24] schools, their buildings are nicer, their sports facilities are nicer. They probably, some of them are more rural, so maybe they're, you know, all their funding is going into the schools. But if people want us to have the equivalent buildings and facilities, you know, that attract people, if they want us to fund these agencies like this, if we want a bigger tax relief program, like, somebody has to pay for it. [02:57:50] And so I just, the fact that the city's taxes are so much higher than ours, I think, is instructive of either we're going to fund these things or we're a county that's just going to fund the bare necessities and you have to go elsewhere for your needs. Okay, I want to do a check here with staff and look at Andy, because I've been tracking some of this. [02:58:15] There seems to be, I didn't hear objections to bringing back further information on the fuel reserve, just so we can understand potential impacts on that. The agency's review process, the process of that would happen later, post-budget. [02:58:32] There does still seem to be supervisors interested in perhaps funding over what the recommendation was, while three have said not interested. and well two and then myself i'm interested in one um so we have to still kind of track that as an option that the board will have to decide um there's the i i explicitly heard two people open two people who could endorse or would be interested in doing the move from economic [02:59:07] development to ahif i heard one say she was open to understanding it more and a few that did not speak to it. What I'm trying to do is get these options so that at the decision point, we're going to have to put these up on the board and say, all right, board, let's make some votes and some motions and get these settled. So AHIF has still got some moving parts on it, like the agency piece in some ways, although bigger dollars. The Dogwood piece, we asked, there was some extra information [02:59:43] there to have come back. And then I'm going to defer to you to see if I missed something in that review. And supervisors certainly can weigh in as well if I missed something. I may have missed if you said it, but I think one of the ideas, if part of the money on this slide, a portion could be for AF, a portion could be for ACERP. That was a comment made by at least one supervisor I heard. [03:00:11] Again, not direction, but just option trying to capture all the things that were thrown out. And for schools, I didn't really hear any divergence from our current proposal, at least yet. It sounds like there could be consideration within that proposal, but there's not any decision to change what we've proposed. [03:00:32] It just may be how it plays out of what's proposed. And I have thoughts on that. This split idea, I know that you had mentioned Supervisor Missal raised that before, so I'll make those comments in a moment. but that i think that's still kind of tracking we have to eventually just make that hard decision um is there anything i guess today that the staff i don't think the board was i don't know and you'll you can speak for yourselves i don't think any of us were walking in making hard and fast decisions today but trying to tighten things up a little bit because we're still hearing from the public [03:01:09] we still have public hearings to go through um i think some of my decisions change by at some point when we vote on the tax rate, I think that that's going to be meaningful and then choices could change based on that. So there's still time that we're doing this appropriately. I think discussions like we had today are important, especially for our public to hear us get into the weeds and hear different values suggested and different things that we're going to focus on. I think that's important because that's what's behind our choices on the dollars. So just another then, is there anything we've missed, Andy? No, I think just some clarity. At one point, There was some question about more data on the Economic Development Fund. [03:01:49] I know the board has received some in the Q&A, but is there any information around the Economic Development Fund staff can provide that would assist the board? I saw people lean in. So, Supervisor Malik, you brought up the open idea. Is there anything specific there that you were interested in? [03:02:04] Well, I just affirm that I've lost track of what the dollars were that were a match for the governor's fund and things like that, that we have to have cash for. It's just like the ACE program. We don't even have the money for cash to draw down the state money. [03:02:23] We're giving away money to other communities who are keeping their things going. So I never want to do that if we can avoid it. Funding something enough to double your money is a very good approach. So I've sort of lost track over the last couple of years of what the churn has been. [03:02:40] So a historical trend report, perhaps. We can provide that. And if it wasn't said, Mr. Sumner reminded me, we'll have a follow-up to get the clarity on the fuel reserve. And we'll ask that same question to the schools as well to bring that back. And it looks like I saw you lean in, Supervisor Pruitt. I think it's a kind of similar ask, but with the Economic Development Fund, something I've mentioned before is kind of the history at which it has been plussed up and the history at which it has been drawn down. [03:03:05] Like, I think a very simple ask, but just would be helpful to have either as a table or a graph. Because my understanding is we plus it up, it stayed level for a while. and then it got drawn down pretty quickly. We can provide that. [03:03:22] Specific economic development fund, any other informational pieces inside of that? I'm going to come around to you anyway, but just on that item, is that? Well, I was going to mention, piggybacking on what Supervisor Malik said regarding the ACE committee, because I know that that's something that's been closed down, not closed down, but put on what hiatus, and that's something that I would like to see come back, because I think that's important for the county. [03:03:50] So consideration of some kind of, are we reinstituting it? Because I'm on that committee and we haven't met. And so are we reinstituting it? Are we going to allow any kind of funds or anything? And then regarding the Economic Development Authority, to Supervisor Duncan's point, I think for the next two years, I mean, that's going to be, in my opinion, that's going to be extremely important to be able to bring in new businesses and to arrive in our futures. [03:04:20] And if we weren't ready to be able to act so quickly regarding AstraZeneca, as we all know, we wouldn't have had that. And that absolutely changes everything for us. I think we're going to be in a really good position in two or three years that we'll be able to have more funding for schools, which I strongly support, more for CIP. [03:04:45] But I just think we need to get there because this will happen. And I will tell you, Economic Development Authority, that's the mechanism that is going to bring all this in. Thank you. Sally, anything to add on the economic development info? [03:05:03] Fred, anything to add on the request for the economic development monies, Supervisor Missal? Do we need to change the screen for him to be able to talk? I don't know if he's responding or not. [03:05:21] Was there anything additional there, Supervisor Missal? No, thanks for asking. All right. Anything that we needed, that you needed a decision, a final decision on today from staff, just due to timing and things? No decision is required today, and no decisions are really needed until April 22nd, but the board also has an opportunity on April 15th, should they wish to continue any items. [03:05:45] But perhaps I'll make a suggestion at the end of the 15th of sort of, here's sort of the game plan of how we would walk through these issues with the board on the 22nd, just to make sure that we have everything buttoned down. But in the meantime, we'll provide these Q&As by email. If you're listening from the public, those will be online as well. [03:06:03] Do you happen to have the budget calendar at this point? In fact, you pray, well, here it is. It's pray not on the budget. When do you, are you, is the next school board budget work session going to be? [03:06:21] They're on spring break next week. They would normally meet. I don't know if the school board meets next week or not. Do they get spring break too? Yeah, I believe it's April 16th, and I believe they're continuing their budget discussion that they started last week. [03:06:40] So the next chance for them is when, the 16th of April? Yes. All right. And I just wanted to put that on people's radar, because that's probably the next point where we hear information or could get new updates than what we have currently. I mean, outside of public comment and stuff like that. [03:06:58] All right. Yes. Are we going around again for just some wrap-ups? We can, because I, you know. some things down because there are things that we missed then i want to make sure we get them surfaced because we don't want anything to be popping up on us new at the next meeting so yeah i'll just do another round more background than anything else um the tamra homes is the new director of dhcd she is a real friend of local governments and someone on her staff reached out to me at a meeting recently and said for the first time in years animal county didn't apply for a whole category of stuff what's going on and i said i have absolutely no idea so if there are [03:07:36] process improvements that need to be made for whatever it is, plat lots, something that the state needs to give us millions of dollars. We need to solve those problems so that we're not leaving money on the table. This is more of the same I was mentioning before. I've been just baffled at the information that seems to be told to the parents that the local government is not, and they're asked to ask for full funding, but $20 million more over the last two years They cannot say their budget was cut. [03:08:15] I just, that kind of pouring gasoline on fire is not helpful, and it frustrates me a lot because the parents are being misled, then they're mad because we respond and say, well, here's actually what happened, and they go, well, why did they say something else? [03:08:32] So that's a problem. Chair has asked multiple times about the strategic plan. They don't have one. Their long-range building plan seems to be it, and we're told that's what you're going to get. This is really difficult, and I've seen a lot of this over many years, and we went into sort of a passive phase where, you know, whatever they asked for, that's what we got, but it was never enough. [03:08:56] I mean, when you were chair, it was a very different time than it is before or since. Much more information provided and working rather than going straight to the barricades. And just the, I mean, we have the data that finance put together for us for that December meeting that makes it all very clear what local government has done. [03:09:22] And yes, it is easy for city to fund their agencies more, but we, county taxpayers give them more than $20 million every single year. And I really, people who contact me have said, why do we keep getting yelled at for not doing what they're doing when we're paying for a lot of the things they're doing, including their triple AAA and their LCI do not take this $20 million into account, and that to me is so unfair. So anyway, I'm going to stop complaining now, but I just wanted to get those things out there because I think they're important to this discussion. Supervisor Lupisto currently, [03:09:58] any additional items? I think I'm done for now. Supervisor Missal, any additional items? Thank you. No additional items other than just to underscore what Supervisor Malek just said about not leaving dollars on the table. [03:10:18] I think we also have a very friendly audience at the state level in terms of the state government now with a new housing director, I believe, who was just appointed. And so I do think we need to look at the process and look at all our opportunities and make sure that those are being sought. [03:10:38] That's all. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Pruitt? Nothing to add. Supervisor Duncan? Nothing else. All right. I do not have anything additional at this point. I think good conversation. Final check-in with staff. Good with today, with what you've received. [03:10:53] Could you put it on contingencies? So, Mr. Chair, as the board leaves today and has additional discussions, I think what staff recommended, and I'd really point out the fact that this is ongoing funding as opposed to one time, I would draw your attention to the reserve for contingencies at 663, And after discussion today, staff said that they're comfortable with that money being at the $250 to $350 mark going into next year. [03:11:25] So if the board is so inclined at the 15th or the 22nd to pull additional funding, just know that's an ongoing stream of funding. And the difference between $63,000 and $250,000 is $413,000 of ongoing funding if the Board is considering additional funding for the Affordable Housing Investment Fund or whatever the discussion is. [03:11:51] The other thing, Board, and I feel inclined to tell you this, is one of the questions you could have asked me today is what's the minimum amount of money that you're comfortable with in the Economic Development Fund going into next year, Mr. Richardson? And my answer to you would be probably about $3 million as a floor for us to work off of going into next year. [03:12:12] It's difficult to predict, and we can go back and look at historical spending in the Economic Development Fund, but none of that would have told us 15 months ago that AstraZeneca was going to be here knocking on our door last fall. So predicting the future in economic development is impossible. [03:12:30] You're not going to be able to do it. And so what you do, just like what you have in front of you right now, is you have ongoing contingency, you have one-time contingency, and I'd also point to the board's strategic reserve. That's one-time money, but it's $394,000 that the board has full purview over to be able to plug where you want to plug it on your initiatives that you're trying to get a jump start or just get over a threshold or go where you need to go with it. [03:12:57] But as it relates to economic development, the Opportunity Fund, I would be comfortable. We've got a placeholder in for $4.15 million. I'd be comfortable going into next year if the board says, you know, we want to move some money around. [03:13:13] Staff, where would you go first? I would probably look there and say, I think that if we drew that to end of three or low threes, we would probably be just fine going into next year. The final thing I'll tell the board, because it's my job to do this, is that this is not a normal budget year that we're going into in FY27. [03:13:32] This is the first time in my career, and I've done 34, that I've recommended using one-time money to balance. And I'm recommending that we use one-time money out of the strategic reserve to $3 million to balance next year, and I'm going to recommend it again going into the next year, which is the full 1% that Supervisor Pruitt was talking about, I believe Supervisor Galloway mentioned as well. [03:14:00] The only reason that I can recommend that as an okay budget decision for your consideration is that when we look out into FY29 and FY30, we see relief on the way due to the industrial investment. Mr. Pruitt asked me in the first meeting whenever I presented the budget, what would you have done if there was no AstraZeneca? [03:14:20] I would have recommended a two-cent tax rate increase. That's $6 million because we saw no relief. All we'd have been doing is kicking the can down the road, and Andy and Jacob would not have supported me recommending to you using one-time money out of the budget stabilization fund when we have no strategy to plug that gap. [03:14:39] If nothing changes with our economy and if nothing changes with our industry that's planning to come, 29 and 30, we can begin to refill the budget stabilization reserve. And the other thing that's even more exciting than that, we may, if we have more success out at Ravana, be able for the first time to be talking about dedicated funding to some of these things that the board wants done with ongoing revenues, which means you're not dealing with it each year with one-time money. [03:15:11] And that's a big deal. And I know this board knows that. So, Mr. Chair, that may have been more than I needed to say, but if there's questions from the board on that, I'm happy to answer those questions. Now, I appreciate all of those comments. Are there any questions based on those comments? All right. [03:15:26] Thank you, sir. And where are we at? So we are ready for our closed meeting. [03:15:43] Do we have a motion to go into closed meeting? Oh, I'm... Oh, she's got it. I was looking this way. Oh, sorry. I move that the Board of Supervisors convene a closed meeting pursuant to Section 2.2-3711A of the Code of Virginia Under Subsection 1 to discuss and consider appointments to various boards and commissions, including without limitation, the Agricultural and Forestal District Advisory Committee, the Natural Heritage Committee, the Pantops Community Advisory Committee, the Planning Commission, the Police Department Citizens Advisory Committee, and the ACPS Advisory Committee for Environmental Sustainability. [03:16:22] Second. All right. Without objection, if the clerk would please call the roll. Ms. Mallett. Yes. Mr. Missal. He's already walking into the room. He had to leave early. [03:16:39] Did you say yes, Mr. Missal? So I said yes. Yes, okay, good. All right. Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Ms. Duncan? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. Lapista? Aye. All right, board, we will go to room 241. All right, good evening, everyone. [03:17:04] At 6 p.m., we are coming out of closed meeting. Is there a motion to certify the closed meeting? 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. [03:17:29] Second. All right, without objection, if the clerk would please call the roll. Ms. Malik? Yes. Mr. Missel? That's awkward silence, yes. Thank you. Mr. Pruitt? [03:17:44] Aye. Ms. Duncan? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. Lapista? Kirtley? Aye. Very good, and motions coming out of closed meeting, please. Yes, we have some appointments for boards and commissions. For the Agricultural and Forestall District Advisory Committee, we have Mike Rose. [03:18:03] For the Natural Heritage Committee, we have Rowena Zimmerman. For the Pentops Community Advisory Committee, we have Olivia Branch. For the Planning Commission, for the Scottsville area, we have Mary Catherine McLam Brown. [03:18:25] And for the Police Department Citizens Advisory Committee, we have Nicole Hall. And for the Albemarle County Public Schools Advisory Committee for Environmental Sustainability, ACES, we have Board Member Liaison Sally Duncan. [03:18:43] Second. All right. The motion has been made and seconded. Without objection, if the clerk would please call the roll. Ms. Malik? Yes. Mr. Missel? One more time there, Fred. Mr. Missel? Okay, we're not hearing. Yes. There it goes. [03:18:59] Mr. Pruitt? Yes. Aye. Ms. Duncan? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. LaPista-Kirtley? Aye. All right. Very good. Thank you, Board. We will move to item number 15 from the County Executive. Mr. County Executive, any reports this evening? No, sir. Not this evening. Thank you. Great. Thank you. And we will now turn to item number 16, public comment on matters previously considered or currently pending before the board other than what is scheduled for public hearing great all of our [03:19:34] speakers this evening are in person during the time set aside for public comment on matters previously considered are currently pending before the board individuals may address the board of supervisors concerning those matters individuals are allowed one opportunity of up to three minutes to speak at each board meeting a sign-up sheet is managed by the clerk's office timekeeping is conducted through a timer and light system at the podium the green light will go on when you begin speaking which begins your allotted time the yellow light indicates you have [03:20:09] one minute to finish speaking the red light indicates your time has expired and you will be asked to enter 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 albemarle county your magisterial district address comments directly to the board as a whole any written statements or other supporting material may be given to the clerk if representing a group or organization you may ask others to present others present to raise their hands in recognition speakers may not share any unused time with another speaker back and [03:20:48] forth debate is not permitted and please do not speak from your seat or out of turn all comments are live streamed, recorded, and published on the Elmore County website. And we just ask that when you come down to the podium, make sure you adjust the microphone so you can be clearly heard. And the podium also adjusts up and down. The controls are at your left if you need that as well. Our first speaker this evening is Ms. Rebecca Brown, to be followed by Mr. Robert Brown. So Ms. Brown, [03:21:17] if you'd please come down. Good evening. Good evening, Board of Supervisors. My name is Rebecca Brown. I am a Rio District resident and a chapter leader with Virginia Organizing. Everybody say hi if you're with Virginia Organizing. Before I get to our ask, I want to thank this county, Kaki Dimmick, Caitlin Malcolm, Anthony Harrow, this board. You committed to revising voucher [03:21:55] waitlist notice and our removal protocols, to adding disability to the ACERP priority preferences, and to developing a public inventory of accessible housing units. And these are real wins, and we are really grateful. Thank you. So the reason I'm here personally, I've had 16 surgeries. [03:22:14] When I was in the hospital getting a kidney auto transplant for blood flow, I was removed from the housing voucher wait list in Harrisonburg. I missed one notice. It was an email, and I was in the hospital in a progressive unit. [03:22:37] I waited for years, a lot of years, and it went to someone else. That is not a system failure at the margins. That is a system working as it was designed, with one notice, against the people it's supposed to protect. [03:22:55] And here is what I'm asking for tonight. Currently, Albemarle County holds 40 unused mainstream voucher slots for non-elderly disabled residents that exist on paper, but have no current federal funding behind them. 800 people are on your unified voucher wait list. [03:23:14] 206 them qualify for those mainstream slots right now, but your wait list is closed, so these numbers don't come anywhere close to reflecting the number of people who need a voucher or the number of people permanently disabled who are desperate. The numbers don't reflect the need. A portion of an expanded AHIF, 5% to 7%, if the fund's $10 million, could activate those slots immediately, and when federal funding becomes available, families could move to the federal program and local dollars could recycle to the next person. [03:23:45] Charlottesville City has done a program like this for eight years, and it works. On homeownership, the AHIF already lists it as an eligible activity. Your own administration plan already contains the full framework, and those are just two ideas. There's many more. And when you look at what counties across the country do to build long-term housing stability, there's no shortage of proven models. [03:24:06] I have a full policy brief that I'll be emailing all of you tomorrow, and my brother Robert will continue this when he speaks next. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Brown. Following Mr. Brown will be Alicia Linehan. [03:24:29] Good evening. I'm Robert Brown. I also live with my sister in Rio District. We share the same genetic condition. We're both disabled. I also have had a number of head injuries adding to that. I want to thank the board for what you've already done, raising the ACERP cap, removing the last resort requirement, committing to review how people get removed from wait lists. [03:24:57] These things matter to people like us, and it's appreciated. When you are disabled and your housing is unstable, nothing else can stay stable. Your medical care, your benefits, your ability to manage the paperwork that keeps you alive, it is not a failure. [03:25:17] It's not a personal failure. It's just what happens when the system removes you from a wait list, like if you're waiting for surgery or while you're having surgery, rather. Counties across the country have built locally funded bridge programs, homeownership pathways for disabled residents, risk mitigation funds for landlords, accessible housing registries. [03:25:40] These are proven tools that do not require waiting for federal action, and again, Rebecca will be sending you a policy brief with information on some of that tomorrow. Albemarle holds 40 mainstream voucher slots designed specifically for non-elderly people with disabilities. And that only exists on paper because it's not actually funded federally. [03:26:04] There's 206 people currently on the wait list that qualify for those slots. And that's only the disabled population. The full wait list is 800 people. And it's currently closed, which means that nobody new can actually apply to try to get that assistance. The gap is a funding gap, not an eligibility gap. A locally funded bridge program lets the county decide who they [03:26:40] can prioritize. The AHIF can close that. Please fund the AHIF at $10 million. Thank you. Thank you, sir. All right, Ms. Lenahan and then Susan McCulley is to follow. [03:26:59] Good evening. My name is Alicia Lenahan. I'm a resident of the Scottsville District. Remember the words, we don't want to draw attention to ourselves, and we must honor the supremacy clause. [03:27:16] That was not this body's response to Brown v. Board of Education when it chose to participate fully in massive resistance. Nor was it this body's response to the ratification of the 24th Amendment to the Constitution in 1964, prohibiting poll taxes in federal elections. [03:27:32] Until 1966, Virginia, all the way down to the local level, continued to exclude poor white and black voters in state and local elections. In Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections, the Supreme Court ruled that the 14th Amendment prohibits states from requiring citizens to pay a fee or tax to obtain access to polls, all polls, in all elections. [03:27:56] so historically this body has been vocal visible and resolute in its efforts to deny people the rights conferred by the court and the federal government today threats to our right to vote and the safety of elections are real concerns you may be thinking that managing elections isn't our job and that's true however upholding the rule of law and community safety is your responsibility. Sending ICE on April 21st would be a splashy reaction to a state that just elected a woman to be the Democratic governor of Virginia and the person selected to deliver to respond to [03:28:34] the state of the union. This is also an election that may help thwart the gerrymandering efforts begun in Texas. This from the Brookings Institute. The administration has already begun repurposing personnel amid the current government shutdown. ICE agents have been deployed to major airports to handle passenger ID verification and other TSA-related duties, to which I'll add ICE deployment to Paris Island on graduation day to monitor the guests arriving to celebrate the achievement of their young Marines, a ceremony I have attended myself. This precedent of using immigration [03:29:13] enforcement for domestic civil oversight raises a chilling possibility the potential redirection of these agents to monitor monitor other sensitive civic spaces such as polling locations. While trust between law enforcement and citizens has fallen to historic lows, concrete policy action can repair the bonds that hold communities and democratic institutions together. What role will the Albemarle Board of Supervisors play this time around? What will you do to prevent interference [03:29:49] and intimidation on April 21st and in the elections to come? Thank you. Thank you. Susan McCulley, and then is it, it looks like Sabine? Sorry if I mispronounced. Good evening. Good evening. [03:30:12] I'm Susan McCulley, and I live in the Samuel Miller District. We've been coming to the board to ask for your commitment to protect county residents from unlawful overreach of the federal government for nearly a year. We thank you for your February 18, 2026 letter to the federal delegation and today we ask you to take tangible action toward that statement and your duty to protect our rights. Our public comments over the past many months have focused on ICE actions. [03:30:45] we see the use of what amounts to a secret police force as the root of the biggest concerns in a time of faltering democracy. One of these concerns is our right to vote. Voter suppression and intimidation are in the air. Yesterday, the president signed an executive order cracking down on mail-in ballots. In states across the nation, local law enforcement are seizing voting voter rolls, the party in power continues to push for the Save America Act, which is straightforwardly [03:31:19] a poll tax and a voter suppression bill aimed particularly at married women, black and brown people, the elderly, and the poor. We increasingly see the government use ICE not just for aggressive and wide-ranging immigration enforcement, but for any actions where bullying, intimidation, and threatened violence might serve governmental purposes. [03:31:44] As Alicia pointed out, last week ICE agents were stationed at airports around the country, ostensibly to help the overtaxed TSA. Since ICE isn't well trained for their own jobs, let alone TSAs, they mostly stood around and looked at their phones. [03:32:02] But the goal was normalizing the presence of heavily armed paramilitary forces in public places. So, mission accomplished. The biggest threat to the failing and unpopular administration is the upcoming midterm elections. [03:32:22] What better way to continue its campaign to normalize threat and intimidation than to send federal agents to polling places in a blue state with a woman governor? Our question is, what commitments will you make to us now to ensure that voting in the county on April 21st will proceed without the presence of federal law enforcement. [03:32:45] In this time of distrust, fear, and uncertainty, what will you do to keep voting free and fair? Thank you. Ms. Sabine? Good evening. My name is Rain Sabin. [03:33:10] I am a resident of the Whitehall District and a member of the Charlottesville-Albemarle Chapter of Virginia Organizing. I want to start this meeting by thanking the board for proposing a budget that does not slash necessary services. I am here because I have lived inside the safety net, and while federal cuts may not impact our 2026 local budget, I am concerned about what will happen next year. The demand for essential services in Albemarle County is, and long has been, increasing. The Big Beautiful Bill is cutting nearly $1 trillion from Medicaid to provide tax breaks to some of the richest people in our country. I'm here to ask, what is your plan to keep funding in place for our local direct service [03:33:50] providers and the social safety net that supports the well-being and vitality of our community? I benefited greatly from Medicaid when I was growing up. When I was a student at UVA, I used the Medicaid expansion to cover my health care. I needed several outpatient surgeries, and I don't know how I would have managed the bills or the co-pays without that coverage. [03:34:11] Medicaid ensured I could heal properly and finish my degree. Later, when I first started my own business as an artist and a grant writer, I used Medicaid again. That coverage gave me the freedom to contribute to my community in ways that I couldn't have if I needed to stay at a full-time job to keep my health insurance. [03:34:28] How will Albemarle County protect its residents from the dire impact of these health care cuts? Additionally, I ask you to follow through on the requests Rebecca Brown made tonight and the commitments that Kaki Demick made to our chapter to improve the county's housing services. Please fund AHIF at $10 million and build the housing infrastructure this community needs. [03:34:48] The safety net works when it is funded and when it is designed to catch people who might otherwise fall. When our neighbors have health care and housing, we all benefit. Thank you very much. Thank you. And our final speaker, is it Almal Heen? I can't see the letters in the last three letters. [03:35:06] I apologize. Good evening. My name is Wachas Almal Heen. I'm an office designer, a resident of the Whitehall District, and a member of the Albemarle Charlottesville Chapter of the Virginia Organizing. I want to thank this board for taking the community needs into consideration as you develop the fiscal year 26 budget. [03:35:29] I came to this country in 2013 as a refugee. My family entered with a status, and we were enrolled in Medicaid and SNAP while working full-time at minimum wage. I want to be clear on what that looked. Full-time work, legal status, we did everything right, and yet we still struggled with the cost of living in Charlottesville. [03:35:49] The programs we relied on did not make us comfortable. They made survival possible while we were still learning English, still finding our footing, still trying to build something stable in a city that's not inexpensive. I studied at the University of Virginia. I used Medicaid expansion as a student, and I'm now an architecture designer who thinks about housing every day as part of my work. [03:36:11] And what I see, both in my own life and in my professional training, is that housing stability is the foundation everything else is built on. You cannot hold a job reliably without stable housing. You cannot manage health condition without stable housing. [03:36:28] You cannot build a life in a community without somewhere permanent to be. Abouma is asking working families, refugees, disabled residents, and people on fixed income to compete in one of the tightest rental markets here in Virginia. The county has the tools to change that. [03:36:48] AHIF is one of them. And I asked to fund it at $10 million. Finally, please follow through on a request for real-time tracking of accessible units, published ACERP data, and formal waitlist anti-purge safeguards with actual deadlines. [03:37:04] aboma is a county with the resources to do all of this the question is whether we do it now while people are waiting or later after more of them have fallen through thank you thank you very much that was our final speaker i apologize for mispronounced names and now we will close public comment board we will move to item number 17 this is our public hearing this evening zma 2023 7 [03:37:39] north point amendment and miss ragsdale you are going to start us off this night tonight yes thank you rebecca ragsdale from community development and i'll be presenting this rezoning that also includes a special use permit that we will have a motion slide for you when you're ready but like to remind you at the beginning that we have both the rezoning and a special use permit before you this evening for the North Point development. North Point was rezoned in 2006 to one of our [03:38:16] planned development zoning districts. It's actually planned development mixed commercial, and it includes a special use permit for R15 to allow the residential uses, and it also included the special use permits necessary for stream crossings in the floodplain from 29 into the development. The request is for portions of the development that are not developed, about 152 acres of the total 269 that were rezoned. And as I mentioned, it's a request that involves both the rezoning to amend the application plan and the proffers associated with it and the special use [03:38:56] permit conditions to increase the number of units from 893 up to 1,600, so it's 707 additional units, and then make adjustments to the commercial areas to reduce the amount of commercial to 250,000. Through this process and review of the materials that were originally approved with North Point. We have also worked with the applicant to modernize them in terms of the materials being consistent with our current ordinance and a number of things that were [03:39:31] previously included with North Point, which was actually ahead of some of our ordinance amendments. It includes eliminating some of those things because it's already in our ordinance. So it's more simplified documents in some ways, but not losing any of the fundamental elements of the rezoning. So as a reminder, North Point is between Route 29 and, I'm going to get my laser pointer, it's along Route 29 and access from Profit Road, and Pritchett Lane is on [03:40:07] the eastern boundary of the project. Pritchett Lane is also the boundary with the rural area. Orienting you, I mentioned that it includes the undeveloped portions of North Point, About 547 units have been built and are accessed from the middle entrance across from Northside Drive. [03:40:27] And this includes those properties that are in the portions, the northwest residential area, the northernmost portion of the property, the school site areas, and then the remaining portion along 29 and towards profit. [03:40:45] This is the existing zoning map to show you. There are some properties that North Point surrounds that are still zoned rural areas that are not included with the rezoning, but this is primarily all of the areas that are already zoned, planned development, mixed, commercial. [03:41:05] I mentioned that the rural area is on the other side of Pritchett Lane, which is the boundary. South of this, of course, is the intersection with Airport and Profit and some of the Forest Lakes-Hollymead developments. And then we also have some of the industrial districts across 29 with the UVA Research Park and some of those areas as well. [03:41:29] The comprehensive plan that is applicable based on when this rezoning was submitted and AC44 was approved is the 2015 comprehensive plan, which is in a lot of ways, the AC44 is similar in the land use designations. [03:41:47] It's a combination of mixed commercial with centers and then a large portion of the properties that are subject to this rezoning are designated for urban density, which would be 6 to 34 dwelling units per acre, and then the yellow areas are our neighborhood density designation, which was 3 to 6 dwelling units per acre. [03:42:12] Across North Point, it was approved at about 3.3 or so dwelling units per acre, and this will take it up to almost six dwelling units per acre, still well within and obviously below the density of the comp plan. [03:42:29] Switching to the proposal itself, this is the application plan and the governing document for where primarily residential areas would be located in purple. And then the commercial areas are in blue, which are those areas that were previously designated commercial. [03:42:52] Some of the blocks where the school site is labeled were intended to be commercial as well. some of them were also on the original application plan residential and a primary change with this in addition to the adjustments with units and square footage of course is the school site which was located over here in the original application plan i will tell you if we need to we can refer to that i have it in the slides but i was focusing on the current request but we can refer back to it if we need to following the planning commission and after some discussion there was also an update [03:43:31] to the application plan to contemplate some neighborhood scale commercial in the southernmost eastern corner of the residential area up to 10,000 square feet. As a plan development district, we have a number of sheets included with the application plan. This one is showing you where the parks and open space will be. And there are a number of different types of open space, which includes conservation areas for environmental features there are public [03:44:07] greenway dedications that will continue to be offered greenway access points are now called out specifically on the application plan to make sure that those will still be provided and shared use paths there is i wanted to point out there is a lot of open space and floodplain and buffer between the commercial areas and the relocated school site. [03:44:34] I don't know why my pointer is not cooperating. This slide is, the previous slide is more so focused on open space generally and the public dedications for greenways. At a rezoning stage, we get a conceptual plan in terms of all of the additional active recreation that will be required, which will need to proportionally be more because they are including more residential units. [03:45:03] So the active recreation in the parks will be governed by the ordinance, and they will still need to meet the minimum requirements of our ordinance. And they have also set out a schedule and shown us generally how they can achieve that within the residential areas. [03:45:20] This by no means includes a final park plan. We would receive that during the site plan process to ensure that those amenities are provided switching gears to the proffer package and how they're addressing impacts for this rezoning they are continuing to offer a school site which has increased to 13.5 acres and as you have seen in their information is a school site that they can deliver that will meet all of the other proffer requirements as far as grading compaction and [03:45:58] providing utilities to a fully usable site. The affordable housing proffers have been updated to be consistent with the policy that's applicable at the time this rezoning was submitted, which is 15%. This proffer, North Point, when it was originally approved, included some fairly extensive proffers, some of which they've already satisfied with lump sum cash payments. So we've noted that in terms of the $300,000 that was provided for affordable housing and $100,000 for a transportation study. [03:46:34] Transportation was analyzed extensively, again, with a new TIA focusing on the key intersections and also looking at making sure that the existing road network was sufficient to handle the additional traffic. [03:46:52] I mentioned the school site that continues to include the deadline of delivering it within 270 days. When I say deliver, dedicating the land and having done the planning and provision of utilities to the site within that time frame, 270 days from when we request that. [03:47:16] Affordable housing, I mentioned that the policy is the pre-2004 policy that's applicable. and this just provides you a breakdown comparing the proposed proffers with the applicable policy. They meet all of those provisions. [03:47:32] There was one update that we just needed to make or that they offered to make that we pointed out between the commission and board that they brought the period of affordability in line with the applicable policy of 10 years. Transportation, as I mentioned, the key intersections were analyzed, And we included the TIA in a summary of those improvements. [03:48:01] The TIA demonstrates that those intersections will still function well with the proposed improvements and in consideration of the adjustments to the traffic for residential. Overall, it's a decrease in the number of trips total. [03:48:22] the updates to the proffers for transportation are more in line with what we see and are tied to trip generation in terms of the triggers one significant or one notable change is of course that the northernmost entrance is no longer required by the proffers the tia demonstrated that the intersections and traffic network will still function at those acceptable level of levels of service. We have more transportation experts here, our planning director and deputy [03:48:58] director, that can speak to some more specific questions if we need to get into that. But overall, eliminating that entrance was acceptable to VDOT and in terms of the analysis of the rezoning. [03:49:15] I will, this is just a summary of our findings, as I mentioned. It's consistent still with the recommendations of the master plan for non-residential uses is fully consistent with the applicable housing policy and then noting that when we had the planning commission public hearing on march 10th there was the recommendation for both the rezoning and the special use permit to approve it so i will pause there for any questions all right thank you rebecca supervisor [03:49:49] malik any questions not at the moment thank you uh supervisor lapisto kirtley uh could you go back to slide 12 please on that slide i noticed you have for sale it says for sale slash for rent at 80 ami for rent yes that's what was applicable under that policy got it okay and then all the roads on the inside are private or v dot roads so the or combination uh public they're all public [03:50:26] Well, the major framework of streets and what's been approved so far are public. There are certain provisions in the subdivision ordinance for certain narrow instance of cases where we can approve private streets in the development area. [03:50:41] But these are all public, which we've discussed here. Thank you. No other questions. Supervisor Missal. Thank you. Thank you, Rebecca. I appreciate it. so a couple of quick questions one is can you do you know how that 300 000 of uh affordable housing funds is being used by the county uh that was uh like i said received closer to when the rezoning was originally approved i believe it was used at the time for down payment assistance it's all been [03:51:20] long expended though they have including the hundred thousand transportation study funding Yes. Got it. Do you know if the Albemarle County Public School System has reviewed the school site for feasibility? Yes. We've been checking in with them, both county staff and the developer, and coordinating throughout the duration of this rezoning and even before about the school site. [03:51:48] Thank you. I have a couple more questions, but I'll save them for the applicant. Thank you. All right. Supervisor Pruitt. I have no questions at this time. Supervisor Duncan. Just kind of one question. So this was originally rezoned and approved in 2006, correct? [03:52:05] Yes. So 20 years ago. And there was about just under 900 units that were approved for that one? Yes. Correct. So have those, and I know only 450 or so have been built, were those 900 originally in, like, the pipeline study? [03:52:24] I'm not sure when the first pipeline study was done, but say the 450 unbuilt, Are those part of, you know, the pipeline when we're like we have X amount of units are in the pipeline? Would these be part of them? The unbuilt, yes. [03:52:41] So my main point is that it's taken 20 years to get to this point. We only have 450 units. And so when we talk about how many housing units we have in the pipeline, it's taking forever for them to get built. That's all. Got it. [03:53:01] What is the, I had the opportunity to sit in on the Planning Commission on this one and listen in. The road connection, what is VDOT's official stance on this? Is it, if the road was built, they wouldn't want a traffic light? [03:53:19] Like, what are some of these details? Do they want, they don't want the connection, they do want the connection, but if there is a connection, it's a right in, right out. It didn't seem clean to me to understand what VDOT's stance on this was, other than what folks were attributing to them? [03:53:38] Do we have what they think? There's a several factors that factor into our consideration. One of them, just the physicality of being able to build the road itself. Flat Branch Creek runs really close to 29. [03:53:54] Oh, no, I understand. I just didn't know, would VDOT allow a traffic light if the road were built, forgetting how difficult it is to build the road? There's an existing light there. I'm sure we could have made that work as a connection. with with the lewis and clark drive piece so there's no adding so the the light conflict was with an earlier or the southern entrance there was conversation about a traffic light in there and i was i'm trying to rectify what was being attributed to vdot specifically so maybe i'm confusing the new road and the existing entrance probably give you better on the history of this [03:54:32] sure thanks kevin mcdermott deputy director of planning um so initially there were three entrances on 29 expected and they were all going to be signalized as they moved through the process those initial the two that we currently see or that we still see on the plan VDOT did not really they weren't excited about having those as signalized intersections because they thought it would not preserve the flow on 29 as well so they requested that the applicant switch those [03:55:10] to our cuts, which is what's out there now, to be able to improve that flow. They had allowed the existing light to remain at Lewis and Clark under the previous rezoning. Under this rezoning, they didn't really make a comment on whether or not there would be, whether they would allow that light or not because the light was no longer uh proposed there so they were uh they i would say they were happy to see that additional leg removed if the if the applicant had pushed forward and [03:55:46] tried to get that additional leg i think as uh as mr barnes said i think that we probably would have been able to find get it to work but vdot didn't really have a comment as to whether or not they would have wanted it my guess is they would have not liked it so their concern was what it would mean for the light timing because there's an additional turn or all the different extra turns that may come in and out of there exactly i think the only other point i would add is that the two r cuts do have the capacity to have signals added to them in the future and the proffers reflect that say that again the two r cuts yeah have the capacity to have lights added [03:56:23] to them in the future if it meets warrants right that's in our proffers because that's easy and those and those signals are um they operate better or they would be able to uh keep the flow on 29 better than a standard four-leg signal so that's why they're they allow signalized r cuts but they're hesitant to allow a standard four intersection got it the all right now the piece about the stream and all of that the the from from the county's perspective if there was no [03:56:57] choice but to build what does that mean for the stream and the steep slopes and all the topography that's out there from a from that standpoint um as it's often said with engineering anything is possible if you put enough money at it uh that particular one was the creek's proximity to the to the road you're probably it's in the it would be built the widened road would be built in the floodplain um there would be probably retaining wall i haven't seen it engineered out but retaining wall to hold up that lane and then there was also some significant challenges to [03:57:33] the elevational difference between where 29 is and the sort of the hill that's central to this site would probably necessitate a fair amount of grading anything's possible and probably could be done and would it need a the and and the cross would be the would there be a bridge involved out there if they were what's out there now is an old crossing that would need to be rebuilt whether it would be end up a bridge or whether it would end up being a culvert system I don't know I can't tell you at this time right but it would be the similar to the retaining wall meaning having to deal with the stream and yeah exactly you know anytime you're the retaining wall would be running [03:58:12] parallel with the stream you know parallel 29 and so it has its impacts obviously the bridge or culvert system would have associated impacts with the stream too got it the other questions I have about it, I'll ask the applicant. Are there any other questions at this point for staff? The last point, just to make sure we get all the transportation, we did maintain the proffer for our shared use path to come down to that location. [03:58:42] It'll have its own challenges to try and continue on to cross the road there, what have you. But at least we have that option for that interconnection of bike pad to the future. Across the road meaning right there at the signal across 29 29 i'm to north fork or something it'll be something we'll have to work through with vdot okay it'll have its own challenges all right we will open the public hearing and do we have folks no folks signed up tonight um well then i don't need to read these the public hearing will have the applicant will have 10 minutes they can come [03:59:20] forward for that presentation and then uh we will go from there my name is david mitchell i work for Great Eastern Management Company. I'm the construction and development manager, for lack of a better term. We have our engineer, Brian Mitchell, and our attorney, who just keeps me [03:59:54] straight. So staff's done a great job explaining why we're here. I'll reiterate some things, but at the end of the day, we are asking for a reduction in commercial and an increase in residential. This is our, you've already seen this, these are the properties that are part of this rezoning. Everything else here is out the door, if you will. The apartments are built and they're not fully occupied, but they're fully built. The first 106 units, we've probably got 102 occupied homes. There's four vacant lots right now. It's still in section one, which is this area. [04:00:33] We've built the clubhouse and pool, which I'll talk about. We call this 2A and 2B. It's about 42 lots. I'd say there's four or five vacant lots right now. We just opened up, or not just, about six months ago opened up this section uh 40 more lots uh 20 are probably occupied or under construction the remaining 60 70-ish lots are uh still to be platted and used the roads are fully in the infrastructure is fully in the storm water is fully in we put everything in except for the [04:01:07] final asphalt topping because the contractors you know heavy equipment it'll destroy it so it's no point putting it in yet until the homes are done, and then we come out, top it, and turn the roads over to VDOT. Let's see. This is existing conditions, current conditions, kind of what I already went over. Pay attention to some of these blue streams. These are intermittent mainly, but there are a few perennial streams. We do have a core permit that we have already received. We just got it at the end of last year. It was a haul, as you can imagine, which is why these things [04:01:39] takes so long. We have to kind of coordinate county needs, VDOT needs, DEQ, federal government needs, and then obviously what the market will bear. And that's why it's kind of taking so long. So we have 23 in front of our number. This is the core impacts, which is the primary reason we are here. The Corps of Engineers changed the rules at some point between our original zoning and our current time. And the red areas denote areas that are, they kind of overlap, not 100%, but they overlap stream areas that we cannot build on. And the reason they're just not a finger is you don't [04:02:19] just have the stream you can't build on, but then you have corresponding stormwater facilities grading or whatever that's on either side of the stream, whether it's a perennial or a intermittent. And we lost about 48 acres of usable land. Some of that was in the school site. You can see the red kind of goes up in here to the school site area. And so the school and we as the developer both are suffering from the same problem. So we're trying to solve them all together at the same time. This is our plan. This is our conceptual plan. Please don't look at building locations and think that's exactly where it's going. We did this to kind of do a fit on the property to [04:02:59] figure out what actually could physically fit on the property because we need to come up with numbers for the traffic analysis and this is the best way to do that you can see we have the school site moved we swapped out the school site for basically everything going forward our townhomes condos and apartments it's going to be attached housing that is for a number of reasons what the primary one is the property that is left over after all of those fingers of streams kind of chop you up and don't enable you to flatten everything you end up with five seven maybe a [04:03:33] six-acre piece of land that only apartments, basically only attached-type structured housing will fit on. The more expensive, larger lots that have, and frankly, the old farmland that was the rolling hills, have already been utilized for the single-family detached homes that are currently being built. This is an overall of our changes, and primarily regarding traffic, you can see we have a reduction in commercial we have an increase in residential and the result is in the 27 let's [04:04:10] just call it 28% reduction in overall traffic that feeds into maybe one of Mr. Galloway's questions was you know why is the why is the intersection going away the intersection is going away for two reasons one right there 28% reduction in traffic overall but secondly the the two as As frustrating as it was to fully design and turn in two regular eight-way intersections and turn them into VDOT, and then they call us up to Culpepper and say, yeah, we don't want that. [04:04:44] Start over. The good thing on that is those R-cuts have a higher capacity for traffic than a regular intersection, which is probably why VDOT likes them, and they don't stop traffic on the main thoroughfare. [04:05:01] much so it's combination two things we're dropping our traffic counts and the infrastructure we put it in has a higher capacity than was originally needed so we took one of the traffic we took out the most problematic for all the reasons that we just talked about entrances off of 29 let's see this is our zoning map Rebecca already went through it it's just denotes the areas that we can what we can build and where we can build. It also kind of shows our primary traffic improvements. We have the spine road that makes connection all the way from Pritchett goes into the property and then has [04:05:39] two connections out on 29. Parks again, Rebecca's been through that. I don't think we need to dwell on that too much. I'm going to show you some of the things that we've already built. This is our clubhouse. This is a six-lane 25-meter pool that can support a swim meet for elementary school kids and, you know, the swim teams that are around here. [04:06:04] We have a clubhouse and we have a gym. There's also, I didn't take a picture of it, but one side's a gym and lockers and bathrooms, and the other side is a common area that people can gather with a small kitchen. They can have parties, whatever. This is the park. [04:06:19] I love this park. I specifically asked for this park to be designed this way. It's where your kids can go jump around on stumps and hurt themselves and learn to be resilient, which is the proper way to put that. And there's a better look of our pool. [04:06:35] We have our pool, we have the baby area, we have two adult sitting areas, and we have lots of shade, shade actually over top of the baby pool, which is kind of nice. The architect did a really good job. And then we got this area here with grass, and there's a chimney and a fireplace and a gas log set. [04:06:53] We also got some ranges out here and various seating areas you can kind of come out and spend the day, and they do. normal parks uh play areas we've got this we've actually got two of these now we we had one now we built the second one same thing double basketball courts but this this one has pickleball of course and uh basketball the other one has tennis volleyball and basketball uh and they're on concrete slabs with that rubber it's a little i guess i talked about resiliency but okay you don't get your knee skinned if you fall on that one uh trails i want to point something out about the [04:07:30] trails i mean we we've extended originally and from the original zoning we had a we had a multi-use path from this traffic circle to basically this property line point right here we've extended that where that multi-use path is going to tie into a path that's up here at these townhomes on pritchett profit i never say it right on profit it'll run all the way through the property by the school site up past the clubhouse you know basically just bracket the entire residential area. The school site will be in the middle. It's a five-minute walk from, maybe seven-minute walk from these houses way out here. And then you'll come down through here and do this residential [04:08:08] section, and there'll be a connection out here to 29. We also have the greenway that we're dedicating to the county and access points, more importantly, from our multi-use path. There's a swale here that I've walked myself on both of these that's, you know, it's a trail system, but it's uh it's certainly doable uh and then these are our traffic improvements which we've already uh gone over uh so overall you know summary here is we're here to deal with the core of engineer regulations first of all because it's just a fact um we're providing much more of [04:08:45] a mid-level housing not the single family homes that are there now townhomes apartments and condos we're increasing the number of age use i wrote 106 it is 107 please ignore that number um we're moving the school to a usable site, doing the same grading that we had originally requested. [04:09:02] It's a slightly larger site. It's kind of just a function of the school site gets the property between two streams that we can't fill. Then we have access to the greenways and we've extended that multi-use path a little farther to make it basically you walk through the entire property on that multi-use path or ride your bike or push your stroller or whatever. So that's it. I'm happy to ask any questions that you might have awesome all right supervisor malik questions thank you [04:09:35] very much from doing the homework i wrote down one now i have to find it um can you talk a little bit about something that was in the homework about no difference in units for the payout versus the build then in other words you're using a cash in lieu for these instead of building the new ones no we're building understand that correctly i don't that's that's not an option is it no we're building them. Hallelujah. Yeah, I don't think that's an option. I mean, we did pay money back in 06 or 07 or whatever, but I wasn't here at the time, but we as a company. I will calm down to my [04:10:13] barricade there. Thank you very much. Okay. I'm all set. Thanks. Supervisor Lepisto Kirtley. Regarding the connection to Lewis and Clark, my understanding also that the Department of environmental quality got involved because of the stream and everything making it much more difficult there's a 14-foot drop also uh it's it's about a um i'd say it's a 20-foot drop from the road bed of 29 to the stream bed uh you were asking mr galloway was asking about [04:10:47] additional stream and you would right now the the the profile of that existing roads old farm road access is 15 feet wide 16 feet wide and then it goes down at really a one-to-one slope it's not what we would build nowadays so whatever that math works out to 50 feet wide 50 feet wide he's the math guy 50 feet wide that's how much stream is impacted now if you were to run a road through there and it would have to be a you know a culvert pipe and a fill just like our middle entrance [04:11:24] I mean, ours was 250 feet of stream bed to get filled. There's not a lot of difference in the change in elevation with ours at the middle and that one at the far north. So you're talking about filling another 200 feet-ish of stream for the perpendicular crossing, right? [04:11:44] Not talking about any of the additional retaining walls and the construction within the floodplain and next to the streams. Again, like I said, traffic volumes have dropped. Our existing improvements have more capacity. [04:12:02] That is a redundant connection, and we got rid of it. Thank you. No other questions. Supervisor Missal. Go online. You want me to pull my thing down? Do you want to see your face? I'm not sure entirely. [04:12:21] Thanks. Can you hear me? Yes, sir. Great. Just so you know, we're getting a pretty nasty storm here at Southern Albemarle, so if I disappear, you'll know why. Hey, thanks for the presentation. appreciate it and for stopping by to walk me through um this um a couple weeks ago or a month ago that was really helpful uh i appreciate the resilient stump activity zone especially i think that's that's very helpful so thanks for that um i have a couple of sort of nitpicky questions i guess one is um if my math is right your 207 units is what was i think the staff report said [04:12:57] something like 13.5% of the total units, 1,600 units. Yeah, so yeah, let me give you the quick and dirty on that. The original project from 06 had 893 units. Keep in mind this is 06. In 06, we wrote the only difference between our affordable housing, I shouldn't say only, the major difference between our affordable housing that we proffered in 06 and what was in place in 23 when we applied was uh the percentage we were if you did the math on the percentage of the number [04:13:37] of units we were somewhere around 12 and a half percent of the units at 80 ami rent or whatever so when you take the new 707 707 and you apply 15 to that the weighted you know the the cumulative together because we're our rezoning is asking for 107 more we're applying 15 on that but we're not applying a change on what's already been approved so that's why it's that's why it's 13 when you do the math right yeah i know i get it i'm tracking with your math um and i know every [04:14:14] unit of affordable housing counts my my math was telling me you know did you consider calculating it as 15 on the total allowed units of 1600 which would have brought you to 240 versus the total of 217 for an additional 23 units i did not okay um switching to transportation um a few quick questions one is i assume that the tia that you completed included updates on route 29 you said [04:14:51] that actually i think you answered that question and do you know if it included background traffic generated by some of the economic development initiatives coming in uh not not astrazeneca but it didn't it did include uh the university's recent rezoning for the residential they asked us to take that into account uh there was another kevin what was there was another large project they wanted us to take into account vdot basically was like this is or the county did too this is coming we know this is approved take into account these projects that are not built yet but are [04:15:30] coming down the pike and we did do that i think i think the universities was the biggest one the other ones were maybe a few things in uh brian do you know well yeah there's the standard growth factor but he's asking is there another project that we included i don't think so i think it was just mainly the university because a lot of that traffic is going to come you know through airport road yeah understood i just wanted to i was really curious about astrazeneca and i don't think the timing probably worked out so you could have had that no these things yeah no it did not i think [04:16:08] that is all my questions for you thank you okay thanks all right supervisor Pruitt um just a few things and these are mostly I want to make sure I'm understanding something correctly so I expect a yes no answer and probably a yes you sound like a lawyer um well we'll get is this a congressional hearing oh i mean it that way but i hear you um i'm i'm looking at the school site proffer [04:16:41] and i i read it as creating three mutually exclusive possibilities of the disposition of that area either it is used as a school and we say that it is used as a school before the end of 2028 it is used for a park and we say that it's going to be used for a park before the end of 2028 or we say nothing and on january 1st of 2029 you give us half a million dollars is that a correct understanding of that yes wonderful um and i also want to make sure i [04:17:19] i'm again i think the answer is yes it says that the in the third alternative um this land would then be used for other residential uses that i would not understand that it's changing your total rezoned authorized use it would just let you play with footprint a little more yes but i would very likely come back and ask for something helpful all right that's all i got supervisor duncan i have no questions um have would you have an idea with the cost to do that [04:17:57] northern entrance point be similar to the cost to do the the one you built the main entrance or would it be more so because of the topography like do you have a ballpark on what the actual i can tell you what i mean i'll tell you what we paid for ours i mean ours the middle entrance the one that's there it was a contract six years ago uh for just shy of five million dollars um did it have the similar issues with the stream and the so i mean it's a pretty good comparison yeah we had [04:18:32] we had a huge fills like what 40 foot fill on that thing right now i mean i'm good there was a there was a stream running right through the entrance that we had to fill and pay the core for and all that good stuff and pipe it and blah blah blah but yes it's very similar and yeah that's about right and then the road i mean that's the crossing or yeah we so that that number i gave you is the entrance to the to like i don't know 150 feet in 200 feet in because you kind of VDOT doesn't let you just build a finger that somebody can, they want cars to be able to pull in there. [04:19:07] And if somebody made a wrong turn or whatever, it's a safety issue. But there's, I don't know, 100 feet. If you look at our entrance now, I don't know if we've got anything. Brian will talk about it. Brian Mitchell, Townside Engineering. [04:19:23] We did the civil engineering work for that middle entrance. It was, David's correct, it was about $5 million. But that included some of the R cuts out in the front. We actually did a site plan for both for that entrance. [04:19:39] It's called an eight-leg signal. An eight-leg signal stops traffic, allows lefts to move, allows the traffic to move. VDOT didn't like that, so we came back and did it with an R-cut. That crossing has, I think, double eight-by-eight box culverts in it, and then the fill section for it. [04:20:00] And so the $5 million that David is quoting, it included some of the Route 29 R-Cut work as well. It wasn't just the entrance. Okay. Good. I think that's all. [04:20:16] Oh, you have more? No. Oh, I thought I saw you raise your hand. All right. Are there any other questions for the applicant? All right. Then we will, and there was, I'm just confirming there was no sign-ups, correct? All right. We will close the public hearing. you should have signed up before we had started. [04:20:40] Is the sign-up sheet still available to the clerk? There's no objection from the board? [04:21:13] You can come forward, sir. You're going to have three minutes to speak. The light will turn green when you begin. We ask that you state your name and your magisterial district if you live in the county. When you have a minute left, the yellow light will illuminate, and when it turns red, we'll ask you to conclude your remarks, please. [04:21:32] Yeah, this is great, Delaney, Jack Jewett. So I would just make a comment on behalf of a lot of people in the county that are very frustrated with the level of traffic that we have and the lack of consideration for what these units bring to the traffic in the county. [04:21:47] And I know that many of these, we need more affordable housing, but it's a longtime resident of the county that grew up and went to school here from K through 12. The price of housing has gotten unaffordable for the people that have lived here for 30 and 40 years. We've seen this community be transformed. [04:22:04] And so my question to the board would be, are there any studies being done to show that these, approving these apartment complexes by the thousands, are leading to more housing affordability in the county? [04:22:21] So, because it certainly doesn't, someone that has been trying to buy a home and just recently bought a home, it certainly does not seem that that's been the case. So, and then, and also, in general with the traffic, there's a very palpable frustration, And I just don't know if Charlottesville can be Richmond with the topography, but for example, the apartment complex that was built right over, or is being built currently, that everyone says, how in the world are we going to have the traffic come in on Ivy Road there? [04:22:49] And the current, the improvements, I don't even know what improvements are being done, but I don't know, are there any improvements that possibly can be done? Because that backs up severely at 5 p.m. So I would just ask you to take into consideration the people that live here, and I know you do, and I appreciate your service. But there is a downside to continuing to build. [04:23:09] We have a lot of units under construction right now in the county. So I just ask that that be taken into consideration. Also, how many vehicles per day? I don't know if I saw in the presentation. How many vehicles per day is this going to add to the roads? I know that supposedly, you know, going from commercial to residential is supposed to lower it. [04:23:25] But it certainly doesn't seem. I mean, that many units will lead to a lot of additional cars on the road. So I appreciate the time. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Mitchell, if you choose, you have, of course, five minutes for rebuttal, if any. All right. [04:23:42] Now the matter is back before the board. Thank you, board, for your consideration. We will close the public hearing portion. The matter is back for the board. Are there any additional questions for staff? I'm just going to look to my left and my right. Why don't I go around real quick? [04:23:59] You can ask questions and or make any comments as you wish. Supervisor Malik? Thank you. So I guess it's not impacting this proposal particularly, but VDOT is very good at synchronizing all the lights up and down. I get them all green all the time, so adding one more to get people safely in and out doesn't seem to be an issue to me. [04:24:19] I'm not VDOT, so I don't have a word about that. But it is frustrating when it continually comes up that we can't do all these things because when it's not the case. But thank you. I don't really have any questions right now. while i understand the desirability to have more places to go in and out just to have more options i remember back in 2006 7 8 the struggles that they had trying to engineer the roads they've already done and the huge impact of the grade and fill and i was upset about tearing down all the green waste to put in the utilities poor david got yelled at a lot about that so um i understand [04:24:59] the evolution of it but i'm okay right now thank you all right supervisor lapisto currently yes i just wanted to say I've been very involved in this project for quite a while now and I think what has been proposed is really, really good, frankly. I have heard from a number of constituents and they have concerns actually similar to what the gentleman said regarding more homes coming in, traffic, the things that we hear regarding anytime there's a development. Anytime there's a development, we hear the same types of things. And I understand that. But remember, we as a board [04:25:39] made a decision not to go out into the rural area. So we're going higher and denser in the development area. Will that change one day? Probably. I can see that changing. But in the meantime, when you do that, you have to also put the infrastructure, water and sewer, which costs a ton of money so i appreciate what has been done i think it's a good proposal i i have also heard the concerns of the constituents that have emailed me and called me and i respect that [04:26:13] but i will say that this is a good project and i will be supporting it all right supervisor missal great thank you um so i'll just lead off by saying i support this project um you know i appreciate the challenges that this group has been facing, and I understand the changes to the core regulations and how that's impacted their development significantly. You know, I say all that, but I also am cautious as we see more and more development applications that come to us [04:26:46] with a request to increase the residential uses and to decrease commercial, and we've seen several of them. My concern is that we don't compromise these developments in a way that compromises connectivity, right? And the value and the quality of the community itself. You know, the mixed-use component, something that I talked to the applicant about, and they were clear and shared with me their vision for that. Interconnections, so that there are internal trip [04:27:19] connection opportunities to keep them off the adjacent roads and ensuring that we don't remove essential services. So I also appreciated the comment around the lap pool and the fact that that is hopefully open to the community for events, swim meets, etc. You know, that's something also that's helpful. And I guess the last thing I'll say is, you know, this is adjacent to a major artery um an arterial collect connector and i think um as we think about development and the appropriateness of development relative to traffic this is one of those that makes good sense um and [04:27:58] so um yeah i am prepared to support this thank you uh supervisor pruitt uh thank you um first off yep i support this project it's in the development area that's where this goes um i would echo um supervisor Missal's note, and concern might be a little strong, but we'll say concern, right? [04:28:21] I was meeting with a nonprofit developer earlier today who mentioned, oh, you know, we've got a plan for one of these five-on-ones, and there's got to be commercial on the bottom. I'm like, oh, excellent. I look forward to six years from now when I get to review you rezoning that commercial on the bottom for residential, because that is the direction of seemingly almost every land use decision that comes before this board for the last year. [04:28:47] There are obviously ramifications for that that I think this board needs to be aware of, and I don't think we're not. I hope we continue to lean into what resolving the policy and practical concerns on our tax base that creates as we review our zoning refresh and how that's going to work with how we realize our comprehensive plan and our our thinking around activity clustering all right supervisor duncan um yeah i have seen the emails and the concerns especially around traffic i will [04:29:24] not go into the weeds again like i did last time but i do want to point out um that in 20 2006 the traffic counts from airport road up to camelot were 38 000 vehicles a day and in 2019 they were 39,000 a day so it can um I didn't do the most recent counts um yeah traffic's terrible at five o'clock anywhere in town um but perception is not necessarily reality and how it is at five [04:29:58] o'clock is not how it is you know 24 hours a day and just kind of reiterating some of the other comments that 29 is you know this main corridor that they are trying to move people through and the road can handle the traffic. Also, just even in the three months that I've been on here, I've heard people say, you know, oh, we can't have development because we need infrastructure first and, you know, we need schools and all this kind of stuff. And they have built the road infrastructure first, like the extra lanes are there, the R cuts are there. So I appreciate that, you know, this is what happens when it takes 20 years to get a development is you can [04:30:32] put the infrastructure in first um so you know that is one one plus um and i know there's future traffic improvements coming like there's you know a roundabout coming that will help um so i have no concerns about traffic whatsoever i also think just in general people are you know we've had a lot of emails opposed to this and yes this is in the development area it's on 29 you're across the road from the airport like this feels like this is the place that we would have development i'm excited about what's coming hopefully with the commercial i'm excited about [04:31:07] the school coming that people can walk their kids to the school and it is a really pretty site i've driven it um and yeah i'm excited that this is happening my only complaint is that the buildings are not taller and there's not more housing all right um i will be supportive of the project as well. I understood and appreciated those who wanted that northern connection, but also having listened to this board when streams are involved or slopes are involved, not to mention the cost [04:31:41] it would add to the project and what that would mean for the rest of the, I mean, look, when a large piece like that gets put in play, it gets passed on to the cost or the affordability of the units that are going to be there, both commercial and the residential. We've had other projects get hung up because of road projects. And while it, yes, it maybe goes against some of the connectivity issues or the connectivity aspirations we want, it has prevented a lot of things from being constructed and that we've had to find clever workarounds, if not removing those road projects, [04:32:16] which ultimately, for the projects I'm thinking of across the road, are not going to be prohibitive to how the traffic moves in and through to lose one connection through a smaller area. A little different because it's going to a main artery, but I could not imagine if this was coming in with the road connection and the level of scrutiny in terms of the streams and the bridge crossing that the board would probably delve into and would probably be a problematic connection for us from from a standpoint i'm actually happy for the school site change and location i recall [04:32:55] back when i was a member of the school board we used to make jokes that this elementary school if we ever used it would have been called cliffside because the but the site was pretty restrictive in terms of actually being usable for a school so the fact that it's going to where it is going i think is going to be a better site for that um so for the in the fact that we have a funded project out there that that'll come online i don't know how the timing works out relative to the residential coming the additional residential you have yet to build and our plans for the northern feeder [04:33:30] pattern elementary school but there probably won't you know while it may not be there for the folks that live there now for future builds uh that'll be the relief so that baker because baker butler is uh overcrowded um and i think this was it the was the school count in here the extra amount for just the add-on units or was it for the whole development there was like 54 or something like it was a spread of like 42 to 60 students for elementary based on the new units just the new units so there was a previous number for that um but with the with the piece coming [04:34:08] across the across the road the fact that a new school is going up there is going to be definitely needed so I'm glad that's a funded it's rare where we can say there's a funded school project with a new build coming to help alleviate some of the concerns the final comment I'll make will be to the speaker who was here yes there are projects that I how to find all that information that you alluded to sometimes can be tricky because they're attached to different projects in different places depending on what it is but just earlier today we had some discussion about our own transportation projects. Last month, we had updates about what we were submitting to the [04:34:45] state for funding for projects. And then each one of these applications that come forward has its own traffic analysis. So the difficult answer is you've got to pay attention to us all the time related to the philosophy of dealing with growth, where things are going, and then the infrastructure that may or may not come along with it. But with that, I will stop and we will entertain a motion. [04:35:10] I move to adopt the ordinance attachment G attached to the staff report to approve ZMA 2023-0007 North Point. [04:35:26] Second. All right. The motion has been made and seconded. Is there any further discussion? All right. If the clerk will please call the roll. Ms. Malik? Yes. Mr. Missel? Yes. Mr. Pruitt? Aye. [04:35:42] Ms. Duncan? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. Lopisto-Kirtley? Aye. All right. The motion carries. You all are approved. Mr. Chair, there's also a matter regarding the special use permit that is before the board this evening. No, they did not put that up there. [04:35:58] So if we might have the motion for that. Not included in attachment. I move to adopt the resolution attachment A attached to the staff report to approve SP-2023-0009, North Point. [04:36:16] Second. All right, the motion has been made and seconded. Without objection, if the clerk will please call the roll. Ms. Malik? Yes. Mr. Missel? Yes. Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Ms. Duncan? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. Lopisto-Kirtley? [04:36:31] Aye. All right, very good. All set. Thank you, board. We will move to, from the board, committee reports and matters not listed on the agenda. Supervisor Malik? Trying to think if I've had any committee reports, and I don't. [04:36:49] Thank you. Supervisor Lopisto-Kirtley? Yeah, we didn't have a CAC meeting because we had the budget meeting, so no reports. Thank you. Supervisor Missal. Thank you. No reports. Supervisor Pruitt. [04:37:05] Yes, so since our last meeting, we had a CARTA convening. There are three things that came out of that, two points of discussion, one action. The action was my appointment as the CARTA rep on the regional housing partnership, which also, as I know this board knows, implicates a later appointment that this board will make, which will now be a different person other than me. [04:37:36] Additionally, we had two presentations that stirred a good bit of discussion. I'M GOING TO TALK ABOUT ONE OF THEM AND I'LL LEAVE THE ONE ABOUT BUS SHELTERS TO SUPERVISOR DUNCAN BECAUSE I KNOW THAT IMPACTS HER DISTRICT MUCH MORE DIRECTLY THAN IT DOES MINE AND SHE KNOWS MORE ABOUT IT THAN I DO. SO I'LL TALK ABOUT THE PRIORITIZATION STUDY UPDATE THAT WE RECEIVED AS A REMINDER. THIS IS THE IMPLEMENTATION PRIORITIZATION STUDY. THIS IS THE NEXT STEP ON NOW THAT WE KNOW WHAT OUR ESTABLISHED NEEDS ARE, WHAT IS IT GOING TO LOOK LIKE TO ACTUALLY [04:38:11] Implement service expansions that would fill those needs. This is, I would say, a very early update. The main progress that we were updated on was we have now talked to people. We have gotten an inventory of all the studies that have been done before. I dunk on transit sometimes for having a lot of studies and not much action. I just want to say, I'm going to count it real quick. [04:38:36] 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. There are 12 applicable studies that they have to review of previous studies that we have done around transit planning in the region. And they have established an initial framework for how they are going to qualitatively consider our own concerns on a kind of binary set of concerns of expanding transit intensity versus expanding transit footprint and how we would weight those. [04:39:13] I said qualitatively that we actually had a back and forth about this. It's actually still going to go through a quantitative framework at some point as far as actual individuals served. But the consensus was that we want to slightly value intensity over expanding footprint of transit with the thinking that that is what builds the ability of individuals to rely on a transit service and that is something that is important when you get over an early hub of ridership acceptance and that's all i'm going to say on that thank you supervisor duncan um yeah uh after [04:39:48] that they did a presentation on the history of cat which was really great and interesting um it went back and they showed like the original buses from 1975 and i actually the presentation was so well put together I used it in my local government class and walked through it and taught them about CAT and then after that they did do a bus stop inventory that the city is doing and the slides for that are really great but they're basically going through and looking at every single bus stop in the system and seeing what it has what it needs what improvements would look like [04:40:22] we also just got an email today that also includes the data on like who's using the bus stops like how many people are getting on and off at each stop to see which ones are more used. And they are looking at, you know, what can they do to improve some of them, like signs, you know, evaluating trash cans, that sort of stuff. [04:40:45] And when you, you know, touch it and actually, like, make an improvement and an upgrade, then you have to make it ADA accessible. And so they're also looking at that and looking at which ones can get, you know, improved without kind of triggering that. [04:41:02] But looking at, you know, the bases, what buses, which ones have shelters, all that kind of stuff. So it was actually super interesting and just, like, good data to have on how our bus stops, you know, look and work and what they need. So, yeah, it was super interesting. [04:41:18] All right. The Regional Housing Partnership had its quarterly meeting in March. Supervisor Pruitt was in attendance. outside of the area presentation that was done that day was on the national housing crisis task force i will send that to you just the link if you want to go see what they're about and the action plan they're working on the it's a national thing that is being led with the efforts of the mayor of cleveland justin bibb and mayor of atlanta uh mayor andre dickens if i recall um and then [04:41:57] And he went quickly through, because he only had 30 minutes to present, and had to pick which things he should follow, which was interesting, to see what else they're doing in different places. The question and answer point was very, I think, compelling. [04:42:17] So if you want to go back and listen to the presentation, listen to the conversation that happened afterwards, that meeting was this past, I guess it was a week ago, Wednesday, so you can find the link there. And then after that, I did go to the group that was tasked with or tasked by city manager, Mr. Sanders, on dealing with the homelessness issue, the house that they had purchased the property to do low barrier shelter. [04:42:49] That group gave a presentation to the city council. So I was able to sit in on most of that prior to going to one of the budget town halls to see what they were. I mean, basically, these were different options of what could be planned in the building, what the level of service would be, how many beds, that sort of thing. [04:43:07] So funding and all of that is yet to really be there because these are the nonprofit agencies that are involved that did the bulk of the work. But it was interesting to see what they're planning there. And then I did mention the MPO meeting that we had on the 20th that you can go listen to VDOT and some of the talk that we had around the SmartScale applications. [04:43:30] So that's what I had there. Any other things pop up? I would just mention on that Housing Crisis Task Force presentation, I mentioned earlier in today's meeting that our role as decision makers and at some point going out there and figuring out what we believe and what things we think are more valuable is a great one-stop shop of different types of local-level housing interventions that localities can engage in and kind of case studies of individual things. [04:43:59] It is, I think, I think their website and information is a really excellent primer of different things localities can do. Some localities can't do. They might not be all practical. Everything, right. In the smaller. Oh, and I thought of one more thing there, but now I've forgotten it already. [04:44:18] Okay. All right. Well, if there are no other items, then without objection, we will adjourn to April. put my glasses on. April 15th, 2026, 1 p.m. here in Lane Auditorium. Thank you, everyone, and be careful driving. 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