Coraggio Consulting
Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors Meeting - January 28, 2026, Wednesday, January 28, 2026

Date: Wednesday, January 28, 2026
Place: Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors, Virginia
Length: 4h 9m (video)
Official meeting video (CivicClerk): https://chesterfieldcova.portal.civicclerk.com/event/1968/media
Official agenda (CivicClerk): https://chesterfieldcova.api.civicclerk.com/v1/Meetings/GetMeetingFileStream(fileId=3839,plainText=false)
Official minutes (CivicClerk): https://chesterfieldcova.api.civicclerk.com/v1/Meetings/GetMeetingFileStream(fileId=3908,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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[00:02:43] Good afternoon and welcome to the afternoon session of the January 28th Board of Supervisors meeting. Madam Clerk. Mr. Chair, the first item on the agenda is approval of minutes for the December 17th and January 7th Board of Supervisors meetings. Thank you, Madam Clerk.

[00:02:58] Could I please get a motion to approve the minutes for the December 17th and the January 7th Board of Supervisors meetings? So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye. Item two, request to postpone agenda items and additions, deletions, or changes in the order of presentation.

[00:03:15] Staff has several requests. We would like to add item 14D1F, adoption of a resolution confirming the declaration of the existence of a local emergency in Chesterfield County as a result of a snow and ice storm. we would like to defer three items, which are 11A, recognizing Valor Awards recipients, 13A, resolution recognizing Ms. Yvonne Hill upon her retirement, and 13B, recognizing 2026 My Chesterfield Academy graduates.

[00:03:48] That is all we have. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Board members, may I get a motion to approve the agenda as amended? So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye. I'm an aye, but I have a question for the clerk. So the agenda we have in front of us is the updated amended.

[00:04:05] Yes, sir. Thank you. Item three, everyday excellence, Dr. Casey. Good evening, members of the board and the public that is here and hopefully watching. You know, we start out every meeting with everyday excellence, recognizing our frontline employees for all that they do.

[00:04:22] Many are seen, but many are unseen. Today, if Mr. Harris could come on up, but I'd like to recognize our workday project team. This is an example of a frontline group that is not necessarily seen. These are the people behind all of our HR and accounting functions.

[00:04:39] And I'll just preface it by saying in my career, I've been through five system implementations of HR and accounting systems. They are not easy, but in order to stay current with technologies and really the abilities for employees to be empowered over their own transactions more so in a paperless environment, these are the things that are needed to get done.

[00:05:03] So the vendor workday was carefully selected. The project team were all in place as part of that process, and I just want to commend them. There are always learning curves to go through that. Most of the learning curves are with old-school employees, not the school necessarily, old-school county administrators, I should say.

[00:05:22] But Mr. Harris, please.

[00:05:32] It was in the e-mail, Courtney. Come on. Make sure Christy's in the front so we can see. Thank you, Dr. Casey. So this is just a small sampling of the overall group that's been working on this. We had some more that wanted to be here, but weather got them, but just wanted to have them come forward. Like Dr. Casey said, this system is beyond comprehensive. It touches

[00:06:07] every single thing that we do every single department in the county. And you'll notice up here. We do have some school friends as well. This has been a collaborative effort. I want to thank Bob and his team for all their patience and hard work on this. And certainly there's more to be done. We do have all of our components of the system up and running. And so we ran our second county payroll under work day last week. And our first one was almost 99% accurate. So we are making great progress, but there's more to do. Certainly don't want to give that impression. So

[00:06:46] we appreciate the patience of the entire organization, all county and schools, recognizing that, you know, we've got to refine it a little bit and, you know, we continue to work on it every single day, but I can't understate the effort and incredible contributions of this group and all of their colleagues. They weren't able to be here today. It's thousands and thousands of hours over multiple years and there's nobody up here behind me or anybody else in the teams that doesn't have a full-time job so they they did this in addition to every single thing else that they

[00:07:21] were doing and it's just there aren't words that can accurately capture how much they've put into this so just a massive lift and I'm extremely proud of every single one of them and just wanted to have them in front of you for a few minutes to recognize that.

[00:07:38] Board members. Again, I just want to thank you for all the hard work on this. I've actually logged into Workday more than I think I ever did into the last system. So thank you for that.

[00:07:57] I would say, though, that if you're a county administrator and you haven't been through at least six of these processes, your job's not done. You're going to have to stick around a few more years. Other than that, I'm good. Thank you. Other board members? I always like to take a few moments to say thank you, because that's how my mom raised me.

[00:08:22] But, no, I mean, the work you all do is great, and getting into the current century in terms of a reporting system is really good. And we look forward to, you know, many more years of use in the current system that you all created.

[00:08:42] So thank you so much for all your work and your effort. Mr. Chair. yes sir um my mom raised me right too so we had a lot of good moms uh thank you again for all the hard work uh i know that change is difficult sometimes and some some people don't like change but i think one of the most constant things in life is change and we are meaning county staff and county employees are always trying to find better ways to provide better services for the

[00:09:20] community, and certainly in this case, better services for our staff, which I'm hoping that once everybody gets through the change, they'll be okay with it. Change is tough, and you've probably heard some people that have griped a little bit. Maybe not, but probably so, especially if they're cops, because cops hate change. But it's true. I absolutely hate it. But nevertheless, I think it's going to be a good product, and so thanks for your efforts.

[00:09:51] I just want to make the comment that right now what we're doing is something called everyday excellence, and we start each meeting that way because it's really important for us to be able to appreciate you and all the hard work you're doing. One other thing I was struck by was when Matt was calling you up, you almost didn't want to come up, and I think that's a lot to do with kind of shining the light on you all because of how humble you all were, I mean are.

[00:10:20] I mean, it just was, I just noticed that sometimes folks just want to do the work and they want to stay behind the scenes and not necessarily get that everyday excellence spotlight, but how much, you all need to know how much we appreciate you all for the hard work you've done.

[00:10:35] I think that Mr. Harris got it right on. Look, you guys have full-time jobs. And this was over and above everything else that you all needed to do. So, I'm grateful. And my mom taught me the same way. Make sure gratitude, that's what it's about. So, again, thank you for all your hard work.

[00:10:55] Mr. Xavier, can I have them introduce themselves and say their departments? Does that be okay? To build on to your point, I think they really would like to have that moment.

[00:11:16] Consuela Wilson, Director of Accounting. Christy Brittle, Assistant Director of Human Resources. Courtney Drake, Comp and Benefits Manager. David Oakley, Budget and Management.

[00:11:36] Hi, Bob Meister, CFO for Schools. Thank you. Jamie People, Director of Finance and Payroll, CCPF. Thank you all for what you do. Matt, did you want to add anything?

[00:12:03] Yeah, I think I want to just get the flavor of how many departments are involved in this and how many functions within some of these departments. This is, again, a comprehensive effort across both organizations and I think a shining example of what can happen when we all come together and work on a project of this scale.

[00:12:22] So thank you for the moment.

[00:12:32] Item four, work sessions. A, state legislative update. Ms. Spillman. Mr. Chair. Well, Ms. Spillman's approaching. I just wanted for clarifications of noting that we moved her to the front of the agenda.

[00:12:51] Just in her roles, there are certain key meetings that she needs to get back down town for today. So we are going to take guesses when we do these agendas each time in advance of what that schedule is like. But for anyone who knows the General Assembly, it's day-to-day on what is the relevance for us being there.

[00:13:08] So for those that are in the public listening or watching, just know that this topic is important to carry out before the board each month. It's just that it may be a different part in the afternoon or evening sessions, possibly, sir. Thank you, Dr. Casey, for the clarification.

[00:13:24] Thank you for wandering this direction. We know how busy it is right now. It's warmer here in Chesterfield, so I'll take it. Good afternoon, members of the board. Dr. Casey, our county attorney here with us, Ms. Seyfer, so I appreciate that.

[00:13:41] I appreciate the accommodation, accommodating me for a schedule change this afternoon. So January 14th, the 2026 General Assembly session kicked off. And as of the filing deadline, which was last Friday, 2,355 bills have been filed.

[00:13:56] Of those, we've flagged about 560 for further analyzing and evaluating. Those have mostly been assigned to different committees yet have not actually hit dockets. And so they're filling up, but we are tracking them at a fast pace.

[00:14:13] And so every year session seems to come quicker and quicker throughout the pace at which they're moving, but this year feels exceptionally fast. So just diving right in, there's a large number of bills I want to just bring to your attention this afternoon. Senator Survelle has filed SB 228.

[00:14:29] This is a bill which would waive sovereign immunity for localities that provide liability insurance or self-insurance and would create a space that we could be held liable for damages up to the total amount of our localities insurance coverage and would include claims for simple negligence, which is the majority of our claims.

[00:14:48] And so, again, special shout out to the county attorney's office for helping us better understand all of the ramifications of what this legislation could bring to our locality and particularly our law enforcement agencies. And so with that, we're strongly opposing this piece of legislation.

[00:15:04] Calculated projected costs are somewhere in the ballpark of about $43 million on a recurring basis if this were to be approved. There are a number of other bills that are weaving sovereign immunity into their language. and so that's creating challenges what otherwise might be a bill that we have no issue with the moment sovereign immunity is introduced with there it becomes a very complicating and challenging prospect for us to have to live with. On that note Delegate Maldonado has HB 1314 which is in regard to qualified immunity and so this creates new causes of action against our police and

[00:15:39] supervisors and so it puts position of law enforcement that not only for those individuals that there could potentially be some action against but they have the ability to sue up to their supervisors and so this just creates you know it's chaos and quite frankly um and the you know some level of uh catastrophe could come from that and so again big thanks to our county attorney's office appreciate the other advocacy efforts that are happening on that front collective bargaining has been filed again this is another topic that is a recurring um like whack-a-mole at the General Assembly. However, last year, I will remind you, this did make it to the governor's

[00:16:17] desk. It was ultimately vetoed. I think this year it's not entirely clear the position that our newly elected governor will take on this topic. Looking at projected estimates, and so the fiscal impact statement has just gone out and we're sending our data back, it's around a $200 million potential expense for Chesterfield if something like this were to be implemented. And that's based off of an estimated 20% increase on salaries and the associated benefits that would come with that.

[00:16:44] I have a question, Mr. Chair. Is Matt Harris still here? What's that equate to for cents on the tax rate? The collective bargaining piece and qualified immunity, it's what, additional $250 million, right? Yeah, approximately.

[00:17:02] How many cents would we have to add to the tax rate in order to be able to cover that?

[00:17:15] Save it for the record so someone can hear it who's listening. Approximately 40 cents. So we would go from 89, add 40 cents to it. Okay. And Mr. Chair, Mr. Vice-Chair, or have to severely cut other services.

[00:17:36] All right. Senator Marsden is back again with his juvenile detention facilities bill. There's two in the universe, one focused on facilities, and then one focused on K-12, well, K-12-ish.

[00:17:56] It's this teacher-staffing ratio in juvenile detention facilities. And so as you recall, this past summer, we had a lot of conversation with Senator Marsden. And so in response to what those activities were, we coordinated with the City of Richmond and County of Henrico on a response back to him in regard to our opposition for closure and consolidation.

[00:18:17] These bills align with that same position. And so we're continuing to have conversation about our opposition on this topic. Senator Deeds has introduced SB 714. would require pre-trial officers to assess rather than interview defendants that are arrested on state or local warrants while awaiting a hearing. Our Community Corrections Director, Gary Hughes, was able to come down along with some staff, talked to a senator that had some reservations about what this legislation would do and help work to dissuade her from some of her concerns, and so appreciate the opportunity for him to come and help promote our position. Senator Favola's

[00:18:55] SB 90 was introduced that would require maintenance of effort across all school spending. And so this would put localities and school divisions in a position to never take money from any other category ever.

[00:19:10] You could never move things around and everything would have to come on top. And so it's like a non-supplanting position. And so there is substitute language that has been presented into that maintenance of effort

[00:19:23] is now only extended into the specific categories of English language learn English English language learners at-risk add-on and special education so while this substitutes not perfect it's better than it was delegate Clark has brought back this teacher salary to national average bill and so the projected cost in this space for Chesterfield would result in about a 42 million dollar state share with a 52 million dollar local share for the cost of these positions this bill has been referred to appropriations but has not yet been to a docket. Delegate Cole has introduced

[00:19:59] HB 412. This is a new delegate that joined the General Assembly from the Spotsylvania area requiring that local governing bodies would be expected to exceed funding level, meet or exceed funding levels that were set out in the school board's needs-based budget. So we did have a conversation with the patron last week and she seems agreeable to offer an amendment that would encourage, but not require. So that bill has not yet made it public, but that's what we expect to see. Late last night, House Finance Chair. Yes, sir. Needs-based budget. What does that even mean?

[00:20:35] By statute, schools are required to develop a needs-based budget. Yes, but we've seen needs-based budgets that weren't needs-based budgets. It's just what the school put in. So I'm asking subject to determines whether or not the budget that they would put in is actually a needs-based budget i think that's a fair question it's a question we all know the answer to in a way that it's a completely a subjective term that that i mean that's my point like you can't have

[00:21:07] legislation that has no way of being validated to be enforced and sir especially as we know from the J-LARC report, not even quoted needs basis, the standards of quality, SOQ, that the state's defined is not even funded by the state. Correct. Thank you. So House Finance Chair Delegate Watts, she presented the penny bill, which I thank our Treasurer for bringing that to our attention. And so working with the Treasurer's Association of Virginia, HB 954 was presented last night,

[00:21:42] and this is intended to provide flexibility on rounding since we no longer will have a penny. And so for cash transactions, it gives flexibility to round up or down depending upon where we are so that we can accommodate not having a penny. That bill did get passed by for the night.

[00:21:57] I guess the information that was shared, so the state tax department is working with others to better understand the universe. And so until that information is presented, she didn't want to get ahead of adopting this legislation. Chair Watts has also reintroduced a bill for a complete structural overhaul of taxation in the Commonwealth.

[00:22:16] There are still some variations floating around. There's something out there that we are reacting to, but we know that there's some changes coming. It really boldly seeks to see a number of new service categories introduced in retail sales and use tax.

[00:22:32] And so this would include digital services and those associated subscriptions and any digital personal property. There's also new exemptions for health care services, and there would be exemptions for food purchased for human consumption and personal hygiene products from all state, local, and regional sales tax.

[00:22:49] Different in this year's version is that a state portion of the increased revenues would help to fund WMATA, which is the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. Funding would also be going towards the Commonwealth Transportation Fund. And any of the remaining funds, 60% distributed to localities on the basis of their school age population with 40% on the basis of high need student population.

[00:23:13] So, again, this is a massive structural overhaul of taxes. There's a lot of moving parts, and so we're just continuing to monitor until we understand what the final bill will look like. That's not the only tax structure bill. There are also several others.

[00:23:29] There's some specifically for funding WMATA, which would introduce a new tax authority in the Northern Virginia area. There's another bill that's also on the table, And based on the rumors and conversations that are happening, it sounds like it's going to come to fruition, but the 1% on grocery sales tax that we currently are still receiving with that being dedicated to education, if you recall a couple of years ago, they took a half a percent and that was dedicated to transportation.

[00:23:56] The state has never upheld their commitment to keep us whole on that. And so in this same space, we don't feel confident that they are going to maintain their commitment there either if that 1% disappears. On a positive note, the local 1% for schools construction has made its way through the house and crossed over, and so that is progressing that bill.

[00:24:16] There are a couple variations out there, and so provided that delegate results bill is the one that makes it to the governor's desk, we're feeling pretty confident that it will provide us with an option here locally, if so, chosen by you all to enact via referendum to implement additional 1% for schools construction.

[00:24:36] I want to just also provide a shout-out to Ms. Brown and her procurement team. There have been a variety of procurement bills. A handful of them died yesterday in committee, and so that was a productive use of time to see that happen, and so there's still a few more that we're monitoring. Switching gears to housing, there's three delegates that have filed bills aimed at updating the code to recognize manufactured homes, the same as stick-built houses, and that relates to where they could be located and a conversion to real property.

[00:25:07] I'll also note that in the legislation there was a language added that they have received a certificate of occupancy within the last five years to be eligible in meeting this criteria, but they would be a by-right use. And so these bills have all rolled into one, and they're progressing, and had their first floor reading yesterday.

[00:25:26] A couple of bills that have companions in the House and Senate, Senator Van Valkenburg has reintroduced the Housing Targets bill. Along with that, Delegate Helmer has the House version. Those bills would require localities to increase the housing stock by 7.5% over a five-year period that would begin January 1 of 2028.

[00:25:46] Then localities that were meeting or exceeding those data targets would not be applicable to this section. However, as it's written, if the growth rate were to drop below 1%, you then would be subject to meet all of the criteria, which includes developing a housing growth plan and meeting targets and putting forth a good faith effort, as it's quoted in the bill.

[00:26:08] It's problematic for a number of reasons, and one of those, the biggest reason is that we don't build houses, and so we don't have much control over the output of what that measure is trying to get after. Similarly, again, Senator Van Valkenburgh. What is the, so what's the enforcement action associated with that legislation if a jurisdiction doesn't meet criteria?

[00:26:32] There's none. So if it doesn't happen, you ignore it. They're not putting any type of penalty in. There's no way they can withhold state funding. So it's not worth the paper it's written on, my opinion. So again, Senator Van Valkenburg and Delegate Helmer have also both filed again the buy-right mandate to allow for multifamily and commercial districts up to 75% of the land within those areas.

[00:27:02] That, again, restricts our ability to make local land use decisions about what's best for our community. Faith in Housing is back. Delegate Cole and Senator Carol Foy have their versions. What's most troubling about the Faith in Housing is that we've been having a lot of conversation.

[00:27:18] Virginia Housing Commission has been meeting continually over the summer, both last summer and this summer, and we've gone through a variety of presentations. And then what's been included in these bills is complete disregard to everything that we've discussed as far as what doesn't work. And so it's just incredibly frustrating to see all of this presented back again, knowing that there's not going to be a workable solution with what they have.

[00:27:39] Senator Sturtevant has filed the adequate public facilities bill again. This is SB 781. The bill would allow for locality to determine the timing of development by considering the adequacy of those public facilities when making the zoning decision. And so given that, the bill has been referred to Senate local government, but it has not hit a docket yet either.

[00:27:59] There's several bills in the House and Senate that are related to the retail market for cannabis and those associated taxes. Before you go on, you didn't say anything about ADUs, but isn't there a bill that make ADUs by right anywhere that single-family is available? There is. It is back again, yes. ADUs are back again.

[00:28:18] Retail cannabis market, there's several bills. There's Delegate Kreysik in the House and then Senator Aird in the Senate have the framework for what the cannabis retail market would look like. And Senator Lucas has a separate bill on the taxing authorities that would go along with that.

[00:28:35] And so these are moving very fast. They've made it through committees in the House and Senate and are on the floor for votes in both bodies. Data center bills are prolific again, too, although that outlook is uncertain. Last year, we witnessed the majority of them failing, not making it out of the respective bodies.

[00:28:56] There's also a large number of solar-related bills, predominantly focused on preempting local authority. This includes battery storage as well. Delegate McQuinn has filed a bill that would provide for two additional judgeships. This is coming from the recommendation of the General District Court Commission, so there would be one in each general district in the JDR courts.

[00:29:17] VRS enhanced benefits bills have been filed for 911 dispatchers and animal service officers. There's largely bipartisan support from patrons on both sides that are carrying these requests. About a dozen speed camera bills have been introduced.

[00:29:33] And so last year, this was a particularly hot topic, technology and law enforcement in particular. And so the bill last year failed. But surprisingly, last week at Senate Transportation, Senator Peake had presented SB 297, which would repeal all speed camera legislation.

[00:29:51] and it passed out of Senate Transportation. And I think the patron was genuinely surprised that that happened. And so that bill's been sitting. It was passed by for the day on the House floor reading, second reading yesterday. I didn't catch it on my way here to know if it was read or just sat there.

[00:30:09] But again, there's about a dozen bills. Delegate Delaney has the House version that is most likely to be the vehicle at which we will then be working with to clean up. So if they're repealing all existing, is that meaning that all the infrastructure that we've spent money on installing is going to become moot and a waste of dollars for us?

[00:30:34] Okay. And that affects school zones, right? School zones and highway work zones. Just to clarify, though, the money that was spent to put these cameras in was up fronted by the private companies that we contracted to do this.

[00:30:51] That's correct. We didn't use taxpayer dollars to do this. It was money that they put up to do it. It'll still be wasted, but I think it's important for the community to understand we didn't spend our tax dollars to put them in place. We contracted with somebody who would then take money off the top based on fines that are generated from the cameras.

[00:31:10] But the point about this is also that they actually work. People actually slow down in school zones, so that'd be interesting to see what they do. Mr. Chair, taking that comment one step further, I do think we have to carefully review the contracts that we entered into, Because as you would imagine, these companies may have some adverse clauses within them.

[00:31:33] I don't know that, but I'm just being transparent that these were long, complicated contracts that are worthy of us looking through procurement and through a legal lens for what could be ramifications, not just us, but all of their customers. Mr. Chair, I would suggest that if we can take a legal position on that, we should draft that immediately and make sure it's sent to Natalie so she can share it with everybody who's looking at voting for this one way or another.

[00:31:58] And I'll say the vendors are highly engaged. It's in their best interest to be engaged. And so, you know, we're not opposed to seeing some legal guardrails put in place in statute because there are different things happening across the Commonwealth and create some consistency for how this program is deployed.

[00:32:18] But some of the things they've presented are taking it too far, in our opinion. And so we're working with the patrons to figure out how do we, you know, make this workable for those that are actually using this. I personally wish we didn't need them. I wish that they would make not a single dollar because every single person would actually obey the law and not get a ticket.

[00:32:39] I really wish we didn't need them at all. But unfortunately, people break the law. Mr. Engel. It does not affect the cameras on buses that are out for the stop arms, though, right?

[00:32:57] It's only on speed, not on passing the bus with the arm out? Or is that in there, too? This legislation specifically for speed cameras and school zones and highway work zones. All right. Ms. Bill, let me ask you a question. You've been going through these very quickly.

[00:33:13] So did I hear you correctly for this particular bill? The patron was surprised how quickly it went through. Yes. And I'm curious to know, kind of looking into that, what do you think that was about? I mean, is this patron? There has been discussion. And so this past summer, the Crime Commission looked into this topic a little more heavily.

[00:33:33] And so in the legislator's mind, there are localities that they believe are potentially abusing this position of having the cameras and that they're collecting revenues that are not being used for purposes that promote public safety, sidewalk safety, transportation safety.

[00:33:53] And so there's concern about what type of money is being generated from these cameras. And so there's a locality that's generated upwards of $10 million because of their deployment in highway work zones. Well, it's not, but there's others.

[00:34:11] And so, you know, that's the genesis for what has come about on the program itself. I think that's separate and apart from it. And that's the discussion that we've been having with our legislators is that our goal is $0. And so it's ensuring the safety of our community and that the school zones in particular for our young and vulnerable population having some layer of protection and that they are they're effective so i believe um senator jones actually put forward one to make sure that all the dollars are being sent um in school localities

[00:34:48] for improvements of crosswalks and safety etc around schools so that's one of the so between delegate delaney and delegate siebold their bills as well um are focused specifically dedicating that funding. And so again, we in Chesterfield within our ordinance have funding dedicated to public safety. It is already done without the state telling us what to do. There are other localities that are not doing that. And so this would codify it to make it consistent application across the state. Just a couple more things to mention. So delegate Watts, HB 571, which would

[00:35:26] have amended the CVTA statue to reallocate 2% of the GRTC funding to Bay Transit has been stricken from the docket, so that bill has failed. There's a number of budget amendments that we're still sorting through. They dropped last week. Members are presenting this afternoon at House Appropriations.

[00:35:42] And then in closing, just want to say that crossover is February 17th. Sunday, February 22nd, is Budget Sunday, so that's when we'll see presentations from the House and Senate on their recommendations for member amendments incorporated into the budget. And then Monday, March 9th is the deadline for committee action on all legislation.

[00:36:02] And March 14th is the scheduled day to adjourn, while April 22nd is scheduled for the reconvene veto session. Any questions? Other questions? Board, any questions? All right.

[00:36:18] Looks like you've exhausted all of them. All right. Well, thank you for all the work you're doing there. Please be safe down in Richmond. It's icy down there. And as you said, a lot colder. So, thank you. B, Regional Partnerships website, Mr. Harris and Ms. LaCroix.

[00:36:44] Welcome back. Yeah. Yes, sir. Got the hat trick today. We're very fortunate as part of our Stegmaier Fellow Program to, everybody knows the talents and contributions of Ms. Romanella, but we've got Bree here today to kind of show some of the work that she's been doing.

[00:37:04] She's actually assisting Natalie and Casey downtown with a lot of their work, which has been a tremendous help doing numerous projects here as well. Today she's going to show you a website that she has put together that really focuses on and showcases our regional effort and all the different forms that that takes shape. I've been on Dr. Casey's priority list to better document those. I mean you all know better than anybody else. That's a big topic.

[00:37:34] people are always bringing that up, but from our perspective, we were doing much, much more in the regional space than we shared out or anybody gives credit for, so Bree took that charge and put together this website. She's got a brief presentation that kind of walks you through how she approached the project and then some still shots of the website itself. It's up, it's live now, and it really is a tremendous resource. I encourage everybody to go out and look at it, but I think they'll better understand it after this presentation, so I'll turn it over to her now. Thank you so much. Hi, Mr. Chair, members of the board, Dr. Casey. Really excited

[00:38:14] to be here today. As Matt mentioned, my name is Brielle LaCroix, and I'm going to talk to you guys about regionalism and how Chesterfield engages in it. So Matt, like he said, asked me to create kind of a website that talked about regionalism and kind of tell Chesterfield's story when it comes to this topic. So I distributed a county-wide survey. We connected with 24 different county departments and came up with a list of about 170 regional partnerships um i'm just going to give you guys top down view of kind of the data that i found and how it presents itself on the website so you guys just have some general talking points if anyone asks about regionalism and what it looks like um so in general regionalism as it applies to local government is not a super

[00:38:53] talked about topic online so when i came to looking at the scope of this project i was like i have no idea where to start and google ai was not very helpful um so you can kind of see google ai stab but a definition of regionalism as it applies to local government and as I progressed through this project I realized that's not accurate to what we do here in Chesterfield or how regionalism really looks so you can see my definition as well we have the exchange of knowledge resources and services with partners across the region to address shared issues and pursue common interests that transcend local borders two things I kind of really want to point out with this definition one very intentionally vague regionalism

[00:39:31] looks very different depending on how far away our regional partners are and what we're kind of trying to get out of the project and then the second is that word exchange so that's super important my research really focused on what does Chesterfield give but if I could go back and do it all over again knowing what I know now I'd also look at a lot of what Chesterfield gains from these partnerships and so this exchange is really really important and is a large portion of why we need to talk about regionalism okay so what is regional it the regional isn't intentionally very vague Chesterfield participates in

[00:40:08] partnerships literally everywhere so the two biggest factors are kind of the distance from Chesterfield and then also the size of the geographic area that the partnership and compass encompasses you're probably most familiar with partnerships in the center and then off to the left of the screen Colonial Heights is a really unique example because our Human Services Department works directly with them to provide services to those residents so services like mental health, substance abuse, and crisis services are really relevant in every part of regionalism, but specifically super locally, because we do engage with Colonial Heights in that way.

[00:40:42] That Richmond region, which includes Richmond, Colonial Heights, Hanover, and Henrico, is kind of the smallest part of regionalism that we look at. Things at that level are more direct, and they tend to deal with basic human needs. We're thinking food, housing, public safety, and water are kind of, if we're looking just super small, the partnerships we tend to engage in at that level.

[00:41:01] That middle level in the middle column outlines some of our more well-known partnerships that serve even wider geographic areas. Partnerships at this level tend to incorporate seven to 10 localities and can include communities that are up to about 50 to 60 miles away from us.

[00:41:17] At this level, we're looking at services like transportation, planning, emergency response, environment, the James River is a huge driver of regional partnerships since lots of localities in our area share the James River. And then region four is specifically with the Richmond Behavioral Health Authority, so a lot of those human services type partnerships happening in that level too.

[00:41:37] These five subgroups collectively, plus or minus a couple of localities on the fringe, make up that Greater Richmond or Central Virginia region. That is where the majority of our regional partnerships take place, and it's kind of the focus of my project. But that being said, regionalism can really mean larger geographic areas.

[00:41:54] Chesterfield participates in lots of statewide groups and initiatives, more so in the economic development and human services fields. But then there are some issues like human trafficking, for example, that transcend state borders as well. So that leads to partnerships in the mid-Atlantic and southeastern United States.

[00:42:10] We do participate in some partnerships with a nationwide focus. The vast majorities of these are data-based. There's no service provision that happens really at that larger level. One of our largest and most well-documented means of regional engagement is through financial support.

[00:42:28] Chesterfield is a frequent financial contributor to lots of large shared regional partnerships. The Appomattox River Water Authority, Richmond Region Tourism, Central Virginia Waste Management Association, and many more. We financially contribute at large levels to make sure those services are accessible to residents all across the region.

[00:42:44] Additionally, people and services is our next category. This is another pretty well-documented component of our regional cooperation efforts. Memorandums of understanding with our law enforcement are a really concrete example of this. Sending people out to do direct service in the event of emergencies and things of that nature.

[00:43:02] but there's also programs like MedFlight and the Urban Area Search and Rescue that are more direct. We're physically sending people out to do a service in different localities. Additionally, we host, as a county, lots of different services and events that benefit regional partnerships.

[00:43:17] Human services is a great example. Even outside of Colonial Heights, there's mobility services and parenting support services and juvenile justice services that really help the greater Richmond area. Members of our board, as well as county staff, also serve on close to 20 regional boards and commissions that we help to provide our wealth of knowledge and unique skill sets to impact different things around our region.

[00:43:41] Further than that though, my research also found about 60 statewide and nationwide professional organizations that our county staff contribute their knowledge to serve as well as serving in more formal leadership roles. The knowledge and experience section is that less formal side of regional cooperation and is definitely the harder part to track.

[00:44:00] So many county departments meet with representatives from neighboring localities to share best practices and keep informed on issues or concerns in our area. So utilities, fire and EMS, juvenile justice, police, community enhancement, and mental health are just some of the departments that have reported some kind of formal or informal knowledge sharing, whether that's frequent meetings or more specific case-by-case scenarios.

[00:44:23] Even Natalie and Casey, what they do in Intergovernmental Relations, which you just heard about, is another example of that knowledge sharing and that data collection to inform state-level policy. Many of our departments support that, either with fiscal information or just data points about how those policies will affect us.

[00:44:42] And then we do participate in some required participation. The vast majority of our regional partnerships are completely voluntary. But specifically at the state level, there are a lot of programs that were required to either submit data to or kind of track on our end. So that's also an important component. And then we do have some county staff that serve on more state-level boards and commissions, giving their experience in that way.

[00:45:04] So 100% of our regional partnerships include other local governments. They need to be outside of Chesterfield in order to be regional. So we do collaborate with a lot of localities in that way. Nonprofits are also a huge partner for us. So about 34% of our partnerships are facilitated through nonprofits. We don't always engage directly with other local governments because a lot of times our partnerships are facilitated through someone else.

[00:45:27] Of this 20% of our partnerships that are administered through larger levels, 75% of those are on the state level, so we support those with people and data. And then we also partner with private organizations, colleges and universities like VCU and Virginia Tech are some big universities outside of our region or outside of our county that we engage with.

[00:45:48] So this is our new webpage. You can access this on the county administration site. I'm really grateful to have worked with Lauren Henry and Brian Bolanos from IST to get everything up and properly linked. You can see we have a couple of different categories, so you can look at, based on county departments, what partnerships we participate in.

[00:46:08] I do also have a good list of some of our informal partnerships that I mentioned earlier, but this is all going to be partnerships with a verifiable source of truth to start off with, so anywhere that has a webpage we can link back to. I'm currently working with IST to talk through how we can display some of those more informal partnerships when there isn't a specific place to link them out to.

[00:46:28] So definitely go and check out the website. I'm pretty proud of it. And it's got a ton of really important information on there. Thank you, Brielle. One last slide. Oh, okay. So sorry. So these are some of pictures of some of our recent regional partnerships. You can kind of see some of the scope of what we do.

[00:46:45] It's really important to talk about regionalism because, quite frankly, we're good at it. We have a wide variety of partnerships with hundreds of different partners across the region that touch mundane things from recycling all the way up to life-saving services in the event of a crisis, and we provide a lot to these partnerships. It's also really important that we think regionally.

[00:47:04] Our world is becoming way more interconnected than it's ever been, and these partnerships already have a good foundational relationship to address some of these challenges that we're seeing start to grow. And then again, these partnerships are an exchange, so as much as we give, we also do receive in return. We learn so much about how to better operate, serve our citizens, and deal with new or strange situations to us based on our partners. So these services provided by our nonprofit professionals and other local leaders are really invaluable to keeping Chesterfield running. And that's all. Thank you, Brielle, for that board. Chair recognizes Ms. Schneider.

[00:47:41] Thank you. It's good to see that our Stegmire person is trying to keep up with Mary, our first wanted. So that's awesome. This is, I look forward to going and looking into all the little tabs and seeing what information is there and how we might be able to enhance that or add more things. And so it's a great start. Thank you so much. Thank you. We'll go back to the previous slide. All right.

[00:48:18] Ms. Chair, I should add that as you can see, a fantastic resource that she's created. We've also brought her into our community contract program which is part of the budget process so I think it's been invaluable research for her to understand that the whole fabric of regional partnerships and all the things that are out there so she is also taking that information and giving fresh eyes the community contract program and make sure that where we are investing money in regional groups or regional partnerships that again we don't have overlapping contributions in anyway, and also that we're getting a good return on that investment.

[00:48:56] So I think it's a resource for you all, for the community, but it's also serving a very specific purpose as we kick off the budget season, and Brielle's been instrumental in getting us off to a good start on that. So I can't thank her enough for that as well. Board, anyone else?

[00:49:16] Okay, Chair recognizes Dr. Helton. You know, great presentation. One of the things I think that gets missed a lot of times is how the services from the partnership actually reach citizens.

[00:49:32] So the way I've kind of looked at each department and kind of each resource that we have is if we pull that resource out, what happens to the community, what happens to the county? So as I think about that, you know, if you pull out GRTC, for instance, then the ridership, the people that are on the bus that are going to and from work or to and from other places, how will they get there?

[00:50:05] And so those partnerships are that critical, and I think that as we go into the budget season, that's something that we should go into in with our minds, looking at what the impact would be if those services were removed.

[00:50:24] At the same time, I think that the partnerships, they have to also meet the needs of the community or, you know, we have to look at alternative, you know, arrangements. And so it's a two-way street in terms of looking at that from those lenses.

[00:50:44] And so I just hope that, you know, we would all kind of look at it from that perspective as we head into the next few months. And then citizens would also look at that in that manner. Mr. Carroll. Mr. Chair, thank you. Great.

[00:51:00] presentation. I agree. I wanted this slide up longer because although the last one was beautiful, this is the one I want people to look at because they need to click on here to look at all of the different ways that we work regionally together. And there are some people in our community who believe we shouldn't work regionally, that we shouldn't spend a single tax dollar of Chesterfield outside of Chesterfield. And I would hope that this would help inform people in the community as to understand why in many cases these partnerships. They don't just benefit the other jurisdictions. They benefit us tremendously,

[00:51:39] our taxpayers, our people who live here tremendously, and actually kind of create the entire environment as to why people want to move into this part of the United States, why we've had over 30,000 people move into Chesterfield County in the last five years. It's not necessarily just because here, but it's also the proximity to many other things that are available to them and so i appreciate the hard work you did in putting this together and i hope that the the community will look at this as a resource and and hit a separate questions if you if you're from the community and you look on something on here and you have a question about

[00:52:15] it don't be afraid to ask we want to answer all the questions we can so thank you for putting us together yes thank you for all your comments and again for the for you all and departments and the people especially this is an evolving product you know we we don't want to wait we could take another year to just to perfect something but this is just getting it out there quite frankly my inspiration presenting it to you was we're going to have two people come before you in the next work session who are great representatives of regional cooperation and and what in it what is transportation authority has done and can still do on behalf of the region and

[00:52:53] Chesterfield and then miss Schickle with plan RVA is you know the cat herding of nine localities is never an easy task and she has earned the right to be chief cat herder of that organization but I also want to disclose that as part of regional regional partnerships is that you know we did share this information out amongst my peers at a recent gathering with other elected officials and I have talked to Ms. Schickel in the past too that this may be of a topic of interest to plan RVA because you know we don't have to be the complete owner and operator of that. A lot of what we're doing is things that pertain to four large jurisdictions

[00:53:30] or nine, whatever the assortment may be. And we'll do the same information to our Crater PDC friends as well. And to the point that was raised before, I do encourage people to click. Each one of those tabs has numerous organizations, many of them non-profits, that if they did not exist uh they'd be knocking on somebody's door for this service uh and and some of these organizations quite frankly are able to do far greater things than we would ever be able to do as a locality or have to forge new regional partnerships to do because there aren't any

[00:54:05] in in absence of that and then lastly these non-profits can do things too that we would never be able to do well or should do such as fundraising such as qualifying for certain grants that are not otherwise afforded to local government. So all of this is part of, again, a much larger complex exercise.

[00:54:25] But I do encourage any and everyone, if we're missing something, by no means was that intentional. I like to think that in another year from now, this will be even more robust and more quantitative to the value of the people. And ideally, Plan RVA or some other complementary regional groups would reciprocate and having some mirror image of much, if not all of this.

[00:54:48] Thank you. - Chair recognizes Mr. Carroll. - Not me. - Yeah, do you wanna say that? All right, Mr. Harris. - Yeah, just, I think Dr. Casey wanted also to note that we have a similar website that's also out there on Chesterfield.gov that shows our partnerships with the school division in particular.

[00:55:06] So we look for a way to maybe integrate the two a little bit, but that's been an outstanding resource that we've had, and you saw an example and every excellence of that. And certainly this past week, every single day is a partnership with schools as we work through the storm. But we have, again, a similar treatment of all the ways that we work very closely with CCPS and provide a tremendous value to the community by not having duplication of certain duties and responsibilities.

[00:55:34] So that's another good resource that's out there and a similar spot on the webpage. - All right, Chair recognizes Mr. Engel. I just wanted to say that I think you did a good job working on the definition of regionalism, and that might be something we might see in other places and in part of our regional partners, picking up some of that thought process.

[00:55:55] Thank you for your hard work on that. I know that since there wasn't a good definition out there, it was challenging, but good work. Brielle, I wanted to mention that if you ever go out on the chat GPT or AI and they have no idea what you're talking about, you've just struck gold.

[00:56:12] Because in that moment, you're realizing that you are at the edge, that you are at the cutting edge of an idea, and you're there. So that is exactly right on, because it's about partnerships, it's about relationships, and it's about creating that. I was kind of scared for you initially as you were starting, because you have Martha Schickel sitting in here from Plant RVA, and that is an intimidating place to be.

[00:56:38] So I was, and then as you were going through it, continuing to be more impressed. That definition is right on. And I suspect that now Martha's going to need to pay you for that definition. So hold out for some big dollars. As Mr. Harris is saying, it's about investment.

[00:56:56] So return on the dollars here, okay? So, yeah, that's what it's about in the final analysis is how do we get that ROI on it and making sure that when we're working with community partners, is it making sense? And that's really what it comes down to.

[00:57:13] And this tool is amazing that you've put this together. And I just want to add, I mean, you had a tough act to follow. Well done. So congratulations. Yeah. C, Plan RBA and CBTA update, Ms. Schickel and Mr. Parsons.

[00:57:38] Welcome. Thank you. I appreciate the grounding that we just had. That's really exciting. I'm a bit of an evangelist of regional cooperation, so it was nice to have that as the welcome.

[00:57:59] So thank you for that schedule alignment. That was nice. I'll just say, for any kind of opportunity, I would love to chat further about that topic. There is a very small body of academic research around regional cooperation, but there is some, and I'd be happy to point staff in the right direction around some of that literature.

[00:58:23] There are a couple of university partnerships out across the country that study organizations like ours and the partnerships that local governments have together. And there was a movement pre-COVID to build out stronger academic curriculum because the movement toward regional cooperation is ever growing.

[00:58:42] And I know even in the ICMA professional world, it's an ongoing topic as local government administrators think more and more about how to meet the needs of citizens as it evolves. So I would love to chat more about that. So I'm glad to be here today.

[00:59:02] It's funny when Chet and I were talking about how to prepare with Dr. Casey and the team. I think each of you are fairly familiar with the work that we have going on, but it's nice to sit in a room in Chesterfield County, maybe to talk about it a little bit through more of the lens of what does Chesterfield County get out of the partnership through Plan RBA.

[00:59:24] So I wanted to start with just an overview. Oh, excuse me. Looks like my slides are out of order. Hold on. I'll find where we need to go here. Okay, let me just start from where I wanted to start for a second and I'll get there.

[00:59:43] You all remember we adopted the regional strategic vision back in June. And, you know, I think one of the things that I think about that we didn't talk a lot about over the last few years is this idea that that regional, yeah, there you go, thank you, that regional strategic vision is one that really, I hope, you see as reflective of Chesterfield's blueprint.

[01:00:04] You know, these are the five core values that were identified through that regional strategic vision. This language was identified through a pretty exhaustive search of our staff reading through, pouring through all of the documents that our local governments have formed to identify what your vision is for each of those nine jurisdictions.

[01:00:24] And we came up with this language that we felt like really encompassed where all nine localities are together in thinking about and pursuing the future. So the hope is, and I think that the commitment that the board made in adopting this vision is that it is truly reflective of what Chesterfield envisions for the future here in the county.

[01:00:43] So what that means really, and kind of grounding you in a little bit of jargon around requirements, the Virginia Code requires the preparation of a regional strategic plan through planning district commissions. It's one of our core responsibilities. And so we've identified this sort of branding to be able to achieve that mandate through Pathways to the Future.

[01:01:05] And the idea is that every core planning product that we produce, whether that's the long-range transportation plan that's under the development right now, whether that's the comprehensive economic development strategy that the board adopted last fall, each of those plans further that regional strategic vision.

[01:01:21] And so the commission, Plan RVA's commission, will be active over the next couple of months in adopting many of these core component plans as part of that regional strategic vision. So a little bit about where we are and the status of those core plan adoptions. As I mentioned, you adopt the, excuse me, the planning district commission commissioners that you all are members have adopted the comprehensive economic development strategy back in November of 2025. And we submitted that to the U.S. Economic Development Administration. Our hope is that that submission will result in our region being designated as an economic development district and following last

[01:01:59] December 2024's reauthorization of the U.S. EDA it would enable ideally a small amount maybe 250 to 500 thousand dollars annually to be able to maintain and pursue the activities identified in that economic development strategy so different than what you see through the greater Richmond partnership or through the economic development partnership or even with your own Economic Development Authority. It's not about prospecting new businesses. It's really about making the community's infrastructure as strong as possible so that that business prospecting can happen. So it might be things in our SEDs around assuring that the right mix of affordable house

[01:02:37] or right mix of housing opportunities are available for the workforce that you hope to attract and retain here in the county. Or it might mean that some of the initiatives that you all have actually seated here could be scaled and grown across the region with regard to child care. So just sort of some examples around that workforce support programs. In two weeks, on the 12th, we're scheduled to have a recommendation come before the board for acceptance of the comprehensive climate action plan into our Pathways to the Future strategy. We submitted that plan to the

[01:03:11] US EPA in December. That's been a multi-region effort to be able to deliver that through a lot of coordinated stakeholder engagement with staff members here in the county as well as constituent groups and working out in the public to be able to identify those strategies that the region can undertake to address air quality improvement. We just closed or will be closing this week the public review process for our natural resources plan and so further action from the board will be coming later this spring to be able to pull that planning effort into the the pathways to the future, but thinking a lot about what are those large scale initiatives that

[01:03:49] on aggregate across the region really help to be able to address water quality, to be able to address various aspects of natural resources conservation and preservation in the region. And then finally, I know many of you are part of, but not all of you are a part of our Richmond Regional Transportation Planning Organization, but that's the body that PlanRVA also supports to be able to drive the development of our regional long-range transportation plan and perhaps one of the greatest nexuses between Plan RVA and the CBTA and understanding what our region's greatest regional transportation project priorities are and how we make sure that that's

[01:04:27] a data-driven process that enables you as the decision makers in the region to allocate resources most effectively. I'll talk a little bit about kind of beyond that. You all received our annual report document back in December when we hosted our joint annual meeting, so I thought I'd talk a little bit about things that are active right now and what's to come through the rest of the fiscal year. As you can imagine, transportation safety continues to be a big priority for our organization. It was something that the policy board identified as a major work program priority this time last year. And we've continuing to work with our locality stakeholders on developing our

[01:05:06] regional safety plan and identifying actually at the next TPO meeting on Thursday this coming week, the policy board will be taking action on this year's transportation safety performance measures. And so that's really the target that we use to evaluate our performance and are held accountable to the federal government and assuring that the infrastructure improvements and other investments that we're making in our community really are driving down the incidence of traffic-related fatalities or serious injury in the region.

[01:05:40] We're also working actively with regional stakeholders on the development of a regional resilience hub. I think, you know, no better time to talk about this in the midst of the recovery from a major ice storm and thinking about how we can pool resources to efficiently deliver services across the region to stand up facilities in times of extreme weather events, for example, where we might not always need to serve a certain population of people, but in certain types of emergencies or other disasters, we have the ability to launch facilities in the right location at the right time for the right people to be able to meet those needs.

[01:06:12] We're also working actively. Dr. Hilton, you talked a little bit about GRTC, a big partner of ours in understanding what the mobility needs are across our region. So working actively with GRTC and their tap into transit program, which is really an effort to be able to raise awareness of where and how folks might be able to use transit services. Really, it's been a partnership to launch the link service, the micromobility services across the region, and then also really being able to identify and explore with our smaller jurisdictions in our more rural parts of the

[01:06:51] region, what are those mobility needs there and how do we really, again, potentially mimic what is happening here in Chesterfield with the Chesterfield CARES program where you've got that door-to-door service for certain types of constituents that a fixed route service just really isn't going to be suitable for them even if it was available door-to-door. Water supply planning is another big topic. We are I think anxiously awaiting the agreement from the Virginia DEQ to provide our next tranche of funding. I'll say a little tongue-in-cheek it's an $8,000 grant award. Very grateful for the money that the state has provided for that but you can imagine that

[01:07:31] that's woefully less than what is required to meet the mandate. So in the spirit of Natalie's presentation earlier, I'll just echo the fact that we continue to face challenges with unfunded mandates from the Commonwealth and are working hard with our partners to identify how we can bring resources in to be able to meet these important needs.

[01:07:55] No doubt that water supply planning is an important topic and something that is really critical to our growth and development, responsible growth and development, but it's certainly something that we can't do without the support and sponsorship from the state. And then finally, we've got a really, I think, exciting program going on that I know will also probably be of interest to you. We were awarded funding last fall from a private funder to be able to help us work with CVWMA on an anti-litter and campaign and really being able to focus on how we can do some more diversion from the waste stream. We've got, when I say crisis in the planning world, I hope you understand that I

[01:08:32] mean the runway is still a decade away but we've got a bit of a crisis when we think about solid waste planning and what we're going to do with our growing community population and the waste that that incurs and landfill capacity and so one of the one of the one of the great ideas that we have that we still have time to really be able to activate is waste stream diversion and so how can we really look at that and understand what we can do to be able to raise awareness and education among our members of our public so we're really targeting the opportunities for people to think more intentionally about food waste and raise awareness there. So it's a large portion from a household perspective, but also as you can imagine from other sectors, it's a large portion that's

[01:09:12] contributing to the space occupancy in our facilities. A couple other things just on the data front, probably one of the things that we're second most known for after transportation is our work in the data space. So on February 10th, we'll be launching the release of our housing market value study. Your recently retired Dan Cohen has been a big champion of this work the last six or seven years. And this is the third time we were able to run the reports, if you will, of the housing market analysis, which is a deep dive on a number of just layers upon layers of

[01:09:47] geographically based information about how your housing market is everything from pulling permit information from your local department to understanding what occupancy and vacancy data looks like from the United States Postal Service and we overlay all of that and understand what the market is really, what's happening in the marketplace on the ground and it enables us to identify at a very small geographic level what those trends look like and how they relate to other places in the region. This is the first year that that market value analysis will be completed across all nine jurisdictions. So third run for Chesterfield, but first run for the entirety of

[01:10:25] the region. And we're really excited about that. Um, and, and happy to be able to release that product in a couple of weeks. Um, and that leads right into our scenario planning work. Um, our team has been nationally recognized for its efforts really under Chet's, um, launching for scenario planning, which is, uh, I call it like new wave planning. It's really about recognizing the fact that we can't predict the future, but we can identify various scenarios that are likely to happen, and how do we plan for multiple scenarios in the future. Chet's going to correct me when it's his time to speak about how to talk about that, but it's pretty cool stuff when you

[01:11:02] think about, you know, getting data, you know, modeling these different forecasts, and really how do we best prepare ourselves to respond to those various scenarios as we think about that forward and we've gotten a very exciting grant from federal highway administration to be able to use that scenario planning tool to again drive great decision making and really build in a return on investment calculation to understand that you know if we make this investment here in this transportation infrastructure what is the likely return on investment from a system maintenance perspective from a diversion of crashes and other incidences from an environmental perspective from

[01:11:41] an economic development perspective. So not just weighing the costs, but also the potential revenues that can be generated from various investments. So we're really excited about that. And all the while, you know, we're very focused in working with our partners at Chamber RVA, the Community Foundation, the United Way, and Richmond Memorial Health Foundation, and really understanding what drivers we can really employ to boost economic mobility across the region. So we're continuing to work on that project and hope to be ready to launch the mobility metrics dashboard online later this summer. I promise I'm almost done. Last couple slides. So one of the things I think that

[01:12:21] just in the spirit of the presentation you heard about regionalism is I think one of the things that PlanRVA hopefully does really well is it brings together these topics that tend to transcend jurisdictional boundaries and we try to think about them and deliver content and ways to talk about these issues, specifically housing, transportation, the environment, in a holistic way to really understand that one doesn't function or happen without an impact and without the opportunity to benefit from the other.

[01:12:50] And so that's one of the things that we're really excited about. On March 13th, we'll be hosting our second annual Pathways to the Future Regional Symposium, which endeavors to bring members of the interested public together, that curious citizen who might know a thing or two about one of these topics, but really is curious to know more about the intersection of them. And so we'll be doing a bit of a deep dive on housing and our market value analysis and how we understand the data that we have about our housing market and how do we use that information to understand how to prioritize transportation infrastructure investment. So we'll be working through a day long program with that. So please mark your calendars if you're available

[01:13:29] to attend. That'll be hosted up in Mechanicsville at the Richmond Times Dispatch headquarters. Just to also flag a couple of events future out, I'm going to steal the thunder of the Emergency Management Alliance, but that was another regional partnership that Chesterfield has been an active participant and leader in. It's a multi-regional VDEMS region for, I believe it is, geography. So it's something like 26 jurisdictions, and they'll be hosting the Mass Care Symposium at the Capital one West Creek facility on June 15th, um, we get statewide registration. So when you talk again

[01:14:06] about those regional partnerships, um, it's not just here in the central Virginia region that localities benefit, but it really is sharing of best practices about preparedness and how we engage the public in that preparedness, um, um, across the Commonwealth. And if you haven't seen them, um, please check out the production that the emergency management Alliance has put together.

[01:14:25] There's a series of mass care training videos that we've released, which really help, especially in instances like this past week in standing up emergency shelters and that kind of thing. The training videos that we need to be able to bring volunteers in and make sure that they know what to do and when and how to do it.

[01:14:43] And then finally, just a little bit about community engagement. It's a big area of growth for our organization. We always are thinking about new and innovative ways that we can engage with the public. Long range planning is sometimes a little bit hard to grab a member of the public's attention.

[01:14:59] You know, we're very much focused for good reason on the here and now, but really thinking about kind of what's that next generation of need in our region. And so we're really excited to explore some innovative opportunities, again, through some private funding awards that we've earned to be able to think about how to acknowledge the everyday citizen and communities that are building and driving change, but also how to leverage our arts and culture community, which really is one of those things that makes the Richmond region so special.

[01:15:28] So if you're interested, particularly members of the public that might be watching, if you're interested in following any of these planning activities, you can grab that QR code or go to engage.planrva.org. We've got a really exceptional website that just keeps growing and getting more and more content every day where folks can follow the status of various projects.

[01:15:49] they can give comments they can interact with different maps and that kind of thing and it's a great way for us to be able to track not just in a public comment period but throughout the entirety of the life of a project what folks are thinking and I read just this week that you all completed the citizen satisfaction survey and those results are in so we're going to be looking at ways that we can take that survey data that citizens have already given and try to feed that in. So we don't have to keep asking people the same questions over and over again, but can take that rich information and feed it into our planning process. So I didn't talk as quickly

[01:16:28] as Natalie, but I tried. So I'll, I think, hand it over to Chet in case, and then we can do Q&A at the end. Mr. Chair, is that okay with you? Absolutely. Okay. Good afternoon. Thank you all so much for having me today. I'm Chet Parsons, Executive Director of the Central Virginia Transportation Authority. And I just wanted to take a few minutes of your time to give you an update to share some news from the past year on what's been going on at the CBTA and the activities

[01:17:02] that we've been involved with. This is, I'm going to show some excerpts from our 2025 impact report. So our last full fiscal year and some of the activities that we've been involved with and the impacts to the region. So for those who may be following along at home and aren't familiar with the CBTA, we're a relatively young organization that was created by the General Assembly in 2020. Our role is to really work in partnership with the TPO, the planning

[01:17:37] organization, to take projects from concept to reality. The process is on the screen now, It really involves, you know, first developing the ideas which primarily come about through the long-range transportation plan, having that 20-year vision out into the future.

[01:17:56] The modeling, the scenario planning that Martha mentioned, the new really, really cool concepts of identifying return on investment for transportation projects. We use all that information, the data-driven process, to test and analyze projects, see how they stack up against each other in terms of impact to the regional transportation network.

[01:18:22] And then the CBTA uses all that data and analysis to develop priority lists and funding decisions that our board takes upon themselves to deliberate on every year, multiple times a year, honestly.

[01:18:39] And then we were able to provide a funding resource that just hasn't been here for this region, for the Central Virginia region in the past, before five years ago. So we're excited about continuing to make an impact in the region.

[01:18:55] And I just wanted to give you an update on some of the work that's been underway. This is something that we track. We are funded by tax revenues from two different sources. There's a sales and use tax and a fuels tax that is collected by the Department of Taxation and the Commonwealth on a geographic basis.

[01:19:22] So the nine localities that participate in the CBTA, these two tax revenues are collected on sales and gas purchases in our region in those nine localities. And those revenues stay here in the region to be used solely for transportation purposes.

[01:19:42] What the screen shows is for each of the past four fiscal years, the revenues that we've received from those two tax sources. About two-thirds comes from the sales and use tax and about a third from the fuels tax.

[01:19:57] But in our last full fiscal year, 2025, we received just under $230 million in tax revenues that are staying here, staying home for use on transportation needs around the region. Specifically to Chesterfield County, one of the ways that this funding is utilized is half of all of those tax revenues go directly back to the jurisdictions where those revenues were collected.

[01:20:26] And it is a proportional basis in terms of the amount of revenues collected. That amount proportionally goes back. So the highlighted row on the table shows Chesterfield County. For the lifetime of the county, $144.5 million has been directed back to Chesterfield.

[01:20:48] That's over the last six years. Just in the last fiscal year, $9 million of that CBTA local money has been committed to projects that are currently underway or in advanced planning. So there's a lot of funding available, and this is just 50% of the revenues collected.

[01:21:10] We also have a 15% stake that goes to GRTC to address regional public transportation needs. And I say regional needs because not everybody has fixed route GRTC service.

[01:21:26] So the link service that was highlighted earlier is one of the projects and programs that came out of the creation of the CBTA. And it provides first mile, last mile service to people who are in the need or in the demand those services that they can't reach a fixed route project that is currently provided by GRTC.

[01:21:53] And then 35% stays with the authority for regional needs, big regional projects like an I-64 widening or Ashland Road Interchange on 64 in Goochland, projects down in this neck of the woods as well, which I'll highlight.

[01:22:11] We are currently in an off year for regional projects, so I don't have highlights from the last fiscal year in terms of regional commitments, But in about a month's time, the authority is going to undertake deliberations for about $145 million in regional funds to be committed to a new round of regional projects.

[01:22:34] And that's very exciting, and it's something that I know all of our members hang their hats on in terms of being able to provide that much-needed revenue to get these transportation projects moving forward. The other thing we do is work with our localities to understand what the commitments are for the upcoming year.

[01:22:56] So out of that local money, local CBTA money that Chesterfield receives, these are the projects that have been highlighted by the county to use that local money to help leverage and advance. Most of that funding is going towards debt service on bonds that have been issued by the county.

[01:23:14] But the projects that are going to be recipients of those bonds are big ones. The Poet Parkway Extension, Center Point Parkway Extension, Courthouse Road Extension, Otterdale Road, Drainage at Swift Creek, and Upper Magnolia Green, East, North-South Connector Road.

[01:23:30] So lots of those projects are underway because of the CBTA local dollars that have been committed. The second highlight I wanted to provide today was in relation to the SmartScale program. This is a project that VDOT administers on a statewide basis.

[01:23:45] It is an application-driven process that depends solely on data provided and awards projects that are the best-performing projects around the Commonwealth. This is something that everyone around this table needs to brag on.

[01:24:04] This past round of SmartScale, which was the sixth round of SmartScale, the Richmond District, which represents our nine localities in the CBTA region, outperformed every other district in the state five-fold, and this is something that I think is due in part. I can't say it's all because of the CBTA, but the leveraging mechanism that the CBTA has used to help provide match dollars, in essence, local match dollars for the big transportation needs, helped us tip the scales a little bit to realize a lot of those investments

[01:24:42] from the state, from the Commonwealth, in this region. The Richmond District received just over $510 million from the SmartScale program this past June. And the lettering is too small on the screen, but I will say that Hampton Roads in Northern Virginia each received about $150 million.

[01:25:02] So part of the impetus for creating the CVTA was competitive, was to be able to realize some of those needs in our region. And we're starting to see some of the results of that as we go through these competitive application processes.

[01:25:18] And that's something everyone should be proud of. Mr. Chair. Mr. Carroll. Chad, I think it's important to point out, too, that those other transportation authorities were created long before us. And they've had an opportunity to get their legs under them, so to speak.

[01:25:37] And so they've been crafting their transportation projects longer. You know, Hampton Roads, for example, they get $200 million a year that comes in there, but they've actually probably leveraged that to $6.2 billion in funding, including a bridge tunnel.

[01:25:56] So the good thing about that, and this is why I bring it up, is that those two particular transportation organizations have kind of leveraged themselves out with the funds they actually have coming in, which has allowed us to be more competitive now against, not just against them, but even across other transportation districts throughout the Commonwealth, because now we're in the same foothold they were in a couple of years ago, but they have money to leverage to try and get it for their projects.

[01:26:25] And I think it's important for the public to understand that we're in a much stronger position now than we were even just a couple of years ago, because now we actually have our projects lined up regionally, not just Chesterfield, but all over. And that's why we're doing, that's part of why we're doing, I think, a little bit better competitively.

[01:26:44] Yes. Thank you, Mr. Carroll. That's a great point. Just a couple of highlights from SmartScale Round 6. This is a somewhat complicated table, so I'll try and interpret it for you. These are all projects that received awards that are within our non-locality region.

[01:27:06] The darker green rows are the ones that leveraged some CBTA dollars to help with the application. And then the dark, the black font, the top row there is a Chesterfield County project. So this was this first one, the Meadowville Road, I-295 bridge intersection was an application by the county that received $24 million through SmartScale.

[01:27:33] And then Busy Street Extended was a CBTA leverage project. And I-95 Route 10 Interchange Improvement Phase 2 was a CBTA leverage project. Both of those were through our partners at the Plan RVA and the TPO.

[01:27:51] And those received $14.7 and $30 million, respectively. So overall, at a smart scale in terms of positive awards, that's $70 million by itself amongst three projects. And I'm sure Ms. Walker can talk in spades about all of the other impacts that the county has received.

[01:28:14] I did want to try and keep to time and let Dr. Casey or anyone else follow up with any questions or clarifications. Thank you very much. Let me just make a couple of comments really quickly in that thank you both for being here today.

[01:28:35] Oh, no, no, you go, Dr. Hilton. All right, I'm going to finish. Thank you both for coming today. I want to just mention a couple of things. We were just talking about regionalism, how important it is that all five of us serve on the Plan RVA, and how important it is that we're all sitting down there and understanding what's going on around the region and how we can participate in the best way possible.

[01:28:57] I also want to make a point that I want to appreciate Mr. Carroll and the work that you're doing on the CVTA. The reason those dollars is because of your hard work. And I'm still going to give you credit for being down there.

[01:29:14] And also I'm going to appreciate Jessica Snyder for stepping up and now being on the Executive Committee on the RITPO. So thank you for your willingness to do that. And that's how important it is that we put the right people in the right place at the right time to be able to do that work and to set up with the regionalism.

[01:29:33] So I just wanted to mention those things. I also want to talk a moment about Busy Street. I know that Ms. Schneider was involved with that. That's a really important project because it's going to help to keep alive a really struggling strip mall. And now when people leave that strip mall, they can do it safely by making a right turn and then a right turn on to Busy Street and being able to get back on to Middle Oathian.

[01:29:57] So very excited about that project. I just want to say your colleagues around the region love the name. Yeah, Busy Street. Yes. Yeah, that's a great name. Yeah. Dr. Hilton. Ms. Schneider. I just wanted to, it also has one of the best restaurants in Chesterfield, Middle Oathian Shots Kitchen on Busy Street.

[01:30:18] Ah, okay. That's a good plug. Yeah. Yeah. Let's go to Dr. Hilton and Mr. Carroll. Now, I just wanted to say thank you for the hard work that you all do. I had a conversation with a citizen when I first came on. I got sent out to Hanover to bring them congratulations for their quad AAA bond rating.

[01:30:43] And so people were like, well, why would Chesterfield be here for this? And, you know, it was very simple that although I must note that, you know, we were the first ones in the region to have that bond rating,

[01:30:55] But, and Henrico followed us, but, you know, no shade there, because, and here's the bottom line of it, that when one locality succeeds, all localities succeed, and I think that the more citizens understand that and can break away from the idea that, you know, Chesterfield, you know, a success for Chesterfield is a success for Chesterfield when a success for the region is a success for Chesterfield, So just like a success for Chesterfield is a regional effort and a regional success.

[01:31:29] So just want to make those brief remarks in a note of appreciation to you and your colleagues for everything you do. Thank you. Mr. Carroll. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Busy Street also has probably one of the only TV repair shops in Chesterfield County.

[01:31:50] Having utilized their services on multiple occasions, if you need your TV fixed, that's the location they go to. I don't get any credit for that whatsoever, but they are great people, and they do a great service. But one of the things I want to say about CBTA, which I found to be absolutely amazing, is it has been my experience that this has been – we have certainly great regional cooperation within all of the committees I serve on, but this is probably the one that manages the most money.

[01:32:26] And it's been a tremendous experience working with all of the localities together, including in some cases making an opportunity, for example, for one locality to shift funds from one project to another, which ended up then in turnaround getting funds through the CTB to secure an interchange, which then secured a major economic development deal for them.

[01:32:53] I don't know that that would have happened years ago regionally because everybody was too competitive with each other, especially on trying to get big economic development deals. And so the cooperation that you see between all the jurisdictions, I don't think the fall line trail would have ever been funded if the CVTA wasn't created.

[01:33:10] And now we have, hopefully now in the spring, a groundbreaking coming up for the southern section of the fall line trail in southern Chesterfield. Certainly we've seen progress on that up in Ashland, Hanover, and in RICO. And so it's been my honor to have an opportunity to serve in that capacity with CVTA.

[01:33:30] And I think we've come a long way. And one of the things you didn't say, Jet, which I kept waiting, waiting, waiting, over a billion dollars, over a billion dollars since its creation into the Regional Transportation Authority, 50%, which, again, for each locality goes back to them.

[01:33:50] These are funds that I believe are being wisely spent by all the localities to provide and what I think is a big catch-up on transportation issues that have plagued the Richmond region for a long time, including the $100 million that goes to the 64-widening project, a 29-mile project that when people know when they go to the beach, when you get on the other side of James City County, it's beautiful, but between Richmond and there, it was bottlenecked.

[01:34:20] It won't be anymore, which I believe has opened up economic development deals for New Kent. I mean, they're going to get the only Buc-ee's in the area eventually, but it's going to be here. And so I think it's opened up a great spirit of regionalism and economic development opportunities for and transportation improvements, not just for multimodal, but for everything.

[01:34:45] And so it's been my honor, Mr. Chair, to serve in that capacity, and I appreciate you letting me stay there. Thank you. You are quite welcome. Dr. Kesey. Just one more gratitude. You know, the peer-to-peer networking of CVTA especially, but even plant RVA topics enables me to talk to my peers on those specific topics.

[01:35:04] And, of course, when we talk, we talk about many other things. But I know Mr. Smith, Ms. Walker, and actually Barb Smith, who serves on the TAC role. This is an example where the technical expertise that the CVTA pushed down or the TPO pushed down to having really peer-to-peer engineering experts make engineering decisions for the benefit of the region that others of the food chain have all really have respected and listened to.

[01:35:29] And just one other footnote for those that are watching, when we say the Richmond district also, that is one of the larger regional districts because it actually goes down to the state of North Carolina and actually over past the crater PDC as well. And I'll give again, it's another shout out because, you know, it is a challenge to understand all the needs of such a large district, and we are the largest locality in the northern part of that before you get into the city. And I know that we have had our eyes and ears and antennas up on behalf of the crater PDC and actually the other localities down there to be mindful of what they don't have in a CVTA

[01:36:06] and don't have, in essence, really what they've in their own transportation department. So again, credit the transportation department, Chesterfield, for not just doing the role of Chesterfield, but in actually, you know, having the heart and soul for those that are south of us. One last thing.

[01:36:23] Mr. Chair. I think also credit goes to our treasurer, who has been in charge of our investment strategy for the CVTA, which has actually helped us to reach, you know, our regional reserve that we wanted very quickly through investment.

[01:36:40] And also Chesterfield being the fiscal agent, I think, has helped working with all the jurisdictions. I think Richmond is also part of that. So it's, again, it's, we're trying to do the best that we can with these dollars to make everybody's life better in many different ways, especially when it comes to getting caught up on some of these transportation issues.

[01:37:03] And, you know, this is above and beyond what VDOT's role and responsibility is. You know, when you talk about, and I want to say this for the community, when you talk about repaving your roads and your subdivisions, it's VDOT's responsibility. but when we talk about creating new roads or improving intersections uh and other big transportation projects then that's what this type of funding goes for but quite frankly some localities are utilizing it to to repay roads in their sections because that's what they actually need it for or some are utilizing it to pay for staff for transportation because they didn't have staff to even look at it before um so it's depending on your jurisdiction is being used

[01:37:42] in different ways we're modeling to use it to fix big transportation problems in chesterfield including a widening project, I'm going to plug this one, on Western Hill Street from Woodlake to Otterdale, which the CVT has helped fund to the tune, I think, $32 million from that towards that project, if memory serves. I might be close on that, but so thank you again.

[01:38:04] Other comments, Board? Well, again, thank you all for coming. Really appreciate it, and keep up the good work. D, financial update, Mr. Harris and Mr. Bloomfield.

[01:38:21] You called it, what, a trifecta or a hat trick, right? Hattrick, yes, sir. Or second encore, however you want to phrase it. Yeah, so finance update, a couple of goals for this part of the show.

[01:38:43] Mr. Bloomfield, we'll kick off with your annual reval briefing, kind of walk you through that. And then Mr. Hill will join me up at the table and walk through just sort of some budget updates as we tend to do at all of your winter board meetings.

[01:38:59] It's kind of catch you up to speed on where we're at, but Mr. Bill and his team have worked very hard to get to this point, just setting the stage for the community folks who might be tuning in. The county website, which lists all of the annual reval information, goes live tomorrow, so that tends to get a lot of traffic, a lot of interest.

[01:39:20] If you've never been there before, similar to the discussion on the regional website, it's a tremendous resource. There really is a lot of information about your particular parcel, you know, lots and lots of stuff. It's a good time here to go check that out, but that's updated tomorrow.

[01:39:37] And then the individual notices, which are required to be mailed out by February 1st, are being mailed out over the course of this week. Obviously, there may be a little delay with some of the weather items, but those are in process. So with that, I'll turn it over to Mr. Bloomfield, who will walk you through some of the results for January 1st of this year.

[01:39:59] Welcome, Mr. Bloomfield. It's good to see you. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, Vice Chair, Board Members, and Dr. Casey. I'm Mel Bloomfield, Director of Real Estate Assessments, and I come again to give a summary of the 2026 reassessment revow.

[01:40:15] Let me see. Just starting off, as we do every year, I just want to start off with the state statute that requires what we do. State statute 58.13201 basically states that all properties shall be assessed at 100% of the fair market value.

[01:40:39] That's the statute. That is the charge of what we're supposed to do every year. This year, I instructed my staff to have a starting sales assessment to sell ratio of 0.95, and more plainly means if a property sold for $100,000, that assessment would be placed at about a $95,000 assessed value.

[01:40:58] That's that 0.95, getting us closer statistically to 100% sales ratio as required by the state statute. This year also, and I'll talk more about this later, is that there is also a coefficient of dispersion of that median assessment of 5.24 percent and which actually is for, based on IWO standards, should be under 10.0 for any suburban market.

[01:41:30] and I'll talk a little more about that, what that statistic means. Assessments are not the leading indicator of market value. We follow the market. So if something happens today, tomorrow, it may not be reflected, it won't be reflected more likely in the current assessment for the 1-1 to 26.

[01:41:46] We only have one shot at the apple to get the assessment for that year. Whatever happens after that, it's in the analysis for the next year. The total reassessment for this year is $69.5 billion and split between residential agriculture at $54.9 billion, commercial industrial at $14.6 billion for a total land increase for 2026 of $4.2 billion over last year's land book.

[01:42:25] That overall actually equates to about a 6.5% increase in land book value from last year, with a 4.65% of that being attributed to residential agricultural and 1.85% of commercial industrial.

[01:42:50] And if you look at the slide, the slide shows comparison to last year to where we are this year. For 26, we had 6.5% overall assessment. Last year was 6.54%. So relatively close to sliding it just a tad bit.

[01:43:08] For residential agricultural, the media assessment for this year for residential properties is 4.65%. Last year was 5.01%. For 26, again, for commercial industrial land is at 1.85 percent, but 25 was 1.53 percent.

[01:43:31] Just in comparison, the division between the total assessments of existing residential evaluation is at 4.55 percent. Last year was 5.11%, and the valuation for commercial valuation of the total is 6% for 26%, and last year was 4.77%.

[01:43:56] I just want to make a note of that 6%, that ratio between the residential increase and the commercial increase. As has been stated the last several years, we've made a concentrated effort to actually do a better job moving commercial valuation so that's reflected in this particular is where every year has been moving closer and closer and higher and higher and so that distribution of between residential valuation and commercial valuation you see the reflection from year-to-year. Mr. Bluffin just leave on that slide for just a second so I

[01:44:33] think the message here is a couple of things the box on the bottom in the middle that's that's the one that kind of gets the most attention so that's you know what is happening with existing home values as compared to the previous year so as we have been saying in this room as part of these briefings for really since last year we expect that to continue to pull back to the long run average which is sitting just a hair really under three percent and so we see that you know what we expected to happen pulls back you know 50 basis points on that revalve components and when folks check their home prices that's really what they're you're gonna see reflected, that's an average.

[01:45:12] You all have seen the breakdown by districts, and it does vary depending on where you're in the county, but on average to four and a half percent. But I think also interesting, if you look at that, the first box up there, the total change, a little bit less robust than it was the previous year, not a surprise, but the split between where the contributions are coming from is dramatically different.

[01:45:33] You'll continue to see that through the rest of the presentation with more and more contributions coming from the commercial side. And that's really a two-fold effort, one of which is that leading edge of a lot of the major economic development initiatives that you all have announced over the course of the last several years.

[01:45:50] And we've said that it takes time. These are massive projects. They don't happen overnight. They don't show up in Mr. Bloomfield's world the next day. But we are starting to see the leading edge of that. You'll see some exciting numbers on that here in just a slide or two. but it's also that concerted effort to go through and look at those land values in our major commercial corridors, and he'll show you the work they've done on that over the last year or so as well.

[01:46:14] But you see higher commercial rebounds, so existing commercial properties increased more than they did the previous year and increased considerably more than an average residential property did. And then you can see the percent attributed to overall commercial.

[01:46:30] That 30-plus basis points on that really is a noteworthy figure so we're starting to see some of that balance come into this exercise that has been a long-stated county goal and I think with all of the things that are in motion from an economic development perspective you'll see a very similar result over the course of the next several years and just a piggy piggyback off and a step back for a second on in terms of the residential must speak to residential folks real quickly the two also there's There's a few factors that does also contribute into the sliding of the increase in residential

[01:47:08] properties, and it could be in multiple things. Every year we start the assessments off doing an assessment to sell ratio, and what that means is that we take all sales that have happened and we do a median ratio study, assessment divided by the sell prices of every property.

[01:47:27] This year, we came in about 90, which previous years they were starting in about in the 80s, which means if you go back to my example about $100,000 property, that means that those $100,000 sell prices were starting at about $84,000.

[01:47:43] Well, this year, they were moving more toward 90, which is moving us closer toward the actual market value. Now, that could be a number of reasons why. It could be one is that our assessments are getting closer to the market. The market is starting to slow a little as well, and so we're getting closer.

[01:48:00] So you'll see, as it's happening over the last several years, you're starting to see that median increase begin to drop down lower, as Matt had mentioned. And overall, so let's just talk about the overall increase in land book, the $4.25 billion increase from 25 to 26 and how that breaks down.

[01:48:27] In terms of the new construction and growth, which is about 25%, is $1.5 billion was contributed to the new construction and growth, leaving about 75% at $3.1 billion attributed to revaluation of existing properties.

[01:48:45] 72% of the increase for residential and 28% of that attributed to commercial valuation growth. Those figures, if you look at both 24, 26, and 25, once again, looking at the split of the value increase of $4.2 billion for existing residential versus commercial properties, it's a split of 72% of the total increase was attributed to residential increases assessed in property, and 28% was from commercial growth.

[01:49:20] outside of the new construction. Again, just to add on to that, this, as we have said many times, I think this is a much better measure of the ratio.

[01:49:36] The ratio, the overall ratio is sort of subject to the law of large numbers. It's going to take a long time to move that, but it's really about in any individual year, what is the proportionality of those relative contributions.

[01:49:51] And this year you can see it, like Mr. Bloomfield said, almost 29% of the growth coming from the commercial piece and, you know, just a touch over 70 from the residential. So the overall ratio, again, that's a long-term proposition.

[01:50:07] All that can be focused on from, you know, really y'all's perspective, from a strategic perspective is, you know, how are we moving that needle in any 12-month period? this period that Mr. Bloomfield is discussing certainly the benefit of a lot of the commercial and economic development emphasis that we've had when you can get almost 30 percent of that overall total coming from the commercial side despite the fact that its overall composition when you factor in everything is closer to the 20. And so we'll take a quick look at some of the commercial asset changes and we'll be talking about it. These are just some of all of the

[01:50:45] commercial asset increases you see I'm not going to read each and every one of them but you'll see industrial manufacturing up up about 15 percent. We take a office warehousing up 17 and a half percent office warehouse condos up 15 percent so on and so forth so that's where those increases are coming from that helps with that 28 percent of the total increase. And those figures on the green are a combination of revow and construction so that that's new product that's coming online being captured as well as that effort where they go

[01:51:23] segment by segment through the commercial book and are checking those values so when you see that overall increase it's not that industrial flex buildings had an average increase in their value of 15-8 it's the overall increase in that segment from those two factors combined if that makes sense and And just to illustrate the two of the new construction increases, Matt talked about, these are the two major ones that is coming online.

[01:51:51] One is the Carissa Data Center with a value increase of $40.1 million, and the Lego, which is actually only a 30% valuation on that project in Phase 1. So that was a $210 million pickup on that prop as well.

[01:52:07] And there was multiple other properties. We could have listed down to multiple other things that are happening along the line, but those are two major ones that people have interest in. In a presentation where, in a season really, where the numbers get very large and you kind of lose context of what all that means, the Lego line, for example, let's just focus on that. That's a value increase on that Lego property from 12 months ago, a 30% partial. I think that's worth noting in and of itself that most of those kind of projects go out, even if it's not done, you know, we're going out and trying to assign a value to the tremendous amount of work that has

[01:52:46] occurred. So in this instance at Lego, which we've said is, you know, when you went out there and broke ground, this is one of our largest projects ever. So that's that $210 million increase for a total value of 235 on a 30% completed structure complex, if you will, makes that the second most valuable property in Chesterfield County as a 30% completed building. So I think that really kind hopefully gives you some sense of the scale and scope of the types of things that you all have been pursuing from an economic development perspective and the amount of you know benefit that they can bring to the bottom line there is an

[01:53:22] economic development incentive package associated with that project but that does not kick in until that they receive CO so all of the dollars from that assessment work from from Mel and his team and Mr. Hart and his team to make all that possible that will all flow to the bottom line for this upcoming year so you've got a just in two Metaville products your projects you have a quarter billion dollars of new construction value fall into that bottom line which going back a couple slides and you see the overall increase is a 30% roughly contribution from the commercial sector this is really what it's built on these types of efforts that you have going on down in Metaville

[01:54:01] so again a lot of that long-standing decades-old work really starting to bear fruit. And to just add, next slide, we're talking about this is another undertaking that we did for the land over the last several years, but we've made efforts to do all the major commercial corridors, and it's taken us a couple years to get through every corridor to do a land study for each corridor.

[01:54:28] So this year, last year, we did Route 10. The year before, we did Mother Oathian Turnpike. This year, we did Route 1 commercial corridor. As you see, there's a 37% an increase just on the commercial land values up through there, which were depressed over the years, hadn't been moved in several years, so you can see where that value increase has come from, but those were just some efforts made for this year to have to deal with, dealing with land valuations.

[01:54:53] We still have a couple of corridors we need to go through, but this is the efforts that we're undertaking every year to try to deal with increasing land values across the locality And being a large locality, it just takes time to get through each one at the step through each level to do land studies on each level to change all the valuations.

[01:55:12] So this year we did Route 1 as well. In terms of the residential distribution of the actual changes, increases, the median increase, as I mentioned, was 4.65%. Based on this chart, if we flip this over and we did a bell curve on this particular chart, 92.5% of all sales, so all median increases fell within, if you recall I mentioned about the corpus and dispersion, it fell within 4.65% of the median.

[01:55:43] The median was 6.45%, so if I go and do the distribution from 0% to 9%, 92.5% of all residential increases fell within that median increase of 4.65%.

[01:56:02] That's what the actual co-office dispersion means. It's saying is that basically showing and illustrating how equitable the distribution of increases were among residential properties. If anyone is interested in that, at a 4.65%, at a 5% increase either way, you're going to fall between 0% and 9% increase for 92.5% of all properties.

[01:56:31] And at the end, I think that that was pretty much the roughness. And just to add to is that the median sale price, and just going back to what I was saying about the actual valuation of properties, if you notice is that at this point we have a median sale price increase from $24 to $25, only about $5,300.

[01:56:57] So that's showing a slowing of market value. Now, that could change in the summer months, but as of last year, the median sale price in Chesterfield County was $425,300. Any questions on, to kind of a part two to Mel's presentation, I think this is probably a good place to kind of pause.

[01:57:19] And any questions on the results from your 26 revow? Ms. Schneider. So, in regards to the commercial corridors, I'm hoping Hall Street will be soon. Yes, yes, yes, hopefully next year.

[01:57:36] So also in collaboration with that, I'm wondering if there's an opportunity maybe for you guys to identify, like, properties that are not increasing in their value or have issues that may be working with community enhancements on opportunities for CDGB grants, that they might go out and meet with them and stuff like that to see what they could do to increase their value of their properties, et cetera.

[01:58:03] That's just something that came into my mind when we were talking about it. We can certainly take a look at that as they're going through those corridor studies, which is a little outside of what they normally do from a re-eval perspective. So that's a good point. We can get with Mr. Billingsley and have that conversation.

[01:58:21] Thank you. Let me just make one quick comment with Ms. Schneider. When you're going through the whole street, just to protect you, Ms. Schneider, if there's anything that's happening when you go through that re-eval that are way off what you expected or there's a big change in any business along that corridor that you let Ms. Schneider know so that way you don't get sideswiped by someone coming out there.

[01:58:44] So just make sure that you're protecting her and making sure that if something's massive changed that you let them know, let her know. Dr. Hilton. Can we go back one more slide? So when we say negative 0.2, so did that change negatively so that so it was assessed higher last year well assessed higher in 2024 and then it the assessment went down in 2025 yes okay it could have it could have and that could be for a number number of

[01:59:21] reasons fires um permit differences changes and um the characteristics updates and things of that nature okay yeah i just just want to make sure i i understood that yeah thank you um before i let mr carroll speak i just he's whispered to me also for mr carroll on hull street so addendum on that too making sure for both of them so yes mr carroll well that's why i have a lot of construction going on so um what um what portion of these increases were contributed not for the residential side but

[01:59:58] on the commercial industrial side to some of the land purchases large land purchases that took place last year specifically from Google I mean they paid a lot of money for a lot of land yeah and and that's only an increase in value on those land properties it doesn't actually take into consideration once they start any of that development as to what's going to happen with the value of that property in the future but I'm just curious what because I know there were three parcels well actually two big parcels at the two sections of the county where purchases were made right those two parcels that that's we talked about I think they

[02:00:33] In total, probably 15 different transactions. So that was a challenge for us to combine, split, and combine. Right now, they're sitting at about $40 million for the two process right now, which will be also part of the other land study for industrial land as well, which all street along with industrial land are the last two real studies that we have to go through.

[02:00:56] But overall, we did adjust those land values to at least be equitable with what the other land values are, because we have to keep them in an equitable situation for right now. Now, once you move everything more, then that will go up as well. Chair Rick, does Mr. Engel?

[02:01:12] So, I know you already stated these things, but we've had times in the past where maybe residential homes went up more than, say, apartments, and that's been very highlighted in the past. This year, apartments went up approximately 5.88%.

[02:01:32] residential homes went up approximately 4.65 percent um so it reverses back and forth some years it's just the way that um you have to do your math by law and some years things go up a little more next year maybe something else goes up a little bit more but it's not something that's done on the backs of the apartment owners or residential homeowners in any given year it's just the way that the numbers work but i do think it's important because that's been highlighted in

[02:02:07] the past that uh the apartments got tax breaks well the um single family got increases i wanted to make that point um you know we as mr harris pointed out we've had that old 80 20 in chestfield where maybe a Henrico is closer to a 70-30.

[02:02:30] But in the last two years, we've moved from an 80-20 to a 79-21, which might not sound like a lot, but it really is a huge, with the math problem that our equation, I don't know that it's a problem, but the math equation of the residential homes that have built up over the years, It's hard to overcome that value when we used to be more of a suburban go home to Chesterfield from your job where now we're moving jobs into Chesterfield.

[02:03:03] So having that 79-21 is actually really a big deal within two years. And again, to Matt's point, when we're bringing in 83.43% new and commercial versus 75.57% in residential, it shows that we are making significant progress in this year as we did last year and we expect to do for the next few years.

[02:03:33] And so just some of those narratives that have been out there in the past, we are certainly showing that there has been a return on investment in the projects that we've gone out and tried to incentivize to bring into the county and that that is going to pay off.

[02:03:54] There's going to be, to what Mr. Carroll likes to say, there's going to be a future board that's going to be really excited and happy with us for some of the decisions that we made as we found ourselves happy with the decision that was made by previous boards in Meadowville because they're starting to come to fruition now.

[02:04:12] So hopefully we will continue for many years to see that trend change. But this is really positive, especially for some of the negative narratives that have been put out there in the last couple years about the direction the county's been going and the burden and who's felt that burden.

[02:04:33] So thank you for this information. Yeah, and to that point, Mr. Ingle, we have Dave Good and his team, Jim McConnell, and some others are working on a blog that will be put out along with the update of the county website that kind of gives some of the story points that you heard here today, so we'll make sure that that gets some traction.

[02:04:52] You've seen the Axios and some of the others pick that information up. That's really become a big source for information. So that should be ready to be released by the end of the week to give that same narrative that you just walked through. So I appreciate that. Chair, this is Dr. Casey.

[02:05:08] I just want to echo Mr. Engel's comments and appreciate the facts that you bring behind him. I did want to also just enlighten, too, that there's different dynamics between different localities. Another locality references heavily into the office space for commercial.

[02:05:23] We're into the manufacturing space, and it goes without saying the machinery and tools and other equipment that is in all of these facilities is actually not part of the real estate valuation. So from a 70-30 or 80-20, we get tremendous amounts of taxes in our commercial tax base outside of, quote, unquote, the real property tax structure, for which, you know, that is not Mr. Bloomfield's business.

[02:05:48] That's through the Commissioner of Revenue's office. And the other just, you know, sort of aspirational, when the 70-30 goals were initially illustrated many years ago from a planning tool, that was really the balance of a locality that was really heavily student-based. And, you know, and again, you've been part of these exercises in the past where a generation ago, you know, two-thirds of our households had school-age children, and now we're down to less than three out of ten households with that same amount.

[02:06:15] So there may be a point in time that we have to recalibrate and say what is a true real property balance between residential and commercial, but we also may want to, you know, be transparent and gross it up for the other things that are directly from the commercial tax base, such as machinery and tools, that are not represented on the residential side.

[02:06:32] I just want to dispel one myth that's circulated in terms of the residential and multifamily. Multifamily, the last five years, is up over 60 percent in the last five years. Multifamily valuation is predicated on the growth in rent because it's done on an income basis.

[02:06:52] If the rents begin to slow and the overall expenses begin to rise, then you have to capitalize that rent. I capitalized that end valuation and the Y in order to get the valuation. But just as if the residential was at the same level as apartments, that is not what has happened.

[02:07:15] Mr. Villefield, just a quick comment. Yes, sir. If you could go back and return to almost your initial slide in that when a home is assessed, okay, we have the opportunity, we have the option to assess it at 100%.

[02:07:31] but we don't do that no can you speak to that as to why we don't and how that benefits our citizens um yes now um well from a statistical standpoint it's hard to get every property at 100 and if you try to shoot for 100 valuation every single property you're going to push many of them over that mark um so coming in coming into the county in my first year um for 22 i think we had a 14 percent overall increase, a double-digit increase. The next year, it should have been another 12 percent increase. Well, we didn't go 12 percent. At the last, in December, I moved that back into a single-digit

[02:08:08] foothold, understanding that markets are cyclical. They may fall off. You didn't know exactly where the market was going to go to, so I left some valuation in the land book there for whatever may happen that was my judgment at the time no discussion that was saying hey let's pull back if the county did not need to be as aggressive on the on the land book i was not aggressive on the land book um the next year we did the same thing in terms of having a target ratio when i got here was 98 it was shooting for 98 every time i backed that target ratio up to 95 and then i backed it up

[02:08:44] in 1993, giving more space than the land book. If something would happen within the market changed, it would not put any pressure on this body as you were reducing tax rates because it happens if, if, let me just say, if you reduce the tax rates lower and the land book goes off the cliff and then I have to go negative, all your efforts then go to waste. So I had, I was being more conservative in that approach along with several other things. I knew some things that I needed to do internally within the office and things I needed to fix and work on. Well, that just took time. So in order to

[02:09:21] make things work and make it more conservative for everyone, I never pushed the land book, have not been aggressive at all with the evaluation of it in spite of what people may say because everyone has an opportunity to appeal their assessments. And since being here, we don't change to very many. And if we change them, it's by very little amount. It's probably we find some condition issues in the properties because there's so much room left from assessment to valuation to actual market value. As I mentioned, we follow the market. And if I follow the market really tightly,

[02:09:58] we would probably be, this year would probably be even lower, but the intervening years would have been higher overall. So I'm just making those assessments in terms overall how to approach it in terms of the overall county perspective and what you folks have to make as well.

[02:10:16] Just to follow up to make sure that folks understand, so you're going to be backing it off to 93% or the hope or something like that. Could this board say to you, make it 97%? No. How come? It's because my job is to be impartial.

[02:10:34] And respectfully, I'll say this. I don't think about the tax ramification. I think about in terms of how do I keep the land book fair, and equitable for everyone. And so my job is to try to create a land book that is equitable as best I can make it and then present it to you to be taxed, however you choose to do it. And if I start to think about in terms of people's taxes and how much it goes up, then I cease to be unbiased. Now I'm putting into my thinking, now I get to choose winners or losers, who I'm going to raise and who I'm not going to raise. You should always want somebody sitting in this chair to

[02:11:11] approach the job as fair-minded and unbiased as you can to approach it. My approach to moving it back was based on overall understanding cyclical markets and not knowing what was going to happen with the market, knowing the market was pretty hot. And every single year, from a political standpoint, whatever was happening, there was always a chance that that valuation was going to stall out. So to stall out, then we may end up at a year or two where there may be no growth in a land bulk, which is much better than a negative land bulk.

[02:11:42] Mr. Inkel. So another way to say it is you're making sure that whatever we appraise their house at, it will sell for at least that much, if not more. Correct. Whether it's a raising or a lower-end market, you're always going to be erring to the side to make sure that the assessment that they have, they'll be able to sell their house for that amount of money.

[02:12:06] Absolutely. And that, I think, is the easiest way to say all of the nice, long way of what you said. But I think that's the most important thing is we're not assessing your house for more than you can get for it in any given year.

[02:12:21] And you're taking those market conditions into consideration where it's a really hot market and it might be cooling off to make sure that that percentage is done in a way to continue to be fair, that they can get for their house what you have it assessed for.

[02:12:38] Yes, sir. Dr. Casey. And I'll just speak in the honor of a mass appraisal system. There are many people who, when they go to buy a house, go inside a house for things that we don't see that could adversely affect the sales price. Neighbors can affect the sales price. So his is a mass appraisal system.

[02:12:55] I just didn't want to get disclosed that everybody give us a call if they're not selling the house for the right amount of money that's assessed at. But having said that, What we have not lived through as a county since my tenure, since, you know, but Mr. Harris was here in 2007, 2008, and I was elsewhere, you know, this 5 to 7 percent, if you will, margin is a best practice in other counties I've worked in.

[02:13:18] And it does help a little bit when the markets go against you that, you know, there's nothing worse than having all of your properties during the initiation of a recession fall below market value, you know, as far as sales price. And there have been times and there will be discussions in the future where what is the 12-month period you look back because sometimes in the first three or four months of a good economy, you don't want those sales to influence what could be the tail end of a bad economy.

[02:13:47] And that is wisdom that his office has. And we'll pay attention to these markets if and when we ever come across that again. State that a little differently. In 2008, where recently we've had people say, you're over-assessing my value and just jacking up my taxes.

[02:14:07] In 2008, we were actually having people call and say, you're under-assessing my value and you're taking away my wealth because you're under-assessing. And what you're saying this whole time is, I'm trying to right-assess so that regardless, the market conditions will keep you in the right place and I'm not taking away your wealth and I'm not um artificially increasing your wealth with which was doing during that particular time that you did you talk about Ms. Engel um we were that was a surprise to me because all of our appeals

[02:14:42] were not about increases it was exactly what you said people said hey hey you know so no matter what you do and what I do so it's just about doing what is right so I can't get caught up and how people feel one way or the other have to do what is right.

[02:14:58] Because, yeah, that was a phenomenon that I had never experienced where folks said, hey, now you're telling them the ramifications of, no, I want it back to what it was. Well, you know, Laura, you don't pay as much in taxes.

[02:15:13] It didn't matter because of the psychology at that time. People were losing money in 401Ks, everything else. So the psychology, I believe, played a part in that. People felt that they were losing something. Assessments are not really based in that ideology. It's really just about fairness and taxation.

[02:15:34] So, Mr. Chair, the second part of Mel's presentation, which we'll move through quickly and make sure to keep you guys on schedule, but we did have an internal audit that took a look at sort of the best practices associated with the office. We certainly appreciate the opportunity to do that and for Ms. Durden's review.

[02:15:55] And I think it was, I've talked to her, and she's perfectly comfortable with having this conversation here today. So she's, you know, signed off on everything that you're going to see. But we thought it was a good companion conversation with this re-vow exercise. So what they looked at was, you know, is the office following the best practices as largely established by his professional organization?

[02:16:18] So Mr. Burdenfield is going to walk you through what the results of that process were, and the paper, I think, is going to be discussed in depth at your audit and finance meeting in February and will be publicly available, so everything that he's saying here will be part of that process.

[02:16:35] But, again, I think as people are looking at that information tomorrow and they get that notice in the mail, I think it's a good backdrop to see, okay, how did they arrive at this? Are they following sort of those established processes? So Mr. Bloomfield is going to walk you through those results. Yes.

[02:16:52] For internal audit, and the purpose of the audit was to evaluate Chesterfield's residential and land use assessment practices. That was the charge by this body to the audit, and that's what they achieved. They benchmarked us against all the IWO standards in other localities, overall Virginia localities.

[02:17:11] And I think that they used six or seven that responded to a survey that they sent them out. And the result, the objective was to compare processes, the RWA best practices, which we follow, benchmark against similar localities. And the methods that they used were surveys, policy review, and a benchmark, as I mentioned.

[02:17:30] Out of those findings, 92% of what we do follows the selective practices of what's RWA practices based on what they've observed. From a presidential standpoint, we are at 90 percent in compliance versus our peers at 79 percent compliance.

[02:17:49] Land use, we are at 100 percent compliance versus our peers at 63 percent compliance, overall findings of their findings. Our strengths were our comparative sales analysis, our annual recalibration evaluation models, Our strong taxpayer communication and appeals process, our use of GIS and our camera systems, and the compliance with Virginia Code, which has a median ratio of 84.22%.

[02:18:19] The last strength was, every year, the state of Virginia, part of the taxation does the mini-ratio on every locality across the jurisdiction. And part of this is it comes because of funding. And so they want to make certain that every locality is doing their best in order to assess their properties, in order to get whatever funding that they need from their locality first and then come to the state second.

[02:18:43] And so they do racial studies every year, which is put out in a report. If anyone wants to go out and see it, you can go to the taxation website. They have all reports there, but you can see every locality, what every locality's median ratios are for every year. This is a median ratio, which actually is at 84.22%, which again shows how not so aggressive the assessments are versus the actual market valuations.

[02:19:11] And they do away at tailing a ratio study, but that is their result of that. And you can find that information out if you want to see more about us in comparison to other localities. Some are a little more aggressive, some are worse. But we tend to fall right where we need to fall.

[02:19:29] And the recommendations that were given was to pursue a certification of excellence by the IWEO, which we were already in the process of doing when this came about. We were also in the process of updating our policies and procedures manual, which we were in the process, again, of updating because of our new camera system.

[02:19:49] So some of those processes are changing daily, and we've been working with our vendor to do some recalibrations of our system. So those manuals were in process, are there, accessible, and improved inspection cycle and mineral property appraisal compliance.

[02:20:06] And the improved inspection cycle, just to speak about that a little bit, IWO standards suggest that localities such as ours should have an inspection cycle where every property should be seen between every four and six years. We were trailing about nine years to get to every property based on the size of my staff, staffing size is what that's about.

[02:20:28] But we've come up with a plan to address that, which was already in play prior to the audit coming in place. And this body gave us some funding to go out and do some things in order to address that issue, which was just something like most of these issues was already being worked on.

[02:20:46] So they just kind of brought forth what we were already doing. Now, if it came a year later, it would have been even better. But, you know, be that as it may, the public at least has an understanding that we're following the best practices from an organizational standpoint, from an assessment standpoint, versus our peers, and according to our DELEO standards.

[02:21:08] I just wanted to have that point out. And that is all I have for this afternoon. If we have any questions. Any questions for you? No? Well done. Thank you. Dr. Hilton. I just want to take a moment just to say thank you for your orientation that you gave me.

[02:21:30] We've had a few sessions, and as a new board member, I feel that I'm not in any kind of competition with my colleagues here, but I do feel like I'm up to par with the way you explained it. And I just want to take a moment just to say thank you for your time and explain something that honestly is a little complicated.

[02:21:54] Um, you know, being that you're kind of like a hybrid of a real estate appraiser and, you know, a bunch of other things kind of put into one, um, for your office. And, um, but, but you all really did a great job, um, bringing me up to speed and I feel comfortable, um, with what you presented and, um, the conversations that we've had.

[02:22:16] So just wanted to say publicly, thank you. And just one last thing, Matt mentioned earlier in the process, is that the assessment notices, the final notices will be put in the mail to at least deliver it to USPS by today. And so now, whatever the length of time for them to get those out, that's because of the weather, but they at least have been delivered from our end, developed, delivered to USPS, and in their possession to be able to deliver it out.

[02:22:43] However, if people are interested, they can always go on the website starting tomorrow to look at their assessments. online because they should show up tomorrow if there's not a glitch in the system but that they should show up tomorrow. And starting on February 1st, they can begin to call our office if they have any issues, questions, if they want some clarification, they want to speak to an appraiser, we'll be available for the next 45 days to answer any question that they have and then walk them through the process of appealing if that's what they choose to do. But we try our best to

[02:23:19] give them the information to at least massage their concerns about what the value of their property is based on assessed values. And it's not always comfortable for folks to see increases, but as it is, my job is just about the valuation and the fairness of it.

[02:23:41] Any other comments, Board? Okay. Thank you so much. Hard work, man. You do it. Now, Mr. Shane Hill, you've all been waiting for all afternoon, I understand, but Mr.

[02:24:03] Mr. Sterkin was a little bit under the weather, so Shane is going to fill in and do a fine job. But last chapter, your update from us is really kind of tying some of Mr. Bloomfield's commentary and sort of a broader look at the economic landscape and then setting up from a calendar perspective our final slide, just kind of launching you into the rest of the budget season as we really in earnest begin in February when you start to see some budget work sessions.

[02:24:31] So I'll run through this quickly, but I think, as Mr. Bloomfield said, you know, we're looking for that pivot point in the macro economy. Certainly we feel like, based on the briefing that you just got, local residential real estate conditions continue to hold up pretty well.

[02:24:49] And that, you know, fortunately for us is the overwhelming majority of our revenue base, and we get locked in for the first six months of the fiscal year. So Mr. Hill has the unfortunate responsibility of that full revenue forecast, but he at least has six months of his largest revenue locked in based on what Mr. Bloomfield presented you today.

[02:25:11] So that's certainly, that's a good place to start. The rest of it, though, we are trying to have an understanding of what will happen a year from now and then with all of the other pieces of the revenue mix. So we're just going to walk through a couple of economic slides that we tend to do at this time of year.

[02:25:27] And audit finance, we can get into this a little bit more. This is looking at local construction trends. This is a year-over-year, 12-month moving average. So we are seeing a slowdown in building activity. So, again, not any one of these slides is reason to, you know, for alarm.

[02:25:45] But it's just we are sharing, as we always do, kind of what is on our radar screen. So we're seeing values hold up pretty well, but we're seeing construction activity, at least locally from a single family perspective, slow down a little bit compared to where we were a year ago. This is an interesting one.

[02:26:02] This is looking at components of the Chesterfield County Labor Force. So these are folks that live in the county. This is not necessarily work here, but it's a household survey. So they are administered nationally, of course, but looking at the components of all those in Chesterfield County that have a job.

[02:26:21] So what you're seeing is the change in those components and the negative green that you see on the far right-hand side in the dashed box. That shows an actual decline in the number of employed individuals from the last piece of data that we have.

[02:26:38] And then the increase is from those that are actually unemployed. So you look back with the gray bars, if you kind of follow the trend across the page, those are recessions that are shaded, just to kind of give you a sense. So when you see that inversion where the number of employed, you see a decline, and then you see an increase in the number of unemployed, there is some correlation to those business cycle points that Mr. Bloomfield referenced.

[02:27:06] And that's really what we chase in our business is trying to identify where those pivot points are. So, again, that doesn't mean that a recession of any kind is imminent, but it's certainly something that we keep an eye on. And it really colors how we build the county administrator's proposed budget that you will see in early March with continued sort of conservative approach, I think, in terms of how we will do that.

[02:27:32] Again, this is a very similar measure here. This is looking at unemployment claims, noisier version on the left, on the right-hand side, kind of smoothed out, you see, plotting continued claims over the course of the last several years.

[02:27:49] So a general trend that has that up, and the most recent several observations show a tick up. So again, some concerns, some very reflective of the national market, that there's some jitters, I think is probably the best word on the labor market side.

[02:28:05] This is, Mr. Durkee made me leave this in here. If he's listening at home, I'm going to do the slide. You know, he owes me $5. But this is sort of an obscure national measure. Same concept. Recessions are shaded in the gray bars.

[02:28:22] But this is looking at heavy truck sales, kind of a leading indicator. Dr. Casey is always kind of talking about those, his big proponent. So this is looking at, again, you think, why in the world are they showing me this? But it's companies making large outlays, and if they choose to kind of pull that back, that's a place where they can make that truck last another year or two.

[02:28:44] But over time, it's proven to be a very good measure of business cycle activity. So you see, again, the most recent observations, a pullback in sort of those heavy truck sales. Again, it doesn't necessarily guarantee that anything is going to happen, but it does follow a similar pattern.

[02:29:04] This chart goes back many decades. So, again, it just gives you, if nothing else, a sense of the depth and breadth of the types of indicators that the budget team looks at on an everyday basis. And so I think this is another thing that we're keeping an eye on, again, building you and bringing you a more conservative plan for FY27.

[02:29:25] And lastly, this one is really interesting, but this is looking at the equity market, so the stock market, and you're seeing various estimates of overvaluation. And you can see here in its current state the value of the stock market more than 2x of annual GDP.

[02:29:47] So any time that you have seen that happen, this is, again, going back quite a while, you see those peaks but it is something to be you know something to be cognizant of suggesting that particularly when that that magnificent seven companies there is a lot of concentration in those and the overall valuation of the stock market does appear to be in a place that it hasn't been historically this is again looking back a long time but we're in excess of that two standard deviations of GDP again just gives us a little bit of caution pumping the brakes a little bit. So when you get into February, March, and you see what the expenditure recommendations

[02:30:25] are and the path forward, you know, I think it will be rooted in some of this conservative, you know, thinking that we're seeing in some of the underlying data. So on to the sort of updated snapshot of the budget process itself. Mr. Hill. Thank you, Mr. Harris. So yeah, again, this is just a little snapshot of where we are in the budget process. Again, very high level as We continue to move over the next couple of months.

[02:30:55] February tends to be a lot of heads down late evenings and nights working on the county administrator's proposed budget. So we are still early in that cycle, but just giving you all an update on where we are. As Mr. Harris just mentioned, we are refining those major revenue forecasts through those lens of the prevailing economic headwinds that he just mentioned some of those, as well as Mr. Bloomfield's real estate assessment revals being one of our major resources revenues for our county just again refining those working through that on the operating side over the last couple of months departments had the opportunities to submit for additional funding requests on both

[02:31:34] operating and capital we are continuing to vet those and go through those as best as we can you can kind of see on the right side of the slide just a little summarized version of those operating and capital requests just giving you the scope the breadth of those dollar amounts as well as the number of requests that we've received in the budget department.

[02:31:54] Moving more towards a more executive review of those requests, we're meeting with Dr. Casey with some of those key departments for those departments to meet one-on-one to go over those requests with him. But more so mentioning, you know, we do this every year. I don't think it gets a lot of limelight, but before we even invest another dollar into the budget, we as our budget team are currently going through department's line items, trying to find those efficiencies and existing resources that we can deploy before we add another dollar.

[02:32:25] And just for some context here, this is similar to what you talked about in sort of the impartial process. We begin this back in the fall. We solicit sort of the needs as the departments see them. It's irrespective of resources that are available, so they submit that to us.

[02:32:42] So by no means are we suggesting that what you see on the two boxes on the right-hand side are all going to be incorporated into your FY27 budget, but we do publish, as you all are aware, every single request that comes in, we clean them up, but everything is ultimately published and everything is provided to the community, to you all, to make good decisions and make sure that the items that are recommended by the county administrator are the right items.

[02:33:06] So we're just kind of giving you, again, a sense of the requests that come in to this point. Dr. Casey's meeting with departments on a daily basis, and we're going through and refining those, and we will now, in the process, now that we have Mr. Bloomfield's piece and the rest of Mr. Hill's revenue forecast, we layer that on top of these requests and see what can be accommodated.

[02:33:26] So that's kind of, again, the way the process rolls out. So we do have a number of requests that have come in, but all of these will not be accommodated, but they are good seeds for the out years of the five-year plan, if that makes sense. Yep, so kind of along those same lines, taking a more higher level step back, looking at the broader framework that guides our budget development process, know, we get all these requests. How can we incorporate those if need be into some of those priorities? Like Mr. Harris mentioned, while the economic conditions may not look like the prior years, I feel like these priorities you see on the screen are essentially the same that they've been

[02:34:04] for the last few years. There's nothing that's really changed in regards to the county's priority and rural's priority as the board. Education continues to be one of our largest recurring expenditure investments. Mr. Harris will go over that in a couple of slides on the school's budget side of things, along with our ongoing focus of our workforce, you know, maintaining those pay plans we've implemented over the last few years, investing in our employees however we can, as well as our facilities and our infrastructure, continuing those referendum projects that we've laid out, as well as dealing with some major maintenance. And then finally, just, you know, a good thing to mention for the public as well as we review our annual financial policies annually

[02:34:44] during our budget process, really ensuring that our financial stewardship is solid and ground, which essentially, you know, safeguards our quadruple, triple A rating that Dr. Hilton mentioned earlier in the presentation. So again, nothing really different on the priorities front.

[02:35:00] We are still, you know, moving forward with everything that we've done over the last couple of years. I know Mr. Ingle loves the cadence of the process, but it is what it is. The school division is in a little bit of a pinch.

[02:35:16] As you know, they get their state portion of their budget early on in, I guess, later on in December. And then they presented last Thursday. So they have a, Mr. Meister was there earlier. He has 30 days, essentially, with all of the cards available to put his plan together, which certainly is challenging.

[02:35:37] But I think they did a great job this year. This just highlights some of the items that Superintendent Murray unveiled last week. The highlights of the school proposed budget, the superintendent's proposed budget, and they are moving into their sort of town hall part of their phase.

[02:35:53] A 5% increase on average for teacher pay, so we've taken a little bit of a step back in terms of our competitiveness in the region in terms of teacher pay, so that's a point of emphasis this year.

[02:36:09] Also looking at major maintenance, you all took, in partnership with the school board, really took a big swing at school bus funding back around Christmas. We feel like we've got a plan to put that on a sustainable path, and we're looking to do the same thing on major maintenance.

[02:36:25] We got some nice injections from some of the federal programs. You did a small debt program a number of years ago. So those are largely burning off and we're looking for, you know, how to pass that baton moving forward so that those major maintenance initiatives can continue. So that would be another major stool of a leg of their stool, if you will, for FY27.

[02:36:48] And then lastly, continuing to look at the execution of their referendum, inclusive of further plans, further development of plans for a Dale Elementary School was all discussed. So I think it's, again, a great budget. balanced. They are not coming back and looking at this point for any more local money. You know, we'll have to see, like Natalie touched on earlier, what ultimately shows up in the state, but the $15 million that Mr. Hill referenced, and you see up here on the top of this chart to the right, that is, again, the foundation for what schools is able to do. They also got some relief

[02:37:23] in terms of their retirement rates. So, you know, the other side of the coin of that evaluation I showed you on the equity markets is the performance in for retirement plans universally across the board has been very good so they did get a little bit of savings because the valuation of the the teacher plan is in a good spot so that that those rates which are set by VRS got pulled back so that gave them a little bit of expenditure headroom that plus some re-benchmarking success as well as our 15 million dollars I think has placed schools in a very good position for FY27 at this

[02:38:01] juncture. Obviously that could all change tomorrow as the General Assembly deliberations continue but we feel very confident in our 15 million dollar number. We will have them as Mr. Hill will show you in just a minute. They will be part of your March work session to go through this in more detail but I did you know as we again put those puzzle pieces down for your upcoming budget this is sort of the first big one and I think it's a it's a it's a very big success and I certainly appreciate the partnership with Dr. Murray and his team. So as Mr. Harris just mentioned just a couple of key upcoming dates over the next couple months as we move throughout the budget cycle

[02:38:38] January February time frame a lot of that is you know schools and them going out and doing their community road shows and budget work sessions to ultimately give us their final budget come March Again, we are working heads down as fast as quick as we can to meet that March 11th deadline for the county administrator's proposed budget to you all here in 502.

[02:39:01] Again, it's just some other key dates that are up there. As Natalie, Ms. Billman mentioned earlier with the General Assembly adjourning late this year as the governor's proposed budget. And then moving into April, the beginning of April, April 8th, for you all to potentially, excuse me, adopt the 27 proposed budget.

[02:39:21] So, again, just a lot of key dates there for you and the public as well as we move throughout this budget development process. Ms. Schneider. With schools being closed, they sent out a thing saying the 29th thing has been moved to February 9th, I believe. So, just to give people more information.

[02:39:39] Thank you for that. That's, yeah, sorry, we should have said that, but that's the end of our presentation. But again, you'll see this slide every month, but again, it's, and we'll put this on the website, but I think it is a handy resource to let people know, weather permitting, kind of how we expect the rest of the budget season to play out.

[02:40:00] So thanks for your time and attention. Board, Mr. Dr. Hilton. Hey, thank you so much for the presentation. On average, what's the percentage of the budget that actually goes to schools? I think it was like 46% or 47% on an annual basis.

[02:40:19] Yes, sir. It's going to be right around that area. The broader measure for us is infrastructure, public safety, and schools. We try to get that as close to 75% to 76%, 78% in any given year. So roughly three-quarters of your budget going to those three longstanding priorities, as Mr. Hill referenced.

[02:40:39] Give me that one more time. You've got schools, public safety, education, and infrastructure, capital facilities. Okay. Thank you. Mr. Ingle. I was just going to piggyback off of what Dr. Hilton said.

[02:40:55] I believe schools is in the 40-something percent. The funds, the state's formula says that the county should be funding approximately 36, 35, 36 percent of the school budget.

[02:41:14] And again, I think we are properly funding, but we are funding at a much higher amount than what the formula would say if the state was to follow their formula. So again, it shows that the county is right funding schools and the state continues to lag behind.

[02:41:33] Although they have taken a few bites at the apple, we appreciate those and we hope that they continue to take some bigger bites this year. Thank you. Mr. Carroll. Thank you. Matt, there are some things, though, when you talk about schools that we actually take care of from a ground maintenance point of view and from a field point of view that are not part of the school's budget.

[02:41:53] And a lot of the things that we've had to fix, and I'm not knocking schools for this, but it just didn't have a capital improvement plan in place for outside facilities to keep up with some of the things that needed to be updated. You know, we had to do three tennis courts last year, which were a couple million dollars, but three different schools.

[02:42:12] We had to do one in Cosby the year before, and all of that comes out of our side of the budget, stuff that we find a way to do. So although from a budgetary standpoint, it may only look like it's 46 percent, when you actually look at all the dollars that we end up spending, it's a little bit more than that.

[02:42:29] Is that an accurate statement? Yes, sir, absolutely. I think to tie the meeting together nicely, the website that's up on Chesterfield.gov or the portion of the website covers a lot of those topics. You certainly pointed out a number of highlights, but there are an equal number of other things.

[02:42:47] The SRO program, we fund a portion of that. It goes on and on, but absolutely, that's why the formula numbers can be a little bit deceiving because we definitely shoulder a lot of things that aren't included in that transfer. And we could, and there are localities that do that.

[02:43:04] They will transfer the full amount over and play sort of silly games with the accounting part of it, but there are ramifications to that. We just don't. We can document those on the website, but to run those through a transfer just for the purposes to get a percentage up is not something that we would stand for.

[02:43:22] Dr. Casey. Just, again, continuing and linking to the prior presentation, I do want to give Dr. Murray credit for presenting a balanced budget to us. It does not mean that he did not have departmental wisdoms submitting requests similar to what you saw from our departments that are respected as far as what they quote-unquote may feel like they can need to perform a service but he did that exercise on his side of the shop that merely just passing over 100% of his departmental requests to our budget staff and I'll credit board-to-board relationships between you and your colleagues and

[02:43:59] staff-to-staff but again Dr. Murray being the leader that he balanced his budget and is achieving some many good things with it no different than hopefully we will be presenting a balanced budget also with many good things but with the full disclosure of what are other ideas of our respected leadership ideally on both sides. Mr. Chair. Mr. Kerr. I certainly don't want anybody to think that I'm knocking the school system or knocking the budget that they're putting forward but my point is that when we find inequities in the schools that need to be addressed this board has repeatedly

[02:44:33] found a way to find funds to do it whether it was during COVID where we took opera dollars and put towards hvac systems and getting caught up on a lot of the cip issues that were that were there with security systems with protective barriers for the schools now last year we put funds towards to fund electronic weapons detection devices in all the schools and so my point that i was trying to make is that there are other things that come up that we can test we work very well with the school system to try and fix and that's the point i want to make sure the community gets it's i'm not knocking to Dr. Murray. I think he's doing a great job. I think school board is doing a great job.

[02:45:12] General Assembly needs to step up a little bit, but overall, I think everything is going well. I just want to kind of add in that, you know, at our last board meeting, someone stood up and said, well, you should just cut the budget on every single department somewhere between three and five percent.

[02:45:31] And that is a fundamental misunderstanding that what's going on is that we are working hard to make sure that we continue to fundamentally, financially stay on top of what it means to run a county.

[02:45:49] And that is something that continues to be a misunderstanding so that when things come up that we may not have expected, like what Ms. Stillman was talking about, is that all of a sudden we're on the hook for $40 million for something because of some legislation that came from the state.

[02:46:05] We're going to be prepared for that. And that is what is terrifying for us and for our community. So being able to say, well, there should just be a 3% to 5% cut across the board is something that is irresponsible. It's not something that we would do.

[02:46:22] Instead, what we do is we pay attention, as you said, Mr. Harris, is that you go through every single budget of every single department to make sure that when they are asking for something, And Mr. Hill said the same thing, that we're going ahead and just being careful as we move through it.

[02:46:40] That's what it means to be paying attention to dealing with the budget. I want to appreciate Mel's theme. I want to appreciate your team, Mr. House, for all the work that you do. It is a Herclean act. What you all do is incredibly impressive, and I know a lot of that has to do with amazing staff.

[02:47:00] So thank you for being leaders for these two very important teams, these two very important departments. So thank you. And Dr. Hilton. I just wanted to note that I got some fire numbers that said that they're forecasting to respond to like 20,000 new calls for service.

[02:47:22] So I had the same discussion with the constituent about cutting every department. I said, how can you cut the fire department if they're responding to more calls now? You know, well, they will be responding to more calls for service now, and they have been responding to more calls for service.

[02:47:43] How can you cut them? You know, so it's kind of like you can't ask for people to do more with less when you're putting more on them. You know, so we're a growing county, and I think it's important that constituents understand that in a growing county, there are going to have to be some growths and services, and so we just have to be smart about what we do financially, but also take an account of the growths that we're going to have to have in order to account for the new citizens that are moving here and paying taxes and that sort of thing.

[02:48:18] So, you know, I appreciate your presentation, highlights, a lot of those efforts, and just say thank you so much for what you do for us. Thank you all. Madam Clerk. E, consent agenda highlights.

[02:48:34] Mr. Smith, Mr. Bowles, and Ms. Conley. And, Mr. Chair, while they're all approaching, this consent agenda highlights is a little consent agenda highlights plus with the local declaration of emergency now being on your consent agenda. We're also using this opportunity, too, to give you a current perspective of what has happened over the last week, but more so what is being done, you know, today by different parties.

[02:48:59] That's why it's a complement of the three of them. So, consent agenda highlights plus, then. All right, so, covering a few things, Ms. Walker was here, but she's continuing to improve the pedestrian and bicycle environment on your agenda and her conveyance of easements.

[02:49:16] two things to point out. One is out in your district, Mr. Engel, out at Point of Rocks Park, a nice pedestrian crossing from Point of Rocks Park itself to Bermuda Orchard, funded through C-MAC funds, so very much needed there. And then out here at the Courthouse Road Trail, on the county campus, connecting from Iron Bridge to Core Complex Road is part of the network that goes essentially between the fairgrounds and ultimately Pocahontas State Park. So again, two nice ads there under easement conveyances. We do have one request to set a public hearing for

[02:49:50] February 25th, 2026. And Dr. Miller, this is at your district for the Walton Park Waterline improvement project. I know we've met with you, but this is really just to request eminent domain for what are called temporary construction easements. So this is not actually requiring any property fee simple or even permanent easements, but really just allowing us to stage construction equipment on people's property as we execute those projects so asking for that in february and then a much needed project uh that that spans really a few different districts at

[02:50:26] genito and woolridge uh again miss walker's group has is uh requesting to allocate five million dollars uh to start that project right now we've got really a bottleneck at genito road and wool affects a lot of your constituents and with upcoming construction on Woolridge Road including the Woolridge Road extension that will get exacerbated as we're trying to get ahead of that and improve that intersection did want to point out a couple things under your public hearings I think the clerk set this out as well the brown trucking company project in Dale district that rezoning has been withdrawn by the applicant so that'll be one less item on

[02:51:04] your agenda under zoning and then on your last public hearing the Duval Road reconstruction project eminent domain I did want to report real quick to the board that while we were sitting here we did settle on terms with the attorney for the Sinclairs so Jack Wilson is representing them we did settle or agree on terms and are happy that uh that that one will get worked out so we just have one person to discuss under that evening eminent domain item. In terms of retirees,

[02:51:37] we have in firing EMS Thomas McLean after 29 years, Ryland Allen again in firing EMS 21 years, Jeffrey Grieco firing EMS 21 years, Christopher Taylor, you guessed it, firing EMS 21 years, and then Lorraine Kosabuki in accounting 20 years all retiring so lots of service there particularly with our public safety folks and I'll hand it over to Clay. All right one other item on

[02:52:11] your consent agenda this evening we all thank you appreciate it we have a purchase and donation of three parcels of land of just over 38 acres on North Woolridge Road that commonly known as Midlothian Mines Park. This is property that the county has leased since 2015 for passive recreation purposes. And it's one of the county's busiest parks at over 155,000 visitors annually.

[02:52:45] So for those who are there regularly, this is the side of the road where the pond is. And in addition to now obtaining that ownership, this also furthers efforts to preserve significant pieces of history.

[02:53:02] This land was part of the Richmond Coal Basin, which provided the first commercially mined coal in America. So the purchase agreement for this transaction is a little under $1.8 million, which is based on 24 and 25 assessed value minus some credits associated with the county rebuilding the historic headstock and costs associated with archaeological reporting.

[02:53:33] Um, this, this negotiated price is substantially less than the independent appraisal that was performed, which was just a little over 3.6 million. Um, so moving into, um, talking about our favorite topic of winter storm fern, um, and some updates on that, um, wanted to, uh, give some updates on snow removal activities at our County facilities and just really a huge recognition of the staff involved in that. We have had a lot of employees working

[02:54:13] exceptionally hard. This has been a difficult storm with the freezing rain, sleet falling on top of snow, and combined with the bitter cold temperatures throughout the day and overnight, it really presents almost a perfect storm of difficulty for for plowing so just to give a little bit idea of the resources that are that are out there we have over 230 staff members from environmental engineering there's multiple divisions of Department of General Services buildings and grounds

[02:54:52] airport waste and resource recovery at the convenience centers as well as parks and Recreation and utilities that are all involved in this work. Their coordination is really nothing short of exceptional. They pitch in and help each other out. They redeploy to areas that are not necessarily in their traditional zone when they're needed to get the overall accomplished. So for those who may not be aware, the scope of work that these folks are undertaking

[02:55:28] are all the parking lots and sidewalks at schools here on the county government complex, 24-7 operations like the ECC and the jail, courthouses, libraries, recreation centers, fire stations, rescue squads, all of our police facilities, the airport, really everything that's going on on county government and school side.

[02:55:56] Also, just want to recognize our fleet services team. They ramped up quickly as well to full staffing to support the needs of the crews as well as public safety vehicles that are out on the roads.

[02:56:13] And I think it's important to know that this is not a nine-to-five operation. This is going on all day long in shifts, and many of these folks are actually not going home during these events. They're staying in their operational warehouses at night to get rest, but they need to be able to stay here to avoid traffic problems.

[02:56:38] So it really is a huge, huge amount of dedication. And as of yesterday, we have clocked over 2,900 man hours of activity for this storm alone.

[02:56:55] Overall status-wise, I think really our largest piece of work remaining is the school sites, both the parking lots, the sidewalks, which schools is involved in the sidewalk work, and then VDOT is involved in the bus loops.

[02:57:14] As I mentioned before, we're facing hard pack snow and ice four to five inches, and it's just extremely difficult to remove without heavy equipment to first break it up so it can be pushed out of the way.

[02:57:31] We've got all of our crews engaged. We really need Mother Nature to cooperate and give us some warmer temperatures, but that's still a few days away. So in the meantime, we're doing everything I can with our staff, but also trying to engage some contractor assistance for additional heavy equipment, again, to help us break up this packed ice so our crews can push it aside.

[02:57:58] As far as roads, really almost the same story, particularly in residential neighborhoods. You're still having the hard pack ice there. You know, more primary roads, interstates are in much better shape.

[02:58:14] But those subdivision roads are, as I said, exactly what we're seeing here in some of our facilities. You know, we have noticed that VDOT has transitioned to basically using aggregate and sand on top of that just to improve traction.

[02:58:31] because, again, it's going to take time, and we need temperature not only to help melt but also to beef up the effectiveness of the chemicals that are being used. So a lot going on there.

[02:58:47] Again, just huge effort by our staff, and I'd be happy to answer any questions if anybody has any on that topic. Okay, Kim. Tracy, sorry about that.

[02:59:05] Me and my big mouth. As co-chair of the VSU Chesterfield County Black History Month Celebration Committee, Thank you for the opportunity to share some of the upcoming activities for this year's celebration. We deeply appreciate your ongoing support, commitment, and participation in this annual program for the past 37 years.

[02:59:24] As you all know, it's vital that we continue to educate our community on the rich history of Chesterfield County and the profound legacy of African Americans. This year's theme, A Century of Black History Commemorations, inspired the committee to highlight a variety of topics, talents, and cultural arts throughout the month.

[02:59:42] As in previous years, we will officially kick off the month with a day party that would have live entertainment and movement featuring the soul band Evolution and DJ Reggie Mack and the Break It Down RVA line dancers. Mr. Carroll and Mrs. Snyder, we're going to look for you. We're going to hold a space on the dance floor for you.

[02:59:58] We are excited about hosting close to 30 programs for Chesterfield County's Black History Month celebration, as you all will see on the flyer. To highlight just a few, residents will have the opportunity to experience historical events through programs such as Forgotten Patriots, Virginia's Black Soldiers of the American Revolution, and a historical interpretation of Chesterfield County's own Coldbrook Motel, and separate programs featuring both Dr. Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King.

[03:00:27] Artistic experiences through the Calabash Experience, Motel Musicale, Faces of Freedom, and a Black History Poetry Slam, and discussions of Black culinary histories. And don't forget to visit our Black History Vendor Market, which is that Beulah that Mr. Holland loved every year.

[03:00:46] We will host the annual South Scholarship and Recognition Breakfast on Friday, February 20th, where six deserving Chesterfield County High School students, seniors, will plan to attend a Virginia college or university. We will also host, at that time, community conversations about the evolution of black history, moderated by Shelby Brown.

[03:01:08] And, of course, we will bring back, by popular demand, Virginia State University's gospel ensemble with musical selections. I would quickly acknowledge that none of these collaborative programs would happen without the hard work and dedication of committee members and our county car leagues.

[03:01:25] I would also like to express my gratitude to the corporate and community sponsors who annually provide funding to make these programs possible. We truly could not host this celebration without continued support from our sponsors. And Natalie was speaking, we were talking earlier about, you know, partnerships.

[03:01:43] So we have Columbia Gas, who's been a long-term sponsor, Virginia Credit Union, who's always by our side, the late Jim Holland, and of course, Mrs. Holland. She called to make sure that they will still be a part of this sponsorship, Dr. Cheryl Bailey, Stiff Solutions, and some others.

[03:02:00] But I want to just say publicly, we want to thank them for their continued support of our program each year. And lastly, a big thank you to Dr. Casey, Dr. Badula, and Dr. Worsley for their ongoing leadership and support. We don't want anybody to miss anything, so we encourage our residents to visit the county's website for more program details.

[03:02:20] And as always, we're going to look forward to seeing you all at several of the programs next month. Thank you for the opportunity, and I look forward to seeing you in the future. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Connelly. Thank you all. Item 5, reports.

[03:02:36] Are there any questions regarding the reports? Seeing no questions, the reports are approved. item 6 15 minute citizen comment period on unscheduled matters this time is designated for citizens to talk to the board of supervisors it is not a time for dialogue with board members and it is not a question answer period those conversations can easily occur with individual board members outside of the board meeting 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.

[03:03:12] We have one speaker, Lisa Thompson. Ms. Thompson, before you get started, I just want to mention thank you. We're running like an hour behind, so thank you so much. And also, no, no, I still think you should take the time to do it.

[03:03:32] I wanted to just assure you, I know that Mr. Engel needed to leave. This is being recorded, so I want to let you know that I'll make sure that he watches because I think your comments are important. Um, so thank you.

[03:03:52] Right here. Okay. That's better. I'm going to work pretty much from my script so I don't take any more time than I should. Okay. I know that you have heard from many of your constituents about Dominion's proposed gas plant. At a time when Virginia is making great gains to include more renewables in the energy mix, many folks feel like reverting to more reliance on fossil fuel infrastructure is a bit of a step backwards.

[03:04:18] While I somewhat agree with this, I don't feel that Dominion is completely to blame. Dominion has been very transparent with us in many community meetings about why they need to expand capacity and how they plan to do it.

[03:04:34] I appreciate transparency. Unfortunately, the real driver behind the need for this gas plant is the huge data center explosion here in the state of Virginia. We now house 15 percent, 15 percent of the world's data centers right here in our small state.

[03:04:56] Unlike Dominion, the companies behind the data center construction, we now realize our Google, came to us making deals as shell companies to purchase the land and had non-disclosure agreements that had to be.

[03:05:15] And this is the way that many of the data centers are approaching localities. I feel that it's important to allow citizens some transparency so that I have an example of my own experience with the high-density housing units that were going to be built on Courthouse Road right at the entrance to our community.

[03:05:39] They were very unpopular because they proposed 99 units. were worried about traffic, the addition of that much housing. Well, we went to Zoning Board and they allowed us to speak and have these presentations in our community from the business.

[03:05:59] And we were able to negotiate to a different plan, which was 70 units. They incorporated a right turn lane to solve some of our issues about um the increased traffic and um we also got some fencing and additional landscaping to take care of the noise question so i feel that when the community community feels heard and gets some concessions it can mitigate the impacts of a project that may not be popular i mean the very fact that they came into the community with without

[03:06:38] disclosing who they really were. A reputable company would not do that. So I think they were not willing to engage with the community, and I think at some point it's appropriate to do so before they push forward any further. That's all I have to say. Thank you, Ms. Thompson. Okay, and I have some more questions regarding that. Okay. Madam Clerk. Item 7, closed session, pursuant to section 2.2-3711A3, Code of Virginia, 1950, is amended

[03:07:16] to discuss the acquisition by the county of real estate for a public purpose or the disposition of publicly held real property where discussion in an open meeting would adversely affect the bargaining position and negotiating strategy of the public body. Mr. Chair, we need a motion to go into closed session.

[03:07:34] So moved. Can I go second? Any discussion? Just for disclosure's sake, Mr. Engel had a commitment that he has to honor temporarily, but he will be available by phone where he will be confidential. No one else will be able to listen in, so he is aware of that.

[03:07:51] He'll be returning for the evening session, and then we will have him be part of the certification and the roll call vote following closed session. So if that's okay to you, Mr. Chair, Mr. Engel, and I just briefly tried to work that out in the last 20 minutes. Great, great. All in favor?

[03:08:08] Aye.

[03:08:09] Aye. We stand and go into closed session. Good evening and welcome to the evening session of the

[03:09:45] January 28th Board of Supervisors meeting. I want you all to know that you coming out on an icy night like this, you get extra points, but only if you get home safely. So the idea here is that we're going to be abbreviating this slightly, but I wanted to just mention that to you all. Thank you for coming out and making the special effort. I have verified that all board members have received copies of the comments posted to the online comment portal for consideration on the matters before us tonight. These comments are part of the public record and will be attached to the meeting

[03:10:21] minutes. In addition, for those members of the public that are here for zoning portion of the meeting, Case 25 SN1019, Brown Trucking Company, has been withdrawn by the applicant, and no action will be taken by the board this evening. At this time, I will ask Dr. Hilton to give the invitation. Let us pray. Gracious God, we thank you for the opportunity to gather in service to

[03:10:56] the people of Chesterfield. Grant us the wisdom as we deliberate, clarify, and make decisions. With humility, allow us to listen to one another and the voices of our community. May our actions be guided by fairness, integrity, and sincere commitment to the common good.

[03:11:18] Bless this meeting, our staff, and all those who call Chesterfield home. Amen. We would like to call forward Deputy County Administrator Matt Harris to lead the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic which it stands, one nation, honor God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

[03:11:51] Item 11, County Administration Update, Dr. Casey. As Dr. Miller referenced, I'm going to be expediting my comments as well, just in consideration of the weather and the people so they can have safe travels home. The only thing I did want to report out is that this afternoon, we did go through the winter storm update from the county lens perspective.

[03:12:12] So I encourage any and all citizens to stay engaged and get engaged with our social media and alert systems for everything that's within the county's span and control. We are working diligently with our school systems as well. But as all should know by now, VDOT is responsible for the county road networks.

[03:12:30] And while we're engaged with them, the news and information feeds that they have and have relayed out, we simply play the middleman in getting them to you as the public. That concludes my remarks, Dr. Miller. And for other things I was going to highlight, we will defer them until February. Item 12, board member reports.

[03:12:49] Mr. Chair. Thank you, Madam Clerk. We're foregoing board reports this evening due to a shortened evening agenda, focusing on essential business matters of the board. However, I had one announcement to make. Last Friday, January 23rd, the county began a recruitment for our next county administrator.

[03:13:08] Raftelis Consultants is assisting the board with the county administrator search. The position is currently being advertised nationally and will close on February 20th. This recruitment profile outlining the requirements for this position can be viewed by visiting the county's website.

[03:13:31] All interested candidates should submit their resumes directly to the executive search firm. Also, Reptelis will hold community and employee input sessions during the month of February. The purpose of these sessions is to give individuals the opportunity to provide input on knowledge, skills, and abilities they feel the new county administrator should possess.

[03:14:01] This information will be used to aid us in screening and interviewing candidates. The board plans to begin conducting candidate interviews in the April-May timeframe. Madam Clerk. Item 13, Resolutions and Special Recognitions.

[03:14:19] Mr. Chair, both of your recognitions for this evening have been deferred to the February 25th meeting. Item 14, New Business. A, Deferred Item from December 17th, 2025, Potential Purchase of a Parcel of Land at 1101 Otterdale Road.

[03:14:36] Dr. Casey. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Dr. Miller, on behalf of the Board and as Chair, I know that you have a prepared statement to read. and I will note that I appreciate the board's attention to this matter over the last month and the engagement with staff in helping us discern and work with you on various alternatives to proceed with what was once proposed as an acquisition of property.

[03:14:59] But I'll defer to you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Dr. Casey. As you all know, on December 25th meeting, we deferred action on the purchase of a parcel of land just under 99 acres at 1101 Otterdale Road. For siting of the replacement of the Midlothian Middle School, the James River Police Precinct, and a future additional elementary school for the area.

[03:15:24] These facilities require a minimum of 65 acres, preferably contiguous, to achieve efficiencies and ideally lower costs through co-location with access to road and utility infrastructure. Locating suitable sites means these criteria in this part of the county with proximity to water, sewer and roads and willing seller is a true challenge.

[03:15:53] After further consideration, the consensus of the board is not to act on the proposed purchase at this time and to continue evaluating various options, which could include moving forward with the purchase following additional negotiation, not moving forward with the sale in favor of a different option using existing county-owned property or a combination of the two.

[03:16:19] The transaction could also include selling existing county-owned land to offset a significant portion of the cost of land acquisition. Staff has been directed to continue to answer questions, provide additional information, and evaluate possible options.

[03:16:39] Madam Clerk. B. Authorized advertisement of 2026 calendar year tax rate and other required legal notices and public hearings related to the real estate tax. Mr. Harris. Mr. Chairman, this is really a culmination of your discussion for this afternoon.

[03:16:59] We had Mr. Bloomfield and other finance staff in front of you as we take a look at our preliminary revenue layouts for tax year 26 and fiscal 27. The action that's requested tonight is really just, again, setting that max tax rates.

[03:17:16] You're not adopting a rate or rate structure. You're not locking in a rate. You're just simply saying we are not going to go above this amount. So we've done this. We've converted this to a new business item over the course of the last several years when we've had reassessment results that are above sort of our long-run averages, and we knew going in that that was going to produce, you know, revenue above what was sustainable or really justifiable.

[03:17:45] This year, as you heard this afternoon, and as I'm happy to answer your questions about, you know, we don't find ourselves in that situation. Residential rebound came in at, on average, 4.5%, obviously different experiences across the county. But that sits right on top of, you know, our long-run average.

[03:18:02] And I think at this point in the juncture of the process, and given what you heard from Ms. Spillman and a lot of the other uncertainty, broad economic or otherwise, that's still floating out there, staff's recommendation is to advertise at the current rate structure.

[03:18:20] We have to do that tonight, of course, in order to meet all of the required notices, provisions that exist in state code. So that's what we are asking permission for. Again, as you go through the process and you hear requests from departments, take a finer look at what's in the state budget, what's in the superintendent's proposed budget, you still reserve the right to come below the current rate.

[03:18:44] You just can't exceed it. So that's the simple request before you tonight to authorize staff either at the recommended level or some other number. But at that point, I'm happy to take any questions or comments you might have. I'm ready to make a motion.

[03:19:03] Do we have a second? Well, let's have a motion. I'll make a motion that we accept staff's proposal. I'll second that. All in favor? Aye. C, appointments.

[03:19:19] Mr. Chair, we have three appointments to the airport advisory board. Motion to approve, Mr. Chair. Second. Do we have any discussion with that?

[03:19:37] All in favor? Aye. D, consent items. Mr. Chair, there have been no requests from board members to remove items from the consent agenda for public comment. Do any board members have any items they wish to remove? If not, I need a motion to approve the consent agenda.

[03:19:54] So moved. Do we have a second? Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Madam Clerk. Item 15, 15-minute citizen comment period on unscheduled matters. This time is designated for citizens to talk to the Board of Supervisors.

[03:20:13] 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.

[03:20:32] We have one speaker, Landon Edwards. Good evening, Board of Supervisors.

[03:20:49] My name is Landon Edwards, and I'm speaking tonight on behalf of Chesterfield Citizens for Responsible Government, or CCRG. I'm here to formally announce the launch of the CCRG website, and more importantly, to explain why we felt it was necessary to create it.

[03:21:06] CCRG was formed by Chesterfield residents from across the county. Parents, retirees, business owners, and long-time taxpayers who share a common concern, a growing lack of transparency, public engagement, and fiscal discipline in county decision-making.

[03:21:22] The website is not a political project. It's a civic one. Over the past several years, we've repeatedly seen major decisions brought forward with minimal public notice, limited supporting documentation, and little opportunity for meaningful citizen engagement. Large land purchases, long-term tax incentives, and significant capital commitments are often presented as a done deal rather than proposals open to scrutiny.

[03:21:48] Whether one agrees with the outcomes or not, that process erodes public trust. The CCRG website exists to address this gap. First, it serves as a centralized, publicly accessible repository of information. We post source documents, budget data, timelines, and meeting materials so residents can understand what's being proposed, how much it costs, and how decisions align with historical spending and tax trends.

[03:22:13] We focus on facts, not rhetoric. Second, the site provides analysis. Many citizens do not have the time or ability to comb through hundreds of pages of budget documents or board packets. We break down the numbers, compare them year over year, and ask basic but essential questions.

[03:22:31] is this necessary? Is it affordable? Are there alternatives? And was the public meaningfully engaged before decisions were advanced? Third, and most importantly, the website is about participation. CCRG has already grown to more than 200 residents who have asked to be notified of our posts and analysis. These are not activists looking to disrupt. These are citizens looking to be informed before, not after, decisions are made. Let me be clear. CCRG is not opposed to growth schools or infrastructure. We are opposed to rush decisions, opaque processes, and spending that

[03:23:08] outpaces reasonable metrics like inflation, household income, without clear justification. Our hope is that this website ultimately becomes unnecessary because transparency improves, community meetings become standard practice, and residents feel heard. Until then, CCRG will continue to do the work that many citizens believe is missing. We invite every supervisor, every staff member, and all residents to visit the site, review the information, and engage with us.

[03:23:39] Informed citizens are not a threat to good government. They are essential to it. The URL is ccrg-va.org. Thank you for your time. Item 16, deferred items from previous meetings. We have none.

[03:23:57] Item 17, zoning requests. Mr. Chair, you have one withdrawal, which is case 25 SN 1019. In Dale Magisterial District, Brown Trucking Company is a request for conditional use to permit a business from the home. Trucking Company with commercial vehicle storage in a residential R7 district on 0.96 acres known as 6510 Hopkins Road.

[03:24:22] The applicant has withdrawn this request and no action will be taken by the board tonight. The four remaining zoning requests are on your consent agenda. For the benefit of the public, consent items are those cases where the applicant accepts staff's recommendation and there is no previous opposition.

[03:24:39] With all the consent cases tonight, staff has received written confirmation from the applicants that they agree with the conditions being imposed and that all proffers are offered in compliance with state law. First is 24SN1108 in Matowika Magisterial District.

[03:24:55] Hull Street Road at Fox Club Parkway rezoning and exceptions is a request to rezone from Agricultural A to Neighborhood Business C2 with conditional use to permit sale of alcoholic beverages for on-premises consumption within 500 feet of a public school, plus conditional use plan development to permit exceptions to ordinance requirements on 4.26 acres located at the northwest corner of Hull Street Road and Fox Club Parkway.

[03:25:22] Development of a commercial-slash-retail project is proposed. Planning Commission and staff recommend approval subject to the conditions in your staff report. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing on case 24SN1108, Hull Street Road at Fox Club Parkway rezoning and exceptions.

[03:25:43] Is there anyone here who would like to speak to this case? If so, please come forward and state your name. Seeing no one, I'm going to go ahead and close this public hearing. It's back before the board. This case is in the Matoika district.

[03:26:01] Mr. Carroll. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I wonder if they have the slide in this deck that shows what the proposed project will look like. Not that one. No, they actually have a rendition of what the buildings would look like, and it's part of the case.

[03:26:21] I'm not sure if they have it in there or not. Nope, that's different. Well, Mr. Chair, I will say that this is a commercial property, agricultural property now. You can see in this rendition that they want to turn it into a commercial space, a retail space with restaurants.

[03:26:40] In relation to the exemption to the proximity to the school for alcohol sales, it would be, in fact, for a restaurant-type sale. It wouldn't be, I don't believe, an ABC store or anything without effect is proposed for this in the zoning case. I believe it actually excludes off-premises. It's only on-premises.

[03:26:59] Yep. So, and again, there was no opposition to this case, either at the community meeting or at the planning commission. And I, again, looking for additional retail space out there to service the growing community and all the different rooftops that are coming out of the ground with the different neighborhood subdivisions.

[03:27:19] I think there will be a good addition to help service that. I'd like to make a motion to approve case number 24SN1108, subject to the conditions in the staff report. Thank you. Do I have a second? Second. Any discussion? Ms. Snyder?

[03:27:35] I just had a question of Ms. Safer. I know you said it's for only on-site consumption for alcohol. How does that work with the bill that was passed last year allowing restaurants to carry out alcohol?

[03:27:52] It's a condition that's a part of the property. So if it's accepted as it is written and recommended by staff in the report, then that condition applies to the property. So it's an exemption to the law? Okay, got it. It's a requirement imposed regardless of the flexibility given by the law.

[03:28:09] Okay. Thank you. I was just asking. Thanks. Any other discussion? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Madam Clerk. Next is 24 SN 1162 in Matoaka Magisterial District.

[03:28:26] Baldwin Creek rezoning and exceptions is a request to rezone from agricultural aid to residential R-12, conditional use to permit recreational neighborhood facilities, conditional use plan development to permit exceptions to ordinance requirements on property fronting approximately 270 feet on the east side of Baldwin Creek Road, 1,850 feet north of Beach Road. The 34.54-acre property is proposed for a maximum development of 70 dwelling units.

[03:28:57] The community would include single-family detached residences with associated neighborhood recreational facilities. Planning, commission, and staff recommend approval subject to the conditions in your staff report. Thank you, Madam Chair. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing on case number 24SN 1162, Baldwin Creek Rezoning and Exceptions. Is there anyone who would like to speak to this case? If so, please come forward and state your name. Seeing no one, I will close the hearing. And it's back before the board. This is in the Matoika District. Mr. Carroll.

[03:29:34] Thank you, Mr. Chair. If you look, you can't really see it in this illustration, but this subdivision actually butts up to the lower section of Harper's Mill, and what they're proposing from a residential standpoint is consistent with the other development that is actually going on in the area.

[03:29:58] There was a public hearing that was held, a community meeting in Planning Commission, no opposition. I didn't get any emails on this. opposing it nor did I get any public comment in our in our meeting comments tonight I think it meets the comprehensive plan from the density and from the use and I have not any there's nothing in the staff report that would prohibit passing this when you look at the school numbers and what

[03:30:34] it would add to the school system Grange Hall as well within capacity Deep Creek as well within capacity. Cosby is not right now, but by the time this is built, the new high school will be built, and there will be plenty of school capacity to handle the additional 70 units based on what's proposed in the staff report. That being said, no opposition from public safety in any way. I make a motion to approve case number 24SN 1162, subject to the conditions in the staff report. Do I have a second?

[03:31:10] Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Madam Clerk. Next is 25 SN 1167 in Motoka Magisterial District, Summit Ridge Solar Farm is a request for conditional use to permit a large-scale solar energy facility plus conditional use plan development to permit exceptions to ordinance requirements in an agricultural aid district on 35.3 acres for property fronting approximately 135 feet on the south side of Woodpecker Road.

[03:31:46] 1,800 feet east of Elko Road. A 3-megawatt large-scale solar energy facility is proposed. 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-1167, Summit Ridge Solar Farm.

[03:32:08] Is there anyone who would like to speak to this case? If so, please come forward and state your name. With that, I'll go ahead. Seeing no one, I'll close the public hearing. It's back before the board, and this case is again in the Matoka district.

[03:32:26] Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is an interesting case. I had a community meeting, I guess a little over a month ago, about a different zoning case in this area, and I would tell you that the overall expression from the community was they don't want any new development, especially residential.

[03:32:45] If you look at the parcels that surround this, and you look at the history of those parcels based on the comprehensive plan, they're all zoned and they're all proposably utilized in the comprehensive plan for residential neighborhood four, which essentially means you could put four units per acre on all these different parcels out here. The reason they can't do it right now is because there's no sewer capacity that could handle it. But if for some reason in the future sewer capacity was available and potentially currently because of the way the comprehensive

[03:33:18] the plan is set up, these parcels could all be developed. This is essentially a temporary use for this property. These solar facilities have a 40-year shelf life down the road. With newer technologies, you may even see a solar facility go away. If Commonwealth Fusion is successful in their electric generation, I believe they'll put solar out of business. There is a decommissioned bond that's required under county ordinance for a facility like this, so that if for some reason and they do have to take it apart and restore it back to its original conditions,

[03:33:55] they're required to have that decommissioned bond in place. Again, I had not received any emails from the community on this or phone calls against the project. There was no one who spoke against it, to my knowledge, at the planning commission or at the community meeting.

[03:34:13] And I know that this is, you know, since the comprehensive plan was put in place for this particular property, this is an exemption to what the comp plan calls for. But I know when we developed our ordinance for solar facilities, this is one of the exceptions that we put in place as to whether or not a solar facility could be put in place in a section of the county like this.

[03:34:39] And so not having any opposition to this, Mr. Chair, and even though it is exemption to this, after the last community meeting I had where no one wants any new development, especially residential out there, I think this would be an appropriate temporary use for the property. The other thing about this solar facility that's interesting is that the people who live in the area will actually be able to sign up and actually get a reduced rate in their electric rates if they sign up to purchase electricity from this solar facility.

[03:35:10] That's part of the proposition here. We've seen several of those that have been put in the county before. Again, this is tucked in way back off the woods. You won't even see it from the road. You won't even know it's there. And I've been to these facilities, the one down at Winter Park that's been put in off of Epps Falls Road.

[03:35:31] Again, it's essentially just like this. It sits way off the road. You don't even know it's there. You don't even hear it. And I think, again, it's a good temporary use for this. And if you listen to the neighbors, it's better than houses. So I make a motion to approve case number 25, SN 1167, subject to conditions in the staff report.

[03:35:51] Second. Do I have a second? We've got a second. Any discussion? I do have one comment. Yes, sir. For Mr. Turner, who I'm sure is at home watching this, I appreciate you making the comment about the bond that has to go in place because I know that would be his concern is what happens when this is over.

[03:36:09] So we did, again, look at that, Mr. Turner. In anticipation of, thank you, Mr. Engel. All right, all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Madam Clerk. Your last zoning request this evening is 25SN 1265 in Bermuda Magisterial District.

[03:36:28] Cattle two-family dwelling is a request for conditional use to permit a two-family dwelling in a residential R15 district known as 10455 Brynmore Drive. The 0.4-acre property is developed with one existing single-family dwelling, and this request proposes one second dwelling.

[03:36:47] The second dwelling will be built as an addition off the rear of the existing dwelling. Planning Commission and staff recommend approval subject to the conditions in your staff report. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing on case number 25SN 1265, Caddy, 2 Family Dwelling.

[03:37:07] Is there anyone who would like to speak to this case? And if so, please come forward and state your name. Seeing no one, I will go ahead and close this public hearing. It's back before the board, and this is going, this case is at the Bermuda District.

[03:37:24] Thank you, Mr. Chair. I make the motion to approve case 25SN 1265, subject to the conditions and the staff report. Do I have a second? Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

[03:37:40] Madam Clerk. Item 18, public hearings. A, to consider an ordinance to amend County Code Section 7-3, Precinct Boundaries and Polling Places, to relocate polling places for Southside Voting Precinct 213, La Prad Voting Precinct 405, and Wagstaff Voting Precinct 410.

[03:38:01] Ms. Safarth. Mr. Chair, members of the board, the general registrar proposes to relocate the polling places for three voting precincts in the county. The proposed polling place changes and the specific reasons for each of the changes are as follows. One, relocate the polling place for the Southside Voting Precinct 213 from its current location at Swim RVA at 5050 Ridgedale Parkway to Meadowdale Library at 4301 Meadowdale Boulevard. This relocation is required because summer swim meets and student summer camps are held at Swim RVA, which interfere with election workers' ability to set up for the election and restrict

[03:38:39] the availability of parking for voters, which creates a logistical challenge on election days. Second, the request is to relocate the polling place for the La Prade Voting Precinct 405 from its current location at Lutheran Church of Our Savior, 9601 Hull Street Road, back to its former location at the La Prade Library, 9000 Hull Street Road.

[03:39:01] The polling place for this precinct was temporarily relocated earlier this year to accommodate construction at the library. The construction has since been completed, and the polling place is being moved back to the library. The third request is to relocate the polling place for the Wagstaff Voting Precinct 410 from its current location at Central Chesterfield Ruritan Association, 2230 Gray Oak Drive, to Providence Elementary School 11001 West Providence Road, which is the current polling place for Genito Voting Precinct 402, such that the Wagstaff Voting Precinct 410 and Genito Voting Precinct 402 will have co-located polling places.

[03:39:40] This relocation is required as it has been discovered that Central Chesterfield Ruritan Association poses accessibility challenges for voters with disabilities or limited mobility. Staff recommends that the board adopt the ordinance attached to the agenda item to amend county code section 7-3 precinct boundaries and polling places to relocate the polling places as described above. And please note that subject to any approval here is the requirement that the changes, if accepted, are sent to the attorney general and are required to be provided to them with a certificate of no objection. Thank you, Ms. Safar. For members,

[03:40:18] are there any questions for Ms. Safar or the staff? Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing to consider an ordinance to amend county code s-7-3 precinct boundaries and polling places to relocate polling places for south side voting precinct that's number 213 laprod voting precinct that's number 405 and wagstaff voting precinct that's number 410 is there anyone who would like to speak to this issue if so please come forward and state your name seeing no one i'm going to

[03:40:55] closes public hearing. It's back before the board. Is there any discussion? No discussion. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Madam Clerk. Be to consider amendment to county code chapter 17.1 relative to submittal of Platts. Mr. Jenkins. Good evening Mr. Chair, board members, Dr. Casey. This is an amendment to the subdivision ordinance chapter 17.1 which was approved by the board in October of 2025 and became effective on January 1 of this year.

[03:41:58] Alright, there's two goals in this amendment. First, a clause was added to the ordinance in between the Planning Commission hearing in August and the board hearing in October that allowed for plats to be submitted prior to the effective date to be reviewed under the existing subdivision ordinance, Chapter 17, the old rules.

[03:42:13] For consistency purposes, we need to amend this section to also allow for those plats to be reviewed under the existing development standards at the time, Chapter 19.1, the old zoning ordinance, and the existing utility ordinance at the time, the old utility ordinance, Chapter 18. This review under the old rules is only available to complete applications that were submitted prior to the effective date, and they must complete their review and get approval by January 1, 2027, at which point the plat is either approved or it's reviewed under the new rules, so to speak.

[03:42:44] And second, there's language elsewhere in the subdivision ordinance that contradicts the allowance that I've just described, and so it wasn't removed in September of 2025 when this clause was added, so we just need to strike that section. This slide here kind of illustrates what the fate of a PLAT is when it's filed either before January 1 or after January 1.

[03:43:05] Obviously, left of the green line, filed in 2025, you have a choice of either the old rules or the new rules. If you're filed after January 1, you're 100% of the new development ordinances. This is the language we're striking that I mentioned that's contradictory to what we had.

[03:43:24] This was initiated at the Planning Commission in November. Planning Commission heard and recommended approval in December and for you now. Any questions? Thank you, Mr. Jenkins. I just want to reiterate, are there any questions for Mr. Jenkins or for staff?

[03:43:45] Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing to consider amendment to County Code Chapter 17.1 relative to submittal of PLATS. Is there anyone who would like to speak to this issue? If so, please come forward and state your name. Seeing no one, I'm going to go ahead and close this public hearing. It's back before the board. Is there any discussion?

[03:44:06] Do I have a motion? So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Madam Clerk. C, to consider the exercise of eminent domain for the Duval Road Reconstruction Project.

[03:44:24] Mr. Smith.

[03:44:47] Mr. Chair, members of the board, so this is a public hearing to consider the exercise of eminent domain for the Duval Road Reconstruction Project. I wanted to sort of set the table and give you some geography here. So there are really two subject property owners containing three properties.

[03:45:08] You see on the screen there, you have the Sinclairs on the left, and then the Mulligans actually own two parcels. The one in the middle there is the one that contains their home. The one on the right is undeveloped. I will say, as I related in the afternoon session, we have reached agreement with the Sinclairs as the terms.

[03:45:26] We will work over the next 30 days to formalize those the soonest, and the safe arts could correct me, but the soonest we could file a certificate is 30 days after the board takes action. So, you know, by law, we have to wait that 30 days anyway.

[03:45:42] So we're happy to try to finalize those terms and get all that in writing. But as of about 2 o'clock this afternoon, we had settled with them on those terms. So really, for tonight, I think we'll be focusing on the Mulligan properties. You can see those there.

[03:45:58] I think what's important, you can see Duval Road running east-west on the map. And then these three properties are actually surrounded by property that's owned by the Chesterfield EDA, which was purchased as part of the Upper Magdolia Project, which I'm sure you're all familiar with. So the project is to reconstruct Duval Road.

[03:46:16] You can see this just generally shows the project. on the right hand side of the map is what we call the north south road that's the road that's going to serve the the public campus up there where deep creek middle school is uh you have to do elementary school opening in 2026 and then the new high school in 2027 um you'll see that the mulligan property is right about where the number three is shown sort of towards the middle of the map uh and then duval road is actually being uh realigned but to really serve the uh you know

[03:46:49] The alignment takes it up to the EDA property on the west side of the Poway Parkway, which is the one that you see sort of running in the corner of the map. And this would realign that and reconstruct it. Again, you can see here the three properties just on a planimetric view.

[03:47:08] Did want to note that there are other developed properties on the south side. The dashed lines here are what I will show you is really the entire roadway prism for the whole ultimate four-lane facility. I think there's been some discussion on is it on one side or the other.

[03:47:27] When you look at the entirety of what's required out there between the four lanes, sidewalk on the north side, shared use path on the south side, it's really centered on that so that both sides are generally impacted equally. And then this probably does the best job of actually showing you where everything is.

[03:47:48] So the yellow is what the project is now, which would provide, again, those reconstructed good two lanes of Duval. If you've driven out there, you know Duval Road has about 10-foot lanes, really no discernible shoulder at all, bad vertical and horizontal alignments.

[03:48:04] The plan is to realign and reconstruct it. So you've got standard 12-foot lanes, wide shoulders. And you can see on the north side there, there is a planned concrete sidewalk. On the south side are the future other two lanes, so sort of in that light blue or purple color.

[03:48:21] And then at the very bottom, you'll see also that shared use path that would be there. One of the things that's really become important to the county, we've heard from all of our citizen engagement is people want ways to get around other than by car. With this being proximate to three schools and a potential library, it's really important that we include bicycle and pedestrian facilities with all of the projects that we have, particularly when we're building them, you know, really from scratch. So you'll see all those facilities there. You'll also see outlined in red where the actual Mulligan Homestead is.

[03:48:54] Still remains a pretty significant distance off of the improvements. And then again, the other property to the right there, you'll see is undeveloped. In terms of where we are, we did do a full appraisal of the properties. The value of the acquisition per the appraisal, so this is not what county staff came up with, but an independent appraiser, was just over $57,000 through negotiations, discussions on cost to cure items, a variety of different things.

[03:49:26] Our last counter offer was at $185,000 to the mulligans. That's really the top that we could look you in the face and say we feel comfortable you know paying this much using taxpayer dollars to compensate them for the proposed acquisition uh their counter was just over one million dollars so that's why we're here tonight we we just can't get close to that um so you know that's why we we hope that by uh taking this action maybe we could have a little better conversation um and try to to get closer to number that you know we could justify using those tax taxpayer dollars on um

[03:50:03] so that that's really the the the gist of it tonight certainly you know i think mr mulligan is here um you know if you have questions for him and obviously it's a public hearing so he could certainly speak uh but if you have questions for me i'm here to answer them uh we do have our engineering designer and our right-of-way specialist um consultants here with us tonight if there's really really specific questions as well thank you mr smith board members are any questions for deputy county administrator smith or for staff yes when what what is the timeline as

[03:50:41] far as the initial lanes and then the added lanes what is the sure yeah so the the initial lanes the ones in yellow are funded now so you know we would the hope is that if the board acts now within 30 days we can you know really start moving utilities and doing some other things so that we can commence construction in full uh the other two lanes we believe will occur as we have as we land a prospect in the Magnolia property so as you all know we've we've we've been really successful in getting grants from VDP and other entities from the state to support the infrastructure

[03:51:15] out here so we believe those will occur as that happens I would also if it's okay I would like to also note that part of the reasoning on this one for you see that the yellow lanes are brand new and reconstructed outside of the existing Duval Road is to allow for construction to take place outside of the existing road so we can keep Duval Road open for the majority of it.

[03:51:39] And we've heard loud and clear from folks out there that they really are having construction fatigue. So we're trying to be considerate of folks, build the road offline, and then switch traffic over once the new two lanes are there. By pushing it to that one side, we also allow the other two lanes uh to be built again offline um so that we don't have to close down a brand new road we don't have to tear anything back out it really is you know from a transportation and construction planning perspective this it really is the right way to do it that makes no that makes sense especially given the narrowness of those roads out there yeah thank you senator mr engel

[03:52:19] what's the thought on the um bike pad lanes because i didn't hear you bring that up in the time frame the shared use path yes yes sir so that's see if i get this yep so that's uh here on the south side um there is concrete sidewalk of the north so that in conjunction with the two new lanes or is that a separate phase sure the two new lanes would include the concrete sidewalk on that side yes sir yeah okay there are it's not shown on this sheet but there are sections where it's getting realigned uh through the sort of through the eda property and you can see it here um

[03:52:58] Right here, where we are actually putting the shared use path in, would we own both sides of the road, if that makes sense. Other questions? Mr. Chair. Mr. Carroll. The sidewalk, where does it start? Where does it end?

[03:53:14] I'm assuming it's coming down from the high school and going all the way out? Yes, sir, from the north-south road, and it will continue throughout the project. Okay. So it'll be contiguous. I may have some other questions later, Mr. Chair. Okay, thank you, Mr. Carroll. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing to consider the exercise of eminent domain for the Duval Road Reconstruction Project.

[03:53:37] Is there anyone who would like to speak to this issue? If so, please come forward and state your name.

[03:53:54] My name is Mr. Chair, board members. My name is Chris Mulligan. I'm the owner at 18300-18100 Duval Road. I'm trying to understand the justification for repositioning this for a public need. doesn't seem to be equitable and I don't quite know how to work all these things so basically I think we need to understand the issue between temporary and permanent because we're using a temporary condition to initiate a

[03:54:31] permanent improvement this labels that a reconstruction project but the design abandons the existing alignment how can that be classified as reconstruction the The road is shifted completely onto our residential properties, and it doesn't exist now. No demonstrated public need.

[03:54:48] In the end, it's still a two-lane road with no added capacity. The repositioning provides no measurable improvement, and it impacts our long-term homeowning positions. After the dramatic shift northward, Duval remains a two-lane road.

[03:55:05] All right, we'll go to the third. Let's see. The additional land being taken is justified by the shared use path, which originated as a developer's proffer and not as a community-driven transportation. need. Existing residents are being required to give up land for an amenity tied to a new development. Simply relocating Duval Road does not offer this improvement. Fourth, the right-of-way mirrors that of a future four-lane corridor. Even though no funding, no design, no construction timeline exists for this expansion, we continue forward. Doesn't this suggest that the land is

[03:55:42] being acquired today for an unfunded and speculative future project rather than that two-lane improvement that's going to benefit the county today for the four-lane improvement rather. So if we go to the picture of the zoning case approved across the road, the existing property lines on this do not show the road is being relocated.

[03:56:05] This shows a post-condemnation situation, which also shows the roundabout that's being placed in front of the high school. This roundabout would also not accept a four-lane condition. How can we make this a temporary situation, precluding it to a four-lane condition that's not going to work or is not being funded?

[03:56:26] To me, that is an unequitable application of eminent domain to our parcels only. And the people across the road where the development's actually occurring, they're not giving any more than the 45-foot comprehensive plan right away.

[03:56:42] We're being asked to give 55 plus, 50-70. Right now, we have a buffer of trees down the road. We don't have traffic concerns because it's 380 vehicles a day. They're justifying this improvement through the use of saying it's going to be 12,000 vehicles a day.

[03:57:00] But in the end, there's 380 vehicles a day on the latest traffic counts. Mr. Mulligan, your three minutes are up. Okay, so can't understand why or how you all would support that. Thank you for your time. Is there any other? I just want to make sure you've had the time to be able to express everything that you need to say.

[03:57:18] Well, I mean, it's just a matter of going through the rest of the pieces, you know, the major impacts, right? The properties are going to become much less functional. We were never addressed in an appraisal that determined what the loss of functionality or usability was going to be.

[03:57:34] All we were given was a minimal $50,000, $1,000 offer and told the next one was the final offer, and then they disappeared. There were no negotiations. I've tried to apply. I am an engineer by trade. I do this all the time for a living. It's everything I've been able to do to keep up with this case.

[03:57:52] I was told this was happening this past Thursday. So this is what I was able to provide in that amount of time. That's why I'm a little scatterbrained on the situation. You're fine. Thank you, sir. Very complicated. Thank you for your time. Is there anyone else who would like to speak to this case?

[03:58:11] Seeing no one else, I'm going to go ahead and close this public hearing. It's back before the board. Is there any discussion? Mr. Carroll. I have some questions, if I could get Chessie to come back up. Can you bring your slide back up that shows how much property is being requested on both sides, what that looks like, and what's the measurement?

[03:58:43] Yeah, so it's 57 feet on Mr. Mulligan's side on the north side. It's 55 on the south. So we did actually ask for additional right-of-way from the other side, beyond the normal 45. At some point in the discussion, did we not offer an opportunity to add land to the back of Mr. Mulligan's property?

[03:59:04] I've got a 60-page or so document here that was sent to me that shows part of the negotiations that were asked. And at some point in here, it says that it's no longer available. So what's the answer? Do we offer the land behind it and then all of a sudden pull that back?

[03:59:21] Where does that come from? Yeah, so we've had a couple discussions. So you're absolutely correct where this all started. Because part of what we looked at here is the county does own all the property behind them. So the easy thing to do would be a land swap and to say, if we take 100 feet off the front, we'll give you 100 feet in the back.

[03:59:41] I think where it got a little bit mixed up is when it started being land plus other things. So, you know, from our perspective, you know, we really wanted it to keep it to either land or compensation plus some other cost to cure items and things like that.

[03:59:57] So I think that's where it went sideways. But certainly we would be welcome to those discussions, you know, with the mulligans to try to convey, you know, on the backside what we're requiring on the front side and then figuring out, you know, is there anything else we need to do to sort of true that up and make sure we're keeping them whole, if that makes sense.

[04:00:16] I mean, I remember having a conversation about this before, whether or not they could get an additional land on the backside, which would make them at least whole from that perspective. And then, you know, other things that are going to happen in the area, like water and sewer and other things that could be, you know, made available to them.

[04:00:39] I would hope all that's on the table during any type of negotiation that's going on. Yes, sir. That's actually what we, the final parts of the Sinclair agreement this afternoon were for water connection and a sewer stub out. So those were, we are certainly happy to make those happen. I think that's, I mean, like I said, there's a pretty long email chain here back and forth and discussions. And I would hope that we could probably come to a resolution on this without necessarily having to exercise eminent domain if we get to that. But I understand that we need to get the road project moving forward too.

[04:01:20] Yes, sir. This just allows us to report the construction. We will continue to negotiate. We'll set up another meeting with Mr. Mulligan after this and be happy to try to hammer that out. Yes, sir. And I would like you to make sure that the board's kept up to speed on what's going on with those negotiations. Happy to report back, too. Yes, sir.

[04:01:35] Thank you. Board, any other discussion? Mr. Chair. Mr. Engel. I know we say this just about every time. We have to consider eminent domain. Of course, we did have three comments on the portal tonight.

[04:01:56] One was the Sinclair's, which we have settled. The other two were Mr. and Mrs. Mulligan that had made some questions, really. And I know we're not here to negotiate or to come to an agreement with them tonight, but I know we work very hard to come to an agreement.

[04:02:22] I mean, a million dollars, especially if we're able to give them land on the backside to keep them whole, doesn't make sense. Maybe a combination. I know you weren't trying to do a combination, but a combination of all those things may be the best place to end up.

[04:02:41] We definitely want you to do everything that you possibly can to come to an amical agreement that is fair to the property owner and to the taxpayer. But, again, this is to serve a school.

[04:02:59] It does have a vital use, and it is still, even though we have to put it, I understood Mr. Mulligan's statements about how, well, this is a two-lane road, and it's still going to be a two-lane road at the completion of this, but there's no other way to serve the citizens in that area and keep the road open the whole time.

[04:03:24] So there is actually a case to be made as to why this is important to do it in the manner that we're doing it. And I will be voting in a few minutes. I'm not sure where my other colleagues are at.

[04:03:41] I want to get to a solution on this. I really do. But I also know that we have to get the roads in so we can get school open. And so I will vote tonight to approve eminent domain if we absolutely have to.

[04:03:57] And then there'll be a judge making the decision on what's most amicable. So hopefully we can find a way between us and the current property. If I may, sir, the last two that you authorized are just down the street at Duval and Otterdale. Didn't make it to a judge. We settled those amicably.

[04:04:14] And I just signed the paperwork on those the other day. And I believe that's where we'll get to. I really do because that is, we've approved eminent domain probably 10 or 15 times in the last six years. And I don't recall a case that went to court.

[04:04:33] We haven't had one in a long time. So I think that is a great track record of continuing to work. But I also understand why we need to keep it moving. So thank you for your time on this. Any other discussion? Ms. Schneider. I guess I just want some clarification, because it's going to be a four-lane road eventually, right?

[04:04:55] Yes, ma'am. After both phases are done. Correct. Okay, so just wanted to get that cleared up, because it was... Yeah, the ultimate's a four-lane divided facility with sidewalk on the north and shared use path on the south. Okay, thank you. Mr. Chair. Mr. Carroll. Correct me if I'm wrong, but if I remember correctly, and usually I'm pretty square on this stuff, When we approved the Upper Mag West case, there were many roads that were part of that case that were required to be improved as part of that case.

[04:05:29] Hull Street Road, Duval Road, others. There was a whole list, if I remember. I can't remember. Now, I'm good, but I'm not that good. I can't remember all of them. Duval Road is one of them. Yes. But I remember Duval Road as one, and that's why we're also changing the direction of the road. Correct. And it's not just to service what could come eventually in the Upper Mag case, but it's also will be a main way for people from the western side of the county to get to this new high school and this new middle school and this new elementary school. They won't just be coming from Otterdale Road and making a right on the north-south connector road. There are people who

[04:06:04] live west of here who actually will attend these schools. And I remember when we were doing the Otterdale Road improvements, we had to shut down Otterdale Road at Blackman Creek, and then we had shut it down at Horsepin Creek. Actually, we did Horsepin Creek first, Blackman Creek second, and then Otterdale Branch Creek last. And it created a significant problem for the people who lived out there, which is why we're trying to do this. We're even doing the roundabout now at Otterdale and Duval in a way that we can keep the road open and not have to shut it down,

[04:06:40] which originally we thought we were going to have to. So I'm hoping that we can find a resolution to this including offering land behind as a combination thereof but you know we've got to move the project forward. Thank you Mr. Carroll. Any other discussion? Okay. Do I have a motion?

[04:07:07] Well Mr. Chair I'll make the motion to move forward with the eminent domain with the caveat of all that we just talked about that we want to get to we would like to get this settled without having to go to court if that's possible and to make sure that this board is kept apprised of any and all negotiations that go forward with this case. Can I get a second? Second. All in favor?

[04:07:32] Aye. Anyone opposed? Madam Clerk. 19, 15-minute citizen comment period on unscheduled matters. We have no speakers. Before we adjourn, did you have any comments, Mr. Chair? Let's go ahead and finish up the adjournment, and then we'll get some discussion if there's anything there.

[04:07:54] Okay. Mr. Chair, we need a motion to adjourn to the regularly scheduled Board of Supervisors meeting on February 25th, 2026 at 2 p.m. in room 502 of the county administration building. All right. Let me get that motion to adjourn. Ms. Second? Second.

[04:08:10] Any discussion? Mr. Chair. I'd like to congratulate you on the time of the meeting, but I'm going to hold you to an average of this month's meeting and next month's meeting to make a final determination on your time.

[04:08:27] Thank you. Any other discussion? All in favor. Aye. We stand adjourned.

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