Coraggio Consulting
Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors Meeting - January 22, 2025, Wednesday, January 22, 2025

Date: Wednesday, January 22, 2025
Place: Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors, Virginia
Length: 6h 31m (video)
Official meeting video (CivicClerk): https://chesterfieldcova.portal.civicclerk.com/event/1223/media
Official agenda (CivicClerk): https://chesterfieldcova.api.civicclerk.com/v1/Meetings/GetMeetingFileStream(fileId=2020,plainText=false)
Official minutes (CivicClerk): https://chesterfieldcova.api.civicclerk.com/v1/Meetings/GetMeetingFileStream(fileId=2041,plainText=false)

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 2026-10-25. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:02:23] Good afternoon and welcome to the afternoon session of the January 22nd Board of Supervisors meeting. Madam Clerk. Mr. Chair, the first item on the agenda is approval of minutes for the December 18th, 2024 and January 8th, 2025 Board of Supervisors meetings.

[00:02:40] Can you get a motion? So moved. Ms. Second. All in favor? Aye. Item 2, request to postpone agenda items and additions, deletions, or changes in the order of presentation.

[00:02:55] Staff has one request. We would like to remove agenda item 13G, recognizing Supervisor Holland, recipient of the 2025 Chester Family YMCA Martin Luther King Jr. Service Award for Leadership. That is all we have. Do any board members have any other requests at this time?

[00:03:17] Hearing none, can I get a motion? So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Item three, Everyday Excellence, Dr. Casey. Good afternoon, members of the board, the public that's here, and the public that is watching. As we start every meeting, it's just a reminder to us of the employees we have on the front line serving us each and every day and all that they do.

[00:03:40] And we've done a good representation of the variety of functions that we have. Today is no different. So while I'm talking, if I could have Matt Harris, Deputy County Administrator, and Natalie Spillman and Casey Walker from our legislative services to the front.

[00:03:55] It goes about saying Casey, who joined us in 2019, right before the pandemic, is an example of us recruiting and retaining top talent to be deployed in so many different manners. So, again, while her role is primarily usually downtown right now with the General Assembly, working with Natalie Spillman on behalf of the Board of Supervisors and our citizens, Her recognition is not just that, but also especially what she has done in leveraging the county's abilities to be recipients and, more importantly, complying with all the federal regulations over the variety of COVID-related, pandemic-related funding from the federal government.

[00:04:34] With that said, I'll turn it over to Matt Harris. Mr. Chairman, members of the board, great intro by Dr. Casey. And Natalie can really talk about Casey's intergovernmental contributions, which are immense and probably worth, you know, being every excellence on their own.

[00:04:54] We nominated her specifically today for her ARPA work. I think it goes above and beyond. If you pull her job description, you won't see anything on there about, you know, half of the things that she really volunteers to do. ARPA compliance, I think all of you have had some exposure to that over the course of the last, you know, several years.

[00:05:14] It is an incredibly complex matrix of compliance and reporting, hurting dozens of departments through that process. And she did that, again, voluntarily with all of the other incredible work that she does.

[00:05:34] And that's a function that most of our peers hired a part-time employee or an outside third party to do that kind of work. I just can't thank her enough for all of her contributions in that space.

[00:05:49] It was really just spectacular. I don't think anybody, any department that worked with her would echo those same sentiments. So, Natalie. Good afternoon, everyone. Just echo Matt's comments. And I'll also add, you know, during this last couple of months, it's been a lot of reporting requirements.

[00:06:09] And Casey, as she's taken on ARPA, you know, has really been not only a leader for Chesterfield in that space, but for the state, and so we've had others reach out to us and want to know how is Chesterfield doing this, how are we in compliance, how are we doing the reporting, and so her meticulous record-keeping, give her an Excel file.

[00:06:30] She lives in rows and columns and really enjoys that. You know, there's days where it was painful, but she will admit now how much she truly loves ARPA, which is just a testament to, I think, you know, her ability to want to do the right thing and help the county propel itself into being able to really take advantage of what those funds provided for us now and what they will give us in the future.

[00:06:52] So she's really to be commended for that work. And not only has Casey done exceptionally well in that space, it's also helped provide relationship building, which is the core function of the business that we do in intergovernmental relations. And so being able to build on those relationships internally, but also with our external customers.

[00:07:10] And so it's really helped her to be just a great standout employee in helping us to communicate the county's needs or challenges or concerns that we might have on any particular issue. So again, she's very passionate about the work that she does, excited to see her move into some new space. And so she's going to be helping out with the opioid recovery services. And so through the OAA funds that are distributed, looking forward to seeing her work on that and seeing that progress forward too. So all around thankful for Casey, thankful for the work she does and it's often hard to kind of recognize some of the behind the scenes and

[00:07:49] more administrative or sometimes just day-to-day tasks that we have to do but they certainly help this county become what we are and what we're going to be continuing to be great in the future thank you so much i think you all know a lot of the end user departments did a lot of the heavy lifting and so did procurement and accounting so it's not just me working on this and as nally said I do love ARPA now might be a little bit of Stockholm syndrome but it's been fun it's been a

[00:08:25] great way to see what we can do when we get 68 million dollars thank you board members any comments just thank you for everything that you're doing it's always good to have a friendly face down at GA to see you two ladies and I know this isn't what that's about but you do that above and beyond and thank you so much appreciate it you really do an excellent job for us very fortunate to have you. And, you know, we were able to do some amazing stuff with those dollars,

[00:09:00] maximizing the best of what we could to, you know, with our getting caught up on capital improvement projects and such. So thank you for your hard work. I appreciate it. And obviously what Supervisor Schneider said, being down at the General Assembly and keeping us abreast of everything that happens down there. I'll just echo both my colleagues.

[00:09:21] You're doing a great job. I appreciate all the energy you're putting in. And in many ways you are saving the taxpayers so much money and so grateful for everything that you're doing and you know whenever you're getting involved with a government system especially on a federal level you're talking something very very challenging for you to be able to sort through all of that and make heads or tails out of it it says a lot about who you are. Thank you. Casey when you read your job description and it said other tasks as needed I'm sure you didn't see

[00:09:54] ARPA in that. And what you've done has really helped us to make sure we're in compliance so that we don't do something that could have a clawback on those dollars. So it's very important work to make sure that we stay compliant. And everything you've done with that and all of the other things that you actually were assigned to originally, taking care of all of that is very

[00:10:18] much appreciated by us. So thank you. Item four, work sessions, a state legislative update. Ms.

[00:10:37] Spillman. I'm just going to stay right here, if that's okay. Well, again, thank you for having us. It's been a little bit of a rough start kicking off General Assembly amidst a water crisis in Richmond. So there was a three-day delay, which also extended deadlines for bill filings and budget amendments. However, we've had a really busy two weeks analyzing those bills, reviewing budget amendments, and the committee meetings and meeting with legislators. Today marks day 13 or 15, depending upon how you're counting, of a short 46-day session.

[00:11:11] So just a couple key dates I want to run through with you. The last Friday, January 17th, was the last day to file bills. So we believe that most of those have hit the airwaves, but there could still be a few trickling in. Over the weekend, we saw a mass download of what had been filed as of Friday.

[00:11:30] Sunday, February 2nd, is Budget Sunday. That's the deadline for House Appropriations and Senate Finance to report on their respective budgets by midnight. February 4th is crossover, and that's the deadline when each chamber has to take action on the legislation that originated in that chamber.

[00:11:48] February 12th is the deadline for each chamber to complete their consideration on the other chamber's budget bills. February 17th is the deadline for committee action on legislation by midnight, and so February 22nd is the day that is scheduled to adjourn sine die.

[00:12:06] On April 2nd, that's the day scheduled for the reconvene session on consideration of the governor's amendments and vetoes. So as of this morning, there was about 2,000 bills exclusive of resolutions that have been filed.

[00:12:21] And so we've identified about 414 bills that we're further analyzing and tracking. We have 12 days left until crossover. And so that means the next week is really full of some big dockets, long meetings. Just broad topics that have dominated the local government conversation so far are really focusing on housing, land use, public safety, local governance, environmental, and then I'm going to bring up a juvenile justice topic that we're dealing with too. So I sent you all a pretty comprehensive list last Friday, and we'll continue to do those weekly updates with you, but just a couple of updates from the committee meetings that have happened this week on those bills.

[00:13:01] So Senator Van Valkenburg SB 838 was introduced related to recovery residences, and this would amend legislation on the penalty piece in particular, making it a class one misdemeanor for those who were not in compliance. It also establishes a work group that would be led by DBHDS in looking at providing and establishing the regulatory framework to how we would address recovery residences, looking to put some protections in place for the vulnerable population that's receiving these community recovery services.

[00:13:31] So it was reassigned from Senate Ed last week and is making its way, we expect to see it on the agenda for Friday in Senate Rehab. With some minor amendments that we submitted to the senator, they're taking, they were very appreciative of their work with us.

[00:13:47] And so we've got just some technical amendments in there that they've incorporated, and so we're supportive of that bill. Senator Saleem had an ADU bill, and this is the accessory dwelling unit bill, that was similar to what was in place or what was presented last year. that bill failed. It's still problematic. It's mandating ADUs as a by-right use. It was a hotly debated topic during the Housing Commission this summer, and so it went to Senate Local Gov.

[00:14:13] Actually, it made it to the floor. The floor sent it back to Senate Local Gov, and then there was debate among Senator Stanley and Senator Salim. Senator Stanley's carrying a version that was supported and endorsed by the Housing Commission, where you could incorporate ADUs within your comp plan as a permissive option, local option. And so he's offered to have Senator Saleem co-patron his bill, but that offer has been denied. And so they had been sent aside by the week to take a, you know, take some more conversation and figure out is there anywhere to find resolution.

[00:14:48] There's a few bad housing bills that died this week. And so one of those would have permitted buy right multifamily residential in all commercial and business districts. And the other one would have put in place statewide housing targets that would have required localities to increase their housing stock by at least seven and a half percent over a five-year period. So those bills have both failed. Senator Hashmi introduced her faith in housing bill again this year with significant revisions. And so the bill ultimately did not receive endorsement out of the housing commission, but there was again a significant overhaul in the bill itself. And

[00:15:25] the version that has been reported out from committee, we believe is something that we can live with. And so the basic tenets of that bill are requiring localities to address properties owned by religious organizations or those that have some, there's specific language for non-profit status, that there's a consideration in your comprehensive plan for how to address those properties, but there's not a mandate on what you have to do with them. So some permissibility for how localities can handle that. Again, that bill passed out of the committee on a 12-3 vote and expect that it's going to go through the Senate and cross over. Double get cars carrying the House

[00:16:05] version of that bill. We had a couple of environmental bills come up this week. One of them, the Dam Safety Act. This was language introduced and actually our own Jess Robinson was on the work group committee to add local emergency managers in as a point of contact when there's high-risk dams, then there's an alert or there's some other reason for failure that needs to be as a point of contact, along with a variety of other items related to dam safety.

[00:16:33] And so as presented, though, outside of the language that she was working on, there was some other language that could have caused a high financial risk for the county, putting us in a position that if these high-risk dams were identified as imminent threat, a locality could then be responsible for those costs.

[00:16:48] And so we worked with DCR, VACO, and VML as well, and there was language amended to address our concerns that took it and satisfied that we would not be held responsible holding the bag. Senator McPike introduced a bill this past session as related to school construction.

[00:17:07] And so this kind of, not that it came out of nowhere, because this has been a topic that we've all been lobbying for, but it was a little bit different than last year's version, and it's got some non-supplanting language in there. And so we believe that this will help address the administration's concerns for why it was vetoed last year. It's passed the Senate, and we'll cross over to the House.

[00:17:29] Senator Surville introduced a collective bargaining bill by public employees. So we have done an estimated assessment of what that would cost to the county, which would be around $200 million if something like this were to be implemented. And so we're vocalizing strong opposition to this topic. It has been referred to a committee, but has yet to actually hit a docket. And then just one other topic to bring to your attention. So Senator Marston has been working on the topic of juvenile detention facilities for about the last five years.

[00:18:00] There was a commission on youth study that was presented last summer. There's been a lot of work on his end on this. And, um, quite frankly, he's been just, this topic will not, he will not let it go. Um, and so there was a bill presented that would require closure and consolidations of juvenile detention facilities across the state. It is a, um, it is a very bad bill, just quite simply. Um, it's harmful for a variety of reasons. Um, Marilyn Brown, our director for general justice services has been fantastic, um, with her statewide organization providing us with

[00:18:36] information. So there's been mass communication between VML and VACO as well for strong opposition to this. Overall, you know, this type of, if something like this were to happen, it really just hurts the very vulnerable population to be able to take care of our juvenile youth in the Commonwealth that need to have this service close to home. And so again, continuing to communicate or advocate against this bill. So with that, there's also still a good number of bills that we're really waiting for in the house to be assigned to committees um and so there's again 12 days left to cross over and so the intensity of this short session is really going to pick up

[00:19:15] next week turn it over to casey for just a few budget updates just just to clarify too with the juvenile detention center that may make a lot of news in a variety of ways and miss spilman you can correct me but we are not necessarily on the list to be closed as much as being a premier facility that they want others who are closed to negotiate with us to fill up our facility.

[00:19:40] So I just want to give a recognition to Marilyn Brown, who's the overseer of our juvenile detention center, to being one of the few listed in the state as the desired place for juveniles to go to. Having said that, we designed that facility to serve a population of our juveniles and don't want to run into an overcapacity issue where we would then have to send our own children afar for services that need to be local.

[00:20:04] Yeah, there's seven facilities that would close in this bill and both Richmond was identified as a closure and Henrico was identified as a closure and Chesterfield's listed as a location where both of those would be sending their residents. So on the budget topic, we did share with you all an update when the governor's proposed amendments to the second year of the biennium were released in December.

[00:20:29] And so just last week, the member budget amendments were also released. The Senate General Fund budget amendments totaled over $7.9 billion, and the House was similarly about $6.9 billion. Some of those amounts are just placeholder amounts, but you get a sense of scale of how many requests there are for limited resources.

[00:20:46] We're not hearing a lot on the budget, but what we are hearing is that likely a lot of the major initiatives are going to be one-time investments. There's less available revenue in the out years of the state budget, so anything getting funded is likely to be one-time funding.

[00:21:02] You're all familiar with the MedFlight topic. Two budget amendments are being put in, one by Senator Hashmi and one by Delegate McQuinn. Just to recap, we are asking for an additional $950,000 in state general fund dollars to address the funding gap on MedFlight. This is to support the county's flight medic positions that work in partnership with the Virginia State Police on the MedFlight.

[00:21:24] That program serves over 60 localities in the Commonwealth, and so we have, as part of our advocacy, reached out with information about this request to members representing those localities as well as our own delegation to let them know how crucial this is for the program.

[00:21:41] Senator Hashmi also proposed an amendment to tackle the entire slate of jailer recommendations. That's over $1.1 billion. Not likely to see all of that get funded, but appreciate the thought that goes into that. We've also seen some smaller scale adjustments proposed for individual pieces of those JLARC recommendations, so looking at the English language learners, the at-risk add-on, or eliminating the support cap.

[00:22:04] So we're seeing those piecemeal amendments as well. A language amendment was also offered in both the House and the Senate to strike budget language. This is language that reverses what is in the Code of Virginia for excess clerk fees. Currently, two-thirds of that is going to the state, and one-third is staying local.

[00:22:21] In the code, it's the opposite of that, so language is being put in to bring it back to what is in the code. There's also a few compensation topics that come up, some comp board positions, registrar funding, and enhanced retirement benefits. This would be the state portion of that enhanced retirement benefits for 911 dispatchers.

[00:22:40] And then we also saw a budget amendment from Senator Marsden on that juvenile detention topic as well. So we are advocating on all those topics for how best to support Chesterfield with our members. Board members, any questions or comments? Chair, a question on the juvenile facility bill.

[00:22:59] So they proposed to close these other facilities and said that they could send children here. Is it part of the bill that they would have to pay a fee to us? There is some funding, but funding was one of the primary focuses of the study.

[00:23:16] And so the senator believed that there was some efficiencies to be realized with funding, but the reality is there's still a cost that goes along with, And the localities are covering most of those costs themselves. But, yes, there is some money, but it doesn't cover the full freight.

[00:23:32] Mr. Kroff, I could just add to that, too. Most likely it would be very similar to a per diem charge, but the way the bill is, it's vague almost. It says we just trust that you can negotiate to that point, which that doesn't really provide the path. And we don't anticipate it moving forward?

[00:23:49] No, there seems to be strong opposition, and I think we're hearing that most folks are interested in voting no. Okay, thank you. But it kind of begs the question, which ones would remain open and which ones would close?

[00:24:06] Did they give a sense of what that criteria was? So again, there was a study done. It was presented to the Commission on Youth. That identified some key findings based on what they believed, but there's also questions on the study itself based on who was involved and who wasn't involved when that study was prepared.

[00:24:24] So they used that as the basis for determining the facilities that were identified in the bill. Regarding the recovery, Tom, so I think that's Ben Valkenberg. So it would put more regulatory, state regulatory around it.

[00:24:45] And so instead of just VARR in charge, it would have someone actually doing checks on the facilities. So that's yet to be determined. And so the work group that would be led by DBHDS would bring together key stakeholders, which would include VAR and Oxford Homes, but it also identifies localities to be part of that and working towards identifying how that solution is going to lay out.

[00:25:08] But we are advocating for state oversight and state administration. Last question. And did you say that all of the bills that were submitted for buy-write accessory dwelling units have been defeated now?

[00:25:23] No. So they were passed by for the week, and so we'll see them up again next week. And I think just for the community to understand, if understanding one of the bills right and I'm not sure if it's if it's one that's already been killed or not but essentially what they want to do is make it so that if you you own a house anywhere you can pop up an accessory dwelling unit all you have to do is get a permit am I correct on that um pretty much yeah without without anything so there's no local process there's so so as an example we had a zoning case here a couple years ago when someone brought

[00:26:01] forward a condition to use permit for accessory dwelling and the neighbors came out of the woodwork um to oppose the case this particular person was just going to build an accessory dwelling unit for their father to live in um and of course we we passed it and of course it was such acrimony in the neighborhood that person decided to sell the house and get out of there but imagine if you took mad green and by right everybody could turn around and just pop up an accessory dwelling unit or brandon mill or any neighborhood in chesterfield county um how hard

[00:26:34] it would be for us to, you know, look at, for example, school funding and how many, even to anticipate how many students could be popped up in a neighborhood out of nowhere that we would have no idea about and all people have to do is get a permit to put it up. So we're not against accessory dwelling units. I think it's a great way for people's family and parents, but I think that neighbors, quite frankly, and sometimes in neighborhoods, in neighborhoods associations and and others need to have a voice in that, as opposed to just a blanket, you can go ahead and do it.

[00:27:09] Now, when you get out maybe in rural areas, five-acre-plus lots, where people are more separated, that might be a different issue, and that's something we could actually do in our own code if we decided to, which is not up for proposal right now, but when I looked at those bills, it was concerning.

[00:27:26] Yeah, we agree, and, you know, this summer, again, at the Housing Commission, this topic, as it was part of their program to look at, Mr. Smith came down, gave a great presentation on ADUs to help just educate, too, of how they're being utilized in our community, because they are. I mean, where we have the process in place today for conditional use, and it's predominantly families that are housing their relatives, aging parents, or, you know, bringing other families on site.

[00:27:51] And so, but again, that's our ability to make those decisions based on what our community needs and wants. So, thank you. On the med flight bills, are they in as one-time funding or we think that that's in for permanent funding if it's passed?

[00:28:10] The hope would be ongoing funding, yeah. And so just for clarification on that, too, last year the governor's proposed budget included funding. The House kept it in, Senate pulled it out, and sent it to study at OEMS with a report that was due by October 1st. The report never materialized.

[00:28:26] We did see a report that was published December 1st. And so in addition to that, the report and the budget language was asking for those funds to come out of the trauma care fund. And so we have always initiated that's concerning that MedFlight does more than just trauma care transports.

[00:28:46] And so as it pertains to law enforcement activities such as search and rescue and other transports to specialty care hospitals, like Johnston Willis for the neuro care unit there, there's uses beyond trauma care funds and that the services that these flight medics are providing. And so that's why we asked for general fund dollars to support the flight medics.

[00:29:05] And what do you think the temperature is on eliminating the support cap on K-12? I think that there's interest. I don't know to the extent at which they will be able to accomplish it, though. I think the governor has vocalized some hesitancy to put the funding in.

[00:29:25] And so I think there's definitely interest from the General Assembly, though. Well, the two of you certainly have your hands full. And we wish you well in keeping us informed and advocating on behalf of our citizens. Thank you for all your work, Dunn. Thank you. B-F-Y-2026 budget and financial reporting update, Mr. Harris and Mr. Staley.

[00:30:00] While that's coming down, so your typical finance update, three really chapters of the story today. First and foremost, as we do, you know, periodically, we'll walk through some EDA financials and sort of give an update on their portfolio of projects.

[00:30:25] To aid with that, I've got Brendan Staley here with me, who is co-counsel to the EDA, and will give you sort of not just the financial end of things, sort of the numbers, but some of the legal framework, which I think will be helpful. So without further ado, we will jump right into that in the interest of time.

[00:30:49] Good afternoon, Chairman, Board. Thank you all for having me here. Happy to give you all a little bit of context, And I guess I'll steer at the same time. So Matt asked me to come out here this afternoon and talk a little bit about the Economic Development Authority's legal purposes and powers that it can exercise, particularly in the context of the county's growth and development.

[00:31:10] So I'm going to try to do that succinctly. But if you have questions or if you think I've said something confusing, please just interject and I'm happy to answer any questions as we go. For background, y'all are likely aware, but the EDA is a separate political subdivision created by the county board of supervisors.

[00:31:29] Board of supervisors created it back in 1968 and changed the name in 2005 to reflect its purpose as an economic development authority beyond just industrial development activities. And so it's constrained by the powers set forth in the IDA Act and also the Constitution of Virginia and Virginia case law.

[00:31:48] I didn't realize I'd star wipe, so I apologize. should I clean the formatting up so the primary purposes that are relevant for the county and for y'all as the board of supervisors are really threefold one is to promote promote industry and develop trade so what that really means is economic development in the context of the county the other two are overlapping and it's to assist in the development of facilities for the county government and

[00:32:19] the school this is and as their purpose in assisting is to help in financing bonds for those facilities and that's it that's their total and the land for the construction and yes that's the bonds for the land and construction and we're gonna spend more time on that point we get further into the presentation so yes sir absolutely that's right and so this is an extract of some of the powers it

[00:32:50] It is not an exhaustive list of the EDA's powers, but it's the key ones that are typically exercised by the EDA in the context of fulfilling the county's economic development objectives and also assisting in the county's financing needs. Happy to go through them individually if helpful, but I think the list speaks for itself.

[00:33:16] And so the Virginia Code also gives the county a set of complementary powers. And again, this is not exhaustive, but these are the three that are most relevant. And so it can make donations and appropriations of money to the EDA. It can give, lend, or advance money or other property to the county, or to the EDA rather, and then also has the ability to acquire facilities sites and to transfer facility sites to the authority.

[00:33:40] And so one of the defined terms that's probably most relevant when you think about how the EDA exercises its powers is authority facility. It is a comprehensive definition.

[00:33:57] It describes a long list of kinds of facilities, but those that are most relevant, again, for your purposes when you're thinking about how the county uses the EDA, or it can finance parking facilities, it can finance various facilities for local governments, including the county, and also various commercial enterprises.

[00:34:20] And so the two primary roles or ways in which the EDA facilitates growth and development in the county are to issue bonds on behalf of or for the benefit of the county and those are used to fund various public improvements and economic development projects typically the bonds are always rather the bonds are payable from annual appropriations from the board of supervisors so you will have the discretion as to whether or not to appropriate those payments to pay the debt service and they're usually pursuant to a support agreement or financing agreement with the eda

[00:34:57] The second role that the county EDA plays is to engage in various land development and economic incentive transactions. And so that's what you regularly hear from when Garrett gives updates at the board meeting. So focusing on the first purpose that relates to financing, this is a context slide that speaks to how the county can finance various kinds of public improvements.

[00:35:26] Y'all are most accustomed probably to seeing general obligation bonds issued pursuant to a referendum. That's the first slide there, first bullet at the top. The second is the county can enter into financing arrangements with the Virginia Resources Authority. That is a subject to appropriation undertaking, much like the relationship with EDA financings.

[00:35:44] And finally, the EDA itself can issue bonds on behalf of or supported by the county, which is the primary role the EDA has played for county public improvements over the past several years. Just to elaborate on that, anything that we don't do in G.O., we have to go find another financing avenue to be able to do that.

[00:36:06] The most cost-efficient way for us to borrow money is through the EDA. That's as simple as it is. If we use VRA, which Bernie mentioned, there's extra fees. We pay a higher rate for that opportunity.

[00:36:23] So that is why, you know, we use EDA as we do for the financing of county facilities. And it's worth noting that the county's credit is higher than the VRA credit in terms of the credit rating. So the second purpose that I mentioned earlier is engaging in various land development and economic development incentive transactions.

[00:36:48] Land development takes the form of acquiring property, developing it, and positioning it for private investment. Two big examples the county has that are currently active are Meadowville and Upper Magnolia Green. I know y'all are very familiar with those projects. And then in terms of performance agreements, the county uses or leverages private investment by promising incremental tax revenues in a rebate arrangement effectively.

[00:37:16] And so incentivizes targeted economic development or private investment. So any questions for Brendan before we kind of get into the – we're going to go through and add some meat to those bones.

[00:37:36] But while Brendan's at the table, any questions for him on sort of the legal backdrop for this? I have a question. So how many times does the EDA initiate any of these items on its own without any input from the county? Well, I think that's probably a better question for Mr. Hart.

[00:37:54] But I think the answer to that would be it is a county-initiated agenda by and large. The answer is never. Well, and on the financing side, the EDA doesn't have the revenues to pay the debt service if it were to issue bonds without county backing, so.

[00:38:14] Anything to add to that, Mr. Hart? Very good. So this slide, I think, just, again, we use the EDA, the primary way we use it is for condo financing, and to just give some context to what that is, so it's not just, you know, slides or slide.

[00:38:37] These are the projects that we're talking about that are currently financed through the EDA that are county facilities. So these are not things that have, I apologize, is going around. But these are not economic development projects.

[00:38:56] I think Brandon gave it to me, actually. Excuse me. Gerard's gonna come up and come back to the slide in one second, sorry. I'm gonna blame my kids.

[00:39:20] I mean, I could just step in for a second. I mean, what Mr. Harris is just trying to summarize is twofold. And, you know, of the $430 million, it goes without saying $311 million is something that you were deeply involved with as far as allocating our 50% discretionary share of the CVTA funds.

[00:39:36] And, again, those are all appropriations projects through Transportation Department, but the funding source was a CVTA. It also helps leverage what could be federal and state sources and shows that we have skin in the game. So we're never done with whatever our road projects we try and do it.

[00:39:52] The six or seven bullets, again, going back even to Mr. Engel's comment, those are county projects. Those are county projects that the Board of Supervisors has wanted, or they are projects that may have been initiated and proposed by a department of the county or the schools for which all of them have gone through a county lens, through county authorization.

[00:40:12] If it's known far in advance, it's through our capital improvements program and our annual budget resolutions that you as a board adopt after public hearings. If things arise during the year, because it's timely and needs to get done, again, they have to follow the same prescribed practices. Yeah, the other one to note on there is the school's major maintenance package at the bottom, also done through an EDA conduit finance, which is certainly a milestone accomplishment of this board.

[00:40:40] So if a citizen was to say they FOIAed the EDA and the EDA is doing hundreds of millions of dollars of EDA projects in the county, what the EDA did was issue bonds on behalf of the county as the mechanism to issue the bonds for projects that are taking place in the county that are not anything other than trying to put in the CIP that has been approved by this board.

[00:41:10] It's not an economic development fund. They're just going crazy and spending all this money on all their projects. Is that correct? That's precisely correct. And I would say, you know, without doing heavy math right now, because of the low interest rate that we can get because of the county's credit rating and the EDA powers, you know, we were able to leverage $430 million.

[00:41:32] Probably the same debt service payment at a higher interest rate would have consumed more of it into interest and not into principal. So our value of what we could have spent on projects is probably in the $300 to $400 million range, not $430. Yeah, the EDA does not charge us fees, you know, given that we're the same entity, essentially pay a lower interest rate.

[00:41:54] So it absolutely maximizes the amount of proceeds that can go into projects. And just to make the point kind of real clear in that none of this can happen without the blessing of our community because it has to go through a referendum. No, sir.

[00:42:11] It goes through a public hearing process. General obligation bonds go through referendums. These are other projects that arise intermittently between referendum years, which we have every five to seven years. But the $311 million just focus on that. That has arisen as a new funding source and a new mechanism to leverage already an annual cash flow from CVTA that we didn't want to wait, if you will, years to get things done.

[00:42:36] But it was subject to the rightful public hearings as far as an appropriation and the public hearings that go with it in the comments. Okay, thank you. Matt, can you just touch base a little bit on what projects, you know, in 2020 I remember when we actually restructured debt to get caught up on some major maintenance projects with the schools, I think to the tune of like $120 million, something like that?

[00:43:06] So, yeah, this 57 that's up here is the byproduct of that effort from 2020. This is the debt component. So we did some cash as well. Yes, sir. Or CARES and all the things you've heard about today already.

[00:43:23] Yes, sir. And what were some of those projects that the school utilized it for? This is HVAC and major system replacements throughout the division, deferred needs that that had. If I remember correctly, prior to that, we had schools that had Legionella disease supposedly in the coolers and everything else, right?

[00:43:39] Yes, sir. And this really got us back to square one. Okay, thanks. Any other questions for Brennan before we get into the project by project? Thank you, sir.

[00:43:56] Yeah, if you just hang around. We thought we'd go through some of the kind of four major kind of projects, as it were, that's been undertaken through the EDA over the last 20 or so years.

[00:44:27] First one being Meadowville Technology Park. We took control of that property in 2005. The initial assessment, as you can see on there, was about $8.9 million. The interchange there opened up in 2012. to date, including interest investment there has been over $90 million. That said, the net local cost to us has been about a shade under $40, $39.5 million. But the cumulative revenue to date generated from that through the various tax streams, real estate, business personal property

[00:45:00] taxes is about $43.2 million. So another way to say that is we're break even to date on our investment in in the dirt there not not the recurring stream but break even on you know investment today and just to be clear that is a plan for the eda they buy the land whatever they put into the cost to develop it they take those two costs add them together and they use that as the basis for selling the property to break even with the intent to where you're going to have

[00:45:35] recurring increased revenues yeah the goal is to get to that point which jar get to in a second when we have that annual contribution to the operating budget, which is where Mediville is now. Mr. Chair, if I could just add to that, too, with it under the EDA control and the closeness of the EDA to the county, this isn't just a developer trying to sell off parcels of land for anyone who wants to buy something.

[00:45:58] You know, it goes without saying, you know, a private sector developer holding something in 2005 would have probably already developed the Lego site into some warehousing of some sort If, in fact, there was a willing buyer at a good land sale transaction. We, working with the EDA, when I'm saying we at the county board, has been mindful to say, this is premier site, let's wait for a premier customer, which you wouldn't be able to do that if it was entirely private.

[00:46:27] Annually, as of right now, the park is producing about $5.5 million in direct tax revenue. We do have some outstanding debt on the park itself, so once you deduct that, it's a net additional revenue to the county of about $3.9 million as it stands today.

[00:46:44] The 2025 assessment, we'll be going over that topic with Mr. Bloomfield Bill as we go through this presentation, is at $356.9 million. So just for some context, back in 2005, it was 8.9. Now it's sitting at 356.9, a 40x jump since 2005.

[00:47:05] And the difference in the five in the assessment is other business taxes that are collected in the park, non-real estate contributions. And based on the current development schedule, most notably LEGO, we are anticipating additional estimated revenues from the various tax streams of anywhere between $7 to $9 million.

[00:47:26] So all in all, once it's fully up and built out, we're expected to receive projected recurring contribution towards the general fund of about $13 plus million from various tax revenue streams. And, you know, Mr. Ingle, as you would say, you know, at its full build-out, it's worth two pennies on the rate.

[00:47:45] You know, all clear of every outstanding, you know, piece of debt and other expenses. All right. The second one I'm going to talk about today is Clover Reef and Stonebridge. The assessed value of that in 1995, as you can see, was $60 million.

[00:48:06] When the CDA was dissolved in 2023, the assessed value there was about $142.8 million. Annual revenue stream coming in from there is about 1.84 with net expenses of just over a million dollars. So Cloverleaf is a little different story in that this is where Metaville is a green site development.

[00:48:28] We're going in trying to have a home for future industrial development. Cloverleaf was, like you see in mid-90s, a pretty substantial regional mall. And you see it crater down to $11 million. before we really took ownership it just you know sort of fell into disrepair so that the reason for getting involved here kind of Mr. Engel's original question was trying to you know put a flag down at this important end of Milothian Turnpike and really try to revitalize that area so each one of these panels in this presentation has a different motivation a different reason we

[00:49:06] were involved and just wanted to note that for the audience I worked on this one from the from the get-go and you know there's never been a general fund pull from the work at Cloverleaf the revenues have always exceeded expenses and it's encapsulated within the CDA here so I think that's that's an important point to to note again it's got a different financial makeup a different financial pro forma than Medeville but it has been a plus contributor from the get-go and we had to

[00:49:38] use a CDA in this one because the returns were not considered by investors as positive as maybe something we did across the street that we did in a different manner because we had to use a CDA structure here because that was the only financing mechanism that we could really use to be able to move forward. Is that correct? Exactly. If we could have avoided the CDA, we would have because it has administrative expenses. It gave an extra layer of insurance and protection to the lending community on this project, which we had never done before. It was sort of a broke new ground

[00:50:16] for us and really for a lot in local government. So that's why that structure was there. That's why we pulled it away prematurely because it just performed so well every time we didn't need it anymore. So there was no point in paying $50,000 of administrative expenses every single year to have that structure in place when it's just not needed? Like Mediville, we still have a small amount of debt outstanding. It is expected to be paid off in 2032. The current rate on that is about 2.89%, far less than the prevailing market rates that we see today. And then the ultimate revenue contribution to the Kinty will increase as the final parcels are fully built out as well.

[00:50:58] So moving on to Upper Magnolia, this was an area that we were looking to acquire land for several years, just given the nature of the development in that area of the county. In 2020, we were approached to buy a parcel of land, a little over 2,000 acres, which the board elected to do. It was purchased for about $13 million. We used it as part of through the year-end process for fiscal year 20. Primary motive, as I said, was to have land for county infrastructure and facilities, most notably three schools and the library system that are all part of the bond referendum package that you all voted on.

[00:51:38] But at the same time, well, before I get into that, for some context, $13 million for 2,000 acres, we actually went back and looked to see how much it would be per acre if we had to buy these land parcels separately. And based on the last two school land purchases we made, we paid about $30,000 an acre.

[00:51:58] For context, this, when you take the $13 million by the 2000, was $6,000 per acre. So if you extrapolate that out, if you take $30,000 an acre for that amount, you'd have been paying upwards of over $60 million for a similar partial of land if we'd bought it at that value that we'd paid for prior partials for schools.

[00:52:17] And the $30,000 is just the last we had on the books. So if you went out to Western Wall Street, Mr. Carroll can tell you, you'd be hard-pressed to get it for $30,000 an acre. we're just using the last sale that we have on the books as the county so that's that's how we got to that number yeah um but also taking the opportunity to improve the road and utility networks in that area of the county you can see um some of the projects that are undergoing right now um the investment in that area is about 79.1 million dollars from the county largest component of that is the north south collector road which is being funded through cvta bonds

[00:52:50] not through the general fund. The tract was rezoned in 2022 into splitting to kind of east and west component. The west component has an economic development component to it. However, the work, as you are well aware, has been primarily funded through the state with the award of two business ready grants, one for 25 million and the other for 13. A lot of moving parts here, I think, to summarize again for everybody it's really really two projects that the primary motivation here the county's perspective was to get these infrastructure sites to try to catch up on the

[00:53:28] facility needs out there and so that's what you see really on the bulk of this slide there is an economic development is sort of that next you know where you go after mediville you know sort of the thought process that's the the western portion of this and to date all of that site work and prep has been funded through those state grants.

[00:53:48] So you really kind of think it's upper mag, but you really kind of think of it as an A and a B component. The A component, you know, for the two of us is the infrastructure that's needed and well underway, and really worth noting that Deep Run Middle School, that is one of those projects that's sitting there on that track right now today.

[00:54:08] I didn't go into ROI on the others, but on this one, just out of curiosity, If we had to purchase the site for three schools and a library in general throughout the county, what could that look like?

[00:54:23] I believe Midlothian Middle is going to be north of $10 million just to try to, if we buy something that's off-site from the current school, what would that look like? Because there's a lot of people that think that we went out and wasted $13 million of taxpayer dollars for some economic development project.

[00:54:44] and we're getting three schools in the library. We paid $13 million for the land. I just want to understand or have the citizens understand what that looks like. I think you're easily in the $30 million to $50 million range depending on what part of the county you're looking at. And that was kind of the math that Gerard touched on at the beginning of this.

[00:55:02] But absolutely, and we're only using a portion of it. The $2,000 is the entirety of this, includes the economic development track as well as all of these infrastructure sites. Mr. Chair, just to even add greater context, it's not so much the deal in purchasing land that is now converted over to schools and libraries.

[00:55:21] It's converting over what is otherwise pre-zoned already of hundreds of homes that we are taking out of the equation. So there's a secondary benefit, and that also takes the pressure off of the school systems in addition. I think I set Mr. Carroll up for it.

[00:55:41] Well, besides the about 1,400 homes that were removed from the Upper Mag case, there was also about 911 houses that are part of this East case. And I think the people will see in a month or so when we drop a zoning case for this that we're actually going to pull those houses.

[00:56:00] None of them are built now, but we're going to remove them from the zoning and convert the land that's around the schools and the library into a conservation easement. And that's coming forward, I think, in another month or so. But, you know, that's something we had talked about doing, and it just took us a while to get it in place.

[00:56:22] But that removes a significant amount of trips per day from the area, which we, quite frankly, needed to in order to be able to put the schools in here. And then, you know, of course, the road improvements that are going to come out of this, which are funded and which are on a timeline to be completed before the high school opens its doors and the middle school opens its doors.

[00:56:46] there on timeline to be done. We are fast tracking this in the best way we possibly could by August of 2026 because this zoning case when it was passed one of the requirements in the case was that no other facilities other than the middle school could be built on this land until the north south connector was built and so all of that is going to happen in the next two years but before that elementary school can open up in 2026 which the middle will open in 2025 and there They are flying on it.

[00:57:20] It will be ready. And we did the groundbreaking on the elementary school the other day. But these are all needed projects that were sitting there as we continue to have houses come out of the ground in the western part of the county, which were going to eventually overcrowd the schools.

[00:57:36] And so when they come out of the ground completely, we will be in a much better position capacity-wise at our elementary schools, our middle schools, and our high schools. Not to mention we'll have a brand-new library out there, which we only have one in the western part of Holstree right now, which is the Clover Hill Library, which is servicing upwards of over 80,000 people.

[00:57:59] So it's sorely needed. I think, again, thank you, Mr. Staley, for his remarks. But this is a good example of where the county uses all of the powers in the EDA toolkit to, you know, achieve the goals of the county. You've got to be using the financing end of this and the economic development end of it, issuing bonds through the EDA via the CVTA.

[00:58:19] So this really kind of covers, you know, the entirety of his presentation that, you know, shows the full range of what the EDA can do and how the county has effectively leveraged that to achieve, you know, would have been really, really critical, you know, missions for us over the last several years.

[00:58:36] Moving back to the kind of northern area of the county, Spring Line at District 60, kind of similar to Upper Mag, there are kind of a cascading effect from this project for the county itself. There will be a new county-owned police station.

[00:58:55] As you all remember from the bond referendum, we're building four. They're all currently leased right now. This will be county-owned, freeing up the rent that we are paying on the current station. Most notably, as part of this, is it will be actually able to reclaim 41,000 square feet of academic space at CTC Hull.

[00:59:15] That'll increase the student capacity by an additional 600 students. And it's estimated that I'll actually save once you do a cost comparison between the renovation at CTC Hall and building a new school facility savings of $35 million. And then finally, you know, that final piece of the cascade is going to consolidate the school administration operations from just over the way and at CTC Hall into one central location.

[00:59:40] And then also do the same thing for the registrar on the county site, moving again out of some of the leases that we are currently paying for some registrar locations as well. So the county involvement in this project, we had the initial land purchase up there of $16 million, and we issued through the EDA a $23 million bond issuance to invest in the infrastructure to be able to develop the site.

[01:00:05] And then we have invested a little shade over $25 million towards Park & Deck. Different for the county, first of its kind for Chesterfield. Benefit of that being that we're maximizing the amount of space that can be used for other buildings, for retail, for residential development, as opposed to a larger footprint of having a surface lot on the site.

[01:00:31] But the main part of this is, you know, that initial investment that's been made by the county, once you bring in the private sector, opens up the opportunity for upwards of a billion dollars in private investments in the site itself. Another good example of a blend of all the missions.

[01:00:47] Again, the primary motivation, the reason that we're, I mean, talking about Springline, first and foremost, was sort of a continuation of the revitalization energy from Cloverleaf hopping across 60. You know, absolutely, you know, looking to continue that momentum and that success in the eastern end of Midlothian Turnpike.

[01:01:07] But then, you know, like you said, they're up here in order for a reason. This is an infrastructure play to be able to take CTC Hall. It's either go and construct, I think what, you know, Gerard's saying is go and construct space for that 600 seats for technical education that we've got waiting lists today for kids that want to get into those programs and employers that want to hire them.

[01:01:30] So that was a need. And so, you know, how do you do that was the question. You already have a school that's built as a school, returning that to academic instruction, consolidating admin functions down here at a site that also, you know, checks the box of the revitalization.

[01:01:47] So, you know, kind of like upper mag, this checks many boxes as many layers and uses the full power of the EDA. But again, going back, Mr. England, to your question, And this is these are county. And in this case, you know, some school board initiated, you know, objectives and missions that, you know, were tossed out.

[01:02:05] And this is the way that we're able to accomplish, you know, many, many things down there at this important juncture. And then finally, just in the interest of time, we've put on there the full build out schedule of the 42 acres to include townhomes and retail and residential space.

[01:02:22] They had mentioned earlier as well on that on the return on investment, just to talk about big picture on that. With the $35 million in savings on building new schools, the $4 million that we were going to spend just to get the police station in that location, that's right at $39 million.

[01:02:47] We will have approximately $64 million in it. Take $35 million out or $39 million out, you're about $25 million, and a billion dollars of investment is probably going to be somewhere in the magnitude of at least a penny on a tax rate, $6.5 million-ish a year.

[01:03:10] So you're not looking at maybe four to five years after build-out, but during that time, we're also going to be bringing in more revenue. So it's less than a 10-year repayment on this if people want to look at it with an ROI from a different angle.

[01:03:29] And certainly the $35 million, if we were to put that out to bid, I mean, that's schools kind of doing that, you know, their best estimates. But I think in this current environment, we'd be really lucky to hit $35 million. So that number is probably a good bit higher. I'm just using that as a conservative estimate if somebody wanted to know.

[01:03:48] Because people think that we don't look at what we're putting out and what that's going to return because we don't use the exact same formulas in return on investment as a business does. But in general, we are asking those questions and we're trying to figure out how long it should take to be able to recover those funds for the citizens.

[01:04:09] Well, I think you can and I certainly I hear that point as well. But I think you see in these four examples, they're all so different. The reasons, the players, the approach, you know, there isn't a cookie-cutter way that we go about doing these deals.

[01:04:25] And I think that's one of the messages we wanted to push out today. Could I, Mr. Chair, just end one line or two. Your return on investment and how you look and how we look at it conservatively, this is just for the on-site return on investment. So it goes without saying the peripheral properties and the investments that are occurring and the activities we're getting outside of the initial circles, especially Meadowville Tech Park and Springline Stonebridge.

[01:04:49] Upper Magnolia is sort of an island itself that's a separate topic, but he goes by saying the boulders has improved because of springline and connectivity. So the values of not just what is there being preserved but being enhanced, we don't count that in any metric. I just think it's important for the citizens to understand that because we don't spend a lot of time talking about that.

[01:05:10] So I think some citizens have assumed that we don't take that into consideration because that's not exactly the way government always goes about looking at things. But it is important that the money that we're spending on behalf of the citizens is done efficiently and brings a good return for our citizens.

[01:05:28] So I think it's important for them to understand that. Yes, sir. And real quick, last slide on this part, then we'll turn over to Mr. Bluefield for his reval update. These are other areas where the EDA is tossed in from time to time.

[01:05:44] So just as Dr. Casey said, some quick one-liners here. Chester Arts Center is an EDA project only in that they executed the vision there after it was a 2004 bond referendum effort that wasn't completed in time because of the recession.

[01:06:02] We borrowed through the EDA. It's been touched on here. And so they executed what the citizens had already approved in 2004. The lake, which sits across from Southside Speedway, it's not an EDA project at all. There's a performance agreement place.

[01:06:18] Nothing has been paid out to date, not anything special there. There's been no investment by the county or the EDA in that effort. And we never pay out up front. Anything that they would get in that performance agreement is a rebate on the back end of their dollars that they've already paid into us.

[01:06:37] There's no dollars that come from the general fund to fund that. That's right. And you heard Mr. Staley say that's a permissible use and that's the way we do it. If if this project succeeds, then they get to, you know, enjoy the the performance agreement that's been approved. Skipping downs, courthouse landing, same thing, not an EDA project, not a county project.

[01:06:57] We sold the land. They have a performance agreement. Zero has been paid to date. If they hit their performance metrics, then they will, you know, go forward according to the terms of that contract. And all of that is disclosed in the annual audit that's put out so people can follow along.

[01:07:15] Southside Speedway is an EDA project. We own the county, bought it, and, you know, basically transferred that to the EDA. We're working with a private developer to bring that site back to life. And then River City, for some reason, gets tossed in from time to time. No EDA role at all. That is literally just a county park.

[01:07:32] So any questions before we turn over to Mr. Bloomfield? And that's a lot of information in a short period of time. One last note. While Mr. Bloomfield gets up to speed here, we're going to added a button to our transparency portal that will have this presentation, All the monthly financial records for all of these projects that you have seen up here.

[01:08:03] All the financial audits for the EDA itself will all be posted in one place on the website. It's all publicly available information now. It's discussed at Mr. Hart's monthly meetings. All the financials, Debbie Basin County does a fantastic job with that. But we've consolidated that on the county website.

[01:08:20] So you can go there, one place. And each and every month you can update and follow along right from where we leave off this slide in this presentation. So with that, I'm turning it over to Mel. Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, Vice Chair, Member of the Board, Dr. Casey.

[01:08:39] I'm coming to you this afternoon to give a summary update on our 2025 real estate assessment activities for this year. And starting off this assessment, all the assessments as they are are done in accordance with the Virginia State Statute 58.1-3201.

[01:08:56] and with all standards of mass appraising by the IWO standards, the Professional Appraisal Board. This year, I instructed my staff to have a target ratio, assessment to sell ratio of a 993 of that, which is plainly stated, if a property sold for $100,000, the assessment will be set at $93,000 of that.

[01:09:19] That target ratio allows for any correction in the market, any interest rate pressures that are foreseeable in the future throughout this year. I'm not pushing that envelope too hard on the assessments for this year at all. The actual coefficient of dispersion, let me go to the next slide here, the coefficient of dispersion, which is 5.81, is within the standard of deviation for homeogenous properties in the county.

[01:09:47] What that means is within that ratio, the median ratio, there's a dispersion spread of value by only 5.81%. And then we'll get into the median ratio as well when we come to the next target.

[01:10:04] The total taxable land book from 24 to 25 is $65,100,000. That's the total from 24 to 25 increase in assessed value. Breaking that out into between residential agricultural and commercial industrial is 51.7.

[01:10:25] That's $65.1 billion. And $13.3 billion is commercial industrial. The increase, which is a total increase of $4.1 billion over last year, increase in excess value total. The overall percentage of increase from 24 to 25 is 6.54%, with 5.01% attributed to residential revaluation and 1.53% to commercial industrial revaluation.

[01:11:02] And the split between that would be, for total, would be 5.11% for residential evaluation only. That's of the $4.1 billion increase and 4.77% overall for commercial re-evaluation changes.

[01:11:21] And just for some context there, the 5.1%, that's sort of the headlining number. The House last year, what did it change year-over-year on average? Last year, that was a hair under 9%. It's been elevated. You know, we, Gerard and Rob here, we're talking, you know, three and a half to four and a half percent is kind of our long run window.

[01:11:42] So, you know, really getting back close to that. And you see a very even treatment between commercial reval and residential reval, 4.8 versus 5.1. So I think like every other financial topic that we've talked about in the last several months, returning to those long run averages, same story here with revaluation.

[01:11:59] Just to be clear, reevaluation is, if it existed last year and it's currently existing, then that's the reval. New construction is not included in that. It didn't exist last year. It's not included in that percentage. His $4.1 billion number, the big number, it is picked up there, but that's not on this slide. Yes, sir.

[01:12:18] Correct. And just as a context, on the previous year, so 22 to 23, the 22 assessment was about 14.2% overall assessment increase. For 23, it was about 9.88%. 24 was 9.68%, so we're back to a more normalized increase in level, but also leaving some valuation there without going too hard on the land book at all.

[01:12:45] Of the percents of increase total, it's projected that out of the 100%, The increase in total of the land book would be for new construction growth is $911 million for new construction growth.

[01:13:05] Of that distributed would be $3 billion for residential, which is coming in about 77% of that total. And the other 23% would be the commercial new construction growth numbers.

[01:13:21] All in for that increase, it would be 77% of the total is attributed to the residential increases. And almost 23.3% is for the commercial-industrial portion of it.

[01:13:41] So that's north of that 80-20 split that you hear about from time to time. So I think we've always said this is probably a more realistic gauge of how that's going. What are you adding to the book each year for those two categories? And this year, it's not 80-20, you know, 77-23 and some change on either side.

[01:14:01] So, you know, starting to see a relatively higher proportionate share of a contribution, if you will, from the commercial side of the book. And a lot of the projects haven't kicked in yet because they're not complete. Yes, yes. And getting back to just that increase overall, they just talk about the residential increases at all.

[01:14:23] because that's always the hot topic, the 5.0% of that 5%, the 5% median increase, 0% to 9% of the increases for last year, 87% of the properties will fall, have an increase between 0% and 9%.

[01:14:40] 87% will fall between 0% and 9%. That gets back to that COD spread ratio, meaning roughly saying is that if the median is at 5%, Anywhere north of 5.81% on either side of the median is where values fall.

[01:14:58] When you have a lower COD, it means that you are attributing to greater equity among properties as the value goes. IWO standards say that they should be 10 or below, but we had 5.8, so all our assessments are equitable. And to the next, according to Richmond Association Relators report, for this year from third quarter of 23 to third quarter of 24, Richmond Association Relators reported that Chesterfield has had a 7.7% increase overall median sell price.

[01:15:36] Third in the Central Virginia area, behind Hanover and Gooseland. So the 5.01% for residential is actually below what Risk Association Relatives has already predicted to have happened from '23 through '24.

[01:15:58] So there's still room in the land book to, whatever may happen for this year, if there's some retraction in the land book, it doesn't have to have an impact on the overall land book, a negative land book at all.

[01:16:15] These are just some notable commercial value changes happening for this year. Apartments, that was hot topic last year. They came up last year. Apartments are increased by 4.61%, but that is mostly attributed to new construction coming online, lease-ups from last year coming online.

[01:16:34] The overall asset class has been holding pretty steady. There has been some increase in retail and shopping centers because of the recovery from COVID, As we did last year for hotels and motels, we had reduced through that COVID year because the occupancy had dropped.

[01:16:52] Occupancy had rebounded from 23 to 24, so last year we might have gone up 45% of that asset class. So that year, this year, that class is pretty, pretty stable. And for the other notables there, they would say industrial condos are up 20%.

[01:17:14] So that's warehouse space is up 16% and lastly is just new construction for residential new constructions run around 1800 for the year Which is around normal? It's still a strong showing from what it was from the height of 21 down of a few hundred but overall there's still a strong shoulder new construction for residential restarts and that's the The actual crux of the summary of what happened this year if you have any questions the only thing that I would add the

[01:17:49] assessment notices go out started going out uh today you know yesterday so folks will be getting their own personalized version of this in their mailbox you know early next week and then for those that want to see it sooner than that as always the website is is fantastic mel and his team do a really good job every piece of information about your property is up on the county website if you have never looked at it you should do that it's really really good all of this stuff will be up there i think that goes live uh tomorrow so folks will be able to go out there and see how they fare.

[01:18:21] These are the summary statistics, obviously, but a wealth of information. I just want to thank Mel and his team for another fantastic job. This is, again, his goal, like he always says, he wants to see him once a year, but they work tirelessly over there, and they do a really, really good job.

[01:18:36] We are very fortunate to have a professional staff like Mr. Bloomfield and his team. I just want to remind the public that the appeal period runs from February the 1st through March the 15th. So, yeah, for 45 days to appeal, contact our office if you have any issues, questions, or concerns.

[01:18:53] Board members, are there any questions or comments? I just want to emphasize, Melvin, thank you for the hard work, but also making the point that when you receive your real estate assessment that there is an appeal process.

[01:19:12] You just mentioned it, but I want to just emphasize it again. I mean, there are folks that are on a fixed income, and those kind of things need to be taken into account, and that the county has a program. to be talking more about that it's there to help our constituents with that I think sometimes people forget that there is a pathway toward identifying whether it makes sense the assessment all those kind of things so thank you for bringing that up yes sir and I think it's important to note that those assessments should be received possibly as early as yesterday in the mail but they're coming out now sure and tomorrow it will be uploaded so that if you go online you can

[01:19:50] and see where you're at for your particular property. Mr. Chair, last thing for us, just very quickly, is sort of your schedule of coming attractions. Next big thing in your budget process will really happen tomorrow. Not usually the way it is, but the superintendent's proposed budget is presented tomorrow, so we don't have those details for you today.

[01:20:14] But suffice to say, Mr. Dirk and myself, working with school staff on a daily basis, and I think I would describe it they're in a fairly solid place. You know, Ms. Spillman and Ms. Walker will continue to work on the General Assembly side but I think we feel relatively comfortable with where they're at.

[01:20:31] We'll be back with you with more information about that and other topics in February. But that's your next big piece and obviously tonight we will set your max tax rate under new business. We're not doing that this afternoon. That will be a separate item tonight. With that, I'm happy to take any questions you might have.

[01:20:49] Board members, any other questions? Thank you. C, tourism and visitation update, Ms. O'Donnell.

[01:21:06] Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, members of the board, Dr. Casey, glad to be with you. I have my colleague joining me here, Danielle Fitzhugh, who's our Vice President of Community Relations. We are going to keep it moving in the interest of time and are glad to be back with our annual positive update on regional tourism.

[01:21:23] As you all know, we take a collaborative approach that is four decades old in our region to tourism. we know that visitors do not understand geographic boundaries so they might fly into the airport play at river city eat dinner in the city of richmond and go to king saminion and go home and they said they went to richmond so it makes great sense for us to combine our efforts when it comes to marketing and it makes great economic sense as well the good news is we continue to break records in tourism up two percent in total trips year over year and we're seeing an increase in our region in overnight trips which is what we like more people staying

[01:21:58] longer. You can see the trend of visitor spending and visitation pre-COVID to now. We're well past the visitor spending, creeping back up on the number of visitors. And we can see positive trends for Chesterfield with $601 million in visitor spending up 3%. And this is data from tourism economics provided by Virginia Tourism Corporation for all the localities in the state.

[01:22:24] Additionally, you can see just Chesterfield's growth over the last five years. Of course, we had the dip in COVID and we all know that we came back a lot faster than anticipated. We actually just also got data in about Richmond region tourism impact through our advertising.

[01:22:40] So for last fiscal year, visitors that saw our ads spent $323 million in our community, excluding in hotels. So we know that folks are coming and spending a lot of money here, which is what we want. We also, of course, measure when people stay in hotels. That's how we know it's working, and we continue to see record hotel sales with lodging revenue reaching just under $40 million last fiscal year. As always, we do really well because we have great variety in our region, and we put the whole region together. We track very well in our primary pillars, number one always being friends and family, which is why it's so important to have

[01:23:17] our community engaged in what there is to see and do. Sports meetings and conventions continue to thrive in our region and then of course leisure travel and business travel based on the corporate citizens we have in our region. When we look at our demographics always and forever northern Virginia is our primary feeder market. Again we're seeing an increase in length of stay post-COVID moving away from day trips to overnight trips and we continue to be evenly paced throughout the year meaning we don't have a high season or a low season when it comes to tourism. I know you all are very familiar with the success of sports tourism so when it comes to the meetings conventions and

[01:23:56] events that richmond region tourism is involved in sports represents the 71 percent of the market and you all have our latest economic impact for sure in your packet if this is hard to read but we will leave it with you so you can look through it at your leisure but at a glance wanted to pull some data specific to chesterfield and i might have to turn around because i can't quite see that far. But for last fiscal year for Chesterfield, we're looking at a total of 41 events booked by Richmond Region Tourism using incentives of over, oh, do you have it here? Oh, it's also very small.

[01:24:30] $186,000 in Richmond Region Tourism incentives to retain and attract the business. And these are events that took place last fiscal year and just under 30 for the TID. And then to date, so far through this fiscal year, we have seen more economic impact with $234,000 in incentives and $63,000 through the TID. So it's a good trend. And as you all know, in order to win the business, we have to incentivize the business. And that is a large portion of Richmond region tourism budget. And particularly in the sports markets, Chesterfield receives the lion's share

[01:25:05] of our incentives to win those pieces of business. I'm not going to go through all of these because As you're familiar with what's been taking place, but I'll leave these here with your packet so you can take a look at some of the highlights of what took place last calendar year, as well as meetings and conventions and future wins.

[01:25:22] We're really excited about the Men's Collegiate Lacrosse Association for 26 and 27. This is being incentivized through the TID for under $30,000 each, just under $30,000 each year. We've got great partnership with the team here because of the TID, and we'll talk more about that later.

[01:25:40] we're able to bring more people with us when we go out to meet with organizers. So you can see a picture here of the team on the road and you can read details on the screen. We're able to bring more hotel partners from Chesterfield as your teammates to meet with event organizers and convince them to choose our region.

[01:25:59] So you can see year to date what the TID has been able to approve to bring business directly to Chesterfield. And of course, the beautiful thing about our region is that visitors, when they come for one reason, don't stay in just one locality. They're moving around and spending their money throughout. I hope later you'll go back and read these great quotes from our partners.

[01:26:18] We have some nice sentiment here from Adam Kennedy from some RBA about our partnership with him. Quickly updating, we always do the Tourism Master Plan. Hard to believe we're halfway through it since it's 2025. The number one priority from the plan has been advocacy for our headquarter hotel downtown as part of the city center renovation.

[01:26:39] You all are aware that you are part of the convention center authority, and we know that for that building to ever perform the way it was designed to, we need that hotel. So we're constantly working with the new administration to make that happen. An inspiration campaign was also a priority to raise the profile of our region for visitors and site selectors.

[01:26:57] We worked with GRP and the chamber on this. This was a $2.8 million advertising campaign using ASMR technology, and you all have seen it, and we can send it to you again if you don't remember. But if you're not familiar with ASMR, ask your kid or your grandkid. It's the sound-based trend where you tell the story through sound.

[01:27:16] And Henrikus is featured prominently in this advertisement, which, again, so far is up to $2.8 million because we've extended it past the ARPA funds using the TID and Richmond Region Tourism's budget. You can see some of the results here.

[01:27:32] The most important part, really, is the brand lift survey. So that means after people have seen the ad, 23% have an increased perception of our region and 34% are very likely to consider us for visitation. These are above average percentages, which means we know that this is working.

[01:27:51] One of the reasons that you all saw me so often to pass the TID was really to level set our budget. You can see how we stack up against our competitors that were our comp set in the tourism master plan. So the Tourism Improvement District really helps us be on a more level playing field with the people that we compete with on a regular basis.

[01:28:13] There's an annual report in your packet, and we're working on the mid-year report now, so you'll be getting that via email soon. But the key takeaway is really with the TID is that we can afford to advertise year-round now, which we could not previously do. And we're also elevating our presence again at trade shows with our partners.

[01:28:32] A couple highlights when it comes to business development. Because of the TID, we were able to go to new trade shows, expand our presence, have new partnerships, new familiarization tour, more sales missions. And you can see, again, from the first year, the first results.

[01:28:49] And we know this will continue to build over time as we progress. When we think about marketing, these are the major themes that we're promoting. And, of course, all of our marketing includes all of our region. Oops, too far.

[01:29:06] One of the things we really rely on is media relations because we know even with more advertising dollars, we need the PR to help convince travelers. These are some of the highlights from the last year in media coverage. There are 18 articles featuring Chesterfield specifically.

[01:29:22] That is an advertising equivalency of over $10 million with over a billion unique visitors to those outlets. Here, again, you can look at these later, but our placements by Richmond Region Tourism in which Chesterfield sites were mentioned. We also hosted a familiarization tour with writers and influencers, five writers, and we came to Chesterfield on that visit as well.

[01:29:47] Looking forward to seeing the outcomes of that, and they represented over 200,000 followers just on their social channels. We feature you all on our social media and blogs, 30 mentions on social so far in this fiscal year.

[01:30:03] And then, of course, we had blog posts and outcomes of interactions, et cetera. Here's two examples. I love this one of Chesterfield Berry Farm getting 10,000 views. This is a post that we did. So you can see here the content that we're putting out is getting engagement and interaction and furthering your reach.

[01:30:22] And hopefully you're following all of our channels and seeing this yourself. We also hosted an influencer visit to Chesterfield by the name of Craig Silva with, again, 182 followers on Instagram. You can see here when he was at the Chesterfield County Museum and the jail.

[01:30:38] And so far, his post got over almost 30,000 likes, which is huge engagement for that. With visitor experience, that's where we work with groups that are booking motor coach travel and have our mobile visitor center coming out into the region as well.

[01:30:55] And we have a quote here from Henrikus about how we have worked so closely with them over the years to book school groups to come to Henrikus. And with that, I'll turn it over to Danielle to talk about workforce development. Thank you.

[01:31:11] With workforce development, we work with CTE and making sure that our next generation thinks about hospitality as a career path. In our region, we support over 29,000 jobs with the annual wages of $1.3 billion.

[01:31:27] And that comes out to be about $82,000 median income in a tourism hospitality job. That's a real career that our young people can go into. We also work with Brian and Stratton as one of our I Am Tourism partners.

[01:31:42] Our I Am Tourism program is funded privately through contributions and donations and grants. But we're able to educate the community residents on tourism in our backyard, the economic impact of tourism, thinking about careers in tourism so they can celebrate everything there is to do in Chesterfield County and the Richmond region.

[01:32:01] We also were able to host two Chesterfield staff-driven I am tourism classes, hosting them in the emergency training center space this year and educating them on everything to do in their backyard. And so when friends and family come to visit, they can take them out in the community and do things.

[01:32:19] And so when you go back and look at your packet, You'll see a quote here from our relationship and partnership with Beth Murray over at Bryan and Stratton. Again, our RVA Sports Awards, which I will say is coming up on February 8th, which highlights Chesterfield Sports impact as well, funded through our foundation and grants program.

[01:32:43] It's our version of the ESPYs. We're highlighting sports right here in our Richmond region, and it is a live show, as you all know, on CBS, and it was their second highest rated show during the month, so much that they showed it two more times through the month in recording.

[01:32:59] So we're really, really proud of where that is going, where that program is going. This year we have Jackie Joyner-Kersey. That program raises money for our sports grant program, and as you can see here, we had five Chesterfield sports organizations receive grant funding through that program for us, including Swim RVA, Chesterfield Baseball Club, and others.

[01:33:20] And so we're really excited about those few programs under our foundation. So just to close, I want to reiterate that it's our mission to use tourism as a force for good in our community.

[01:33:35] Every day our team comes to work because they believe in tourism as both an economic driver but something that impacts quality of life for our entire region. And we're honored and proud to represent Chesterfield to the world on your behalf. So with that, I would love to answer any questions you may have.

[01:33:55] Board members, do you have any questions or comments? Just very quickly, I'm looking forward to joining the board this afternoon. It all goes well. Thank you for all the work that you guys are doing. I'm looking forward to be partying in the team. Thank you. It's, again, a lovely collaborative effort regionally, and I love how hard you guys try to include everybody and hit on all of the places that need to be seen when you're in the RVA region.

[01:34:28] So, yeah, I see how that happens sometimes. So thank you so much for representing us in your portion. Thank you for everything you do. I think it's important for you all to come before us and have an opportunity to speak to the community and let them know about the collaborative efforts that take place regionally.

[01:34:51] Sometimes people think that Chesterfield doesn't play well with others. We absolutely do. And I think that one of the key things that really hurts all of our local jurisdictions is actually getting the message out about what's actually going on because there are so many good things that are happening not just in Chester County but everywhere else we're going to brag about Chester for today but getting the message to the community because a lot of people don't do social media a lot of the older people don't do social media people with my hair color or lack thereof right so it's not something that they do um and so a lot of the younger folks do um so

[01:35:31] thank you for coming today because hopefully some people are watching this at home and some people When we have trouble sleeping later, we'll watch it again. But this is really good information, so thank you. Our pleasure. Just want to thank you as well for being here today. Thank you for your presentation, and we look forward to great things happening in the region going forward.

[01:35:51] Thank you. D, Community Enhancement Department update, Mr. Cohen. Good afternoon, members of the board, Dr. Casey.

[01:36:17] I'm only part of the Community Enhancement Department. I'm here with Rich Billings, the leader of my right, Jessica Sauer, and Nick Fyke, We're also going to be presenting some items today, and I'd be remiss if I didn't make sure. Introduce yourselves to the department's community liaison office of Cera Vieta over there.

[01:36:35] Slide. There we go. This is my one big slide. Just want to all remind you of what the department really does. Again, we increase the value, quality, desirability, and attractiveness of Chesterfield County. The majority of the presentation is on housing, but before we get to that, which has several slides that talk about our public improvements that we make in the county.

[01:36:57] - Thank you, Dan. So as Dan mentioned, the majority of the presentation is gonna focus on housing, but I just didn't want to begin with a couple of our other key mission areas. Probably one of the ones that may not get the attention that most do, but I think is really important, is our community cleanups.

[01:37:16] Since 2019, we've partnered with our neighborhoods and supported 35 community cleanups, removing over 300 tons of debris and bulk waste. While that number is kind of impressive, I think the actual real value of the community cleanups lies somewhere else.

[01:37:32] Even though a lot of our residents live in neighborhoods, one of the things they often tell us is they feel like they don't know their neighbors very well. These community cleanups give them an opportunity to come together and work toward a goal, and it shows them that they can accomplish good things, and that's going to be key to the county going forward to make sure that people feel like they're empowered and they can actually make a difference in their neighborhoods.

[01:37:52] These pictures here, I'm sure if Mr. Holland was here, he would recognize right away. They're from the wonderful Dale District. This was actually from a cleanup that we did in Metadale in spring of this year. One of the other community improvements that we spend a lot of effort on is streetlights. Since 2021, we've installed over 50 streetlights in existing residential neighborhoods.

[01:38:11] Programs kind of expanding a little bit. We're also working very closely with CDOT for the pedestrian improvement programs that are going on to make sure that there are street lights in appropriate areas, especially at pedestrian crossings on those projects. We also this year started a project with our general services division to begin replacement of the LED or begin replacement of existing street lights and converting them to LEDs. That's approximately 4,000 street lights that are going to have to get converted. We're planning on doing that over a five-year period. Hope when we're done, we're going to see the county will see approximately $400,000 worth in energy savings.

[01:38:50] did i just yes ma'am so is this similar or is this in conjunction with dominion the ones that you're talking about converting because i know that i was just speaking with uh brander mill about so this is the same thing okay okay almost almost all of the street lights in the county actually belong to the utilities they're on the county account we pay the bill but it's it's they're all owned by the utility okay yeah i had a brander mill person that identified ones that weren't working so to make your job easier yes ma'am we're also working too on the project along

[01:39:27] genito on changing up some of the street lights out there as well so probably one of the ways we're best known is for for code enforcement and with that we want to ensure the health safety and welfare of the residents through county code enforcement it's core mission for community enhancement we address almost 4 000 code violations annually and help collect over 5 000 vehicle and business licenses. So I put these two images that are up here. I picked these on purpose. Mr.

[01:39:55] Engel, I'm sure this looks familiar to you. But I put them up here because, like I said, I think they give an example of a couple things. This is about addressing accumulations of trash. This is probably one of the more impactful code violations that we can address. This one I picked in particular because it's a very clear example of unsanitary conditions that we take seriously and we just shouldn't have in chesterfield county we act on these as quickly as we can it's also an example of a troubling increase in enforcement in commercial properties especially in apartment complexes trash cleanups and apartment complexes multiplies the scale and

[01:40:33] scope of what we have to do beyond anything we've had to to deal with before and it's a it consumes a lot of resources to be able to do that the third thing is to be able to do those things community enhancement doesn't do it alone we have to work with a lot of partners to get it done. In this particular example here, if it wasn't for the help we got from our police department and also through contractors that work with the county and the actual trash hauler out there themselves, I don't think we would have been able to do what needed to be done at that complex.

[01:41:09] And then referencing back to our mission statement, Dan talked about improving quality and attractiveness. We recognize that we have to spend limited resources where they will make the most impact. In the case of our public improvements, our focus is on our gateways and our major thoroughfares. While VDOT has primary responsibility for right-of-ways and medians, in places where the county has elected to enhance the appearance with supplemental plantings, we have to enter into an agreement with VDOT to actually maintain those areas after they're planted. Inside our department, that falls to our Keep Chesterfield Beautiful team. And while their mission started with a very tight focus on litter pickup over the past few years, the scope has expanded to

[01:41:48] include a lot of this landscaping work. So these pictures up here, there are three. The two across the top are actually a spot on Hull Street at the intersection of Tanbark. That was an example of a place where there had been plantings in the past and through attrition, either through disease, age, or getting run over by vehicles, a lot of the plants were gone. They were damaged pretty severely. So we worked with a contractor to actually replant that area. We're hoping we've got something in there that's a little hardier and will help enhance the appearance at the

[01:42:22] entrance to the subdivisions. The bottom picture there is actually the intersection of Midlothian Turnpike and Courthouse Road. And I included that because it's an example of one of our land use permits that's in a service district. So Dr. Miller, Ms. Schneider, as you all are aware, we have several service districts in the county along Midlothian Turnpike.

[01:42:43] They were established starting in 2009 with the purpose of improving the appearance of the median along the Midlothian Corridor. We coordinate with the Midlothian Business Alliance to make manage the contract with the vendor who carries out most of the landscaping. But even with these responsibilities, the core pickup of litter remains.

[01:43:01] Our Keep Chesterfield Beautiful team removes over 150 tons annually of litter from the county. The amount of litter never gets smaller, and we've increased our focus areas to make sure we're hitting important areas for the county, like the bus stops along Midlothian and Route 1. But in addition to the members of Keep Chesterfield Beautiful, we also work very closely with our sheriff's workforce and a number of volunteers who give very generously of their time to address the never-ending problem of litter.

[01:43:29] That concludes my slides for this presentation, and Jess and Nick will talk to you all about housing. Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for having us today.

[01:43:48] So I'm Jessica Sagra. I believe I've had the pleasure of meeting all of you in the past. So the slide that's up there is all about the consolidated plan, and I know I've talked to you a couple times already about that, so I won't go into too many details, but just wanted to give a quick update.

[01:44:04] And as a reminder, the consolidated plan is the document that describes the county's five-year goals related to affordable housing, neighborhood infrastructure, crisis and public services, and other community-based needs, and essentially serves as a blueprint for how we plan to use our federal funds from HUD, so the CDBG and home grant funds that we receive each year.

[01:44:24] So we've been working with a consultant, root policy research, who did the data analysis for the needs assessment and market analysis components of the plan. And right now we're currently working on bringing all that together, combining it with the findings from the community survey that we put out. We got over a hundred responses, which I know isn't a ton, but like that felt kind of, kind of good for us with getting engagement from residents. So we got some good data from, you know, qualitative data from that side of it. We did some stakeholder engagement, a lot of it stakeholder engagement with other county departments and stakeholder nonprofits. So we're working on pulling it all together and

[01:45:02] putting together a full draft plan that should be ready by early March. At that time, we're also going to hold a third community meeting where we go over the full draft plan. The plan will be available on our website before that meeting. So residents and stakeholders can read through it and have any questions asked at that meeting. The date sometime in early March, but it will be it'll be set and and put out there with an advanced notice um so and on this slide there's it's just a reminder of the draft goals that we have um we we wanted to be inclusive of everything

[01:45:38] that we can do with these funds which includes housing and neighborhood infrastructure and public services all of that but we all definitely are prioritizing those first two goals which are promoting housing stability and creating new housing affordable housing options in the in the county um and as one a section of the consolidated plan is what's called the annual action plan that's where we describe our actual specific projects and programs that we're recommending for funding next year um so that is also underway we're reviewing applications that were received for for next fiscal year fy26 um and as with every year it's been a very competitive

[01:46:17] process especially for the public service component of cdbg which is um limited to 15 percent of our total allocation, so only about $240,000. And we received about $480,000 worth of requests in that area. So we're working with, like we have the last few years, we're coordinating with social services and mental health staff to make recommendations to ensure we're being as efficient as possible and as helpful as possible with those resources that we have. Um, we also received about 1.4 million combined in CDBG and home requests for housing

[01:46:57] or public facilities. Um, mostly for the decent chunk of that was for home repair programs and single family development. No applications were received this year for funding for affordable multifamily development. Um, so more information will come out on this as we make our funding recommendations as we host that public meeting. Um, and that will all be part of the county budget approval cycle as well. So just a little update, just to go over a few of the housing related projects that we've worked on the last year or a few years that were federally funded.

[01:47:33] So big priority has always been affordable housing development and multifamily. We've had a few projects over the last few years with the organization Better Housing Coalition. It's been a priority to partner with them and kind of leverage our funds to help make their projects successful. So a good example of that is the recently completed Winchester Forest development on the Ratton Corridor in the Bellwood area. There's 160 units that are affordable to residents making about 60% area median income or below. And so that was $300,000 of CDBG went into that

[01:48:10] project. And then Horner Run Apartments located in a different area of the county, Route 360 and Genitow Road area. That's 49 units. They'll be available for leasing later in spring 2025. And we contributed, we're contributing $150,000 in CDBG. And this project also leveraged the ARPA dollars. So it's $250,000 in ARPA. And that project also has eight units set aside for individuals with disabilities through the Community Services Board. So that's that's a successful project where we partnered with, you know, different agencies and brought

[01:48:49] a lot of different funding sources together. So this is just to show how we contribute pretty much a small amount of our federal funding and to make these projects work, kind of like gap financing, right? Those are $18 million projects and we contribute $300,000, but it really helps to make the project work. We also focus a lot on affordable single family development, so for homeownership. This project here up on the screen is an example of a Habitat for Humanity home that was constructed down in Ettrick and completed last year. This was on, it's on Main Street down

[01:49:26] in Ettrick. And it was, we contributed $75,000 in home funds and they were able to sell the home for $205,000 to a homeowner making 80% area median income. And they are also working on two other homes uh one in Ettrick across the main street right across the street from this one and another one um in the Bensley area um another they're both be new construction similar models to this we're contributing about seventy five thousand dollars and the house should be sold in that price range of two hundred to two hundred fifty thousand uh for a low moderate income household and then

[01:50:05] so then there's a third project underway from Project Homes um they're working on a new construction home in Ettrick on Toddy Street. So there's a lot more than usual this year going on at the same time. So that's exciting with the single family home ownership. These homeowners will also utilize down payment assistance through the housing opportunities made equal program that we have federal funding in as well. So that helps to make the purchase even more affordable for these buyers. We continue to focus a lot on home repair as well as we have

[01:50:39] a big, you know, large housing stock of aging housing throughout the county that is in need of repair. A lot of seniors who are aging in place on fixed incomes in need of accessibility-related repairs or just general help with home maintenance. Over the last two years, we served close to 140 households in these programs, and that is between the three non-profits that we work with, Project Homes, Habitat for Humanity, and Rebuilding Together. So we continue to put a lot of our CDBG and home funding into home repair based on the demand and that. So that's going to continue

[01:51:15] into the future. And we did look back at those last two years of households served and over half were seniors, getting close to like three quarters of the beneficiaries were seniors. So it just goes to show that that population is definitely in need of these services. And lastly, I have an update on our home ARP funding, so as a reminder, this was the funding that was provided to the county a few years ago as part of the American Rescue Plan, but was provided to us through the home program through HUD, but instead of being specifically just for housing for low and

[01:51:52] moderate income households, it's housing more specifically for vulnerable populations like those experiencing homelessness. So together with Henrico and the city, we're working on, We did a needs assessment and did a whole HOMARP allocation plan that basically said permanent supportive housing, so deeply affordable housing with on-site supportive services is the biggest need in the region when it comes to serving these vulnerable populations.

[01:52:20] So we put out an RFP last summer, got a few different applications, and after evaluating them with Richmond and Henrico, decided to award our funding to Support Works Housing, which is formerly Virginia supportive housing to do their project, Rady Street Apartments, which is going to be located in Henrico, kind of on the city Henrico line.

[01:52:45] And they will have 82 units of permanent supportive housing with onsite supportive services. Currently homeless individuals will be prioritized for the units and the referral process will be managed through the GRCOC's coordinated entry system. We do have until 2030 to spend these funds.

[01:53:03] And SupportWorks is planning to apply for LIHTC in March. So we're still moving forward with, you know, making sure the project moves forward accordingly. But all is looking good. We're all working with the city and with Henrico. As you can see, a total of $8.7 million of funds.

[01:53:20] Home ARP is going to go in there. $1.8 million of our funding. And as of now, the projected construction start date is, like, sometime in May, close to May 2026. but subject to change at this point. So up on the screen is an example of a Support Works housing project.

[01:53:41] That's the Cool Lane Apartments that opened up, I think it was over the summer. So just to show you kind of like what this type of product could look like, right? It's a nice size apartment with kitchen and all the amenities and all that.

[01:53:56] So we're looking forward to this project. We think it's a great coordination with the region and we'll keep everyone in the loop. Do we have a number of units that are dedicated to Chesterfield through our contribution, or is it on a first-come, first-served?

[01:54:13] That's a good question. It is a first-come, first-served basis because it's just through the GRCOC, the Greater Richmond Continuum of Cares Coordinated Entry System, which everyone in the region utilizes and has access to. We will track, I think, where their last permit address was and kind of get a sense of usage, but because of the way the federal funding works, we really can't dedicate a certain number of units based on where they're coming from.

[01:54:46] Any other questions? No question. Just this project is, I went to go visit this project, and I think it's a great example. They took an old building there and converted it, But, I mean, there's supportive housing or staff there to help with counseling and medical.

[01:55:08] And it's just I think it's just a really great project. So I just want to say that I'm ready street support works already owns the site, by the way. So there's no there's no no issue with respect to the site. Hello, board. I believe in the last person, so I'll try to keep it quick.

[01:55:32] If you recall, the beginning of the pandemic, we received a fair amount of money from the federal government, and a portion of that was set aside for affordable housing and housing support activities. This table just shows you what we put into physical new units. It's kind of a grab bag of different things.

[01:55:51] We have both mobile manufactured housing. We have rental housing. We have some for sale units. And this, again, is just gap financing. A lot of this money helped people deal with construction, inflation-related overages.

[01:56:10] And our money kind of, in the case of Boreen Estates, got a project going in terms of the first unit in, infrastructure, things like that. In example, like Watermark Gardens, it ends up helping a project finish. And, you know, in Ettrick Landing, it just kind of was part of getting it all put together.

[01:56:28] So up there, we have, you know, manufactured housing. We have senior housing. We have for sale homeownership opportunities. So there is a wide range of things we were able to do with this. And this works out to, you know, it's less than $8,000 a unit.

[01:56:46] But, you know, en masse, it aided and kind of kept things going. Our, maybe our most involved project is terms, as far as like our involvement has been at Ettrick Landing. This was the site of the Ettrick Annex School that was cleared by the county, donated to Maggie Walker Community Land Trust, and in conjunction with the concerned citizens of Ettrick, worked through a process to come to a consensus around a vision for a 10-unit subdivision there.

[01:57:19] The homes are mostly done, and I'll get to that in a second. But just so you have some sense of this, it started not in 2019. It started before that with kind of the school being end of life and thinking about what to do with it.

[01:57:36] But it took about five years to finish this. And Jonathan Rideau, who is the local chair of the Richmond Home Builders, will tell you it takes about five years from thinking about something to like when we get it finished. So, obviously, they produce more than 10 units per project, but it kind of is par for the course in terms of private sector.

[01:57:59] So, this is from the inside of the site, and, you know, if I thought about this, I might have given you an overhead, but it's a cul-de-sac, and we are almost done here. We've got seven of the units have sold. The sale price is $160,000.

[01:58:16] Home buyers also get some down payment assistance, depending on what they bring. That number changes. But these homes are very affordable. They are affordable for a homeowner that's making, a household making like 60% of the median income.

[01:58:32] We've got teachers that have bought homes there. We've got a family that's lived there a long time. So there are people who really love Ettrick are calling it home now in these really nice units. We've got one unit left to trim out and one unit to get out of the ground.

[01:58:50] The last permit, now we've got the road paved. The walking trail is up. There is a nice, long, straight fence. If you want to see one huge fence, there's a nice fence between neighboring property owners. And, yeah, then we'll be done, and we'll be planning a ribbon-cutting ceremony here for the spring.

[01:59:10] Seven of the homes are on grade, which means there's no issue if you were to be in a walker or wheelchair, any accessibility issues. All the homes are three-bedroom, two-bath. They're well-insulated and air-sealed tile, hardwood, solid hardwood floors in them.

[01:59:28] So these homes are built to endure and be resold and just, you know, keep up with the demands of a house. You know, here you can see we raised a lot of money. And by we, I mean, Mr. Cohen here passed the hat to a lot of people and was able to, you know, fill in the gaps where we had them in this project.

[01:59:52] The county also provided the land and site control is huge in getting something going. So that's a real critical part. But still is expensive. It's expensive to do a small subdivision, you know, infrastructure and utilities were a huge expense. I think initially we were hoping for twice as many units and some density to kind of drive that number down.

[02:00:13] But, you know, for sale, single family on Greenfield is expensive, and you need economies of scale or a lot of money to do it. But so we're very grateful to all the partners that kicked in.

[02:00:28] You got the state, two different planning district commissions, our funding from two different federal sources. And you can see the bulk of it went to infrastructure and home construction. You may know this project won Best Housing Project at the Governor's Housing Conference last year.

[02:00:47] So always nice to stand in front of a giant ballroom of people and get some recognition for a project. There's a lot of thank yous there, Mr. Carroll especially. Thank you for just staying with it and keeping people on the page.

[02:01:06] And our partners at Maggie Walker and Project Homes who built the homes, the county's planning staff, I mean, we filed permits and somehow things weren't platted. So people went back and did them manually to just get us started and on and on.

[02:01:23] And especially Nancy Ross of Concerned Citizens of Ettrick. She is unlike anybody you maybe have ever met and just incredible in being a person we can talk to and can talk to our community and then talk back from the community to us and help us hear things.

[02:01:40] And having someone like that, I cannot tell you, it is such a critical part because we then know, hey, this is what they've talked about. This is what, you know, we have said we have someone to talk back and forth with. It's not a scattering of folks.

[02:01:53] So she is helping us do other things in Ettrick. So we're really, I can't, can't praise her enough. The other bulk of what we have for ARPA money in that housing fund we have used for some housing services, everything from housing for victims of domestic violence to a program we did something similar of during the pandemic with rental assistance funding where families who are homeless, we are helping them find secure housing again. So if you find yourself in that role, what's the path out of that

[02:02:32] to eviction diversion, which, you know, kind of just collapsing it, it is single parent households with children who need like a month or two months of rent to kind of keep from being evicted. And then we also fund the housing resource line, which is a centralized point for all the myriad housing programs and funding sources and all kinds of stuff that exists. We have a lot of people that are calling just because rents have gone up faster than incomes and they are looking desperately for places. So another one of our programs wanted to work at the governor's housing conference. They

[02:03:09] only give out five. It's not like one of those things where everybody with their own category gets something. And this is that bringing families home program. So we're, I don't, don't expect this to happen next year or probably ever in my life, but it was nice to be part of some good programs. And we'll take questions. And again, thank you for all your support with the projects that we've been able to do board members any questions or comments i just went to go visit housing families first and they have such an amazing thing going on over there

[02:03:42] it's very similar to the layout of the women's shelter that i worked in in illinois i love how they're it's more of a family feel for food and it's there's the supportive services there and it's just awesome and then all the other things that they're doing outside of that as well The Hilliard House in Henrico?

[02:04:04] Yeah, yeah, yeah. As well as, you know, they said they have like six townhomes that they place people in as well. I was thinking maybe we could do something over here with that. So, yes, I just think that they're doing awesome work. And in such a small, it's a small but mighty crew.

[02:04:22] So, I think it's awesome. So, yeah, thank you so much. Mr. Chair. You're right. Nancy Ross is an amazing lady. And the concerns of Etric, that whole group, which I'm a part of, now has some new members, which are actually people who have moved into Etric Landing, have now joined the group.

[02:04:45] I think that what this presentation shows is that affordable housing is a topic that's not as easy to solve as everybody thinks it is. Actually, it's a very difficult topic to solve.

[02:05:02] This was a great project, first of its kind, actually, I think, in the United States. And hopefully it can serve as a model that it works. I was in these houses when they were building them. Very well built. Quality materials, quality construction.

[02:05:20] The contractors and subs that we had doing the work did an excellent job. And so those people are getting a really nice neighborhood to live in. And we don't get a lot of new construction in this port of the county in that. We have plenty in western Matoka, but when you go on the eastern side of Matoka, it's not so much.

[02:05:39] And so if anybody's watching this at home and you're not a member of the Concerns of the Vetric, you should consider joining. It's a great organization, and they're always trying to find another way that they can help the community, not just in this type, but many, many, many ways.

[02:05:58] So great job on all of these different projects that you just presented to us today, but keep up the great work. I want to thank you again for your presentation, Mr. Cohen.

[02:06:14] You have some great talent that works for you in multiple areas. Some of them, really all of those areas are difficult areas to tackle. I know Rich is out there on the front lines every day. I know you are on the housing side as well.

[02:06:31] And I just want to, again, thank your department for all of the work it does for our citizens to have a better community. Thank you. E-consent agenda highlights. Mr. Harris. Mr. Chair, you've got three consent items of note.

[02:06:57] that I'll run through very quickly. You have a resolution on your consent agenda for the county to be designated as a direct marketing organization. That's through Mr. Poma's shop in a partnership that he is working on with the Virginia Tourism Corporation. This will afford us, again, another couple of tools in the toolkit and allow us to apply for some tourism-related grants that we haven't otherwise had access to before.

[02:07:20] So a compliment to what that group is already doing and has in place. You have another designation as a safe street community. This is in Jesse Smith's shop. We've been doing this for a number of years. If you read the resolution, it's all, you know, apple pie type stuff.

[02:07:39] But what it really allows us to do, again, having this designation in place, which we do on an annual basis, allows us to apply for certain transportation grants and, you know, gives us a little bit of a leg up. So you've been doing this for a number of years. It does have important safety and pedestrian guidelines and goals in there.

[02:08:00] But again, it's a nice seal of approval when we apply for grants. And Jesse and Chessa and that group do a fantastic job of leveraging all those opportunities. Lastly, in the school space, you have a change of appropriation categories moving to $2 million between school categories, which they have to come to you for permission to do that.

[02:08:23] That $2 million, which is savings in debt service, moving up to the transportation category, if approved, would free up $2 million for school bus replacements. That will, unfortunately, only buy about 12 buses nowadays, but it does help us. You know, we've been chipping away at this over the last couple of years, so credit to Bob and his team for looking for opportunities to help accelerate that replacement schedule.

[02:08:46] So with that, I'm happy to take any questions you might have. Board members, any questions? Thank you. Item five, reports. Are there any questions regarding the reports? Seeing none, the reports are approved.

[02:09:05] Item 6, 15-minute citizen comment period on unscheduled matters. This time is designated for citizens to talk to the Board of Supervisors. It is not a time for dialogue with board members, and it is not a question-answer period. Those conversations can easily occur with individual board members outside of the board meeting.

[02:09:24] As a reminder, the board's procedures state, no citizen shall speak on any matter of business that is a subject on the board's agenda for that day, and each speaker shall have three minutes to address the board. We have two speakers. Our

[02:09:37] first speaker is Thomas Verdick. Thank you. I'm going to skip the introduction, just go straight

[02:11:10] to the problem. All the toilets at Cofill Station Condominium Complex have been installed incorrectly. I'm just going to go ahead and show you the correct way to install a toilet flange. In order to receive a toilet this is your plywood subfloor which all the floors at the co-fill station uh complex have plywood floors and towel bathrooms in placing a towel floor you have initially a grout layer there's a quarter of an inch to five sixteenths of an inch thick and then you have a

[02:11:50] tile layer that's about a half inch thick so these together on the subfloor it's about three quarters three-quarters of an inch to seven-eighths of an inch off the subfloor. So the correct way to install a toilet plan, this is the part that goes on the subfloor and receives the toilet. It needs to be above the subfloor the height of this three-quarter of inches. In order to accomplish

[02:12:23] that, you can use a spacer like this, screw it to the floor, add your grout layer. Your tile is in the proper location as recommended and required by the Virginia State Building Code so that the surface, the underside here, is resting on the finished floor or near about. Then you have your wax ring. It only requires one wax ring. Wax rings are one inch thick. I'm not going to take this one out. I'm just going to put it down there. You set your toilet on the wax ring, you screw it down to

[02:13:01] the floor. You have just successfully installed a toilet correctly and it will never leak. Now, the way this plumber has been installing his toilets is to take the flange, put it on the subfloor, which nobody recommends and is against code, screws it down, he then puts his grout layer down, his towel layer down. Uh-oh, one wax ring one inch thick won't fit. So he takes one wax

[02:13:37] ring, he takes another wax ring, he stacks it on top of that wax ring. Okay, that ain't gonna work. That's the way they do it at this location, and I can tell you that is wrong. I want to go ahead and direct your attention to page 11.

[02:14:02] This is all over the Internet. It comes from the Odie Company, the maker of these wax rings. Mr. Burdick, your three minutes are up. Oh, no, I can't be. No, I've timed this. I've got to finish. That is not right.

[02:14:22] All right, let me make a summary then. I'll make a summary then. Thank you. I met with Dr. Casey. We had in that meeting Mr. Grover Miles, the area representative for the ODI Company, authorized representative company for Richland.

[02:14:39] He says in this meeting that ODI does not recommend stacking wax rings and that you should never stack wax rings. In conclusion, I will say on page 11B, which is after page 11, you'll see a toilet that's been installed on a finished floor.

[02:15:01] And by code, it is required to be caulked all the way around the toilet. There's no way that a small leak is going to work its way up from the top of this flange, which is below grade, up to, out, and through that caulk.

[02:15:20] So, in conclusion, my recommendation is to you, gentlemen, that is incumbent on you to instruct your inspectors to make sure that toilets are installed in accordance with the manufacturer recommendations.

[02:15:38] and from that this day forward, the stacking of wax rings will not be accepted by Chesterville County. I would like to take one more minute to say something positive about the building inspection team, if I could.

[02:15:53] I was in charge of building inspectors on Interstate 95 for 10 years and on the construction of a nuclear power plant. It's not easy to be a building inspector. The craftspeople tend to want to dodge you, but they will, if they can, do things to get away to make things simpler or cover up a mistake, and that's why you have inspectors.

[02:16:21] I want to thank Dr. Casey for meeting with me, and also Ms. Wilson and Joy that works for Dr. Casey in arranging my times here, and I would be very pleased to continue to work with Dr. Casey on this, But the stacking of wax rings needs to be stopped now.

[02:16:45] And I will do that. I will work with Dr. Casey if you gentlemen and lady will do that. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Greg Allen. Do you have a presentation that you're, can we pull that up for him and have it ready?

[02:17:04] Thank you. You're exactly right. Thank you. I really appreciate it. I'm hoping somebody was going to say something.

[02:17:39] All right. Operate this. This one? Okay. Do I need to push a button here like the other gentleman? The button.

[02:17:56] All right. You ready to get started? Yes, sir. Mr. Chair, members of the board, Dr. Casey, my name is Greg Allen. I just want to take you through a little planning road trip, where we've been and where we should go. In 1989, the zoning ordinance was very basic.

[02:18:13] It's the reason why we have Eastern 60, Eastern 360, and Jeff Davis looking the way they did. Every zoning case was a fight over density and quality standards. Our planning processes carve wouldn't run, so changes were needed. In 1989, a new ordinance was a community effort, lots of input from all sides of the community.

[02:18:35] And indeed, a visionary approach was achieved through the overlay standards that built a quality county for at least 30 of the 35 past years. And what we got was really a sports utility vehicle that could go anywhere in the county. Those overlays made everything consistent for office commercial industrial districts, including the residential buffers, Because what happened, well, before that statement, what happened was even residential buffers along arterial roads were 50 feet, just like the setback for OC&I.

[02:19:04] So you developed a force of character throughout the county that made the county very attractive. The other thing that ordinance did was remove R7 and R9 districts because it gave you more direct authority over the quality properties and even the design, the creative design that was being used.

[02:19:21] And your predecessors have approved a lot of small lots. before in more recent times. One of the benefits was site and subdivision processes went fully administrative. That was a benefit to everyone. So why the ordinance worked so well is the board gave us five years to switch from one ordinance to the other through a series of zoning case period times.

[02:19:43] And at the end of five years, by 1994, the ordinance went countywide because everyone saw how the ordinance converted with no issues. But what wrecked our current ordinance? The lack of, back in 2019, roughly, a lack of sufficient housing forced a sudden shift by the county to view housing as a priority, which we'd never had before.

[02:20:07] Housing affordability shifted the county to promote smaller lots, townhomes, condos, and apartments. We were not experienced with how to address this sudden change in direction and let go of quality standards in the ordinance. So what I want to talk about is more imaginative design.

[02:20:22] You know, through one residential zoning district, we could allow a mix of residential uses, including townhomes, in exchange for more forested character. And I'm going to use Wynwood as a powerful example. That neighborhood was approved with lots that were 40, 45, 50, 70, and 80 feet wide, and townhouses, all mixed in together, a very vibrant community.

[02:20:46] It works because the quality was good and the community spaces were well done, very imaginably done. what also worked was all the lots were based on 100 foot lot depth so that all the products could interchange it didn't make a difference what product they had they could change the lot wits mr allen yes your three minutes are up okay i'll just finish with a you can have 30 seconds thank you sir very much this is my closure winwood at fox creek watermark silver leaf all by the same developer in different districts of the county all had this creative approach to design but there's

[02:21:24] many others that have been done over the past 20 years before 2019 so that there are examples out there where in a single project a wide variety of unit types that worked very well together we have cases of that and two of those developments watermark and silverleaf provided affordable housing in those areas with little new housing so one new district that allows all variety of residential housing products and sizes could work for the county very effectively Thank you very much.

[02:21:57] Thank you. Madam Clerk. Item 7, Closed Session 1, Pursuant to Section 2.2-3711A5, Code of Virginia 1950, as amended, to discuss or consider prospective businesses or industries or the expansion of existing businesses or industries where no previous announcement has been made of the businesses or industries' interest in locating or expanding their facilities in the community.

[02:22:25] 2. Pursuant to Section 2.2-3711A3, Code of Virginia 1950 as amended, to discuss the acquisition by the county of real estate for a public purpose or the disposition of publicly held real property where discussion in an open meeting would adversely affect the bargaining position and negotiating strategy of the public body.

[02:22:48] Three, pursuant to Section 2.2-3711A29 to discuss the award of a public contract involving the expenditure of public funds where discussion in open session would adversely affect the bargaining position or negotiating strategy of the public body.

[02:23:05] And four, pursuant to Section 2.2, 3711A-19, Code of Virginia 1950 as amended, for discussion of plans to protect public safety as it relates to terrorist activity or specific cyber security threats or vulnerabilities, and briefing by staff members, legal counsel, or law enforcement or emergency service officials concerning actions taken to respond to such matters or a related threat to public safety.

[02:23:37] Discussion of information subject to the exclusion in subdivision 2 or 14 of section 2.2-3705.2 where discussion in an open meeting would jeopardize the safety of any person or the security of any facility, building, structure, information, technology system, or software program, or discussion of reports or plans related to the security of any governmental facility, building, or structure, or the safety of persons using such facility, building, or structure.

[02:24:10] Mr. Chair, we need a motion to go into closed session. Submit. Second. All in favor? Aye. We are in closed session.

[02:24:18] Good evening and welcome to the evening session of the January 22nd Board of Supervisors meeting.

[02:26:01] I verified that all board members have received copies of the comments posted to the online comment portal for considerations on the matters before us tonight. These comments are part of the public record and will be attached to the meeting minutes. In addition, for those citizens who are here for zoning portion of the meeting, the district supervisor for case 22 SN 0089 Thacker's View rezoning and exceptions and 24 SN 1209 Magnolia Green Track CC amendment have requested a deferral to the February 26th meeting.

[02:26:39] I also want to point out the obvious that, unfortunately, Mr. Holland was not able to be with us tonight. He's taking care of some personal matters, and we want to make sure everybody knows he's been attentive to his district, and he's taking care of his obligations as a board member, and he's tuning in to watch the meeting tonight.

[02:26:59] With that, I'd like to ask Mr. Carroll to give the invocation. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Please pray with me. Heavenly Father, I want to start out by asking for your goodness and healing to help our brother, Mr. Jim Holland.

[02:27:21] He's a vital part of our community, and we would ask that you use all of your powers to help him in this time and his life. I want to ask for something else. You know, the world that we live in today has many struggles throughout it.

[02:27:44] And I would ask that you give your guidance and wisdom to our new leaders in our country to work with leaders in other countries to work towards peace in our time. I would ask that you give us your wisdom and guidance tonight as we work and do the work for our community that we are so honored and blessed to be able to do.

[02:28:06] And I would ask that you would keep all of our people in our community under watch so that they can live their lives to the fullest and enjoy the time that they have here. In your heavenly name I ask this. Amen.

[02:28:21] We would like to call forward Deputy County Administrator Matt Harris to lead the Pledge of Allegiance. Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

[02:28:51] Item 11, County Administration Update, Dr. Casey. Good evening, members of the board and the public that's here and the public that is watching. I have six items underneath my comments. I'd like to have George Hayes come to the podium to address what, again, many of us had our full attention on over the last two weeks or so, in regards to the regional water issues and water supply and distribution, for which, prior to Mr. Hayes starting, is again, if the public's not aware of, not just Mr. Hayes and his engineering background and professional recognition, everyone of you is hired, again,

[02:29:30] in the fixing of water main breaks, when and if they occur, as well as the supply of water that's quality, and then the distribution and the redundancy of that throughout Chesterfield County is a vital quality of life attribute for which this county has been recognized and has actually been a regional partner in helping those across county lines to the best of our abilities.

[02:29:54] Mr. Hayes. Thank you, Dr. Casey. Mr. Chairman, members of the board, I do want to thank you for this opportunity to come before you provide you an update on the status of our public water system. Before I get into the update on Chesterfield's actions that we took following the power outage and subsequent flooding of the city of Richmond's water plant on Monday, January 6th, I'm happy to report that Chesterfield County's public water system continues to operate as designed, the status of our water tanks and supply systems remain normal, and we continue to meet all of our customers' needs in providing

[02:30:32] safe and reliable drinking water, as we have done since the beginning of this incident. To understand a little bit about the actions that the Department of Utilities took during this incident, you need to have a general understanding of our water distribution system and our treatment plants.

[02:30:50] As this board knows, Chesterfield County is extremely fortunate to get its drinking water supply from three different sources, as well as three different treatment plants. The Swift Creek Reservoir is treated by the Addison-Evans Water Treatment Plant. The Janes River is treated by the city of Richmond's water treatment plant, and Lake Chesden is treated by the Appomattox River Water Authority.

[02:31:13] These three sources and treatment plants provide a tremendous amount of reliability and redundancy. As an example, these three water sources have drainage basins in different geographic areas of the state, so when we experience a drought or a natural disaster like flooding events in Virginia, each of these three sources may be impacted differently.

[02:31:37] The three separate treatment plants also supply another layer of reliability and redundancy for Chesterfield County. In addition, Chesterfield Utilities has significantly invested in our water distribution system. We currently have a robust water distribution system that interconnects these three water supplies that provides us flexibility in operating our system and the ability to move water from any of our sources throughout our water distribution network.

[02:32:08] We also invest in generator backup power for all our critical water facilities. And this includes the numerous water pump stations that we have throughout our distribution system. Chesterfield Utility supplies water to approximately 123,000 customer accounts, serving a population of 360,000.

[02:32:30] In preparation for the anticipated storm event, the county activated the Virtual Emergency Operations Center starting on Sunday, January 5th, which was also manned by the Department of Utilities. Our department also took our normal preventative maintenance measures for this storm.

[02:32:47] All our critical facilities were ready. Chemical tanks and fuel tanks were checked in full, and all our generators were tested. Prior to this event, we had our Addison-Evans water treatment plant offline for some scheduled rehabilitation projects at that facility.

[02:33:06] Knowing we had one of our three water sources offline on Saturday, January 4th, I personally made effective contact with the Executive Director of Appomattox River Water Authority and the Director of the Utilities of Richmond to ensure they were aware of our water status and requested that I be contacted if any issues would happen that could impact Chesterfield County's water supply.

[02:33:30] On the morning of Monday, January 6, at approximately 7 a.m., Chesterfield Utilities was alerted to the power outage at the City of Richmond's water treatment plant and we were asked to limit our water usage while the City assessed the situation. As they knew, Chesterfield County had multiple water sources.

[02:33:48] Chesterfield began the process early that morning by reducing the supply to help the city maintain its limited capacity. Chesterfield, and we also, it would also protect our citizens if something were to happen. Chesterfield was then notified approximately 8-11, so about an hour and 11 minutes after we notified the power outage went down, we notified at 8-11 a.m. that the power to the plant was restored.

[02:34:14] Later in the day, around 2.45 p.m. during a regional call, Chesterfield was first made aware that the City of Richmond's water plant remained offline all day. Their water plant experienced flooding, and their water tank reserves were continuing to decline.

[02:34:31] At that time, Chesterfield Utilities isolated its water distribution system from the City of Richmond's water supply by shutting down all three points of entry into the county. This allowed the city to retain their limited water capacity to help them get through this incident while also mitigating any risk for Chesterfield County water customers.

[02:34:51] The county's water supply was isolated before the city announced their conservation efforts as well as their boil water advisory. Although Appomattox River Water Authority could adequately feed the current low winter demands during the entire system for Chesterfield County, having a second supply would provide redundancy if we had any unforeseen operational issues.

[02:35:13] At approximately 3.12 p.m. on Monday, the Department of Utilities began to work with our contractors on a plan to get the Addison Evans Water Treatment Plant back online. Our contractors were directed and worked throughout the night on Monday night to finish the needed pipe work at our plant.

[02:35:33] And our staff stayed throughout the night to get that facility back up and running. And we had that plant back online producing clean potable water on Tuesday, January 7th at 2.20 p.m. Our staff's ability to work with our contractors and bring our water plant back online in less than 24 hours speaks volumes about our employees' dedication and expertise.

[02:35:58] Monday evening, Richmond requested resources from the Central Virginia Incident Management Team to help coordinate and restore its municipal water supply system. The Central Virginia Incident Management Team is a regional team that includes members from Chesterfield County Fire, EMS, and Chesterfield Police.

[02:36:17] Chesterfield Utilities for this incident was also part of that team. Additionally, Chesterfield Fire and EMS responded and deployed a 2,500-gallon water tanker truck and crews to Chippenham Hospital to help with the continual operation of its boilers while the other systems were affected by low incoming water pressure from the city.

[02:36:38] As reported by the media, on Tuesday, January 7th, Hanover County had a boiler water visee for the system due to pressure loss. On Wednesday, January 8th, Henrico County and Eastern Goochland County issued boil water advisories due to loss of pressure in the Henrico County system.

[02:36:57] Until the boil water advisories were lifted on Saturday, January 11th for these four major jurisdictions in the Richmond region, Chesterfield County was the only large water utility in the area that had potable water.

[02:37:16] Chesapeake will work with our regional partners, VDEM, and private contractors to supply potable water from our water system via tanker trucks to be delivered to the various trauma centers and hospitals in the Richmond area. This included the VCU trauma center and also the Veterans Administration Hospital in Richmond.

[02:37:34] The most frequent question I get from our customers, and I've gotten a lot of phone calls and a lot of questions, is when the city of Richmond was having issues with their water plant, How was it possible that Chesapeake County Utilities isolated their water system so quickly?

[02:37:53] Earlier, I spoke about the investments we made in our infrastructure and all the improvements we made over the years. The one investment I have not spoken about is the investment in our employees. Chesapeake Utilities, with the support of our Human Resources Department, have attracted and retained the highest quality water and wastewater professionals who ensure we properly operate and maintain our utility system.

[02:38:18] I can tell you I've been in the water industry for 33 years, and it is a true honor to serve alongside some of the most highest and talented water and wastewater professionals in the industry. At Chesterville Utilities, our staff have developed robust emergency operations plans for every emergency situation we can imagine for our utility.

[02:38:40] As an example, we have standard operating procedures for the loss of the city of Richmond supply, where our staff can step-by-step have a guide to isolate the city of Richmond supply. In addition to having the needed emergency standard operating procedures, our staff ensure all the components of our system that are needed to implement the emergency operations plan are regularly inspected, accessible, and maintained.

[02:39:05] The reason we were able to isolate the city supply so quickly was because our employees were knowledgeable, well-trained, and had the resources we needed to timely and successfully implement our emergency operations plan. Department of Utilities would not have been successful in this event without the support of so many other departments.

[02:39:25] I just want to take a brief opportunity to thank Chief Center and Jessa Robinson with the Fire and EMS Department for their support through the Tencent and the Emergency Operations Center. I also want to thank Teresa Bonifest and Dave Goode, along with all the employees in the Department of Constituent and Media Services, who did a fantastic job in timely communicating the status with our customers and also responding to all-meter inquiries so that utilities could focus all our resources on transitioning our water supplies, standing up the Addison-Evans Water Treatment Plant, and assisting the region with their water needs.

[02:40:02] I also want to thank the staff at the Appomattox River Water Authority, especially their Executive Director, Robert Wilson. Rob and I remain in constant contact throughout this incident to ensure that we continue to provide safe and reliable water service to all our customers.

[02:40:18] Appomattox River Water Authority, along with Chesapeake County and other jurisdictions in the region, also sent water operators, so ARWA and Chesapeake, along with others, sent water operators to the Richmond plant to operate that plant during this incident. And finally, I want to thank county administration and this board for always supporting the Department of Utilities for both our infrastructure and our employees' needs. Without the support from the top, we would not be successful.

[02:40:49] Chesapeake County Utilities is in daily contact and continues to work with the City of Richmond as they rebuild their water treatment plant and review their water distribution system. We also are committed to working with the recently appointed interim utility director, Dr. Scott Morris, and are confident in his abilities to take the needed corrective action for both the water treatment plant and the water distribution system.

[02:41:12] As this board knows, Scott Morris worked for Chesapeake County Utilities for 10 years before he worked for DEQ starting in 2022. With that, Mr. Chairman, I'll be more than happy to take any questions the board may have. Board members, any comments or questions?

[02:41:29] As always, George, you did a great job. And it's good to have seniority and knowledge on our half and have such a wonderful resource for the rest of the region as well to ask for help when they need it.

[02:41:54] So I wish we would all have that much foresight of planning. So thank you so much. And hopefully this is a learning lesson for all of the other localities. So thank you so much. Mr. Chair, I think all you need to do is tune in to the local news or the national news and understand the value of water, not just for drinking, which we all depend on every day when you open the faucet for something to come out that's drinkable,

[02:42:27] But also for our fire hydrants, we are very blessed and lucky that Richmond didn't suffer a similar crisis to what California is suffering. If they had had a structure fire downtown with no ability to move water into the standpipe systems, sprinkler systems, we're very blessed that nothing happened.

[02:42:51] And yes, as Ms. Schneider said, we are very fortunate to have tremendous employees working for us who know what they're doing, who look at contingencies look at down the road long term what needs to be done and of course we're working on a fourth water supply right now we're in the process of getting that in the tidal basin which you've mentioned before many times here which will only make us stronger not just for us as a community but also for the region so again i know we were at the all staff the other day to thank your employees in person but as always please pass along because every day

[02:43:29] we hear good things about what utilities does, including, I mean, Mr. Ingle even had a story about some people in your shop that got called on on Christmas Day to fix a leak and took care of it. Thank you, Ms. Carroll. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[02:43:45] We were at an event last week about Martin Luther King, and one of the speakers said that we get inundated with a lot of information, and we sometimes confuse information for knowledge.

[02:44:01] And so you had, I couldn't help but think about you in that moment, and our utility team. And you were getting all this information, which then leads to knowledge, but ultimately leads to wisdom.

[02:44:19] And the team, you described it perfectly, was in that wisdom place. They knew, you knew, what needed to happen to make it keep everybody safe and to make it right. And when this whole thing was unfolding early on, there was never a time where I didn't feel like we were all being held by our utility team. And I penned off a very quick email. I didn't think I could say it any more than just say, I am so proud in this moment to be part of Chesterfield.

[02:44:56] And I'm so grateful. And I speak for 360,000 customers for the work you all did. We couldn't be more grateful. Thank you, Dr. Miller. Well, you shared a lot about your team, and they absolutely did a fantastic job.

[02:45:16] But it starts at the top. And the knowledge that you have at the top and the gut feeling you had to not know if it was the right thing or not, but to say, I just need to do this and to shut the water off while we were still under pressure was tremendous.

[02:45:38] This board has talked. We've shared with Dr. Casey that there's a merit award that we want to have Dr. Casey work to get to you. And we've verified that there's some opportunity for you to be able to do that for some of your staff that was key in making this work.

[02:45:58] That's a very small token from a very appreciative community for keeping us up and running during a time where all of the other major utilities around us didn't. I don't even know how we can thank you enough, but that's a start in the thank you.

[02:46:15] And what you do, as Mr. Carroll said, as much as I was touched by that, the letter that we received or the email that we received from the community that said on Christmas Day at 7 a.m., they thought they had an antifreeze leak on their truck.

[02:46:32] They went out to look, and they realized the water was coming up out of the road. So they called the utilities number, emergency number, expecting to leave a message to get a call back at some point in time. And within one hour, well, first off, when they called, a person answered the phone and took their information.

[02:46:55] Within one hour, a supervisor was on site. This is 8 o'clock on Christmas morning. And by 8.30, they were digging up the road to fix the leak. That was incredible service that we keep on hearing over and over and over again coming from your department.

[02:47:13] And we're just grateful to have the utilities department that we do. And I think we owe him a standing ovation. Chairman, board members, thank you so much.

[02:47:40] And I just, on behalf of the Department of Utilities and our employees, we can't thank you enough for the support that the board gives to our department. The public may not know this, but every twice a year, we have all staffs, and almost every all staff, we almost have every board member comes to the all staff to thank our employees and shake their hands for what they do.

[02:48:02] And that means a lot to our employees. We appreciate the recognition, we appreciate the words, and we appreciate in times not of crisis, you're there to support our employees and thank them for the job they do, not just in times of crisis, but every single day.

[02:48:18] So on behalf of our employees, I want to thank you for what you do and the support of the department. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Hayes. Next, if I could have Virginia State University's president, Dr. Abdullah, join us. As many know, we do an annual update with VSU and President Abdullah and his leadership team meets often with us throughout the year with board members and our leadership in what's called a town and gown meeting, which is the definition of a community relationship because we want to create a thriving campus, thriving students, and have them reinvest their time and talents back into making Chesterfield and the region

[02:48:54] even more successful. Dr. Abdullah. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Dr. Casey. And I did notice that very fancy scarf that you have today that is on your chair. You can show people I would appreciate it, the Virginia State University scarf. Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the Board of Supervisors for having Virginia State University here. It is always a pleasure to be here. Of course, our supervisor, Mr. Kevin Carroll, thank you for having a wonderful relationship and being on campus so often. I see that Supervisor Holland isn't here, but as an HBCU graduate, he's always very active. But I wanted to make sure that I said that in more recent years that

[02:49:33] to have all of you, I think even this year, I've seen all of you a bunch of times. And it is really a pleasure to be Chesterfield County's university and to have you all come out and enjoy Virginia State University. I also wanted to, if I could, I also wanted to thank the Department of Utilities.

[02:49:51] Traditionally, when we talk about our first responders, we, of course, work very closely with the fire and police department here, but we are also at Virginia State University as citizens of Chesterfield County. We are very thankful for the fantastic work that the Department of Utilities did to make sure that we were safe on campus also. My first slide, I don't know if all of you were familiar with her. Mrs. Peggy Davis was an incredible employee at BSU, worked over 25 years as the athletic director. And my best analogy would be that I heard the wonderful words that you all gave to Mr. George Hayes about the wonderful work that he does. And you know how

[02:50:30] it is to have someone who has the kind of institutional knowledge, who knows what's going on. And we never had any issues with compliance. We never had any student athletes become ineligible. And we win. And to have that was really a luxury. Mrs. Peggy Davis was a wonderful woman. And we just always want to make sure that we continue to honor her and speak her name out loud. Next, just to give you a kind of a snapshot of where we are, Virginia State University is just a little over 5,600 students, mostly female students. 60% of our students are women,

[02:51:08] 40 percent are men. That actually among HBCUs is a little high for a male population. And so we're continuing to try to move that population up. Just four years ago in 2020, we were at 4,000 students. And so we've grown almost 40 percent in four years. We are Virginia's fastest growing public university and exists right here in Chesterfield County. We have two buildings that are looking to go up right now. Our Harris Hall academic complex, which will be the largest academic building on campus. The best way to describe it is I know all of you have been to the

[02:51:45] multipurpose center. It is almost as big as the multipurpose center on the other side of campus. We're very excited. We'll be opening that building in the fall of 25, so the fall of this year. And in April, I believe, we'll break ground on a new admissions and academic building. So kind of in the parking lot of Rogers Stadium where the football game is, we'll be breaking ground on a brand new building. Very excited about that. You may have read that the state had done a study and realized that our buildings were among the oldest in the Commonwealth. That is certainly true. We were founded in 1882 with the fourth oldest public institution in the state. And so we're very proud

[02:52:24] that the state is looking to invest in capital at Virginia State. Amazer Lee Meredith. Amazer meredith was arguably the first black woman to be an architect and also was one of the founding dean of our art department she lived on our campus and designed her own house and her house the which she called azareth south she also designed the house that was azareth north i believe that was in new york but azareth south she lived in the house until she passed away that house is on our

[02:52:57] campus. And after she passed away, we kind of deeded it to the Alumni Association and they are in charge of the upkeep. But recently they received a large grant to become a historic, a large historic grant. So we're very proud of that. It really is a wonderful house. It's a small house on campus and we encourage anyone to come by and take a look. But it has a lot of really incredible history.

[02:53:20] I almost said next slide like I wasn't holding a thing, right? Right, I'm like, you know, somebody turn it. I've got the stuff. Thank you all for coming. The last time that I got a chance to hang out with many of you was at the joint chamber pre-legislative breakfast.

[02:53:39] Again, it is always a pleasure to have you on campus. From our students, faculty, and staff, I'm not sure that you know what it means when we're able to say that Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors are on campus. There are still many people, unfortunately, and we are trying to correct that, who believe that we exist in Petersburg.

[02:53:57] And we are not in Petersburg. We're in the village of Ettrick right here in Chesterfield County. And to have that relationship means a lot. Homecoming 2024. We won our game. Y'all hung out. I think that's, is that Kim Conley in that picture?

[02:54:13] Okay, just checking. I got to make sure we all acknowledge the boss, of course, the woman who keeps this relationship alive, the great Kim Conley. We won a fantastic football game. We had a nice little party with some horses. We had a Western thing at Virginia State.

[02:54:29] We had a good time. And again, thank you all for coming. Our Trojan Explosion was named one of ESPN's Band of the Year. And so we were very excited about that. And our football team went to the championship game.

[02:54:47] Many of you know, and I think there's, as I look out into the audience, I think there are a lot of educators here. We're very proud of the awards, but I think more importantly, we're excited about the opportunity to really put kids, sometimes on a plane and sometimes on a bus, to go somewhere that they've never been before, to perform in front of a group that they've never performed in front of before.

[02:55:06] It's those kinds of experiences that really make the college experience, and so we're very proud of them becoming Band of the Year. And we had commencement. I believe that is you, Supervisor Schneider, hanging out with us, hanging out with Mr. Burton at commencement.

[02:55:24] always excited to graduate students. It's probably the best time of the year is commencement. And we continue. I know we're always working with the Chesterfield County board, the school board, as many commencements that we can have in Virginia State University. We certainly want to do. We want to be that hub for Chesterfield County. And save the dates. So we got some things coming up. I'm sure more things will happen soon. But on the March 12th, we'll have the Globetrotters. I think this will be the third year that the Globetrotters have come. And so for everyone who might be in

[02:55:59] front of me and behind me, please buy your ticket at the box office. We'd love to have you at the Globetrotters event. On March 20th, we'll have our Founders Day. We'll honor our founder, Delegate Alfred W. Harris, who read the bill on the floor of the House of Delegates. And so we're very excited to do that. We do that every year, of course. Our commencements and our date for homecoming has been picked October 25th please save the date again we'd always love to have you come out and I did it I made it to the end thank you all so

[02:56:30] much for your support board members is there any questions or comments I was just gonna say that we had the honor of hearing from Peggy Davis's daughter at the Martin Luther King YMCA award ceremony the other night and she obviously has picked up a lot of wisdom and knowledge from her mother she is uh she was a very soulful wonderful and and she's an educator also so it's amazing so we were we were all very

[02:57:05] impressed with her um and i'm gonna have to come and check out your your azarus south house there you go that's that's i love architecture so it's reminding me of taliesin west and taliesin east I'm from Wisconsin and that's, you know, Mr. Wright, so he's had two different houses also.

[02:57:26] And Globetrotters, we used to go every year, so that's exciting to see. When we were kids, we used to go every year in Milwaukee. So thank you so much for coming out to visit us. Oh, you're welcome. That's a good scene. I'm kind of bummed. We have a board meeting on the 12th of March.

[02:57:44] Board meeting on 12th? Yeah, because I just went to put it on my calendar and now we got a board meeting. it's too late to reschedule it too well you know the the mpc is and i don't think the community would like it too much if i said well i gotta go to globetrotter so we gotta move this meeting but um you know we are very fortunate as you said to have the virginia state university to be part of chesterfield county um you know i want to continue to work as closely as i can with y'all but and i look forward to our next town and gown um but as many a dates that we can i can get in my account you know i will and of course uh it doesn't have to be something special so if you ever get time you want to just have lunch uh we wouldn't have to come on down there and you got

[02:58:24] some good spots to have lunch by the way sounds good so whenever you're available look forward to it thank you for coming out tonight thank you you're not located in petersburg no sir um but you are located at the beginning on how you look at her at the end of the fall line trail and i really love the fact that that's really where um it's beginning and ending is at the fall line Trail I know it goes all the way up to Ashland and there's another college up there but I just love the fact that Fall Line Trail and Virginia State come together right there thank you sir thank you so much well thank you for coming

[02:59:03] out tonight I'd see a lot of building going on over there but I think you need some more rooms for your students so we got to figure that out it's gonna be very important for the school and for the community to work together on I I also had written down earlier Ms. Davis' daughter.

[02:59:22] She definitely learned a lot from her mother, and if the athletes that her mother had her hands on learned as much from her as her daughter did, then she left students in a very good place. So thank you very much for mentioning her tonight.

[02:59:42] And we're just thankful again that Virginia State is in Chesterfield County, And we're thankful that we've built a great relationship, especially in the past few years. But hopefully it had been a good relationship over time. But I know we've made an extra effort to make sure that this county and Virginia State are looked at together.

[03:00:04] So thank you again for all that you do for your students and for our community. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Dr. Abdullah. And thank you for the scarf. Thank you. It keeps me warm. If I could have our Child Advocacy Center Administrator, Janelle Beverly, and Marilyn Brown, who's our leader in juvenile justice as director.

[03:00:29] At a minimum, I think they're here to stand. If they can come to the podium, even better. But I promise they didn't have to talk. That's great. Maybe you can get them to talk. But this is a recognition. For those that don't know what a Child Advocacy Center is, it's basically when a child's having their worst day being victimized, that, again, we need to do forensic interviews.

[03:00:53] We need to deal with the mental health and wellness of a child. There's a lot of professionals that are needed to intervene as quickly as possible. The environment that you have for that child to feel comfortable, to begin their journey back into helping law enforcement, to helping themselves, starts with a high-quality child advocacy center.

[03:01:13] Chesterville did not have one in our locality until a few years ago. we used to have to travel afar for it. A lot has changed in those few years. We are now, not only have a premier child advocacy center, but many other entities and localities, FBI and others included, are using our facility as a model to do their forensic interviews for those that are in need of their services.

[03:01:37] So with that said, Janelle has actually gotten the state award called the Janie Dockery Memorial Award for dedication to excellence by the Child Advocacy Centers of Virginia. It's awarded to an individual who has demonstrated commitment to Child Advocacy Center models, demonstrating leadership, and promoting collaboration.

[03:01:58] So it goes without saying, with the person you have here before you, and it goes without saying Marilyn Brown, who's the director who, again, was even recognized earlier today of just the premier juvenile detention center that we have that the state is pointing to as a role model. They are a team, but they are a team serving children.

[03:02:17] So with that said, I just wanted to formally recognize them before the public. - You sure you don't want to speak? - Oh, I would've cut my speech shorter. - I just wanted to say thank you.

[03:02:34] This award is one of the largest honors of my career. And I knew Jane Dockery, so it's really special because she was involved in the Child Advocacy Center movement about 27 years ago. So to be given this award in her name and in her recognition is so meaningful.

[03:02:55] I just wanted to thank my colleagues who are here, who work on my team with me, who are in the trenches every day, doing all of the hard work, and who show up for victims every time.

[03:03:11] And I could not have done any of it without them. I could not have done it without the support of the county building the Child Advocacy Center and the constant continued support and growth that you all have allowed us. So it has been a wonderful opportunity and I would not have been able to receive this if I had not been given that opportunity.

[03:03:30] So thank you very much for all of your continued support. - Board members, any questions or comments? - Thank you for everything that you do and your team. Anytime that we can not re-traumatize someone that's already gone through so much trauma and help them to get to the other side or at least on the way to the other side.

[03:03:53] It's just so impactful and thank you so much. I greatly appreciate everything that you do. - Congratulations on the award, well deserved. I had the opportunity to come visit the center not too long ago. We look forward to when we can get you moved into the new location, which will be closer here, which will be more convenient for you and more convenient for all the community that you serve.

[03:04:17] When I was first hired as a police officer, we didn't have this service and it makes a huge difference And as Supervisor Schneider said, to have an opportunity to do these interviews in a way not to re-traumatize a victim is critically important for the entire process.

[03:04:36] And I know it's, quite frankly, tough for the mental health of your team, too, because you're dealing with things that are very tough. So, well, the truth of the matter is I'm not trying to be preachy here, but God gives all of us special skills and talents.

[03:04:55] And y'all's team has a special skill and talent. So thank you very much for your work. One of the things that we share is that we treat people that are dealing with trauma. And one of the things I noticed when I came out and spent time with y'all is it's about being able to create a container for safety.

[03:05:16] Because from that container of safety, seeds can be planted and then can be grown. And that's what you all do every day. It was obvious that that's what you all do. those seeds can sometimes grow very slowly so it takes an incredible amount of patience and love and all of that energy that you put in every day couldn't be more grateful for what y'all do um i'm already noticing this evening that um there's a theme already from the meeting

[03:05:49] that it's if you really want to boil down chesterfield it's the people and what you do every day so thank you i get to follow the three of them that's uh actually was going to mention that we're working on a new location for you that we think will be even better.

[03:06:11] What you've done with where you're at has been incredible. All of us, I think, have visited and the work that takes place there is incredibly important for traumatized victims. And we can't thank you enough.

[03:06:28] Congratulations on the award and thank you and your team for what you do for our citizens. I just have two more items, sir.

[03:06:46] If I could have Sports Visitation and Entertainment Director J.C. Poma come to the podium as I introduce a new campaign that they are launching. Nice entrance. Liz Hart with him as well. He's here to release information about what we call the Historical Experience Campaign and Visitor Guide.

[03:07:07] And as we talk often, any visitor guide is also designed for the citizen to also visit. Mr. Poma. Thank you, Dr. Casey, Mr. Chair, Mr. Vice Chair, Mr. Schneider, Mr. Carroll. Great to be back up here. I think we've all had Dr. Casey give us the, I've got a couple one-liners for you. When we get those one-liners, usually get out our notebooks. But I think one of the first one-liners he gave me was, you've got endless opportunity to tell our story here in Chesterfield.

[03:07:34] So what I hope you get out of today is a couple of tremendous opportunities with so many departments filling in. And with that, I'll turn it over to Liz to present to you the History Happened Here campaign hello dr casey members of the board uh thank you guys for having us uh here tonight since launching experience chesterfield last year we use one phrase consistently in our marketing and that phrase is whether it's the fun food or endless outdoor adventures you've found your reason to experience chesterfield and now we want you to know that there's even more to explore

[03:08:13] so today we wanted to give you the first glimpse of our history happened here campaign because we know there's even more to explore that a lot of residents might not know about, let alone all the visitors that come to Chesterfield for so many different reasons. So today we began to advance our historical narrative through Experience Chesterfield. Our goal with this campaign is to educate residents that everywhere you look in Chesterfield, you are close to major moments in history that happened right here. Our hope is that visitors will also feel encouraged to learn more about the history of Chesterfield during their time here. We've created a video that gives a nice overview of the campaign. You can find this video along with other campaign initiatives that I'll

[03:08:53] mention in just a moment on our website experiencechesterfield.com slash history. I'm going to play the video for you guys. This is a first look. No matter where you find yourself in Chesterfield, chances are you're close to major moments in history. It's time to get up to speed on the history that happened here. You've heard about Henriquez, the second settlement in English North America, but did you know what happened in Henriquez shaped our country? Today it's a living history museum that reminds us that we're part of something bigger. Next came breakthroughs in industry and energy. 1619 marked the beginning of the steel and iron industry in America,

[03:09:32] and later, the first commercial coal mines opened at what is today known as Midlothian Mines Park. Groundbreaking innovation, right here in Chesterfield. And during times of conflict, history also happened here. In the Revolutionary War, Chesterfield held strong when the British invaded Chesterfield Courthouse, raiding barracks and supplies to the Continental Army. Or when the Civil War brought devastation.

[03:09:54] Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, set up a hospital at Point of Rocks to care for thousands of wounded soldiers. It was at Point of Rocks that President Lincoln visited Union troops to show support during a pivotal time near the end of the war in 1865. Then came the Gilded Age, and Bonaire was a picture of high society.

[03:10:12] The historic community was a posh getaway from the hustle and bustle of city life. Drive down Buford Road today, and you're right there back in time. At Pleasant View School, the power of community meant black children could receive an education during segregation. This one-room schoolhouse teaches us to always keep pushing.

[03:10:30] On any given day, you're alongside history in the place that you call home. From America's earliest moments, Chesterfield played a pivotal role in shaping our nation's history. So, tell your friends, history happened here. We begin to roll out content via blogs on our website, email blasts, social media content, and more.

[03:11:03] One blog in particular is called Chesterfield's First, which you'll see here on the screen. This was a really fun one for us because it gave us the opportunity to learn that among Chesterfield's major historic moments, there are many firsts. For example, you'll see two photos on this slide. The top one is the Cobb School, which is the first permanent school for the deaf in the entire United States.

[03:11:24] And the bottom photo is the first graduating class of what is now known as Virginia State University. BSU was Virginia's first state-supported school of higher learning for African Americans. We look forward to this blog piece being a center centerpiece of the campaign. I do also want to give a quick shout out to the incredible volunteers at the Historical Society, which is actually within walking distance to where we are right now, if you have not been. I worked with a volunteer named Lace, who has worked for the Historical Society for more than 20 years. Her extensive knowledge of Chesterfield's history was truly remarkable, and she was so extremely kind

[03:11:59] and generous to gather photos for our campaign so be on the lookout for those photos like these that you see here across our social channels and blogs videos and on our website i also want to thank members from the parks and rec department the constituent media services department and the hodges partnership for all their work on this campaign our goal with this campaign is to dig into numerous fun themes and the history that happened here throughout the next several months we'll focus on historic moments and assets such as African-American history, Midlothian Mines Park, Pleasant View School, and Henrique's Historical Park, just to name a few. From billboards to radio

[03:12:37] spots to social media and all of the traditional newsletters and assets that you typically see, we're excited to showcase the History Happened Here campaign to prove that there really is even more to explore in Chesterfield. Now I will turn it back over to JC. Thank you, Liz, for all of your hard work on that campaign and one thing we always like to remind you when we're up here is that everything you see on that screen everything you see from the Sports Visitation Entertainment Department from campaigns like the history happened here to what you're about to see with the visitor guide comes from the excess lodging tax and I think that's an important distinction is our

[03:13:15] reinvestment of these funds to make Chesterfield a better place for our residents and visitors I think one of I think was mr. Holland and all of you as board members one of your first tasks was again not just storytelling but let's get those stories out into the community so in front of you today is literally hot off the press a few hours ago is the one of the final drafts of our first ever chesterfield visitor guide we will begin after our final edits here i want you to get a good look and feel for what this will be tonight before it goes out to the community but we have a tremendous activation plan amongst our

[03:13:54] hospitality community amongst our libraries there will be signage in hotels attractions all of these things both physical copies and digital copies but i know liz in the history happened here campaign thanks so many people and a lot of those folks deserve credit as well for this but i do want to give a special shout out liz did a tremendous job with the content of this visitor guide as she does with all of our content. Dave and Teresa, their leadership on this with us, but one important employee who couldn't be here this evening, Ariana in the constituent media

[03:14:30] services department. I don't, in my 10, 15 years in this industry, I don't know of one bureau like we are that produces something like this in-house. That saves us time and money, and I think it's a really, really fun thing for us to do. So please, Dave, wherever you are, give Ariana a lot of credit for this. So thank you for that. And just a couple of things while we're up here to remind you and your constituents. We all remember Chesterfield Restaurant Week. We are in the final push for restaurants for Chesterfield Restaurant Week. You can go to chesterfieldrestaurantweek.com

[03:15:08] for your applications. I know our team left you all some flyers for any restaurants you visit in your districts but we're on a great track last year we had 39 participating restaurants and I feel really confident we'll get there and more this year also Chesterfield Outdoor Fest we're in the with Parks and Rec really the extensive planning stages for this we will be announcing a musical component addition to this this year as well as in the next week or so the official announcement of a grass volleyball tournament so kind of incorporating sports tourism into that

[03:15:44] as well, and the new date of May 31st is to really kick off the summer with the endless opportunities here in Chesterfield. So with that, again, I just want to thank so many of my colleagues for their assistance in getting these off the ground, Ms. Hart for her great work, and then, of course, Dave, Teresa, Ariana, and their team. Thank you for your time tonight, and I look forward to showing you the rest of this campaign. Board members, any comments or questions?

[03:16:14] Brochure looks great. Thank you for your work. I appreciate it. Thank you. I'm very excited about the history thing we'll have the um i was supposed to give the first opening winter lecture series and it got canceled because of the snow last week but i went on a tour about you'll see in my notes that i went on a tour over at the history with the same lady and um she's very knowledgeable so uh yes it's awesome so very excited about that thank you sir it looks great i've gone through it um it just wow super professional uh i'm not surprised he looks

[03:16:54] great thank you well thank you for highlighting the history of the county don't forget we're still making history with first as recent as the first fusion energy production in the world and just a little shout out um martin i know you hide in the back all the time make us look good but you look great on this cover thank you he may not even know he's

[03:17:27] on the cover yet. You need to see the cover. It looks good. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Poma. And I just have one last but brief announcement and following up on what you were just mentioning, Mr. Engel. This has to do with economic development. As we are well aware, the state of Virginia has been recognized on many business-related journals and sites as a number one state for business in the state of Virginia. We know many state officials that give a lot of that accolade to what Chesterfield's role has been in that number one overall state ranking. So two quick things from that. Virginia Business Magazine had Commonwealth Fusion Systems,

[03:18:07] the fusion plant facility that was a large announcement as one of their top stories of 2024 for the entire state. And then second, Business Facilities Magazine also selected Virginia as its top state of the year, but as part of their deal of the year awards, which showcase corporate investments that are expected to have a significant impact on the communities in which they are located.

[03:18:30] They selected TOPSO's $400 million investment in Chesterfield as the impact award winner in their STEM category. TOPSO is gonna create 150 new jobs and manufacture advanced, energy efficient, solid oxide electrolyzer cells, first time I ever said all of that in one sentence, that are essential in the production of clean hydrogen.

[03:18:52] And again, to support the next generation of innovators and show you the type of businesses we try and make friends with. They have plans to launch a TOPSO STEM scholarship program, which will award five $10,000 one-year scholarships to seniors from Chesterfield High Schools continuing their education in a STEM major.

[03:19:10] So again, two good business stories, business-friendly state of which Chesterfield County is leading the way in helping in that accolade. That is the conclusion of my remarks, sir. - Item 12, board member reports. - I believe the first report is Ms. Snyder.

[03:19:27] not used to being first all right so the sheriff's office held their graduation ceremony for members of its 40th basic Academy it was an honor to speak at this ceremony and congratulate the 13 newly sworn deputies who now join the premier public service safety organization for nearly of nearly 300 individuals and we are so grateful for all of our sheriffs that are here all the time keeping us

[03:20:00] safe. Thank you so much. Next. And here it is. So I had the pleasure of touring Chesterfield's Historical Society. I learned so much about the county's history. They even gave me two volumes of history for me to read. So this is from the first ones from the beginning from 1609 and all the way to, I don't know, it was like 1914 or something, and then the rest of it. And she said, maybe you could start working on the rest of it from 89 when it stopped but if you haven't been

[03:20:37] there it's it's amazing they have yearbooks from way back to the 1800s they have it's just amazing the historical books and genealogy books and pictures and maps and if you haven't gone it's it's awesome and you can even pay them like 25 dollars I think they charge to do research for you if you have something that you're looking for that you don't want to do.

[03:21:04] So please stop by if you get a chance. So excited. So this was an interesting, I joined the chamber this week for the Drip Bar. They're joining the Chesterfield business community.

[03:21:22] So Drip Bar encourages customers to take more control over their personal wellness by maintaining healthy cells through vitamin infusions. They are also committed to giving back to the community as a local partner. So they actually offer 50% off for any of these public safety people that do a lot of shift changes and stuff like that.

[03:21:46] It helps them to recover better when you're doing 24, 48-type shifts and things. So check it out, guys. But it's a different way of looking at vitamins, I think. And I think that's it.

[03:22:04] Thank you so much. Mr. Carroll. Thank you, Mr. Tierra. Actually, in the previous slide, I just want to comment that, you know, myself, Mr. Engel, and Dr. Miller attended the annual Commonwealth Prayer Breakfast with state and local legislators.

[03:22:22] It was a time to reflect on the past year and pray for the future of our Commonwealth. And, you know, it was rescheduled. It was canceled because of the snow and then rescheduled to a different date. And, you know, I was sitting there thinking I've been going to these things for a long time.

[03:22:39] And I probably should have said part of my prayer for the General Assembly this year. They got a lot of work ahead of them, as we saw in our update earlier. Next slide, please. Dominion Energy is in the process of going through the public process of expanding a new line through the western part of the county.

[03:23:03] I attended a community meeting hosted by Dominion to learn more about the transmission line improvement project. They had a lot of information available for the community, a lot of slides, a good presentation about what they're looking at doing, where it would go. Years ago, we actually did an expansion on the Winter Park facility to try and, you know, Dominion made a request to us.

[03:23:26] I think it was probably my first or second year on the board. That facility is next to Birkdale Golf Course, and that facility is already above capacity. And, you know, with the new infrastructure that we have coming out, not just with the neighborhood like Matt Green and Harper's Mill and others, but also new high school, new middle school, new elementary school, and quite frankly, other economic development projects that could in the future come out there.

[03:23:51] It's going to be essential for us to get a transmission line and a service facility out in the western part of the county to help handle the energy demand that's coming. And certainly there's still opportunity for the community, if you look at that timeline, to weigh in.

[03:24:10] I think they have the online portal that's available still. Next. Each February, the county partners with Virginia State University to help celebrate Black History Month with a variety of programs designed to explore the rich, diverse heritage of African Americans. And certainly in some of the reports we talked about tonight, just the fact of the matter is how long Virginia State University has been a part of this community.

[03:24:33] and members of our Black History Month committee have worked tirelessly to plan these and execute the month's worth of exciting events coming up and so please check out chessfield.gov, BHM for more information and if you have an opportunity to attend any of these celebrations I would highly recommend it and I've got some of them on my calendar already and that concludes my report Mr. Chair. Dr. Miller Thank you Mr. Chair Before we move on to the next slide I just wanted to mention if you all have been noticing that something's been coming out

[03:25:06] of the ground over by the corner of Chippenham and Midlothian. So I had the opportunity to tour the Springline office at District 60 to view the progress being made there. Springline office will be the corporate headquarters for the Timmins group and it will also be the home of 400 employees of the Timmins group in addition to employees with Chesterfield County Public Schools and the Department of Economic Development. So all of that's going to be going there. It's really exciting.

[03:25:37] It looks great. I mean, it's just class A office space and just a terrific way of entering between that and Stonebridge. It's just a wonderful entrance into Chesterfield County. It's going to be powered in part by a solar energy system. So I was up on the roof taking a look at that. While I was up there, I got to feel an earthquake, which was kind of fun. Interesting timing to be up there as I was coming through facilitated by but the solar energy will be facilitated by Dominion's energy on-site solar program. The solar power project ensures that the building will be net zero in energy consumption. Groundbreaking for the

[03:26:15] office building is expected on the second quarter of this year. I also had the opportunity to visit the domestic and sexual violence Resource Center located within the Chesterfield Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court, Sierra and Barb back there. Where are you? Hi. The great work that you do and the team does, it's a resource center and it coordinates the county's response to domestic and sexual violence, working closely with the state and county and community agencies. The resource center provides

[03:26:48] many resources to survivors including education, assistance with protective orders, crisis intervention, safety planning, and counseling. I'm grateful to the staff who work to ensure the victims are listened to and supported by them. Where you were hanging out at the drip bar, I was hanging over at Roots. Welcoming a new business in Chesterfield is one of my favorite things I'm doing as a board member. This month, I had the pleasure of celebrating Roots Natural

[03:27:28] Kitchen's grand opening at Winterfield Crossing. This restaurant has been praised by many for the affordable dining options that are delicious, healthy. Congrats and thank you for choosing Chesterfield. I know you all started out in Charlottesville, and I also know that there's a route south of my alma mater at the University of Pittsburgh.

[03:27:49] So I think they're at 11 or 12 routes at this point. Just terrific. So I highly recommend going there. I know we had George Hayes here a moment ago with regard to the county's response to the power outage and the subsequent flooding at Richmond's power plant earlier this month.

[03:28:10] Mr. Hayes, utility staff also joined me in delivering water to some of the 27 homes in Chesterfield that were one of the cities, that were still on the city's water distribution system. So there were actually 27 homes within Chesterfield that they are on Richmond and we can't, we weren't able to get them off of it unless we were to put in a lot of extra work.

[03:28:38] But what we did during the week was we made sure utilities went out there and delivered cases of water to them every day and made sure they had the water necessary to continue. One of the kind of good things is that because they're down by the river, they kept pressure, but still the water wasn't potable.

[03:28:57] So Mr. Hayes, Mr. Ingle, Mr. Carroll extended the board's appreciation to our hardworking utility workers during your all-staff meeting last week. In addition to what utilities did to ensure the county's water levels remain normal and secure, they also responded to the city's various needs.

[03:29:16] For example, utilities offered its staff's technical expertise to colleagues in Richmond as well as contact information for contractors and who could help with various repairs. They were a shining example of what it means to be a regional partner.

[03:29:32] We are also so incredibly proud of them. And then also wanna mention that my understanding is that the individual who's gonna be taking over the public utilities in Richmond, you guessed it, came from Chesterfield. That concludes my report.

[03:29:47] - Thank you, Dr. Miller. One more comment from Ms. Snyder's board report. We were happy to hear at that graduation ceremony that the sheriff's department is at 100% full staff, which we believe is the only sheriff's department the state, maybe in the country. That's 100% at full staff. But we told the sheriff, don't quit recruiting. We need to make sure we stay at full staff. So if you're looking for an opportunity there, please still apply. That said, Ms. Snyder and I had the pleasure of attending the Three Kings

[03:30:23] celebration at St. Augustine Catholic Church. The Three Kings Day celebrates the three wise men's visit to see Jesus after his birth. This day is very important to the Hispanic culture and allowed an opportunity to provide resources in Spanish to Chesterfield residents. The event also had games for the children, a photo station, and special performances of the Three Kings story. A special thanks to Chesterfield Sheriff's Office and to the Chesterfield Police Department for their

[03:30:54] involvement in this event. And lastly, I think all of my colleagues up here and I were elated to attend Dr. John Murray as he officially became named as the superintendent of Chesterfield County Public Schools. Dr. Murray's been with the district since 2004. He's dedicated 21 years to his career here in Chesterfield County, holding various positions such as deputy superintendent, principal, assistant principal, and teacher, and as a Chesterfield County native and a graduate of

[03:31:32] Manchester High School, he's the first CCPS superintendent since 1921 that was also a student in the district. The Board of Supervisors looks forward to continuing the strong partnership that we have now with the schools, and we look forward to our students receiving the best education possible we look for staff members to grow through professional development opportunities and the community has having its needs met with the school system and that concludes our reports item 13 resolutions and

[03:32:12] special recognitions a resolution recognizing mr. David J Woodward utilities department upon his retirement may we please call forward mr. Woodward and his guests and join the board on the stage.

[03:32:57] It's not all of them. Is there more out there? There's more than out here. Okay, all right. Madam Clerk, can you read the resolution?

[03:33:13] Yes, sir. Whereas David Woodward retired from the Chesterfield County Utilities Department on January 1, 2025 after faithfully serving the county and its citizens for over 43 years, and whereas Mr. Woodward began his service to the citizens of Chesterfield County in 1981 as an operator trainee at the Fallen Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant, and whereas Mr. Woodward earned his Class 1 Wastewater Works Operator's License in 1985 and was promoted to Principal Plant Operator in 1986, applying his new skills to operate Chesterfield County's wastewater

[03:33:50] treatment plants successfully, and whereas Mr. Woodward faithfully worked the night shift for the entirety of his 43-year career, and whereas Mr. Woodward was relied upon on many occasions for his ability to handle all manner of adverse and challenging conditions to provide continuous and effective wastewater treatment, and whereas Mr. Woodward was known to his co-workers as a professional with a positive attitude and was a pleasure to be around, and whereas Mr. Woodward was recognized in 2024 for contributing to the Fallen Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant

[03:34:27] being awarded the National Association of Clean Water Agency's Peak Performance Platinum Award for excellent treatment with no violations in the preceding five years. And whereas Mr. Woodward was known to use his vast knowledge to train the next generation of operators to ensure excellent wastewater treatment continue.

[03:34:47] Now, therefore, be it resolved at the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors this 22nd day of January 2025, publicly recognizes David Woodward and extends on behalf of its members and the residents of Chesterfield County appreciation for his service to the county, congratulations upon his retirement, and best wishes for a long and happy retirement.

[03:35:09] And be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be presented to Mr. Woodward and that this resolution be permanently recorded among the papers of this Board of Supervisors of Chesterfield County, Virginia. Board can I get a motion? All in favor? Aye. Thank you very much.

[03:35:30] You want to go ahead and speak quick? Yeah, I can go ahead. Yeah. Forty-three years went by very quickly, and I will say my parents moved to Chesterfield County in 1964, and this is a Chesterfield County family, and this isn't all of them.

[03:35:51] There's some more. They just weren't able to make it. I met my wife at Salem Church Middle School back in the 70s. Well, it was a girlfriend. Yes, so yes, that was my, yeah, I met her at Salem Church, and then after she graduated from college, her and I got, Kathy and I got married, and then we had six children, John, Julie, Jill, Jeff, Joy, and Jan, and Chesterfield County paid for all of them.

[03:36:29] So they all went to Chesterfield County schools, and they all graduated from county schools. My wife is Chesterfield County school teacher, so we all eat, sleep, and breathe Chesterfield County. Yes. So there's an opening at a wastewater treatment plant, and that they're looking for somebody right now, I think.

[03:36:53] On night shift. On night shift. Yes. So, yes. I will say this. Some people don't realize that wastewater treatment plants exist. When you go to the restroom or something like that, I think a lot of people think it just disappears.

[03:37:11] It doesn't. I promise you that. A wastewater treatment plant, a water treatment plant, is 24 hours a day. There's always somebody on a shift. It doesn't matter the weather. It doesn't matter if it's a birthday or Christmas or anything else.

[03:37:27] You have to be there. So it's not for everybody, but you can make a living out of it, and I'm living proof that it can be done. So Chesterfield County has a great utilities department, and they will educate you, they'll send you to school, and they'll improve your life, I can promise you that.

[03:37:51] So thank you very much. I just want to say thank you to the wife for 43 years of having to be a homeboy herself with all the kids at night.

[03:38:08] That's, wow, that she deserves a favor. I'd just like to thank you. 43 years, wow, that's incredible. And what you did for the county is even more incredible because as much as they want to believe, it just disappears.

[03:38:26] I know that as much as clean water is important on the front end, making sure it's clean going back into the environment on the back end is just as important. And we want to thank you for probably some crappy work.

[03:38:42] Yeah, absolutely. But something that needed to be done. And on behalf of the citizens, I want to thank you for that. Well, in Chesterville Utilities, we don't know him as Mr. Woodward.

[03:39:02] We know him as Woodchuck or Woody. And I'll tell you, if you listen to the resolution, Woody started in 1981, 43 years ago, as an operated trainee on the night shift, where he remained for 43 years.

[03:39:18] on the night shift. This board knows that the utility departments receives numerous awards. One of the boards we're very proud of is the Peak Performance Award that we received from the National Association of Clean Water Agencies. Very difficult award to get, and it's an award that tells you that you do exceptional wastewater treatment and comply with all the regulations, and it's because of people like Woody that we're able to get those awards. Woody's being extremely modest. I went through his file. I have an opportunity as director to go through personnel files when people retire. And I can tell you his evaluations were stellar. Talked about all he did

[03:39:57] for the plant. It talked about how he's mechanically inclined. When no one was around, he would go and do preventative maintenance so he didn't have failures at our facilities. So very impressive. But really something that touched me is when I made a phone call to some of his employees and asked them to tell me a little bit about Woody. And what stood out to me is his employees said Woody cared. Woody was a Chesterfield resident that cared about his community. He cared about his co-workers. And he was extremely passionate about the environment. And that's, if anybody

[03:40:36] knows wastewater, we remove pollutants before we discharge it to the environment. And we're responsible for protecting the environment. And that's why he was so good at what he did, is because he was passionate about protecting that environment and again he's very modest i'll give you one example of a team that he was put on in 2016 we were challenged our employees to reduce energy costs anybody that knows wastewater we spent a lot of money on energy and also chemicals in our energy they quickly identified that the air systems we have air blowers at our plants use a

[03:41:11] tremendous amount of electricity well woody and his team revisited all the aeration systems that that we have, and we have these large blowers, and it's not like you go to Lowe's and get a blower off the shelf. These blowers are literally jet engines. At Fallen Creek, they were operating three blowers. Through his and his team's efforts, they reduced that to one blower through optimizing the system, which also, in turn, reduced the chemical usage at the facility. At both plants that year in 2016, that project saved us $390,000 a year. And that's just not that year. It's every

[03:41:49] year after that. For that, the department won the 2016 NACO Award for Aeration Optimization. We also won the 2016 Governor's Award for Environmental Excellence for the State. And the true winners were our customers because we were able to pass on those savings in affordable rates. So on behalf of the Utilities Department, Woody, I just want to congratulate you on your 43 years of service. Thank you for everything you did for the department and our

[03:42:20] customers, and I wish you and Kathy the best on a long and happy retirement. I just have one last speech to make amongst all of this, and it's a token of our appreciation. It's not a bag holding an urn for a future day. That's what it always looks like. It is actually a replica brick that has your name and your tenure of years of service. It's the same brick that there's a second brick

[03:42:57] that's going to be placed forevermore in front of our historic courthouse steps, recognizing those that have served 25 years or more for Chesterfield County in an exemplary manner. And you, sir, are one of them. And we talked earlier tonight about the value of potable water, then really the value of understanding pressurized water systems, I will say when a sewer system does not operate functionally, then you even notice that even more so. And the river water that's coming into our facilities, you actually have it go back into the river better in most cases than when we took it

[03:43:32] out. So you are making the James River, the Appomattox River beneficial, and it's Chesterfield's environmental stewardship that we cling to and hold on to but it's because of people like you that that environmental stewardship is first and foremost in our minds so with that said again a small small token of our appreciation for you thank you yeah anybody else in your family want

[03:43:58] to say anything i don't think so all right thank you thank you madam clerk resolution recognizing corporal lawrence jones jr police department upon his retirement will corporal jones and his guests

[03:44:29] please join the board on the stage. Madam Clerk can you read the resolution? Yes sir. Whereas

[03:45:16] Corporal Lawrence Jones Jr. retired from the Chesterfield County Police Department on January 1st 2025 after providing over 30 years of quality service to the residents of Chesterfield County and whereas Corporal Jones began his career with the Chesterfield Police Department as a police officer and faithfully served the county as a police officer, senior police officer, master police officer career police officer and corporal and whereas corporal jones also served during his tenure as a covert operations detective school resource officer general instructor and breathalyzer

[03:45:52] operator and whereas corporal jones was presented with a unit citation as a member of the covert operations unit for displaying exceptional surveillance skills and techniques and providing essential intelligence on at least 87 investigations, three involving loss of life.

[03:46:11] And whereas Corporal Jones was presented with a chief's commendation for his efforts in assisting with a narcotics investigation involving drug distribution linked to cartels across multiple states and out of the country, yielding approximately $1 million seized U.S.

[03:46:27] currency, 11 federal arrests, 11 state arrests, and 374 pounds of seized narcotics. And whereas Corporal Jones was presented a commendation award for his efforts in assisting numerous units in reference to an organized crime theft group victimizing multiple jurisdictions, resulting in the arrest of seven individuals and 28 felony charges.

[03:46:52] And whereas Corporal Jones utilized his strong interpersonal skills during his time as a school resource officer, nurturing the bright minds of those in his school and maintaining a positive attitude, and whereas Corporal Jones was repeatedly recognized for his enthusiasm and willingness to make himself available and remaining flexible despite working hour fluctuations, and whereas Corporal Jones is recognized for his strong work ethic, thorough investigation skills, his teamwork, communication, and human relations skills in assisting the

[03:47:27] Police Department and residents of Chesterfield County, and whereas Corporal Jones has received numerous letters of commendation, thanks, and appreciation from supervisors and residents for services rendered, and whereas Corporal Jones has provided the Chesterfield County Police Department with many years of loyal and dedicated service, and whereas Chesterfield County and the Board of Supervisors will miss Corporal Jones' diligent service.

[03:47:53] Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors this 22nd day of January 2025 publicly recognizes Corporal Lawrence Jones Jr. and extends on behalf of its members and the residents of Chesterfield County appreciation for his service to the county, congratulations upon his retirement, and best wishes for a long and happy retirement. And be a further resolve that a copy of this resolution be presented to Corporal Jones and that this resolution be permanently recorded among the papers of this Board of Supervisors of Chesterfield

[03:48:27] County, Virginia. All in favor? Aye. You want to speak first? I don't know. I just want to say one thing. Just thank you to the Chesterfield County, to the community for allowing me to serve you. Thank you, the police department. Appreciate it, sir. So I'm going to tell you a little bit about Corporal Jones. We know him as LJ in the police department, and in policing, seniority means a lot, and LJ has a lot of seniority. 30 years is a tremendous accomplishment in policing,

[03:49:05] Which means he could work anywhere and any schedule that he wanted, but last 11 or 12 years of your career He chose to work in one of the most difficult assignments nights weekends frequent Schedule changes at the last minute which is a tremendous sacrifice for anyone and their family and he did it because the work that that Unit does is involves investigation of some of the most difficult dangerous and violent crimes that we investigate in Chesterfield County So that is a testament to who you are as a police officer and as a man.

[03:49:36] And so I want to thank you for your service. I want to thank you for leaving with a reputation of being a quiet, humble, and dedicated police officer who, above all, was a great teammate and an excellent public servant. So thank you. There it is.

[03:49:56] That smile. Imagine that, 30 years of service, and one of the most things that I remember the most about all of his great accomplishments, but he always had a fantastic attitude I don't know if I've ever now some of the other guys may have seen you not so happy but almost every time that we had an interaction you're a positive upbeat and an inspiration congratulations on your retirement thank you so much for your years of service and I hope you could have a great retirement I don't know what you're going to do but I hope it's fun one of the things that I've noticed uh corporal judge is that um Chesterfield is really

[03:50:32] good at hiring talent and i define talent as passion for what you do and integrity and that resolution just got right at it it's about passion and what you do and integrity thank you so much for the work that you've done over these years you're a very grateful community congratulations and i hope you enjoy lots of time together with your family now um and that's especially if you've been working a lot of difficult hours so thank you so much for all that you guys have given up as

[03:51:10] well and hope you have a lot of time to make up for that now. Well I want to thank you for 30 years of service both of you because I know that both of you served this county together as a team and that resolution just goes to so many areas dealing with investigating violent crimes a million dollars in drug seizures or currency seizures and I think it was 374 pounds of narcotics to being a school resource officer and sharing that time with kids.

[03:51:47] It takes a dynamic person to be able to do all of those different positions in the police department. I just want to thank you for that service. And, sir, again, on behalf of the 4,000 employees and 380,000 citizens, a replica brick with your name and years of service, and forevermore another brick will be in front of our historic courthouse for all to see.

[03:52:12] And, again, this is a perfect night. You heard about the 24/7 nature of a wastewater operation. You've heard about a child advocacy center that made a difference in the life of a child. But again, it's people like police and their 24/7 nature that kind of, again, illustrate.

[03:52:28] Again, we never sleep. You look like you've never slept and how you've worked so hard so fast. And then even dealing with children. Sounds like you've never slept, to correct the record.

[03:52:43] But we feel safer because of people like yourself, and I thank you.

[03:53:00] Thank you. Madam Clerk. See resolution recognizing Mrs. Michelle Cobb, circuit court clerk's office, upon her retirement. Will Mrs. Cobb and her guests please join the board on the stage?

[03:54:03] Madam Clerk, can you read the resolution? Yes, sir. Whereas Mrs. Michelle Cobb retired from Chesterfield County on December 31st, 2024, after providing 28 years of dedicated service to the residents of Chesterfield County and its circuit court clerk's office, and whereas the circuit court clerk's office provides professional support to judges, attorneys, and law enforcement, as well as other internal and external customers through operational, administrative, and records management functions, and whereas Mrs. Cobb

[03:54:42] has provided outstanding service to Chesterfield County, including her diligent and faithful commitment as principal deputy clerk of the circuit court clerk's office since July 1996, and whereas Mrs. Cobb has been a highly reliable asset, consistently arriving to work on time each morning and demonstrating exceptional time management skills, and whereas Mrs. Cobb possesses extensive knowledge of all duties incumbent upon a principal deputy clerk, ensuring that her tasks are completed accurately and within any applicable deadlines.

[03:55:15] And whereas Mrs. Cobb has generously offered assistance to her team members whenever available, fostering a spirit of teamwork and collaboration within the office. And whereas Mrs. Cobb has consistently brought matters of concern to her supervisor's attention, demonstrating her commitment to maintaining high standards of work.

[03:55:36] And whereas, as a result of her competence and dedication, Mrs. Cobb's peers and colleagues consider her a knowledgeable and dependable resource. And whereas Mrs. Cobb has always rendered invaluable service to the clerk's office and judges with a high degree of productiveness and professionalism, and will be sorely missed by all who wish her the best as she enjoys a well-deserved retirement that will be marked by more time spent with family, friends, and plenty of embroidery.

[03:56:07] Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors this 22nd day of January 2025 publicly recognizes Mrs. Michelle Cobb and extends on behalf of its members and the residents of Chesterfield County appreciation for 28 years of exceptional service to the county.

[03:56:25] And be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be presented to Mrs. Cobb and that this resolution be permanently recorded among the papers of the Board of Supervisors of Chesterfield County, Virginia. I get a motion. All in favor? Aye.

[03:56:46] Thank you. It's been a privilege to work for the county. Thank you to my family, my son, my mother, my husband, all my co-workers. It was just time to retire. It was time to go have some fun. But, yeah, thank you very much.

[03:57:03] And I would like to recognize the deputies that are protecting us. I think I've worked with all of them in the courtroom, and thank you for the professionalism. Thank you. I'll keep it short.

[03:57:19] Michelle, the resolution truly does capture the essence of your contributions, so I don't really have to say much more. I just want to say that it has been an honor, not only for myself, but for so many, to have worked alongside you for the last 25-plus years.

[03:57:40] Today, we honor you and your dedication to the circuit court clerk's office and to the county. it's your day we celebrate you Amanda did ask that I share her regret for not being here for this special moment but please know that we all truly truly wish you nothing but the best as you embark on this next chapter of your exciting chapter of your life so thank you so

[03:58:11] much for your service I would venture to say that probably a lot of people don't know he actually did as a clerk. And if you own a house or bought a house, when your deed was recorded, the clerks helped with that. If there was a court case, it's the circuit court, it's the court of record in Chester County and in Virginia. And the records go back to the creation of the county. So you can go over there and take a look at records. And so the attention to detail that you have to take,

[03:58:47] and a lot of people don't think about this, but a clerk sits in the courtroom with every bad case that gets presented in that courtroom. So we talked about the victim witness and what they do. We talked about the police department, what they do. The clerks have to sit in there and listen to everything and be part of it, essentially.

[03:59:06] And so I can only imagine the stories that you could tell about the cases if you were working in the court yourself that you heard presided over by the judge and the jury and presented by the Commonwealth attorney and for the police officers. And what people don't realize is what you hear, you can't unhear it so thank you very much uh for your service to the county um it's not the um i guess the the glamorous glorious job so to speak but it sure is an important one so thank you very

[03:59:38] much um you put your finger on i'm just going to add i mean mr holland is in here this evening but i imagine what he would say is excellence and that's what you've been doing uh with the job that you've done your colleagues definitely speak to that um and how much you're going to be missed I mean, it is really nice to hang around with somebody who knows what they're doing and does an excellent job.

[04:00:04] And that's what you've done. So thank you. Just thank you. I can't say any more than what any of them have, but thank you for your service. And I see a theme with a lot of the people that retire here from the county that they have very long careers.

[04:00:25] And so we obviously hopefully have treated you well and you've enjoyed being here. So thank you so much for all that you've done. I want to echo what the other board members have said in spending that many years with judges and lawyers.

[04:00:42] I'm sure you have a lot of stories with that. So thank you for your time serving the citizens of Chesterfield County and for all that you've done. I believe Dr. Casey has. So you may have heard this twice before, but I have an historic brick that we'll place in front of our courthouse with your name and tenure of service with us.

[04:01:05] This is a replica of that same brick for you and your family to cherish. And no, it is cool, as they say. But I just wanna say on behalf of Chesterfield County, as Mr. Carroll mentioned, the clerk's office probably goes back close to 275 years.

[04:01:21] You have records that actually go back, the charter itself, 275 years. And I had to do my quick math. One of every 10 days of Chesterfield's history, you've actually been in that clerk's office serving Chesterfield County. And again, as Mr. Carroll reiterated, justice is served because of a clerk's office, all the legalities that have transactions of what people need to get done and have to get done 100% right all the time.

[04:01:47] Otherwise, there's lots of other issues are done through your office. So out of respect of your office, but just as much out of respect for your time and tenure ensuring the accuracy and the caretaking of our records, thank you.

[04:02:06] - Thank you, Madam Clerk.

[04:02:39] D, resolution recognizing former county employees under revised service years program. Will Mr. Antonio Stark, Mr. Donald Lee, and their guests please come forward and join the board on the stage?

[04:03:21] Madam Clerk. Whereas one of the county's strategic goals is to recruit and retain an empowered, diverse workforce consisting of individuals who choose a long-term career with the county.

[04:03:38] and whereas in 2007, the Board of Supervisors began placing engraved bricks in the walkway outside the historic 1917 courthouse to honor retirees with 25 or more years of service, and whereas the Board desires to also recognize employees with at least 25 years of service, factoring in service years for both the county and Chesterfield Public Schools, and whereas the Board desires to also recognize those employees with at least 25 years of service who leave for another Virginia retirement system-related job, and whereas the board desires to also recognize those employees who pass away while having served the county

[04:04:15] for 25 or more years, and whereas the recognition policy has been revised to include these criteria in the eligibility requirements to receive a brick, and whereas under the revised policy, the board is pleased to retroactively recognize Betsy Beals for 25 years of service, Kelvin Brown for 27 years of service, Karen Carr for 27 years of service, William Clough III for 28 years of service, Tamara Higgins for 30 years of service, Jamie Hopkins for 25 years of service,

[04:04:52] Donald Lee for 26 years of service, Neil Meyerhofer for 25 years of service, William Norris for 25 years of service, the late Beverly Snyder for 28 years of service, and Antonio Stark for 30 years of service. Now therefore be it resolved that the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors this 22nd day of January 2025 publicly recognizes these individuals for their service to the county and extends on behalf of its members and the citizens of Chesterfield County appreciation for the valuable work they performed for the betterment of the county and be it further resolved that a

[04:05:32] copy of this resolution be presented to these individuals and that this resolution be permanently recorded among the papers of this board of supervisors of chesterfield county virginia and be a further resolve that bricks with their names and service dates be placed in the walkway of the historic 1917 courthouse can i get a motion second all in favor aye wow we have uh two of the people that have previously retired and served the county for over 25 years up here. So I'm

[04:06:09] going to give you both an opportunity to say a few words if you'd like, and if you don't, you can pass it to the next person. Dr. Casey, member of the board, thank you. I want to thank you for revising the policy that we could all come forward and be recognized this evening.

[04:06:32] Also want to thank the men and women that I had the pleasure of serving with in Chesterfield County Police Department for 30 years. And as we sat here tonight, and I will be brief, but as we sat here tonight listening to business, it reminded me why working for Chesafeel County has been so special. Hearing about the collaboration, hearing about the talented employees, but also seeing the leadership of our board of supervisors, our county administrator, and how you empower the employees

[04:07:06] to do the job, but also the citizens. We have been blessed to serve a wonderful county. Our community members have supported all of us. And I just want to say thank you. There's so much more that I could say, but I will say the brick, you know, there was a void after working 30 years and the way opportunities presented itself that I left the county. It was a void because the brick was something that I've always heard about. I've watched it presented for 30 years. And I'm just so grateful that our leadership revised policy to include us.

[04:07:44] Thank you. That's hard to follow up, isn't it? First and foremost, I'd like to thank Jesus Christ for allowing me this opportunity. Board, thank you very much to back what he just said.

[04:08:00] I appreciate it. The brick did mean a lot. And to have the opportunity to come up here and present the brick in a resolution. Thank you so much. I want to thank my wife that's been my backbone for the last 35 years in public service. Without her, my daughter and my son, unfortunately, he wasn't able to make it. I wouldn't have been able to do this. I want to send a special shout out to a group of people that took time out this afternoon and they got off of work after being at work all day to come and help me celebrate. If it's okay for everybody, would you

[04:08:37] mind standing please you you just don't know how much it means okay this is why I enjoyed my time with Chesterfield this is why I missed my time with Chesterfield this group right here these this group that fleet team that Department of General Services team I could never replace it and to have the opportunity to come here and receive this and have them here with me alongside

[04:09:09] my wife and my family is priceless thank you thank you thank you that's gonna be hard to follow up I had some notes here, but I'll still go through them real fast.

[04:09:29] So anyway, Don, just on behalf of the General Services Department, I'm honored to share a few words about Don Lee. And Don's remarkable career in the fleet industry and county leadership is a testament to his self-made success.

[04:09:45] He began at Chesterfield in a school bus shop and worked his way through various roles, including bus technician, shop supervisor, fleet superintendent, and fleet operations manager. His significant contributions have helped establish the Fleet Services Division as a recognized leader in the public fleet industry.

[04:10:05] In 2014, though, he took the role of maintenance operations manager at Petersburg Area Transit, and then moved on to Hanover County as their fleet manager and later their deputy director of general services, where he continued to make a profound impact until you retired in 2013. Those who have worked alongside Don praise him for his collaborative leadership, mentorship, and unwavering support, as well as his honesty, innovation, strong communication, and exceptional work ethic.

[04:10:32] As a leader in professional organizations such as the National Associations of Fleet Administrators, where you and I first met before I came to Chesterfield, where you served as the president of the Old Dominion chapter for several years, his peers described him as humble, genuine, positive, and knowledgeable, always available to offer guidance and wisdom.

[04:10:54] And just as a quick anecdote, when I was looking at an opportunity to move into the general services admin, one person that I called on a Saturday, if I remember right, and we talked for a while, was Don, and he gave me some sage advice.

[04:11:09] And I'm very, very grateful to you for that. But on behalf of our department, certainly the fleet team that's here, thank you. Thank you, Darlene, for letting us have him for a while. Thank you to your family.

[04:11:25] But it's been an honor working with you. I know you're, and really everybody here that's worked with you considers you a friend as well. So thank you. AJ, I'm really happy that this was able to happen.

[04:11:42] This occurred because there was a hole from your police department family. AJ was a member of our command staff for many, many years. He left here as a captain and sacrificed to go to the city of Hopewell to be their chief of police. So it was a tough decision.

[04:11:58] I remember when he made it. But as a member of the command staff, as the police department, I believe you worked just about everywhere, every unit in the entire police department. So you have your experience and the sacrifice that you've made for your community is just remarkable.

[04:12:15] But as a leader within the department, you were always willing to say the hard things, to tackle the hard topics and generate great conversations and change. Some of the things that off the top of my head, the innovations that AJ was able to bring to the police department.

[04:12:32] He was the inspector of our internal affairs unit for many years. And he brought innovation to that unit, instituted technology that really helped us be better at managing ourselves. And he also spearheaded our body-worn camera program.

[04:12:49] So a lot of the technology and the innovation that we have to serve our community is really due to you, AJ. So thank you. We miss you, and I hope you are enjoying your retirement. First of all, thank you both for your many years of service to the community.

[04:13:07] AJ and I actually got to work. Later on in our career, we worked in the Internal Affairs Division. That was fun. It was fun working with him and the other people in the office. I want to thank the board for amending this policy.

[04:13:25] You know, I think one of the things that's important for us as leaders when you talk about the morale of an organization is to make sure we recognize the good work that is done by the employees and we had someone who was going to retire bring it forward to us that hey you know I worked 12 years with the school system then I worked all these years with the county and now I'm going to retire and I'm not going to get recognized and we brought it and we had a collective conversation about it we said well that's not right we need to fix it and we did and I want to commend you for that because we also have to recognize sometimes when we're not doing things as excellent as we can and I can

[04:14:02] tell you from personal experience I have a brick in the ground but in 2007 when they started this program and we really need you really need to tell us which county employee had this idea because that means so much to the retirees you have no idea one of our oldest retirees who's passed away now a major Richter Eugene Richter he didn't have a brick and we changed the policy in 2020 to include historically all these people who had retired and his son brought him down in a wheelchair to see that brick and he had tears in his eyes it doesn't take much to say thank you but thank you

[04:14:36] and thank you to the board dr casey when the um proposal came through uh to change that policy it was one of the we we work really hard on a lot of decisions and sometimes we have a lot of conversations about all the decisions that we make but then there are those other decisions that are just so easy and so obvious and this was one of those decisions that was just a

[04:15:14] collective didn't have to think about it yes this needs to happen so it was honor to vote to take that vote and honor all of you the work that this group of folks did which you both have done And we continue to have a very grateful county because of the excellence and the talent that we're lucky to have.

[04:15:38] So thank you so much. And as an aside, I mean, other folks notice that talent and that can get us into trouble in a way because then we lose that talent, but we're more than happy to share because you know that who they're getting, really good.

[04:15:56] So thank you. It's obvious that you had made a very large impact just based on the second row of the people that have shown up here. And all of the things that you obviously have done to be going to another locality to be a police chief, obviously, again, your impact.

[04:16:19] I'm glad that it was able, we were able to share you with another local agency and, again, create that local connectivity of regionality. I think that's so important sometimes to work together. And so thank you, and we're so glad that this was able to happen.

[04:16:37] Well, in full transparency, I'm not really happy to share you with other jurisdictions. However, you earned it, and you did a great job for us, and then you carried that Chesterfield name into the other jurisdictions, and you served those citizens as well.

[04:16:56] And this is well overdue. I do commend Mr. Carroll, who didn't share, but Mr. Carroll was the one that recognized that there was a hole out there and led this effort to the board to what brought us up here today. With the two of you and the other three that we've had on the stage today, it's over 150 years of service to the citizens.

[04:17:19] And with all of the resolution that was read, with a few that weren't able to make it today, we're celebrating well over 250 years of service to the county tonight and it's a testament to you and all of those that served the county for so long and we just can't thank you enough for your service. Well I've learned many things as a county administrator and tonight I learned that two bricks weigh twice as much as one brick when you hold them for long periods of time. Now hand them the bricks please before they drop. Now I just want to echo one of the benefits that I have, I have a

[04:17:59] vantage point over many things I try and listen have discussions and it is right mr. Carroll there was a void in a hole in our policies we opened it up once to fix something that was needed at the moment and then we identified it's something else doesn't make sense so we've actually opened it up for any and all scenarios so if somebody has spent 25 years in the family of Chesterfield County and that families is is the school system in the county and we're working with our school system partners to really have the same program on their side of the shop because for someone who comes from there to here you know they're ending their career for this recognition they should be afforded the same thing on the school side so

[04:18:37] we're still not done but that involves another partner uh mr. lee you know you and i crossed paths a little bit in hanover county and and i didn't leave hanover because you came i just want to put that in the record um but no um and again this is something even with our regional peers there's something special about someone who's dedicating their life in public service you served here exemplary for many many years to warrant the brick just here but also you served Hanover County very well and so we need to figure that out as well you know as far as a regional recognition for those that have served spent their career in public service and in the region and and AJ I was part of those

[04:19:14] conversations when Hopewell was in need of a leader in police neither in law enforcement there was there were some things that needed to get done and needed to get done ASAP. So my counterparts, the police chief's counterparts, some of the board members' counterparts on city council there said, help.

[04:19:35] You know, who could we put there in that role because they needed a leader as soon as possible. And I know that you were a part of that conversation very early on and we worked out the paperwork and the transit, it's not easy moving somebody who's grown such deep roots here in police to another jurisdiction.

[04:19:52] but you served as a tour of duty, quite frankly, there. And for us not to give you a brick when you went over there and give you a brick, we should have given you two bricks for that one. But having said that, I just want to thank you on behalf of Chesterfield County because you kept the region safer, not just Chesterfield County over your career.

[04:20:12] So with that said, and I also want to say all the other names that were mentioned, even deceased employees, we are in contact with families. those bricks will all be in front of the historic courthouse. Replicas are being given to those families. We'll figure out somehow, some way, anytime they want to be more formally recognized, they will be.

[04:20:31] I know we have a clerk's office that goes back to 1749, and if we can figure out people who worked 25 years back then, if I was giving inside trader information, invest in our brick company, 'cause we're gonna be building a road.

[04:20:48] but thank you and please give a round of applause.

[04:21:30] - This is my Chesterfield Academy. Here's another baggy too, sorry.

[04:21:56] - Madam Clerk. - E, recognizing 2025, my Chesterfield Academy graduates, Ms. Medrano. - Good evening, Honorable Chair and members of our Board of Supervisors.

[04:22:16] I am thrilled to be here this evening with you to recognize our my Chesterfield Academy graduates, our graduates, over the course of several months, learn about Chesterfield County and everything it has to offer across all of our departments.

[04:22:35] Each of our academy graduates represent different communities in different sectors. I would like to thank a couple of specific folks, starting with a founder of this program and sponsor the Asian and Latino Solidarity Alliance.

[04:22:53] And with us this evening is the chair of their board, Suja S. Matthew. Today, we will be recognizing 15 graduates representing nine countries of origin and one U.S. territory.

[04:23:15] Collectively, over multiple cohorts, we are proud to now have 70 graduates representing more than 30 different countries of origin and one U.S. territory. Thank you to the partnership with the Asian and Latino Solidarity Alliance.

[04:23:33] I would also like to thank each of you for taking the time to meet with and lunch with each of our academy session classes. And I would also like to take a moment to thank all of the directors and leadership that take the time to present to my Chesterfield Academy and truly engage with them and take questions and connect with them even after the sessions.

[04:24:00] Each class is very unique. We have very dedicated community members with us, and we even have a first. One of our graduates, James Robinson, started as a My Chesterfield Academy participant and became an employee through his process, now working for the Commissioner of Revenue Office.

[04:24:25] We have dedicated members like Patricia, who is known in our Tushfield community for being such a team player. We have Laura, who is an advocate for our refugee and immigrant community. We have Brenda, Pastor Brenda, who has worked with us and engaged with us to help us build many of our initiatives.

[04:24:45] We have Jose, who has been involved with initiatives like Cafe Con La Comunidad. We have Harrison, who has been advocating for partnerships that center around innovation and thinking about the future. Each of our graduates are truly ambassadors now for Chesterfield, and I would invite each of them to think of their unique talents and passions to be change-makers with what they've learned about our local government.

[04:25:15] As you can see, I am speaking about each one of them in a very personal and unique way. One of the things that our director, Kim Conley, always says about our department is that we're going to have a vibe, And I would define that vibe as that we are going to serve the community, but we never lose sight of the individual.

[04:25:33] We engage and connect with each one of our participants, with each person that comes through our programs. And it's been a true joy, professional joy, and personal joy to get to know each of our graduates and to see them thrive in each of their roles as leaders.

[04:25:51] In keeping with past tradition, we have asked one of the graduates to provide remarks on behalf of their class. And so with that, it is my pleasure to introduce Bill Shad Charnaya, who is also the executive director of Capaz IT that has done tremendous work throughout Chesterfield County serving our immigrant community.

[04:26:13] She has been, to each academy session, has been deeply engaged. And with that, I will give her the honor to provide remarks on behalf of the class for my test field Academy I will begin today with a land acknowledgement we are gathering here today on our Hatik land honorable board of supervisors respective county administrator dr. Casey our dearest program sponsor also from Asian and

[04:26:48] Latino solidarity Alliance of Central Virginia the chairperson Suja Matthew our lovely multicultural community engagement office with Kim Conley and Delilah Medrano, esteemed colleagues and fellow citizens. My name is Dilshad Charanya and I am humbly standing here on behalf of our 2024 cohort of my Chesterfield Academy. I would like to start by thanking Delilah and her amazing team for executing this program in the most comfortable way possible with ethnic food, an opportunity to familiarize ourselves to the vast county by having sessions in different

[04:27:27] facilities. My husband and I migrated from India and first moved to Chesterfield in 2000. This month actually marks our 25th anniversary in this country. We lived here in the Midlothian area for a few months before we moved to Henrico, where we started our family, had two beautiful kids, and called it home. However, coming to my Chesterfield Academy brought me full circle.

[04:27:51] And so as the director, as the executive director of Kapaz IT, we have been doing programming in primarily in Chesterfield and with the refugee and immigrant community and feel proud to be here.

[04:28:09] The academy inculcates a sense of belonging by welcoming us multilingual, multicultural and multi-faith communities together under one roof and opens up doors to what the government agencies have to offer in all aspects of our life and work in partnership.

[04:28:27] The presentations we heard from various agencies, and there were many, sometimes overwhelming with information, especially when it's not your subject matter and you know nothing about it. The range of topics were from high-level view of the county history, geography, and demography to meeting basic health and mental health needs within the community.

[04:28:47] So it was a wide range, and I'm really proud and happy to say that a lot of the presentations were made by a lot of people that were recognized today, and also including yourselves that were part of the program.

[04:29:03] So it feels an honor to have that kind of leadership come in and talk to us about the programs. We also got some, there were times when we did get emotional and we did see some tears and things like that.

[04:29:18] when we heard stories from the schools, from what the teachers were doing, and also from what the community, the work that goes into the community. So we did get to see some emotions as well. The presenters did not only share information, but I think that's a theme today that we're seeing, but also the passion and the love for the work they are doing, the commitment to connect and deliver. The presenters also tried to ensure that we understood, connected, and stayed engaged even after we left access to leadership in order to stay connected so that we may all grow together

[04:29:53] giving meaning to civic engagement this ethos if i may share on behalf of my colleagues was felt by us we felt safe asking difficult questions especially around services for immigrants language access and equity and diversity as mentioned before we come from immigrant families We live and work with immigrant families who are consciously making an effort to live better lives and contribute to the growth of their families, communities, and the nation we call ours as our home.

[04:30:26] We will be taking back all we learn to our families and communities that we live and work in. We hope to continue carrying a heartfelt passion that we felt during the course of these last few months and hope that we can feel safe and belonging as we felt a few days ago.

[04:30:49] I will close with a quote from His Highness Diyadah Khan, Imam of the Shia Ismaili Muslim faith community. Quote, the Quran, the Hadith, the sayings of Hazrat Ali and many scholarly sources make numerous references to the forms and purposes of philanthropy.

[04:31:07] Human dignity, restoring it, and sustaining it is a central theme. Enabling individuals to recover and maintain their dignity as befitting their status as Allah's greatest creation is one of the main reasons for charitable action.

[04:31:27] There is dignity in the individual's ability to manage his or her own destiny. Thank you. Thank you so much.

[04:31:49] We will now take the time to have each graduate come up to receive their certificate for completing the academy. We would like to recognize, as a My Chesterfield Academy graduate and leader, Brenda Ayala.

[04:32:13] We would like to recognize, as a My Chesterfield Academy graduate and leader, Talena Beck. We would like to recognize, as a My Chesterfield Academy graduate and leader, Laura Beerhead-Jones.

[04:32:34] We recognize, as a My Chesterfield Academy graduate and leader, Brahimah Kamara. We recognize, as a My Chesterfield Academy graduate and leader, Dilshad Charanaya.

[04:33:02] We recognize, as a My Chesterfield Academy graduate and leader, Elaine Elena Cufeles-Diaz. We recognize, as a My Chesterfield Academy graduate and leader, Jonathan Eli.

[04:33:24] We recognize, as a My Chesterfield Academy graduate and leader, Alia Farouk. We recognize as a My Chesterfield Academy graduate and leader, Patricia Malpaya.

[04:33:52] We recognize as a My Chesterfield Academy graduate and leader, Jose Melendez. We recognize as a My Chesterfield Academy graduate and leader, Natasha Perez.

[04:34:12] We recognize as a My Chesterfield Academy graduate and leader, James Robinson. And we recognize as a My Chesterfield Academy graduate and leader, Harrison Yu.

[04:34:43] All right.

[04:35:00] Well, thank you all for going through the academy. As was said earlier, we do look at you as ambassadors to the community. We hope that you've learned a lot about how Chesterfield operates and who to contact so that if you have people in the community that are unaware or don't know how to take care of situations that they find themselves in, that they need help from the county, that you too can reach out to them.

[04:35:24] That's why we gave each of you a lapel pin tonight as an ambassador of the county. Any other board members want to say? And if you don't remember who to call, just call Kim Conley because she knows who to call. Thank you all for participating.

[04:35:44] I mean, running the county is such a challenging, comprehensive job. And what you all are learning through this process was, I mean, there are some folks out there that can really oversimplify what it is that we do.

[04:35:59] But you all participate and recognize that it is complex and that it is one of the things that it is so encompassing. So thank you for all that you do, for all that you've learned being part of this. Couldn't be more grateful. And I just want to say that it's so important, you know, to be continuously learning and to be able to say, OK, how can I be more part of my community?

[04:36:22] And this is a wonderful way to do it. highly recommend for those folks that are looking at the county and standing sometimes in judgment that you have the opportunity to be part of this and be able to recognize oh that's how it all fits together so thank you all I'll just say simply the Asian Latina Solidarity Alliance this was their idea they were just thinking through it within the first sentence of describing it I said yes and I wasn't sure what I agreed to it just it just sounded so right and so good because if the more that the citizens know who we are and what local government can

[04:37:02] and can't do and what we're required to do sometimes under state or federal law, then you can hold us better accountable to be the best that we can be. So again, I do want to give a shout out to the Asian Latino Solidarity Alliance. You heard in our history campaign all the firsts of Chesterfield County. I also wanted to be the first one to do this and we did come out of the box and we were one of the first ones ever to pull off such an academy and the best thing about a graduate is now that they're an alumni member and and there's rights and privileges that just mean we're going to call upon you to do something another day so thank you. Did you get all the pictures? All right

[04:37:41] thank you all for coming. Recognizing Valor Awards recipients Chief McKay. Good

[04:38:53] evening Mr. Chairman members of the board Dr. Casey on behalf of Chief Center I appreciate the opportunity tonight to recognize Captain Bryce Ford and and firefighter Greg Potter as recent recipients of Valor Awards, which they received at the 34th Annual Valor RVA Awards Ceremony, which was recently held in December. The Valor Awards honor local law enforcement, fire, and emergency medical services personnel who have performed exceptional acts of courage, even putting themselves at risk of personal injury. I'd like to take a brief moment to provide a synopsis of the incident which led to this recognition.

[04:39:29] Just after 11 p.m. on October 22nd, 2023, multiple 911 calls were received by the Emergency Communications Center reporting a fire, a large fire, on the third floor balcony at 2811 Pavilion Place, part of the Colonial Village at Waterford Apartments. Our first arriving units from the Swift Creek Fire Station right across the street on Genito Road found heavy fire conditions at the rear of a three-story apartment building, rapidly extending into the attic space and cutting off means of escape of occupants on those upper floors. Cries for help were heard by firefighters as they arrived and began to work. At the height of the incident, 67 total fire and EMS personnel

[04:40:08] were operating at the scene and were supported by a robust response from the Chesterfield County Police Department as well. Arriving units were met with not only heavy fire conditions but multiple victims trapped on balconies who were unable to escape because of the fire. Through incredible teamwork, Chesterfield Fire and EMS personnel and Chesterfield County Police Department officers working together were able to utilize ground ladders to save five citizens from upper floor balconies that night. The entire team which responded performed seamlessly, efficiently, and effectively to save both lives and property. As such, all the initial responding personnel who

[04:40:47] played roles in these rescues were nominated for Valor Awards. However, after review, the awards committee determined the actions of Captain Ford and Firefighter Potter were deserving of the coveted valor award. They not only assisted in the rescues of multiple victims, but then entered burning apartments on both the first and second floors by means of their balconies without the protection of a fire hose and at great personal peril to search for additional victims. We're incredibly proud of all of our personnel and the public safety team here in Chesterfield County,

[04:41:23] but tonight it is certainly a privilege to honor the selflessness, courage, and bravery of Captain Ford and Firefighter Potter, who represent the best of our best. Their actions embody the core values of our department, and it is my privilege to get to serve a long side of both of them. Thank

[04:41:41] you. Thank you for the work that you did do or doing. As an elected official, you know, I have my priorities. And priorities, usually number one is, as you all may be shocked, is clean air and

[04:42:20] fresh water and very quickly after that is public safety and so we're sitting around we're heading into budget time right now we're thinking about how do we support you how do you support us and how can you you know support our community and that's what we're doing when we're sitting down and figuring out what resources go where so thank you for for what you're doing our job is to support you both and to support our public safety so we couldn't be more grateful thank you just because

[04:42:55] this was in my district. Thank you so much. There seems to have been some other fires I think in this area also but thank you so much for all that you do. Firefighters are again my father was a firefighter for 40 years as a volunteer and so I understand what you all do. He only did it as a volunteer. You guys do it as a full-time job and it's so important and thank you. In my younger days I was a volunteer fireman. And I would tell you that people have no idea how scary it can be to go

[04:43:33] in a building like that in pitch black with a Scotia pack on. You still calling that? Okay. We call them Scotia packs back in the day. And so what y'all do every day, especially what you did going into these rooms, which is, it's extremely dangerous and it's extremely brave. And we can't have a, probably never thank you enough for what you do for our community and the rest of your brothers and sisters do for our community but on my behalf thank you very much when uh when there's

[04:44:08] a fire most people do everything they can to run to get away from it y'all ran into it to save a lot no you have um fire department says risk a lot save a lot risk little to save little and risk nothing to save nothing our citizens are about as much of a lot as there can be and the fact that you ran into a situation that wasn't good without a fire hose to make sure that our citizens had the best opportunity to survive is incredible. We can't thank you enough for what you do each and

[04:44:48] every day. Thank you for representing Chesterfield County and thank you for your service.

[04:45:18] Item 14, new business, a claim of Jared Saba as special trustee of the restatement of the Saba

[04:46:03] Trust, dated May 16, 2019, relating to the Meadowville cell tower adjacent to the Meadowville wastewater pump station at 1398 Bermuda 100 Road. Mr. Minks. Mr. Chairman, members of the board, as the board is aware, before anybody can actually bring a lawsuit against the county of Chesterfield, they must first present a claim to the board and have that claim denied.

[04:46:31] In this particular instance, there is a water tower that is adjacent to the Meadowville Wastewater Pump Station located on Bermuda 100 Road. There is this tower, the Saba Trust is claiming is a tower that they now own.

[04:46:47] The County of Chesterfield is satisfied that the County of Chesterfield owns this tower, and that is the dispute between the parties. We've analyzed it from a real property standpoint. we are satisfied that this claim should be denied by the board and that the Saba Trust does not have a ownership interest in this particular water tower. They're actually making a claim for $9 million, though it's not clear what that is based on. We would ask that that claim be denied.

[04:47:15] If there's a representative from the Saba Trust here, they do have a right to appear before the board and make the claim. Good evening. My name is Michael Kalish. I am an attorney with a law firm of Walsh, Colucci, Lou Blime, Walsh, and I represent the Jared Saba as trustee in the Saba Trust. I am here to present the claim of the Saba Trust against the County of Chesterfield as stated in my letters of October 28th and November 20th. Despite the greater than 25-year

[04:47:53] sort of history and background leading to this point, I actually think that the description of the claim as stated in the summary of information within the agenda succinctly and accurately presents the primary issue in this case. Where I must verge is with the conclusion of the county attorney and his recommended response to the claim. Members of the board, as stated in the summary, my client is the successor and interest to a lease of a parcel of property in Chesterfield on which sits a cell tower and related facilities.

[04:48:26] My client stands in the shoes of the landlord under that lease, which was originally granted in 1999, but ultimately assigned to the Saba Trust in 2010. So though my client, the Saba Trust, has never owned the parcel in question, my client had all the rights of a landlord under Virginia law and all the rights of the landlord specifically under the lease that was assigned to my client in 2010 that originated in 1999.

[04:48:57] One of the rights in that lease specifically provided to the landlord, my client, the right to declare the cellular tower and all of the related fixtures on the property to be abandoned and to claim ownership of all of that personal property if the then tenant failed to remove those fixtures within 60 days of the conclusion of the lease.

[04:49:22] and that's exactly what happened here. The lease term did conclude. Timely notices were provided. The tenant did not remove the facilities. My client has claimed proper ownership to that property pursuant to the lease. Now, despite having full and complete knowledge of the lease, its terms, and my client's claim of ownership, the county has now entered into a new lease, allowing a new tenant, well, the former tenant, but a new tenant nonetheless under a new lease, to continue to use those facilities that my client has a contractual and legal title right to own.

[04:50:00] The county has, in a sense, usurped ownership of tower facility that my client has lawful title to, and the county is now making money from the use of my client's personal property.

[04:50:16] In essence, the county has taken my client's property without just compensation, and the value of this property is substantial, fairly believed by my client to be upwards of $9 million. Now, what your staff has asserted in the agenda summary is that somehow my client's rights under the lease were limited to cashing rental checks alone.

[04:50:38] And frankly, there's a lack of support for that under the lease itself and within their conclusion. No document limits, strips, reserves, or otherwise affects my client's rights under the lease to claim unremoved property abandoned and assert ownership of that property at the conclusion of the lease.

[04:50:58] That the county may own the ground today has no legal bearing on my client's ability to own and do as it wishes with the personal property that it had the right to claim pursuant to the very, very plain language of the lease.

[04:51:16] And so again, the claim is not about the underlying parcel of property itself. The claim is about the cellular tower that was placed on it in the early 2000s and the original landlord's contract with the original tenant that was assigned to my client that said that if the tenant does not remove the cell tower at the conclusion of the lease, the landlord, whom today is my client, gets to own the tower.

[04:51:45] And that's what we're seeking a recognition of. that's what the county has denied and to the extent that the county is going to claim title and allow others to use it is an improper taking of my client's property i'd be happy to review the 25-year history of the lease and how we got here tonight i want to be respectful of your time and attention i'm happy to answer any questions that you have related to the claim so if there are any questions from members of the board i'm happy to answer anything that you may have again i don't

[04:52:19] think that there's a disagreement as to what the facts of this history are. The issue is, is that we'll have an extreme divergence of opinion with the county attorney as to what very plain language of the lease provides. And the county attorney is taking the position that there is language within other documents outside the chain of title to my client's lease that somehow have an impact, I suggest that that is totally incorrect and that the plain language of the lease, which no one disputes that my client acted as landlord

[04:52:56] under, provide my clients the right to claim title to the cellular tower that is on that parcel today. So I thank you for your attention. I'm happy to answer any questions. Any board members have questions of Mr. Minks or the claimant? Can I get a motion? I'd like to go ahead and make the motion to deny this claim.

[04:53:20] Can I get a second? Second. All in favor? Aye. Thank you for your attention. Thank you. Madam Clerk.

[04:53:36] The authorization to advertise 2025 calendar year tax rate and other required legal notices and public hearings related to the real estate tax rate. Mr. Harris. Mr. Chair, members of the board, a simple procedural item really for you tonight.

[04:53:58] As I think you're all aware, the state defines the advertising windows and requirements for real estate tax rate for tax year 2025. So we need a decision, some guidance from you tonight to be able to begin down that road. As I think you're aware, because of the timing that those deadlines are before you get into your actual, Dr. Miller has pointed out tonight, getting into budget season, but you know we don't have the elements of your fiscal 26 budget, so

[04:54:37] we are having to, from a procedural perspective, you know we're having to do this sort of ahead of the process. So what we do, what we've done for any number of years in terms of setting this rate is we set a max rate by which you cannot go over, but as you come throughout the process and you see what the state has in store for you in terms of revenue, you did get a one piece of your 26 budget today. Mr. Bloomfield in the afternoon session gave you the reval results, which is just a tick over 5% on existing residential property. So that's kind of the first puzzle piece that's in place. But there are many, many more to come. You all haven't seen the request from school

[04:55:17] division. That happens tomorrow night. That's certainly a very large piece of your FY26 puzzle. So the recommendation from staff that's in this new business item, as it has been for the last a number of years is, again, just leave it at 90 cents, so you can't go above it, so that's the existing rate today, as you show on the screen, so you can't go at 91, anything above what it is today, but as you go throughout the process, the county administrators proposed budgets back in this room in early March, it can be below the 90, but the threshold from an advertising

[04:55:50] perspective is setting that cap, so without those other pieces in place, and to really pay honor to the process itself. The recommendation is to authorize staff to issue those advertisements at $0.90.

[04:56:06] You can see the history of the course of the last several years. We have been able to chip away at the real estate rate sitting at that $0.90, and certainly those conversations will continue throughout the FY26 process, but again, you just don't have enough information tonight. So with that, I'm happy to take any questions.

[04:56:24] Do any board members have any questions on Mr. Harris? Can I get a motion? So moved. I think you have to... Mr. Joe, make a motion to authorize the advertisement of the 2020 calendar year tax rate at $0.90 and any other required legal notices and public hearings related to the real estate tax rate.

[04:56:54] The presentation will be for $0.90, but the motion may be made with a different rate. That rate passes during the vote, which could be lowered by the board at any time through adoption of the budget as we move forward. That's my motion, Mr. Chair. Second.

[04:57:11] All in favor? Aye. any opposed four to zero item c appointments first we have one appointment to the community policy and management team motion approved mr chair second all in favor aye forward vote four zero next we have one appointment to the richmond region tourism board i'm getting approved mr chair i think this is dr miller all in favor all right last we have one appointment to the greater

[04:57:49] richmond partnership incorporated motion approved mr chair this is um supervisor schneider i believe Second, okay. All in favor? Aye. Another four, zero. D, consent items. Mr. Chair, there have been no requests to remove items from the consent agenda for public comment. Do any board members wish to remove any items? Seeing none, can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda, Mr. Chair? All in favor? Aye. Four, zero.

[04:58:24] item 15 15-minute citizen comment period on unscheduled matters this time is designated for citizens to talk to the board of supervisors it is not a time for dialogue with board members and it is not a question-answer period those conversations can easily occur with individual board members outside of the board meeting as a reminder the board's procedures state no citizen shall speak on any matter of business that is a subject on the board's agenda for that day and each speaker shall have three minutes to address the board we have five speakers i'll call

[04:58:58] them all forward if they'll please speak in this order rebecca sido frank rowell rachel james glenn besa and chris we guard first speaker is rebecca sido my name is rebe is becky seto and i am a resident and homeowner in midlothian my husband phil and i retired and moved to be near our children and grandchildren who also live in Midlothian and attend public schools. I was a public school teacher for 28 years. We have seen Midlothian change a great deal in 10 years,

[04:59:35] mostly since 2018. Some of the changes are good, some are distressing. The Board of Supervisors continues to improve homes, apartments, townhouses, and condo development at an alarming rate.

[04:59:50] Traffic congestion and crime continue to rise. We chose not to live near Hull Street, but Midlothian is quickly becoming Hull Street. Our personal county real estate taxes and appraisals have risen over 50 percent in less than five years.

[05:00:09] And affordability due to taxes is challenging for many citizens, especially those on limited or fixed incomes, as well as younger households just beginning. The overall budget is up 41% in the last five years.

[05:00:25] This is on the back of the residential taxpayers. Where is that money going? Why spend it all? Where are any of the cost savings projects? Publicize any and all savings. Recently, a $30 million surplus was announced, with half going back to the taxpayers.

[05:00:45] Why only half? We are spending a lot of money subsidizing companies with EDA funding, tax abatements, and performance grants with no transparency to the taxpayers. Why are we giving money to developers instead of investing in our children?

[05:01:03] You have not and will not document return on investments on EDA spending. Why not? It has been documented that Chesterfield Public Schools' performance and standardized tests have decreased 50% since 2016. We supported the recent bond referendum with a promise of a replacement for Midlothian Middle School using the existing property that is already owned by the taxpayers. Why shouldn't this 100-year-old school be replaced on the existing land and not be moved to Upper Magnolia, which is one of our rumors we hear? Does our input matter to you?

[05:01:42] Another concern is the ever-increasing county debt. Given the recent growth of cluster homes and apartments, we expect the county management to ask citizens to approve significantly more bond money in the next couple years. Continuing to put the burden of this debt on single-family homeowners and spending it on economic development instead of investing in the school budget, this is not sustainable.

[05:02:08] You need more interaction with the public by holding more medians on taxes and spending, not just once a year at budget time. Chesterfield County is a good place to live, but the excess revenues you are collecting and spending without regard for homeowners is not sustainable.

[05:02:27] Ms. Zito, your three minutes are up. Other people have gone on. I'm going to continue. Am I giving you a short amount of time to wrap it up? I am. Okay. Advertise and have a healthy, transparent debate with the citizens on school fundings, the budget, taxes, and EDA spending throughout the year. Invest in the children more than EDA and the developers. Show discipline with the budget and real estate taxes by capping them at zero to three percent next year after years of double-digit increases. Thank you for the

[05:03:01] opportunity to speak. Thank you. Next speaker. Frank Rau. Hello. My name is Frank Rau.

[05:03:21] And I've been a proud resident, homeowner in Midlothian for the past four years. I'm also a member of the Citizens for Responsible Government, Chesterfield Citizens for Responsible Government, a community group committed to promoting transparency in the government activities and ensuring that the county board of supervisors responsibly manage our taxpayer dollars.

[05:03:44] My family and I moved to Midlothian because of the strong sense of community, excellent amenities, and promising future. I work remotely for a high-tech company who gives me the flexibility to work anywhere, and we chose Midlothian as our home. I am deeply concerned about the significant increases in county taxes and spending over the past several years and the lack of transparency on how these funds are being spent.

[05:04:05] My real estate taxes have increased 30% over the last four years. As an organization continues to analyze the spending and engage with county officials, we have found several concerning trends which we wish to bring to the attention of board supervisors. We hope that you will engage in meaningful, fact-based discussions about these issues, a responsibility that is central to your role.

[05:04:27] Despite public communications, social media updates, and the state of the county presentation on December 11th, the county has failed to address the following trends. Rising general fund expenses. The general fund spending has increased by twice the rate of inflation from 2018 to 2024.

[05:04:43] General fund spending has also increased four times the county population growth over the same period. Economic development spending. After almost two decades of spending on EDA, 80 percent of the county tax burden is paid by residential homeowners. Based on county discussions, it will remain the same percentage for the time to come in the future as these projects are not seen to generate meaningful incremental taxes.

[05:05:08] Escalating county debt service. The county's debt service has reached alarming levels, increasing from $70 million to 2019 to $101 million in 2024. This is an annual increase of over nine percent, and we expect the county to ask for more bond monies in the next couple of years. All this increased debt service will be borne by the residential taxpayer, as EDA projects will not pay off for the foreseeable future, if ever. Insufficient financial transparency. While the county recently launched the financial transparency webpage and is a step in the right direction, it falls short. We urge the inclusion of detailed reports and performance

[05:05:47] of EDA projects, the cost of long-term tax abatements, and the concise summaries and financial metrics to foster genuine transparency. The amount of debt service the county is incurring, as well as other key financial metrics, should be available. Our requests are as follows. Commit to transparency and collaboration. We urge the Board of Supervisors and Management to embrace transparency and actively seek citizen input, particularly on taxes and spending.

[05:06:18] Reports often, or another one, is limit tax and spending growth after years of double-digit increases. We request the Board of Supervisors to show fiscal restraint by capping spending increases to 3% for the upcoming fiscal year. This is a reasonable and fair request. We believe our voices deserve to be heard. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. We look forward to a constructive dialogue and hope to see meaningful action

[05:06:42] take place soon. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Rachel James. Good evening, Chair Ingle and fellow members of the Chesterfield Board of Supervisors. My name is Rachel James. I'm an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, and I'm here on behalf of the Chesterfield branch of the NAACP to speak with you about Dominion's gas plant that it's proposed. Chair Ingle, as supervisor elected to serve the Bermuda District and now as chair of the Board of supervisors, we implore you to take the health and environmental concerns of your constituents

[05:07:22] seriously and to lead your fellow supervisors in protecting all members of Chesterfield's communities. Since we last addressed the board in July 2024, much has transpired. In August, Dominion officially changed its proposed gas plant site to its current Chesterfield power station location. In September, Dominion submitted supplemental information to DEQ, which included updates on site suitability and environmental justice.

[05:07:47] In this update, Dominion's consultant reported that there are 24 census block groups within three miles of the proposed site. Of the 24, the consultant identified 22 that contained what it considered potential environmental justice communities. Dominion's consultant also identified that within this area, there are significant pockets of linguistic isolation, and that Spanish is the most common language spoken in these households.

[05:08:10] These data points highlight what the NAACP and others have been saying for months, that some of Virginia's most vulnerable populations are living closest to the existing pollution of the Chesterfield Power Station. Placing a much larger new gas plant in these communities is simply not suitable.

[05:08:28] Let us remind you that Dominion is seeking approval for its new gas plant to emit PM2.5, an increased amount, more carbon monoxide, and more other harmful pollutants than was emitted by coal plant before dominion retired it in 2023 these facts among other concerns are why the naacp recommended that deq required dominion to conduct air monitoring in these neighborhoods before modeling air quality impacts of the new gas plant despite this at the end of december dominion submitted its air monitoring protocol to deq absent any plans to conduct air quality monitoring in

[05:09:04] the communities immediately surrounding its proposed site this is unacceptable there are alternatives that do not emit air pollution yet provide jobs and tax revenue and that can achieve energy and capacity parameters dominion says it needs a gas plant to meet the health and wellness of all members of chesterfield's communities should be among the board's top priorities our comments here tonight are not only to remind the board that it still has an opportunity to weigh in but to assert that if you do not rest assured this community will not sit idly by and and allow your silence to misrepresent their concerns.

[05:09:38] Thank you. - Thank you. Next speaker. - Glenn Bessa. - Chairman Ingalls, members of the board, Glenn Bessa representing Friends of Chesterfield.

[05:09:54] I hope you all had a joyful holiday. My wife and I visited family in Asheville, and while that was a pleasant occasion, I have to say we saw the massive destruction that Hurricane Helene wreaked on that community, and also in Southwestern Virginia, which we'll be paying for.

[05:10:11] - Like the fires in Los Angeles going on right now, these are the consequences of climate change that you are declining to acknowledge and address by authorizing Dominion's gas-fired power plant. You will recall that by virtue of your refusal to hold a hearing and a vote on Dominion Energy's proposed gas plant, you have green-lighted a project that will prelude the air and harm the neighboring community that has endured almost 80 years of pollution from what was the largest coal plant and one of the largest sources of air pollution the state until it closed a couple years ago. By your inaction, you apparently believe that you

[05:10:47] have authorized Dominion to proceed to build another major source of air pollution in that same community to the detriment of the people that live there without a hearing or a vote. You have also aided and abetted Dominion Energy in its plot, and I'll say plot, to violate the Virginia Clean Economy Act intended to address climate change transition us to clean renewable energy. Dominion has informed the State Corporation Commission that it plans to build as many as six of these gas plants and to double our electric bills. That's their plan. Just how many people in this county are already worrying about how they're going to pay the next electric

[05:11:26] bill because of this cold snap and how many more are going to struggle when Dominion doubles their bills by investing in gas. To the members of this board who believe you successfully approved Dominion's project without hearing or vote, I'm here to inform you that you are mistaken. While no substitute for an official hearing by this board, Friends of Chesterfield conducted its own people's hearing on the gas plant on October 29, and I sent you by email a copy of that testimony, which I am also delivering

[05:11:57] to your clerk this evening. This testimony should be useful to you when you ultimately reverse yourselves and conduct a hearing and a vote on this gas plant. You can still do that voluntarily, as Ms. James just mentioned, or very likely you may be compelled to do so.

[05:12:18] As you know, a lawsuit was filed last week on that very issue. Mr. Chairman, under your rules, you can't discuss pending litigation, and Mr. Bessie has a plaintiff in that litigation. I want to thank you for your time, and at this moment, I would like to ask those who oppose this gas plant to please stand.

[05:12:38] Thank you very much. Thank you. Next speaker. Chris Wiegard. Members of the board, thank you for hearing my comments this evening.

[05:12:54] regarding the proposed methane plant at Dutch Gap. I am Chris Wiegard, I'm a resident of Bermuda District. Our most recent climate-driven disaster has been the Los Angeles wildfire outbreak. Estimated losses are 250 to 275 billion.

[05:13:13] This is slightly higher than the 225 billion in losses from hurricanes Helene and Milton last year, but it bears mention that we have 11 more months of 2025. Why would we care about climate-driven disasters in Florida or North Carolina or California?

[05:13:34] We can build this methane plant for around $600 million. The electricity won't be as cheap as electricity from solar and battery storage, but our lights will come on. However, there are no safe places in the world of climate change, and the methane burned at Dutch Gap will put millions of tons of carbon into the sky.

[05:13:55] We don't live in California, North Carolina, or Florida, But our insurance rates respond to events outside of our county, and we will get our turn for a disaster. On the proposed Dutch Gap plant, the perspective I seek to hold is that of the granddaughter of my granddaughter in the year 2100.

[05:14:18] I speak for her because she won't be born until around 2080. Climate change, as I'm expressing here, is a very long-term thing. The methane plant is not going to be operating in 2100. In 2100, it's not going to be legal to burn methane because I oppose the Dutch Gap Peeker plant because I think it's unwise to walk down a road when we can already see the dead end.

[05:14:45] I also view it as morally wrong to force future generations to pay climate costs that will be incurred by our choices today. Thank you for your attention. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Item 16, items from previous meetings. We have none. Item 17, zoning cases. Mr. Chair, we have two deferral

[05:15:17] requests. First is 22SN0089 in Clover Hill Magisterial District. Thacker's View rezoning and exceptions is a request to rezone from Agricultural A to Residential R-12 with conditional use to permit neighborhood recreational facilities and a bed and breakfast facility, plus conditional use plan development to permit exceptions to ordinance requirements known as 4701, 4801, and 4901 Woolridge Road. The district supervisor is requesting deferral to the board's February 26,

[05:15:52] 2025 public hearing. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing to consider the deferral of case 22 SN0089, Thacker's View, Rezoning and Exceptions. Is there anyone who'd like to speak to the deferral of this case?

[05:16:10] If so, please come forward and state your name. Good evening, Mr. Chair, members of the board, Dr. Casey.

[05:16:26] I just want to come up and acknowledge the good work that Ms. Snyder has done in getting this case to where it is and in continuing to listen to citizens and help make a difference with this case. I just want to acknowledge that because it's been a cold night, not sure how many citizens were willing to come out, but thank you.

[05:16:48] Seeing no more speakers, I'm going to close the public hearing, and this matter is in the Clover Hill District. thank you so I am I've worked really hard as as Greg and thank you for mentioning that we've been working with some community groups working with my fellow board members the developer and the family we have a few other things we'd like to get ironed out to make this a case that again this property is

[05:17:23] worthy of and given that it's the last developed property on the Swift Creek reservoir and it's such a beautiful place i just want to make it a noteworthy exception exceptional community um which we're working to make that so thank you um and for all of your time and energy and the family um and hopefully we can get this figured out by next month um so i'm going to

[05:17:54] Defer case number 22SN0089 until February 26th meeting. Yeah, I'll second it if I have an opportunity for a comment on discussion. Any discussion?

[05:18:11] I do think Schneider's worked very hard in this case with the community and with the family and the developer. I think there's an issue we may actually have to address in the future. Because I'm, you know, in reading our code in two different sections, there's a conflict.

[05:18:31] In one section, it says that townhomes are not permissible. In another section, it says that the board actually has the ability to do it. That's an issue for another time, but it's what's given me consternation with this case, quite frankly. Because if you look at our code in 19-2 and you look exactly under the table where it has listed under between R-7 and R-88, This is not a permitted use, but if you look under code, under the use of a conditional use, there's language in there that permits the board to be able to make the exception.

[05:19:06] So, we have a conflict we have to deal with later, but I think that there's some good positive movement in the right direction. - Any other discussion? Having a motion and a second?

[05:19:21] All in favor? - Aye. - Any opposed? - Yes, sir. - The second deferral request is 24SN 1209 in Matolka Magisterial District. Magnolia Green Tract CC Amendment is a request for amendment of zoning approval, case 89 SN0343, relative to phasing requirements and modification of development standards in a residential R9 district for property fronting in three locations for approximately 2,925 feet along the north side of Hull Street Road, 250 feet west of Magnolia Green Parkway.

[05:19:59] The district supervisor is requesting deferral to the board's February 26, 2025 public hearing. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing to consider the deferral of case 24 SN1209, Magnolia Green Track CC Amendment.

[05:20:18] Is there anyone who would like to speak to the deferral of this case? If so, please come forward and state your name.

[05:20:31] Seeing no one coming forward, I'm going to close this public hearing, and this matter is in the Matoka District. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I've had a lot of conversation with community members who live in the Magnolia Green subdivision about this.

[05:20:46] And for the community, just a brief understanding that when the original Magnolia Green case was decided back in December the 11th of 1991, this particular section of these three parcels, it's really two parcels actually, that are the main concern.

[05:21:09] and there's a small parcel elsewhere, if you see to the right in the illustration, that's where the office is, as to how many square foot of commercial development could be allowed on the property. And when the developer had come forward with a request to put some townhomes on there, there's a small section that was cut off, it's 3.6 acres, you see in the top left-hand corner of the left parcel where it's now shaded as excluded, that's where the daycare center is.

[05:21:41] But nevertheless, in the language in the case, it basically said that you could only build up to 20,000 square feet of commercial. On the entire parcel, it's 88 acres. I think a lot of people that I know that live in that neighborhood that have spoken to me about this, when they were sold a house, they expected for commercial development to be on the outside of this neighborhood, on those partials, to service that neighborhood.

[05:22:07] With the restriction in the case of 20,000 square feet, the developer would not be able to provide that. So the purpose for bringing this case forward is to move it forward to where you can have additional commercial development.

[05:22:23] It's, you know, working with the developer and working with the community, we've established some additional guidelines in this, and there's just a few more I think we need to nail down. But that's why I want to defer it for one more month to the February 26th date for us to be able to, Because I think there's some things I need to clarify with the community about this that are in the initial and original textual statement of this case.

[05:22:49] So anyway, Mr. Chair, that's what we'll be working on until February 26th. Hopefully we'll get it resolved sooner than later. And I would like a motion to defer case number 24-SN-1209 to the February 26th Board of Supervisors meeting.

[05:23:05] Do you have a second? Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Mr. Chair, you have several consent cases on your zoning agenda for this evening. For the benefit of the public, consent cases are those cases where the applicant accepts staff's recommendation and there is no previous opposition.

[05:23:27] For each case on the consent agenda, staff has received written confirmation from the applicants that they agree with the conditions being imposed and that all proffers are offered in compliance with state law. First is 24MH1286 in Bermuda Magisterial District.

[05:23:45] ramirez manufactured home permit renewal is a request for renewal of manufactured home permit case 18 sn 0106 to permit a temporary manufactured home on a 0.16 acre parcel in a residential r7 district known as 10114 brightwood avenue staff recommends approval subject to the conditions in your staff report ladies and gentlemen this is a public hearing on case 24 mh1286 ramirez

[05:24:20] manufacturing home permit renewal is there anyone who'd like to speak to this case if so please come forward and state your name seeing no one coming forward is there is there someone coming forward okay come on up sir my name is ramirez i'm the property there i'm the owner of the property

[05:24:58] and I live there for seven years and if you renew this permit, they help you and my family. Thank you sir, I appreciate that. Any other speakers? Seeing none, I'm going to close this public hearing and it's back before the board and this case is in the Bermuda district.

[05:25:22] I make the motion to approve case 24MH1286 subject to the conditions in the staff report. No second. Any other discussion? All in favor? Aye. Next is 22 SN 0035 in Matulka Magisterial District.

[05:25:44] Duval Road residential rezoning is a request to rezone from Agricultural A and Residential R12 to Residential R12 plus conditional use plan development to permit exceptions to ordinance requirements and conditional use to permit recreational neighborhood facilities known as 18101 Duval Road.

[05:26:04] The applicant proposes to permit a 200-lot single-family residential development on 100.1 acres of land. Planning Commission and staff recommend approval subject to the conditions in your staff report. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing on case 22SN0035, Duvall Road Residential Rezoning.

[05:26:28] Is there anyone who'd like to speak to this case? If so, please come forward and state your name. Good evening, Mr. Chair. My name is Greg Allen. I would like to speak to this.

[05:26:44] Does that mean it goes back on the discussion agenda? At this point, we're just going to move forward. Go ahead. Well, it's only appropriate, then, that the applicants represent to be able to speak first, generally. Okay, is the applicant in here?

[05:27:03] I'm only trying to play about the protocol. That's fine. Okay. Not to cause Mr. Geiger any heartache, but I want to speak in addition to what I talked to you about this afternoon.

[05:27:19] So, again, my name is Greg Allen. Thank you for letting me come before you. I am not speaking necessarily against this case, but just some additional approaches to how we can effectively review it. Okay, thank you. Can you make sure you use the mics? Yes, thank you, sir.

[05:27:34] I can't hear you up. Thank you. Okay. So what I showed before you is the concept plan that shows 200 lots on 100 acres. And to get to the comprehensive plan density of two units per acre, they needed to have lot size reductions and exceptions to get all that density on there.

[05:27:53] And so what they did was they used, they identified all the available, developable land and figured out what lot size would then fit, leaving trees basically only on the RPAs, the wetlands, and some minor buffer areas. And that's the way planning typically looks at things.

[05:28:11] What's the size lot that just uses up all the land? And so doing exceptions. But the board, back in 1989, look at what the ordinance says. If exceptions are needed, then you have the ability to recommend whatever mitigations are necessary to make the project good.

[05:28:30] So I looked at this, and this is a design, you know, that was 6,500 square foot lots, I believe. This is with 5,500 square foot lots, but actually 40 more lots. I put 240 on this design, just not in 200. Not that I'm advocating more, but just goes to show how much more trees can be saved if you start thinking about lot size and what's appropriate.

[05:28:52] And so, you know, with Winfield that I showed you this afternoon, creative and imaginative design doesn't come from figuring out the largest lot that will use up all the land. It comes from allowing a wide variety of lots and residential uses that can be creatively put on the land that, in fact, saves more of the forested character.

[05:29:15] That's the goal here. And if it was really coming down to it, if citizens started to realize that this commission and board were addressing that mitigation through a pattern of greater forested protection on the land, we might eventually get to something which is a much better solution of having zoning cases that show where development is going to happen within a bubble and where all the forest is going to be saved outside of the bubble and stop getting into all these details about how the lots lay out because, honestly, Winfield is a great vibrant community that mixes 40 to 80 foot wide lots and townhomes all together, those kids play together, those

[05:29:54] people walk and talk together from their front porches, that's the kind of dynamic community that makes Chesterfield great. Not when you build a huge community of all the same size houses, you know, there's just different ways of doing it. So I want to see the zoning process, you know, move forward in a way that makes better communities and my presentations to you are in that regards.

[05:30:15] Thank you for your time. Thank you. like to speak to anything that was said is there anybody else that would like to speak to this case seeing no one else i'm going to clear mr chair i meant to say one other thing in favor of the of the developer if i could it's in your favor there's time left okay what i recognized being a resident in brandon mill since i retired was that those neighborhoods were built when sidewalks were not in place and so the 15 miles of paved trails we have in brandon mill and wood in wood lake and

[05:30:54] places like that were for a reason but today developers have to build my you know not miles but a lot of sidewalks and I'm starting to think why are we making them then build all these paths through the RPAs and wetlands it's like doubling up on their cost and these paths you know in these areas become the HOA is responsible to maintain brander mill repaves a mile of paved trail every year and we rotate on a cycle of 15 years so I'm just saying maybe we need start thinking about all these extra trails when we're already making the developers build sidewalks

[05:31:30] just have a few connectors thank you at this time i'm close the public hearing and this case is back before the board and it is in the matoka district mr carroll mr chair um i thank the speaker for his comments um i know this case went through the public process it went through the planning commission um to my knowledge no one came out and spoke against it at the planning commission That's why I make a motion to approve case number 22SN0035, subject to the conditions in the staff report.

[05:32:05] Can I get a second? Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Next is 24SN1009 in Dale Magisterial District, Hopkins Road rezoning is a request to rezone from Agricultural A to Residential R12 plus Conditional Use Plan development to permit exceptions to ordinance requirements on 5.43 acres known as 8319 Hopkins Road.

[05:32:38] The rezoning is necessary because the applicant intends to subdivide the property in order to have the existing dwelling and an existing church be on separate lots and neither lot will meet the minimum lot size requirement for the agricultural district. The Planning Commission and staff recommend approval subject to the conditions in your staff report.

[05:32:58] ladies and gentlemen this is a public hearing on case 24 sn zero one zero zero nine hopkins road rezoning is there anyone who'd like to speak to this case and if so please come forward and state your name seeing no one coming forward i'm going to close the public hearing is back before the board this case is in the dale district and upon a recommendation from the dale district supervisor

[05:33:30] I'm going to make a motion on his behalf to approve case 24 SN 1009 subject to the conditions in the staff report. Thank you. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Next is 24 SN 1146 in Midlothian Magisterial District.

[05:33:52] Dry bridge battery storage amendment is a request for amendment of zoning approval, case 06 SN0191 to modify uses plus conditional use to permit a battery energy storage facility in a general industrial I-2 district on 32.61 acres fronting 275 feet on the east side of Drybridge Road, 1,250 feet south of Midlothian Turnpike, a 150 megawatt utility scale battery storage facility with an electrical substation is proposed planning commission and staff recommend

[05:34:29] approval subject to the conditions in your staff report ladies and gentlemen this is a public hearing on case 24 sn 1146 dry bridge battery storage amendment is there anyone who'd like to speak to this case and if so please come forward and state your name seeing no one i'm going to close this public hearing and it is back before the board this case is in the midlothian district

[05:35:00] Dr. Miller. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I find it interesting, for what it's worth, that we have folks that come out and want to speak on a particular issue when it comes to global warming.

[05:35:18] And we'll speak to things like, you know, we need more battery storage. And here we have this case in front of us, but yet the folks, many of those folks that were here and were speaking to those kind of things and how we need them now aren't here. And so I find that a bit ironic that, you know, this board is working toward finding ways to broaden our ability, our dependence on fossil fuels. And at the same time, Mr. Weigart, who was here just a moment ago, said we need more battery

[05:35:57] storage. And yet, I feel like I'm kind of speaking to the wind right now because that's exactly what we're about to do. And so for that, I'm going to go ahead and move for the approval of 24SN 11046.

[05:36:12] I want to make sure I say that right, 24SN 1146, subject to the conditions in the staff report. Second. Any discussion? Yes, sir, Mr. Chair. If you were speaking into the wind, this would be a windmill station, not battery storage.

[05:36:29] Well said. But that being said, we secured a contract last month for 100 megawatt, first of its kind, first in the world fusion plant here in Chesterfield County, 400 megawatts.

[05:36:46] And again, that is the cleanest, greenest kind of energy generation once it comes out of the ground in the world. So, yes, we are trying to work with the community to find new ways to have electric generation that doesn't pollute and doesn't affect global warming.

[05:37:09] So, anyway, I just want to make that comment, Mr. Chair. Any other discussion? All in favor? Aye. Aye. Next is 24SN 1185 in Bermuda Magisterial District.

[05:37:25] Ware Road mini-storage is a request to rezone from community business C3 to regional business C4 plus conditional use plan development to permit exceptions to ordinance requirements with conditional use to permit mini-storage facility on 2.05 acres located in the southeast corner of Ware and Briggs Road and fronting approximately 745 feet along the southwest side of Ware Road.

[05:37:52] The applicant is proposing to develop a three-story conditioned mini storage facility containing approximately 90,000 square feet of floor area. Planning Commission and staff recommend approval subject to the conditions in your staff report. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing on case 24 SN 1185, Weir Road mini storage.

[05:38:15] Is there anyone who would like to speak to this case? If so, please come forward and state your name. Seeing no one, I'm going to close this public hearing. It's back before the board. This case is in the Bermuda District, and I make the motion to approve case 24SN 1185, subject to the conditions in the staff report.

[05:38:38] Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Next is 24SN 1192 in Midlothian Magisterial District. Ivymont Square signage is a request for conditional use plan development to permit additional monument signage in the community business C3 district on 17 acres known as 14101 Midlothian Turnpike.

[05:39:02] The applicant is proposing three project identifier signs for existing Ivymont Square Shopping Center along Midlothian Turnpike. Planning Commission and staff recommend approval subject to the conditions in your staff report. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing on case 24 SN 1192, Ivymont Square Signage.

[05:39:27] Is there anyone who'd like to speak to this case? If so, please come forward and state your name. Seeing no one, I'm going to close this public hearing, and it's back before the board. This case is in the Midlothian District. Dr. Miller. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[05:39:43] So, yeah, I mean, this is going to be a really nice sign that's up there. I want to appreciate Frank Petroski, our planning commissioner, for pulling this all together. It's going to look really good. I'm excited about it. And with that, I'm going to go ahead and move for the approval of 24SN 1192, subject to the conditions in the staff report.

[05:40:03] Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Last is 24SN1226 in Bermuda Magisterial District. Perrymont Road single-family dwelling is a request for a conditional use to permit a single-family dwelling in a community business C3 district on property known as 9016 Perrymont Road.

[05:40:26] An existing dwelling on the property was constructed in 1948. The current property owner is seeking to make improvements to the property, including the enclosure of a porch, and in addition to the rear of the dwelling. Planning Commission and staff recommend approval subject to the conditions in your staff report.

[05:40:44] Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing on case 24 SN 1226, Paramount Road, single-family dwelling. Is there anyone who'd like to speak to this case? If so, please come forward and state your name. Seeing no one, I'm going to close this public hearing, and it's back before the board.

[05:41:05] This case is in the Bermuda District, And I make the motion to approve case 24SN1226, subject to the conditions in the staff report. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Mr. Chair, that concludes your consent items for this evening.

[05:41:25] You have four discussion items on your agenda. First is 24SN1205, Avery Warehouse South Utility Exception. Mr. Ellis. Good evening, Mr. Chair, members of the board, and Dr. Casey. Section 4SN 1205 in the Bermuda District is a request for an exception to Section 1860 of the Utility Ordinance for connection to the public wastewater system to accommodate a planned office warehouse development in the C-5 District.

[05:41:57] As stated, the applicant is requesting an exception to the Utility Ordinance for connection to the – required connection to the wastewater system. Development of the 1.34-acre site is planned for an office warehouse. The current zoning of the property does permit the planned development, therefore zoning is It's not under review with this request.

[05:42:15] The planning commission does recommend approval, however, the utilities department does not support the wastewater connection request as there are no physical conflicts or system capacity limitations that would make the extension unfeasible. The board did receive an addendum for this today, providing a revised utility section of the staff report containing additional information pertaining to cost and location of extension points.

[05:42:40] Utilities staff is here tonight if there are any questions. Thank you. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing on case 24SN 1205, Avery Warehouse South, Utility Exception. Is the applicant present?

[05:42:56] Would you like to make a presentation? Good evening, Mr. Chair, members of the board. I'm Dean Hawkins representing Avery tonight. This is a similar case to what we've done before in the area, a couple of projects down further to the north of us in line to receive this exception, and it's kind of ironic that I'm here tonight to talk about a utility exception when we had such good conversations about the water problems that we had recently, and I even had some relatives in my family call

[05:43:33] me who live in Richmond and beg to come out to Chesterfield to take a shower, so they They took a long shower, and I'll wait to see what my utility bill is going to be in a couple of weeks. And then the second thing was about the sewer issue that we're here to talk about tonight and the fellow who was a retiree who worked at the treatment plant.

[05:43:59] And I can remember flying into Richmond one time over the Falling Creek plant, and I looked down and I saw a plume of water coming out of the plant into the river, and that water was cleaner than the river so we are very blessed to have the utilities folks work on our behalf but here I'm asking for an exception really I wish I could hook to sewer I'd rather but it's so far away we're kind of in no man's land and we received two exceptions that I've brought before you before like I said

[05:44:35] just to the north and adjacent and things have worked out fine we are connecting to public water which is right in front of us so hopefully we can continue to develop this area where now it's vacant that's my request is there anyone who would like to speak to this case if so please come forward and state your name seeing no one I'm gonna close this public hearing is back before the board is there any questions that any board members have of the applicant yes

[05:45:12] I just have a quick question office warehouse can you give me a feel what will be warehoused? Well, I can tell you adjacent on the two properties that we have done directly to us, adjacent to this project and as a part of the same ownership, really, it's just a small office, but a bigger warehouse area. And the two buildings that are directly next to us are United Rentals. So they have generator service. That's one of the places there.

[05:45:45] And so, that's the sort of thing that's developed in this area. Now, the projects to the south, further to the north that we did was contractor's office. So, it's a small industrial area, really, as it has developed.

[05:46:05] And so, I suspect septic will be put on there. I'm curious to know, how many employees are going to be there? I would say the buildings that we've put up so far are somewhere between 7,000 and 10,000 square feet.

[05:46:21] So probably at any one time, you might not have more than four or five people who really work there daily. There's a lot of coming and going, but the people there, there's four or five people max, I would say. Thank you.

[05:46:37] Any other questions? This case is in the Bermuda District, and I make the motion to approve case 24-SN-1205, subject to the conditions and a staff report. I'll second it.

[05:46:54] And, Mr. Chair, just to comment that, you know, the cost, I think, is what's prohibitive here. When you're talking almost a little over a million dollars to run it from one way and another $720,000. And really, you know, my vote for this is really about supporting small businesses in Jessville County and not putting them such a burden on the property that they could not put a small business on here.

[05:47:17] Thank you. I appreciate those comments. Any other discussion? All in favor? Aye. Thank you. Next is 24SN 1262, Walthall Drive, wastewater exception. Mr. Ellis. Thank you.

[05:47:32] Very similar case. 24SN 1262 in the Bermuda District is a request to Section 1860 of the Utility ordinance again for connection to the public wastewater system to accommodate a two-lot subdivision in an R15 residential district. The applicant's requesting an exception to the utility ordinance, as I mentioned, for the wastewater connection requirement. Subdivision of a 2.21 acre parcel into two lots, each approximately 48,000 square feet, is proposed.

[05:48:05] The current zoning for the property will permit the subdivision to meet bulk standard requirements set forth in the zoning ordinance. Therefore again, zoning is not under review with this request and the commission does recommend approval. The utilities department does not support the wastewater connection request as again there are no physical conflicts or system capacity limitations which would make the extension unfeasible.

[05:48:29] The board also received an agenda for this case today, providing a revised section of the utilities analysis of the staff report. The additional information provided pertained to cost and extension options. staff is here if you have any questions. Thank you. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing on case 24 SN 1262, Walthall Drive, wastewater exception. Is the applicant present?

[05:48:58] Yes. Good afternoon, Chairman and members of the board. My name is Bryant Gammon. I'm here today to represent the applicant. This case is very similar to what was just presented. This is actually two residential parcels and each one will be about an acre in size.

[05:49:23] there are many other residential parcels that are adjacent to this that also are on septic design. In this case, actually, it's quite a bit further than the other case in terms of the distance to connecting the sanitary sewer. We're about 6,600 feet, so that's quite a bit over a mile, and the cost on that is, I believe, estimated to be $2.6 million. So, obviously, to do that for just two parcels is not feasible. So, with that in mind, we ask the board to make a recommendation for approval on this, please. Thank you. Is there anyone who would like to speak to this case? If so,

[05:49:58] please come forward and state your name. Seeing no one, I'm going to close this public hearing and it's back before the board. This case is in the Bermuda District. Pretty much the exact same reasons. With that, I make the motion to approve case 24 SN1262, subject to the conditions in the staff report. Second. Mr. Chair, there's another point I want to make on this too, and I hate to belittled this, but if I remember correctly, if you're talking about over 3,000 feet for a

[05:50:33] connection, it also requires mandatory flushing every year. Am I right, George? Is that correct? I mean, isn't it one of the things we don't want to do is go that far away? This is wasteful. Yeah. The sewer. Yeah.

[05:50:50] Mr. Chairman, members of the board, to address Mr. Carroll's comment, if we had a line that long and there was only one residential customer on it, it's not mandatory requirement, but we would typically have to go out there and flush the line just because there's only one resident on it and the solids would probably settle out. So there would be additional maintenance on that line. Thank you. Thank you for that question.

[05:51:13] With that, I call the motion or call the question on favor? Aye. Next is 24SN1086, Escobar Sawmill Services, Ms. Gibson.

[05:51:33] Good evening, Mr. Chair, members of the board and Dr. Casey. Case 24, SN1086 in the Bermuda Magisterial District, Escobar Sawmill Services, is a two-part request. Request one is conditional use plan development for exceptions to ordinance requirements relative to setbacks for an existing dwelling in an agricultural district.

[05:51:54] And request two is conditional use to permit the continued operation of a sawmill in an agricultural district. The subject property is 1.64 acres in size and agriculturally zoned. Adjacent properties to the north are zoned residential R7, and to the south, east, and west are also zoned agricultural.

[05:52:15] Request 1 is a request for conditional use plan development for a setback exception for the existing dwelling. The applicant requests a 1-foot exception to the 15-foot required side yard setback to bring the existing dwelling into compliance with zoning ordinance requirements. This is the proposed layout plan.

[05:52:34] This aerial image reflects the locations of the existing dwelling, sawmill, accessory structure, and proposed outdoor storage area for lumber. Staff is unable to recommend approval of request 2. However, should the request be approved, staff and planning commission recommends the conditions listed in the staff report.

[05:52:55] Staff recommends approval of request 1. The setback exception will bring a non-conforming residential structure into compliance with zoning ordinance requirements. On the other hand, as previously stated, staff recommends denial of request 2. However, Planning Commission recommends approval of both Request 1 and Request 2 with the conditions listed in the staff report, and I'm available for any questions.

[05:53:17] Thank you. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing on case 24 SN1086, Escobar Sawmill Services. Is the applicant present? Would you like to make a presentation?

[05:53:42] Good evening. My name is Julio Escobar, and I run a small sub-mill services at Point of Rocks Road, 1300 Point of Rocks. And I'm here to kindly and respectfully ask for permission to continue on running this small business.

[05:54:04] This is my only way of, you know, providing for my family. We have three, four kids. One of them is Down syndrome. And I just ask respectfully to be approved to stay working here.

[05:54:26] Thank you. Does anyone else want to come forward and speak to this case? If so, please come forward and state your name.

[05:54:43] I'm David Sebuah. I live in the neighborhood. We've been in that neighborhood since 1967. And I'm just here in favor of the Escobars. They're wonderful, wonderful people, and they run an excellent business.

[05:54:59] They're part of the recycling program. that is much needed and they had a wonderful diversity to our neighborhood and we love them there and we love their business and so we ask that you would approve them thank you thank you thank you next speaker here at the Bowers we live on

[05:55:31] Porter Rocks Road and we first met Julio we drove by his place and we saw the sawmill going up and we were just excited about him having this business right here in our neighborhood and we've met them they're lovely people and very respectful and i'm sure whatever requirements that they're throwing you know at them to have this business to continue i know he's going to do what he can to have it like he said he's supporting his family

[05:56:08] with this and i know he has three boys that when they come out they got a dad that's out there working he's teaching them how to work which is very important to our community we've lived in e-nonsense 1983 and there's been several businesses that we've watched come up to and in their homes and i remember one man named mr crowder he has crowder transmissions in hopewell where he started in his garage one day my transmission went out in my truck i walked down

[05:56:44] the street talked to him he came down we got the truck back to his house we worked he worked on it for a week. I came home from work one day and was sitting in my driveway. So good things can come from businesses that may start from the house. You never know where they're going to end up. But we support Julio and his family and try to give a good word for them.

[05:57:10] Thank you. Do you want to speak, ma'am? We just love them. We think they're an asset to the community. They're people of faith. We know them pretty well. We go to church together and we just totally support them and hope that you love them.

[05:57:28] Thank you. Next speaker.

[05:57:40] Thank you. My name is Stephen LaVarie. I live in Eman, and I've lived there for about 10 years. But I didn't meet Mr. Escobar until after I had some trees cut down in my yard. And I drove up to his property because someone said that there was a saw mound.

[05:57:57] I can't believe I missed it. I've loved working with wood my whole life. I went to the tech center here behind us, learned woodworking, carpentry skills. Excuse me. So as soon as I heard about him, I went and, you know, greeted him, met him and his family.

[05:58:16] Boys outside playing football, the eldest son helping him do a little bit of rounding up of the, you know, scraps. And when he told me that he would cut one of the cedar trees out of my yard into lumber, the guy I got to take the trees to his house to save him gas, he said, you know, I'll cut that tree for free because I'm not having to haul it this far.

[05:58:40] So I'm saving money on my cost, so I'll hand that down to you. And literally, it seemed like I found an asset that I can go to when I need to get some of the worries of the world out of my head and just start working on wood.

[05:58:56] I mean, it worked for Jesus. It's worked for me. I hope I continue to see him for many more years. Appreciate your time. Thank you. Next speaker. Good evening, members of the board.

[05:59:18] My name is Blandina Escobar. I'm the wife of Julio Escobar, and I'm here just kindly to request approval for this case. As my husband said, it's the only source of income that we have right now. And just for you to understand, this is a really small operation.

[05:59:34] I understand that when the word sawmill comes into the mind, it looks like something pretty big. But this is not the case, at least right now. We hope to grow someday, but there's always a beginning, and that's where we are right now. and pretty much that's it. Thank you. Thank you. Any other speakers? Seeing no other speakers, I'm going to close this public hearing. This is back before the board. I don't think that the applicant needs to come up to rebut anything that was said. This is a very interesting case to

[06:00:12] me. I have to admit, when Ms. Escobar first reached out to me after she had run into many obstacles and roadblocks. I had no intention of passing this case, but I gave her the opportunity, as I tell all businesses and neighborhoods, if you have good neighbors and you're a good neighbor and you can get your neighbors to come out and support your case, then I'll support your case.

[06:00:41] And to my surprise, not only did she get everybody to write letters and uh support she got multiple neighbors at to wait until 9 35 at night to speak for them that says volumes about an applicant bringing a case forward and um i can't believe i'm doing this but um i'm gonna make the motion to approve case 24 sn 1086 subject to conditions in the staff

[06:01:14] report. Second. Any other discussion? Can we get his number? Yeah. All in favor? Aye. Last is 23SN0041 North Halsley. Mr. Ramsey. Good evening, Mr. Chair, members of the board, and Dr. Casey.

[06:01:42] Case 23SN0041 North Halsley's request to rezone from residential townhouse to residential R15, A residential development containing a maximum of 340 single-family dwellings as proposed. The property contains 301.96 acres and a zoned residential townhouse.

[06:02:03] Area properties are zoned a mix of residential and agricultural to the north, south, and east. Properties to the west are zoned for commercial or residential townhouse uses as part of the original Roseland zoning approval. The first image on the left shows the property as being primarily vacant and wooded.

[06:02:20] Adjoining properties to the south are developed with single-family residences or a common area inside the Halsley subdivision. Properties to the west remain largely undeveloped and were zoned with the original Roseland zoning request. Properties to the east are developed with single-family residences or remain vacant with access to Scottwood Road.

[06:02:39] And lastly, an existing rail line borders the property to the north. The second image on the right shows the comprehensive plan land use plan. The land use plan designation for the property is Suburban Residential 1, and this suggests the property is appropriate for residential development at a maximum of two dwelling units per acre. The property was rezoned for residential use in August of 2008 as part of the original Roseland zoning request. However, development of this property and others in the case geography have not occurred. To help facilitate new development opportunities for properties within the original Roseland zoning case, the county and stakeholders developed

[06:03:17] a new zoning overlay for these properties. The property is now located within the Roseland Zoning Overlay District with tract and use maps shown in the current slide. The property is within the Suburban Residential District, one of several use districts outlined in the overlay. The purpose of the Suburban Residential District is to provide for lower density detached single-family dwellings that are comparable to those homes found in the neighboring Halsey community. Permitted uses in the district are limited to single-family detached dwellings, recreational neighborhood facilities primarily serving the surrounding community and accessory dwelling units. Development standards

[06:03:53] apply to each of the development tracks in the district. The property is designated as part of track day and is limited to a maximum of 340 single-family dwelling units. The applicant's conceptual plan is shown in the current slide. The development would include interconnected roadways that connect to the adjoining arterial roadways, those being Old Hundred Road and Bright Walton Road, pedestrian-scale streetscapes with street trees, design requirements for front porches or stoops, sidewalks on both sides of internal streets, the construction of the mainline trail and a linear park component that is internal to the development, and lastly, programmable common

[06:04:33] area with neighborhood recreational uses interspersed throughout the project. The applicant has proffered additional design requirements as part of this request. These architectural and design elements are in addition to those elements already required by the Roseland Zoning Overlay District. Design standards for dwellings include defined styles and forms that are compatible to those found in Halsley, front elevation variation, specified building and roof materials, masonry foundations, and the treatment of garages, porches, stoops, and chimneys, and direct vent fireplaces.

[06:05:05] We'll also note that there's a payment of a utility cash proffer, a cash proffer payment that has also been proffered for each equivalent residential unit. This payment will go towards the public storage public water storage and supply improvements needed for the public water system to address the demands of the overall rosalind development and then lastly amenities have also been proffered with this request a community pool and sheltered area with bathrooms is proposed with phasing requirements and proper conditions prior to the planning commission approval the applicant provided an updated conceptual plan and proper conditions for the proposal to address community

[06:05:43] concerns and working with the district commissioner the applicant proffered a revised location for the neighborhood recreational area, a requirement to minimize tree removal around the wastewater trunk line extension on the property, prohibit specific construction inside the FEMA floodplain, and require drainage certification for each residential lot to address community concerns.

[06:06:05] After the December 18, 2024 Board of Supervisors hearing, the applicant provides staff with three additional updates to the proper conditions. The required road improvements for the property have modified to include an off-site road improvement for a roundabout at old hundred road in bright walton drive the construction plan for the roundabout must be approved before or in conjunction with the initial subdivision section for the development the roundabout must then be completed prior to the issuance of more than 30 building permits for dwellings in the development if the roundabout is constructed the applicant will not be responsible for paying road cash proffers

[06:06:44] the additional off-site road improvements resulted in the applicant deleting proffered condition 4a and this was the road cash proffer payment and replacing it with an option for a cash proffer payment that is then tied to the roundabout improvement if the roundabout cannot be constructed due to the inability of the applicant or the county to obtain necessary off-site right-of-way and or easements the applicant will then be relieved of both the payment of the transportation contribution in this off-site road improvement and would pay the road cash proper payment instead for each dwelling unit. Unless the applicant is successful in acquiring the off-site right-of-way

[06:07:21] and easements for the roundabout, staff anticipates the county will be responsible for the acquisitions. Lastly, the construction phasing for the recreational neighborhood area was modified to commence prior to the issuance of the 100th dwelling unit rather than the 60-second building permit. The planning commission recommends approval of the request. Staff continues to also recommend approval of this case the applicant's request complies with the comprehensive plans land use destination that supports suburban residential uses on the property the proposed residential density of 1.13 dwelling units per acre falls below the plan's maximum residential density of

[06:07:58] two dwelling units per acre the development concept provides an amenitized residential community with vehicular access to old hundred road bright walton road and the extension of stub roads to the south and southwest and the halsey subdivision future connections elsewhere around the perimeter the development in the form of new stub roads have also been provided. In addition, the development's proposed layout will support the plan's guidelines relative to land use transition, compatibility of uses, and integration of roadway and pedestrian facilities with the existing development. The development's traffic impact will be addressed by potentially proffered cash

[06:08:35] payments, a transportation contribution, and associated road improvements. And at this point, I'd be happy to take any questions from the board. Any questions at this time for the board? Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing on case 23 SN0041, North Hawsley.

[06:08:57] Is the applicant present? Would you like to make any comments? Good evening, Mr. Chairman, members of the board.

[06:09:15] Thank you for your time tonight. My name is John Hauserman, the applicant. I was actually going to make a joke. You saved the best for last. But after that last case, it's invalid. So it's been here.

[06:09:34] I've been here all night and quite an evening to see all the great things this county is doing. And I want to thank staff and Dr. Miller and Mr. Petrowski and all those folks involved with this project that we've been working on for quite a long time.

[06:09:50] So with that, I'm here to request a recommendation for approval, and I'm here to answer any questions you may have. Thank you. Is there anybody who'd like to come forward and speak to this case? If so, please come forward and state your name. Please forgive my dress. I usually try to dress more nicely, but it's really cold.

[06:10:16] I'm here on behalf of some neighbors and myself to speak in support of this. Thank you. Sorry, I always get weepy when I talk to you guys. I apologize. I'll talk quickly. This is really forward thinking about the infrastructure, and I'm so grateful for this.

[06:10:32] When I moved down, I received the drawing of North Halsley, and I thought, okay, this is going to make sense, and I've followed it all the way through. It's just the first piece of this overlay and the fact that we're going into it with some things in place to make it easier.

[06:10:48] It's going to be easier for them. It's going to be easier for the people. Presumably, this will be easier because we all seem to care about what it's going to look like and how the customers are going to find it, that we get the power lines that are going to try to run right next to it underground and have this be really positive.

[06:11:07] and I appreciate your willingness to try to move that trunk line. It means a lot of difference to me. I moved into this neighborhood and live in a swamp, my yard in particular, and the fact that you're going to try to limit those trees and keep a big swath for us and a big swath for your customers is huge, and we need it, and we really need it.

[06:11:29] You should see it right now with the snow trying to melt. It also means a ton to me that you put that creek on that map. I think this is the first time I've seen it that way, where it really shows just how big this creek is. I can't express to you the sides of this in some places are, and I showed Dr. Miller, we went together, places that we have houses that are, the creek is encroaching on the houses because the water that passes through there, it's pretty intense.

[06:11:58] So I really, I came to thank you tonight, and I also want to thank you on behalf of the neighbors on the Seville Chase Trail place. I think it makes a lot of sense for a lot of reasons that that waits, but it's going to be right, and that's awesome. Thank you. And I want to thank the Planning Commission, too, because Frank Petrosky, all these guys came out.

[06:12:19] They came out and they looked at these trees, and they looked at the water, and they've worked with us to make this happen. So I want to say that for the record. I also want to thank you, Dr. Miller, more than anything in that, you know, you've got to proffer to help the people that are going to live in that neighborhood.

[06:12:34] but it doesn't help me, but it helps them that they're going to have positive drainage and they're not going to get a COO without it. That means a lot to me, and it holds the builders to account. I don't think it's the developers as much as it is the builders, and that means a great deal. Beyond that, you have made me feel like you see us as neighbors, and I visualize you wanting your yard to be dry and your grandchildren to run and to be proud.

[06:13:01] This is a county of plenty. I know there are a lot of people in need, but we all have a lot of plenty. I'm on the low plenty in Halsley, but there's a lot of plenty in Halsley, and you've got a lot of people who are really grateful to you for what you've done to make this a place people can raise their children, and thank you.

[06:13:20] Thank you. Thank you. Any other speakers? Seeing none, I'm going to close this public hearing, and it's back before the board. I don't believe the applicant needs to respond to that, so Dr. Miller.

[06:13:35] Thank you, Mr. Chair. This feels like, to me, like a great example of us all working together to figure out how to make this work. This is a really good development that is the result of not always loving each other through the process, but knowing that we're all working toward the same goal.

[06:14:07] this is not an easy project or a lot of homes involved. It's a big part of what is going to ultimately lead to Roseland becoming what it can be. And because of that, I mean, frankly, I knew that there would be some sort of a challenging birthing process through this.

[06:14:33] I have said and I will continue to say that I am not against development. What I am for is smart development and making sure that whenever I make a decision, we make a decision as far as development, that we're bringing something or adding something to the community.

[06:14:55] There is this misconception that somehow when we make this decision with regard to development, that somehow we as the board or the county profit from it or whatever it isn't about that at all what it's about is finding ways to support our community these are going to be very nice homes they are it's going to be a primarily the professional but business folks physicians perhaps it feels like this is an opportunity to really bring folks into

[06:15:31] the community to support the community I'm glad we were able to figure out the concept around the roundabout this board if I spoke into my board are in favor of or willing to support if we need to to through a certificate of take and eminent domain to put in that roundabout I appreciate the board and what you all have done to support me through this process and to support this community or support this development I have concerns about ultimately what

[06:16:10] happens with the roundabout on the north side the north is but I think we're going to be able to get there and I know that there is going to be a limit to how many you can build how much a developer can add until we can figure out that second roundabout so it has not been easy but I'm really glad we're there so with that I'm going to go ahead and move to prove case number two three SN zero zero four one subject to the many conditions in the staff report any

[06:16:46] discussion I want to add one other piece before we take this vote I want to appreciate Jeff and your staff for helping us figure out the legalities of all of this given what it is so appreciate you know just to send some appreciation to Rob for the work that he did on this too. Thank you Dr. Miller I also point out that the the proffers that were made most recently were made before the the case was advertised so so the board can't hear it tonight. Thank you. I'll just like to add one thing um first off I know this case took a long

[06:17:21] time and unfortunately sometimes that's just the way the sausage is made and you're not the first one that's gone this long. I know you had some frustration with that but what you did do is you went out which what I recommend to developers you went out to the neighbors and you figured out what kind of issues they were having and how you could help them and they showed up to say we want to support this project because it's not only going to be good for the people that are developing it it's going to be good for the people that live here those make for good cases and i appreciate

[06:17:59] the work with the neighbors as well so thank you for that and with that um we have a proper motion in a second all in favor aye madam clerk item 18 public hearings a to consider amendments to county ordinance regarding control of animals and leash requirements lieutenant colonel shand

[06:18:22] Mr. Chair, members of the board, thank you for listening this evening.

[06:18:43] Several months back, many months back, the police department was tasked with taking a look at chapter four of the county ordinance that relates to certain ordinances that control of animals, and we looked at the entire code. Instead of reading the code for you, I'll summarize some of the recommendations and what we did to take a look at it.

[06:19:04] First and foremost, we partnered with our animal services officers to get their input since they're dealing with the majority of these types of cases out in the community and tasks that their leadership also engage the community and receive input with regards to that.

[06:19:20] We also partner with Parks and Rec to determine their needs and what they are hearing from the patrons of the parks here in the county. Additionally, we examine two years' worth of calls for service that are related to these types of calls. Ultimately, what we are recommending is updating the code, but not in any significant way.

[06:19:40] There are a number of changes that need to be made that are not substantive in nature, but they are to bring the ordinance up to par with what's required based on code changes within the state law. So, reference type things, changes in state organization names, those kind of things.

[06:19:58] And additionally, we are advocating for the, or we recommending that the poultry be added to section 4.2, in addition to livestock to make individuals responsible for keeping their poultry on their property as they're required to do with livestock.

[06:20:15] The remainder of the recommendations are really what we're here to talk about, and those have to do with section 4.3, which is dogs running at large. What we are recommending is updating the code in the following manner. It just builds upon what we already have, and it will give our officers the opportunity to better inform the community, educate them, and when necessary, to enforce the code.

[06:20:40] And the big one is that the code currently refers to immediate control when talking about control of the dog. We worked with the county attorney's office and we are more appropriately defined immediate control as a physical leash directly connecting the dog to the owner or custodian or under the direct control of the owner or custodian, which the dog is clearly obedient to commands and remains in close proximity to that person, recognizing that there are multiple forms other than a physical leash.

[06:21:12] After working with our folks in Parks and Rec, we are going to recommend that a physical leash connecting the dog to the owner or custodian will be required on county-owned properties with the exceptions of those designated dog-run exercise areas. The code or the ordinance will remain a Class 4 misdermeter, but we're recommending that the punishment for the violation of the code be actually listed and not just referred to the state code.

[06:21:41] The exceptions, the only additional exception that we are recommending is that we also, the exception to the code would be included in any private property that also has a designated and posted dog run or exercise area. And like I said earlier, all the other exemptions are no different than they were in the previous case.

[06:22:01] We believe that this gives us a better tool to educate and to enforce if necessary and is responsive to what we saw in an examination of two years' worth of calls for service and the feedback we have gotten. I'm happy to answer any questions.

[06:22:18] Board members, is there any questions at this time? Mr. Chair, I think it's a necessary change. We've had multiple complaints throughout the years of people walking dogs and the dog is not on a leash and it runs up in the neighbor's yard and gets in their flower bed or chases their dog or chases their kid.

[06:22:42] I just think this is a necessary update to the code, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Any other comments? Agreed. As a dog owner, I love people when they're just like, well, oh, it's okay, my dog's fine. No, no, no.

[06:22:57] That has nothing to do with it. Just put your dog on a leash. So I completely agree. Dogs have a certain behavior, and leashes have a lot to do with them sometimes when people can't control them. So I appreciate this, and I appreciate you being here all day. we've seen you all day today so thank you dave i know there most of the uh discussion's been around the dogs on the leash but there's also some language that adds um poultry uh to the language that says that you must keep your livestock on your property um so if you do have uh some chickens

[06:23:36] you're going to need to make sure that according to this code you would need to make sure that they also stay on your property whether you have a fence or not the border the boundary line of your property is a border that you're not allowed to allow your animals to cross so um i think it's important that that be stated as well because i have had to deal with that and deal with the police department trying to rectify that and luckily we had two neighbors that worked it out but this will put it into code.

[06:24:08] So thank you for all of this work. I mean, you bring up a good point, and that is that years ago, the county didn't allow people to have chickens, especially in neighborhoods. They weren't allowed chickens. Now they're allowed to have up to six chickens. I think that's the number. Well, except in the country, you have all the roosters you want, if you really want them.

[06:24:28] But nevertheless, we never changed our code to that when there was an ordinance change allowing for chickens, which I'm all in favor of, by the way, We never change the code in any restriction whatsoever with that I want to open this up to a public hearing if anybody like to speak to this they can come forward and state their name Good evening. My name is Renee Eldred

[06:25:07] This will affect a lot of people I'm not a dog owner or a chicken owner But there's a lot of them in my neighborhood and it will affect a lot of people and there's nobody here to speak so I I would kind of ask if we can do, at least on Facebook, some kind of public service announcement that, you know, this is now what you're supposed to do with your animals, because I know in my neighborhood, they don't exactly keep them on their property, and especially, you

[06:25:43] know, we have Bensley Park up there, and I've seen dogs run through there all the time, So I wish more people would get into speaking, taking part in what goes on in their community.

[06:25:58] I try, but they don't listen. So if we could at least do some type of, some kind of public service announcement just to say, hey, this is what has to be done now. Thanks. Thank you. Any other speakers?

[06:26:15] Seeing none, I'm going to close this public hearing. And would like to also make a statement with that before we make a motion. um the putting this in place is to help inform our citizens not to try to go and uh try to smack people down with a uh hey your dog's doing the wrong thing you're in violation we're coming after you to send you to court to get a fine it's going to be a period of time where animal control can use it to advise people um as to what the rules are unless there's an egregious offense

[06:26:55] but then it gives them a better opportunity and a more egregious offense to be able to use the enforcement method. But it's really to help our citizens and to inform them. So I think your request to put that out on social media and to share that is good because it will help our law enforcement not have to answer as many questions and deal with as many people.

[06:27:21] So that's a great idea. With that, can I get a motion? I mean, we're not in the business of gotcha. What we're in the business of is, frankly, just what is common sense and for public safety. And that's what this is about here. Mr. Chair, we actually have media in the back of the room.

[06:27:41] So there's actually being coverage of this that they will push out and get and help get that message to the community. Thank you for your help. Thank you for being here tonight. Can get a motion. So moved. Second. All in favor. Aye. Madam Chair.

[06:27:59] Madam Clerk. To consider claim of Susan Belanca for surplus tax sale funds, Mr. Minks. Mr. Chairman, members of the board, this is actually the second time that you've seen this particular claim. The first time you authorized a release after this was a tax sale and these were the surplus funds.

[06:28:20] And by law, after a certain time, the court no longer has custody of those funds. They come to the county, but the owner of the property can petition to have those excess funds returned back to them. You've actually returned $84,000 back to this particular owner.

[06:28:38] However, there was a lien on the property to the tune of the amount that actually is being requested today. And so we withheld that money from the distribution to get the lien cleared up. That's been cleared up, so this would be the remainder of the distribution, and it's in the amount of $3536.51, $3,536.51, and we're recommending approval, but it is a public hearing.

[06:29:09] Do any board members have any questions for Mr. Minx? Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing to consider the claim of Susan Vilanca for surplus tax sales funds. Is there anyone who'd like to speak to this issue?

[06:29:25] If so, please come forward and state your name. Seeing no one, I'm going to close this public hearing. It's back before the board. Do I have a motion? So moved. Do I have a second? Second.

[06:29:41] Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. C, to consider conveyance of an underground overhead easement to Virginia Electric and Power Company at Point of Rocks Park. Ms. Snow. Mr. Chairman, members of the board, Dr. Casey, this is a public hearing to consider the conveyance of a 30 by 30 underground overhead easement to Virginia Electric and Power Company at Point of Rocks Park.

[06:30:12] Easement is needed as part of Dominion's strategic underground program. The request has been reviewed by staff, and approval is recommended after the public hearing. Board members, are there any questions for staff? Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing to consider the conveyance of an underground overhead easement to Virginia Electric and Power Company at the Point of Rocks Park.

[06:30:37] Is there anyone who'd like to speak to this issue? If so, please come forward and state your name. Seeing no one, this public hearing is closed. It's back before the board. Is there any other discussion? Can I get a motion? So moved.

[06:30:52] Second. All in favor? Aye. Item 19, 15-minute citizen comment period on unscheduled matters. We have no speakers. Mr. Chair, we need a motion to adjourn to the regularly scheduled Board of Supervisors meeting on February 26, 2025 at 2 p.m. in room 502 of the county administration building.

[06:31:15] Just before we... I'll take the motion, that's fine. Do I have a second? Just before we close, is there any other comments that any board members like to make? No. Okay. All in favor? Aye. We're adjourned.

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