Coraggio Consulting
Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors Meeting - April 23, 2025, Wednesday, April 23, 2025

Date: Wednesday, April 23, 2025
Place: Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors, Virginia
Length: 4h 41m (video)
Official meeting video (CivicClerk): https://chesterfieldcova.portal.civicclerk.com/event/1230/media
Official agenda (CivicClerk): https://chesterfieldcova.api.civicclerk.com/v1/Meetings/GetMeetingFileStream(fileId=2148,plainText=false)
Official minutes (CivicClerk): https://chesterfieldcova.api.civicclerk.com/v1/Meetings/GetMeetingFileStream(fileId=2179,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 2026-10-24. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:02:37] Good afternoon and welcome to the afternoon session of the April 23rd Board of Supervisors meeting. Madam Clerk. Mr. Chair, the first item on the agenda is approval of minutes for the April 9th meeting. Can I get a motion? So moved. Second. All in favor?

[00:02:53] Aye. Item 2, request to postpone agenda items and additions, deletions, or changes in the order of presentation. Staff has no requests. Item 3, Everyday Excellence, Dr. Casey. Good afternoon, members of the board, the public that's here and the public that is watching.

[00:03:11] As we start every board meeting, it's just to recognize and appreciate those that are on our front lines, providing everyday excellent service to our citizens, and today is no different. If I could have a police chief, Colonel Carpenter, come on up with clinical services assistant director, Doug Bilsky.

[00:03:27] I was looking for him. Is he? Oh, yeah, I looked right over you. Sorry about that, Doug. But again, in recent years, it goes without saying that Chesterfield tries to be a leader in providing both compassionate and effective responses to individuals with those that are experiencing a mental health concern.

[00:03:46] This team, that's a combined effort of both of their departments and the expertise within their departments, is really just a partnership that others are starting to emulate today. But I'll defer to them in talking about the SPRINT team itself. Good afternoon. Mr. Chairman, members of the board, Dr. Casey, and assembled guests.

[00:04:11] My name is Doug Bilsky, and I'm the Assistant Director for Clinical Services at Mental Health Support Services. I want to thank you for the opportunity this afternoon to take just a few minutes of time to share some accolades in support of an Everyday Excellence Award. Along with Chief of Police Colonel Carpenter, I'm here to recognize the significant contributions of a relatively new interdepartmental team called SPRINT.

[00:04:35] Specifically, the extraordinary work done by Catherine Kerr, MHSS Crisis Services Supervisor, and Officer Tim Morton of Community Engagement, who are here with us today as well. Sprint was born out of community need, right about the same time that our community was working together to implement the Marcus Alert co-responder protocols.

[00:05:02] MHSS and PD also have a very long history of active and effective collaboration, stemming out of the shared work we do with crisis service evaluations on a daily basis and due to the power of our long-standing and well-supported CIT training program.

[00:05:20] SPRINT is yet another evolution of this partnership, this time with increased presence and involvement from many other county departments. SPRINT stands for Strategic Planning Regarding Individuals in Need or Transition. The SPRINT team is comprised of decision-makers from the following county departments.

[00:05:39] Police, co-response team, community engagement, school resource officers, mental health, co-response, crisis, children's services, substance use team, fire and EMS, mobile integrated health, Department of Social Services, folks from APS and CPS, sheriff's department, county workforce safety and security, building inspections and others as needed.

[00:06:05] The idea of SPRINT is this. The team gets together two times each month to work through a caseload of referrals and ongoing contacts. Need is explored, and then teammates come up with an action plan and next steps that usually require direct contact and intervention with the person in need by the department with the most connection and information on hand.

[00:06:27] They use a flexible approach to meeting residents where they are and assisting with unmet needs. Sprint began meeting just over a year ago, and to date has responded to over 100 cases. They average about 10 to 15 active cases on their agenda each week.

[00:06:44] Today, I'd like to share with you a letter that we received from a Chesterfield resident that was recently assisted by Sprint. Sprint team members Kat Kerr from CSB Crisis and Officer Tim Morton from Community Engagement went to see an elderly person in the community who was struggling financially and was sending very frequent emails to the police department about her situation.

[00:07:07] She was sending dozens, dozens of letters to the police department, detailing interbank transfers, other types of financial information. She was stating in the letters that somebody should have a record of these particular transactions and concerns were growing about paranoid or delusional thinking.

[00:07:26] Police felt that she may not have any supports and their attempts to contact her were not well received or returned. The case was referred to Sprint with the hope that a multidisciplinary approach to contacting the resident might be better received. That was how she came to our attention.

[00:07:42] She had not been out of her mobile home or willing to interact with others in the community, and staff were growing in their concern about her physical and mental health. At Sprint, the situation was discussed, and the many departments around the table contributed ideas and information about past services, needs, or referrals that they may have had.

[00:08:00] The team determined that PD community engagement and crisis clinician would be the best approach. So crisis supervisor Kat and Officer Morton agreed to stop by and check in on the resident several times. This resident was not easy to engage.

[00:08:17] The resident would never let them in her home. But with patience and persistence from Kat and Officer Morton, she eventually would talk through the door and then even opened up a window and talked through there. On this date, she told the staff that she had all kinds of groceries and was doing better.

[00:08:35] And for the first time, she left them this kind note. Dear Cat, it was a joy to meet you. You are a beautiful little spirit. You brought comfort and happiness to my heart. Thank you for talking to me and asking if I was all right. I feel like I have another beautiful sister.

[00:08:53] I would like you to know you are correct. I did call the police recently, but I hung up. and today you were making sure that everything was okay and that I was okay. Thank you. Thank you for checking up on me. You make this world a more beautiful place with the kindness you extend and the work you do to help others. Thank you for being who you are. Kindest regards, Mary Ann, not her real name. We're making progress with Mary Ann, but building trust and relationships takes time. Mary Ann has agreed to have a cup of tea with Kat and Tim the next time they come out

[00:09:28] to visit maybe in the next week or so. Our goal is to establish enough trust with Marianne to be able to give her resources for seniors that could help her get out of the house a little more, help her feel safe and cared about. Due to the kindness and persistence of both Kat and Officer Morton, I would say we're well on our way. This is just one example of the fine work and community impact that the new Sprint team is having here in Chesterfield County. I want to thank you all for the time this afternoon and for joining me and Chief Carpenter in the recognition of Catherine

[00:10:00] Kerr and Officer Tim Morton with an Everyday Excellence Award. Wow, that's hard to follow, right? I will say this, you know, it's just a testimony to the relationship and partnerships we have here at Chesterfield County. When I think about, you know, some of the challenges we see around the country, we have something unique and special here in Chesterfield and it's really about

[00:10:36] the teamwork. Everybody comes together and works and collaborates to ensure that our community receives excellence. So thank you for sharing the story and thank you guys for continuing to support all the services here in Chesterfield County. Item four, work sessions. A, planning commission

[00:11:13] update, Mr. Petroski and Mr. Gillies. Good afternoon board, Chair Engel and Vice Chair Miller, the rest of the board of supervisors, Dr. Casey, and I'll acknowledge Jeff Minx too, since you're here with us. I know you're as valuable to this body as Rob Robinson is to our planning commission, so I want to include you. We're going to kick off our presentation with Director Gillies starting off, and then I'll close us out. Thank you, Frank. It's good to be

[00:11:52] back. We had a very busy and productive 2024. During that period of time, we were able to do six zoning amendments. We did 82 zoning cases of which 79 of them were recommended for approval and had some sort of approval process and then three that were with denial. We had 26 deferrals, two substantial court cases, and we

[00:12:29] had two site plan reviews that were attested. So it was a pretty busy year for us from that perspective. We do, as you can see on the screen here, we went paperless and went totally digital for our annual report this year. We were finding that we really weren't passing those out very much if we printed a lot of them. And so we've gone to a full digital format for that. Hopefully that was usable for you all. You can click on that and pull it up and have that report before you. It is on our webpage if you want to go back

[00:13:07] later and see it. It'll be there all year. In addition to those things that we did, we have two ongoing comprehensive plan projects going on. They're both corridor plans that we're doing. One is the Route 60 plan, basically, that we're doing, which is about a four-mile section It's both in the Midlothian District and in the Clover Hill District.

[00:13:36] That Eastern 60 corridor plan, we've started some of the shareholder meetings and so forth and developed some basic concepts for that. We've put a bit of a pause on that until we can kind of get through the ZOMOD and comprehensive plan updates and the subdivision ordinance things we need to get done this summer and early fall.

[00:13:59] and then we'll kind of kick it into high gear for the Eastern 60 corridor plan for the rest of 25. The Northern Route 10 corridor plan, we're currently working through.

[00:14:15] We're having a work session before the Planning Commission in May and then bringing it for a public hearing in June. So you'll be probably hearing that back in July of this year. you'll be seeing the the final product for that northern route 10 project that's about a three and a half mile section between um route 10 i mean from from uh 150 all the way up to 288 that kind of section of of route 10 that needs needs some work um in addition to that we in 2024 we got a

[00:14:52] NACO award for our Ridgedale special small I mean the special focus area plan that we did you remember that it's in the Dale district and I think was a really good plan that's showing kind of a mixed-use development and one of the quarters there and then some residential on the other sides and so forth AND OBVIOUSLY THE NACO AWARDS COMMITTEE THOUGHT IT WAS WORTHWHILE RECOMMENDING AND GIVING US AN AWARD FOR.

[00:15:25] OF THE THREE SPECIAL FOCUS AREA PLANS WE'VE DONE THUS FAR, WE'VE WON TWO AWARDS. ONE WAS A STATE AWARD THROUGH THE APA FOR THE ROCKWOOD SPECIAL FOCUS AREA PLAN. AND THEN THIS ONE WE'VE GOT FOR THE RIDGEDALE PLAN.

[00:15:41] SO I THINK WE'RE ON A HOT STREAK, I GUESS, FOR GETTING GOOD SMALLER PLANS PUT TOGETHER. And the two corridor plans will be our first attempt to try to do longer, kind of linear studies for Chesterfield County.

[00:15:59] In addition to that, let's see, this thing's just not working too well. Thanks to the General Assembly and DEQ, we were mandated to take care of some amendments to the zoning ordinance regarding environmental engineering or environmental issues as well as some procedural things. So unfortunately these were needed to be done in 2024. We couldn't wait and kind of just fold them into future ZOMOD. They had to be done during 24. So we moved forward with these six amendments and got them through. I'm

[00:16:38] not going to go through the explanation of all those, but they did take some time an effort to get those folded into the current zoning ordinance and then as you all know we are in the thick of it for ZOMOD in 2024 staff and the planning commission really rolled up their sleeves and and really got into digging into draft two of ZOMOD and really going through it section by section, trying to make sure we've got things right and the way everybody thought we should lay it out.

[00:17:16] There were quite a few changes between draft one and draft two. Draft two is really the one we spent a lot of time on. For example, the planning commission, we had eight work sessions during 24 and was about 27-plus hours that went into those work sessions going through, not page by page, but at least section by section on the ZOMOD Draft II, and I think came up with a good final product.

[00:17:44] We did the same thing with the ZOMOD Advisory Committee, having seven meetings with them and at least 13 hours of meeting time with them and looking at their comments and so forth. And then at the suggestion of you all, we included, you know, the Committee for the Future as part of our kind of shareholder group for the ZOMOD project.

[00:18:07] And we had nine meetings with them and over 18 hours of dialogue with them on ZOMOD. So I think, and that doesn't count the thousands of hours of staff time that we spent looking at comments that came in on our portal, our specific portal for ZOMOD, as well as meeting with special interest groups and so forth as to what revisions and editing was necessary for ZOMOD.

[00:18:31] So all that was kind of completed by November of 24, and then we kind of closed the door and huddled and started editing and making draft three. And so in all of winter of 24 and early part of 25, we were creating draft three.

[00:18:50] And then in March of this year, we released draft three. And draft three is what we're taking out to the general public and reviewing in all the community meetings. We have it out online on our web page and are really working on what changes we need to do from draft three to hopefully the final draft or draft four.

[00:19:15] of ZOMOD. Currently we're in the midst of the community meetings. We've had some really productive sessions. We've done five so far. We've got one more in Bermuda next week and we had a great turnout last night at the Midlothian one with I think over 50 people showing up and a lot of good questions and conversations with that. I think overall the sentiment's been pretty positive with what ZOMOD has in it and the concepts we're trying to include with that new document.

[00:19:48] And we feel pretty good moving forward with that. We had, because of the number of postcards and so forth that we're eventually going to have to send out for the public hearing, the Planning Commission last month went ahead and set the public hearing date for ZOMOD for July 15th for the Planning Commission.

[00:20:09] And if all goes well with that, you all may see it at a public hearing for the September board meeting. So we're still on kind of the schedule that we had talked about a year or two ago or for the last year or so as to kind of the schedule for trying to get ZOMAD across the goal line in fall of 2025.

[00:20:32] And then just to kind of remind you all, you know, once that, God willing, gets approved, then we would have the rest of the fall and the winter to train up staff and make sure we have kind of everything in place from a technical standpoint.

[00:20:54] The actual enactment of the ordinance would be at your pleasure, but we would assume it would be probably January of 2026 or possibly February if you feel there needs to be extra time or so forth. But that will be part of what we bring up to you in the public hearing in September or October for the final stretch of this.

[00:21:15] And once it's adopted, then starting in 2026 is when we would really start working on the future use of that document. With that, I'm going to stop talking and let Frank kind of go over some of the activity we've had for the last year.

[00:21:37] Thank you, Dr. Gillies. And now that we're halfway through our presentation, I should probably take a moment to introduce myself to those who are watching. My name's Frank Petrosky. I'm the commissioner for the Midlothian District and this year's chair. And my vice chair, Gibbs Sloan, could not be here this evening, but he's been a great partner for the last two years as we've been chair and vice chair.

[00:21:57] So Director Gillies is filling in for Gibbs Sloan, doing me the favor. And I do want to touch on the ZOMOD one note. All of those 24 meetings and countless hours, that was just 2024. That was the fifth year of working on ZOMOD.

[00:22:15] So I just want to draw attention to that. As we're in our sixth year on ZOMOD, I do echo Director Gilley's comments that while it may not be perfect after six years, I'm hoping it's good enough and that we will pass it and forever make amendments to it because it is a living document.

[00:22:34] So I just want to stress those numbers were just one of the past five years of staff's time on this and everybody's time on this and the countless outreach for ZOMOD. Getting into the zoning level, this slide's important, I think, because it's hard to know what goes into a zoning case if people from the outside just see it comes to your board and you have a presentation, you vote and you move on.

[00:23:03] It seems it can, the perception can be that you're just hearing the case and okay, good, we're moving on. But the reality is the sausage making that goes into that for usually years before it comes before this body. And even before this slide, I will say the 302 zoning opinions, those are formal requests that are made to staff.

[00:23:25] And every department in the county will sit down and go over their request before they even submit their application. But before those zoning opinions, as planning commissioner, I can't, it's countless how many times people will just reach out to me, hey, I own this piece of land, I'm thinking about doing this.

[00:23:43] We had a few just this week that were informal inquiries about what they might be able to do with land, which doesn't even count into the zoning opinions. So really, that 302 down to 160, down to 103, that is also just scratching the surface of the number of zoning, I guess, requests, if you will, that do get filtered out through the process.

[00:24:08] And then, so in 2024, the Board of Supervisors, well, our Planning Commission have recommended approval, and this Board of Supervisors approved 79 cases of those 300-plus that we worked on last year.

[00:24:24] and 19 residential, 46 non-residential, two-second dwelling, or two-family dwelling, and then amendments to previously approved cases. Oftentimes they're approved so long ago that they need to come back through and just be somewhat modernized to meet the needs of today.

[00:24:43] Here's the breakdown by type, and I know it's also somewhat alarming to people to see, wow, half of them were multifamily and only 28% single-family, 22 townhomes. And I do like to point out that we for Chesterfield County for about a century was almost exclusively single family.

[00:25:07] So this is us really playing catch up to finding that balance because any healthy community is going to have to be a balanced community. So while in 2024, the numbers are obviously skewed, you can see that. But if you look holistically at the county, we have been lacking in alternative housing types that are not just your traditional single family, condos, townhomes, apartments, those types of guys.

[00:25:33] So if we really want to have a diverse community, then we're going to need to have a diverse housing stock. So this is Chesterfield, again, trying to find that healthy balance for a healthy community. And then this is the breakdown of the non-residential types.

[00:25:49] It's often modifying development standards, some commercial uses, businesses at the home, RVs, special events, solars, solar farms. A lot of this, not all of it, but much of this, because these have to come through as zoning cases, 46 of them, ZOMOT is looking to fix a lot of this.

[00:26:09] because these are coming through asking for exceptions or special uses that the planning commission, the board, the staff, even the community think these are good uses, but because they don't fit into our outdated zoning ordinance, they do have to come through this process. So we're hoping that ZOMOD will greatly reduce this number because these numbers that we're showing today have been pretty consistent. I'm in my sixth year and all of these numbers, you know, give or take. They're pretty close to what they are every year. But we're hoping when ZOMOD passes that a lot of these numbers are going to decrease because we're not kind of fighting against our own

[00:26:48] outdated ordinance. And then here's a breakdown by Magisterial District. Again, that's a pretty healthy split. And even if you look at those scattered dots, it's a pretty healthy spread across the county. So there's revitalization going on. There's housing, there's businesses.

[00:27:07] We as a holistic county, you can see there, staff is doing a really good job of not spending all of our attention on just the one area that might be hot. They're making sure that every corridor is receiving comprehensive planning and proper zoning attention.

[00:27:27] So we're really trying to make sure that the county thrives as a whole and every magisterial district is working together. With that, so we had 12 once-a-month public hearing work sessions. We had 70 zoning case community meetings, and those are, again, once it has the zoning opinion and then the staff review and then it comes, before it comes at a planning commission, most cases we hold one, two, sometimes three community meetings.

[00:27:59] And that is an informal meeting that does not take place here or in the public hearing room. and that is just an opportunity for the applicants to get out there in the community, usually at a school or a church or some kind of community center, or these days, even virtually, Teams, Zoom, whatever we feel will be most convenient for those we want to be engaging with on these meetings.

[00:28:21] So come out and learn about the project early on, to try to help us put in the proper conditions and make sure that the case is being worked even before it gets to the formal public hearing. And then the community meetings on comprehensive plan and ordinance amendments, again, that's just the bookends.

[00:28:39] Where do we want the county to be in decades, and then what are the rules of the road to get it there so that the zoning cases have that guidance of where we want to be as a county. And then just looking ahead in 2025, we really are hoping to tie a bow around ZOMOD. Would love to spend my first six years on the commission on ZOMOD, and then maybe the last two on something non-ZOMOD.

[00:29:01] That'd be great. And most of what you see here, aside from the special area plans, the Eastern 60 corridor, the Route 10 corridor, and the Western 60, those are the plans that we're going to continue to work on. But the others are really just bringing the comprehensive plan and the rest of the ordinance, the subdivision ordinance, in line with ZOMOT.

[00:29:21] So we're now going to have our new rules. Well, now let's make sure that the comprehensive plan is guiding development to follow those rules. And again, it's a living document. It's just, we are forever going to be modifying the ordinance and the comprehensive plan and just making sure that these documents are living and growing as Chesterfield County is living and growing.

[00:29:42] So with that, I do want to, again, thank the Board of Supervisors for all your support. Just, I really, not just Supervisor Miller, obviously my, the person who had the confidence in appointing me and supporting me, but all five of the board members, I really cannot thank you enough.

[00:29:57] Every single one of you has been supportive my entire time here, really looking out for our commission, taking care of us, and then we get the support from the other side. Staff has been fantastic. Director Gillies' team, it just keeps getting better and better, and I thoroughly enjoy working with staff. They are professionals. They are passionate about what they do, and my fellow planning commissioners.

[00:30:21] It's just a great team to work with, and I've enjoyed every minute of this job, so thank you. I'll open it up to questions. Board members, any questions or comments? Frank, thank you very much for all the hard work that you do. We know that a lot of people in the community know what the Planning Commission is, but they don't necessarily know all of the additional things that a Planning Commission is required to do. I'll ask if we could go back a couple of slides to the number 46 that you had right there. So non-residential by type. One of the things that

[00:30:58] you said was that once we fix ZOMOD, that we probably wouldn't have as many of these cases. But I want to clarify something because there's a perception to believe that we're trying to change the code so that someone would not have to go through a zoning case, right? But the truth of the matter is, for example, if there's an agricultural piece of land and someone brings forward a zoning case for one of these things you're talking about, well, they're still going to have to go through a case to get there to get it zoned right they're still going to have to go

[00:31:35] through it zoma it's not going to go okay we're going to take this piece of property and we're going to change it to this right yes so as always it's it's complex so you're what you just described is a hundred percent accurate a lot of these cases are not true rezonings they're really just conditional use like the rv is a great example because we just had two of those recently where somebody wants to park the RV on the side of their house rather than behind their house and currently they come through and we say well you have to screen it and you have to do this you have to prove it can't be in the back those types of conditional uses the plan would be as long as

[00:32:14] they're doing all of those things then they don't have to spend all the money and months of time to come through and get a conditional use or a zoning case just to park their RV on the side of their house. So there's a variety of reasons why they would come through. And your example absolutely will remain a zoning action. Right. And I want people to understand that because some people think that we're trying to make it so that, well, you know, you don't have to go through any zoning cases, right? Because we're going to designate all the parcels and say, well, this parcel is already designated for this, so you can just do it. And that's not what ZOMOD is. And then once we're done with ZOMOD, then we're going to have to go back and look at the comprehensive plan,

[00:32:53] as you said, and look at those parcels throughout the county and take what we've put together as an ordinance and said, okay, these are the types of uses now that we feel are good to grow our community in the future. And then we'll look at a parcel land and say, okay, in this card, let's use a 360 card or western part of Hull Street and say, this is what everything currently is proposed to be zoned for if applied through the comprehensive plan. Do we still think that these uses that are proposed in the comprehensive plan in Section 10 are the appropriate uses that

[00:33:32] we want to allow for in the future. And if we decide to change that, for example, if there's a parcel land alongside the southern section of Hull Street that's currently zoned or proposed to be zoned, it's agricultural, but it could be used for suburban residential too, we may turn around and say, well, we actually looking at that now don't want it to be suburban residential too. We want it actually to be a business zone, right? So because we want to have more businesses along that section of Hull Street, and we may have water and sewer to be able to do it in that section.

[00:34:06] So homes along Hull Street in that section may not be the best use. And then, so when we look at that, we go, okay, if we're not going to put homes, then what commercial uses are available? And that's when you go to ZOMOD and you look at it and go, okay, this is the host of commercial opportunities we have this is what we should propose and then it'll come out to the community for the community to have input on all that and what i and what i articulating is that kind of correct where we're going yes absolutely and it's clear that like me since you started serving in 2020 you've been

[00:34:41] paying attention to this because that's exactly the direction we're heading and and you're clearly engaged and and trying to understand it and you are understanding it and and that's what we're trying to articulate. And I appreciate having you've done, because it's a big lift, believe it or not, to get this out to the community, to get them to understand it. Because when people drive around and they see our community growing, and it has been growing, they look at it and go, oh, it's terrible. Look at all this growth. Well, a lot of the things coming out of the ground we know were approved years ago, and we know some of those things that we have approved too. Based on what

[00:35:17] was in what's been applied, almost every case is conditional use that comes before us, almost everyone. And the reason every case is conditional use is because our ordinance is outdated, way outdated. And so that's things that are being proposed in modern building developments don't fit what our ordinance has. But that doesn't mean that some of the things that we currently have shouldn't exist or some of the things we used to have. For example, One of the things we're putting back in ZOMOD is R7, which was taken out years ago.

[00:35:58] Deer Run, as an example, was an R7 neighborhood where you had quarter-acre lots with beautiful houses. They were not big, 1,400, 1,500, 1,600 square feet. But we went away from building that type of development in the county years ago. And we're not saying that we're going to absolutely do that. But what we're saying is it could be an opportunity in the future if a developer decided to do that.

[00:36:18] And so we're trying to put together a host of ways that a proposal would come before the community to be considered for modern growth. I think hopefully that's what we're trying to get in the message to the community.

[00:36:37] This isn't about what some people think for us to be able to rubber stamp every zoning case that comes through or make it easier for everybody to get a zoning case through. However, what people don't understand is when you talk about affordability, which is a relative term, the more time it takes for something to go through the process, the more money has to be spent to get it there by the developer, by the builder, and that cost, they don't just eat it, they pass it along to the customer, which means the cost of every lot and everything that's being built goes up because of engineering fees,

[00:37:13] because of fees that they have to pay to us, water and sewer connection fees, proffers, attorney's fees, a lot of those, right? So all of that gets passed along to the customer. And we're not trying to make it easier, but we're trying to not make it as difficult as it is either because it's part of, if you can go to another jurisdiction, I'm not going to pick one, but if you can go to another jurisdiction in Virginia and you don't have to go through as much red tape as we've created, then it'll cost less to build the house over there than it's costing here strictly because of built-in costs that we've put in as a government and all we're

[00:37:51] trying to do is is is make sure that when our future our community grows in the future we have a great list of products that could be available for the community it's incredibly well said and if i may use an analogy because my day job is not land development itself mine neither yeah and i I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

[00:38:15] Spot on. So, you know, I'll attempt, you made me think of an analogy between ZOMOD and AI. I'll go there. So ZOMOD, much like AI, it's not designed to remove the human from the process.

[00:38:30] This isn't going to be like, oh, now ZOMOD's going to do it all. We don't need these bodies anymore. Absolutely not. ZOMOD, whether it's AI, it's there to augment us, to make our jobs easier, and to empower us to have stronger tools to do more with our time, more productive use of our time, and do much better things than we could before we had those tools.

[00:38:52] So ZOMOT is a tool to empower this body. It's not a tool to replace this body by any means. So kind of, Frank, walk me through it a little bit. AI or this?

[00:39:08] Both. So if you have farm animals, somebody wants farm animals on their property, What would typically occur is there'd be some sort of a conditional use permit, and then once that occurs, we would talk about it, identify it, and then make a decision, yay or nay, as to whether they can bring farm animals onto a property.

[00:39:26] How is it going to be applied under ZOMOD now? So, and I will, if the articulars want to say that, but the farm animals example that's up there, that I don't think is changing in ZOMOD. You're still going to have your agricultural land, and you're going to have your residential land.

[00:39:43] And if you want to have a farm animal in a residential district, you are still going to, to Supervisor Carol's point, you're going to come through the exact same process. You're going to have to ask for that permission because, correct, except for the six chickens, no roosters. So this won't change that specific use.

[00:40:02] Agriculture will still be agricultural. Residential will still be residential when it comes to farm animals. Through this, because you mentioned, all right, there's 46 non-residential cases that some of them we wouldn't need to even deal with. So let's choose another one, solar. How would it be different under ZOMOD when it comes to solar?

[00:40:21] We're not really changing. The large-scale solar facility, it still will be a conditional use process that has to go through agriculture. And so that one, really, you'll still see those type of larger-scale projects or facilities will still have to go through a case-by-case conditional use application process.

[00:40:44] So that one's not going to get eliminated from the list of cases that you'll be hearing. We felt years ago when we started doing the large-scale solar facilities that it was appropriate to do in the agricultural areas and not necessarily in our more valuable industrial zone property, but that we still needed an ability to review them on a case-by-case basis, and the use of the conditional use tool was the best way to do that.

[00:41:21] Picking one of the examples at the left end that has eight modified development standards, which are a lot of them, our standards are outdated. So under ZOMOD, there will be less of a need to ask for an exception to a standard because the standards are going to be more in line with what we actually want to see on the ground.

[00:41:40] And I'll say to that point, even for the past several years, when we see a case, you'll often see exceptions in there because we're actually trying to mold it to match what we think ZOMOD will be because that's what we want the future of Chesterville to be. So those types, those eight examples won't all go away, but they'll be reduced because the standards are built in rather than being an exception.

[00:42:02] So it's kind of like a dog to a bone for a moment. So explain to me like business from the home. How is that going to be different in ZOMOD? We still have a list of acceptable businesses from the home.

[00:42:18] What we were trying to do within ZOMOD was try to eliminate some of the conflicts with neighbors in reference to, say, the number of trucks or trailers that maybe were involved with a particular site. But for the idea where a music teacher or somebody, a tax accountant, somebody that was still trying to work out of the house, would still be available by right as long as they were meeting certain restrictions they could still go forward with those type of uses I think one of the better examples of things that will go away it would be in the past we've

[00:42:56] never had a mixed-use zoning district before and the idea within some of our corridors where we've got a some older shopping centers and so forth the idea converting half of those into some sort of living conditions residential development having some size down retail and maybe some use of office all in the same parcel was not an option we could do without doing a complicated CPD and now we're going to have an example have a new tool in that toolbox of MU mixed

[00:43:31] use that we could do. And as long as they're following the requirements and standards that we have built into ZOMOD for mixed use, that should be a much simpler and quicker process for them to go through a zoning. They'll still have to do the zoning case, but it won't take a year and a half to kind of do it all.

[00:43:56] And so those type of things might be a more simpler exercise for both the developer and for the staff, definitely, and for the planning commission and the board to kind of review and approve. So I know when Jim and I did our review with staff and our two-by-twos, we had talked about those ones that they get a two-year approval and they have to come back again.

[00:44:27] And so one of the ways that we talked about possibly reducing the burden on us and having them go through the whole process again is to maybe have the BZA handle their renewals instead of, you know. So I think that's something that might take some of those numbers out of there also, having to do renewals and, you know, continuing a permit and checking in on people.

[00:44:50] But if they get a special use permit for like a daycare center and they have to come back in two years or things like that. So I think that applies a lot to some of these uses. Like even with your sawmill, I mean, that's another one.

[00:45:07] I mean, if the community continues to support it, then, you know, that should be automatically renewed, like maybe with the BZA, just a meeting with them or something. Is that something that's currently in the new ZOMAT, what Jessica is describing? That's an item we're still working through.

[00:45:24] I think in Ms. Schneider's specific example that they come through zoning, they get their approval but there's a sunset clause on there that maybe the subsequent approval can be bza as long as the initial one still goes through the full planning commission and board process so we're we're working on kind of a hybrid to get some of it to the bza but we also don't want to risk putting too much to the bza because quite frankly that's not as public of a process so we do want to make sure that we're still using our bodies to to vet the initial request so whatever we're going to be signing off in september or october whenever it gets signed off that element

[00:46:03] will be in zoma right now that's the plan but we're still taking it out to the community i mean we're still having our community meetings and there's there's a few items like that that even staff and the planning commission we're still talking through those because we've we've debated some others um also going to the bza like some of the types of home businesses but we're we're going to be very conservative there. We're only going to move to the BZA, the cases that we're confident will still get the proper attention that is needed and try to keep, you know,

[00:46:41] not that I want to put work on staff for you, but a lot of those I feel need to stay with us because they need to stay as publicly available as possible. All right. A couple of things. If citizens were to say that there's no citizens on the ZOMOD committee based on what you said first, off the the group that's putting that's working on this the working group it does have some at least one citizen that i know of that is not a realtor or a developer or anything of that nature

[00:47:17] so we do have people representing the community on that as well as the committee on the future which is 100 represented by well there may be somebody on that committee that has some tie to something but in general that's pretty much a lay citizens group as well correct correct we went for a mix there there are some that are in the professional industries you know whether it's land use or development we have some that are residents who aren't in that world at all we have some people that don't live in chesterfield but they're serving on the committee because they've had experience in other municipalities and to your point the communal in the future that's 10

[00:47:55] citizens two per district representing their districts as citizens so there we tried to make it again as diverse and, you know, a spread of opinions and backgrounds as we could. I just wanted to make that point because there's a lot of chatter in the community that none of the citizens were included in this and that it was all done in the secret back rooms between the planning staff and the development community, which is not the case. And on top of that, as you said, we've had four out of five district meetings that all the citizens were invited to come and put in

[00:48:31] input. And I know from at least one citizen, it said they put in some input and they were happy to see that it was received well and they were just a citizen. They were not somebody that was a professional in the industry. So I just want to make sure that that's out there because there's definitely a lot of chatter in the community that that's not the case. Yeah, thank you.

[00:48:55] We do have a pretty decent mix, I think, on the advisory committee, but we've also been meeting all along with special interest groups or chamber or mba and other groups hoas and so forth and those meetings are advisory too they may not be part of the you know official advisory committee but we're listening to comments that they're making and trying to incorporate some of those ideas into the third or fourth draft of of zomot as we go forward and then on multifamily where you

[00:49:30] showed 50% multifamily and 50% for sale. That multifamily though would include, if there's condo units that are for sale, they'd be in the multi-unit or the multifamily. So we actually have more than 50% of the units that were approved that are for sale product. I don't know what the exact number is, but I know that there is some for sale product in the multifamily category that would then tip it over 50 percent right a condo case coming in today would be considered multifamily and therefore show up in that blue 50 percent but it could be a for sale product showing up in that

[00:50:08] i just wanted to make that point and there also are some age restricted and there are some assisted living memory care those types of residences that are also included in the multifamily correct so it's not just for rent apartments that that category makes up that's what I wanted to actually that numbers down from previous years and pretty significantly the last question I have for you which Mr. Carroll touched to a certain extent but there are citizens in the

[00:50:41] community that advocate to do the comp plan first and then the zoning ordinance and I don't know how you do a comp plan to include categories that don't currently exist that you would then through ZOMOD have become available, and then I'd have to go back and redo your comprehensive plan again anyway. So just wanted to get your comments on why you believe we need to do the zoning, the ZOMOD ordinance first, and then the comp plan versus the other way.

[00:51:17] So I would say it's not linear, it's circular. We're constantly updating both. We've done countless comprehensive plan amendments in the last, you know, just in the last six years I've serving. And we've done plenty of ordinance amendments as well. So it's not a linear process by any stretch. It is a constant living document and both need to keep complementing each other.

[00:51:41] So every time you update one, you are going to then complement it by updating the other. So we're doing both constantly. But would it make sense to do the comp plan first when you don't have the new zoning districts? So we did a massive comprehensive plan update. 2019 we did the amendment to a significant amendment to the comprehensive plan. And that was really the trigger for when we started asking you all for, you know, funding and the opportunity to move forward with ZOMOD. But your point is well made that the comprehensive plan language needs to match up

[00:52:20] with the zoning ordinance. And it really doesn't do that very well. And the idea of getting those new tools in the toolbox established within ZOMOD so that you know how development could be approved, such as the mixed-use zoning district. Then it's up to the comprehensive plan amendments and the future land use plan that gets developed out of that and you all as to where is that appropriate to put a mixed-use development. But you've at least got that tool in your toolbox

[00:52:55] at that point to do it right that's that's the part of zomod that it's hard for us to explain but you you do have to have that the other analogy i would make is you know if you come to a three-way intersection uh you're going to look both left and right before you move forward uh you know the comprehensive plans may be to the left and the zomods to the right so you you have to look both ways before you move forward with your direction. So which comes first? I mean, I think you need to have both talking to each other and interacting well. And we felt fixing

[00:53:34] the ZOMOD, the zoning ordinance with ZOMOD was the first step we needed to make. Thank you. First step. Now, I do want to, and I know it's kind of been said, but in 2019, a new comprehensive plan was adopted. So you could argue that was step one at that part of the cycle. And we initiated ZOMOD in, well, formally in 2020, but it was approved in 19. So it really was one than the other, just this other has taken five, six years. So it doesn't feel like it's step two, but it is if you go all the way back to 2019. But to your point, you're going to have to do the dance anyways, because you're going to have to go back and update it once ZOMOD is complete. And that's

[00:54:11] why you saw, yeah, 25 and 26 are now we're going to go back and do the comprehensive plan again. It's a never ending job. We're going to keep it busy. I just think that's important because there's a lot of chatter about that in the community as well. Does the chicken or the egg come first? And just wanted to get your opinion on that. Thank you. Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[00:54:33] Well, look, there's a reason why I brought this up. I don't want, you know, going back to that slide we looked at, you know, I didn't want the presentation to be to the community that by changing ZOMOT, we're going to make, we don't need to do zoning cases for these things anymore. not true. We're going to have to do zoning cases for them. But what it is going to do, like Mr. Gillies talked about with the mixed-use community, it will actually have an option in there for someone to do a mixed-use community, which doesn't exist, which means they can do straight zoning instead of having to go through a conditional use permit. And the thing that I

[00:55:11] like about this is that if there is something that is designated in straight zoning and someone looks at that parcel and says, I'd like to develop it, then they will know what they can actually do based on what is in the comprehensive plan and what ZOMOD says. If they want to go outside the scope of that, then they have to file a conditional use permit to do so. And I think that at that point, after we've gone through this whole process, I actually think if they have to

[00:55:48] go to the conditional use permit and a board, a future board looks at it and says, I don't agree or three want to put on that, they can get denied. But right now, what we've been doing, conditional use, just as an example, someone does something in Melothian, and Melothian, not to pick on you, Mark, but they say, well, you allowed those setbacks in Melothian.

[00:56:12] It was a conditional use. Now I want the setbacks in Matoka. And we may look at that parcel and say, I don't think those setbacks work for that. I don't want to do that there. And they go, well, you already allowed it over there. Why can't I do it? And so it puts you in a position of, so if you do say no, you could get sued, and they could argue, you had no reason to design my zoning case because the same thing was approved in Malothian already.

[00:56:37] So by setting standards, we can hold people accountable, which is, I think, what this whole goal is trying to do. It's not going to take away public input. And the other misnomer that's out there that I want to clear up, and I hope I'm right on this, and if I'm not, we're going to fix it, is that we're not going to go back and look at every single zoning case that's been approved in Chesterfield County before and say, now we're going to change your zoning case to what we believe it should be.

[00:57:04] Those cases that were approved before, that people paid for, that went through the public process, will continue to be what they were zoned for. If they want to change it, they'll have to bring it back forward because they may look at it and go, I got a zone for this, but now that this new zoning is created, maybe I want to do a mixed use thing. So maybe I need to bring a case forward for that. But they still have to go through the process to do it, which means the public process that you explained earlier about community meetings, the planning commission, the public meeting at the planning commission, and then the public meeting at the board of supervisors and the online opportunity for people to give input

[00:57:44] will still exist because people are believing right now that we're just going to go rubber stamp, we're going to change everything to this. And that's not the case, right? Correct. Wanted to make sure we get that clarification because there are people out there saying different and they're wrong. Great point, Mr. Carroll. When do we anticipate doing the next comprehensive plan?

[00:58:10] So I'll flip us to this slide. So we're already starting to work on not a full comprehensive plan rewrite but we are going to redo the subdivision ordinance or an amendment to it immediately so that it is in line with ZOMOD and then down at the bottom chapters 9, 10, 13 those are the three that we've identified that need to be updated ASAP to align them with ZOMOD so those four items really right on the heels of ZOMOD in fact that's part of why we are once the board

[00:58:46] approves ZOMOD, it's not going to immediately go into effect. It's going to be approved and then adopted at a later date to allow us a few months to hopefully get these queued up so that once the ZOMOD is actually enacted, all of this is in place so everything is cohesive and working together. The chapter 10 amendment to the land use plan this time around for 25 is to really make sure that the relabeling and renaming of what we're using in ZOMOD will match up with

[00:59:22] the Comprehensive Plans Chapter 10 language. So we're speaking French or French or English and English. We're speaking the same language within that. The point that Mr. Carroll brought up earlier of, you know, the larger 20-year vision of what parts of the county should be considered possibly a different land use is a heavier lift, and that will be another review and amendment to the comprehensive plan and to Chapter 10 and all the chapters probably in 26 or 27.

[00:59:59] So we have plans to start that, but, you know, we can only do one thing well at a time. We want to get ZOMOD finished first and make sure all that fits together and then take a look at the longer vision of Chesterfield County and what you all want to see for the next 20 years.

[01:00:17] Plus, while I really want ZOMOD to be approved, we can't presume it will be. We cannot be presumptuous and say, well, the board's going to approve it this year, so now we're already queuing up the next items. We need to wait until you like ZOMOD and feel it is ready. Go ahead.

[01:00:36] And just so the community understands that when a comprehensive plan update is done, It requires community meetings for people to have an opportunity to come out and see what's proposed, ask questions, look at parcels, whether they want to look at their own parcel and say, what's going to be a proposed use for mine, have all the public input, and then it has to go to the whole approval process.

[01:00:58] Absolutely. So it's not like we're going to go in a back room and go, oh, let's do this and not tell anybody, right? Absolutely. It's a community effort. And I'll give a real-world example. I got into this world because of the Midlothian Community Special Area Plan.

[01:01:16] That's how I got involved when that public outreach for that went to the chamber and the Midlothian Business Alliance. And at that point, I had no idea what a planning commission was, and somehow I'm here anyway. Dr. Case. Just to clarify, for the comprehensive plan updates, it's Chapter 10 and 13 are much more aligned to the ZOMOD.

[01:01:36] Your Chapter 9 is a little more autonomous. In fact, we're going through the request for public hearing on consent today for a May public hearing. That is almost a standalone chapter. And to Dr. Miller's point, too, when we talk about items like solar, it's not as if we've never addressed solar before, even during Mr. Petrowski's time.

[01:01:55] We actually created a very in-depth solar ordinance that actually became a model for that and the siting agreements that followed. So while, you know, what you saw up there, you know, that's why it's not initially being changed much because we spent so much time with you and the public just in recent years.

[01:02:15] I just want to make those clarifications, sir. And just my last point, I believe it was 302 inquiries came in saying I might like to do this. What can I do with my property?

[01:02:31] Only 27% of those made it all the way to the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors, and only 26% of those made it to an approval. So it's really closer to a quarter of all of the requests that come into the county for things that I may want to do or how can I do this, and they find out they can't through the process.

[01:02:57] That 302 is whittled down to 160, whittled down to 103. was whittled down to 82 that was whittled down to 79 that were approved that's 26 percent that is not approving everything that people want to do i just wanted to make that point as well we've kept you very you know a lot longer than you were expecting we thank you for your uh patience with our questions and um appreciate your answers thank you very much thank you for

[01:03:26] for the opportunity be nonprofit partnerships update youth dr. Worsley good

[01:04:02] afternoon mr. chair members of the board dr. Casey mr. minks I'm gonna invite our friends to come on up to the table and join me at this time if you will we have a distinct honor today of coming back it's been about two years since we talked about a nonprofit partners in terms of our youth for Chesterfield County and we are very proud to have them back with us today I think Jody I I think that you were just starting here in Chesterfield County the last time you were here before the board.

[01:04:30] So we do have Jody Alexander, CEO of the YMCA, that is here with us today, along with Lisa Ramirez joining her as well. Also, we have Ashley. I almost forgot your last name. Ashley Hall. Ashley Hall from Community and Schools. And absolutely.

[01:04:49] And also, we have Warren MacKirk here with us today from Boys to Men. We're very happy to have them here as they are going to walk us through some of the great things they've been doing over the last couple of years, since the last time you've perhaps seen them. And Warren, I don't think you've been to the board before to present, so it's going to be a great treat to see all the great things you have going on today as well.

[01:05:11] But what you are going to see in their presentations is a very, very common theme that they certainly have in common, and that is working with the great youth that we have here in Chesterfield County. And I'm very pleased to see our Deputy Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Lisa High, is here with us today as well.

[01:05:27] And I'll be remiss if I also did not give a shout-out to PAL. I know PAL is going to be presented in the Police Chiefs Update. We have Sergeant Joey Kirsten that is here with us today as well. And I'm a very proud board member of PAL, along with our Mental Health Support Services Director, Kelly Freed.

[01:05:48] She was not able to be with us today, but we also recognize that you see a common thing here. Our youth in our community is important to us, and you will see that in various points that we have today. I'm going to move out of your way so I don't take up more of your time. Kicking us off will be Ashley Hall from CIS. Got it. Yeah? All right.

[01:06:08] I feel like a joke should be made about Zomod just to get us in the continued spirit, but I will not. Hey, you know, I'm ready. All right. Let's see. Let me get us moving to the right spot here. Okay, well good afternoon. I'm so excited to join y'all today and really glad to be with both the Y and Boyz II Men, two of CIS's favorite and most impactful partners. So when I was here last time I focused a lot with communities and schools on the needs going on in our community, how those are growing, how we're responding and growing, and also how we connect so often with Chesterfield

[01:06:44] County Departments. So I wanted to give a little bit of something new today. So what I'm going to focus on is diving a little bit deeper into our model and also sharing some brand new data around CIS's impact on economic mobility. So a little something new, but just as a reminder for everyone around our mission, our mission is to surround students with a community of support, empowering them to stay in school and achieve in life. We're a non-profit, but we're unique in that our site coordinators work full-time directly in high-need schools to identify challenges that students are facing either in school or out of school and really coordinating with the amazing staff at

[01:07:22] CCPS but also incredible community partners to make sure that we can implement programs and provide interventions and any outside resources that are needed to make sure our students can be successful we're about breaking down those barriers for kids so currently we serve 14,000 students across 15 schools in Chesterfield County and I shared a little bit in our last conversation about sort of our pyramid where we serve every student at those schools with tier one services those might be things like basic needs family engagement nights school celebrations things that

[01:07:58] every child can access in the school then at that tier two level we work with really targeted group supports so mentoring programs like boys to men we might do grade level interventions like learn to swim it could be grief groups for students who've lost parents leadership teams opportunities like that and our deepest support is what we call tier three that's really what we think of as case management that's where we're working the most intensely with students and their families to set goals and CIS uses the evidence-based integrated student supports model and there's a little picture far away there sort of that process and research has shown that when the four components of

[01:08:36] integrated student supports are there which is around creating needs assessments for students coordinating supports integrating with the school community and the outside community and then collecting data and tracking progress on their goals that is one of the best proven methods to address at risk student populations and that's the model that we use so as you can see there it's really a holistic approach that looks at academic assistance attendance interventions behavioral mental health supports kind of the full gamut so kids have that wraparound support um as you can see and I will do you pass take one

[01:09:15] down pass it around our impact reports we've got some great data to share around those big indicators of dropping out and I urge you to take a look and there's some great stories of students in there that really are the reflection of the data but if I could leave you with one stat to remember it's that when CIS of Chesterfield was present 98 percent of students stayed in school that's really incredible especially when you think about we're working in some of those hardest to serve schools with kids that are bringing a lot of challenges to the table every day so I want to shift gears just slightly. I'm excited to share two new studies that are coming out of CIS

[01:09:51] nationally. And forgive me, I am still sort of distilling this. Some of these have just come out in the last couple of weeks. So if you have a question I don't know the answer to, I promise I will get an answer. But these are really cool, and I thought that you all would be really, really interested in kind of these long-term impacts that we're seeing of CIS. So first around engagement.

[01:10:10] One of the critical things that our site coordinators focus on is helping build engagement with students. And we know that that's a leading indicator of student success. So not surprisingly, given our local data, that nationally CIS students reported stronger peer relationships, a more positive view of education, and higher motivation, which is all great. And one of the things that a study looked at, and we hoped for this, and we anecdotally saw this, but a recent study confirmed in a survey of almost 1,400 teachers and 174 CIS schools, including some here in Chesterfield, that teachers also benefit they reported higher job satisfaction less burnout and greater retention

[01:10:50] when cis was part of their school community i know you all just like the schools are very focused on how we're keeping amazing teachers so it's great to see that cis can be one of the pieces of that solution the next thing that i wanted to talk a little bit about was the second study that was conducted by harvard and it actually parallels the raj chetty work around economic mobility if you're familiar with that and it looks long term at the impact of cis on students economic opportunity they actually started looking at students who've been involved with cis since the 90s through now and mirroring our own data cis increased graduation rates were 7.5 percent higher

[01:11:27] than would be expected without cis interventions that was equivalent to about 55 more graduates per school on average and our presence can narrow the graduation gap between low and high poverty students by nearly seven percent so if you think about in the long term around opportunity and equity that's pretty incredible the last thing i wanted to share from that study you know i often talk about how cis is a dropout prevention program and that's true and we're proud of that but what we learned in this study is that there's more it's more than that the impact of cis extends beyond

[01:12:00] graduation this study found that that it accounted for fifteen hundred dollars more in annual earnings from students who participated and nine thousand dollars more in lifetime taxes paid per student they talked a lot about in this in this reveal sort of of the study that if scaled nationwide it could reduce the achievement cap by 20 nationally so it's data like this that when i'm thinking about our own local conversations and our own local expansion why i believe that it's so important and why we continue to work really hard at it and i'm excited to share that

[01:12:34] next year we will be adding a second new school site as well as a full-time second site coordinator in another one of our large schools so lots of good progress being made the power of cis is in our relationships and in our results behind all those data points we talked about is a student who feels seen and supported some of them for the first time so you know we're not just helping kids stay in school we're helping them build a brighter future and we can only do that with support from chesterfield county from ccps from our board of supervisors so i appreciate the opportunity to

[01:13:08] share all this great news with you thanks i'm like are we continuing are we pausing for questions anyway i'm happy to answer isn't that great one of their halloween events at attrick okay sounds great i just learned quite a bit there so i'm super excited to get a little bit deeper uh with all of that information as well good afternoon and um i'm hoping that uh coming to today that I know a little bit more than I knew the last time that I was here, so I very much

[01:13:48] appreciate the invitation. So here we go. So I want you to look at the very bottom of that where the why is your place to thrive, and I want you to consider what that word thrive means, and we've been doing a lot of studying of what that is. It means to flourish. It means to have your physical needs met, to have your social needs, your emotional needs, and to be connected to caring people in a caring environment, and much like Ashley was sharing, our work is really focused and aligning to the region's work on creating access to opportunities that help people to

[01:14:26] thrive, and what the outcome of that will be is that we have economic mobility, that we have a region of people that care for each other and um that that we've got all the chance to to flourish and to thrive i wanted to give you a little bit you probably know this probably even better than i do but these are our main locations actual physical buildings that we operate within chesterfield county so you can see we have four main ymca locations we have a hundred acre camp

[01:14:59] As well as in the Greenlee community, we have a learning lab reaching that community as well. Of the 230,000 lives that we interacted with in 2024, just under 55,000 of those were in Chesterfield County, and almost 18,000 of those were youth.

[01:15:20] Our main way of reaching people is through our programs and our services that are intentional. We call them programs on purpose. They are for very specific reasons for skill building as well as connecting communities and creating communities.

[01:15:41] We're also very proud of the fact that through these locations and reaching people that we raise and put more than $1.7 million into supporting and lifting people So that there isn't a financial barrier to being a part of a program or a part of a membership with the YMCA.

[01:16:04] So just a couple of weeks ago, we had at our Camp Thunderbird, we had 475 dads or adult male caregivers with their daughters and sons doing adventure camping.

[01:16:21] for an entire weekend of just creating memories and that relationship building. So what is our vision? When we're thinking about thriving, we're thinking about creating. And everything that we do, sure, you're going to learn how to swim. You're going to learn how to play basketball.

[01:16:36] Hopefully, you're going to get healthy through a wellness class or a fitness class. But we are very intentional in creating achievement and relationships and belonging. So because I'm old, I'm going to put my glasses on, and I'm going to read you a very, very quick story.

[01:16:52] coming out of our Swift Creek YMCA that really demonstrates in action what this vision is. In partnership with Chesterfield Recovery Academy, the Swift Creek YMCA opens its doors to students during the day, offering more than just a field trip. These visits provide a sanctuary, a moment of normalcy, and a sense of belonging for young people working through life's challenges. At the Y, these students are treated like full-fledged members. They have the freedom to shoot hoops, lift weights, or simply relax in the lobby, engaging in meaningful conversations with peers,

[01:17:25] staff, and community members. It's a space where they are seen, heard, and valued. What began with quiet, hesitant visits gradually transformed. Students once arrived with their heads down, they now walk in with smiles, greeting staff by name, and sharing laughs with fellow members.

[01:17:45] This partnership is more than access to a facility. It's about restoring confidence, fostering connection and reminding these young people that they are part of a caring, supportive community. Our work is focused on changing lives through impact areas. So when I talk about programs on purpose, we are very focused on advancing whole health. That points right back to our mission, advancing whole health through spirit, mind, and body. A lot of people think of us as the body part, but we feel that mental well-being brings all of those things together.

[01:18:20] and so looking at our community we work to devise and put programs together that meet all of those needs and enriching learning in the out of school time space the school district takes responsibility for the education but in order to have caring connected youth we've got to be that insulator to that so that out of school time spaces matter and our programs are geared to help kids do hard things right achievement they are guild geared for peer relationships so that we have conflict resolution and we have that connectivity and then of course i'm sure you know the ymca as far as

[01:18:58] drowning prevention goes and we are getting deeper and stronger in this area many programs that we partner with you all on through the schools in the second grade learn to swim along with our partners at swim rva but we're getting surgical as well drowning accidental drowning for children with autism. It's the number one way that they unfortunately die. So we are part of a YMCA national program that is learning how to do swim lessons in an environment that supports children with autism. So those are the things we're getting really, really deep with.

[01:19:36] This is really hard to do because we are open seven days a week. We have all of the locations. We are open 17 hours per day, 110 hours per week, and we've got a lot of things going on and a lot of things happening.

[01:19:54] We are currently making an investment in our Chester YMCA to improve that experience, certainly for youth and for older adults. You can see we've got pop-up libraries at Greenlee. Again, we're focused on literacy and enriching out-of-school space.

[01:20:12] and I'm going to talk to you a little bit about Gerardo you're going to see again another example in our learn to swim program but how that we foster achievement relationships in and belonging let me find his story but Gerardo came to us as a second grader he was a second grader at Bellward Elementary and he found confidence through the learn to swim program he exclaimed one day during this program, Ms. Chrissy, this is the best day of my life. He later was able to tell us is because he really felt confidence in himself by learning the skills. Today, Gerardo is a

[01:20:51] sophomore at VCU and he's a Chester YMCA life garden swim instructor. He's giving back to his community teaching kids at the very YMCA where his journey began. From a young swimmer discovering SELF-BELIEF TO A MENTOR INSPIRING OTHERS, GERARDO'S STORY IS A TESTAMENT TO THE POWER OF ENCOURAGEMENT AND PARTNERSHIP.

[01:21:11] THOSE ARE THINGS THAT WE PARTNER WITH YOU ALL ON, AND WE ARE SO THRILLED AND EXCITED THAT THERE'S THAT ONGOING OPPORTUNITY TO HELP YOUTH IN OUR COMMUNITY EXPERIENCE IT FOR THEIRSELVES, BUT GIVE BACK TO OTHERS. AND I WOULD LIKE TO TURN IT OVER TO MY COLLEAGUE FOR ONE QUICK SECOND AS SHE SHARES ONE our newest signature event efforts in the drowning prevention area 32nd yep that's it uh and we're done may is safety around water month we are celebrating at the ymc of greater richmond's

[01:21:44] safety around water week uh the week of may 19th we'll be offering one week of free swim lessons to 1 000 children in our community we will be doing instruction dry land instruction at all of our after school sites and in our child watch areas in every single one of our ymca facilities we'll also be going to neighborhood partners to do education for children and their families on how to be safe around water we're surrounded by creeks rivers lakes and pools neighborhood

[01:22:19] pools and community pools we want to make sure that no child drowns because they didn't know how to be safe around water we hope we'll join you will join us by sharing that volunteering or participating in any way that you can thank you all thank you mr chair and board of supervisors nice to see you all today i want to thank dr warsley for the time it's wonderful and i know that officer morton's not here but um i want to thank him as well the community police uh are wonderful uh gifts to us as boys to men uh if you're not aware we are in eight school divisions

[01:22:55] And of all eight, there's one county that offers a police officer to sit into a circle, and that's Officer Morton's office here in Chesterfield County. I'm actually a little overwhelmed with emotion because it's just what I love about the work that we do as an organization is like how connected we are.

[01:23:13] And so really my whole slides are to focus on celebrating Chesterfield County and what you have done for us as an organization and how you have been the linchpin for our success when it comes to public schools. But also when I look around the room, we wouldn't be in as many schools as we are if it wasn't for Ashley Hall.

[01:23:32] We wouldn't have one of our staff if they hadn't worked many years at the YMCA and developed a lot of tools to become a leader for us. Even when I look across, we have a recent intern of ours that's in here. It's just beautiful. It's really, really beautiful. And one of the keys, because I don't want to miss out on this, for us when we talk about our youth, is that we know that young men a lot of times get told what to do.

[01:23:55] They get told how they're supposed to live. What they're not told is what they do great and well, and so we really believe in honoring. And I just have to honor Dr. Miller because Dr. Miller not only sits with our student interns and lets them ask him a bunch of questions and learn, but he has sat in our circles and spent time with our youth.

[01:24:15] And if you don't understand the importance of that, Let me just say that when members of the community take time out of their life to sit and not only just spend time with youth, but share their story and invest in them, they actually believe what the words are being said.

[01:24:31] So when the words are said, but not followed by actions, it's hard to believe it. But when the actions are there, it's really great. So I just want to honor you and thank you for doing that. It's a good gift. Overall, our main purpose is just to give a safe space. We want to let young men sit in these group mentoring circles and talk about what's going on in their lives. How we do that as a paid facilitator, which is our staff, none of our staff only do administrative work. Only 7% of our budget goes to administrative tasks.

[01:24:57] We all have a foot in circles. I'm a facilitator, as well as all of our other staff. We have community mentors. We have School of Social Work students that also sit in those. We're not one-to-one. We're not matched. We are group mentoring. So we leverage teams like to CIS teams to help find the youth that we serve within each school or it might be a administrator someone else that passes those to us about 8 to 12 are in us on are in the circle at a time and we have basically from about late September into early May that we offer these circles and we're there weekly we also have community circles we have one here in Chesterfield on Monday evenings

[01:25:36] again that's a very powerful circle there's about 15 to 20 youth that come to that circle that's because we're not in every school but there's about 15 men that come and to all the men in this room it is selfish work because if you watch a 14 year old talk about what's going on their lives and you don't get touched and start feeling it I'm telling you it's selfish work that we do because it's really really impactful for us as men we allow we're allowed to do our work emotionally by listening to these young men and being support for them I put a lot of words up there I'm not going to go through all those you can see that there I just want to highlight some of the stuff that again celebrate to us chesterfield county in 23 24 40 47 percent of total students that we served in eight

[01:26:16] school divisions were from this county that's 20 weekly circles that were here we had 20 events that were here at 16 schools you can see that as 12 middle uh four high and then we have the two community and we have uh eight uh county residents um that have been a part of this this year we're at 44 so that number looks down but if you actually look at the amount of circles that we have and the amount of schools that we're in and people that we're serving it's actually higher it's just percentage because we're because of the school districts there you can see that the events jumped up we have a nine-week summer program and a lot of those events are going to be here in the county which is really exciting and our number of volunteer mentors that live in the county are here

[01:26:54] this is just some high level stuff just to see you can see our our buddy over there ashley hall seven of our schools rcis schools which is amazing 50 ccps employees have been a part of our trainings which is wonderful and then our rite of passage adventure weekend are these two weekends that we do so you can see that uh half of our youth over the last two are from this county and 65 percent total of all the years that we've been doing rite of passages are from this county um and just just a couple of little tug at your heart things there 78 of the youth uh when we do our end of year review with them feel like they belong to a community and 70 feel safer speaking

[01:27:30] to an adult. Thank you for your time. Again, Boys Demand as an organization could not be where we were without you and without the support of the Board of Supervisors. We are in your spaces. Come see us. Come support us. We love you so much. Thank you. Board members. Just a quick comment.

[01:27:52] I mean, you said you put your hand finger right on it. I mean, walk in there, get to sit with these boys and have an opportunity to really work on your own stuff, which is amazing. Jody, you mentioned about belonging and one of the things that uh i walked out of boys to men was like mark it's just really simple it's about belonging and acceptance really you just kind of boil it all down it's about belonging and acceptance and when the boys are there or whatever with the work you

[01:28:19] all are doing when you're doing that that's what builds a community so thank you so two of these so i did do your your bus tour i don't know if any of you have done the bus tour on a cis thing it was really good. Um, you got to go to three different schools, uh, elementary, uh, middle school and a high school, um, and visit with some, the high school one is very, um, impactful. We got to talk to some of the kids that are going through the program and what, how it's affected them. And

[01:28:52] it's, um, a really a great thing. Um, so thank you for all that you do. Um, and I am a board member at the Manchester YMCA. So I am very invested over there, um, and helping the community. And, um it's just that's what community is about helping each other and um putting it in a hand where you can and i am a volunteer at heart and that's i think how i got where i am right now i i felt that you know if you were gonna say that your community needs something then you have to step up and help them so that's yeah so and your your group sounds amazing and i don't know if you

[01:29:31] allow women but i'd be happy to come and we would love to what i'll say about that for females is that a lot of times the young men that we serve are primarily with just a female person in their life, which is all parts of their life. It's their protector, their provider, all of those. So women are always welcome in because the young men get to see a different example of a female and they get to sometimes feel safe enough to ask you questions. So please go. Mr. Chair. I just want to say thank you. I know that you're thanking us, but truth of the matter is you're the one putting the work in and doing all the work and all the staff, the people you have are doing all the work.

[01:30:06] You know, we're involved in a lot of different things, and unfortunately, we can't have our hands in everything. There are some things we get to attend to, and some things we can't. I don't even know how they do it, working full-time jobs. But we're very blessed to have people like yourself and organizations like yourself that are doing this great work for our community.

[01:30:27] And so I do want to do the bus tour. Hopefully, I can get signed up for that. I'll make time for that as well. Like I said, we have a lot going on. I like to do what you do, too. That's pretty awesome. But I don't know when I'll fit that in. But maybe.

[01:30:42] Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, I just want to say thanks to each of you. Tremendous job because you're making a difference in the lives of others that transcend not only now but future generations. So thank you all.

[01:31:00] Really quick comment. You were asking how we do it, and it occurs to me, we keep YMCA hours. You guys are 110 hours a week. That's how we do it. There we go. That's true. Please don't worry. Thank you, Dr. Miller.

[01:31:17] I do have the privilege to serve on a Y board in Chester, and I have actually sat in the circle at Elizabeth Davis, and the trust that it takes for those young men to share the things that they share in the circle, that's not built overnight.

[01:31:36] That's built over time. So I know that it impacts them, and it impacts anybody that sits in one of those circles. But I haven't been on the bus tour, and I don't have a lot of time, but I must have more time than Mr. Carroll, so I'll try to get on that.

[01:31:57] Thank you all for what you do in the community. Any other questions? Thank you all. Appreciate you being here. C, Police Department Annual Update, Colonel Carpenter.

[01:32:29] Welcome.

[01:33:04] Good afternoon, Chair Ingle, Vice Chair Miller, and Board of Supervisors. Thank you for this opportunity. Dr. Casey, Mr. Minx, thank you guys. We're excited to be able to present today our annual board briefing on Chesterfield County Police Department.

[01:33:28] All right, I'm gonna start off with why we exist, and I think you guys are familiar with these four pillars as to why we exist. It's the preservation of human life, the protection of the vulnerable, and problem-solving partnerships in our personnel to ensure that we recruit, we retain, and develop top-tier talent within our organization.

[01:33:49] And I want to also put a plug in, specifically, if anyone who's watching that's in our community that wants to serve on the Chesterfield County Police Department, please go to joinccpd.org. We're always looking for fine young men and women to serve our community here at the police department.

[01:34:05] All right, what you have before you is the CCPD organizational chart. The one thing I wanted to share with you is that we made one modification to the org chart, and that was in our actual special operations division.

[01:34:24] What we found is our Special Operations Division was a little too large for one captain, so we split those responsibilities among another captain and created Special Operations and Tactical Operations Divisions and added a major to that component.

[01:34:40] So the only modification to the org chart is that Special Operations Bureau. Moving too fast here. All right, key numbers for CCPD.

[01:34:56] As you can see, officers took over 205,000 calls along with assists It performed over 32,000 traffic stops, investigated over 5,000 crashes, 976 of those crashes involved injuries, and 32 fatality crashes, 22 of which were operated or investigated by CCPD and 10 by Virginia State Police.

[01:35:25] They've issued over 21,000 summonses and written over 15,000 written warnings and actually investigated and arrested over 847 DUIs and also conducted 1,300 field interviews.

[01:35:43] What I wanted to expand upon is the importance of our traffic safety and our traffic safety team. Recently, they engaged in an operation on March 13th, and this was not an operation done in cloak and dagger. It was done by way of solicitation from the community to find out what were the areas within their community that they were concerned about when it came to traffic violations.

[01:36:07] Chippenham Highway was the location that was selected. We gave advanced notification to the community that we would be out enforcing on Chippenham Highway and Parkway. Parkway, and they stopped over 236 vehicles, issued over 313 summonses, 38 written warnings.

[01:36:27] What I'd like to add is out of those actual stops, there were two individuals that were traveling 104 miles an hour in the 60-mile-per-hour zone. A 15-year-old was stopped doing 79 in a 60-mile-per-hour zone. So we wanted to make sure that we're addressing this traffic safety issue, trying to reduce the fatalities within our community, but also hammer home the message of buckling up, putting down devices, obeying posted speed limits, and please move over when emergency vehicles out are in the field in operation.

[01:37:03] So I thought it was really interesting that, you know, when you look at the type of work that's being done, the fact that the community recognizes there's deficiencies, we respond to those areas, and we end up doing successful work. And how many days was that conducted on?

[01:37:22] one. Yeah, one day. I think you need to highlight that. Yes, sir. One day. One day. All right. Second key number for 2024, volunteer hours, over 23,000 hours of volunteer. I think this is important. The volunteers that we have within our Chesterfield County Police Department are very, very valuable individuals. They have really siphoned off a lot of work that wouldn't more than likely be transitioned to our staff. So we're extremely appreciative of those that serving at capacity. It's a very robust community within the police department and we're excited to

[01:38:01] have them and wanted to share the work that they're doing. We've received over 16,000 pieces of evidence into storage, 81,000 pieces of evidence transaction, which if you don't know, our evidence room is busting at the seams due to the work that the men and women of Chesterfield County Police Department do. We processed over 3,400 applications and hired 65 full-time staff and I would be remiss if I did not include our ECC handling over 541,000 calls. 147,000 of those

[01:38:37] calls were 911 related. So a lot of great work being done by our partners in ECC as well as our volunteers and the work that's taking place in our property and evidence sections. Animal services. I think the number speaks for itself. The work that they're doing, 11,000 calls for service. They've actually had 1,900 dogs that were actually in cats that were picked up. And out of that 1,905 dogs and cats picked up, 746 were returned to their owners or rides home by way of scan devices and being able to locate their owners. 468 were returned to their

[01:39:17] owners after maybe going to the shelter and reunited with their loved ones. 699 were adopted, 286 were transferred to rescue organizations, and we have a 79% save rate overall. We recognize that this job is challenging for our animal services officers, and we're committed to ensuring that they have the staffing and the resources to be able to do what they need to do and serve the community appropriately. We're looking forward to our groundbreaking ceremony that shall take place with our new shelter. Thank you guys for that. It's been something that we've been looking forward

[01:39:54] to. The shelter is busting at the seams and those resources are definitely needed. All right. Five year crime totals. Can you guys see that? Okay. I can't. Five year crime totals. As you can see from 2022 to 2023, we noted a tremendous increase in all categories, right? When you look at arsons, B&E, vandalism, fraud, motor vehicle thefts, auto larceny from autos, forcible sex, et cetera.

[01:40:28] However, we experienced an unusual decrease across the board from 23 to 24, with the exception of homicides. We had 13 homicides, five of which were domestic-related. We continue to provide education and services to domestic violence victims in hopes of saving lives.

[01:40:47] But, you know, when we look at these numbers in 2024, it's very unusual compared to numbers previous. And we're not really sure as to why the numbers are down, but we'll take the win at this time. But you've got to be careful with taking the win when they're down.

[01:41:03] When they're up, you've got to take it as well. We continue to remind the community to secure their vehicles because we recognize that a lot of the crime that has taken place is auto lochneys, as well as lochneys from autos. And a lot of times we're finding that these vehicles are insecure.

[01:41:20] So please secure your vehicles, make sure you take your valuables, and conceal those from common observation. It's even better when they leave the keys under the mat. That's really nice of them. Or the key fob in the car. Exactly. Thank you.

[01:41:39] All right. All right. My chart bled over into my title. This is 2024 Summer Crime Apprehension Suppression Team stats. This was an opportunity where we took resources from different areas of patrol services, and we focused them in the summertime.

[01:41:56] 46-day initiative, and these were the numbers that were produced. They seized over 30 firearms. They were able to assist with over 104 calls for service, and they actually executed 109 warrants while in this capacity in a 46-day time period.

[01:42:14] CAS is a situationally aware team. In a lot of cases, they were out in the field operating, and they mitigated several incidences that were actually in progress due to their covert capacity and being flexible and agile in the field. So tremendous work by the CAST team, and we look forward to deploying that resource going forward this summer.

[01:42:37] I'd like to say a picture is worth a thousand words, right? This picture is amazing. This is an example of what our Chesterfield County Police Activities League is doing here in Chesterfield County, from whitewater rafting to mountain climbing and hiking and kayaking to tug-of-war, just to say the least.

[01:42:56] Something that's not pictured here is an actual event that CPOW partnered with, with ESPN Radio, I Am Power, Play Chesterfield, Parks and Recreation, Dick's Sporting Good, Uptown Alley. They hosted their first ever Chesterfield County Police Activity League football camp.

[01:43:16] And the former, excuse me, NFL, former NFL player, Wiley Rayner, recruited several of his NFL players to come and share coaching experiences and opportunities with the youth. And the testaments that came out of that camp were amazing.

[01:43:32] So great job to Sergeant Kirsten, his team, putting together activities that really connect with the heart of our youth. I really believe the mission and goal of the Chesterfield County Police Activity League is to really connect our youth and ensure that they have great experiences, but not just great experiences, but great relationships with the law enforcement community that are serving them.

[01:43:55] All right. And our pedestrian safety partnership, as you can see, we experienced a lot of pedestrian fatalities last year, and we had a spike of four fatalities in one month during September, which brought us all together to figure out what is going on and what we can do to try to mitigate these fatalities.

[01:44:19] Thanks to our community engagement team, our actual county stakeholders, as well as state stakeholders, we partnered with ABC of Virginia because we found out that some of these pedestrians were under the influence of alcohol and how could we spread the message and spread the word.

[01:44:36] These actual stickers that you see posted on the bag were attached in partnership with ABC Stores to individuals that were patronizing those businesses. But also you see a QR code in the bottom right corner, which allowed those individuals to get more safety tips on how, as pedestrians, they move along the roadways here in Chesterfield County, they can remain safe.

[01:44:58] I think it's equally important that we have these educational moments with the pedestrians, but even the drivers. You know, so many times I've driven down the road and, you know, there may be an individual walking along the roadway dressed in black. And they're walking, not thinking any problem is occurring.

[01:45:16] But the fact of the matter is, you know, they could have been potentially a victim. So having that communication and conversation not only with pedestrians, but also individuals that are operating motor vehicles are extremely important. We're excited to say that as of 2025 to date, there's only been one, one too many, pedestrian fatalities.

[01:45:38] But we are continuing to get out in the community and share our purpose, our wisdom, our knowledge as to what they need to do to be able to traverse our highways here in Chesterfield County. And at this time, I want to turn it over to Colonel Badgerow. Sorry, I get to highlight just a few things that we've picked for our agency recognition for 2024.

[01:46:02] kind of difficult to do over an entire year with over 700 employees but we picked a few good ones here everybody i think is aware that this year we finished third in our national night out celebration event highest we've ever we've ever placed we hit the platform so we're looking to move forward we're gonna have to take out arlington america's team is is there in arlington texas and and the House of Mouse down in Orlando.

[01:46:33] So there's a couple of big ones that we have to go after, but we're happy to be up in the running. But beyond just the third place recognition, what that represents is more important. The relationships that we are able to establish, not only on one night in sweltering August, but it's throughout a lot of different things you've heard already today with relationships with our youth or in the community or the different events with sprint and all those different people in

[01:47:08] places and teams and you're on the table as well and so it's it's how that all comes together we celebrate it on one night but it's really an award for the entire year so we're pleased with that the second bullet there the Commission on accreditation for law enforcement agencies CALEA many of you are aware OF THAT ORGANIZATION, THE ACCREDITATION ORGANIZATION FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT.

[01:47:33] WE WALKED THROUGH OUR THIRD ITERATION OF ACCREDITATION WITH THEM. AND SO FOR THE LAST 12 YEARS WE'VE BEEN ACCREDITED, BUT WE JUST CELEBRATED OUR THIRD RECOGNITION OF THAT. AND I KNOW THE COUNTY WAS ABLE TO SECURE 31 NACO AWARDS THIS PAST YEAR, AND WE WERE pleased to be a part of two of them with joint efforts with libraries and with IST. You'll see the top picture there. You may have seen him earlier today. He gets around, he likes to talk to people, and he likes to read books apparently too. Tim Morton in our Read with a Cop program

[01:48:11] with Chestnut Libraries, great partner there. And then the picture below is a picture of the commonwealth technology award and not only did we receive the naco but the commonwealth technology award in partnership with ist as you are well aware a lot of what we are doing nowadays in the police side of things touches tech and we couldn't do probably half of it and we definitely couldn't do it well without our partnerships with ist so we're we're very pleased with how we have really

[01:48:47] bridged a gap and moving forward with a lot of different areas. Specifically, the time-saving technology touched our body-worn camera program, our e-summons program, and our evidence.com program, how it interacts with courts and PD and everybody. So we're very pleased with that partnership again very difficult to come up with just a few highlights for a slide here today

[01:49:19] with you for what kind of represents our hearts for service we provided over 900 awards this past year in the police department for things like commendations achievement awards life-saving awards all those different kinds of things so you know can't highlight all those here but we wanted to highlight a few that we thought were important.

[01:49:45] The top corner there, you see Officer Zeb Cardona. He was here last year with you all. He was the number one DUI arrest, I guess, officer. He made the most DUI arrest in the Commonwealth last year. This year, he and Officer Valentino Liu were recognized by MADD for being the top two folks in Chesterfield for making the most DUI arrests, getting DUI drivers off the road in 2024.

[01:50:16] The top right and bottom left pictures are of Officer Alexis Stevens and Officer Quentin Thomas. The work that they did on a couple special victims cases, specifically domestic violence, they were recognized for being the Chesterfield Domestic Violence Task Force's Outstanding Service Award winners.

[01:50:40] So good for them for the time and effort they put into our special victims population, specifically with domestic violence. And the bottom right picture is a picture of Sergeant Joey Kirsten and Master Officer Alec Renato. They're honored with the Vets on Track Foundation's 2024 Community Hero of the Year Award.

[01:51:00] Pretty, pretty impressive title of that award. presented to people who have gone and continue to go above and beyond for their community. Officer Granato continues to lead an effort to provide Thanksgiving meals for families, and Sergeant Kearson volunteers at schools, Special Olympics, PAL events, as you already saw in the last slide with PAL.

[01:51:24] He's a big contributor there, but thank you, Joey, for all you do, and congratulations on that. Something you may not usually think about when you think about a police annual update is a focus on continuing education.

[01:51:39] But between our training team at our training academy and our cadre of instructors, they provide thousands and thousands of hours of instruction each and every year. That's between specialized classes that we co-host, anything with our wellness stuff, CIT, Struggle Well, elective and professional training, and all of our mandatory in-service training.

[01:52:06] but thousands of hours, something that we felt was very important is that in our SMART goals for 2024, two of them, two out of six, were related to continuing education, and we've highlighted them there. This is a bit of a mouthful. The first one that we wanted to highlight was how all of our personnel, every employee, was trained in ABLE.

[01:52:28] ABLE stands for Active Bystander for Law Enforcement, and it's a partnership with Georgetown University Law Center for Innovations in Community Safety. And basically, that is a program for every employee to be trained in things like being able to intervene when they identify the need to.

[01:52:46] So something needs to happen, something is not happening, gives them the permission and the right to say, hey, I'm going to step in and make sure that we make this go the right way. A way of de-escalation, a way of stepping in to make sure things are going right. And we felt it very important that not only our sworn staff, but our professional staff went through that as well so that everybody was on the same playing field to say, hey, we're committed to this together.

[01:53:12] So we were proud of that. This past year, we have implemented some annual leadership training for all of our first and second line leaders, our sergeants and lieutenants. Everybody has to go through training every year, but we thought it was important that we specifically say you guys have to go to additional leadership training.

[01:53:31] They are leading the way. They are really the spokes and the hub of the wheel that makes this place work. And so we thought it was important to really focus in on leadership training for them. Something else that we identified was a need for our supervisory folks to know how the finance side of things worked in not only the police department, but the county as a whole.

[01:53:57] Everybody knows they want stuff, but how do you get stuff, right? So how do you make that happen within the budget process? Talking to finance, talking to procurement, all of that. And so we, through Kelly Fox, our finance operations manager, she put together a class and trained all of our supervisory employees in financial literacy.

[01:54:18] And it was picked up by the National Criminal Justice Command College that state police puts on. She was asked to go there and train their folks as well. So taking it on the road and the reach that that is experiencing, we're very proud of that.

[01:54:33] Speaking of reach, the little logo that you see there, the Command Excellence School, we put on our first Command Excellence School. It was over a seven-day period. They come in at different times, and it was for people in law enforcement command across the Commonwealth.

[01:54:51] And they were able to come in. It usually had something to do with reading a book, reading some articles, doing papers, and then coming in for the classes where you put that into action. Major Andrea Riesmeyer was really the spearhead of that. And we had people from all over the Commonwealth, chiefs, deputy chiefs come in who they may not have the opportunity to attend classes like that in different places.

[01:55:15] And Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police has reached out to us to say, hey, what are you guys doing? You know, can we send people to this class? And so we're looking forward to our second iteration starting this summer. So good for them and good for folks with a continuing education.

[01:55:31] This is a slide. The right-hand picture is of our analytic and strategic operations center. And the left-hand picture highlights just some of the numbers associated with cases and statistics for successes involving our FLOC LPR license plate readers.

[01:55:54] Those are integrated into our ASOC. In 2024, we really started our ASOC in serious, put legs to what we were doing over there. And we have grown it into one of the leading operation centers in the Commonwealth, and we're very proud of that.

[01:56:14] Last year, they assisted in live calls, over 5,600 calls for service. And these are things where officers are on scene and they're getting real-time intel from people behind the screen who are checking databases, checking cameras, and giving, and in times of emergency, checking the body-worn camera of the officer as well and relaying information as needed to everybody who's responding.

[01:56:42] It makes for a quicker, more efficient, safer, more effective response. And it's better all the way around. We're very pleased for that. And you may be aware of our Community Connect program, where we reach out to our community to partner with us.

[01:57:01] To date, we have 593 registered cameras where people say, hey, we have a camera. We would like to be a part of your system. It doesn't mean that we tie into it at all, but we know that if we have an event that happens in their street, in their neighborhood, and they're registered, we can say, hey, thanks for registering.

[01:57:19] Can you check your camera for us and see if there's anything that we might need to know about. So we're pleased with how that program is starting to grow, and we have 69 businesses that are integrated with that as well, with real-time access to cameras in their business. And the last thing I wanted to highlight about this partnership and connection is the last hardware for our school camera integration is going to be installed at the end of May, and that will make us the first in the region to integrate our school cameras for real-time prevention, emergency access to the fees for critical incidents.

[01:57:58] So we're very proud of that. You all are well aware that in 24 is when we really started to enact and enforce and look into the ordinance change with massage parlors.

[01:58:16] You can see the stats there. We had 74 clinic applications in 24. We issued 46 permits to the clinics themselves, 160 individual massage therapist permits. And then throughout the year, we revoked five, three clinics and two therapists, and that is mainly because of the bullets that follow.

[01:58:39] We, throughout the department, we had multiple work groups that worked on this effort. administrative inspections just to see if they were doing what they should as far as having the licensing and the permitting and having things posted and doing things the right way.

[01:58:55] We did some undercover operations and search warrants. And as a result, you can see the charges there. A number of different charges, a number of different crimes that occurred. And obviously those related to some of the permits being revoked. Most of the undercover operations that we did, that we made arrests, the people weren't properly permitted in the first place, so had they been, we would have revoked more, but at least it gives us the foundation for, okay, now we know you're on our radar and you're not gonna get the permitting.

[01:59:31] But, so moving forward, there is a gap between how many people applied and how many we issued and how many other places that we have an idea have not yet applied. So we have a team that is going out not only through mailers but making individual in-person visits to say, "Hey, you know, you need to come on board.

[01:59:53] "These are the rules, everybody else has done it, "so come on, get on board and we'll do it together." Any questions about that? I know that was a lot that we were going through the past year, okay? Again, no surprise that our response to mental health continues to be a place that is a area that we can work on to that may gives a little a little bit of trouble as far as staffing considerations and our considerations but one thing I want to

[02:00:28] highlight here is the the word core that's what we call our core team but it's a co-response team and we stood them up in 23 but we really didn't start doing it full force until 24 and you can see on the left-hand side the number of calls that they went on, but what I want to highlight there is that 80% of the calls that our co-response team went on, they were able to keep the person in the community and advise them to other resources where they didn't need to be taken into custody. Because in custody, the bullet below that, that tells you how many hours that

[02:01:03] we had to spend in 24 with people who are either in emergency custody or under the temporary detention order. And you figure if you have 12,000 hours, that's basically six people doing full-time work 24 hours a day, right? Six full-time employees. That would be all they did.

[02:01:23] But this is spread out over the year. And so at any given time, we have people that are not able to be in their beat, not able to answer calls for service because they are with somebody on an ECO or a TDO. What I want to point out is the core team mitigates that. And if we didn't have the core team, we would have had thousands and thousands of more hours of people in that situation.

[02:01:49] Now, speaking selfishly for us from a staffing consideration, that's great. But more so for the people in the community that don't need to be taken into custody, that can be left in the community, that can be referred to resources, that can not have to go through that process. That's the huge win here. And so in partnership with mental health support services, with our crisis team, we're looking to grow that team this coming year to expand on our services to that population

[02:02:20] and really continue to make a difference in that place. Quickly, I want to highlight our commitment to wellness in the community and in the department. This past year, again, And this is another area that really took flight.

[02:02:42] We developed a policy to put in place, and now it's not just talking about it. We have a policy that people can go to and say, okay, this is how this works, and this is how I fit. We identified wellness ambassadors throughout the department who have specialties in wellness, you name it, physical, mental, spiritual.

[02:03:00] They are leading the way in providing training and education for our people. And then we have wellness representatives who are, which is somebody on each work group that represents the wellness team that can bring them news and information and keep them up to date so that it isn't just one person, you know, sending out an email now and then.

[02:03:23] It's throughout the department and it's part of our culture. And you can see a number of the highlights there that we are proud of that happened within our wellness training. We integrated yoga.

[02:03:41] We are making sure that all of our supervisors are going through Struggle Well, which is a post-traumatic growth class that takes struggle into growth. And that's something that we want to integrate throughout the department, but we thought it was very important that our supervisors go through that.

[02:03:59] And then, of course, wellness weeks and wellness days that we do highlights and keep in front of our folks. And final slide. On the horizon. So we're very excited, as Colonel already mentioned, groundbreaking for our new animal shelter at the end of May.

[02:04:21] It's been many years coming, and I know it's going to be a shot in the arm for the folks that work over there, but also for the community. Our community loves their pets, and we want to make sure that if they are brought into our control, we take care of them the best we can.

[02:04:37] I mentioned the CALEA accreditation and how we came through it the third time. We are getting ready to, in the next several months, become Tri-Arc accredited. So that is our police department, our emergency communications center, who currently are accredited, but our training academy is now set to be accredited.

[02:04:57] There's only about 40 or so agencies or groups throughout the country that have Tri-Arc accreditation, and we're pleased that in the next several months we'll be joining that group. We're looking forward to testing and evaluating a new Class B uniform. Back in the day when we switched to the Class B that we currently have, we really didn't have an option for a green.

[02:05:18] So, and as you know, things continue to progress and get better and improve. And the uniforms are more breathable and more workable and better for wellness and all of that. So we're looking forward to testing a Class B green uniform.

[02:05:37] Something else that is coming down in the next couple years at least is we're looking forward to implementing red-dite sight equipment for our pistols. That is better for target acquisition. It's better for marginal shooters.

[02:05:53] It's better for low-light situations. It's better all the way around. And so, you know, through studies and comparisons to other agencies, we feel that this is the right move for us, so we're headed towards that. we're looking forward to groundbreaking of our falling creek station and i just did an audible while we were talking and i put a a check-in for zomod we're going to do that so that we can get we can get uh under the zomod i know that apparently that's gonna be the best way possible so we're going to do some some groundbreaking next week maybe if we are able to do zomod

[02:06:29] that's supposed to be a joke sorry um but that's coming down the pipe and we're very excited about that and finally we have a unmanned aerial systems team we have a number of drones currently but drones for first responders or drone as first responders is a relatively new concept where you have a team of folks who fly these things to visit to the site before an officer can get there and can give real

[02:07:02] time information intel not only for officers but for firefighters and an EMS crews to see what we have going on what kind of resources do we need what kind of resources do we not need and you know be able to integrate with our our crime center and send that out to our folks so we're looking forward to that and then the final invitation that I will leave you with is not next week but the week after. We have our annual law enforcement memorial ceremony coming up May 8 at 11 p.m.

[02:07:37] right out here at the police memorial and we'd love to see you all there. So that's the end of our presentation. We're happy to answer any questions that you might have. Board members, any comments or questions? I thought you were going to press the button. There's some interesting statistics that are unbelievable actually what you presented. One being recovery of motor vehicle thefts. I know years ago, when cars were stolen, it was very difficult to find them. And I would

[02:08:14] imagine that number, I think, was 149. It's not just vehicles that were stolen in Chesterfield County, but vehicles that were stolen outside of Chesterfield County. I think the advancements in technology today for public safety is amazing. Having when I started, we only barely got a radio handed to us because we didn't have enough to go around so you know we are you know you know this board we're committed to supporting our public safety personnel to make sure you have the equipment and everything you need to provide the most safest community and I would tell you that I did take a mini tour of the ASOC I'm not going to talk about that but it's amazing and I think

[02:08:53] that is again is a great tool for us to have not just from a an analytical standpoint but from what we can actually provide for updates to our officers in the field as to what's actually going on.

[02:09:09] And so, as I said before, anything that we can do to support, just feel free to reach out. Excellent work. And yeah, I don't know how you're going to beat Mickey Mouse and the other one, but we'll give it a shot. So thank you. Look forward to it this year again.

[02:09:28] Ms. Snyder? I thought you and I were supposed to go to do an ASAC tour. Oh, I'm going to do that too. Oh, okay. All right. All right. you just think you can go wherever you want all right retired police officer anyhow you guys are always the best uh i send you random text messages when i see ladders out in the middle of uh chippenham or and i say chief i'm sorry i don't know what i'm just letting you know tell whoever needs to know i just uh you guys are awesome and um and i try to you know

[02:10:06] When I see people walking along Hall Street or in my area, I have a stack of maps of the link bus. And I say, here, please take this. If you have a phone, you can call or text them and they will pick you up and take you.

[02:10:22] So you don't have to be walking on the, it's just, I know we did the reflector vests also. So I think that was another initiative. So it just, yeah, it scares me when you see people, when people are driving 60 miles an hour on Hall Street and they're walking in black.

[02:10:38] clothes or riding a bike or something like that so please be careful yes thank you so much dr. Casey just want to let you know I stopped by the police memorial am I right before the two o'clock and they have finished their project so 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. the blue lights will come on both the police and the sheriff memorial and just want to applaud police sheriff's office and especially general services I think when that memorial was first placed there the concrete pad, was never expecting electricity. So it was about two to three feet thick. And you may

[02:11:15] know somebody who may have been making sure that was a secured platform. Mr. Chair was actually there that day when they built, when they poured it. But Chief, I actually have a file I'm going to bring to you of all the original design work and everything. I was on that committee and I was going through stuff the other night and I found it. So from a historical standpoint, I'll bring it to you all so you can have it. I don't think you have this stuff. Well, thank you all for being here today. I have to admit that I was a little disappointed with Lieutenant Colonel Badro's presentation in that I was expecting it to be in a rock voice and I didn't get that today but

[02:11:55] he's a little reserved today but other than that I thought it was a great presentation. I think that as we heard AI referred to earlier as an enhancement for the actual people doing the work I think that's what we've seen with technology in the county as an enhancement to our work.

[02:12:15] And I think that that has a lot to do with the numbers coming down in the county because we're actually able to affect intervention in a much quicker time frame and much more precise.

[02:12:30] not having to interview multiple people that may possibly look like somebody you're looking for but actually knowing what that person looks like and what they're actually wearing is fantastic not only for the officers but for citizens that would otherwise possibly be stopped that weren't doing anything other than minding their own business.

[02:12:53] So those enhancements have been tremendous and we look forward to making sure you get the support you need to continue to be able to drop those numbers in the future. And I know that sometimes there's a spike in something, but to Mr. Carroll's point, we can't help it if people steal more cars in other jurisdictions and drive through ours and we catch them, but that's okay.

[02:13:15] Good job. So thank you for all the work that you're doing. Thank you. D, state and federal legislative update, Ms. Spillman. Good afternoon.

[02:13:44] We've lost one. Nice to see you all again. So, most of you, we were last before you on February 26th, which was right after the General Assembly adjourned sine die on that previous February 22nd Saturday.

[02:14:03] So, just a quick reminder, this is the second year of the biennium state budget, and so primary focus was on budget amendments during this last session, but there were 1,994 bills with 405 carried over from last session. 237 of his bills were passed by the House.

[02:14:21] 379 were passed by the Senate, sending 916 to the governor for action. So the governor's action deadline was March 24th. He signed 600 of those 916 bills into law. 159 were amended and 157 were vetoed. Governor also returned the budget with 205 amendments and eight veto items.

[02:14:41] During the veto session on April 2nd, there were no vetoes overridden. Such action would have required a two-thirds supermajority vote on both chambers, and all of the vetoes were sustained. Amendments that were offered by the governor were in large part rejected, with only 69 amended bills approved by the General Assembly.

[02:15:00] All of the rejected bills have returned to the governor's office in their enrolled form awaiting his action. So he now has closing in on that 30-day review period. The deadline is next Friday, May 2nd, midnight, and he can either sign the legislation, it becomes law, or exercise a pocket veto. So based on what we've seen play out thus far, I think there's a high likelihood to see a number of vetoes increase. All of the approved bills will go into effect July 1, unless there is a delayed enactment clause or reenactment clause. So in addition to the legislative amendments, the governor, like I mentioned, had 205 budget amendments, most of

[02:15:39] which were rejected by the General Assembly. And so it's in the same 30-day window, May 2nd deadline to take action. Casey's going to go through a few more of the budget-related topics. So at the end of this session, it was further complicated. Of course, we're now also still reviewing, handling the disruptions at the federal level and all of the uncertainties regarding federal funding, staffing cuts. So both the House and the Senate have established special committees to continue to review this topic. And so we've been in attendance at those meetings

[02:16:13] thus far that they've held. And so there's still speculation as to what those impacts could look like. We're still keeping a pulse on those topics and we'll continue to evaluate if there's going to be any local impact. Just before we dive into some legislative highlights, there will be a full comprehensive report that we will publish, share with you all. It will be available online once there's final action on all of the legislation from this session and the budget. Mr. Minks will provide a legislative action packet for you all to review during your June meeting in which there will be bills that you may take action on prior to July 1. So just some bill highlights in the K-12

[02:16:53] space. I want to just make note that, you know, we were disappointed on the governor's decision to veto SB 1307. That was Senator McPike's bill that would have provided localities, all localities across the state. Nine are currently authorized to be able to ask voters if we could enact an additional 1% sales tax for school construction.

[02:17:14] So again, just disappointment on that front. Now on the public safety side, critical importance was med flight funding. That language remains intact in the budget. And so it is going to ensure that we can continue to have funding for the med flight medics that Chesterfield staffs on the med flight helicopter in partnership with the state police.

[02:17:33] The governor, or excuse me, the general assembly rejected the governor's amendments to the ALPR bill. That was House Bill 2724. Therefore, we're still waiting on the outcome of, wow, that's going to shake out. As you may recall, there was a number of bills this session dealing with land use topics, data centers, energy, solar facilities, affordable housing, accessible dwelling units, recovery units.

[02:17:56] Many of those bills were on repeat from last year. A number of those have failed, ones that didn't fail but made it through session. There were a number of those that were vetoed this session. Last December, there was the large data center JLUC report that came out, And so a number of bills were submitted this session to address some of the recommendations, to implement some of those recommendations.

[02:18:16] Very little was actually taken action on. There's, I think, one maybe still alive that we were following. And so on that particular one, the amendments were not adopted, the governor's amendments, and it's back to him, and it's an enrolled form. So still waiting to see. Faith in housing was a big topic in the 2024 session.

[02:18:35] It came back this session, although significantly revised due to a lot of work that went on at the housing commission last summer. And so delegate cars, HB 2153 was approved. That's requiring DHCD to develop a document that provides options for localities to be able to implement different strategies that are considering affordable housing for property owned by property tax exempt nonprofit organization. So not specific to religious organizations, but in that same vein that bill also establishes a work group to bring that recommendation document forward by December 31st. And so ultimately it's a permissive local option if we decide to do something with that.

[02:19:15] Delegate Sewell's HB 2533 modifies existing code that clarifies comprehensive plans can designate areas for various residential types that now explicitly can include tiny homes and ADUs alongside age-restricted units. That has been approved by the governor. We flagged about a half dozen solar-related bills ranging from local land use authority to state oversight and most of those have failed or were vetoed by the governor this session. There were a few bills related to recovery residences, so that's been a priority topic here in the county. Delegate

[02:19:51] Coyner's bill had focused more on the land use side. That bill ultimately failed. Senator Van Valkenburgh's bill, SB 838, was approved. That was introduced primarily to address a lot of the concerns and issues happening in Henrico. It's built to address regulation and oversight on recovery residences. The first thing it does is change the penalty for operating uncertified recovery residents from a class, excuse me, from a civil penalty to a class one misdemeanor.

[02:20:20] This bill puts in place a work group with very specific guidelines as to what the work group will be tasked with, pushing DBHDS to be the overseeing agency, state agency, to provide administration and oversight regulatory also opening up for localities to have more um ability to react for inspections and things like that so with the work group that's going to be occurring this summer we have our own bailey hillard who is going to sit on that work group offering her lens of expertise on this topic and so that report is due back out to the general assembly november

[02:20:57] first with the intent to see legislation come in next session that will put these tighter regulations in place for the operators. So again, that bill was approved. The development community strongly advocated for House Bill 2660. This was introduced by Delegate Simon. It modifies Virginia's local government subdivision approval processes by shortening various timeframes.

[02:21:18] And so this will also mandate a work group coming through the Virginia Code Commission to have stakeholders review other code processes related to the subdivision and site plan reports. And so that is due back to General Assembly November 1st.

[02:21:35] We've already had internal meetings, too. And so, like Mr. Gillies presented earlier, there may be an item coming before you to address some of these changes. Delegate Bennett Parker introduced HB 1996. It modifies code related to public notices, specifically for planning and zoning actions.

[02:21:51] And so it reduces the required time between the second notice and the meeting from seven to five days. The bills looking to establish the retail market for cannabis, they were all vetoed by the governor. There were several bills approved related to local government finance.

[02:22:08] HB 1743 by Delegate Watts is amending, her bill was amended substantially from when it was originally introduced, but establishes a work group to study BPO taxes and deductions for out-of-state receipts. SB-1402, introduced by Senator Serville, modifies regulations around the Transmute Occupancy Tax Administration.

[02:22:28] And so this is related to short-term rentals. The bill establishes that if an accommodations provider has all of their sales facilitated by an accommodations intermediary, they can submit a yearly form to the tax authority instead of monthly tax returns. And so this bill was brought forward by Airbnb but negotiated with the commissioners, and so it has been approved.

[02:22:49] HB 1901 establishes the Virginia Sports Tourism Fund and this will provide grants to sports tourism activity sponsors as it's defined in the legislation. Funding is still under consideration because the budget has yet to be approved. And I just want to mention that Senator Surveil's collective bargaining bill was vetoed by the governor and the veto was sustained.

[02:23:11] So in conclusion, I mean, that was just a highlight. There was, again, a number of other bills that you guys will get a full briefing on in the comprehensive report, but ultimately the 2025 session ended rather uneventful. As for next steps, we're still waiting to see what the outcome will be by midnight of next week. There was a event yesterday. It was the Virginia Agricultural Trade Conference, and so during that event, the governor did provide a remark that signals maybe we'll have a budget next week, said he will be signing the budget. What that looks like, we don't really know, but there's maybe some opportunity there. And so I just want to, then I'm going to

[02:23:51] turn it over to Casey. She's going to go through some federal updates and budget update stuff too, but just, we will have a comprehensive report. You'll see some more information in June for anything that you have to take action on that. I'm turning to Casey. Good afternoon. As Natalie already mentioned, we are still waiting on the governor's responses to the legislature's actions on all of his budget amendments and vetoes. The governor communicated that his proposals were intended to hedge against economic uncertainty, and he did that by redirecting $300 million from spending items included in the General Assembly's proposal into state reserves.

[02:24:26] This included 205 budget amendments and eight line-item vetoes. The House and Senate collectively rejected 172 of his amendments, leaving 33 largely technical amendments alone, and also two of his vetoes were ruled out of order.

[02:24:44] At this point, the governor has four possible paths before him. He could sign the re-enrolled bill as the General Assembly passed it earlier this month. He could take no action and allow the re-enrolled version to pass. He could line item veto any funding amounts he proposed amendments to, or he can reject the budget outright, making no changes to the existing budget.

[02:25:06] That said, as Natalie mentioned, the governor made remarks yesterday stating that he intends to sign the budget next week, that it's not clear whether this may or may not include line item vetoes on some of those items. Not much has changed since our last budget update to you all. So I'll just remind you about two K-12 funding items that are still on the table.

[02:25:25] The support position cap, as passed by the General Assembly, the budget functionally eliminated the cap on recognition of support positions in FY26. The governor proposed to reduce that amount. So basically when the General Assembly passed it, it was almost 28 support positions per 1,000 students.

[02:25:46] He took that down to 25.5. The General Assembly rejected that amendment, bringing it back up to their original proposal. And so that is now back before the governor. We could see a line item veto. We could see him pass it as the General Assembly passed it. The other item is the $1,000 bonus for teachers and support positions.

[02:26:05] This bonus was included in the budget passed by the General Assembly. was not touched by the governor in his amendments. And so we are expecting to see that in the mix for what he passes as well. A couple other topics include the compensation board.

[02:26:20] They held their budget public hearing last week. We continue to monitor that for specifics as to the distribution of additional resources proposed for Commonwealth attorneys as well as circuit court clerks. Though the governor did not amend any of that budget language, it would appear that the comp board could wait for a final approval of the budget before they share information on the distribution of those new resources.

[02:26:43] They meet again tomorrow to approve their budget. They are required to do that by May 1st, which is a little bit before his final deadline on the budget. So if they don't include those new positions tomorrow, we will most likely get information on timeline, at least on some comp board changes.

[02:27:00] At this stage, we're also closely monitoring several finance topics at the federal level with some consideration to our level of exposure on some potential changes in funding, the first of which being ARPA funding. So far, that remains available for use. As Congress passed that language, there's been no changes that would affect our use of those dollars.

[02:27:21] We are perfectly on time with that schedule. We have fully obligated our $68.5 million prior to the December deadline, and only $8 million remains to pay out at this point. Our next quarterly report is due by the end of this month, but I just want to reiterate we are not concerned at all about them trying to recapture any of those funds from us, we are still okay on that front.

[02:27:45] Last week, we submitted applications for congressionally directed spending and community project funding for Interstate 95-Willis interchange improvements. And we submitted those to Senators Cain and Warner as well as Congresswoman McClellan. We're also gonna be submitting a community project funding request to Congressman Whitman for Poet Parkway funding.

[02:28:04] And as part of those applications, there will be a resolution of support that's before you this evening on your agenda. Just a couple other topics at the federal level that we're just keeping an eye on. Tax-exempt municipal bonds. So the tax-exempt status allows municipalities to borrow at a lower cost for capital projects.

[02:28:23] If there were a change to this policy, it could increase our cost to borrow for bonds such as our bond referendum from 2022. Assuming a 2% cost increase that could have an impact of millions of dollars, NACO lobbies pretty aggressively on this topic.

[02:28:40] This isn't the first time that this has been up for discussion at the federal level. So they are keeping us informed. We are attending their weekly webinars on federal changes. And so, so far, just keeping an eye on that topic as it could have an impact on us. Similarly, Medicaid, that topic features pretty heavily in the budget reconciliation discussions this month.

[02:29:01] Could be impacted by changes at the federal level as well as at the state. Medicaid is a huge portion of the state budget changes for this second year of the biennium. We're also keeping an eye on federal pass-through funding for programs like Medicaid, SNAP, TANF, as well as other programs in the community.

[02:29:17] You guys might have seen Head Start in the news yesterday. So other topics that arise that relate to federal funding, we're just keeping our finger on the pulse of those topics as they relate to Chesterfield. I'll pass it back to Natalie. I just want to say thank you to you all for your support throughout this session and as we continue to start building out what will be the next legislative program as well.

[02:29:36] And then just a big thanks to all the folks here in Chesterfield. So, again, we're very fortunate to have the team that we have and the level of expertise that we have to be able to react so quickly and provide feedback to all of the legislators. Thank you. Any questions? Board members, any questions? E, financial update, Mr. Harris.

[02:30:11] Mr. Chair, members of the board, it will be relatively brief. this afternoon. I've got just a couple of, no slides, just a little conversation on some budget matters, and then I've got a lengthy list of consent highlights that we'll run through while I'm up here. But I think as Mr. Durkin and myself told y'all throughout the season, it was going to be a busy, full finance calendar all the way up through 630, and certainly shaping up to be that

[02:30:49] way. We did get some good news. I reiterate Ms. Spillman's comments a few minutes ago. It looks like the governor's budget will come together in a way that we had originally envisioned. And so it shouldn't be a whole lot of modifications if that holds to what the school board sent over and you ultimately approved. So we would be able to do that cleanup work in May, but it doesn't look like we need any wholesale changes from that process. The tonight begins really sort of a two-month process for you all to take the next steps with some of the year-end surplus dollars

[02:31:28] that you set aside back in December. So it would be a normal course of business. We closed out the books in October. We usually have a work session in November. We come back in December and you'll make assignments or appropriations depending on the circumstances with those surplus monies.

[02:31:45] We had about $30 million. You cut that in half for two purposes, one of which was a 5% one-time credit on the June 5th real property bill. And then $15 million was set aside for capital needs, basically funding gaps in existing capital projects. So nothing new, but just sort of, you know, the contract environment continues to be a challenging one.

[02:32:14] And so we, even before we kind of got into the tariff talk, we knew that there were going to be some needs there. Tonight, you have a consent agenda. You have the appropriation of that $15 million. So we wanted to wait until the budget was in place and do it in that sequence. So we will bring that back to you tonight. No public hearing. It's a consent item, straight appropriation to $15 million. That's what goes against the June 5 bill. It gives you that on average, that 1.3, 1.4% year over year increase in that real tax bill. So that's the first half of deal of that

[02:32:50] tonight. It will come back in May. Let me back up just a second. Also on your consent agenda is to set a public hearing for May, where we will ask you to do some amendments to your current year capital plan. And that is based first and foremost around the other half of that surplus back from December. So we set that aside for school capital projects. We've been talking in this room and in on finance for months, if not bordering on years that, you know, we knew going into the referendum, you know, we needed as much funding as we could.

[02:33:26] School like Midlothian Middle School was half in the referendum and certainly the prices have not broken in our favor generally. So trying to set funds aside for those purposes. And also we have a number of, again, active projects, not part of the budget that you just adopted, but just previously approved projects need some funding. The headlining one there is the HVAC replacement at the jail across the street.

[02:33:52] So that project's been awarded and just needs some of that appropriation from December. So that's what we will set that public hearing tonight, come back in May, and you will address whatever that list is. We have briefings set up with each of you to go through those candidate projects.

[02:34:11] That culminates on May 14th. We have an audit finance committee meeting. We'll be able to have some public discussion. And then that leads us into the public hearing in May to deal with those items. In June, we'll come back your traditional first year in where we deal with some actions to close out the fiscal year. You will make some assignments with some of those funds. At that point, a good example would be Mr. Holland, the unassigned fund balance policy. That's when we make those additions to that, trying to get us to that 10% mark. It'll put us at sort of the top of class. So we'll deal with that as your normal year end. You'll also have a paper from

[02:34:50] schools. We'll work with them on that. And in June, we will also begin to do some of the bond resolutions. We're taking the one-year pause on the county side, as we talked about throughout the budget process. But schools does have a very active capital campaign underway. So we are still in the market to sell some school bonds. So you will have some approvals associated with that in June.

[02:35:11] We'll be talking to the rating agencies between now and then, and then we will actually sell those bonds, market conditions, if hold up in July. And we're in right now, not part of your agenda per se, but we are doing a surveillance audit from some of the agencies just related to some of this federal stuff.

[02:35:33] So that's a typical process. So we'll have probably as early as Friday, perhaps, we'll have sort of a review from them. We've sent them a lot of information, but they do that. Anytime there's a disruption in the market, they want to see how is it affecting you, how are you planning, how did you budget for this for the upcoming year.

[02:35:53] So we are doing that work now, but all early signs are very positive. So with that, I'm happy to take any questions, kind of setting the stage from May to the end of the fiscal year. Board members, any questions? Thank you.

[02:36:11] F, consent agenda highlights, Mr. Harris. Yeah, so you have, as you're already aware, you have a very sizable consent agenda. You've heard about some of those from myself, from Ms. Walker.

[02:36:27] I'm going to walk you through 10 other items. Again, it's just a very active agenda that's piled up for tonight. You have five set public hearings, primarily in kind of the community development space. The first allows for multiple signs at public facilities.

[02:36:42] I think Cosby High School was the best example there. You have two sort of set public hearings for transportation programs, the six-year secondary road plan, as well as the transportation alternatives plan. Those are normal course of business.

[02:37:00] You come back, you review those projects, and that is submitted on to VDOT and others. So that will happen in May. Again, just setting tonight, more details will come out over the course of the next month. You have a set public hearing to consider amendments to the comp plan.

[02:37:16] I think you heard some of that earlier. Dr. Casey mentioned that, Chapter 9, the environmental chapter, adding two sections there and cleaning up some language and some other attachments that are associated with that. And then lastly, amending county code for illegal activities in county parks today.

[02:37:35] I think that exists as park rules, And the goal here is to make these something that Colonel Carpenter and his staff could enforce on the police side of things for certain categories, dealing with things like amplified sound, projectiles, fires, those types of items.

[02:37:54] So that concludes your public hearing sets. You've got two awarding of contracts, $1.9 million for the permanent restroom facilities at Daniel Park.

[02:38:09] The Diamonds and Iron Bridge has been out there. We've been in some temporary facilities for some time. They've been working through designing those, so that's an exciting add to that facility. And then there is $2.5 million for a water line at Stillbrook for the utility system.

[02:38:26] Wrapping up, you've got three sort of real property-type highlights here. There is a property on a ram circle that is being asked to declare a surplus and then also authorize staff to proceed selling that property, hopefully to someone in the housing community that can rehabilitate it and get that back into useful shape.

[02:38:51] You also have a right-of-way issue for the realignment and reconstruction of Duval Road. And then finally, authorizing staff to perform certain administrative functions for the naming and renaming of roads after folks that have fallen in the line of duty, whether that be public safety, military, whatever the case might be, so vesting some of those authorities to the staff.

[02:39:17] So with that, that wraps up your consent highlights for tonight. Any questions? Board members, any questions? Thank you. Item five, reports. Are there any questions regarding the reports?

[02:39:37] Seeing none, the reports are approved. Item 6, 15-minute citizen comment period on unscheduled matters. We have no speakers. Mr. Chair, we need a motion to recess for dinner in room 502. So moved. Second. Which one of you wants?

[02:39:53] It doesn't matter. All in favor? Aye.

[02:41:05] Good evening and welcome to the evening session of the April 23rd Board of Supervisors meeting.

[02:43:51] I verify that all board members have received copies of the comments posted on the online comment portal for consideration on matters before us here tonight. these comments are part of the public record and will be attached to the meeting minutes at this time i'll ask mr carroll to give the invocation thank you mr chair you know i sometimes when i do this i will prepare remarks and i didn't prepare remarks tonight i don't necessarily think that you always have to have prepared remarks to pray the lord so if you all join me dear heavenly

[02:44:26] father we ask for your guidance tonight as we work to do the business of our community to make sure that we are wise in the decisions that we make and we and we we support one another each and every day we support our community each and every day and we ask that you would keep the people in our community our public safety safe i'd also ask as we have continued to ask that you continue to

[02:44:58] heal my good friend mr holland and keep him safe for us as well we ask this in your name lord amen we would like to call forward deputy county administrator matt harris to lead the Pledge of Allegiance.

[02:45:21] 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. Item 10, County Administration Update, Dr. Casey.

[02:45:42] Good evening, members of the board and the public that's here and the public that's watching and staff that are crossing paths with us right now. But what they are doing is something very special in setting up what we call our Student Art Project Presentation. And I think there's many people in the first three rows here that are going to be getting together with you as five board members, if you wouldn't mind coming down now, as we do a very special unveiling of five district paintings done by our own high school students to complement the wall to the left of me, as you recently have done in complementing the wall to the right of me with the historical nature of all of the predecessors of board of supervisors of years past.

[02:46:22] So we're here to do a short presentation. It's alphabetical.

[02:46:28] good evening mr chair members of the board my name is jimmy hurd visual art curriculum

[02:47:21] specialist in chesterfield county public schools and it is a distinct honor to introduce you to such a talented and accomplished group of students here to unveil a new permanent art display each artwork that you're about to see represents one of our five magisterial districts and is the product of months of planning research and creativity led by our amazing art students and art teachers here in ccps this collaborative opportunity was introduced by natalie spillman chesterfield county's intergovernmental relations director who acquired the wooden services for the

[02:47:58] artwork as well as designed the accompanying plaques these artworks will be installed here in the public meeting room very soon and were designed to complement the existing board recognition plaques. After each school unveils their artwork, one of their students will be speaking to you about their vision and approach to the creative process. To begin the unveilings, I'd like to introduce Chiara Vicente of Thomas Dale High School, who will be sharing details

[02:48:27] about the Bermuda District artwork. Good evening, my name is Chiara Vicente. Our artwork is a tribute to the Bermuda District, a place woven together by history, industry, and nature, framed within the borders of a postage stamp the piece symbolizes connection between past and present land and water tradition and progress through vibrant colors and flowing compositions we have captured the essence of our district where

[02:49:04] movement growth and legacy shape the community at the heart of the composition a winding road takes viewers on a journey through Bermuda's landmarks a snake road nicknamed for Ruffin Mill Road curves through the landscape passing Sunset Memorial Cemetery where the descending sun and warm color palette honor those who came before us. The historical significance of the district is further highlighted by Henrique's Historical Park with the architectural form of Mount Malady subtly hiding a single Lego and not to Chester's evolving landscape now home to a new Lego production facility. Rising

[02:49:43] behind Thomasdale High School the water tower stands as a familiar beacon. Below the flowing waters of the James River and Appomattox Rivers mirror the movement of people and time, just as the I-95 sign marks Bermuda as the only district with an interstate, bringing travelers from across the country.

[02:50:02] The land itself tells a story of cultivation and innovation. A budding tobacco plant plays homage to the crop that established the district's early economy, while a spiraling strawberry plant represents the Plenty Richmond Farm, the first in the world to grow indoor, vertically farmed berries at scale.

[02:50:21] High above it all, a train's winding smoke and the distant Verina-Enon Bridge reinforce the theme of connection, linking past to present, industry to nature, and generations of families to the land they call home. Through this piece, we celebrate Bermuda's rich tapestry, a district defined by movement, legacy, and an enduring sense of place.

[02:50:42] I'd like to introduce Saru Mindalapu of Clover Hill High School, who will be sharing details about our Clover Hill District artwork.

[02:51:00] My name is Saru Mindalapu, and I am a senior at Clover Hill High School and a member of our National Art Honor Society. When our NHS chapter was asked to create a piece of artwork that visually represents the Clover Hill District, we decided to really dig into the history of the area.

[02:51:18] We did some research on the historical industries that originated here, such as coal mining, as well as historical landmarks like Rockwood Park, which was originally a plantation. We wanted to incorporate as much as possible, originally using the shape of the district to guide the negative space in the piece.

[02:51:37] After several drafts, we came up with this work, which highlights the most important and beautiful parts of the district. the parks. In our piece, we incorporated the River City Sports Complex, Rockwood Park, and the Swift Creek Reservoir, as these areas are spaces that only hold natural beauty, but promote health and well-being as well. To represent Rockwood, we added the notable Rockwood Gazebo. A fisherman relaxing on a dog represents the Swift Creek Reservoir, and the children playing in a soccer

[02:52:13] match represent the River City Sports Complex. We wanted to create more texture for the piece so we added some rocks along the reservoir bank and we chose all these spaces with the trail to direct the viewer throughout the image. We also sculpted dogwood blossoms to create dimension and doing so created a border that encompasses our composition and represents the state of Virginia. As a whole our selection of notable areas are meant to emphasize our interactions and relationships with the natural beauty of the Clover Hill District and how this district celebrates and

[02:52:49] enhances the natural spaces that are important to the culture and the history of the area. I'd like to introduce Ralphie Almonte Sosa of Meadowbrook High School, who will be sharing more about our Dale District artwork. Good evening. As a representative within the Dale District of Chesterfield County Public Schools I'm here to represent this work of the Dale District this painting created in collaboration with Meadowbrook High School Art Club and the art department of the and the students of

[02:53:26] MBK represents the most prominent landmarks of the Dale District of Chesterfield County Public Schools these landmarks are as follows a spiral slide representing Harry G Daniel Park an airplane representing many planes fading into the skies from the Chesterfield Airport, a metal bridge portraying the structures of Pocahontas State Park and the Chesterfield Courthouse. This art piece wouldn't have been possible without the contributions of both the Meadowbrook Art Club hosted by Miss Lane and Miss Ferreiro and the students of Miss Lane's classes. The students both in the Art

[02:54:02] Club and Miss Lane's class originally began this painting with a simple graded background of a combination between blue and white, taking much inspiration from the Colors of Middlebrook and L.C. Byrd High School, which are navy blue and gold, navy blue, gold, and navy blue and white, respectively. Afterwards, the students in the art club and Miss Lane's class began painting the landmarks by sketching rough outlines in pencil and then outlining the landmarks with the usage of white paint.

[02:54:33] These outlines were later further refined to create uniformity. Afterwards, some students began to create multiple zentango patterns as a way to continue filling in the space that was left behind by the painting of the landmarks.

[02:54:50] As a result, the students were able to successfully create a simple, magnificent piece of art in the commemoration of multiple landmarks within the day-old districts of the CCPS. Art at first glance, this painting, may just be simple, wondrous illustration of landmarks of the Delo District.

[02:55:11] However, I'd argue that this painting represents something much greater, the fostering and creativity among students. This is the perfectly shown by the collective effort involved, the creative minds of the students in both Art Club and Miss Lane's class, which helped with solving many of the problems that were faced during the art process, which the collaboration of these students' complex problems were solved with creative solutions.

[02:55:37] I sincerely thank the students of MBK Art Club and the teachers of the Art Department and the teachers of the Art Department and the students for continuing to foster human expression with art. Thank you. I'd like to introduce Charlotte Henderson who will be sharing details of our Matoka district.

[02:56:03] - Hello, my name is Charlotte Henderson and I'll be presenting on behalf of the Matoka district. While there was a scheduling conflict to attend this evening, I prepared a statement, I have a prepared statement, excuse me, written by Pacey Hatcher of Matoka High School, which describes this masterpiece.

[02:56:21] When Matoka High School was asked to create a piece of art that represents our district, we decided to focus on the beauty of Pocahontas State Park. First, we researched the history of the area, determining that the park was named after Chief Powhatan's daughter, Pocahontas, also referred to as Matoka.

[02:56:37] The scene we built encompasses the features of the park, the symbolism of virginia and the history of our community we decided to complete our piece using multimedia so that the viewer can get a true sense of the environment the river was painted with watercolor the stones are made of clay and the tree trunk was textured with real bark leaves and moss were collaged together to make up the foliage and the bridge was constructed from tiny twigs the canoe made of leather has a common native american symbol for the sun on the side sitting atop its edge and is a red cardinal showing homage to our state, Virginia. I'd like

[02:57:15] to introduce Brinkley Porter of James River High School who will be sharing details about our Milothian District artwork. I have created this piece with the history and environment aspects of the Milothian District to mine. I use places like the Milothian Mines, the old Bonaire structures to show culture of our county. The James River flows through the piece bringing the viewer's eyes to the unique qualities that this district has to offer. Although James River is just the tip of our district, it plays a huge part in creating a community for the Milothian

[02:57:55] District. It gives opportunities for schools to explore new sports like crew and fishing. A playful energy and greenery really shows the nature of this county and the environment that is put into making everyone feel included. I am very thankful to be part of this opportunity to

[02:58:14] create a piece that is uh respected in the area that i grew up in and came from thank you wow i have to say i believe every board member is going to say they're most partial to the one that was done for their district but i truly am um i think all of these works of art are wonderful i think

[02:58:50] they're great representations of the county and they're going to look great on this wall where all of our citizens come to see the work of this county done. Good job to everybody involved on the stage and anybody in the audience, anybody else at home that participated in this work. It's

[02:59:09] amazing. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you all. We can go back. Mr. Chair, if it's okay,

[03:00:35] I'll just finish up my county administrative comments. I think I have one comment ahead of you, Mr. Carroll. Yes, sir. I just want to say that that is absolutely amazing what we just saw, And I don't know if any other counties or cities in the country have done anything like that with their students.

[03:00:53] But if they haven't, if you're watching somewhere else, you can copy us because this is absolutely amazing. And those kids, all of them, the teachers, everyone involved in that, I mean, I'm speechless. It's unbelievable.

[03:01:09] Those things are unbelievable. That is just unbelievable talent. I know I wasn't that good when I was a kid. I can tell you that. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will echo what Mr. Carroll has said. I also want to add that how each one of the districts has its own personality, its own way of being in the world, and yet it makes us all one amazing county.

[03:01:33] So I just love how that has come together in the way it did. Okay, if everyone else is going to talk. So I was creative. Art was my life. And so when I was growing up, and these are awesome things that I wish we would have had.

[03:01:51] Well, and we did do some, but we didn't do them for this. Yeah, so I mean, it was cool that we've given them a platform to have their art seen here in the county buildings by all sorts of people, and that's an awesome thing because sometimes people do art and they don't think it's wonderful because people don't see it, and so I think it's great.

[03:02:12] Art is wonderful for what it is, and so when people see it, that gets more appreciated. So thank you. Mr. Chairman, if I may, I want to thank all of you for what you've done, a tremendous job. You captured Dale well. I love the blue and the airplane.

[03:02:29] We can fly you in and fly you out. So either way, have a great, great time. We appreciate you. You make Chesterfield unique. Thank you. Mr. Chair, again, thank you for the time, for being up there and to the students themselves.

[03:02:47] And I think we complete the picture of this boardroom on the left and the right. i had seven other things just to share with you one takes a little bit longer but the other should be fairly quick but if jc poma or sports visitation entertainment director to share with you some details and some special guests that may be here for restaurant week and then he's also going to share a special recognition to one of his employees yes mr chair members of board thanks for having us back to talk a multitude of things very quickly but first chesterfield restaurant week before i get going if my team that is here would come up for a second.

[03:03:22] You're all back there somewhere. As they're walking up, I think it's been two years since this department was started and it's been a tremendous honor to work with the best staff, but while they're up here today, I think you all know how close we've been and the things our department has stepped up in each other's absence this year. But take a look. Everything you're going to see today with Chesterfield Restaurant Week happened because of the three fine folks behind me. All had to step

[03:04:00] up, you know, in tragedy. And so I just would like to give them a quick round of applause for all they've done this year. And that's Katie Hardell, Liz Hart, and Matt Mullen. So thank you all for your commitment. And we really appreciate it. What we'd like to do today is really talk about the partnerships behind an entity like Chesterfield Restaurant Week. Everything you see in the media, blogs, social media is a byproduct of why we do this. The money we raise for the

[03:04:36] Chesterfield Food Bank, unbelievable. But we do this because of our business community. Everything you see coming out of our department is in support of our hospitality community. Having a hospitality community like what we do is what helps us diversify our economy through tourism. And that is our number one goal in sports visitation and entertainment. But looking at Chesterfield Restaurant Week, before I bring up some of our partners, as you know, we're just two weeks out from it, so data is literally coming in by the day. We just got all of our CBS data, 1.3 million impressions throughout the week, unbelievable data. But some of the ones that I think are worth

[03:05:16] reporting on here quickly, last year we had 39 restaurants, this year we had 60 participating restaurants. You know, I think Mr. Ingle, as you, as I was walking in, just said something about uniqueness in Chesterfield or Mr. Carroll. Chesterfield Restaurant is a unique thing that I can guarantee you no other local government department is doing, at least around here. And so we're very proud to support 60 restaurants. Just heading into, Katie hasn't started the kind of processing of all the Restaurant Week menu items, but the food bank already has $7,780

[03:05:52] in donations through the donation QR code, which is a really great start. I think last year it was around $200 to $250 average per restaurant back. So you take that times 60 and I think we'll be at the June check presentation really happy with the support we can give to families in need in Chesterfield County. Everything you see below us is just unbelievable data, but you'll hear from two restaurants here in a second but one of the things I really wanted to highlight and I think it's our team's goal is this year we're able to have 19 restaurants have their own unique segments

[03:06:30] via news radio things like that we just got some data in as I said today when La Milpa for example was on Virginia this morning doing a cooking demonstration that's 12 to 13,000 people that tuned in for that that now know all about La Milpa and all of our Chesterfield Restaurant Week participating restaurants. What you don't see and why we do this is the branding behind our restaurant community. Each restaurant got their own unique custom created menu. That's effort that we wanted to put in so that the brand of this week shines through just like the restaurant week

[03:07:07] guide that I know all you shared. That's not just for restaurant week. That's to really help shine throughout the year and be a dedicated hub for our restaurant community. So I say all that. This is a really important element for showcasing our hospitality community. We can't do it without our business owners. You'll see a few examples on your screen. I think my team, one of the most enjoyable parts about the week is going out there and seeing everything in action, seeing the social media posts tagged, and just really seeing that experience Chesterfield brand come to life in our business community. If I could have Matt and Candice and then Kelly and Kathy, You can come up after they're done.

[03:07:46] But we really wanted to bring you a couple of restaurants. I'm sure we have 58 others that would speak very similarly. But I'd like to let Mr. Carroll come up here. I know he has some kid duties to get to. So we'll let him talk about why this is important for a restaurant in Chesterfield.

[03:08:05] Or brewery in this case. How are you doing, board members? I'm Matthew Carroll. Excellent last name, sir. I own Funktastic Meads and Beer.

[03:08:23] We're located on 1212 Alversa Plaza, right across from Chesterfield Town Center. So we're actually one of the, I think, one of the most unique businesses here in the county. We focus mainly on meads.

[03:08:41] We do have beer now in the portfolio as well. But mead is essentially the world's oldest alcohol that nobody knows anything about. So for us, we're doing some crazy things with mead. And the Chesterfield Restaurant Week was really unique for us.

[03:08:58] I would also like to thank the Experience Chesterfield team, Katie, Liz, and Matt. Those guys were all over advertising. also helping us with our branding within the community. Believe it or not, we are more well known globally and nationally than we are here in Chesterfield County. It's kind of a crazy statistic, but we've got people from all over the world and all over the U.S. ordering products

[03:09:36] from us so we can ship them to them. We actually just shipped a pallet of meat today to China. Despite the tariff issues, products still going to China. So as a function of Chesterfield Restaurant Week, the team had us as a highlight with one of our plaza partners, Taza Kitchen.

[03:09:59] So we're constantly working together as businesses. They had this great idea to do a highlight with Taza Kitchen. So we at the meadery can actually have customers come in, place an order with Taza. Taza delivers it right to their seat. So this was a really important part.

[03:10:21] The highlight was a really important part for us for Chesterfield Restaurant Week. I had a number of customers that came in and said, we're here because we saw this highlight and we're excited that we can get meads and beer and food from Taza all in the same place. We did serve one specific alcohol for Chesterfield Restaurant Week, so we developed a cocktail called the Buzzy Bee, which is essentially a mead hatton. So it's kind of a play on the Manhattan, a unique

[03:10:56] bourbon-inspired mead with a honey vermouth that we prepared, bitters, and a Luxardo cherry. So we made that cocktail specifically for this restaurant week. We probably otherwise would not have had it. In addition to all that, we're super excited that we're able to raise money for the Chesterfield Food Bank. I am constantly participating in fundraisers, specifically on the sports side that's where i'm headed um my daughter plays in the county um and you know

[03:11:32] we're i'm thankful that we did this um just as a fun fact i know um jc had a whole list of um you know cool no numbers and quotes and things like that but when i moved here um richmond restaurant week was sort of the highlight um we as chesterfield restaurant week more than doubled the number of restaurants that Chesterfield has in their current restaurant week so I think that's I think that's an accomplishment just from the county's perspective so thank you for your time

[03:12:05] and hopefully I'll see some of you in in the metering appreciate it and now Candace with King's Corner and no I will not be asking for the family discount good evening and thank you for allowing me these few minutes to speak tonight my name is Candace Vaden and my husband Logan and I are the proud second generation owners of King's Corner Catering and Restaurant which is

[03:12:39] located at the Chesterfield County Airport this August we'll be celebrating our 43rd year in consecutive business Logan who couldn't be here tonight also serves the community as a Chesterfield firefighter in Enon together we've helped to start ECOF Athletic Association and we have four kids that we're raising here who are very involved in the community and we love being part of Chester Field and watching it grow. When we were asked to be a part of Chesterfield Restaurant Week and we learned that part of the proceeds would go to helping the Chesterfield Food Bank, we jumped at the opportunity. It has been a wonderful experience for us, even though it just happened a few weeks

[03:13:19] ago. Meeting so many new faces at our restaurant was one of the highlights, and several of our customers mentioned that they saw us featured on the news, and that's what brought them in. But what was particularly meaningful was that many people that we spoke with said that they were there because they understood that part of the proceeds were going to benefit the Chesterfield Food Bank and we feel like that connection to a worthy cause definitely resonated with the community. Restaurant Week also encouraged us to step outside of our comfort zone and we are known

[03:13:56] for our southern comfort buffet but this event gave us the opportunity to introduce new dishes several hamburgers and a couple of sandwiches and a rib basket that we will now have on a permanent menu the connections that we've made with other local restaurants and their owners have been invaluable and we feel like there's something very special about being part of a community that works together so thank you for supporting initiatives like restaurant week. We believe it will continue to make a positive difference for King's Corner in the months ahead, and we deeply appreciate the platform it provided to support important

[03:14:34] community organizations like the Food Bank. Thank you. On your screen there, you'll see some other participating restaurants, the surveys, the data, the testimonials are great, but there's, you know, nothing more important than our hospitality community supporting an entity like the Food Bank, so glad to have some of the team here. Thanks, JC. It's nice to see for faces up there. It doesn't make this experience quite so scary. I want to, on

[03:15:10] behalf of Chesterfield Food Bank Outreach Center, I want to thank Chesterfield County, Experience Chesterfield, the Chesterfield Chamber of Commerce, and the amazing restaurant partners and staff in the entire community for the generosity and care that went into making Chesterfield Restaurant Week a success yet again. Last year our combined efforts raised over 44,000 meals for local families in need. This year we're on pace to exceed that which is really amazing.

[03:15:43] We always talk about the numbers but the impact really means something. A couple months ago I met a veteran who had walked in our door. He had to ask for help for the very first time in his life and we were able to serve him. So it's folks like him is the reason why we do things like this. I think that it's my job to promote the work of Chesterfield Food Bank. They do amazing things. Chesterfield Restaurant Week is one of the greatest ways that you all have helped us be able to promote the work of the food bank through a community-wide effort. We have gained so many new supporters through this

[03:16:22] experience, not just from the restaurants, but the patrons who maybe knew that there was a food bank, but what are they called where do we go everybody wants to help with food insecurity that's something that i think we all realize that no one should have to deal with and whether you're on the giving side or the receiving side it's important that you know where those resources are how can you give and how can you receive if you're somebody who's in need and this this event really really puts us on the map and we're so appreciative of that you know as the primary organization meeting food-based

[03:16:58] needs across the county. We simply couldn't do this work without our community. So I thank you for that. It truly takes a village. Thank you very much. With that, run through a couple of quick updates for you. Coming up on May 31st, as you'll see on your screen, is the Chesterfield Outdoor Fest, which is now presented by a new business in Midlothian, Academy Sports and Outdoors.

[03:17:28] many of you were there last year. It's expanding to live music. We'll have three performances, doc dogs, all these great things. I know Neil's here somewhere, his team in collaboration with SVNE. It's a tremendous community event that we are really, really looking forward to.

[03:17:45] So make sure for those watching both here and on the TV to mark your calendars for May 31st for the Chesterfield Outdoor Fest. Also, one of the brainchilds of Liz Hart, again, our focus is supporting our hospitality community. It is an integral part of tourism and visitation. American Craft Beer Week, I don't know if Mr. Carroll's, other Mr. Carroll's still here, you know, we will be highlighting all of those folks who will, a week-long social, an influencer initiative to, again, tell the story of our business owners throughout Chesterfield County. With that, I'd like to have Matt start

[03:18:21] walking up here sports ETA is kind of our parent trade association it's where we meet many of these event operators that you all see and at the different fields and complexes across the Chesterfield County and it's an honor to go to these we are one of 600 destinations that are at these competing for all those tournaments you see and we do this because not just of Matt the tremendous efforts of Katie with community engagement with Liz with the brand that really has come to life in Chesterfield and beyond but it's also because of the relationships we build with

[03:19:00] these event operators they know that when they come to Chesterfield it's that first choice first choice service really we have the facilities but the facilities is not what cuts it and so I I was personally very, very excited to see Matt honored as a rising star at sports ETA when there's 1,500 people there. And I'm sure many hundreds of nominations to have someone on our team that can handle this and really be that liaison of these groups. That's why you see what you see at our

[03:19:35] facilities and complexes. So please join me in congratulating Matt. It's a tremendous honor. With that, if you have any questions about Chesterfield Restaurant Week or anything else, we'd love to take them now.

[03:19:55] And thank you, Dr. Casey. Board members, any comment? Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you, Mr. Poma. I just have a few more things, but they'll go rather quickly. I'll try and use this April meeting each year as a reminder for tax bill due dates that are upcoming and the various payment options that the treasurer has worked out for people.

[03:20:18] As many know, our personal property, first half real estate. Personal property taxes and first half real estate taxes are due June 5th. So to avoid penalties and interest, there's many ways to pay. But a suggested role is to use the payment portal where you can even set up automatic payment plans going forward to never miss a deadline.

[03:20:38] The second thing I have is in March 2025, Virginia Business Magazine, a statewide publication, recognized Chesterfield in a variety of manners. Economic Development Director Garrett Hart was their featured Virginia Spotlight Person of the Month. In addition, the magazine featured the top 15 projects by investment in the state, of which Chesterfield was two of them, Topso and Condare.

[03:21:02] And it also featured the top projects by employment in the state for a period of time. And it was Condare, Super Radiator Coils, and UPS. As an FYI, no other locality had more than two businesses represented in that publication.

[03:21:19] Our workforce is our strength, as you have said most often, and the board support is evident in everything that we try and do to recruit, retain, and reward. That has come to fruition in the most recent years for us being awarded the USA Top Workplace Honors. In this particular year, though, we got additional recognitions for Top Workplace for Work-Life Flexibility and Top Workplace for Purpose and Values. We also received the Top Employer for Interns by the Virginia Talent and Opportunity Partnership. So again, appreciate the board's support of our workforce and appreciate

[03:21:53] our workforce for doing these independent surveys, arm's length from us in that survey study. Our fleet services, a division of general service, has once again been named a top 50 leading fleet facility by Government Fleet Magazine. In order to qualify for the top 50, which is again amongst the entire country, your fleet facilities have to be performing at a high level of leadership, efficiency planning for the future and overcoming challenges speaking about drives and things we've done for non-profit organizations mental health support services did their annual diaper drive

[03:22:32] and again thanks to NBC 12 on your side for advertising it as such it was a record year of collection for 59,000 diapers to those that are in need and of course we do participate in that program throughout the year, and there's ways to donate via our website. And then last but not least, Chesterfield Fire and EMS is participating in the annual Light the Night for Fallen Firefighters campaign, April 27th to May 4th at our Fire EMS Memorial, part of a nationwide campaign that encourages the illumination of fire stations, landmarks, and residence homes in red

[03:23:08] for the week leading up to the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Service in Maryland. You You know, this year is especially difficult for some members of our department in the loss of Lieutenant Talbot in December after a short but valiant battle with cancer.

[03:23:25] And again, just with residents who would like to participate in the Light the Night campaign in support of our fallen firefighters and their families, we're just encouraged to register online with the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. Mr. Chair, that concludes my report. Item 11, board member reports.

[03:23:44] I believe you're up, Ms. Snyder. Thank you. Sorry, it was a busy month. so this was the groundbreaking at the park at river city sportsplex so in march the county officially broke ground on the park at river city the latest addition to the 16 field complex that attracts teams nationwide for youth tournaments this park will include a 2 000

[03:24:18] square foot spray park with water features a destination playground a game space for tweens and teens, an accessible climbing structure that looks like a blue heron. It's awesome. And multiple walking and exercise trails. And the tree that's there behind us is going to be the Christmas tree for the Clover Hill Christmas tree lighting in November, the weekend before of Thanksgiving or the week of Thanksgiving. So hopefully you can come out and join us.

[03:24:51] And the park is scheduled to open in the summer of 26. So I went on a tour at the Children's Museum of Richmond. But we have our own here in Chesterfield.

[03:25:07] And I think a lot of people maybe don't know about it. It's in the shopping center just before the Swift Creek Reservoir, next to Ferguson Plumbing. But it's a great place to take your kids, get them if a rainy day or whatever.

[03:25:24] but I had the opportunity to tour the museum. The museum is located, like I said, at the Winterpaw Crossing Shopping Center and features Animal Clinic, fantastic features. They have, like, sponsored stores like Wegmans and Marco's Pizza, and so they teach, and all of them teach the kids different things, like they have math problems on the walls or that thing right there was really fun.

[03:25:49] It had, like, water-flowing demonstrations, So please go take your kids if you have them, or grandkids. It's a great day. RBA Teen Summit. This is a great thing that happens down at the convention center every year.

[03:26:10] This is high school students from across central Virginia come together. This was the third annual RBA Teen Summit. The kids spent the day connecting with peers, exploring job opportunities, engaging in hands-on activities and raising their voices against community violence.

[03:26:30] I think they had like almost 1,000 kids this year. It was awesome. All right. GRTC Transit and the Chesterfield Restaurant Week Tour. So Deborah Gardner and I, who's one of our state legislators, we went on a tour with some of the ladies from the office from, well, because it was during Women's History Month, so that was an awesome connection.

[03:27:01] But we had Link pick us up at my house, and Link is, I think I've talked about it before, the GRTC Microtransit. You just enter in your address, and they come and pick you up if you're in the Cloverdale District, and they take you anywhere within the Cloverdale District.

[03:27:19] So we went to La Milpa and had lunch and then got dropped back off and experience one of the restaurants for Restaurant Week as well. So it was a great day. Rockwood Park, renovated garden plots for the community gardens.

[03:27:43] The Chesterfield's oldest park is Rockwood Park, and it's celebrating its 50-year birthday this summer. This milestone comes with exciting improvements, including 80 new renovated garden plots available to rent. Community members will be able to plant and grow fresh produce while also cultivating community spirit and strengthening connections through environmental sustainability. This investment will offer educational opportunities with the master

[03:28:11] gardeners and promote wellness and environmental stewardship. This was the senior prom at the, and this is when I say seniors, I mean, I was kind of offended. They said I was 50 and older, So that means I was actually, I could have attended, but that's, so Senior Prom is hosted by Parks and Recreation and the Aging and Disability Resources, and was once again a big hit.

[03:28:43] Those old folks, they know how to dance, let me tell you, they were out dancing me. The event is held at the Manchester YMCA and included Night of Music, Dancing, Refreshments, and Raffle Prizes. And last, oh, wait, last, is that the last one?

[03:29:01] No, I got one more. This was my podcast. I sat down and discussed focus on Chesterfield and Clover Hill District projects planned for 2025. We spoke on the budget, Southside Speedway, Chesterfield Restaurant Week, the new developments at River City Sportsplex and Rockwood Park.

[03:29:22] And the podcast is available on any of the platforms, including the county's YouTube channel. And finally, yesterday we celebrated the official opening, the ribbon cutting of the Horner Run Apartments. This brand new affordable housing community developed by Better Housing Coalition has 49 units that range from one to three bedrooms for families earning between 40 to 60% of median income.

[03:29:50] Plus, there's also eight fully accessible apartments. this community is built for everyone and we also have some set aside for some of our community services board clients as well so it's just a wonderful project and they already have a waiting list so we need to do more so thank you so much that is it mr holland thank you mr chairman i had the pleasure of attending the transformational church spring celebration where i shared updates

[03:30:24] disregarding the Dale District. It was wonderful to see the joy of children participating in an Easter egg hunt and to support local vendors and small businesses. I also appreciate the opportunity to connect with faith-based community organizations that were there that day. Next slide. Oh, back.

[03:30:48] Okay. Okay, there we go. Okay, very good. And also, I had the great pleasure of doing a ribbon cutting with my colleagues and others for the Beulah Cricket and Pitch Multipurpose Field Ribbon Cutting. The fantastic addition to the Beulah Park is part of a nine acre project that will eventually include a batting cage, restrooms, splash pad, playground,

[03:31:25] and walking trails. The facility will certainly boost their local support for tourism by bringing teams from up and down the East Coast to Chesterfield's unique cricket park. In addition, next slide, in addition, I had the pleasure of attending the Delta Sigma Theta, Inc. event

[03:32:00] that was held at Meadowbrook High School and it was called the Youth Explosion at Meadowbrook along with our own Ms. Connolly. Young leaders, expiring leaders, had workshops on attending college, on interaction with local leaders to include police and others in the community.

[03:32:26] It was a very informative session. I had the pleasure of, as mentioned, bringing the greetings And I'm sorry I don't have a picture with that, but I'll get into one next time. Next, lastly, Save the Date Memorial Day Ceremony.

[03:32:45] The Chesterfield Supervisors invite you to join us at the annual Memorial Day Ceremony on Monday, May 26. This event is held at the Chesterfield County Fairgrounds and remembers and honors those who've made the ultimate sacrifice to our country.

[03:33:07] It is a moving time, if you've never attended, very moving, as we see young people and older people as well join in to remember those from Chesterfield paid the ultimate sacrifice.

[03:33:24] That concludes my report, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Mr. Carroll. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I actually have one, too, that's not in the slide, so I'll get to that at the end. The first slide, please. So, like the plaques that you see on the wall there, which show the history of the Board of Supervisors, we had the honor of attending the Sheriff's Plaque Unveiling Ceremony, which took place to honor both current and former sheriffs for their dedicated service to Chesterfield County.

[03:33:59] The celebration acknowledged the historical contribution of the Sheriff's Office and featured keynote speakers, Sheriff Carl Leonard and former Chesterfield County Sheriff Clarence Williams, who delivered heartfelt remarks about his experiences when he was sheriff. The Sheriff's Department was established in 1749, was one of the first official acts of the county crucial role in shaping Chesterfield in one of the most sought-after localities in Virginia.

[03:34:24] The board expresses our gratitude for the service provided by the Sheriff's Office and takes pride and publicly honor the names of those who have served and continue to serve Chesterfield County. And it's not on here, and I don't know if it's actually in anybody's slide, but we do have a memorial service coming up on May the 8th. Here, it'll be held outside at 11 o'clock in the grounds where our memorials are, both for the Sheriff's Department and the Police Department. It's actually a public safety memorial for state police as well. And interestingly enough,

[03:35:03] probably people don't know this, but the first line of duty death recorded in the United States of America was one of the first one of our sheriffs here in Chesterfield County. Next slide please. I had the honor to attend the volunteer recognition ceremony each year. The board has the pleasure of going to this and really you know I think Matt may be talking they talked about it earlier in the presentation about how many volunteer hours we get every year from our volunteers and it's absolutely incredible. The residents that continue to volunteer who make a difference each and every day in the lives of Chester County's people.

[03:35:42] The recognition ceremony, again, is used to celebrate these community champions, really, people who give of themselves selflessly and share their time and their talents and compassion without expecting anything in return.

[03:35:57] I think it's really about the return is you get into things, you get out of things what you put into it, and they do an incredible job for us. And, you know, the board, we've all said this, we're very grateful there, and all of those individuals. And I personally want to extend a heartfelt appreciation for everything that they do. It's really amazing. And there was, you know, the guest speaker was from my district and she has just a tremendous story that she shared about her life and challenges. Next. We had

[03:36:30] opportunity to, and Mr. Holland, it was in the Dale district, to attend the bronze star ceremony for members of the Virginia Helicopter Aquatics Rescue Team, V.A. Hart. We attended the awards ceremony for them a few weeks ago, and were able to see an unbelievable video of the rescues that these people performed in southwest Virginia.

[03:36:57] Major General James W. Ring, who's the Adjutant General of Virginia, awarded the Virginia Guard's Bronze Star Medal to members of V. Hart for exemplary service under hazardous conditions in southwest Virginia last fall as Hurricane Alene flooded many areas. VA Heart is a partnership between Cheshire Fire and EMS and the National Guard.

[03:37:17] Two groups have been in existence since 2011, but this was the first real-world rescues they've made utilizing black helicopters for hoist rescue missions. Cheshire's team members were also awarded Cheshire Fire and EMS Medals of Valor during that ceremony that we had previously spoke about.

[03:37:34] Again, unbelievable. The videos are unbelievable. Thank you every day to our firefighters who risked their lives to save the lives of many, specifically in this case, who may not otherwise have been rescued. And, I mean, to see these people hoisted down 200 and 250 feet from a helicopter to rescue people was very brave and very amazing.

[03:38:00] It's funny, actually, this morning, my board colleagues and I attended a recovery court graduation. Recovery court is a treatment alternative to incarceration for adult offenders. with a substance use disorder before the Chester County and City of Cologne Heights Circuit Court. And I would tell you, it was to listen to the stories of the three people who graduated today and what they've gone through and where they're at now.

[03:38:25] It's amazing, and we wish them all the best of luck. But they participate in a five-phase treatment program moving at their own pace based on how quickly they meet their treatment goals. The program lasts about 14 months, And there's a definite transformation in the people we saw this morning.

[03:38:45] Next slide, please. Just as an FYI, on May 3rd at 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., we'll have Echoes of Joy Celebrate Community Day. It's down at the Ettrick Park. There'll be food, music, entertainment, bounce houses, face painting, and much more.

[03:39:03] It's a great event if you can come on out. And the last thing that's not on the slide is I had the opportunity to attend a community meeting with the residents of Dogwood Villas on Monday, and there was probably about between 60 and 70 people there. They had great questions about the Matoka District and the county, and we spent almost two hours there, and so it was a great opportunity to answer questions for the community, and I would say if there's any other neighborhoods or homeowners associations. I know we would all do it if asked. If you have any questions or if you need us to

[03:39:42] come out and meet with you, just reach out and we will do it. Mr. Chair, that concludes my report. Thank you. Dr. Miller. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The first slide is the annual CSB annual dinner that I attended with, I think Jessica was there and Kevin was there. And I know Kelly Freed, I know you're in the audience this evening.

[03:40:10] Thank you for all the work that you do. Thank you for all the community work that we do. The dinner served as a wonderful reminder to the incredible work that the Community Services Board is responsible for. It includes comprehensive services to those living in developmental disabilities or individuals experiencing serious mental illness or substance use disorders.

[03:40:32] I worked there for 13 years. It's an honor to have been working there and to continue the work that you all do. It's just doing great work in the community, so thank you. We also participated in the annual training event hosted by the Chesterfield Suicide Awareness and Prevention Coalition this past March at Bright Point Community College.

[03:41:01] This year's theme was Building Resilience, is a community endeavor, building hope through recovery. This training holds significant importance as it educates residents on mental illness, identifies risk factors for suicide, and highlights resources available within our communities.

[03:41:18] If you are in need of resources, please reach out to chesterfield.gov and just mental health support services. You're gonna notice there are two pictures there. This is one of those kind of rare opportunities I have to bring together my whole life when it comes to my professional career.

[03:41:34] On your left, you're looking at the team at Chesterfield Mental Health, I'm sorry, at Bright Point Community College and the professional counselors, we help folks every day with disabilities and helping with accommodations. It was nice to have that and then also to have Chesterfield Mental Health there too.

[03:41:52] So it felt like a sacred marriage to be spending the day with both parts of my professional career. My wife and I were, my wife joined me for the Forest View Volunteer Rescue Squad's annual awards banquet where we recognize the many dedicated highly skilled volunteers for their dedication and personal sacrifices made in order to provide essential services to our community.

[03:42:22] This is the third year that we have gone together and it's such a powerful evening to see what our volunteers do through Forest View and through the Rescue Squad. It's just such a community there and And so it's one of the highlights that my wife and I just enjoy going to over the last three years.

[03:42:48] As a proud member of Sportsbackers Board of Directors, I had the pleasure to run again, I think this is my 20th time running it or something like that, for the U-Crops Monument Avenue 10K earlier this month. I saw so many friendly faces, including Chesterfields Academy Sports Outdoor Store Manager Izzy Rojas, a picture with me here.

[03:43:11] we already talked about academy sports is really beginning to integrate themselves into our community. They're on Midlothian Avenue and Izzy was able to come down and just welcoming them to the community. Since 2,000 people run from the Richmond region and beyond have gathered to share the thrill of crossing the 10k finish line, the Ucrops Monument Avenue 10k supports two incredible charities, the VCU, Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center, and sports backers youth programs.

[03:43:46] Also proud to say that I had the chance to meet with representatives from Bermuda Air who shared some exciting news. Travelers, if you haven't heard already, will now have the opportunity to fly directly from Richmond International to Bermuda. I am thrilled to witness how we are becoming increasingly connected to the world and eagerly anticipate my next visit the Richmond International Airport I do want to mention that we're we're looking for the possibility of other international flights so keep an ear and an eye out for that it's extremely exciting as

[03:44:19] Richmond continues to grow and the Richmond International Airport does play D I'm sorry playground for Katie and friends the ribbon cutting I am happy to say it was a long time in waiting but Huguenot Park has officially opened the newly renovated playground for Katie and friends. Jane Warwick, mom of two, whose daughter Katie lives with a disability, was inspired to create a space where individuals of all abilities could come together to play. With the support of

[03:44:56] her non-profit and donations made by the county, the playground was created in 2003. Recognizing the playground's popularity, Parks and Rec gathered community input that led enhancements such as smooth surfaces for easy access for all equipment, a shared structure for primarily the parents who are hanging out in the middle of the summer as the kids are playing, and a fully fenced-in property.

[03:45:21] The board is thankful to Katie and her family for being at the event and inspiring our community to create a playground that is successful for all. We're going to be talking with Stuart still here. We're going to be honoring you in a couple of minutes, but Stuart Conner was a really big part of creating this.

[03:45:37] 20 plus years ago and then again to just go through that renovation. It was incredibly powerful. All the kids there as we were getting ready to cut the ribbon, let me tell you, the speakers, they were not interested in. All they wanted was to go play. So when we opened up the gates, I mean, there were well over 500 people there. And it was just, ah, it was just such a special evening. Also yesterday, we unveiled a memorial to honor and remember the 40 coal miners who lost their lives with the Grove Shaft Mines, which was the present-day Midlothian Mines Park.

[03:46:18] Today, the two-story granite ruins of Grove Shaft stand as a sole architectural remnant of a once-dominating local enterprise connected to coal mining in the Richmond Coal Basin as the first commercial coal mining venture in North America. A very powerful day. It is extremely humbling to know that there are still folks that they could not recover that are in that shaft. So it was a beautiful weather and an opportunity for us to come together and honor

[03:46:48] them. Mr. Chair, that concludes my report. Thank you. All right. The life and legacy of Pocahontas or as was stated earlier, Matoka. More than 400 years after her death, we commemorated the life and legacy of Pocahontas with a special event at Henrikus Historical Park. John Bacano, Historical Interpretation Supervisor at Henrikus, gave the keynote presentation about Pocahontas and her time here in Chesterfield. We appreciate all who joined us, including the members of the

[03:47:26] Mattapunai Indian Tribe. Next. Last month, after a delay because of weather, last month we celebrated the annual Black History Month Breakfast and Scholarship Recognition Program for six Chesterfield high school seniors who were awarded scholarships by Chesterfield County, Chesterfield County Public Schools, and Virginia State University. This year's scholarship essays asked students to reflect on

[03:47:59] the 2025 Black History Month theme, African Americans in Labor. The winners were awarded $2,500 scholarships with one selected from each of the county's five magisterial districts and the sixth was chosen from the regional governor's school. The board is proud to support the Chesterfield students and looks forward to seeing the impact that those students will make.

[03:48:23] And I would add that the president of Virginia State, I believe, offered them $250 cash from him to attend a tour of Virginia State that day. So if they're listening and they haven't gone yet, I want to remind them to go collect on that and make sure they go on that tour.

[03:48:47] Qantas Park, that was many years in the making. My board colleagues and I joined us at Qantas Park to celebrate their new Qantas Park opening. The park included a lawn area, walking trails, historical interpretive signs, and community garden plots.

[03:49:08] The Qantas Club of Chester donated the land in 2008, and since then, the Park and Recs Department has been working on a plan to revitalize this space. Unfortunately, we were able to work with the citizens in that area and finally bring that to fruition, and many of the people in the picture are actually people that did work originally on the park grounds to try to open that up with the Qantas, so we're very thankful to them and to the community for coming out to support that new pocket park. Next slide. P&K Group Groundbreaking. P&K Group,

[03:49:47] a developer specializing in the next generation industrial buildings, has officially broke ground on more than 800,000 square foot facility. That's a very, very big building. This project is a significant investment that will impact the county by generating employment opportunities and contributing to economic growth. We look forward to see the industrial developments that will emerge from the P&K group and their initiatives. Next slide. Sophia Marie, I'm still not 100% sure how

[03:50:24] to say their last name, but Sophia is actually the daughter of the chef. So I thought that was very great that they were able to name and she's i think you can see her in the center right over top of the scissors she was able to put her hand on the top and bring it down for this ribbon cutting chestfield's been become even sweeter with this groundbreaking groundbreaking in our grand opening i'm sorry the uh pastries are delicious and you have to try everything in

[03:50:58] display case i wanted to believe me i did but um it was filled with so many uh with scones croissants cinnamon rolls cookies of all different kinds and flavors and on fridays she makes a special bread that you can only get there on fridays and if you want to get it you probably need to pre-order it or they're going to run out it's that good next slide chesterfield ymca um right now they are in

[03:51:32] the process of a renovation to enlarge and expand the current facility. The new facility have a larger lobby, expanded wellness center, a new group exercise studio, and a kid watch area that will double the previous size in that space. The work they're doing over there for the community, not only in that building, but in other neighborhoods around the Bermuda district is incredible. And the partnerships that they are bringing in with other churches to

[03:52:08] expand that work into other neighborhoods is truly remarkable what they're doing to serve the community over there. So we're very thankful to see that they're able to expand the size and the capacity there to serve more citizens again on site, but that buildings still can't contain their work it's going through the whole community thank you for everything you're doing chester why in the y and all of chesterfield and that concludes my report item 12 resolutions and special

[03:52:44] recognitions a resolution recognizing mr stewart w connick jr upon his retirement will mr connick

[03:52:52] and his guests please join the board on the stage madam clerk will you read the resolution yes sir

[03:53:35] Whereas Mr. Stewart W. Connick Jr. will retire from the Chesterfield County Parks and Recreation Department on May 1st, 2025, after 26 years of dedicated service to the citizens of Chesterfield County, and whereas Mr. Connick began his career with Chesterfield Parks and Recreation in 1999, after a successful career in private practice as a registered landscape architect with Resources Planners, Inc., and Wilson, Morrith, Connick, LTD, And whereas Mr. Connick was hired on March 22, 1999, as a senior park planner and was promoted to chief of parks on June 24, 2000.

[03:54:16] And whereas Mr. Connick created an expanded capital planning and construction management division within the department and served as chief of parks for parks planning and construction services from 2000 to 2001. And whereas Mr. Connick was promoted to the position of Assistant Director of Planning and Construction Services on June 26, 2021.

[03:54:40] And whereas Mr. Connick has been a member of the American Society of Landscape Architects, the National Recreation and Parks Association, and the Virginia Recreation and Parks Society, and was instrumental in securing the department's first successful agency accreditation through the Commission for Accreditation of Parks and Recreation Agencies in 2018.

[03:55:04] And whereas Mr. Connick, through both his career in private practice and subsequent 26-year career with Chesterfield County, has been professionally involved in every park construction and improvement undertaken by the department since its founding in 1971.

[03:55:20] And whereas the first public park in Chesterfield County, Rockwood Park, was designed in part by Mr. Connick while in private practice and will celebrate its 50th anniversary this coming July. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors this 23rd day of April 2025 publicly recognizes Mr. Stewart W. Connick, Jr.

[03:55:43] and extends on behalf of its members and the citizens of Chesterfield County appreciation for his years of exceptional service to the county and be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be presented to Mr. Connick and that this resolution be permanently recorded among the papers of the Board of Supervisors for Chesterfield County, Virginia. Can I get a motion? Second. All in favor? Aye. Wow. 26 years after 24 years? It's only 50. You don't have any more? Because I tell you, when we need to know

[03:56:20] how something was designed or is being designed, we call you, and we're not going to know who to call if you actually retire so you're just doing this for fun right no well we appreciate all that you've done to help design wonderful parks in Chesterfield County that our citizens enjoy each and every day our parks especially during COVID became very I became very aware of how important

[03:56:52] those parks were during covid and um since then hasn't let up and i know that they with 50 years at rockwood we have a long history in that a lot longer than that but that's how long i've really paid attention to the parks unfortunately i hate to say that but um i know there's some other board members that probably spent more time in the parks than i did but i know that my son and his girlfriend went to the park today for a walk so thank you for the design of the park that allowed them to do that any other board members still I just want to say thank you for everything you've

[03:57:32] done for the county you know I've had the pleasure of working with you closely now for the last couple of years on the Ebbington Foundation you're a consummate professional we are going to miss you so don't change your number you know occasionally we may call and say hey but you know this is a this is a having retired from the county and now you're going to retire from the county you're figure it out after a little while, she's going to have a big list for you. So you're not going to be retired. You're going to actually wonder one day, how did I ever work with all the things

[03:58:09] I have going on being retired? So we wish you the best of luck with that big list that you're going to have because we all get them. Congratulations. Hey, Stuart, when I heard you were retiring, my reaction was, I don't think you're going to be able to retire because I don't think you're going to get three votes from the board of supervisors. I just don't think it's going to be possible um you know folks will ask you what did you do for your career and the answer will be i created laughter and play and fun for an entire county and that just for me you know

[03:58:47] looking back on uh you know with the kind of career that you've had is just so much to be proud of and uh thank you from a very grateful group of kids including my two children that spent so much time playing at Huguenot Park in the playground there that is something that is in with the Miller family's hearts and you had so much to do with creating that so thank you so much take this opportunity to say thank you Stuart for everything you've done for Dale

[03:59:23] and for the sisters and for this support you've made a difference thank you and your family as well thank you so Rockwood being in my district I'm I'm very partial so um and I can't think of any better way of celebrating your retirement than having the celebration at Rockwood this week.

[03:59:45] So it's going to be amazing. So thank you so much for all that you have done. And you, I'm sure, have sacrificed some time away without your husband at home as well because he's just so dedicated to what he does. And we will miss you.

[04:00:01] So thank you so much, Stuart. Well, Stuart, on behalf of Neil Luther, the director of Parks and Rec and myself, just a simple thank you. I first met you, I believe, in 2013 before I even came to Chesterfield when I was also on the Henricus board. And I remember sitting next to this person.

[04:00:18] It was like, wow, he really cares about this place more than anyone else around the table. And I didn't realize at the time you were an employee because you just cared with your heart and soul about something that was the dirt of Chesterfield County. It took me a couple months to realize that you were actually with Parks and Rec. And the amazing thing about Stuart Connick is we would have a meeting and, you know, there'd be some parcel or something that could be three acres in a rectangle.

[04:00:41] And we'd say, Stuart, you know, we may have this three-acre rectangle. And about a half hour later, he already had a map of what it could look like. And we almost had to sometimes say, hold on, you know, we still need to buy it or acquire it. And you're going to make it cost more if you make it look like we can do more with it than we are currently saying.

[04:00:59] But you've done things amazingly. You know, before the advent of all the fancy tools of computers and technologies, I don't know how you did it, but, you know, the way you were able to map things and think things through, and for the most part, your first drafts of what you've come up with really are what we ended up doing.

[04:01:15] You know, we may not have done it all at once. We might have done certain parks and phases, but the visionary that you are is all across. I mean, just in the board reports that were here today, your fingerprints were all over today and wasn't by chance. It's almost every month your fingerprints are forever in Chesterfield County.

[04:01:34] So just as a small token, on behalf of the workforce, what I have is a brick with your name and your tenure of service here. And the same brick will be permanently installed in front of the historic courthouse forevermore for your friends and family and your peers to see.

[04:01:53] You've mentored us all, and you've made Chesterfield a better place, so it is now your turn. Well, just so everybody knows who's up here with me, my wonderful wife, Sally, right here, and then down this way, my daughter, Michelle, and granddaughter, Shelby, my daughter, Stephanie, and grandson, just turned one on Sunday, and I got to see him walk for the first time, Oliver, and son-in-law, Andy, so great to have them with us.

[04:02:27] Two other children there in Philadelphia and Boise, Idaho, a little bit of a long trip to come in for this. So send them the link. Hopefully they're watching.

[04:02:43] We're not going to go long here. I just wanted to get the words out properly. Dr. Miller was talking about the excitement at Huguenot Playground and Katie's Playground, and I had a whole pile to say, and you just saw this mob of kids and everybody. So I didn't cover half of it, so I just wanted to start.

[04:03:02] And to begin with, thank my wife, Sally, who has supported me along the way, sharing in the good moments and listening to my vetting on the not-so-good days. I've thoroughly enjoyed my time here. It has allowed me to come to work every day and do something that I love.

[04:03:21] I've been very fortunate in my education and career. I knew early on that chemistry major was not for me. Luckily, I learned about this profession called landscape architecture because I was always an outdoors kid.

[04:03:39] And so in that planning and designing outdoor recreation facilities and spaces was how I wanted to apply my education and training. So I was able to do that first, as was mentioned in the resolution, and being part of a thriving landscape architectural practice.

[04:03:57] Worked all over the state for over 40 municipal governments, state agencies, and universities doing parks and rec projects. And more importantly, Chesterfield County was one of my clients from 1978 when they passed the bond issue and really started building the park system.

[04:04:17] I used to have at that time, it was Phil Hester was the director and Mike Golden. Every two weeks for two years, they'd come to my offices and we'd roll out new designs for what was going at the schools, what was going at the parks to spend the money. So they'd been a valuable client.

[04:04:34] And then I got to come here. A job opened up. I thought it would be a good fit for me. And I said, I'll give it a couple of years. We'll see how it worked. Obviously, it worked very well. So 26 years later, I got to do what I loved in the county that I raised my kids in and use the parks.

[04:04:53] And a lot of faces here tonight enjoyed working alongside some great dedicated people here at the county, all of us working towards a common goal to make parks the best they can be for our citizens and our visitors.

[04:05:09] And over that career, seven different parks and rec directors. I don't say that I survived, but I enjoyed working with. So I'd like to thank the department and the county and this board for the opportunity for not only career advancement here, but giving me the opportunity to work on some great projects and make a difference and to create lasting public recreation spaces.

[04:05:39] No better example is the reopening of Katie's Playground last night. The positive energy there is still with me. So I want to thank my longtime staff members, Margie Bryan and Lance Wilson, who have been with me for over 20 years, and my two newest staff members, Laura Baker and Chris Hale, for the journey they just shared with me this last year.

[04:06:02] You can be assured that the department is in good hands with the planning and construction services team, my group, and the whole leadership team under Neil Luther. Good things are coming ahead with continued growth and revitalization of the park system.

[04:06:20] As we've said, Rockwood celebrates its 50th anniversary in July. You can be sure all of these grand openings are going to be on my calendar, and I'm going to be following behind all of the great things the department's going to do in the future.

[04:06:34] so thank you very very much item 13 new business a approval of Colebrook project performance grants

[04:07:53] Mr. Smith well Ms. Schneider you know we were at a ribbon cutting with our friends for better housing and coalition just yesterday on on hoarder run you said we have more work to do so here we are I also have our friend Mario Wells from better housing coalition is with us tonight in case you have any questions about this particular project Mr. Engel this one's in your district it's been around for a while. Really exciting project for the Colebrook, which is 165 units. This is the standard performance grant agreement where it's a 10-year abatement on the incremental real estate

[04:08:27] taxes, starting at 80% for the first seven years, then sliding down to 60, 40, and 20. Does require your approval, but it is on the agenda tonight. So happy to answer your questions. Again, Mario's here if you have any project-related questions as well. Board members, are there any questions for Staff. Seeing none, any further discussion? I get a motion. So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye.

[04:08:57] B, appointments. Mr. Chair, we have two appointments to the Camp Baker Management Board. Motion to approve. Second. All in favor? Aye. C, consent items. Mr. Chair, there have been no requests to remove items from the consent agenda for public comment. Do any board members have any items they wish to remove? Need a motion to approve the consent agenda. So moved. Second.

[04:09:30] All in favor? Aye. Item 14, 15-minute citizen comment period on unscheduled matters, we have no speakers. Item 15, deferred items from previous meetings, we have none.

[04:09:47] Item 16, zoning requests. Mr. Chair, all seven of your cases this evening are on the consent agenda. For the benefit of the public, consent cases are those cases where the applicant accepts staff's recommendation and there is no previous opposition.

[04:10:02] 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 propers are offered in compliance with state law. First is 22SN0128 in Dale Magisterial District.

[04:10:20] Perfect Cleaning Service Rezoning and Exceptions is a request for rezoning from Agricultural A to Community Business C3 with conditional use plan development for exceptions to ordinance requirements on 1.64 acres. known as 7325 Ironbridge Road. The continued operation of a cleaning business with equipment storage on the property is proposed. This business includes a contractor's office, accessory storage buildings, and an outside storage area where additional equipment for the business is being parked. Planning Commission and staff recommend approval subject to the

[04:10:55] conditions in your staff report. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing on case 22 SN 0128. Perfect cleaning services, rezoning, and exceptions. Is there anyone who'd like to speak to this case? If so, please come forward and state your name. Chairman, landscape architect for this

[04:11:31] project. I agree with the staff report and Ryan Ramsey and I have been working long and hard on this. We hope to make this a good place, an existing old home that's turning into a thriving new business for the county, but I did want to take the time just to acknowledge the fact that while it's been a protracted project in its application, we work very hard with our neighbor, Wawa, who's coming on board, as well as some other issues that we just had to work through in coordination with Wawa and VDOT and CDOT, and I hope that this won't

[04:12:11] be the last time that I come before you on this because we have some other plans that I think will be even further enhancements. But the property that they own is part of the pending land use plan amendment for the area along Route 10.

[04:12:28] And we're trying to defer that activity until a later time. So we look forward to doing some more good things there. Thank you. Thank you. Any other speakers? Seeing none, I'm going to close this public hearing.

[04:12:43] It's back before the board. In this case, it's in the Dale District. Mr. Chairman, I move approval of Case 22-SN-0128 in the Dale Magisterial District. That would be subject to the conditions. And the associated conditions.

[04:12:59] Thank you. All in favor? Aye. Next is 24-SN-1244 in Bermuda Magisterial District. Spreaker Recreational Vehicle Parking Exception is a request for conditional use to permit one recreational trailer and one recreational vehicle to be parked outside of the rear yard in a residential R15 district on .57 acre known as 2921 Blythe Drive. The applicant has agreed to relocate an existing

[04:13:33] carport into the interior side yard so that the recreational vehicles can be parked behind the dwelling in the interior side yard. In addition, the applicant has agreed to plant additional landscaping along the driveway to lessen visual impacts of the recreational vehicles 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 one two four four spryker recreational vehicle parking exception is there anyone who'd like to speak to this case if so please come forward and

[04:14:11] state your name seeing no one i'm going to close this public hearing it's back before the board It's in the Bermuda District, and I make the motion to approve case 24-SN-1244 subject to the conditions in the staff report.

[04:14:31] Second. All in favor? Aye. Next is 24-SN-1296 in Bermuda Magisterial District. James River Dental rezoning is a request to rezone from Agricultural A to Neighborhood Business C2 on one acre known as 11630 Chester Road.

[04:14:50] The applicant's business, James River Dental, operates on the parcel to the south of the property shown in green. The applicants are seeking to rezone the property shown in yellow to allow for a future expansion. This expansion could include a new parking area as well as an addition to the existing office to the south.

[04:15:09] The applicants have proposed proper conditions that will limit uses permitted on the property to office uses that are consistent with permitted uses in the corporate office O2 zoning district. The Planning Commission and staff recommend approval subject to the conditions in your staff report.

[04:15:26] Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing on case 24-SN 1296, James River Dental Rezoning. Is there anyone who'd like to speak to this case? If so, come forward and please state your name. Seeing no one, I'll close this public hearing.

[04:15:45] It's back before the board. This case is also in the Bermuda District. and just like to thank businesses that have been operating in the county for a long period of time and want to expand their business. We want to help them to the best of our ability, and we're able to do so here.

[04:16:01] So I make the motion to approve case 24-SN-1296, subject to the conditions in the staff report. Second. All in favor? Aye. Next is 24SN1327 in Matulka Magisterial District.

[04:16:20] Tickle recreational vehicle parking exception is a request for conditional use to permit parking and storage of a recreational vehicle outside the rear yard in a residential R15 district on a .69 acre parcel known as 9229 Oak River Drive West.

[04:16:37] The RV cannot be parked in the rear yard due to the location of the applicant's pool, pool house, equipment, and deck. However, the proposed parking location of the recreational vehicle is behind the front plane of the home as depicted by the red dashed line on this aerial view.

[04:16:54] The Planning Commission and staff recommend approval subject to the conditions in your staff report. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing on case 24SN 1327, Tickle Recreational Vehicle Parking Exception.

[04:17:11] 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 it's back before the board and this case is in the matoka district thank you mr chair to my knowledge no one came forward at the community meeting or at the planning commission spoke against this case um i think that uh um if you look from the picture the vehicle is tucked in uh behind the front of the house and there's also a heavily wooded tree line alongside of it to actually hide it from the neighbors.

[04:17:47] I think it's an appropriate use to make a motion to approve case number 24 SN 1327 subject to the conditions in the staff report. Second. All in favor, aye. Next is 24 SN 1337 in Dale Magisterial District Uphoff Car and Air Museum is a a request to amend zoning approval case 91 SN 0222 relative to proper conditions plus conditional use to permit a privately operated museum and conditional use plan development to permit

[04:18:24] exceptions to ordinance requirements in the light industrial I-1 district on 2.71 acres known as 7400 White Pine Road. A building addition would add approximately 21,000 square feet to an existing 14,000 square foot building that will feature automobile and airplane exhibits along with an accessory restaurant. Exceptions to parking are also being requested. Planning commission and staff recommend approval subject to the conditions in your staff report. Ladies and gentlemen, this is

[04:18:58] a public hearing on case 24 SN 1337, Upoff Car and Air Museum. 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 it's back before the board in this case is in the dale district i move approval of case 24 sn 1337 along with the associated conditions this would be a very nice addition

[04:19:27] to the dale area and especially a restaurant second all in favor next is 24 sn 1342 in clover hill magisterial district xl sports world turf fields is a request to amend zoning approval case 87 SN0016 relative to proper conditions in the light industrial I-1 district plus conditional use to permit a private athletic field on 10.91 acres known as 2300 Oak Lake Boulevard.

[04:20:04] The applicant currently operates an indoor sports and fitness facility on the property that includes synthetic indoor athletic fields with an accessory restaurant. The applicant has acquired additional property and is planning an expansion to include two outdoor synthetic turf fields with additional parking. 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, SN1342, XL Sports World Turf Fields. Is there anyone who'd like to speak to

[04:20:37] this case? If so, please come forward and state your name. Seeing no one, I'll close this public hearing. It's back before the board and this case is in the Clover Hill District. Thank you. This will be a great addition to the genital road sports theme that's going on there to go along with the sportsplex etc so i move to approve case number 24 sn1342 subject to the conditions in the

[04:21:09] staff report second all in favor aye last is 25 sn1021 in clover hill magisterial district north arch road amendment is a request to amend zoning approval case 01 sn 0245 to modify buffer requirements plus conditional use to permit a single family dwelling use in a corporate office o2 district on 2.69 acres known as 150 north arch road a 2002 zoning approval for o2 uses converted the existing single family dwelling on the property into a non-conforming use

[04:21:47] This non-conforming status does not permit the dwelling to be enlarged, extended, reconstructed, substituted, or structurally altered. This application was initiated by the Planning Commission to remove the non-conforming status for the existing dwelling and permit expansion and improvements to the dwelling.

[04:22:07] The owner seeks to convert an existing deck on the rear of the home into a covered, screened porch. Planning Commission and staff recommend approval subject to the conditions in your staff report. ladies and gentlemen this is a public hearing on case 25 sn 1021 north arch road amendment is there anyone who'd like to speak to this case if so please come forward and state your name seeing no one i'll close this public hearing it's back before the board this case is in the

[04:22:38] clover hill district thank you so this is um kind of just a formality of correcting something um and making sure that they weren't in or out of compliance.

[04:22:54] And so I move to approve case number 25SN1021, subject to the conditions in the staff report. Second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Item 17, public hearings.

[04:23:10] A, to consider the exercise of imminent domain for the Western Area Capital Improvement Project's right-of-way and easement acquisition. Mr. Smith. While we're pulling that up, So this is a public hearing to consider eminent domain for the suite of projects out where we're building all of the new schools.

[04:23:36] So you can see on the graphic there, it's really two separate projects. So running north-south on your page there, it's the north-south collector, and east-west is Duval Road. That is one project, and then it's sort of the bottom right at the intersection of Otter Hill and Duval is a separate project, which is a roundabout.

[04:23:56] I am happy to report that this afternoon we were able to get all the paperwork signed for that property right there. So we've reached amicable agreement on that one. So we're now down to two pieces of property.

[04:24:12] One on the left there, the sort of pizza-shaped triangle owned by Mr. Gill. And then the other one right there at the corner of Otterdale and Duval. I'll go over sort of factually where we are with these. I do think we are headed towards settlement, but we just, in order to get these projects done in this constrained timeframe for the schools to open, we just need to get moving so we can start moving utilities.

[04:24:39] So that's why we're here tonight. This just explains what eminent domain is. Did want to emphasize a couple of things. Number one is that assuming that the board approves this tonight, we can file a certificate to take no earlier than 30 days after the board action.

[04:24:55] That really just gives us right to access the property, like I said, so we can start moving power poles and advertise the construction contract. And then we have 180 days, another six months, where we would continue to negotiate. I will say in the majority of these, we are able to work out within that time.

[04:25:13] So here it is sort of in tabular format. Again, the one on the bottom. So this one we've actually settled with, so that's a good thing. So I'll start with the first one. That's the 17800 Duval Road. That's that triangular-shaped one.

[04:25:30] We are attempting to acquire the entire property. That's a contractual agreement with the design builder in this case when we advertise this to mitigate the risk to the project. This is the logical location to put the stormwater management basin. So we counted on going ahead and acquiring that entire property.

[04:25:48] We have the current offer is $550,000. The owner is asking for $750,000. So big scheme of things. We are not terribly far apart. I will say on that one, we also did do an appraisal and have met with them and we continue to meet with them.

[04:26:04] So we are hopeful that we will come to amicable resolution on that one. The second one is 6020 Otterdale Road. Again, you could see we're up to just under $177,000 in terms of the offer. They're asking for just south of $290,000.

[04:26:22] That one's just a partial take, so it's not a complete acquisition. It is, again, this parcel number five in the lower right. And you can see on this graphic right here, the house is up here. So that's the house up there.

[04:26:41] And then we've highlighted what we need to acquire from them. And on the zoomed in version, you can see a little bit better. Really, the impacts are along the frontage along Otterdale Road. And then we sort of come around the corner where the roundabout bulb is and would be acquiring some of that.

[04:26:58] The other nuance about this is because this is an older parcel, they actually own all the way to the center of the road. So we're acquiring really what's existing road as well. In order to also help folks see what this would look like, this is a rendering of what it would look like after the project.

[04:27:17] So on the right there is the owner's house. So you can see that while there's certainly an impact as you come into it, we are proposing to obscure that and mitigate with some cost of cure items, is what we call them, fencing, landscaping, and other things. So, again, you can see that, yes, it has an impact, but it's still a pretty fair distance away from the front porch.

[04:27:42] So that's what we're requesting tonight. Happy to answer any questions. I actually don't think the owners of either parcel are here, but I'll turn around and look again. No, they are not here. But they were all informed. I talked to all of them.

[04:27:58] They're all very aware of this. Board members, are there any questions for staff? Hold on, Jesse. You might have some questions. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a quick question. On that triangular property, what was the appraisal on that? Yes. I have it written. Yeah, 305. Yeah, I've got all my helpers in the back. 305,000.

[04:28:22] Thank you. Yep, 305. And we're offering 550. And I will say the 550 is prescribed. As a lot of you know, Casey Trill sold her property along Duval. The going price for that was 110 an acre.

[04:28:38] so that's how we came to 550. It's five acres at 110,000 an acre, so it's a fair offer. Any other questions? Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing to consider the exercise of eminent domain for the Western Area Capital Improvement Projects right away and easement acquisition. Is there anyone who'd like to speak to this issue? If so, please come forward and state

[04:29:07] your name. Good evening, Jerry Turner. As usual, I'm against y'all taking people's property. They may think it's worth more than what y'all want to pay for it, but it was valuable to them.

[04:29:40] I think you need to negotiate a little better before you start doing this. We're going to beat you over the head if you don't give us that property, because Emmett Domain is not the way the government should take things from people. Thank you.

[04:29:58] Thank you. Any other speakers? Seeing none, I'm going to close this public hearing. It's back before the board. Do I have any discussion? Mr. Chair, this is my district.

[04:30:15] Look, I agree, Mr. Turner. I don't necessarily like to take people's property through eminent domain. I don't. And that's why we have been negotiating, I believe, in good faith with each party that's associated with this.

[04:30:31] Those negotiations are going to continue to see if we can find an amicable resolution without having to take the land through eminent domain. That would be the goal. I do think that the reasonable offer for the one parcel of $550,000, based on the most recent land sale, I think if we had to go back and do another appraisal on that property, we'd probably appraise that because that's based on the unit per acre sale that took place.

[04:30:58] And I hope the other parcel, we can make some other arrangements, either through a purchasing of the portion of land that's there or something else. and staff is going to continue to do these negotiations. But we're putting three brand-new schools up there, as we've seen, and those roads need to be done by 2026, because in the zoning case that we passed, in the east case, a requirement for the elementary school or any other property can open up is that those roads be done.

[04:31:32] And we have a contractor that's been hired in place to do these road improvements. They're actually already started on the roundabout at Westerly and Otterdale Road. That would be the first one. And the land has already been cleared for what we call right now the north-south connector road.

[04:31:53] And so the contract that we issued for that, I believe, was a design build in order to accelerate that. And you pay a little more for design build. But we have to get these improvements in place in order to open up the new schools. I don't, like I said, I don't generally like taking people's property to the member domain, and I've encouraged staff repeatedly and spoke with one of the landowners to try and make sure that we can come to something that is going to make this work so that we can get these projects done.

[04:32:26] And so, you know, that's where I'm at. Any other board members that want to discuss it here? Jesse said, well, excuse me, Mr. Smith said that, you know, we're not too far apart given the full scope of the project And I personally wouldn't be opposed to going up if that is what, you know, would get us this, because like you said, it is necessary.

[04:32:56] But again, I agree with Jerry that, you know, eminent domain is not something that we like to do as a practice. And I think that it has to be used very diligently and responsibly and take into consideration that it is their land.

[04:33:13] and so we need it and so therefore we need to honor what what sometimes their value is and I understand that the the assessment value is not the same but that's just my two cents worth so sorry again I don't think anybody on this board ever wants to take a piece of property through eminent domain we do everything we can to avoid it we do have a time crunch that we have to meet and we do actually have two willing sellers we don't have a agreement on a price but we don't

[04:33:48] have anybody saying, no, don't take my land. They just are negotiating for the price that they're looking for. Most of the time, almost all of the time, we find a way to get to a settlement with the seller of the property. But if we don't follow through with eminent domain being a possibility, which is not to beat them over the head because quite frankly, a judge could look at it and give them more than they asked for. So we're not really beating them over the head because they're already willing to sell it. That being said, I agree. I don't like eminent domain any

[04:34:25] more than anybody else, but we do have to get these roads done and we need to keep the project moving. And unfortunately, this is the only path we have to make that happen. Yes, sir. Yeah, we're all in agreement. Eminent domain is the last resort in this, but we also have responsibility to taxpayers, which is why I asked the question, okay, what was it appraised at? So we know that the appraised was 305. We know that we're offering them considerably more than what the appraisal is. And there's a difference between an assessment and the appraisal. And the assessment,

[04:35:01] I suspect, was far less. I just have that thought. So they weren't even paying taxes on now they've asked for a lot and so we have a responsibility to go this route because it's not our money it's your money and as a result because it is your money we need to kind of figure out a way to make it work where it's going to be equitable for all the parties so this is one of the tools unfortunately we're forced to use at times and again the point's been made over and over again that we have schools that are going in here we have willing sellers but there's a difference between a seller who is

[04:35:40] willing to sell and asking for a price that frankly is really way over and above what is what i would consider to be appropriate and for the taxpayers thank you mr chair any other discussion can i get a motion so moved second second all in favor all right item 18 15 minute citizen comment period on unscheduled matters.

[04:36:12] 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.

[04:36:36] have one speaker renee eldred good evening i told y'all i would be back um i still want to talk to you tonight about a revitalization department um i started looking online just doing a google search as to um what i saw but from line to line and there was 23 car lots used car lots and two new

[04:37:12] car lots and i'm like i haven't even looked at the um repair shops the parts places i'm going to look at restaurants i'm going to try to dissect all of them but on route one we need some help we need a dedicated person to say if not one block at a time we're going to try to bring this back to life Route 1, at one point in time, was the bomb.

[04:37:50] It was the north-south route, and it flourished. Some of that is still there, flourishing I'm not sure about, but we need somebody dedicated to that.

[04:38:06] And you can start on one, you can do the others later. But it's not just one that needs it. There's spots on 10, 60, 360, all of them. And for the longest kind of time, the Board of Supervisors did not want to say that we needed revitalization.

[04:38:29] But I kept telling them they do, they do, they do, they do. And you need to catch it before it gets to a point of no return. So I will come back again and again and again, as much as I can, to try to get you to understand why I think we need this.

[04:38:49] So thank you. Thank you. Mr. Chair, we need a motion to adjourn to the regularly scheduled Board of Supervisors meeting on may 28th 2025 at 5 p.m in room 502 of the county administration building and i'd like to point out that the start time is later than our normal start time for the afternoon work session we are starting at 5 p.m on may 28th we need a motion just before uh ask for a motion is there any other points that any board members would like to make mr chair just one thing in relation to

[04:39:26] revitalization i think some of the things that we have worked on are some of the overlay projects that we've done for example if you look at the clover hill district and the 316 courthouse overlay that was done that's a revitalization project it's going to reshape the way that is i'm not saying we shouldn't do it in other parts of the county i'm not saying we shouldn't look at it i think there are areas for example spring line at 60 is a revitalization project where the old clover hill mall was was a revitalization project and so i don't think at least this board has ignored it but i don't i don't think that it doesn't hurt for us to take a look in depth to

[04:40:05] see if there are other parts you know i know that people in my district for example down in ettrick would like to see some revitalization down in ettrick and so it's maybe something we need to consider mr chair i just wanted to make those comments any other comments can i get a motion to adjourn i moved second all in favor aye

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