Coraggio Consulting
Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors Meeting - June 24, 2026, Wednesday, June 24, 2026

Date: Wednesday, June 24, 2026
Place: Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors, Virginia
Length: 7h 17m (video)
Official meeting video (CivicClerk): https://chesterfieldcova.portal.civicclerk.com/event/2027/media
Official agenda (CivicClerk): https://chesterfieldcova.api.civicclerk.com/v1/Meetings/GetMeetingFileStream(fileId=4135,plainText=false)
Official minutes (CivicClerk): https://chesterfieldcova.api.civicclerk.com/v1/Meetings/GetMeetingFileStream(fileId=5182,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 2026-10-23. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:01:33] Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the afternoon session of the June 24th Board of Supervisors meeting.

[00:02:32] Madam Clerk. Mr. Chair, the first item on the agenda is approval of minutes for the May 27th and June 22nd Board of Supervisors meetings. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Board members, is there any motion to approve the May 27th and the June 22nd minutes?

[00:02:50] So moved. Second. I got a second. Any discussion at all? All in favor? Aye. Thank you. Item two, request to postpone agenda items and additions, deletions, or changes in the order of presentation. Staff has no requests. Item three, recognition of retirees and special guests.

[00:03:08] Mr. Goode. Good afternoon. I have the privilege of helping you guys get this meeting started by recognizing some special guests in the audience upon retirement, including posthumously one member of the county department. At this time, I would like to ask that Ms. Janice Herron, Battalion Chief Charles Knowles, and the family of Karen Howard, please come forward.

[00:03:32] And if there's anybody here with you, they're welcome to come forward as well. Today we are presenting them with their retirement resolutions, including Ms. Howard's. Thank you.

[00:03:55] I'd like to congratulate all of you all. Ms. Herron has 34 years of service with our General Services Department. Italian Chief Knowles has 32 years of service with our Fire and EMS Department. And Ms. Howard had 21 years with economic development.

[00:04:16] Unfortunately, she passed away almost a year ago, but she retired in December of 2021. And we are honored to recognize the request of the family to recognize her today. With us is Art Howard and Kim Howard, her daughter and husband.

[00:04:33] And at this time, I would ask that if any of you would have liked to say something, I'll turn the mic over to you for just a minute. Would anybody with them like to say anything? Chief?

[00:04:49] Turned out a chance to take the mic, right? Charlie, I just want to thank you for all your years of service at Chesterfield Fire and EMS, the many commands that you served in, the leadership you provided to our members, and particularly for the development of our peer support team and all the efforts that you made to keep our firefighters safe in many ways.

[00:05:09] And in your last assignment, you served as the commander of the Maritime Incident Response Team. But we wish you the best in retirement and congratulate you on entering this next chapter of your life. And we have a break for you. Just very briefly, I just want to thank everybody for honoring Karen with us.

[00:05:36] Karen loved working for Chesterfield County. We were in the Army, and we got out of the Army. When she found Chesterfield County, she always told everybody that it was easy for her to sell Chesterfield County because it was her choice, her first choice as well. So thank you very much.

[00:05:53] I just got to say a few words about Janice. She's been with me for quite a few years now in the office. And she makes me what I ain't.

[00:06:10] She's always behind the scenes, making sure that we got what we need and finding money wherever she finds it at and making sure we can keep these projects going. I'm losing my right arm when she leaves. But I'm so blessed that we were able to replace her with another Janice, I'm hoping.

[00:06:30] But it would never be another Janice. Lord has blessed me over the years to have her with us, our department. And I wish her nothing but the best in her retirement. And we love you, Janice. You're welcome. Thank you.

[00:06:50] Mr. Chair, I'll turn things over to you for any comments from the board. Jessica Schneider. Thank you so much for all these. I mean, that's, wow, a lot of years there.

[00:07:05] I think we're over 100 years of service there. combined that's amazing yeah okay fine i didn't add it up it's close to gosh um but we greatly appreciate that um commitment to the county and um yeah we gotta hopefully find some other people that are as committed as you are so thank you so much for all that you've done and all the lives you've changed with what you're doing so thank you mr carroll thank you mr chair um i just want to say thank you to all of you for your years of service uh and certainly to karen for her years of

[00:07:43] service to the county. I think this is something that the public needs to recognize and understand that many years ago the county was growing at a rapid rate and in that rapid rate of growth there were a lot of employees that were hired by Chester County who have stayed here for their entire career and done a tremendous service to the community. But we can't expect people to stay here and work until they die, right? So they actually have to have an opportunity to retire and do the other things in life that they want to do besides being so committed to public service.

[00:08:21] Now, that does a couple of things. One, it opens up for opportunity for new people to come work for Chesterfield County. But the community also needs to understand that there was a tremendous amount of growth back then. And if you look at the agenda tonight, there is a huge number of people that are retiring from Chesterfield County right now.

[00:08:38] Not because the county is not a great place to work anymore. not because there's a new county administrator coming in and, oh, my God, everybody's afraid things are going to change. It's because you've earned it, and you've worked here a long time and done a great job, as well as everybody else that's on that list tonight.

[00:08:54] And there are opportunities for people to come work for Chesterfield County. But people aren't leaving here. Y'all are not leaving here. You're leaving here because you earned it and you get your time in. And I wish nothing but the best for you in the future, And certainly if you ever need anything from me or from this board, all you need to do is reach out and call, and we will be available.

[00:09:16] So thank you again for your service. Dr. Hilton, Mr. Engel, anything you want to share? I'm just going to add what Mr. Schneider said and what Mr. Carroll said is that you could have worked 100 other places, right?

[00:09:34] And it really comes down to a point where you choose where you want to stay. And it still remains, and we hear it over and over again, a testament to the sense of Team Chesterfield and the family that's here. And that is what I truly believe is the secret sauce of Chesterfield.

[00:09:54] And there's a part of me that's like some of our secret sauce is leaving and at the same time recognizing that it will continue, it perpetuates, because that's what Chesterfield is. So I'm so grateful to you and, of course, to Karen and sending her love, whichever she is today, and, of course, the family.

[00:10:16] And thank you. What are you going to say beyond that? Appreciate it. Thank you all. Mr. Chair, since we're counting up years of service among our retired folks, I'll just let you know that among the people we had here just now and a few others I'm going to mention by name right now, 369 years of combined service, retiring.

[00:10:47] I'd like to read the rest of the names that are on consent tonight for their retirement resolutions. We have William Yates with Fire and EMS, 37 years. Lauren Nelson with our Utilities Department, 34 years. Roger Slate, Building Inspection, 31 years.

[00:11:04] Rebecca Summers, Building Inspection, 30 years. Scott Peach, Procurement, 30 years. Brian Duhl, Police Department. 28 years. It's a long list. Four more, in fact. Amy Knight with the police department, 27 years.

[00:11:27] David Watson, firing EMS, 25 years. David Sawyer with the police department, 22 years. And also with the police department, Thomas Spivey, 15 years. Thank you. Dr. Casey. I just want to let the public know this is a new thing we're doing. We had him initially at the end of our work session.

[00:11:55] initially we didn't have them at all. We just had them on consent. So I want to thank the board for highlighting and getting it to be mentioned out loud. And also, in fairness, have families that make it more accessible to making it at 2 p.m. also so people don't have to sit here for three hours for this. But also, I just want to note, these are for the people who are just over 15 years to be mentioned with names. There are people who put in, let's say, 10 years of good service that don't necessarily get that accolade but I know one but but but but I want to there's this workforce has many other good people who entered their

[00:12:30] careers early maybe at age 45 55 or so have put in the time as well to make this county great but we would have to take three hours to go through those lists I just wanted it for public purpose differentiate this is the 15 year and then the 25 year threshold of which 25 year you also get a brick forevermore historic courthouse front steps. Thank you, Dr. Casey. Item four, everyday excellence, Dr. Casey.

[00:13:00] If I could have Neil Luther come to the front, and I think he has a special team to recognize, if they could all come up there with him. If there's one group of people that the board of supervisors has probably seen more than any other group of people, it's our special event team, because they are the ones who are helping recognize. These are the groundbreaking people these are the ribbon cuttings and now the topping out ceremonies but these are the people who do a lot of the planning and scenes behind so that the events we have are family friendly for all to witness and then of course there's a

[00:13:38] whole host of them but I know that I know all that you do to have some of these happen and you also do not control mother nature or contractors completely so with that said I'll turn it over to mr. Luther thank you dr. Casey I am today you're going to get the better side of the department because I'm going to let Marley Smith, who's our assistant director, give the specific recognition for these folks. I will say thank you for all your support. We've grown tremendously in this space. It's one that's important. I tell people all the time, we can't do what we do unless we know why we're doing it. And the reason behind what we do is really

[00:14:16] to connect people to the spaces with which we're entrusted. And there really is no better way to do that than to put a party on in the park of any size and bring the community together so really that's what we do and that's what we're about and marley's going to recognize this team and the individual efforts that they make day in day out to make that a reality thank you and i'll echo neil's comments we appreciate all of your support not just in making these events happen but in attending and your engagement it's been huge for us so thank you all right so today i I am honored to recognize our special events team for Everyday Excellence.

[00:14:54] This team, led by Vicki Kiger, our special events coordinator, I'm sure all of you know her, and supported by Krista Ball, administration and budget, far left, Matthew Hares, events assistant, Morgan Floyd, events specialist, and Ryan Banderclock, events and operations supervisor, has delivered an extraordinary year of service to our community.

[00:15:18] They are a younger, newly formed team, and they are mighty, though, that's for sure. Under Vicki's leadership, our special events have reached a new level of quality, consistency, and community impact. One of the clearest examples of this is maybe five, six years ago when I started, we had a number of special events.

[00:15:39] That's almost doubled. Last year, we went from one Christmas tree lighting, as you all know, to five. So they've done a phenomenal job keeping up. This team's adaptability is equally evident in the ribbon cuttings and milestone celebrations they support throughout the year.

[00:16:02] From early construction phases to the openings of large, complex parks, they have delivered polished, welcoming experiences in every corner of the county. Their most recent ribbon cuttings, Rockshire, Cogbill, and the park, each showcased their ability to navigate different venues, audiences, themes, and logistical needs with professionalism and intention.

[00:16:29] Their major annual events continue to bring thousands of residents together. Splash and slide, spooktacular. I hear in a couple weeks, we've got July 4th, 10,000 folks coming out. the team brings creativity, organization, energy, and a high standard of excellence to everything they do. At the core of this is Vicki's leadership. She might tell you she's been with us a long four years, but I bet she'd also say it's been worth it. I've seen her firsthand guide a growing team

[00:17:02] through a year of new demands and new opportunities with strong coordination, flexibility, and an eye for individual and team strengths and detail their collective work is operationally excellent it's relationship driven and community focused it reflects the high standards we set as a department and a county what many people don't see are the countless hours behind the scenes the planning the creative problem solving the last minute pivots on-site choreography and the

[00:17:38] passion that ensures every event feels seamless to the public. I have been truly honored to work with this group of individuals. I think we balance each other out well. We've all got some wild ideas and somehow there are some guardrails, but I just want to congratulate you all on an amazing year.

[00:17:56] Thank you for all you do. Comments from the board. All right, Ms. Schneider. Well, you all know how much I love you guys and appreciate all that you do. I'll try to get out to the 4th of July one early again so I can help you that was it's always so nice just to check catch in with up with you guys and see all the kids that are there working so hard they enjoy what they're doing you can tell

[00:18:35] and so thank you so much for bringing this quality of life to our community and the enjoyment and just the fun of you know an icy cone and some splash parks and some penguins and you know all sorts of fun things. So thank you all so much. Mr. Ingle. I just want to say thank you because I have noticed from when I started now, remember right after I started, we did go right into COVID, but that was something that brought my understanding of parks and recs to a different

[00:19:11] level during COVID. But since then, I've noticed continuing growth in the people that attend the events that are put on that y'all set up and very happy people at that. So I thank you for the experiences that you're creating for our citizens in our parks. Dr. Hilton.

[00:19:39] I'll ditto what my colleague said. You know, when I see my kids smiling and laughing and having a good time and just enjoying the aspects of the events that you all put on, that's special. At the same time when I see people my age and older enjoying themselves too as we go through mazes and stand in line for coffee or hot chocolate and so you know it just it just resonates with me

[00:20:13] because you all create opportunities for all kids no matter how old they are I think I'm a kid at heart and I look at Kevin as he said a comment just a few moments ago but we're all kids at heart and I appreciate you all making sure that citizens have a place to live work and play and you all do a great job and if we can be of any assistance if I could be of any assistance to you please let me know. I want to continue what you all are doing doing some great work. Thank you Dr. Hill and Mr. Carroll. Mr. Chair what my comment was like he's that old comparatively speaking you know there's a

[00:20:52] lot of things that that that the Board of Supervisors gets to oversee and make decisions on, and some of them are not fun. And it's very hard to make everybody happy in the community. It's one of the things you learn when you run for office. The good thing is there are some good things that we can do, thanks to you and the staff, that will at least bring a smile to someone's face and maybe let them forget about some of the other stuff for a little while that we end up doing. You know, all of us here are servants at heart, and we really do want to do what we believe is best for the community and and i will tell you that um at least at the two

[00:21:31] events that you have held down to etrick park for the christmas tree lighting ceremonies those kids and the families and they didn't even mind that the truck got stuck in the mud for the for the coffee at all uh it was just it's stupendous it really is and thank you mr engel for having the vision with the community for the community member reached out to you to get us to start that tradition again because um it really is a great way to kick off the holiday spirit uh and that's just one that i'm going to highlight because it's it's i'm a big christmas person i'm probably the kevin mccallister of the board of super advisors when it comes to christmas trees so thank you for

[00:22:09] everything you do for the community it's it's pretty awesome yeah i just want you to know that i just updated my cover photo on facebook with sharon the heron so As a government, we do a lot of things responsible for making sure we have quality schools, fire, EMS, police, all those things.

[00:22:34] I would call that in many ways the main meal of what we need to do. But let me tell you something. Y'all are the dessert. There's no question about it. Y'all are the dessert. And some people would make the argument that that's the most important part of the meal. And what you bring is that...

[00:22:52] Certainly the sweetest. Certainly the sweetest. You took the words right out of my mouth. Certainly the sweetest. And that is, there's an opportunity in those situations to be able to celebrate and appreciate and play. And those are the things that make the county as sweet as it is.

[00:23:11] And that's what you all do. So thank you for everything that you do. Well deserved. Thanks. Item 5, work sessions.

[00:23:31] A, parks and recreation update. Mr. Luther and Ms. Smith. Well, since we were talking about it. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, members of the board.

[00:23:51] As I said before in my introductions, we're going to bring the good part, the sweet. We're going to give you dessert first, to use the metaphor. Marley, fantastic team. Again, really purposeful and intentional about doing a number of things that she's going to cover that are engaging the community.

[00:24:08] We have a lot of special guests here she's going to recognize as well. What we do is collaborative. You'll hear in the special event realm, for example, our partners with police and fire and emergency management. It takes a real team to bring these things together. And I would also, on the heels of everyday excellence, recognize I do believe we stand on the shoulders of those who preceded us.

[00:24:30] So Sharon Insminger, back in the back, retired in May, March, it seems just yesterday, with 38 years, I believe, 40. Well, again, and really was the driving force for many, many years around the group that was just recognized and setting the expectations and the table, so to speak, for us to serve more and more and more dessert in that realm.

[00:25:01] So thank you, Sharon. And with that, I'm going to turn it over to Marley to begin our update. Thank you, members of the board. Dr. Casey, my name is Marley Smith. I'm the assistant director for Parks and Recreation. I appreciate you all having us here this afternoon.

[00:25:23] All right, we're going to start our update with youth programs. Our youth programs continue to see exceptionally high demand, as you all know, demonstrating the critical need for accessible, affordable opportunities for children and teens throughout Chesterfield. This summer, 125 youth and 22 teen leaders led in partnership with Virginia Cooperative Extension and 4-H and through strong collaboration attended the 4-H camp down in Jamestown 4-H Center.

[00:25:55] Through collaboration with Parks and Recreation, our Parks and Recreation Commission, and CFIT Community, We raised enough scholarships to fully support 18 youth, covering their camp fees, supplies like sleeping bags, and camp store funds, and transportation.

[00:26:13] This year, we transported over half of their campers. That means over half of those campers that attended benefited from our assistance. Beyond 4-H, Chesterfield Parks and Recreation is operating 10 summer camps this season, ranging from fun-in-the-sun locations to specialty camps like Archaeology, Robius River, Redtail Hawk, and Teen Camp.

[00:26:37] We registered 960 campers, supported by 12 full-time staff and 70 seasonal staff. To date, we have more than 600 youth on waiting lists. Demand was so high that one camp sold out in two minutes.

[00:26:55] that's 120 seconds, and most school-based sites reached capacity by mid-morning on opening day. To ensure equitable access, we expanded inclusion services by 50 percent, assigning both an inclusion lead and inclusion coach at each site. We also awarded youth scholarships to eliminate financial barriers to any camp or program. Our camps this year averaged $75 per week per participant. And thus far in 2026, we've issued 46 youth scholarships.

[00:27:36] Overall, the overwhelming response to our programs underscores a clear countywide need. We remain committed to ensuring every young person who wants to participate in our camps or programs has that opportunity. And that's just our camp update. We have several programs throughout Parks and Recreation. I'm going to name a few of them. We have our Chesterfield's Got Talent. Some of you were able to attend this past March. Meadowbrook High School with 180 performers, youth performers, and almost 800 attendees. Roots of Beulah Garden Club and Snack Lab, hands-on gardening paired with

[00:28:13] healthy snack creation using homegrown produce for our youth. Mini Movers is an early childhood program for ages two to five. We do this in partnership with libraries six months out of the year, the three preceding summer, and the three following summer. And then our robotics, our STEM programming, introducing youth to engineering, programming, and robotics competition pathways.

[00:28:40] History. Chesterfield and Henrikus continue to deliver strong, high-quality education and public engagement through a variety of on-site and outreach programs. We provide tours and off-site speaking engagements for adults, civic groups, and schools, expanding access to the county's historic resources. As part of our continued evolution, former Henriquez staff have fully transitioned to Chesterfield County employment. This shift has expanded their roles and allowed us to begin activating additional external historic sites across the county, broadening the reach of our

[00:29:19] programming and strengthening the stewardship of our assets. Staff has done an exceptional job navigating this transition while maintaining high program quality and taking on new responsibilities. Our 2026 calendar includes several major commemorations, including Bacon's Rebellion, August 8th, Civil War Day at Point of Rocks, September 26th, then we've got Midlothian Mines Day, Hops in the Park, Christmas Through the Centuries. Many of you this past year and previous years have joined us out at our annual Eppington event. It was a wet and dreary day

[00:29:57] this past year, a little bit cold, and we still welcome more than 400 visitors eager to explore the history between the James and Appomattox rivers. Significant stabilization and restoration work has taken place at Eppington this year, including beam reinforcement, masonry repairs, chimney stabilization, and exterior improvements. Additional recent programs include the planting Spanish Tobacco in Virginia at Henricus, May 23rd, Crimes and Punishment of Sir Thomas Dale's Virginia Colonists, June 13th, and the Pleasant View School Soldiers of Emancipation, June 20th.

[00:30:38] Together, these programs strengthen historical understanding, support tourism, and community engagement, and highlight the value of our county's rich history and strong cultural partnerships.

[00:30:58] All right, any of you all make it out to the farmer's market today? We had some beautiful community connections. Our police team, EMS, and Sheriff's Department was out there for Community Day. We also had a variety of 250th volunteers out there, both historical interpreters and educators.

[00:31:17] Farmer's Market runs weekly from May to September and is drawing an average of 650 people per week, two-thirds of which are residents and one-third county staff. We have CCPS free lunch distribution, summer camp activities they kicked off today.

[00:31:35] We had 50 summer campers out there receiving lunch and also a $5 voucher to use at the vendors. I don't know if Lynn is here, but she has helped tremendously with CFIT community in providing a partnership between schools and Parks and Recreation.

[00:31:51] Our SNAP participation remains steady, and meal distribution through schools has been strong, including a record 260 meals on opening day. Our community gardens, Rockwood Gardens, are fully built out, and construction at Hilltop Gardens at Clover Hill Elementary is near completion.

[00:32:13] Actually, today they're installing some beds, and tomorrow the fencing goes up. So waterline's ready to go, and we can't wait to get the community out there. Kiwanis Park has also undergone review and activation with a couple of gardeners, and then we have an expressed interest in the Stonebridge Recreation Site for community gardens as well.

[00:32:33] Soundscapes Partnership. Through a new MOU, Soundscapes, a non-profit music education program, now provides after-school instruction three days a week at Beulah. They offer foundational and ensemble music experiences for elementary students.

[00:32:51] We're expanding this fall into level two, so about two-thirds of the kids will move on to level two, and then we'll continue level one courses throughout the county. In your packets, in the back of your packets, you'll see a couple of additional items. Two of those are our newest technology tools created by Virginia Cooperative Extension Master Gardeners.

[00:33:14] Recently, they've taken about 30 publications and merged them into a tool for a fertilizer calculator. So as a resident, instead of researching through 30 plus publications, you now have a tool to help you figure out the fertilization for your lawn right away.

[00:33:32] The second app is a grass planting tool to support homeowners and gardeners. It is incredibly user-friendly. That's the one with the cream-colored questions. You toggle on them what you're looking for, what your yard looks like, the wear and tear, and it just spits out at the very end what you can do to grow grass at your home.

[00:33:54] National Night Out. Parks and Recreation continues to support one of Chesterfield's strongest community building traditions by hosting National Night Out at all four of our recreation centers. This, of course, is in partnership with police, fire and EMS, the sheriff's office, PAL, and many other county agencies.

[00:34:16] These events help strengthen neighborhood law enforcement connections and reinforce our commitment to engaged communities. This year, that event will be held on Tuesday, August 4th, at Stonebridge from 11 to 2, Bensley Recreation Center, 6 to 8.30, and then Ettrick and Beulah Recreation Centers, 6 to 8 p.m.

[00:34:40] All right, community events continue to draw strong participation across the county, reinforcing our reputation for high-quality, family-friendly programming. That top picture there, the park, June 11th, drew over 4,500 attendees.

[00:35:00] Live music, food vendors, and partner participation. It was an overwhelming launch. Also, our second splash pad in the county. Splash and Slides coming up August 1st. That will feature more than a dozen water inflatables, a foam party, and food trucks.

[00:35:19] Movie Night with Animal Services, September 11th. Welcomes over 2,000 attendees at the fairgrounds. Proceeds go to Animal Services. It's a huge event for us and a great partnership. Ductacular October 20th continues to bring over 8,000 people and is one of our largest events in the county.

[00:35:39] Last year, we transitioned from the fairgrounds over to River City. Had a lot of county engagement and county departments. I can't thank them enough for contributing. Hops in the Park is November 7th, and then we finish out the year with a Veterans Motorcycle Rally in November and, of course, the December tree lightings with each of you.

[00:36:07] All right, July 4th, right around the corner. This year's July 4th celebration embraces a strong 250th anniversary theme with historical interpreters throughout the grounds and George Washington introducing the national anthem. We also have the anthem performed by our own Chesterfield County, Nora Blevins, 11 years old, and her video from Chesterfield's Got Talent went viral.

[00:36:34] So she is more than excited. The fairgrounds will be completely transformed with red, white, and blue decor, balloon cascades on stage, USA illuminated letters, American flags, inflatables, everything you could ask for.

[00:36:51] This year also marks a very important operational improvement with our new traffic and pedestrian plan. This was developed directly in response to public concerns about long wait times and safety. I want to recognize a couple of folks out here that we are especially grateful to.

[00:37:10] Our police department, Captain Tim Kehoe behind us, Captain Kylene Parenteau, she couldn't be with us today, Lieutenant Joel Nielsen, and Sergeant Jonathan McDonald out in the back.

[00:37:27] They led this overhaul, and let me tell you, when we started to discuss a new pedestrian and traffic plan, it was an overhaul. I'm not going to get too into the details, but I will let you know that the information for that, thanks to Lieutenant Nielsen, is in the back of your packets as well.

[00:37:43] I'd like to pause at this point and share the latest video engaging the public in this new traffic plan. - Hey, Kesterfield. Are you ready to celebrate America's 250th anniversary with us on Saturday, July 4th?

[00:38:03] This year, it's extra special. Our county teams and community partners have been working hard to make this an unforgettable celebration. We hope you can join us. - On behalf of Kesterfield County Police, we are working to move traffic in and out safely and efficiently.

[00:38:20] With a volume of people, parking will be extended to lots at a nearby county facility, so expect a fair amount of walking. County officers will direct traffic with the closest lots filling first and progress down Government Center Parkway. It is common to walk from one half to one mile to get to the fairgrounds from your vehicle.

[00:38:39] The earlier you arrive, the closer you will park. Guests with ADA parking permits will be directed to the lot at L.C. Byrd High School across from the fairgrounds. Wherever you park, please take note of the signs that will tell you the name of the lot and how far you are from the event.

[00:38:56] Remember, it will be dark when you return to your vehicle, so knowing the route is very important. In the interest of safety, we'll have a separate pedestrian lane along Courthouse Road at the conclusion of the event. Don't worry, we heard you. This year, we will not delay the release of the parking lots at the end of the fireworks.

[00:39:13] Stay tuned to Parks and Recreation Communications for more specifics on entering and exiting the event. Together, we will make this a fantastic community celebration. We look forward to seeing you here. I want to thank Captain Kehoe and Paranto for joining us for that video. Thank you very much. Also, our marketing and communications team, Shelley Goodman, Marissa Tuttle, they have just been so creative in making this happen. So thank you all both as well. I know Jess Winter at couldn't be with us this afternoon, but emergency services has also prepared a new family reception

[00:39:51] center response team. Previously, we used the Rogers building and the library. This year, our goal is to activate the family reception center within two hours of an event. I want to recognize our incident action team, Nigel McCollin from Fire and EMS, Todd Long, Fire and EMS, Charity Delano, and Matthew Smith from the police department.

[00:40:18] They've been integral to making this year's 4th of July safe and successful. This event continues to be a major cross-departmental effort, supported by fire and EMS, emergency management, constituent and media services, risk management, the sheriff's office, parks, and all of our staff working together to ensure a smooth, safe, and memorable experience for thousands of residents.

[00:40:44] We clearly could not do it without a full team effort, so thank you all. Coming soon, our Summer in the Park series. This is a pop-up party event we're going to host in each magisterial district.

[00:41:03] Our goal is to get community members outside enjoying each other and hopefully relieve them of any dinner and dessert duties for a day. So that's coming soon. All right, partnering together.

[00:41:25] We are proud to launch a first in Virginia collaboration with Pocahontas State Park and Virginia State Parks, the first of its kind in the Commonwealth. We have two of our state park partners here with us today, Pocahontas State Park Manager Nate Clark and Assistant Park Manager Mike Bilby.

[00:41:50] Together, Parks and Recreation and Pocahontas State Park will host the 2026 Outdoor Fest on National Public Lands Day, Saturday, September 26th from noon to 5 p.m. Park entry and access to the event is free.

[00:42:06] The event will feature live music, a beer garden, artists and vendors, guided hikes, Ultimate Air Dogs, BMX, the popular Bark Ranger Dog Walk. With adoptable dogs from Animal Services, Sportable and Beyond Boundaries will also provide adaptive outdoor opportunities, including kayaking, archery, biking, and paddleboarding, ensuring adventure is accessible for everybody.

[00:42:36] Moving Outdoor Fest to Pocahontas for the first time, this is our third year, really highlights Chesterfield's natural assets and demonstrates the greater impact we achieve when we align our goals and resources together. The partnership we have with state parks strengthens our position as a regional outdoor destination and showcases the power of coordinated community investment.

[00:43:01] We appreciate you. Thank you for partnering with us this next year. in a moment i'm going to turn it over to neil but first wanted to thank all of you for your support and attendance at our events programs and ribbon cuttings every time we open the park we want to touch base with the community and we're grateful to have each of you there with us thank you thank you i'm gonna run i'm the less exciting part of this so um i guess you get your dessert first i'm

[00:43:36] going to run through um the capital side of what we do and how we go about it um i would like to introduce, we have a brand new team member. This is our day three with the county. Caitlin McKenna is sitting over in the back. She's our new division manager over the capital projects portfolio. So we've been without a field position in that realm for over a year now. So we've got a new focus, new energy on the team. And with 62 active projects on the slate, we've got a lot of work in front of us. Real quickly, you all have been to these recent ribbon cuttings. We've opened

[00:44:14] several parks. We have from, I guess, clockwise starting at the top, of course, the park at River City. We opened up Cogbill back in the, it actually opened, soft opened in the fall, and then we had a celebration in the spring. Major renovation at Rockwood Park that we celebrated, and then the Rockshire Community Park in the in the bottom right there in Dr. Miller's district. One thing I'll say before moving on to the next slide about the park because Marley mentioned the attendance that was a challenging project and I'd like to thank a lot of foresight because that site over

[00:44:54] at River City when it was first developed you look at it it's an industrial area you've got transmission lines you've got a major gas pipeline that goes through it of course privately developed originally, but the county had the vision going back many, many years, Dr. Casey, to first of all acquire it and then to activate the potential for that site. And the park was particularly challenging because that was a remnant piece of property. It's sort of six acres that's sandwiched in a spoils area. I mentioned that at the dedication, but there were 4,500 people anxious

[00:45:29] to get back in the splash pad so i want to just say that um we had to go through a lot of of process with um columbia gas with dominion with the the design process through the land review process a lot of boxes had to be checked and a lot of hard work by the various consultants and contractors on that project to make it a reality i will say just because i was curious because we We knew we got big numbers on the attendance.

[00:45:57] We ran the attendance algorithm the week before and then the week of the opening over a weekend. Neither weekend had tournament activities. The week before the park opening, 7,500 attendees over the course of the week. The week following when the park opened, it was 15,000 people.

[00:46:15] And you can see the spike. The families are coming out 10 o'clock in the morning up to noon, really hitting a peak, Sometimes several thousand people on site through the lunch hour declines through the heat of the afternoon and then spikes back up again.

[00:46:31] So, again, this project, again, is a good example of standing on the shoulders of a lot of foresight that goes back over a decade to make to a reality. So it wasn't an easy path to get there, but I am very appreciative for for where we are at the end of this journey.

[00:46:49] We've got a lot going on still in no particular order. again. We did a major renovation. Chester Athletic Complex is the new name for Lowe's complex, which is up off of Route 1. We did a complete redo of the infrastructure there, added a fifth field. We've got some new playground equipment coming in, again, to sort of take a facility and make it really shine. We're doing the same thing, as you all know, at Iron Bridge, at the Diamonds. We are in the third phase. We did the field renovations first. We added a large

[00:47:25] restroom, and we are now in the home stretch of completing the field wrap for a stadium field at field eight in that complex. That should open up in September as a completion. We've also been doing a lot of work, as you all know, focused on improving athletic complexes and athletic fields. We have 230 fields currently in our complement or our portfolio for maintenance.

[00:47:56] It's going to take a while, but our goal over probably a 15 to 20 year, to be honest, time frame is to get every single one of those fields up to a base level in terms of playing quality, grass quality, irrigation, because that's what, you know, the youth that participate locally expect. They want a consistent product that's convenient to them. Right now, similar to Rockwood, we are in the process of doing field renovations to the Diamonds at Horner Park. Those are going to be, again, a hybrid turf field. We're in final design, and we'll

[00:48:30] start work here within a week over at Bird Athletic Complex to turn those softball fields into again a hybrid and then we also have under design the same project for Manchester Athletic Complex including the the two high school fields there the the softball and the diamond field we've also got based again off of our assessment the priorities that we are working on with new dollars coming in the fiscal year and beginning in July field renovations at Goyne Park and also at Carver Athletic Complex.

[00:49:05] We are following that facility condition assessment process that I've talked to you all about previously, where we're ranking fields in order of condition, trying to work on the most needy first, and also now collaboratively with the sports visitation group, also factoring in the metric of what fields are used the most, who are they used by, where does it make sense to concentrate effort so that we're working effectively.

[00:49:31] Again, Offwood is a long list, but trying to make meaningful progress. I will mention in the background there, we've got a lot of other facility improvements that are going on. We've made a concerted effort in the realm of tennis and pickleball and basketball courts.

[00:49:48] We just did finished renovations down at Dodd Park. We've done quite a bit of work at Rockwood in addition to the fields. We renovated a restroom. We actually paved the entrance coming in off of 360. So we have a fairly robust agenda for basically general deferred maintenance needs spread out all across our park system.

[00:50:13] Along those lines, and again, thanks to you all, we are really starting to make strides in doing the same thing at the high school and within CCPS's complement. We've done or have in the works all of the high school complexes.

[00:50:29] So, as you know, we renovated and completed complete renovations at James River, Thomas Dale, and Matoka. Meadowbrook High School is underway today was the kickoff. That's a complete renovation. We have Cosby, Manchester, and Monacan are all being recolored.

[00:50:51] They don't require quite the same amount of rework as these. And then the remaining schools are planned, again, with the rollover to the July new funding cycle. So all the high schools will be, their tennis complexes will be completely redone by the end of the summer before school returns.

[00:51:10] We're also putting a concerted effort into athletic fields on the sites. And there, Deep Creek is the first out of the gate. But we're doing it at the new Western Area High School. We're doing it, working with schools also at the Falling Creek Middle School.

[00:51:26] What we're trying to do on these projects is take the fields over before the contractor finishes their contract with schools. So we are actually finishing the fields ourselves and not relying on the school's general contractor. That gives us the ability, for example, at Deep Creek, you can see the green there.

[00:51:45] That was a sprig in irrigation. We've actually sprigged the second field there. It hasn't, it's being grown in right now, but we're doing things at these high schools as the schools are being renovated or newly built to allow the fields to begin out the gate in a better quality in terms of initial grass coverage, infrastructure, things like that. A couple of major of our bond projects that are underdeveloped now, Horner Park, again, as I mentioned, we are doing a renovation on the athletic complex, but we have a very exciting community park plan for that.

[00:52:21] We are wrapping up design development. This is a rendering conceptually to show there's a spray ground, there's a playground, a large picnic pavilion. So this is a perspective rendering to show to the community what's planned for this park.

[00:52:38] Again, this is a 22 bond project. And we are on cycle right now or on schedule right now to get this out to bid by October of this year. be about a year construction from the time we award so you're looking at um probably summer ish of 27 to to complete the community part we're also working quite a bit um down at falling creek we've talked a lot about this project it's a combo project the boat access which would sit right into this aerial that you see here is part of the consent work with dominion energy

[00:53:14] to replace the Dutch gap landing we have the line work done for that we are need to clear one little piece of permitting hurdle for disturbing along the shore bank but basically are in a position to be ready to bid their boat ramp construction this fall we are working on that project cooperatively with CDOT because the project also requires marina drive to be extended but what I'm basically trying to say is that we are really at this point on a good footing to continue to move this project from

[00:53:48] concept to reality. There is a piece of the property that is off this screen. It's downstream. The property goes from the mouth of Falling Creek and it moves up to the bluffs. And we also have from again funded from the bond referendum in 2022, a separate park project at the upland side of that. That project is in final design. It's in design development review for pricing and will go this fall for permit submission. And the timeline is to have that project ready for bid and

[00:54:24] construction this time next year. So quite a bit of work coming for those two projects. Just real quick, Ettrick Village Park is ready to go out for bid in August. It's in final plan review as we speak. And then we've got work down at Point of Rocks, the historic Point of Rocks, the Straken House, Straken House, Straw and House, I've heard it many different ways, is the contractor is working on that restoration. And we have the line work completed for the new access and parking lot. And that should be ready to go out to bid by September.

[00:55:04] Again, another major project under development. You all will get a little more, some more information about this in detail coming up later. But generally speaking, the shot that you see there is the old golf course on the left. The road and bridge project are moving along in a timely fashion.

[00:55:25] And then the access for river access is the last of our 2022 bond projects. It's scheduled for appropriation in fiscal 28. So July of next year is when the boat landing project becomes funded.

[00:55:42] I show the slide or the image of Dutch Gap because of Henrikus and the tall ships coming up just to trigger that we are also and Marley touched on the programming side. But with the transition, we have been very busy over the last 18 months, basically catching up down there on deferred maintenance.

[00:56:01] We've spent close to $700,000 doing things like a new roof for the ordinary, replacing quite a bit of the Palisade fencing, repaving the parking lot, doing a lot of things down there. And we actually have a continuation of that.

[00:56:16] We have another replica building that we just had to demolish because of deteriorated condition and are going to rebuild, again, beginning in the next fiscal year. So we are very busy down there playing catch up on some needed deferred maintenance down at that site.

[00:56:34] Future projects that are in various stages of either planning or discussion include Fickie Park. That's a small neighborhood park that was initiated with ARPA dollars to acquire the property. And we've actually had a community meeting within the last month and are finalizing community input before going into final design development.

[00:56:58] Magnolia Green Park was a proffered piece of property within Magnolia Green. It is on our CIP at this point, and we have been working for about the last two years in discussions with the Y to be co-partners in development.

[00:57:14] They are very interested and need access to field space in that area of the county. And so we have sort of inked out a preliminary split of how the park could be developed, if you will. That line work that you see up there was actually done by their engineer.

[00:57:30] This is in our CIP, again, not currently funded, but it is on the tracking list. And again, is something that we would move forward in a partnership capacity. I think that brings a close.

[00:57:48] We have quite a number of projects. Again, I have one more slide. Brown and Williamson, a little history on this. This is a conservation area. Brown and Williamson, I know Dr. Casey has asked for some name suggestions that we bring forward.

[00:58:05] I'll throw them out there today. Our staff, because of the history of the site and the ecological significance of the site, the two suggestions that we've put out are either Enon Bluffs or Bermuda 100 Park as a renaming. Google is our next door neighbor, the new data center.

[00:58:22] They have gifted $550,000 to begin the design work. We've done that. We've been working with Google to work out an alignment that actually comes off of the public right away across their property to get us access.

[00:58:37] And we just had a conversation yesterday and they are gonna go back and look at what they can do to make up the difference. We got a fairly large price tag on that road because of the wetland issues and things that need to be, and it's only a gravel road, but it's still about a million dollar access and parking.

[00:58:56] And Google took that information and went back and said, let us see what we can do to continue to contribute money to make it a reality. And then the last one, I know you all have gotten briefed on this a while back. Again, this is not funded, it's just a concept plan, but basically, again, a lot of attention being paid to bring in the property over there, known as the fairgrounds, basically doing a refresh and bringing up some higher potential for that site.

[00:59:28] This again is in our CIP long range project. It includes a replacement of the veterans building that's down there now to be a true multi-use building, but it has had a lot of conversation about it.

[00:59:44] So I just wanted to put it up there to remind this board that it's out there at a planning level. I will also mention, again, on our maintenance efforts, we are putting right now about $200,000 into short-term needs for the site in preparation for this year's fair, as well as some fencing that's being completed now before next week's July 4th celebration on the site.

[01:00:10] So with that, that is all I have, and we appreciate, again, the time with y'all. happy to answer any questions you might have. Anyone with the board? Anyone? Mr. Ingle. We have a lot going on, as we stated earlier, with parks and recs, and it's all over the county.

[01:00:35] I don't think many of our citizens actually know how many parks we have in the county and all of the great things going on in those parks, but I think you did a really good job of highlighting a lot of things that are going on, but I do recommend our citizens go to the parks and recs website, and figure out how many parks that we actually have and those that they'd like to visit close to them.

[01:00:59] So thank you for all the work you're doing. Thank you. 67. Ms. Schneider. Thank you so much for all you guys have done in Clover Hill this year. I know it's been a lot. I have gotten at least three different people texting me about being at Rockwood Park for tournaments.

[01:01:20] One of them was one of our counterparts in Henrico on the board whose son was playing and he's just like these are really nice fields so there's a little a little envy there but um yeah they they really um i've heard from a lot of people how nice the fields are and how great they are um and the park is also a huge success so thank you so much dr hilton um you know i just want to say thank you um for everything that you all have done and for also

[01:01:52] So just the continued support when citizens come up and have good ideas, such as what we're doing at the Beulah Rec Center, the new field is going in with the irrigation. We learned that English and second language students at Meadowbrook needed a place to play soccer for one of their teachers, and there's really no place to have free reign soccer.

[01:02:15] So we want and demand that everybody have a place in Chesterfield and feel welcome. And so we appreciate you all jumping at that opportunity. And also for Mr. Engel for helping me chip in on that item to get done.

[01:02:33] Even though it's not in his district, we share kids that use that field. And so just wanted to highlight the continued collaboration that we all have across departments and also on the board. So thank you so much. I think we spent over close to $50,000 on that project.

[01:02:53] So it's going to mean a lot to a lot of people. So thank you so much. They are, it's kind of smelly over there if you go to the spray ground. They put soil amendments in, which is a nice way to say they put fertilizer. And to mention that, thank you. Bula and Mr. Engel, we've also sprigged in Bensley so that the Bensley field, same user group, same concerns, heavy wear, that's been completely renovated as well.

[01:03:19] It's just growing in at this point. And it's just things like that that you didn't even, you don't even have time to tell, but that you're working. And so I just want to highlight that and just say thank you so much for hearing someone at a Christmas tree lighting say that this will be a great idea. And then in the summer, preparing to do it and doing it.

[01:03:36] So thank you so much. We mow 44,000 acres of grass seasonally and growing. Wow. Thank you, Dr. Hilton. Mr. Carroll. People don't think we have any green space. It's a lot of grass to cut.

[01:03:53] Thank you for everything you do. I think, you know, a couple of years ago we did promo videos, which probably need to be updated. But certainly I think some type of informational video that could show and highlight everything that you did today, I think would be appropriate for the community to be able to see because there's a lot of great information on here.

[01:04:14] And we often get, you know, complaints from people, and I get them in my district in the western part, saying, you know, there's no parks close, even though Horner Park is a tremendous park with a lot of amenities coming to it. it. So, you know, think about that, putting something together that we can push out on social media. And maybe, I don't know, maybe we can get someone from 6, 8, and 12 to actually come out and do a story and show all the great stuff that we have in Chesterfield County. Because the people who know where it is, they know how great it is. And it's just, we've had a lot of people moving here from somewhere else that just have yet to figure it out. So anything we can do to try and

[01:04:51] help with that, please let us know. Yes, sir. I just want to take a moment and appreciate our partners with the state. Thank you both for coming out. The Outdoor Fest is really important. I really would like to look for other opportunities for us to work together. So I'm really excited that we're working together with you on Outdoor Fest. They have a really good concert series over there too.

[01:05:14] They do. And so with all of that that we're doing, I think that there's such an opportunity for us to partner in more areas. And so grateful for you all to be here. I see Mr. Engel, did you want to add anything i just wanted to say um not only do we have the 67 parks with the 44 thousand acres that are county owned but we actually have a gym in chesterfield county that's right on the state park as well in the matoka district i think well i think it probably touches a few um but uh that being said regardless it's open for the whole county and for visitors

[01:05:51] from outside the county as well so we we encourage people use all of the parks including the state park right so thank you yeah mrs schneider so i was actually last night at the tbex um opening um for all of the content it's a um a thing going on and they said that they several of them did some side trips to pocahontas um park and had enjoyed themselves so um thank you for hosting them they're they're creating content that'll get spread out and get more people to the location so thank you so much any other comments um i just wanted to add or just a question around um what's

[01:06:30] going on with james river and um with the athletic field there uh do we have a sense of when that planning when that's going to get started i'm really looking forward to not calling that the swamp any longer um so where do we stand james river and meadowbrook are both um in first round of permit review. They were in my notes. I know I blew through, but they are scheduled to be bid by October and awarded end of the year with construction on site in the spring. So both

[01:07:04] schools will be converted and ready for play by August of next summer. Dynamite. Thank you for your hard work. The design work, the preliminary, all the construction drawings are in for permit review at this point. Awesome. Okay. Well, thank you both for coming out today. We really do appreciate the dessert for a very long meal, and just really grateful for everything you all do. Thanks.

[01:07:34] B, Adult and Juvenile Probation Services Update, Dr. Worsley.

[01:07:39] Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, members of the board.

[01:08:20] Greetings, all. It is certainly an honor for Human Services to be back before you to talk today. Great presentation from Parks and Recreation, and I like to refer to them as preventative programs as well because what we're going to talk about today in our presentation is going to be a little bit different and I'm going to refer to more might be referred to more as cumulative corrective programs as well so we have a collaboration before us today we find that working with the state has been a great partnership you're going to hear a little bit about that in just a few minutes we we are lucky enough to have the Honorable Erin Barr with us commonwealth attorney with us today and we also our state partner

[01:08:58] We have with us Mr. William Stanley, who represents as the director of the 12th District Courts. We also have, for the very first time, presenting with us today is our new director, Ms. Michelle Smith, who has 30 years of service coming from Loudoun County, yet she retired and came back into the workforce.

[01:09:16] This is our very first board meeting presenting, so we are happy to have her from Juvenile Justice Services today. And, of course, we have Mr. Gary Hughes, who is the director of Community Correction Services. And lastly, you will hear from Mr. Saheed Brown, who is also new to the county and is presenting for the first time at the Board of Supervisors today and is administrator for our treatment courts.

[01:09:39] So without further delay, we're going to have a combination of conversations in our presentation today. And feel free to stop and ask us questions at any point in time, or you can hold those to the end, whichever you prefer. Kicking us off first is going to be Ms. Barr. So, Dr. Miller, members of the board, Dr. Casey, thank you.

[01:10:02] for having us here today for this discussion and i want to thank my fellow panelists for letting me kind of ride their coattails a little bit i am here not only as a proponent of all of the programs and services that these folks provide through their departments but also a beneficiary in our office in terms of our effective prosecutions and how we handle cases it is powerful in chesterfield that we have this many services and programs that we can rely on as prosecutors What we have learned in the past couple decades about trauma, especially childhood trauma,

[01:10:36] mental health, substance use disorders, and things along those lines have taught us that by just incarcerating people, we are creating a revolving door if we're not combining with that punishment from the criminal justice system with some treatment of those underlying factors, whether it be trauma, mental health, substance use disorder, or just basic needs like stable housing, stable employment, stable transportation. So I am the beneficiary. Our office is the beneficiary of working with these folks. I have to give a lot of kudos, true to Chesterfield

[01:11:13] Forum. There's a lot of collaboration among these departments and those of us that are in the criminal justice system. There is a lot of creativity. There's a lot of innovation. But what I pride or what I hope we pride ourselves the most on is that we are not only creative and innovative, but that we respond to the individual needs of Chesterfield County when they're uniquely identified and that we're open to those conversations. I did not, I knew they shouldn't have given me the clicker because I'm a lawyer and I'm not used to presentation. I'm used to just

[01:11:50] um arguing things in court um i think the last thing i will note as we go through these services and hear from each of these departments is that last bullet point on the slide is that when we talk about these services we are not just talking about the individual that these programs are serving but the collateral impacts and the ripple impacts through our throughout our community so when mr hughes department sees an individual come in on local probation for different services or orders of the court we're talking about that individual being treated but

[01:12:24] also their family their children spouses parents maybe they're in place of employment that has seen impacts from from whatever that individual has been struggling with maybe when we talk about juveniles the school system and the other students that that integrate with that individual at school neighborhoods communities so it is so powerful to remember that we're not just and the Individuals are important, and that's who we want to treat, but there are also collateral impacts throughout the community that we see from the services that these individuals provide.

[01:12:59] So with that being said, I'm happy to take questions. I'll hand it off to Mr. Stanley to talk about our court services unit and the services that we provide there. Good afternoon. I don't think you spent all the three of your minutes, but I will move forward anyway.

[01:13:16] I saved them for you. Thank you. I appreciate it. Again, my name is William Stanley, director of the 12th District Court Service Union. Our office is located in the juvenile court building on the first floor. I just want to go over real quickly, our office handles domestic as well as criminal intake, so we do criminal intake as far as with juveniles, but we also do domestic.

[01:13:35] We talk about custody and protective orders in the county. We have about 30 staff. All of us are state employees, so as a state employee, I will say I appreciate the resources and opportunities that Chesterfield County provides to us. We do have some referral sources that we utilize through the state for our kids who are on supervision, so that allows us not to ask the county for too much money as far as funding is concerned, but occasionally we do when we go to FAP for services in the community.

[01:14:06] Focus on diversion, and I will echo what Ms. Barr said as far as collaboration. I've been with the department and been in Chesterfield County for over 20 years now. Every year, no matter who employees we have, it's always been great collaboration between stakeholders. Diversion is just one thing that we utilize as far as with juveniles.

[01:14:23] In diversion, essentially, we are taking charges or alleged charges in the community, and we're handling them informally instead of formally. Formally will be before a court, the judge and, of course, Aaron's team. Informally will be in our office where we have several diversion programs, which I'll go over in a little bit, which we actually share with some of our partners over at Juvenile Justice.

[01:14:44] Who is eligible? Every kid, except for maybe violent felonies against someone else, is eligible for a diversion program. So we typically deal with low-level misdemeanors, shoplifting and assault, different things of that nature. What are the benefits? The benefits are twofold.

[01:15:01] One, the kids and families are able to come into the office. They don't have to go to court. They don't have to sit before a judge. They don't have to sit before an attorney. They don't have to go to detention. So hopefully we can prevent as many kids out of the detention facility as much as possible and keep them in community. But also, too, it lowers the docket or lessens the docket for the judges.

[01:15:20] So instead of every court case or every case we have that comes through our office going to court, we actually handle about, I think, two or three years ago, about 20% to 30% of those through our diversion programs. That gives the Commonwealth Attorney's Office, gives the judges the opportunity to focus on those kids and those families that really need those services through the court process, and we can handle the rest.

[01:15:39] As far as recidivism, because I know some people may ask questions like, if we divert these kids and not put them in court or not in detention, what's our recidivism rate? For the programs that we offer, the recidivism rate is absolutely wonderful. Again, I'll talk about some of those programs that we offer, but once those kids participate in those programs and those families and they complete it successfully, we typically don't see them back before, which is a good thing.

[01:16:00] Diversion programs that we offer, I'll just name a couple of them. Assault Diversion Program, which speaks for itself. Shoplifters Diversion Program, which also speaks for itself. And we have a substance abuse diversion program for kids with first-level charges of possession of alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana, those things of that nature.

[01:16:16] But we also have our gun violence prevention program that we also use as a diversionary tactic where the Commonwealth Fraternity's Office is helping us along with CARP. Collaboration, like we spoke before, or like I spoke before, like we're all going to speak here. We have our family resource coordinator who is actually a county employee who works besides in the state, and she works with our kids who are leaving detention facility through our post-D program.

[01:16:40] But she also works with our diversion program as far as kids who commit crimes in the community, domestic-wise. We talk about sibling fights, talking about fights between parents and child. We get them in the office, work on what services they need, and help them, even when they're finished with us, help them long-term, even afterward, to make sure that they're safe in the community.

[01:17:00] The home incarceration program, which is something that we utilize instead of actually placing kids in detention. We talk about trying to monitor and house arrest. And restorative justice program is something we utilize on occasion when we can have the victim and actually the person who perpetrated a crime sit before a group of folks and talk about what harm was caused and also work on a plan as far as how to make the victim hold.

[01:17:22] I love that program above everything else, except for the gun violence program. The Restorated Justice Program would probably be my favorite one. Of course, our Substance Abuse Diversion Program, which we use to fulfill mental health as well to help us out with that. Our Guns Violence Prevention Program, which we utilize. We have two lived experts, I would say.

[01:17:40] persons have served time in the Department of Corrections for gun violence offenses and they speak to our kids and families. The kids and the parent has to participate in that program and they just talk about the pitfalls and downfalls of course of using firearms or even being in possession of firearms in the community. So that program has been really, really working well and we've actually moved that program in the next couple weeks. We'll be presenting that to the kids, excuse me, at Bonaire juvenile correctional center and we presented that to the kids, their detention home as well. And of course our VJCCCA program please don't make me say what that means um but of course we utilize that program because they give us grant money for some of the services and stuff that we provide that ms smith is going

[01:18:18] to talk to um about later and yeah that's it i think i used that i don't think that was it was i don't know if that was three minutes two minutes and 59 seconds thank you all very much for allowing us to to talk about our programs we're very proud of the programs um so juvenile justice services. We're here to serve, support, protect, and empower court-involved youth and youth victims.

[01:18:42] It also is supporting youth not to go deeper into the juvenile system. Our goal is to keep them out, give them services, and put them back in the community or keep them in the community and be successful at what we would like them to be successful at. There are three core pillars to the juvenile justice services, and that is our juvenile detention center, our home, our adolescent Resource Pathway, and then our Davis Children's Advocacy Center. All of these programs are performed and operate under a trauma-informed lens. So we are making sure that we are taking

[01:19:16] care of the youth and the families that come to our doors without judgment. We're giving them services and taking care of them because they need someone to guide them and help them through the ordeal that they're going through without that judgment. So our juvenile detention home, I'm glad I put my glasses on, provides that safe, secure, supportive condition of confinement for the highest risk juvenile offenders. So we are trying to keep as many as we can out of detention. Our adolescent resource pathway is a hub of community-based programs for youth, court-involved youth. And some of those are community service, our court navigator,

[01:19:55] our Day Reporting Center, our Gun Violence Prevention Program, Restorative Justice, our Vision Substance Use Prevention Program, our Summer Program, which is currently going on, our Youth Conservation Corps, which is coming up, and our Educational and Vocational Connections.

[01:20:11] So those youth are referred to these programs through our school system, through juvenile court services. Kids can come and go. There's different levels of participation and time frames for each of those programs. And then our Davis Children's Advocacy Center, which I know many of you all know about, the trauma-informed family-friendly space for alleged child victims of abuse to be interviewed one time. So again, reducing the trauma, providing advocacy and support to our families that go through a difficult, a very, very challenging and difficult situation. A little bit about our

[01:20:46] juvenile detention home. We have three different populations in our home, and I'm not sure everybody knows that we have all of those programs. So we have our predispositional program, and that is the majority of our youth, and those are awaiting further court action. We do have our post-dispositional program, and this was a program that came into existence many, many years ago. It is a six-month treatment program that allows youth who are potentially going to be committed to state and normally are committed to state with the suspended commitment to serve in a local detention center.

[01:21:19] The beauty of this program is it allows them to stay local. It allows them to stay connected to their service providers, their mental health connections. Their family is involved in their programming, and they are transitioned back into the community with the same service providers.

[01:21:35] So, again, it allows them to continue that level of service. And then we have three DJJ contracted programs. So Department of Juvenile Justice contracts with a variety of different detention centers around the state to provide three different programs.

[01:21:51] One is CAP, which is our Central Admissions and Placement Program. That is a program where once a youth is committed to state, folks involved in that case will assess the youth, figure out what services they need, what level of time they need to serve, and the different levels of services and types of services.

[01:22:10] Then they would go into what is a community placement program. So that's our CPP program. Those youth are placed in our care for anywhere from one year to four years. And they go through a variety of programs, ART, MRT.

[01:22:26] They are given mental health services, lots and lots of services, vocational services, particularly making sure that they have a vocational or career path when they leave is really critical. And then our individual bed placement. So those are youth that are very similar to a CPP youth, but require an individualized service plan.

[01:22:44] So we have all three of those in the facility. We just wanted to give some numbers to you today so you have an idea. The juvenile detention home in FY25 had 291 admissions. Average daily population is 25 to 30. We are staying on the higher number at this point.

[01:23:01] For the last couple months, we're seeing those higher numbers. Our community-based programs, like our CARP programs, there was over 500 placements last year, which is awesome. And our Davis Children's Advocacy Center, they did 281 forensic interviews and 217 therapy sessions.

[01:23:21] And the need for that continues to grow. Sadly enough, that is a need of our community and the communities surrounding us that we support. And these are just a few of our partners. We try to reach out into our community and partner with not only our county agencies, but other folks in our community, Bright Point and VCU, Virginia State University.

[01:23:47] All of those are partners with us in some way, shape or form to provide services to our youth. Thank you very much. So my turn. First, good afternoon members of the board, Mr. Chairman, Dr. Casey. Thank you so much for the opportunity to speak today.

[01:24:05] I'll transition us to the adult system. So community correction services, not going to go through everything, but we essentially start with providing services at the pretrial level. So after initial arrest, if an individual is referred to us by a judicial officer, pretrial services may entail everything from GPS monitoring or remote breath or drug testing, or it may really just work with somebody on their recovery.

[01:24:28] One element that has changed for me, in August, it'll be 20 years since I was hired in Chesterfield. I was an officer in the domestic violence unit. I heard mentioned earlier, we focus much more on the individual now and services for that individual and able to customize that services as best we can.

[01:24:45] I think Aaron had talked about that earlier. So as we go through and we talk about pretrial, yes, there are court orders, but there are other ways we try to work and enhance both the services for that individual that might be connecting with a peer recovery specialist, not back in the accounting with an employment specialist. We're really trying to look more at that individual and what they need.

[01:25:03] As we move across the spectrum, we do have a specialized domestic violence probation unit. We have the Domestic and Sexual Violence Resource Center under our purview. So that's the way with those two teams where they connect. It's a little different for us as a community corrections agency to have victim services, but that's one of the unique aspects about community corrections services.

[01:25:22] So that victim services team in our probation unit, they interact. They make referrals on victims. They're talking about the families. They're talking about what's going on in the home, much of what Ms. Barr echoes. So that's a very powerful collaboration there in-house for us. I mentioned peer recovery. That's the very last piece of that slide.

[01:25:39] That's another unique aspect. We've been one of the first correctional agencies to move into having peer recovery specialists. I give all the credit to Chesterfield County as a whole with everybody from Sheriff Leonard to our other programs who've embraced the use of peer recovery specialists throughout. And again, that's another way where there's a service that can be delivered to an individual that we don't want that court order.

[01:25:58] We want somebody to be able to be moved towards that or have their intrinsic motivation moved. But it's a powerful resource for us. We also provide probation supervision for the general district courts, for the circuit courts. Another unique aspect for us is that we serve all three levels of Chesterfield courts, dual domestic relations, general district, and circuit.

[01:26:16] So it's all the courts and then all of the judges. Moving through to give you a little bit of perspective on just where we're at in terms of scope. So generally, and this has been a pretty consistent figure for a number of years, If you were to ask me today, and that number's from about a week ago, we tend to average about 2,600 to 2,700 individuals under community supervision.

[01:26:36] So that's court-ordered supervision by a judge in Chesterfield. You see it broken up in different ways there. Local probation, the local probation, for example, would include our domestic violence unit, pretrial services. And then the last two elements there, the center risk reduction and behavioral health integrated services, I want to highlight next.

[01:26:54] But just in that scope of services, you're going to find supervision. You're going to find accountability, but you're also going to find, you know, our goals for the person to not come back in the system and to not commit a new offense. So whether that is doing domestic violence intervention programming, whether that is addressing substance use disorder or mental health, all of that is embedded throughout our services.

[01:27:13] Center of Risk Reduction, so that is a program that we have in community corrections for individuals that are medium or high risk to reoffend. So it focuses on elements like moral recognition therapy, which addresses cognition, antisocial personality, antisocial thinking.

[01:27:31] Again, we have drug testing, community service order. But it is, again, that element to focus on that individual who is more at risk for committing a new offense. And we know what research says is that individual who assesses as a medium or higher risk is more likely to reoffend.

[01:27:47] So we want to spend more time with that individual and then more focus on their needs and their risk levels. And you're going to hear more about that when we get to Mr. Brown as well and his programs. But that's another program that we have. It's pretrial or probation, and it's another resource for our stakeholders such as our commonwealth attorneys or our defense attorneys or our public defenders, and ultimately for our judges to decide if they want to utilize that program or not.

[01:28:10] The very last piece I would talk, so we talked about collaboration, and I think embedded throughout Chesterfield, we've heard it already is the essence of collaboration. So behavioral health integrated services is a new service. It was a transformation of our dual treatment track. This is a collaborative service. It is pretrial with community correction services as well as Chesterfield mental health support services. It's two pretrial officers and it's two clinicians that work for Chesterfield mental health. They are co-located embedded at our office. Their focus is on individuals really right at the first element of arrest. That could be co-response, where we have police and a clinician

[01:28:47] going out. But somewhere in that line at arrest and before their initial appearance at court, we are hoping that someone will identify, whether that's police, magistrate, sheriff's staff who've been fantastic, or our pretrial investigators, that an individual might be presenting as having characteristics of a serious mental illness. That identification happens, and there's a chain that starts at any time of day. The two clinicians that are located on that team attempt to do a screening in jail before that arraignment that day, which you know, arraignments in Chesterfield happen at 11 and 1130, depending on the court. If they can't get it done before 11, 1130, it's done for the next day. And what essentially from there happens is our stakeholders, so Commonwealth

[01:29:26] attorneys, defense attorneys, and judges are presented with a letter and documentation from the clinician saying, yes, this individual was assessed, likely has characteristics of serious mental illness, and could be served in the community through this fashion. And what that would be a supervision from our pretrial officers, treatment from Chesterfield Mental Health, and a very quick connection with all the treatment services that Chesterfield Mental Health has.

[01:29:48] So for those individuals who are appropriate from release, you know, ultimately we're saying this is an individual who might work for this program, but a Commonwealth attorney, a defense attorney, a judge has to agree. And then again, it's a way we are trying to individualize services, and perhaps for those individuals who have serious mental illness who can be served in the community while they're awaiting trial, where appropriate. It's brand new. It's been incredibly busy since the launch. That number there is from May 4th. I can tell you this slide I worked on last week, that number is almost up to 40 now individuals found appropriate, and I think it's 15 ordered to the program. So I don't necessarily think that's a surprise to anybody as far as what we're seeing, but again, it is more data showing this is an area for us

[01:30:28] to emphasize. And again, I would leave with this is a collaboration. It was done with a group of stakeholders. It works, and everything that we do works because of our collaboration. So whether that's the sheriff office, police, commonwealth attorney, public defender, Chesterfield mental health, all of it is collaboration based and we could not do what we do without it. And I'm done.

[01:30:49] All right. Well, good afternoon. And I want to thank you all as my colleagues did for the opportunity to be here and talk with you about what we do in our treatment courts. My name is Sahib Brown, and I'm the program administrator. So the treatment courts are a special court docket within the Virginia's existing court system. And these court dockets integrate evidence-based

[01:31:24] practices and public health approaches that are designed to kind of help support participants who have some complex needs that often exceed the kind of traditional court setting's ability to effectively address those needs. The treatment courts here were established.

[01:31:49] Our recovery court was in 2000, followed in 2023 by our Veterans Treatment Court. Supreme Court of Virginia recognizes three types of treatment courts here. And we are lucky here in Chesterfield County that we get to operate two of those models.

[01:32:09] That is a treatment court and veterans treatment court. In our treatment courts, we want to target individuals who have a high risk for reoffending and high need for supportive services.

[01:32:26] These individuals are typically facing felony charges that are linked to addiction. And it excludes individuals who have a violent offense. And all of our referrals transition into our program begins with an referral from the Commonwealth's attorney's office.

[01:32:45] So that's one of those points of collaboration that we've talked about. If approved at the Commonwealth attorney's office level, the participant will then complete a final screening. That's going to involve a risk assessment where we want to gauge their risk and needs, followed by an intake evaluation.

[01:33:08] Our veterans treatment docket serves participants with prior military service who have been discharged with a non-punitive discharge from any of the United States Armed Services. And they also are required to score high risk and high need on a validated assessment tool.

[01:33:31] Some of the unique aspects. This next slide here is a picture of our team. And as you can see, our team consists of the judge, Commons Wealth's attorney, public defender's office, mental health services and the community service board, community corrections, Chesterfield Sheriff, Chesterfield County Police, and peer recovery specialists. And for the veterans docket, there is a veterans mentor. I want to talk specifically

[01:34:10] for a moment, just focus on our veterans. There's a high population of veterans that live in and around Chesterfield County. Working with them in our program, our goal is to increase public safety by connecting those veterans to resources and helping to restore a sense of purpose and helping them to address any challenges that they've carried since returning to their civilian life. Each veterans participant in our program is paired with the trained veterans mentor. That veterans mentor is a local volunteer who's giving their own time to provide support,

[01:34:49] connection, and some confidential guidance to that veteran member of the program. Our peer recovery specialist and the person that we have on our team now is invaluable. That person is a graduate of the Chesterfield County Treatment Court, and they bring their own lived experience and recovery insights to the work, instant credibility amongst the population that we're serving, that person plays a crucial role in helping the participants stabilize at a critical point,

[01:35:28] which is the early parts of their sobriety. And again, this is also with the goal of continued progress for those individuals throughout the program. The two judges who support us are Judge Edward A. Robbins, who is a veteran also, and he presides over the Veterans Court and Judge Jane Pemberton, who presides over the Recovery Court. So some of the services that the individuals who are in the programs are able to receive. We follow a national

[01:36:06] best practices and standards by targeting criminogenic factors that research has proven influence recidivism. The research constantly shows us that treatment courts are going to be most effective when we're targeting or when we're serving the high-risk population. Again, those individuals with antisocial backgrounds and histories and who are involved in the criminal justice system. Participants in recovery court appear before a judge on a weekly basis for an

[01:36:41] evaluation where the judge is talking with them not just about their recovery process, treatment goals, education, employment, family engagement, future plans. The Veterans Treatment Docket meets every other week.

[01:37:04] Community Corrections, our partnership with them and the Chesterfield Police Department, they support us through conducting home visits. So there are, thank you, random home visits and urinalysis, surveillance, that take place to enhance accountability for the members of the program.

[01:37:34] The use of medication assistance treatment, temporary housing and transportation are very vital in supporting participants doing those critical early stages of the program. Individual therapy as well as group therapy are used.

[01:37:54] Other evidence-based curriculum treatment programs are used. Individuals who receive medication-assisted treatment, that's through our partnership with the community service board, so another level of collaboration there.

[01:38:16] Since 2000, over 700 individuals have been served in our recovery court. The veterans docket or our Veterans Treatment Court program has been around again since 2023.

[01:38:33] There are 22 veterans that have entered that program. Eight veterans have completed the program. Program duration is intended to be approximately 14 months. But as we all know, battling a fighting addiction can be quite a roller coaster for some people.

[01:38:54] So typically, we see individuals take beyond the 14 months to complete that program. Demand for the programs is high. Referrals come every month, sometimes weekly.

[01:39:12] Individuals are seeking to enter that program, and the programs are effective. Having these as an option help to increase public safety by integrating the criminal justice system with the community resources that provides a kind of support that individuals need to stabilize themselves.

[01:39:41] Again, as we heard mentioned earlier, this supports communities, it supports and helps families. And when the families and the communities are supported, the neighborhoods, the county, the commonwealth. And I would be happy to take any questions as this brings the answer.

[01:40:04] Mr. Carroll. Just one comment. I think, you know, we all get the quarterly reports from the police department on criminal statistics here in Chesterfield County. And one of the things that, you know, we continue to notice is that those numbers drop.

[01:40:23] They fluctuate up and down, but we've seen now, I mean, I think lower numbers, especially on certain crime statistics than we have in the past. And I think some of that, quite frankly, has to do with what this team collectively is doing to keep people from reoffending.

[01:40:42] Because when you go back and look at statistics, a lot of the stuff that happens, especially when it's related to addiction, is people reoffending. So I think that the work that you've shown today and the work that you do shows that it's working. So thank you for everything you're doing.

[01:40:58] Through Engel. Of course, I was going to go to the recidivism rate being lower. But I also did want to add that not only treating the person that is going through whatever program they are, but treating their family and those around them probably also not only they're not necessarily in a recidivism rate.

[01:41:21] we're actually probably preventing something from happening before it actually takes place. And that is even better, right? Because it's great if we can keep somebody from coming back into the system, but it's even better if we can prevent them from ever going into the system.

[01:41:37] So the collaboration that y'all have that's helping with that as well, that we will never know, we will never be able to get specific data on that. But we know that there is future crime that's diverted because of the work that you're doing together.

[01:41:57] And I think that's remarkable. So thank you for all your work. Well, I, for one, can say that I love coming to the recovery court graduations. They're very moving, and it's amazing to see, again, the collaboration and the support of the families that are there.

[01:42:20] And Judge Pemberton is always so supportive. And you can see the work that they've gone through and how it affects them and makes their life a better outcome. So thank you so much for all that work that you guys do.

[01:42:36] It's wonderful. Dr. Hilton. Yeah, I just want to echo the sentiments of my colleagues and just say that, you know, we're with you. I know it's some places that we need to improve on, such as public transportation and making sure that people that are going through the programs have the proper transportation.

[01:42:59] One of the places that I realized that was in the courts, we had one guy, I think he was riding like 17 miles to go to treatment. And that's something that shouldn't happen.

[01:43:17] He's riding his bike, but it showed his commitment. And then, you know, he was saying afterwards that if he's, like, five minutes late, he could, you know, be locked back up. And that's something that we don't want that to happen to people in our community, especially if they're trying to do their part to be somewhere where they need to be.

[01:43:35] And maybe weather or other things kind of slow them down, you know, to be locked back up for being late for five minutes is kind of absurd. But I understand the rules and it's on us to figure out how we can improve our public transportation system so that people that are going through your program can be on time and not as stressed out as they try to recover from their addictions.

[01:44:07] Just want to also highlight that it would help out with people coming to the county to get mayor's license, to pay taxes, those type of things. So it's something I hope my colleagues will look at very seriously in the next few months.

[01:44:24] So thank you so much. Thank you, Dr. Hill. As a mental health professional, one of the things I just keep getting over and over again as I'm listening to all of you is how much there's a certain segment of our community that is just suffering. And that it really just gets at my heartstrings around when I hear over and over again about how that manifests that suffering and it's because of trauma it's all those things but it's also about how do they try to we try to even our own lives work with addiction or um or reactivity or and

[01:45:04] it's easy to fall into the trap of dehumanizing and what i found over and over again in cheshire county and i think the sheriff is still here is we need to let go of the the dehumanization and seeing them as individuals, as the suffering that they're going through, the trauma that they've gone through, the life experiences that they had, and how much they are just crying out for help.

[01:45:28] And I think that Mr. Ingalls really put his finger on something that's very important in that around family systems, is that we can treat the individual, but usually it's part of a much larger system. And how we deal with that, the way I imagine it or visualize it, is immobile you know the kind that balance and you know you tap one and then all of them are affected and that can happen both positive or negative depending upon what's going on but how important it is to work holistically with everyone who is involved so that the healing is occurring

[01:46:04] in a level that is going to lead to less suffering so i'm appreciating all what you're doing It is not easy work, and we have a responsibility as a community to continue to support you all, and any ways that we can do that is incredibly important because what ends up occurring is that when we have someone who's suffering, what that often leads to is they end up creating additional suffering, creating additional trauma, and then it just spreads and continues to spread.

[01:46:42] So thank you all for the work that you're doing and trying to find ways to help our community. Just want to add, Dr. Hilton, funding that the county provides for the program helps us in that area of transportation that you mentioned.

[01:46:59] We're able to provide a lift gift card at times to participants in the program to assist them in being able to make appointments on time, avoid, you know, those temporary incarcerations for things like, you know, being late to required appointments.

[01:47:23] Yeah, and I agree, and not contradicting what you're saying, but I just think we can do better, and I think we can do more. So I think it's a pain point for many, as I talk to people that are going through the program. I know the gift cards are great to some degree, but it's a greater issue there also that I think we can solve by having public transportation to the county complex and also to the court.

[01:47:52] And there are other communities that are doing it a lot better. And I think that that's really important. I know that it'd be really nice to be insular and think that we have all the answers, but we don't. and how important it is that we look to other communities to be able to learn from them and how they're dealing with it.

[01:48:10] I'm thinking specifically about the inner city visits, how important they are, because when you get that cross-pollination going on, then we have an opportunity to learn from each other, because we just don't have all the answers. And we saw what was happening in Phoenix and how they were dealing with the transportation issues, and we can bring a lot of that home.

[01:48:28] And we're already thinking about those kinds of things. So thank you, Dr. Hilton, for those comments. Anything for the board? All right. Thank you all for coming and the work that you all do. Thank you. Thank you. C, finance update, Mr. Harris and Mr. Durkin.

[01:48:58] All right. Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, members of the board, Dr. Casey. We have a smattering of topics, and in the interest of time, we'll jump right in.

[01:49:14] First on the slide is just a quick bond sale update. Mr. Harris and I have met with the four credit rating agencies, along with some of the budget team and Davenport, our financial advisor, over the last two weeks. There's about six hours on calls in total. We are anticipating our ratings coming in the next few days.

[01:49:33] As part of that, though, the main thing is on tonight's consent agenda. There are requests for you all to adopt two resolutions that authorise the sale in the ward of the bonds. Just a quick recap, there are two types of bonds on this. General obligations, which is for the school's capital projects, and revenue bonds, which is being tied to school major maintenance, as well as county facilities modernisation, both adopted as part of the 2027 budget.

[01:49:57] The next step after that is the pricing for the bonds and then the closing, kind of one after the other, first up being the geo bonds and then the second being the revenue bonds, with everything being wrapped up as part of this process by August 13th. Also on this evening's agenda is the year-end update for both county and schools.

[01:50:16] On the county side, we are projecting a net surplus of about $4.2 million, about 4.4% of the revised general fund budget. We will be monitoring that through the accrual period, which ends in August 15th. Just for some context, last year's final net surplus was about $3.9 million, so this year right bang in line with last year.

[01:50:36] As ever, we will come back to you after the audit is done in November and December for any consideration of how you would like that surplus to be reserved or used. On the school side, we projected a surplus about $8.3 million, 0.8% of their budget, largely attributable as it is each year to the vacancy savings that they have.

[01:50:55] Again, with their results of operations, we hold them on the general fund side, and we work with them to deploy those dollars as needed. So you've got their full school board paper relative to year-end is in your packet.

[01:51:12] The one sort of little bit of different issue on the school side is the state bonus monies, which they do have the ability to roll forward into the next fiscal year. that was the request from the school board. They didn't have full guidance, not that we necessarily do or fully understand it yet from the state, but know that they can use those funds in the next fiscal year. So we have not asked you all to appropriate those dollars, but as part of your year end actions, you're rolling those state funds forward. And then we have asked once there is a

[01:51:47] a concrete plan that everyone, at least at the administration level, agrees on will bring that back for consideration either in July or August. So you will have that come back to you sooner than October, but just wanted to note that in terms of the school year end piece. And speaking of state budget, we have Casey and Natalie here to share what we have learned thus far in terms of the the state budget so thank you good afternoon last friday evening the joint conference report from

[01:52:23] the state budget was released and so on monday the general assembly took action approving the budget plan sent to the governor giving her seven days to react and so we've been told that next monday expecting that the general assembly body will come back together to take final action hopefully there has been some public comments share that there will be at least anticipation for technical amendments what else Beyond that, we don't really know at this point.

[01:52:49] So this afternoon, as Mr. Harris mentioned, Casey and I are going to walk through some of the updates. So I'll turn it over to her. Good afternoon. I'm going to jump right in with the K-12 education amendments. These are our new totals for what Chester Hill will be receiving.

[01:53:05] So this is an update to what has already been appropriated, just some slight tweaks in some of these, starting with $24.4 million for re-benchmarking and technical updates. This is a re-benchmarking year, just under $4 million for the special education add-on and just over half a million for school breakfast reimbursement and the at-risk add-on each.

[01:53:27] There's also $14.3 million included for the 4% salary increases that are included in the state budget at this point. I'll just mention that the county budget that has been adopted is already over and above that 4% at the 5% salary increase level. Can we just talk about that for just a second?

[01:53:45] So, when the state says they're doing a 4% teachers pay increase, what that actually means is that the state is going to do 2% if the county does 2%. But because we have so many teachers that the state says we don't need in the classroom, out of that 4% that they're going to take credit for, they're only going to give us money for about 1.6% of that.

[01:54:08] Now, we're happy to get that because we were going to do those raises for our teachers anyways. But, and I'm not looking at 1.6 and saying, no, thank you. I'm saying thank you. But I just want to make it clear that that 4% is actually only 1.6% and the county has to fund the rest of it.

[01:54:26] And I think we will, we need to go through all those lines there, but we will bring, you're right, but we will bring back the math on this. When the bonus topic comes back, we'll figure out what, I think it's good news in the sense that we weren't expecting it to be 4%, even though it's not, you know, like you pointed out, the entirety of the 4%.

[01:54:48] So we'll figure out what that delta is. We'll bring that back, couple it with the bonus topic. And so you'll have a school appropriation work session, likely in July, but it could be in August, yeah. And then a topic that's been of interest to all of us, the 1% sales tax for schools construction.

[01:55:05] Currently, the language that was sent to the governor does include debt service, but it is only for future projects or maintenance-type projects. and I'll also just add that the language that was sent to the governor includes 105 days between when the election is ordered and when the election date is so that makes timing tricky for this November there's also funding to support the joint subcommittee on the elementary and secondary education funding that would look at the jlark recommendations that we're also fond of there's also a three and a half percent salary increase for everybody else so teachers get for everybody, state employees and state supported locals are receiving three and a half percent.

[01:55:45] And Mr. Engel, to your point, this one is equally as wacky. We're working with VACO and our other state reps to try to understand everything from the fact that our merit kicks in mid-year, is the three and a half percent on the state salary. We pay supplements here just like we do on the school side so you know how do we get credit for that how do we get credit for the the six-month delay in implementation so there's a lot of open questions we have posed to Baco and other state folks so we hope to be able to bring those back to you at the same time as the the

[01:56:22] school topics come back but certainly the three and a half percent on the face of it is is equally the same challenge that you were pointing out on the school side it's not three and a half percent that just automatically flows through to those positions. I'll just run through the next few ones.

[01:56:40] So there's also additional funding for the two judges that were approved, the General District and Juvenile and Domestic Relations Judges in the 12th District. There's funding for additional public defender support staff. It reclassifies the Commonwealth Attorney Paralegal positions to a higher salary level. And there's also a $1,000 bonus included for each employee at the Bon Air Juvenile Correctional Center.

[01:57:00] This is to address some of the staffing issues that have contributed to the challenges they've been experiencing at that facility. Just a second. And then let's kind of continue to have that conversation when Mr. Engel was saying there's funding for additional general district and juvenile domestic relations judges for the 12th district, correct?

[01:57:19] However, is there any funding associated with that to build a courthouse or to expand a courthouse or do anything that we would need to do to support them? I know the answer to the question. You already are shaking your head. No, sir. Right? There's none of that money that's going to be there.

[01:57:34] We can get an additional judge, but at the same time, we need to figure out where we're going to put them. No money for additional sheriff's debt. Right, or staff, that's right. Or clerks, or Dr. Casey. Dr. Miller, we don't even get funding for a desk for the judge. Right, there you go.

[01:57:50] So it comes with an unfunded mandate, is what it comes to. And unfortunately, that's a big part of this budget, is that it's almost aspirational, as long as we all can figure out how to make the numbers work. Yeah.

[01:58:08] Oh, that's fine. And then just a couple of items that are not on the slide. So SNAP amendments that are included with the conference budget, there's $135 million in the second year. That is the potential state match that would be required if the statewide payment error rate is not below 6%.

[01:58:26] There's also just over $100 million over the biennium to increase the new state share of the SNAP administrative costs, as well as a quality assurance team dedicated to reducing that payment error rate. So they're hoping to get that $135 million would not be necessary. And then I'll also just add the Department of Tax will convene a workgroup looking at the cost and local impact of the mandatory property tax exemptions for disabled veterans and their spouses.

[01:58:51] This group will include local government representatives, and it will collect cost data, outline the changes to the exemption and their effects, and provide recommendations to the General Assembly. just one other item that you didn't mention the 10.6 million for shoesmith we're getting there okay you can go ahead you're welcome to talk about it to natalie yeah i'll wait until you present um just so mentioning on the other side of the slide here uh they went with the house recommended my recommendation for the 10.6 on shoesmith um helping to resolve what this next year can accomplish in uh closing the landfill fully and then continuing to provide the hauling

[01:59:31] of the leachate off-site while they work on a more comprehensive evaluation. Also included is language for DEQ to evaluate the regulations that are in place today for Virginia's solid waste treatment program and how that's administered and the oversight that goes along with that.

[01:59:47] There's also significant funding for DEQ to enhance environmental monitoring across the Commonwealth. And so DEQ is not 100% sure what that means, and so we're still figuring that out, but there is potentially some additional funds in that respect, too. Mr. Engel, is there another question?

[02:00:02] I just wanted to say $10.6 million is not going to close the dump. It's not going to get us out of, it's not going to get the pretreatment system back up and running. But the $10.6 million in conjunction with the remainder of the bond that's out there is enough if people have seen that that shows a gap that it couldn't last a year.

[02:00:26] DEQ does believe with the funding that they still have from the bond and with the $10.6 million that that gets them at least through taking care of all the issues at Shoesmith through June 30th of next year. And I think it's important for our citizens to understand that. Please, those that are out there advocating for more money to come in on this issue as the state was the regulatory agency over this, had full authority over this, and denied us any ability to come in and do something with it. And as much as I'm thankful that I know that we have something that's going

[02:01:06] to fund us through June 30th next year, for those that are out there asking the state to put more in to this, it does not make sense to spend $4.6 million a year to haul leche that if they built a $26 to $27 million pretreatment plant, they could cut that down significantly and have that money go into the pretreatment plant instead of into Holling Lake Chase.

[02:01:34] I do thank those citizens that are advocating on behalf of Chesterfield County for more funding in this area, especially if we can get the funding for the pretreatment and get that back up and running. That would be...

[02:01:49] I just thank the citizens that are trying to help us with that and hope that the state will continue to look at it and to get that pretreatment system running as soon as possible. So do you know if that's going to cover the costs of capping the site?

[02:02:09] Yes? Okay. Because I know that's part of the problem, that the rain is making it worse. It's supposed to cover all the leche to cap the landfill and to do the engineering for the pretreatment plant. Right, and the engineering part is actually pretty important because right now it's impossible to assess exactly what that facility ought to look like.

[02:02:29] So having the money put forward to engineer that is going to be really vitally important, and then we'll have to pay for that. I just want to look. We believe the state will have to pay for it, not we. No, not we. Okay. Correct. Then just quickly, $20 million, up to $20 million, has been identified for Richmond's water infrastructure, water treatment plant improvements.

[02:02:52] There's also language in there that clarifies the stakeholders, including Chesterfield. So we are named to be at the table and be part of those meetings and helping for oversight and accountability. $60 million has been identified for statewide housing initiatives. That includes $40 million for the Housing Trust Fund and then another $20 million for this pilot program for mixed-income housing.

[02:03:14] $188.9 million has been deposited into the WQIF. $43.5 million has been allocated to support Stormwater Local Assistance Program funding. On the cannabis front, the budget establishes a regulated adult-use cannabis retail market, and so that sets the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority as the regulator.

[02:03:35] Recreational sales would begin July 1 of next year, and they've identified 350 licenses that would be deployed on a phased approach. There's language in there that would allow for a local option to levy additional sales tax, somewhere between 1% to 3.5%.

[02:03:53] And then there's also language in there that localities cannot prohibit the market outright, but they would be able to retain local zoning authority. And so that's still a lot left to be determined on how all of this would eventually materialize. And then for data centers, just want to mention that the compromise language that came out of the joint conference report included a new energy consumption tax. And so that would generate $600 million for the general fund at the state. Those revenues, anything collected in excess of that would be rebated back to the rate payers. And so then that conference report also directs a

[02:04:29] joint subcommittee on tax policy to study data centers. And that report's due back by the end of the year looking at the state's tax exemption and the tax policy as it relates to data centers as a whole. There's also language in there that requires DEQ to review the regulations that are in place and also potentially creating new regulations and policy related to noise and water usage in regard to data centers. So there's still time left. The governor's got this in front of her. I will also mention that 20 years ago, Governor Kaine signed the budget on June 30th,

[02:05:06] so, you know, running into this timeline, it's not unprecedented. It's a little late. We hope that we will have something before the last day of this month, but with that, I'm happy to take any questions. That's how close we have gotten. We have actually, the state's never crossed that line, so we have no really experience on what might happen if the budget is not adopted by the deadline. So we'll be dealing with that if we have to deal with that. But we're very hopeful that they will get this budget approved before the constitutional deadline.

[02:05:41] Mr. Chair. Two things, Mr. Chair. One, just for people who may be watching and not know that the things that get put into budget language like this become part of this House bill. This House bill is enacted for two years, right? So it means that anything, for instance, the cannabis retail market, which had its standalone bill this year that got vetoed, would have to come back up as another bill in the future in order to make it permanent law, correct?

[02:06:13] I'll ask Mr. Minks that. I know the answer is yes. There may be details that have to come back, but the structure will be in place. I think so, too. The structure will be in place by this action, if it stands.

[02:06:30] To go back to what you said just a minute ago about June 30th when Governor Kaine was governor. It was also that General Assembly and Governor Cain that actually gave the data centers the tax breaks that they were just complaining about in the General Assembly. If you go back and look, just as an FYI, it was that governor who gave the tax abatements to the data centers.

[02:06:56] Just to be clear, though, we do hope and we do believe that the state will get a budget before July 1st. But if the state doesn't, we're not sure what the state services will do, But Chesterfield County will not shut down on July 1st, even if the state does.

[02:07:13] And I want to make sure that that's very clear to our citizens that we may see state services stop, but we will not see county services stop on July 1st if that happens. Just a quick question with regard to that 1% sales tax.

[02:07:30] I'm hearing two narratives on that. One is that it's not possible by doing what it says up there, November 2026. And then I'm also hearing it is possible. I'm curious to know, are we clear that it's not possible or is it one of those things where if we were to really, I don't know if we use the word fast track, but if we're able to do it, is it possible?

[02:07:55] That's my question. I will add that we have had conversations with VACO, VML, our attorney's offices already in regard to the timing that's been decided based on the dates that are in the budget for the 105 spacing period. Like that timing period is not in alignment with what otherwise would be the normal timing of 81 days.

[02:08:17] And so if we're evaluating it based on 105 days, the timing does not provide for enough days to meet the statutory requirements. We can generally fast track about anything through the electoral process, but that gap is basically making it impossible as of this moment.

[02:08:37] As long as that waiting period is in there, then I don't think it's possible. Okay. Dr. Casey. And again, my only two cents is you can hold referendums at any point in time, possibly during a year, but it's always just wise to not do it off a major election cycle, such as November, because it lends itself to very low voter turnout and scrutiny that you're trying to do something faster without public participation.

[02:09:04] but you don't have to wait until November 2027 legally. It's just that there's lots of things to think through if you were to have a referendum off a November cycle. Got it. Thank you. Any other comments from the board?

[02:09:21] No. All right. Thank you all. Any other additional? Yes, sir. Last quick topic. So Sawmill Station, CDA, we talked about that last month. So just one note on here. So this is actually a two-part approval process. You will have your public hearing tonight, And that is to just take comment on the petition that has been submitted to you all by the landowners.

[02:09:43] Assuming that that goes smoothly, you also have on your consent agenda tonight request for a second public hearing in July to actually deal with the ordinance component to it. So we've worked closely with Jeff and his team and CDA council, and we believe this is the most prudent path forward.

[02:09:59] So nothing appreciably changes in terms of the project, the timeline, the goals, anything like that. but we have just separated it into these two pieces to make sure that we are covering all our bases from a disclosure perspective. And then lastly, two more quick things.

[02:10:17] You do have just a preview of coming attractions like we try to do. You approve both of these items as part of your 27 budget. So you will have a public hearing sequence, a set hold in July and August for BPOL and tax relief for the elderly, those program modifications that you have already approved.

[02:10:33] But again, similar to the CDA, this deals with the ordinance component of those two programs. And then on a bit of good news, Mr. Durkin, Ms. Wilson, and their respective teams were recently notified that they have received the GFOA Triple Crown Award.

[02:10:50] Again, for the fifth consecutive year, it's really excellent, not only in the budget report or the ACFER, but also the popular ACFER as well. So it's a very prestigious report, only 400 governments. This is all U.S., all of Canada.

[02:11:06] It's not just counties. This gets down into smaller townships and other things. So there are tens of thousands of eligible units for this award across two countries, and only about 400 reached this level of excellence in terms of reporting. So just wanted to pass that along to you as well.

[02:11:23] With that, we are happy to take any questions you might have. Any questions from the board? I don't see any. Thank you. 26th, General Assembly legislation. Mr. Minks. Mr. Chairman, members of the board, we are running a little short on time here, so I'm going to go through this quickly, but stop me if it is too quick. Every year we go through all the legislation. This was a particularly busy year. This package that you have is probably as detailed and as long as anyone that any board has ever seen.

[02:12:02] And I have to give credit to Natalie and Casey for this list not being even longer than it is because they were very successful in the General Assembly in carrying out the policies of this board on certain legislation that you might otherwise have had to deal with.

[02:12:23] There are two mandatory changes which will be coming back to you. They have to go to the Planning Commission first before they come to you and one has to do with manufactured housing and the other one has to do with what are called temporary wireless facilities and those are facilities that are of a smaller size actually not embedded in the ground but on wheels and they are used in emergency type situations or for certain coverage situations. There are eight categories of optional changes

[02:12:59] for you to look at, one has to do with solar canopies, one has to do with EV-capable parking spaces requiring those as part of site plan or subdivision review, there is a possible establishment of either local or regional suicide fatality review teams, and that would be something to be studied by the mental health support services staff to report back to the board. There's the item of just the discontinuation of the penny and the trouble that that has

[02:13:38] caused the treasurer and they passed the bill this time which we have been asking them to pass and it's going to be slowed down a little bit because the department of taxation has to evaluate the options and make recommendations on that but as soon as they do that we'll have an ordinance back to you for the benefit of the Treasurer.

[02:13:58] There has to do with generators of large quantities of organic waste, various industrial and even governmental users that generate a lot of organic waste and how to separate that waste from the other waste and deal with that separately.

[02:14:15] And we're asking for a recommendation to come back to the Board later in the year. One of these items is actually a conglomerate of all of the affordable housing bills that were passed. This is eight separate bills with a variety of different new authority that has been granted to localities and to EDAs.

[02:14:43] It is really a fascinating mix of legislation, but needs to be, I think, studied as a whole. And so we're asking that that go to planning, budget management, and utilities because they're all in play on what we might do under this particular program.

[02:14:59] So for all of those, we are recommending either some delay to study and get back to the board or on the penny bill that it come back as soon as we've heard from the General Assembly. So those are our recommendations on that. There is some legislation also of interest to the county.

[02:15:17] There were four items that I sent you previously. Two of those I'll go ahead and discuss right now. One has to do with the Freedom of Information Act, and that is actually saying that the board cannot take final action on a matter if that matter is placed on the agenda after the meeting has begun.

[02:15:39] If it's not part of the agenda that has already been adopted, you cannot raise it at the public meeting an item that you would take final action on. Actually, not a bad bill at all and was a recommendation of the FOIA advisory council.

[02:15:55] And the other has to do with underground electric transmission lines. And this is the new program that the State Corporation Commission pilot program that they are starting to approve up to four applications on lines that may be underground.

[02:16:12] And those are for lines where applications have been filed between 2025 and 2033, either wholly or partially underground. So this is one that we're just tracking, and we will be tracking. There are some other components in there, and one of them is if it's approved in a locality, the locality has to cover at least 50% of the marginal cost of going underground.

[02:16:38] So that's a large investment by a locality. But anyway, those two were of interest, and so we're recommending that the recommendations that we sent to you in this particular item, that we go ahead and carry those out. And if we don't hear otherwise from the board, then that would be our intention to go forward, and we'll be reporting back.

[02:16:59] Thank you. E, consent agenda highlights. Mr. Smith. I just wanted to point out a couple of capital projects on your consent agenda tonight. So there are two, really.

[02:17:16] So there are two roundabout projects, one at Salem Church and Kingsland. It's about a $9 million total project, and then one at Chester Road and Hamlet Creek Parkway, which also includes some improvements along Old Lane. Certainly both very important safety projects. That one will total about $13 million. Kudos to Ms. Walker and her team.

[02:17:33] They're bringing in about $5 million in state funding. The rest of it we will fund through county funds. So just on your agenda is a request to move forward with those two projects. And then one to award a nice sidewalk project in the Midlothian District out there near Spring Rock Green.

[02:17:49] So that one totals just under $5 million to provide some much-needed pedestrian improvements. So kudos, again, to Ms. Walker and our team for putting all those together. Dr. Casey. F, other informational highlights.

[02:18:08] Dr. Casey. Well, actually, this award is self-explanatory because Marlee, if you could stand up, she got the Quiet Power Award. So she's been here for three hours, and she's earned that award from the National Association for Parks and Recreation Leadership Summit.

[02:18:27] So congratulations on doing that. They note it's for leadership, humility, and perseverance during a board meeting. I just put that last part in. The second one, and I'm skipping over a couple that we'll bring back in July for the sake of time, but for those that are here, James Worsley was recognized by the professional association I'm a part of to be on the Virginia Local Government Managers Association board, a board that I served on and became president.

[02:18:59] So it's a good peer-to-peer network. And the last but not least was handed to me that apparently the county administrator for the day, not the new one you just had an announcement for, but they opened up a program for employees to have one of their children come and spend time with the county.

[02:19:20] Yeah, and I think there's some recognition I need to do, if that's correct. Come on over here, Henry. This is not the interim county administrator for those at home, by the way. Although he can do the job. So I got him a little treat of a picture that he was at a topping-out ceremony where many of the board members were at and got to sign his name in big font.

[02:19:45] So it was a good day for him. And he's dressed for success. Apparently, he has also made something for me that he saw some board members maybe utilizing themselves, but you made something I'm aware of that you gave me.

[02:20:02] He created his own challenge coin. This has very good street value, by the way. Oh, wow. How did you make this?

[02:20:19] You don't know. Is it the Internet? Did you just download something? 3D printer. Congratulations, Henry. Thank you. You can apply for this job. That's all.

[02:20:39] Item six, reports. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Are there any questions regarding the reports from the board? Seeing no questions, the reports are approved. Item seven, 15-minute citizen comment period on unscheduled matters.

[02:20:56] 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.

[02:21:21] We have three speakers. If they will please speak in this order, Justin Goodman, Rachel Rosado, and Carolyn DeFlees. Mr. Goodman. I see the timers there.

[02:21:43] That's super convenient. It's not hidden like Hopewell had last night. My name's Justin Goodman, 15201 James River Drive. Thank you all so much. You know, the conversations that you kind of mentioned, I attempted to have way back before in November.

[02:22:01] So in October, my family and I were visiting Dinwiddie Sports Park, shares the transmission corridor that goes next to River City, and we were actually electrocuted by something called induced voltage. You won't find that on Dominion Literature. It's actually kind of hidden. well long story short a lot of investigations transmission line disclosure you will find it you will see it all the information on there y'all have been dodging me it's all good you guys have spent millions of dollars to open up a splash pad the guy said you know a lot of consultants and all that but who has declared that it is a safe location water transmission line induced voltage

[02:22:37] in 2018 an electrician was electrocuted 180 feet through the air by induced voltage that traveled from the transmission line to a metal object he touched it it's called induced voltage there's someone who actually went out to your sports facility stuck a probe in the ground touched his car he's getting 81 volts ac i would highly recommend you guys calling dominion asking what the hell is going on. Also, they're about to upgrade the transmission pole to a monopole.

[02:23:08] I asked a very, very technical question. I'm really surprised they answered it. This would have been in the town hall meeting in May. It's available at 29 minutes is the timestamp. They came back and she said, we got a brilliant question. And Sarah, you're brilliant, my sister Sarah. Sarah, go ahead and answer the question. My question was, if you put a 500 and a 235 on the same on the same poll is it going to make a 735 okay and the answer was no and she came back with a lie basically she said you know it's imagine two independent water lines it's not these things give off atmospheric things emf you're about to hear a lot of people with data

[02:23:47] center stuff and the whole thing is shut down the transmission infrastructure you need to inform the citizens about it you have no warnings that people can get shocked at this park and they do they're commenting online. I can't believe like you guys are ignoring it, but Dinwiddie's doing the same thing. Dinwiddie has just, but you know, it's all online. Shoesmith Dumb, let's talk about that. I am livid that there is a chance that there is a disaster that has taken place in 2026 that has the opportunity to pollute our waterways even further. What the hell is going on? How has that even happened? You're talking about taking $10 million, I think is what I just heard. That could

[02:24:26] go to so much other things. But unfortunately, people have turned a blind eye. Clearly, this issue with Shoesmith didn't develop overnight. And you have three top executives in the county that are just disappearing. One of them's at this table. It's really bad. If you get a salary of the salary that I've been told, 400 some thousand dollars, the mismanagement is absolutely atrocious.

[02:24:51] Mr. Goodman, you're three minutes in a row. I'll be back. Yep. No, I'll be back next week. You got a lot left. Thank you so much. God bless America. Transmission line disclosure. River City, people get shocked. Induced voltage. I would really ask Dominion, why is it that if you stick the voltage meter in the ground and touch a metal object, why is it that it reeks current?

[02:25:15] If you take a non-voltage, I'm leaving. If you take a non-voltage continuity tester and you're 300 feet away from the lines in

[02:25:22] then where it goes off all that. All right. Thank you, sir. Rachel Rosado, please. We're okay. God bless America. Oh, oh, cow sneaker. All you got to do is go buy one of these. And this is a tough pill that your constituents are going to have to swallow when they find out that y'all have been poisoning them. Perpetual lie ends. You guys have been ignoring me. Thank you. Thank you. Welcome. Hello. My name is Rachel Rosado. Forgive me. I'm not a public speaker, but I am a resident here.

[02:25:59] And I'd like to thank you for taking the time to hear my concerns about the data centers that are proposed in Chesterfield County. Today, I'd like to talk to you specifically about two things that are essential to every person, and that's water and air. Data centers threaten both of these. One data center alone can consume up to 5 million gallons of fresh water per day, or about 1.8 billion gallons per year for cooling purposes.

[02:26:26] The wastewater produced from these data centers often contain toxic chemicals, which may be released back into the environment, contaminating our water supply, and for some of these projects, specifically our wetlands, which we need to be protecting. The generators at these facilities create significant pollution.

[02:26:44] These emissions cause dangerous health risks for nearby residents. Researchers estimate data center-related air pollution could be linked to roughly 1,300 premature deaths nationwide each year by the year 2030. Like many others, my family and I moved to this area for the good schools and the beautiful natural settings from the magnificent pine trees to the deer that roam in our backyard. The only way I could describe it is breathtaking. This county is alive and is thriving and is breathtaking and it's why people move here. But now we are on the cusp of handing

[02:27:23] over our most precious natural resources to machines and corporations and the very resources we all need. At a time when they are already strained and droughts are becoming more extreme and more common, Virginia already hosts the most data center facilities in the United States.

[02:27:42] This is not sustainable, and this is not the future that I want for our children. Those who are pushing for these data centers and their rapid development tell us that we should support AI and human advancement, but I would argue that human advancement requires that our children be

[02:27:59] able to grow up in a clean and healthy environment in the first place. Thank you. Hello, everyone.

[02:28:24] My name is Caroline DeFelice, and I live at 2205 Millcrest Terrace in Midlothian. It's good to see some faces that I've worked with before and met before. So I'm going to try to make this brief, hopefully not take up all of the three minutes, but I'm here to speak about the data centers as well.

[02:28:47] I'm here to appeal to the idea that seven years ago, Midlothian was not built up. The parcel that was bought was a 900-acre parcel with roughly only one or two developments in place.

[02:29:07] Now, because of your actions, because of how much you care, you guys have been the boots on the ground. You have been the people who are building this whole city up, and I'm really happy to report that we have a better reputation and we have a better setup than a lot of people, even in Short Pump, which is a very affluential community.

[02:29:33] We are now taking the place of that, whereas myself and a lot of other more notable names other than myself, a lot of more business people are coming to Midlothian and opening up businesses and bringing contracts.

[02:29:52] I, myself, I'm working on bringing a $3 million contract to the area, which Chesterfield would be able to tax me on $1.8 million. And to have that as a way to give back, I know it doesn't really measure up to the $660 million that I'm sure the data center taxes are going to be putting in.

[02:30:19] But the question I wanted to ask today was, is there a way to reevaluate our city, seeing as how it has been built up, as how the data centers will, although they have a 300-mile, I think it's a buffer in between the data centers,

[02:30:42] Is there a way that we can find a happy medium where maybe they are pulling water from James River instead of the Swift Creek Reservoir, which is only forecast to have water to make the area sustainable for another 50 years?

[02:31:02] Is there a way that we can look to the future instead of looking at what was proposed seven years ago when a city has built up and become really great, really fabulous, a really great place to live?

[02:31:18] Is there a way that we can take what was decided by your predecessors and mold it so you can have what you can show your constituents something to be proud of? Your three minutes are up.

[02:31:34] Thank you. The answer to that is yes, by the way. There are a lot of land, a lot of lots that would pull from the James River. Thank you. Thank you. Item 8, closed session.

[02:31:52] 1, pursuant to Section 2.2-3711A3, Code of Virginia 1950 is amended to discuss the acquisition by the county of real estate for a public purpose or the disposition of publicly held real property where discussion in an open meeting would adversely affect the bargaining position and negotiating strategy of the public body, and two, pursuant to Section 2.2-3711A6, Code of Virginia 1950 is amended to discuss or consider the investment of public funds where competition or bargaining is involved,

[02:32:28] where if made public initially the financial interest of the governmental unit would be

[02:32:33] adversely affected and pursuant to section 2.2-37. Good evening and welcome to the evening session of

[02:33:20] the June 24th Board of Supervisors meeting. I have verified that all board members have received copies of the comments posted on the online comment portal for consideration on the matters before us tonight. These comments are part of a public record and will be attached to the meeting minutes. In addition for those members of the public here for the zoning portion of the meeting we have one deferral request. The applicant case 23 SN 0072 Midlothian Microtel has requested a

[02:33:55] deferral to the board's August 26th meeting. At this time I'm going to invite Ms. Schneider to give the invocation. Thank you Dr. Miller. As we open this meeting let us take a moment to reflect on the season we find ourselves in. June is a month that asks us to remember and to recommit.

[02:34:19] We are in the days surrounding Juneteenth, a date that marks the moment when the last enslaved Americans finally heard what had already been declared, that they were free. It is a reminder that the promise of liberty is only as real as it reaches, or as its reach, that freedom delayed is freedom denied. And then our work as public servants is to close the distance between what we say we value and what we actually deliver. June is also Pride Month, a time to honor the

[02:34:55] generations of LGBTQ plus Americans who fought and continue to fight simply to live openly, safely, and with dignity in the communities they call home. These two observances are not separate stories. They are the same story told by different voices across different generations of people demanding that this nation live up to its own ideals. As we take up the business of Chesterfield County today, may we be guided by that same spirit. May our decisions reflect the full breadth

[02:35:30] of the community we serve. May we lead not only with efficiency, but with equity. Not only with process, but with purpose. We are here because people trust us with their voices. Let us be worthy of that trust. I would also like to take a few minutes to maybe do a moment of silence for a couple folks that we have lost within the last month. Two of them were employees, Sarah Gregory

[02:36:07] and Jean Brown, the husband of Leslie Mehta, Mr. Teran Mehta, canine dog Knight, and please keep Officers Wells and Adams in your continued prayers for a full recovery as they get better and gain strength back from their harrowing experience in the line of duty. Just a moment

[02:36:45] no silence for them. Amen. Thank you. We would like to call forward Deputy County Administrator Matt Harris to lead the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag, the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I just want to say that, I'm sorry, it was at Officer Clark

[02:37:24] and Wells, not Adams. I apologize. Thank you. Item 12, County Administration Update. Dr. Casey. Good evening, members of the board, the public that's here, and the public that is watching. I just have one announcement to make, so if Steve Donahoe could approach the podium, as is our tradition with any appointment of a new director of a department, we'd like to introduce them before the board, which, you know, Steve knows you very well, but also introduce them to the public.

[02:37:51] Mr. Donahue has been here since 2021 as the assistant finance director and has led a great department in staff development, policy analysis, recommendations, and really just doing what it can to balance the needs and thoughts of the community to planning commission processes up through the board level.

[02:38:09] Mr. Donahue. Well, I want to say thank you, Mr. Chair, members of the board, and Dr. Casey for the intro. I just wanted to express my deep gratitude to the board for this promotion and putting your trust in me as the next director of planning. That's a pretty big thing and something I take very seriously.

[02:38:28] I want to give especially a thanks to Dr. Casey, to Jesse Smith, and to Annie Gillies for bringing me here five years ago to serve as assistant director in the planning department. That provided me the opportunity to get a real feel for what a special place Jessville County is in that time, both for its citizens and the dedicated staff that we have that serve them.

[02:38:50] As you know, the planning department is a department filled with professional staff that are a highly functioning group that stand ready to embrace the challenge of working with the board and developing and implementing the vision for the long-range land use vision for the county.

[02:39:07] With that, again, thank you for your confidence in this position. And, again, it's something I take very seriously, and I look forward to working very closely with each one of you. Thank you. Any comments from the board? Dr. Hilton. Andy, I'm probably, look, I say, Stephen, you know, I worked with you and Andy a lot on the planning commission.

[02:39:29] I'm just excited that you're on board. It's great to work with you and to get updates every other week from you. We had probably hour, sometimes hour and a half long conversations about all the cases that were going on. And so just excited that you're here as our planning director.

[02:39:46] So thank you so much. Thank you, Dr. Hilton. Any other comments? Ms. Schneider. Congratulations. It's good to have someone that already has the knowledge and experience here and can have a seamless transition. So, good luck in taking over.

[02:40:06] Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you so much. Mr. Carroll. Yeah, congratulations. We know you do a great job. You should always ask what you wish for. You know that, as I've said before, that probably one of the things that bothers the community the most is planning cases whether it's a development being proposed or a cell tower or anything else and so we know that you will continue to do the best you can to work with your staff to provide the best information possible both to the community and to the board so we can make the

[02:40:43] best decisions we can for the community so thank you very much for for stepping up thank you sir take care of your health we can't afford to have anybody um have some something come to them The only thing I'm going to add is that I know when I was running for office, a couple folks said to me, if you have questions about planning, go to Steve.

[02:41:09] And so it's really nice to have you. Congratulations for this position. Steve, well, it's well-deserved. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Miller. Thank you very much. Item 13, board member reports.

[02:41:27] Mr. Engel. Thank you, Mr. Chair. My board colleagues and I recently had the opportunity to break ground for the new fire Station 1 in Chester. Although Chesterfield's first organized volunteer fire department was actually established in 1928, the story for Fire Station 1 truly begins in 1942 when the Chester residents founded an initiative that would leave a significant impact on the community. Once completed, this state-of-the-art facility will replace the 64-year-old station located just a

[02:42:04] half a mile down Route 10. The new building will provide space for more firefighters and equipment serving as a base for engine 201 medic 201 brush 201 battalion chief 202 and the mobile command center and we look forward to a future facility that will house a off-road type ambulance for the fall line trail that will come through right behind it so this station is going to serve the community extremely well and we're looking very much forward to the day that we can cut the ribbon

[02:42:42] on that. We honored this year's inductees for the Volunteer Walk. The Volunteer Walk of Fame is dedicated to the recognition program located outside the county government complex featuring engraved bricks to honor long-serving volunteers who provided at least 25 years or more of service as a volunteer. The program honors individuals who've made a lasting impact through their service to others. While each honoree has followed a different path, and they have different areas

[02:43:22] for the bricks for each of the different volunteer areas, they share a common commitment and a willingness to give their time, talents, and energy to strengthen our community. And I would add that we are aware of at least one brick that was misprinted, and we're going to have that fixed.

[02:43:39] and that concludes my report. Ms. Schneider. Thank you. So I was honored to officially become a member of the Leadership Metro Richmond alumni community. LMR is a dedicated is dedicated to community leadership development and engagement with a mission to enhance our region by connecting and preparing diverse leaders for service. Each year LMR invites a variety of community and group, a variety group of community leaders, and participate in a flagship program, which is the

[02:44:18] Leadership Quest. It's a 10-month journey that combines formal leadership training, access to influential decision makers, and valuable networking opportunities, equipping participants with essential tools to foster lasting change in the greater Richmond area. For me, I knew a lot of the presenters, but I think this is a really valuable opportunity to network and learn how nonprofits and the business sector and government sector people can mesh together to create solutions

[02:44:53] to other problems. So it was a great experience, and I'm honored. I joined Congresswoman McClellan and other elected leaders to take part in the Moms Demand Action Wear Orange Day. Wearing Orange is a national initiative led by Moms Demand Action and every town for gun safety aimed at honoring survivors and raising awareness about gun violence.

[02:45:20] Celebrated each year on the first Friday of June is followed by the Wear Orange Weekend. The color orange was selected as its signature hue worn by hunters in the woods to prevent accidents and maintain visibility. in the context of gun violence prevention, wearing orange serves to make this critical issue visible and impossible to overlook.

[02:45:49] And this past Saturday, we celebrated with my branch of the Chesterfield NAACP at their Freedom Fund Gala. So all of the board members except for Mr. Engel were able to join.

[02:46:09] Dr. Casey was there. So the Freedom Fund Banquet, we give out education scholarships for some of our young students that are going off to college, as well as honoring people in the community that are doing good work and living the principles of the NAACP.

[02:46:34] And so it was a great weekend event. There was line dancing, of course, at the end, as we always do. So it was a great event, and thank you so much for everybody joining. That's all. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Schneider. Dr. Helton.

[02:46:53] Thank you, Mr. Chair. Ms. Schneider and I were delighted to take part in the Sheets ribbon cutting earlier this month. Sheets has a strong reputation as an outstanding family-owned company that values community service just as much as it values delivering great food and everyday convenience to residents across our county and honestly across, I would say across the state.

[02:47:19] It was a pleasure to welcome them to the Dell District and we thank them for choosing Chesterfield County. Another event we had was my board colleagues and I attended the ribbon cutting of the ACA of Virginia.

[02:47:37] It's a new 11,000 square foot medical facility that will operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, providing emergency care. So we're really glad to be there to cut the ribbing to welcome them to the Dell District.

[02:47:58] And finally, I was honored. Staff shocked me with this when they put this one in. But I'm grateful for the honor of being one of the 100 men of color for Virginia. And I can just say that it was honored to be around a lot of leaders from the state, A lot of influential change makers and to be recognized for the work that I do.

[02:48:25] So thank you all so much. It's a collaborative effort, everything that we do. So I appreciate them recognizing me. That concludes my report, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Dr. Hilton. Mr. Carroll. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[02:48:42] Several of my colleagues and I came together last Tuesday to celebrate the topping out ceremony for the new Chesterfield County's first new high school in 20 years. The Westridge High School, with an investment of $135 million, is currently being built in the Western Route 360 corridor.

[02:49:00] There will be a new road built to be named later. I think we call it right now the North-South Connector Road, and that will be at the intersection of Autodale and Duval. The topping-out ceremony signifies a major milestone in the construction process. With a total square footage of 340,000 square feet, the building is designed to accommodate roughly 2,400 students.

[02:49:22] It will alleviate overcrowding at the nearby Cosby High School and cater to future enrollment growth. Westridge High is set to open its doors in August 2027. And in the area of these schools, we've also, for those who don't know, put in a 400-acre conservation easement.

[02:49:41] Of that 700-acre campus that will have both the elementary, middle, and high, as well as a library in the future, it'll also have a 400-acre conservation easement around it. We removed roughly 9, well, exactly 911 houses from that zoning.

[02:49:58] Next. Google has unveiled a multimillion-dollar investment aimed at expanding Virginia's workforce. The announcement took place on June 11th alongside Governor Spanberger during a recent visit to the county. To address the demand for skilled workers, Google is committing $50 million to train electricians and other skilled tradespeople in Virginia and nationwide.

[02:50:19] Mr. Chair, that concludes my report. Thank you, Mr. Carroll. What you're looking at there is the Falling Creek Police Precinct Topping Out Ceremony. It really wasn't a ceremony from the perspective that you can kind of see the beams a little on the wet side in that we were really worried about hoisting a metal beam into the air with an electrical storm heading our direction.

[02:50:46] So we were being particularly careful in that moment. I will say that it's a two-story facility. It's spanning nearly 17,000 square feet. It's situated really close to the intersection of Midlothian and Chippenham Parkway. It's going to enhance the daily operations of the police department in one of the most heavily trafficked areas in the region.

[02:51:06] It's set to open in early 27. The building will feature a roll call room, recovery space, fitness area, conference rooms, general workspaces, and several offices. It marks the first of four permanent police stations to be established with funding approved by Chesterfield voters in the 2022 referendum.

[02:51:32] My fellow board members and I, we are privileged to participate in the Juneteenth Celebration Community Leaders Breakfast. I want to definitely comment on how great Mitch Schneider and Dominique Chatters look.

[02:51:48] They just look fantastic in that picture. The breakfast unites leaders from various sectors throughout Chesterfield, all of whom are dedicated to service, civic engagement, and providing opportunities for every resident. This leadership is our neighborhood's businesses, schools, faith communities, and organizations play a vital role in shaping the future of our county each day.

[02:52:09] This is the first walk ceremony. We celebrated the first of several planned pedestrian safety projects with a first walk ceremony at the intersection of Robius Road and Cranbeck Road and Mall Drive.

[02:52:25] I want to mention that this was an idea that came from someone in the community, and when we started looking at it, it's like, okay, this might be possible. Look, public safety remains one of my top priorities in the Midlothian District and, of course, for all of Chesterfield County. And improving this intersection reflects the county's commitment to ensuring residents can move through the area with greater confidence and independence and safety, while we're all enhancing access to nearby commercial destinations and supporting a more connected, walkable community.

[02:52:56] So we're working on this one, and then we're going to be walking, I guess walking and working, on down at Settlers Landing. So we're going to be doing that there, so people will be able to cross safely when they're crossing over to Huguenot Park, which with the kids over there, we need to put that in as soon as we possibly can, so we're working on that.

[02:53:14] This project grew again from concerns from constituents, and by listening and working together, we were able to move forward on this project. That same commitment is going to be for other intersections around the county. As I mentioned, definitely at Robius and Early Settlers Road.

[02:53:32] And then finally, this is just a little appetizer of what we do every day and every month in getting out into the community. That's what we do. If you want to learn more and see about what we do, please, I encourage everyone to go out to the board report webpage.

[02:53:51] I'm telling you that at one point this was going a lot longer. And someone in the community said, do we really need to do this for 45 minutes or an hour? And we were like, well, we just want to let everybody know what we're doing in the community. But to be honest, that individual was absolutely correct.

[02:54:08] And I always start from the place that when someone comes to us, are they right? And this is a way that we were able to hear, make you all familiar. So this code is out there. And please, when you get an opportunity, take a look at what we do.

[02:54:23] It is a lot. And we enjoy what we do. And folks, that concludes my report. Item 14, resolutions and special recognitions. A, Resolution Recognizing 2026, Senior Volunteer Hall of Fame Inductees, Ms. Graves.

[02:54:44] All right, I think we're going to be coming down that right.

[02:54:48] Here, Madam Clerk, testing, one, two.

[02:55:44] Madam Clerk, do you want to read the resolution? We're going to get started. Okay, that works. Okay. Good evening, Mr. Chairman, honorable members of the board, and Dr. Casey. My name is Kim Graves, and I serve as manager of Aging and Disability Resources and co-chair of the Chesterfield Council on Aging Senior Volunteer Hall of Fame with Rachel Ramirez, who is the Executive Director at the Lifelong Learning Center. Over the past month, we've had the privilege of celebrating Older Americans Month, a time to recognize the tremendous contributions

[02:56:19] of older adults in our community. Our seniors bring a lifetime of experience, wisdom, resilience, and service that enriches the lives of those around them every day. The annual Senior Volunteer Hall of Fame ceremony was held at Beulah Recreation Center. We received 12 nominations. The nominees volunteered over 137,000 hours of community service after the age of 60. It is my honor to present to you for your recognition the three individuals who were inducted in the 2026 Senior

[02:56:53] Volunteer Hall of Fame at the ceremony on June 4th. First, we have John Hilliard, Jr. of the Matowica District, has dedicated nearly 60 years of outstanding service to Chesterfield County through his leadership with the Forest View Volunteer Rescue Squad and numerous other boards and committees. His contributions span emergency medical services, county advisory groups, and civic organizations, including the Virginia Association of Volunteer Rescue Squads, the Chesterfield EMS Council, and the Bonaire Rotary Club, where he also served as president.

[02:57:31] a member of the senior volunteer hall of fame committee and recipient of the jc phillips leadership award john example exemplifies lifelong service and commitment to the community he was nominated by elizabeth vaughn of lucy core next we have david lip david was from the clover hill district has devoted his retirement to a wide range of volunteer service that strengthens safety education and community well-being in chesterfield county his contributions include work with Chesterfield Fire and Life Safety, Meals on Wheels, the Chesterfield Emergency

[02:58:09] Response Team, the Virginia Capitol Trail, sports backers, several animal rescue farms, and years of volunteer service at Gordon Elementary School, where he teaches bicycle skills and safety to fourth and fifth graders. Known for his reliability, generosity, and willingness to help wherever needed, David has given thousands of hours to improving the lives of others. His dedication continues to make a meaningful and lasting impact throughout the community. And he was nominated by Kimberly Rideout with Chesterfield Fire and EMS. And lastly, we have Edith Lumpkin.

[02:58:48] She also is from the Clover Hill District. She continues to serve Chesterfield County with remarkable dedication at 96 years old. A retired nurse, she has volunteered thousands of hours with chesterfield county police department since 2012 supporting training special events and community outreach she is also a lifelong supporter of chesterfield triad helping connect older adults with vital safety resources and education she is known for her kindness reliability and willingness to help wherever needed edith exemplifies a lifetime of service to others

[02:59:26] she was nominated by bernadette gilmore with chesterfield aging and disability resources and Rita Dunn-Mills. Thank you to the Senior Volunteer Hall of Fame Planning Committee and the selection panel for carefully reviewing each application. Please join me in recognizing the 2026 Senior Volunteer Hall of Fame winners. Now, Madam Clerk, could you read the resolution, please?

[03:00:03] Yes, sir. Whereas volunteering is a powerful force for the solution of human problems and the creative use of human resources is essential to a healthy, productive, and humane society, and whereas our nation's heritage is based on citizen involvement and citizen participation and volunteerism is of enormous benefit in building a better community and a better sense of one's own well-being and whereas the active involvement of citizens is needed today more than ever to combat growing human and social problems to renew our belief that these problems can be

[03:00:38] solved and to strengthen our sense of community and whereas volunteering offers all young and old the opportunity to participate in the life of their community and to link their talents and resources to address some of the major issues facing our counties, such as education, hunger, the needs of youths, and the needs of our elderly.

[03:01:01] And whereas agencies that benefit from volunteers should show their appreciation and recognition to the many volunteers who possess numerous skills and talents, which they generously and enthusiastically apply to a variety of community tasks and encourage others to participate in programs as volunteers.

[03:01:18] And whereas 12 adults in Chesterfield County, age 60 plus, have donated 137,000 hours of volunteer service since they have attained the age of 60 and were nominated for the Chesterfield Senior Volunteer Hall of Fame.

[03:01:35] Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors this 24th day of June 2026 publicly recognizes John Hilliard, Jr., David Lipp, and Edith Lumpkin, who were selected among the 12 and were inducted into the Chesterfield Senior Volunteer Hall of Fame on June 4, 2026, and expresses appreciation to these dedicated volunteers who contribute immeasurably to various programs throughout the area to strengthen our county and build bridges to the future.

[03:02:07] and be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be presented to John Hilliard, Jr., David Lipp, and Edith Lumpkin, and this resolution be permanently recorded among the papers of this Board of Supervisors of Chesterfield County, Virginia. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Can I get a motion to pass this resolution?

[03:02:24] And I had a second. Any discussion before we go ahead and take this phone? All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Resolution passes. Thank you.

[03:02:47] Well, thank you very much for the board. Thank you for the citizens of Chesterfield County. I'm honored to get this award. I've worked hard, but I would like to thank Lucy Corr that nominated me, Elizabeth and Mike, and also my wife, who spent a lot of nights at home when I was volunteering here and volunteering there in my family.

[03:03:08] But it's really been a pleasure to work here in Chesterfield County. It's a tremendous county. The people are great. The leaders are great. And working with them and volunteering has been what I've done for most of my life, And I'll keep doing it until, well, I can't do it anymore. But I really appreciate all the help I've gotten from everybody.

[03:03:26] Joe Casey's helped me over the years and the leadership here in being able to provide the service and volunteer in this county, this tremendous, awesome county. And look forward to the new administrator here. I can help you, too, if you need me. Thank you. And I'm always impressed by Chesterfield with a number of people that volunteer.

[03:03:53] It's sometimes that you get more volunteers than you need and people are standing around. But everybody has a good heart. And, you know, volunteering makes you feel better than the person that you're helping when you volunteer because you're, you know, having a positive impact on someone and you know they need it and they appreciate it.

[03:04:18] And any day without a random act of kindness or volunteer work is just not a good day. Does anyone from the board want to speak? Well, because I have two of them from Chester, from Clover Hill.

[03:04:39] I need to stand back. That's okay. No, you're okay. I just want to say thank you so much. I've always been a volunteer at heart and in the community. And it's, like you just said, it brings joy to yourself.

[03:04:58] It enhances your community. It inspires other people to do the same thing. And so thank you so much for all that you have done. And we'll probably continue to do, like you said, until you can't anymore. So thank you so much.

[03:05:14] I greatly appreciate it. Just so you know, we've actually done this once before, and we got to share our thank yous to them. But to you and to all the volunteers that have put in so many hours in this county to make it a better place for our citizens, once again, thank you.

[03:05:36] Thank you. Don't want to belabor the meeting, but just want to say thank you again. So, very inspiring. Thank you.

[03:05:54] A couple of things. One, I want to say thank you for all your hours and hours and hours and years, essentially, that you've dedicated to helping people in the community. I want to thank this board and Dr. Casey and staff. When we got elected years ago, we didn't have a Volunteer Walk of Fame.

[03:06:13] We had all these people who were dedicating all their time and expertise and heart and soul, and we didn't have a way to recognize them. And we put this together so we could recognize the excellent volunteer work that people were doing. And I thought it was, again, just another one of those innovative things.

[03:06:31] But it's very important to say thank you for what you do. And because, like you said, perhaps you'll be the inspiration to get someone else to come and volunteer as well. And the difference that one person can make, you can't measure that. So thank you very much.

[03:06:46] And I'm just going to add, the line comes to me, that's not what your county can do for you, what can you do for your county? And I think I heard 137,000 hours.

[03:07:02] If a typical work year is 2,000 hours, then it's 2,080. If you had a couple of weeks, take away vacation. Then it just shows what folks do and give back. And, you know, gratitude is attitude, and we are very grateful for all that you have done and continue to do for us.

[03:07:25] Thanks.

[03:07:34] Thank you. You're welcome. Good to see you. Thank you.

[03:07:51] I'll still get to calling you. Thank you. Thank you, man. Thank you very much. I'll be here in the room.

[03:08:12] Madam Clerk. Be remembering E. Merlin O'Neill, Sr., former Matulka District Supervisor. If we could get the O'Neill family to please join the board on the stage.

[03:09:11] Ladies and gentlemen, for those of you who may not know, this is Lynn O'Neill. And some of you may have heard his name mentioned about something called Southside Speedway. You may have heard about that. But what you probably don't know is that his father, many years ago, served not just as a Chester County police officer but also on the Chester County Board of Supervisors represented Matoka District for 10 years from 1972 to 1982 and we wanted to present you in memory of your dad and his service to

[03:09:44] the county county flag this picture that was taken the flag was flown at half staff on the day of his internment and this is for you and the family and also a letter from the entire board with our sincerely condolences for the loss of your dad but also in thanking for all of his wonderful years of service to the community and again you have our deepest condolences for that. Mr. Chair?

[03:10:15] I do but I don't think I want to go last so I'm just gonna pass around if it makes sense. Well Lynn and I have become kind of like brother and sister through the whole speedway process so um he he said you're the mean one i'm sorry i didn't anyway so i'm you you know i'm here for you and just want to honor your dad for his years of service as well over the

[03:10:53] last six and a half years i know that my family can attest to the amount of time it takes to serve on the board of supervisors and i know that it wasn't just your father but it was the family that served this county and we thank you for your father's service to this county and we thank you for your family supporting him during that time. I can attest that this is a at least a 60-hour week job and I can imagine back when you didn't have computers and probably email it may even

[03:11:28] been even harder to do the business of the county and try to take care of your family so I know it's big sacrifice for you all but we really honor your dad for his service to the county and we honor you all for what you did in his sacrifice so thank you so much well when I started in 2016 I haven't told you this story but your dad came by to see me and he sat down and I love getting historians perspective and in a board members perspective this historian plus and so that helped me

[03:12:05] probably just as much as anything getting acclimated to Chesterfield County and its people and its dirt and the Matoika district for which he believed in and you know it just he was a good person who wanted you know me to know about Chesterfield so how I can help out Chesterfield so I'll never forget those those sessions we had I think he came back the second time asking for something special but that's how people usually are but uh but I'll But I'll stick with the first conversation because that was a good one.

[03:12:35] And even what he was asking for was not much, and it's something that we were able to get for him. And one last thing I want to say. Look, it was a pleasure, actually, to get to meet your dad and sit down and talk with him and you about the county and get his historical perspective.

[03:12:56] And he was even there the day that you announced the big announcement that you guys were going to be trying to bring South Side Speedway back. And I know his last couple of weeks were tough for you and the family. So, again, my sincere condolences. On offer also, we had the opportunity to sit down and have a nice Italian dinner, or Italian lunch, and meeting your father and hanging out.

[03:13:21] Sometimes you have these lunches that you just wish would never end. And that's what it was, hanging out with him and with you that day. And I knew when we were sitting down that I was sitting down with a wisdom elder. I was sitting down with someone who was really been there, done that, seen it, and institutional knowledge, and to such a loss, and at the same time, knowing how much I could see it in your eyes when we were there, how much you loved him, and still love him, and so it was such an incredible opportunity when we were, when you suggested that I could sit down with you, David Merlin, I was, I just jumped all over, I was like, absolutely, this

[03:14:00] is going to be an honor so um thank you um for what you all did do um for um supporting the county as your father was doing uh i mean as has already been spoken to this is not just um what we do is just not a hobby it is something that it takes many many hours and a lot of things that happen behind the scenes that just you know and then the families have to then compromise and share and that's not easy to do and your willingness to do that and sharing him with us means a lot

[03:14:39] thank you yeah I just have a funny story a couple of funny stories when I was growing up so back then you had to have a it was long distance to call from 526 numbers to 748 numbers so we had two phones in my dad's office we had a 748 line which was nice because we could call friends that lived yeah but yeah and so we had a 748 number and we had a 526 number coming into the house

[03:15:15] so that's where I got my secretary skills because I used to come home from school and sit and answer both of those phones and write messages while you were out those pink pads we had a ton of those and then my other story is when I was young and and we would get mail I'd go out and get the mail and it would say to the honorable E. Merlin O'Neill senior and I would go in and say daddy

[03:15:42] why do they say you're horrible that's the mean sister right there um I want to thank all the board and I and I think all y'all know I've called about the racetrack stuff over the years or I would text and say, when you have a chance, call me.

[03:16:07] Because I know exactly what it took for my dad to do that stuff and get in the phone calls at 11, 12, 8, you know, midnight. And, you know, he took them because that's what he was there for. But I understood what it took to do it, you know.

[03:16:25] And I didn't want to bother all y'all like I bothered. Like, you know, it's not a bother, but it's the way it happens. And so I was very, you know, considerate of y'all to make sure to call me, you know, during the day when you got time. So, and I want to thank all of y'all for everything y'all have helped us with with Southside Speedway.

[03:16:44] It's definitely an institution of Chesterfield County, and I'm looking forward to having the first race. And we also have a cruise in on Friday from 5 to 8 p.m., and it's a little bit of everything. So I think everybody will enjoy it.

[03:16:59] We have food and ice cream and everything coming on. But anyway, just, you know, I want to thank y'all for honoring him. And he did put a lot of his life into this county. And me and Kevin have talked.

[03:17:14] And hopefully one day, maybe my name might be on that plaque down the road. So I'm going to try it at least once, maybe. But anyway, I appreciate everything y'all have done for us.

[03:17:45] Madam Clerk. See resolution recognizing Mrs. Ellis H. Britton. Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department upon her retirement.

[03:18:03] Will Mrs. Britton and her guests please join the board on the stage?

[03:18:33] Madam Clerk, you want to read the resolution, please? Yes, sir. Whereas Mrs. Ellis H. Britton retired from Chesterfield County Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department on June 1, 2026, and whereas Mrs. Britton has faithfully served the county for 30 years with Chesterfield Fire and EMS, and whereas Mrs. Britton has served as an audiovisual production specialist in the department's technical services unit, where she continually adapted to emerging technologies and innovation and contributed to the unit's operations and success,

[03:19:08] and whereas Mrs. Britton consistently demonstrated skills and dedication in providing audiovisual support for numerous departments at a wide range of events across Chesterfield County, including groundbreaking ceremonies, community events, school functions, award ceremonies, memorial tributes, and funerals, while demonstrating professionalism, adaptability, and compassion.

[03:19:33] And whereas Mrs. Britton's efforts have been recognized and appreciated by public safety agencies across Chesterfield County and throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia. And whereas Mrs. Britton's commitment to excellence earned her recognition and appreciation from leadership and personnel across several county departments, including county administration, fire and EMS, police, sheriff's office, buildings and grounds, and Chesterfield County Public Schools.

[03:19:59] And whereas Mrs. Britton was awarded an EMS Unit Citation Award for her collaboration and assistance during an extensive extrication of a patient involved in a head-on collision on May 14, 1999. And whereas Mrs. Britton was awarded Outstanding Civilian Employee of the Year for 2006 for her hard work and dedication to Chesterfield Fire and EMS.

[03:20:25] And whereas Mrs. Britton's reliability and support have left a lasting impact on Chesterfield Fire and EMS and the many departments and community members she served. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors publicly recognizes the contributions of Mrs. Ellis H. Britton, expresses the appreciation of all residents for her service to the county and extends their appreciation for her dedicated service and their congratulations upon her retirement.

[03:20:57] And be it further resolve that a copy of this resolution be presented to Mrs. Britton and that this resolution be permanently recorded among the papers of this Board of Supervisors of Chesterfield County, Virginia. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Can I go ahead and get a motion to pass resolution i hear and i hear a second all in favor now that goes ahead and passes well mr chairman members of the board dr casey it's my honor to present miss ellis britain who's retiring after 30 years of service to chesterfield fire and ems she was the face of our technical services

[03:21:31] unit for many many years she you know produced recorded and edited numerous multimedia presentations about our department and different types of training mediums for our firefighters. She also probably has a couple of pictures of me still floating around somewhere.

[03:21:50] When I first arrived here in 2008 and having come here, having been a city firefighter for 27 years, we didn't have many brush fires. And so I wound up on a brush fire one day and ended up sliding down in the mud and got covered in mud. And so when I came back to the Public Safety Training Center, I know that the pictures were being snapped.

[03:22:09] Oh, you don't act like you don't know where that was. Maybe that was Patsy. Anyway, she probably has those pictures that will show up at some point. That's right. But no kidding. We wish you the best in your retirement and certainly congratulate you on this next chapter of life.

[03:22:25] It's been great working with you over these years. Thank you. Well, it's my turn now, and I'll give this to Ms. Schneider to hold because you only have two arms. But on behalf of the county, your service, and for those in the public, What we're presenting to her is a commemorative brick with her name on it and years of service.

[03:22:45] The same brick is actually going to be placed in front of the historic courthouse steps. I encourage any and all people to just take a gander there one day. And we even have a QR code of all the people that have served Chesterfield County who've worked more than 25 years. And, you know, it's an honor to present this.

[03:23:02] And I know it takes up some time of the meeting, but it's just so purposeful to illustrate not just amongst ourselves, but to the people, the dedicated employees that we have. And everybody has a unique and great story. And I will say, you know, we see you constantly at any outdoor events. I know these indoor audio high-tech things, you're just like, that's easy stuff.

[03:23:22] Working and doing sound systems and rain, sleet, and snow, heavy winds, heat, and all these other things. And you're always so happy to see me when I show up. It's because I'm late and supposed to be speaking in 30 seconds. But other than that, you've just been a blessing to all of us and really enable the people to experience the glories that we accomplish in building infrastructure for our people.

[03:23:45] And I know there's a whole fireside to it. And I didn't recognize you undercover, by the way. Usually you're in a little bit more of a uniform. So congratulations to the undercover world that you're about to enter. Thank you. Just want to say thank you so much for you helped me record my first teleprompting message.

[03:24:06] And that was fun. That was my first time reading. And I was like, hey, slow it down just a little bit. And so, but no, it was great. You all have great equipment there. And I appreciate you showing me how to read through the teleprompter.

[03:24:22] And yeah, it was great. So thank you so much for what you're doing in retirement. Also, I know you'll probably be volunteering, maybe. So shameless plug to come back and volunteer. But no, you have a wealth of knowledge and great experience.

[03:24:39] hope to see you around so thank you so much as it was mentioned um you weren't just there for fire for the fire events you were there for every event it's like why is the fire department running the video and audio for this thing i don't know but you did a great job doing that and um i'll probably put in a shameless plug we'll see where it goes but um if there isn't a studio over there that deserves to have someone's name on it.

[03:25:10] I don't know where else a name should go. Put a plaque on the door. With your name on it? Oh, okay, okay, well, good. You need to make sure they don't take it off.

[03:25:31] Okay. Well, thank you so much for all that you do. It was always lovely talking with you at the events. You always had a smile on your face, and it didn't matter if those speakers were squealing or doing naughty things.

[03:25:47] You always found ways of fixing it, so thank you so much. It's great to have someone that is cool under pressure like that during those types of things, so thank you so much. I just want to say thank you for everything. A lot of people have to realize that 30 years, right?

[03:26:04] Technology has changed a lot in 30 years from what it was to what it is now, And even probably everybody in this audience has had to go through that same learning curve on technology. But the technology that you were dealing with was very specialized. And it changed. And you had to stay up with all of that.

[03:26:21] And you did an excellent job throughout your entire career. And every time having to learn something new as something new came out. And all of us have had to do that, whether it's with cell phones or iPads or computers, whatever it might be. But what you did was very unique.

[03:26:37] Once we teach someone how to pull a fire hose and work the nozzle, that hasn't changed since I was a fireman. I don't think it has. It's still an inch and three-quarter line with a nozzle on it. And you point at the fire and it goes out. That's how it works.

[03:26:54] But it's true. I even talked at the recruit class. They said they still pull the line the same way they did 40 years ago. But the technology that you had to keep track of kept getting better and better and better. And so thank you for doing all of that and continuing to do the best that you could in that job. i i'm going to echo what everyone else has said and just say congratulations for getting to this milestone looking forward to hearing what's next and thank you for the 30 years that that's not an afternoon that is a lifetime and uh so grateful on behalf of the county for all the work that

[03:27:27] you've done for us thank you you're very very welcome thank you all right joseph duty d resolution

[03:28:25] recognizing mr joseph duty assistant real property manager upon his retirement will mr duty and his guests please join us on the stage hey good to see you hi welcome welcome welcome all right madam clerk whereas mr joseph duty will retire from chesterfield county on june

[03:29:02] 1 2026 after providing more than 26 years of dedicated service to the residents of chesterfield county and whereas mr duty was hired by chesterfield county in august of 1999 as a right-of-way technician in the Department of Utilities, and whereas Mr.

[03:29:19] Doody was quickly promoted to engineer assistant, reviewing site plans as part of the county site plan team, and whereas Mr. Doody then was regraded to senior engineering assistant, continuing as part of the site plan team and reviewing county CIP projects, and whereas Mr. Doody was again promoted to assistant real property manager, and whereas Mr. Doody's strong work ethic and high standards have motivated his staff to strive for excellence while his open-door policy approach has earned the respect, trust, and admiration of those who work with him. And whereas Mr. Doody's approachable demeanor and

[03:29:59] exemplary customer service skills have ensured that countless members of the public received outstanding assistance, further enhancing the image and service of the county, and whereas Mr. Doody has always rendered invaluable service with a high degree of productiveness and professionalism and will be sorely missed by all who wish him the best.

[03:30:20] Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors this 24th day of June, 2026 publicly recognizes Mr. Joseph Doody and extends on behalf of its members and the residents of Chesterfield County appreciation for more than 26 years of exceptional service to the county.

[03:30:39] And be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be presented to Mr. Doody and that this resolution be permanently recorded among the papers of the Board of Supervisors of Chesterfield County, Virginia. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Can I get a motion to pass this resolution, please?

[03:30:54] I hear a motion. Can I get a second? I hear a second. All in favor? All right, that resolution. Pass anything, nays? I'll just say nays. Don't need to do that. It passes. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Miller. Joe, on behalf of a grateful utilities department in Grateful County, I want to say thank you for 26 dedicated years of service and for representing the Utilities Department so well as you served the county and its citizens with all manner of real property needs.

[03:31:26] Everything from making sure that easements were recorded in the right location as new development came through to satisfying oddities that came in through the county's doors about somebody that might have built something on a county easement or things that got confused along the way. Joe was always there as a resource to help address problems and solve problems for people.

[03:31:45] Joe's a great friend in the department I know on my first day when I showed up my office was two days two doors down from Joe and he is a dedicated Virginia Tech Hokie as his tie this evening would show you and his office was fully decked out in Virginia Tech gear and I knew that I had found my friend as I showed up as a recent Virginia Tech graduate so it's my pleasure and honor to be here to celebrate your success I wish you the best and a long and healthy happy retirement thank you um this is the brick that one of you could hold it thank you and again similar to I said before it's thanking any employee that's dedicated their life quite frankly for 25 plus years of service and for those

[03:32:23] that don't know we start every board meeting with something called everyday excellence where we recognize where that the people behind you know that get the things done and you know you are exactly that definition of that type of person because you've worked hard as Matt has mentioned for 26 straight years serving the people, hearing what they needed, and getting it done quietly, professionally, and accurately.

[03:32:47] And that's all we could ask as public servants is to try and do our best every day for the rules that we have to follow. And you did it exemplary. So I just want to commend you and your family here. Thank you. Well, I know you had a few different things that came your way that were a little challenging to figure out, but you always seem to find a way to do it. We really appreciate all the work that you've done to serve the citizens in Chesterfield County. And, you know, we vote yes

[03:33:22] to ratify your resolution. But if you notice, they don't ask us if it's okay for you to retire because you might get a different vote. So thank you for your service. Yeah, we got to stop losing all these, you know, 26. See, maybe we should move the brick thing up to 30 and maybe people would stay longer. Anyway, thank you for all that you've done for Chesterfield County. We greatly appreciate you just want to say thank you and echo everything my my colleagues have said

[03:33:58] you know you don't know certain things are going right into you know they don't go right and you're like who's in charge of that and so but thank you for doing everything that we needed done for the county and we really appreciate all your years of support and dedication and for doing it right for for so long thank you yeah thank you very much for hard work um and yet jessica actually it depends on what part of the county you work on it may be 30 years or maybe 25 years depending on what years of service are but certainly the minimum is 25 years to get recognized like this

[03:34:37] but thank you to you and your family i'm sure there were times where you were woken up in the middle of night with some kind of issue going on and and when you responded as necessary And there's a lot of things that happen behind the scenes that the community doesn't know about.

[03:34:54] So thank you very much for taking care of it. When it comes to utilities, people don't want to flush the toilet and not flush. They don't want to turn the water on and not turn on. So it's really important what all of our utilities department does. It's essential. So thank you very much. It's so easy to take it for granted, right, until you don't have it.

[03:35:13] It's one thing to watch someone who's out ice skating. It's another thing to actually be out on the ice. And what I've learned over and over again is that there are so many people in Chesterfield that know what it means to be out on the ice and to be able to do the work and to be able to do it seamlessly and make it look easy.

[03:35:33] And that's what you've done, and it's done with a bunch of dedication and a bunch of love for the community and just knowing how to do it. So on behalf of the board, thank you for everything that you've done. Deeply appreciate it. Thanks for the career.

[03:35:52] Enjoy it. You've earned it.

[03:36:10] All right, keep them out of trouble now. E-Resolution recognizing Mrs. Catherine Duke, Automation Coordinator, upon her retirement. Will Mrs. Duke and her guests please join the board on the stage?

[03:36:43] Yeah, you bet. Madam Clerk. Whereas Mrs. Catherine Duke will retire from Chesterfield County on May 1, 2026 after providing 35 years of dedicated service to the residents of Chesterfield County.

[03:37:02] And whereas Ms. Duke began her career in Chesterfield in 1991 as an emergency services dispatcher holding multiple positions within both the police and fire departments. And whereas Mrs. Duke was recognized numerous times by both the police and fire departments for innovative thinking, dedication, strong work ethic, process improvements, and positive attitude.

[03:37:24] And whereas Mrs. Duke began her tenure with the Department of Utilities in July of 2019 as an automation coordinator. And whereas Mrs. Duke proved to be invaluable during the COVID pandemic by helping to manage the deployment of laptops and remote kits to more than 150 staff, allowing a department that previously had no remote work policy to continue its daily operations and support the citizens of Chesterfield County.

[03:37:51] And whereas Mrs. Duke assisted with cybersecurity initiatives in support of the utilities department's customer information system and implemented new security roles in support of the Advanced Metering Infrastructure Project. And whereas Mrs. Duke successfully managed the utility's help desk support team, providing technical support to more than 330 staff members.

[03:38:15] And whereas Mrs. Duke provided significant contributions to utility's lead service line project, for which she was recognized by the department for her significant contributions. And whereas Mrs. Duke's extensive knowledge and experience have made her not only an indispensable resource within the utilities department, but also a valued mentor to staff and colleagues across departments.

[03:38:39] And whereas Mrs. Duke demonstrated unwavering loyalty and exceptional dedication throughout her career, consistently conducting herself with courtesy, professionalism, and grace. And whereas Mrs. Duke has always rendered invaluable service with a high degree of productiveness and professionalism, and will be sorely missed by all who wish her the best as she enjoys a well-deserved retirement that will be marked by more time spent with family, friends, and plenty of traveling. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors this 24th day of June 2026 publicly recognizes Mrs. Catherine Duke and extends on

[03:39:17] behalf of its members and the residents of Chesterfield County appreciation for 35 years of exceptional service to the county and be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be presented to Mrs. Duke and that this resolution be permanently recorded among the papers of the Board of Supervisors of Chesterfield County, Virginia. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Can I get a motion? Got a motion? I got a second. All in favor? Aye. And the motion passes. Thank you, Dr. Miller.

[03:39:47] Kat, I just want to say thank you again on behalf of a grateful department and grateful county for for all of your hard work and dedication. A 35 year career to Chesterfield County is remarkable, much of that with police and fire. We're so proud and lucky that we had you for the last seven years of your career helping us in utilities.

[03:40:04] People often don't think that water and electricity, water and electricity don't mix, but there's a lot of computer technology in what we do to provide reliable water and wastewater service to the residents of Chesterfield County. And Cat Duke is one of those people that was responsible for making sure all the ones and zeros got where they needed to go. She was remarkable when the COVID pandemic hit in deploying the technology that allowed us to stay up and running as we were pivoting to remote work. The fact that Chesapeakel County has a lead-free designation with the Virginia Department of Health and EPA for our service lines is in large part the contributions that CAT had towards

[03:40:40] that project in managing 140,000 customer accounts and being able to catalog and inventory all that data was a was a huge undertaking and she did a fantastic job so on behalf of grateful department I just want to say thank you again you're our you're our third of this with the brick and and I appreciate the audience's patience for this you realize that we actually have about another 10 to 15 people on our consent agenda that aren't going to go through this production necessarily their choice mostly but they've been celebrated elsewhere within departments

[03:41:16] or other manners but um you know the people have dedicated their life to chesterfield county not just dedicated their life to public service public service in chesterfield county i myself i'm never going to get a brick uh you know 10 years is is below the threshold but having said that um you know i remember your name mentioned a lot when covet came and that was a pivotal moment for chesterfield county because we were viewed as a leader we did all the things that people should do But that was a moment that I said, we're going to be the best at this.

[03:41:45] And you were an example of being such a teammate and really deploying your talents, fresh ideas. There was no book, no playbook about how to do it. We were writing the best practices for our nation. We just didn't realize that they were the best practices at the time. So I credit you for really giving people potable water 24-7 in an area.

[03:42:05] And again, the lead-free designation is something that we just quietly said we complied with what we should be doing. not going to speak for other localities but you can go to many places and they cannot say the same thing so it's people like you that have made a difference every day i think what spoke most to me about the resolution was that you did everything that you did with a positive attitude and when i leaned over to dr casey i was like that's something that we don't usually have in a resolution he was like it was written from the supervisor level and up but that speaks volumes to just that speaks

[03:42:42] volumes to you that you just don't do the job but you do it with a positive attitude and that that's really great so really admirable and I really appreciate everything that you've done. Wow 35 years we might have to up it to 40. No we got to have a limit somewhere but what you've done in multiple departments in this county to serve our citizens leaves us as a grateful community for all the work that you've done and especially the way that you did the work

[03:43:18] while you served our citizens so we thank you for that and I will reiterate something Mr. Carroll said earlier we do have a lot of people that are retiring recently and there's a lot of years of knowledge in the county that are leaving but the most remarkable thing about it is how many people have been here for their whole career and didn't go anywhere else and for that we truly are grateful thank you very much I would just like to add that I think it's remarkable that you your your skills translated to three different departments within the county

[03:43:57] and that's an awesome gift to have and I think as someone that gets bored sometimes with with jobs I think that's a great ability to be able to do and and and go to different places and learn and bring your knowledge to other departments so thank you so much for all that you've brought to the county well i mean i think out of all of us i've known you the longest i knew you when you worked and all those other jobs um i hope i mean 35 years a long time so i hope you have some great plans in retirement uh and i hope you really do enjoy yourself i know you've i know you've enjoyed

[03:44:33] yourself working here i know that part um but if you get bored like i think jessica dropped earlier we can always use volunteers oh i know the police department was sad to see you leave when you did they were over there but they knew they were getting something really special when you went over there and I'm glad you stayed with us to continue to help us and obviously that's where God wanted you because it was a critical position for you to be in and I think I'm not speaking out of turn when I say that a lot of people in this room are here because they are concerned with really great water and you have helped make all of that happen so thank you very much. Talking

[03:45:10] about water, my mom speaks to that she worked for a job that when she retired she worked for an oil company actually and when she was done she said it just felt like my whole career i had stuck my hand into some water shook it around for a little while and took it out and nothing had changed and i my heart went out to her for that kind of a career but that was also um you know it just it just really went out to me and but that's not what's happening with everyone that i've spoken with at chesterfield is it wasn't like that at all it was i feel like i was making a change

[03:45:48] I feel like I've been able to do something for the community and hearing that over and over again and with you also is that it just seemed like you were moving around and just seeing where can I make a difference and you did and that's what we're grateful for so thank you so very much. Thank you. With me here tonight is my husband Rodney and my son Ryan watching online my parents and my daughter and granddaughter. 35 years has been a career. I hope that I have left

[03:46:26] a foundation for the future, for all the departments that I touched. So thank you, and thanks for being a part of my story. There's one more.

[03:47:07] Oh, sorry. No, no, that's not yet. Not yet. F, presentation of Shadowbox to Joseph P. Casey, PhD from the Police Department.

[03:47:30] And I believe we also have Sheriff Leonard and Chief Center joining. And will Dr. Casey's guest please join him on the stage?

[03:47:49] And presenting the, sorry, Lieutenant Colonel Louth is presenting the shadow box. Chair, members of the board, Dr. Casey, Ms. Casey.

[03:48:13] I want to start tonight by letting you know that Colonel Carpenter sends his regards. He was not able to be here tonight. I know he really, really wanted to be here to celebrate tonight with you, but just wasn't able to be here. But in speaking for Colonel Carpenter, I did want to take the opportunity to thank you for your leadership, your support, your advocacy.

[03:48:32] of all of public safety not just the police department but I want you to know that everyone at the police department or sworn staff or professional staff or volunteers all wish you the very best in retirement. I've known you for a long time and I've heard you speak in lots of different forums, public forums, oftentimes the graduations, promotional ceremonies and I've always been touched when I heard you talk about your grandfather, the special relationship that you had with your grandfather and the fact that you actually have his shield as a remembrance of his service. So the sentimental mention of that has always made you feel like family to us and

[03:49:09] pretty much what we do with all of our family members when they retire from the police department we present them with a shadow box to memorialize their contribution to the police department and a little bit about their career. A lot of times you'll see patches, badges, different awards, achievements, those type of things that are presented in the shadow box but what we have for is a shadow box that represents both patches that we have worn during your course of being the county administrator here, the old patch, as well as the new patch that we're transitioning to that I'm wearing right this very second. Again, the other thing I wanted to mention that I would

[03:49:45] be remiss if I did not, I wanted to thank your wife and all of your family. The sacrifice that you made to allow him to do this job to the best of his ability does not go unnoticed or unappreciated by any of us. I'm sure there were a lot of nights when he was not home carrying on business for the county you've had dinner by yourself or taking care of children um thank you thank you so much so congratulations on your retirement sir wish you all the very best god

[03:50:10] speed good health um joe is getting a he shed instead of a she shed i probably should apologize to his wife for all the stuff he's taking home with him tonight because when you retire you give up your office with your four walls you put things on and we're giving you stuff to put on walls you

[03:50:44] don't have anymore so you know Mike said it all you're a great supporter of public safety you and I have shared many stories of your grandfather was a New York City police officer and I know your heart and your passion lies with public safety so on behalf of all the men and women at the Chesville Sheriff's Office we wanted to present you with this shadow box but I have a second presentation if you want to set that one aside you know it's it's it's not often that county administrators go to jail through the front door

[03:51:23] and Dr. Casey has invested himself with our inmates our heart program from day one and he's been a constant visitor to go up there to talk to the men and women he supported them with flower shows they've had movie viewings we brought the bells in one Christmas I believe you were there with the bells. We appreciate that. But he really invested himself with the folks in our heart program, even went to a funeral for one who passed away after he got released from jail. And I don't think there's another county administrator who does that anywhere. So the men and women wanted

[03:52:02] you to have something from them as well. And they said you mentioned during the flower show that you wanted one of those prints so so this is uh we do a lot of uh therapy through art floral arrangements uh we actually uh had them put together a number of floral arrangements a photographer came in took photographs of them it was on display in the museum downtown and it's

[03:52:39] going back on display again this summer by the way uh and they wanted you to have that here's a picture of them making the floor arrangements and they also wrote you a personal card thanking you your support for them so first I'm going to start by apologizing to you Suzanne for adding yet one

[03:53:18] more thing to your walls I think I think by the by the end of this week your house might just look like a Cracker Barrel I don't not sure about that but so Dr. Casey I'd like to present this to you this traditional firefighter shadow box in recognition and appreciation for your unwavering support to the men and women of Chesterfield Fire and EMS.

[03:53:41] We could no way have accomplished the things that we've accomplished over the last 10 years without your support and your guidance and your leadership. And so we really appreciate that. And for the public's reference, a couple of things that are on here of interest. So on the left side here, we have our patch, our uniform patch. This particular patch has been in service for about 25 years and profiles all of the services that we provide to community.

[03:54:02] On the other side, we have the front piece from a fire helmet. This was made by one of our firefighters, especially for you. And then at the bottom, we have the name tag that hangs on the back of the firefighter's coat. And then in the middle, we have our challenge coins.

[03:54:19] And given your role as the director of emergency management here, this would not be complete without the emergency management challenge coins here. And I believe that we have checked the box on just about every sort of natural disaster that we can possibly think of over the last 10 years.

[03:54:37] But it's been a pleasure working with you. We're going to miss you. We've enjoyed your leadership. And we wish you and Suzanne and your family the best in retirement. Well-deserved. Thank you.

[03:54:58] And with that, Madam Clerk. Whereas Joseph P. Joe Casey, Ph.D., a deeply respected public administrator who has served with an unwavering commitment to high performance in local government and continuous enhancement to quality of life, will retire July 1, 2026, after a decade of service to Chesterfield County.

[03:55:34] And whereas Dr. Casey earned a bachelor's degree in accounting from the University of Richmond and worked briefly as an accountant with KPMG before embarking on his career in local government as a deputy county administrator with Hanover County. And whereas Dr. Casey earned a master's degree in public finance and a doctoral degree in public policy from Virginia Commonwealth University and served for three years as deputy county manager of Henrico County before he was appointed county administrator of Chesterfield County in July 2016.

[03:56:07] And whereas as Chesterfield County Administrator, Dr. Casey oversaw staff of more than 4,000 full-time employees and a budget of $2.4 billion. And whereas during Dr. Casey's tenure, Chesterfield experienced unprecedented economic development that generated $12 billion in capital investment and the creation of 10,200 jobs, attracting such well-known companies as Lego and Google, as well as Commonwealth Fusion Systems' first-of-its-kind grid-scale nuclear fusion power plant.

[03:56:41] And whereas under Dr. Casey's leadership, Chesterfield bolstered its exceptional financial standing, becoming Virginia's first locality to attain the coveted AAA bond rating from four top rating agencies, also known as Quad AAA.

[03:56:57] And whereas Dr. Casey made unprecedented progress in improving Virginia's second largest road network, most notably providing local funding for phase one of the Poway Parkway extension, a project that has been on Chesterfield's thoroughfare plan since the 1980s, with hundreds of millions of dollars of additional infrastructure improvements in the construction pipeline.

[03:57:20] And whereas over the past decade, Chesterfield has allocated more than $1 billion towards public facilities that enhance quality of life for a growing population, including the construction of 12 new schools and the renovation of two others, three new fire stations, two new parks and community recreation centers, and a new library.

[03:57:42] And whereas Dr. Casey oversaw major investments in the county government workforce, implementing a historic pay plan that brought salaries into market competitive positions and restructured departments in ways that enhanced the delivery of services and programs.

[03:57:59] And whereas Dr. Casey fostered outstanding relationships with businesses, colleges, and universities, and nonprofit organizations in ways that have enhanced quality of life, and whereas following a public service career that has spanned 37 years and three of the Richmond region's four large localities, Dr. Casey is leaving Chesterfield in a better place than he found it, having instilled a legacy of compassion for others, community pride, and absolute integrity.

[03:58:30] Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors this 24th day of June 2026 publicly recognizes the invaluable service of Dr. Joe Casey, expresses the appreciation of the board for his many contributions to the county, and extends heartfelt congratulations to Dr. Casey upon his retirement.

[03:58:50] And be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be presented to Dr. Casey and that this resolution be permanently recorded among the papers of this Board of Supervisors of Chesterfield County, Virginia. I'm sorry.

[03:59:05] I'm just. Second. You know, Mr. Engel, you said something about we can pass this resolution, but that doesn't mean necessarily we agree with the retirement. So with that, I'd like to make that motion to, I know you already did, but I'm still going to make the motion.

[03:59:26] Can I get a second? All in favor, say aye. Aye. Motion passes. Congratulations, Dr. Casey.

[03:59:50] Jessica, since you're holding the mic on that side. I'm sorry that you won't get to spend as much time with your mom that I know you wanted to, but this will give you a great opportunity to spend time with your kids, and you can become a log cabin builder with your son up in New York.

[04:00:12] That sounds like a great idea. Lots of outdoor activities and time for hiking and spending time together. That's awesome. So I look forward to hearing all about all the adventures that you guys take. And thank you for everything that you've done.

[04:00:29] And you guys, did you plan this matching? No. Did you? We're getting good. I just looked and I'm just like, oh, they planned that. Okay. And we have a dolly somewhere we'll haul this all out to your car with. Well, I know this won't be the last time I see you, so I'm not going to belabor it because, honestly, I want to get out of here by 11 o'clock tonight.

[04:00:58] I know you're going to have a head start on us, but I do thank you for answering the phone at all hours of the day and night, and I thank you for him answering the phone for all hours of the day and night.

[04:01:15] He probably said, I didn't hear it, but he answered it anyway. So we do appreciate all that you've done in the county for the last 10 years. And it sounds like you have to build a shed on top of a cabin for your son so you can put all these things in.

[04:01:33] But having the shadow boxes is awesome. All of our leaders in public safety being here is awesome. But I tell you what, I think I got a tear from the heart program and they're reaching out to you.

[04:01:53] And that really is something when people that are in jail take the time to say thank you. So that shows a lot. Thank you. I know we have a few more ceremonies, and so I won't belabor this meeting, but just want to say thank you.

[04:02:11] You're a rock star. You know where that came from. But, you know, thank you so much for everything you've done. and i look forward to having comments uh in the next sessions uh that we have with you for your retirement uh joe um you're you're uh i think one of the things that most people have gotten to know you in the community know that the one of your i think strongest qualities is your ability to communicate with everybody it doesn't matter who it is whether it's a janitor that comes in the room or if it's a governor right um you could put everybody at ease and and that's one of the the

[04:02:50] qualities that i found in you i thought was amazing and i think that's why the county employees so many of them have reached out to you in your retirement because they know that you actually cared about them you actually care about the community care about the people it was not just a job for you and there will be some more times for us to have more talks prior to this and after you retired but by myself and my wife and my family great job i was just thinking about that

[04:03:26] That December afternoon when Jim and I, we were on the Zoom call, and it was snowing that day. And so we were all on Zoom, and we were having another meeting and then said, hey, Jim, Mark, can you just stick around for a moment?

[04:03:43] And then you said that you were put in retirement. And there was a sense of shock, and then we cut off the Zoom call, and then Jim called me, and he said, what do you want to do? do you want to start looking for, like, do you want me to start the process now as me as chair, or do you want to wait until you become chair? And I said, Jim, I don't want to talk about it.

[04:04:07] I'm still in the denial stage, and I'll work my way to bargaining, and then after bargaining, I will get angry, and then ultimately I'll come to acceptance. So I was going through the Elizabeth Cooper Ross's process of stages of grief and and then I called Jim the next day and I said go get started immediately because we just knew that it was going to be a challenge and the greatest term the greatest compliment I can give someone and you've heard me say this

[04:04:43] is when I came on the board I realized almost immediately that you're a mensch and if anyone knows Yiddish and the concept of a mensch it really is the highest for me personally that I can bestow is someone who cares and puts everyone in front of themselves but also has the wisdom to know how to navigate the world in a good way and you're very very you know we're very very blessed to have had you as our county administrator and that is that level of energy and time and love that

[04:05:22] goes into it can't be done without an incredible spouse someone who can stand beside us Suzanne thank you for because you know we're much of what we do for every single person standing on the stage we know and many folks that work for chesterfield county know that it is that chesterfield is a family project and so um t.s elliott once wrote to make an end is to make a beginning but a beginning is where you start and

[04:05:57] that's where you are right now as you're making an end i'm really curious about what you will be beginning and uh please stay in touch and i'm just grateful that you live in the midlothian district? Well, usually I'm standing on the far left of most events. I'm the wingman. Usually I don't try and speak much, and I'm going to make it very brief so Mr. Ingle doesn't have to take off his tie at a certain time tonight. So having said that, love of my life, Suzanne. This is a

[04:06:35] hard job, but I knew what I was getting into, and hard meaning that you dedicate your life to it. Hard meaning that, you know, there's 400,000 people of Chesterfield County who all need to be heard and listened to they're not always agreeing themselves amongst the topic but we try and sort it out it's hard working for five people and you five are different than the five that hired me and in my profession that gets county administrators very nervous so the state of Virginia is actually applauding Chesterfield County for the tenure that I've had and the manner that I can you know call my own shot as one of my fellow friend administrators has told me well it wasn't my plan to have my mother pass a few weeks ago because I was

[04:07:14] really gonna dedicate to my mom and be with her have her accomplished many bucket list items you know she is very proud of me and and and my last conversation was that so I'll just leave that one at that I have three sons coming in from three different states tonight with plus one so I am blessed in family wanting to be here to support me they flew in and came in in different ways from my mother twice so you know this is I'm seeing my sons a lot this month but but it's all it's all for purposeful family activities I see mr.

[04:07:50] Hilliard still here and I hope to be on this stage in about 30 years getting my brick for the volunteer walk of fame because that's the only I'm gonna get a brick so so but I do want to turn my life into serving the county as a volunteer as a community contributor by default if Chesterfield's winning the region's winning so you know whatever we're doing here is actually making central Virginia a better place so with that said I'm forever grateful to the five of you you know hopefully and most people don't realize as staff we just try and give the information so five people can make a hard decision many

[04:08:28] decisions that you just saw tonight thus far have been easy decisions but we give them the information to make an informed decision doesn't mean they may all agree necessarily they don't have to but one thing I think we have tried to do is filter the information so that they can actually have it before them in a manner that best serves the people because working for five people may be a challenge working for about 80,000 people each is also a challenge but I also give you credit because you all feel like you work for 400,000 people not just 80,000 so with that said I'm honored and grateful and I may need a

[04:09:04] Dolly.

[04:10:07] Madam Clerk. Item 15, new business, a claim of Pocoshock LLC requesting

[04:10:46] compensation for an alleged inverse condemnation of property. Mr. Means. Mr. Chairman, members of the board, you've had claims presented to the board before, this is another claim. The county owns an easement over the Falling Creek Reservoir property and the easement that we own includes the right to impound the reservoir to hold water and to maintain and improve the reservoir. Back in the 1950s the county actually dammed Falling Creek to create that reservoir.

[04:11:21] Pokershock LLC owns a portion of the property under the reservoir. That property subject to the county's impoundment easement. In 2021, the county, pursuant to the right to maintain and improve the reservoir, began a project to dredge and remove excess siltation that accumulated in the reservoir over 60 years that had been in existence. And that project improves the water quality of the water in the reservoir and makes the reservoir a better water resource. Pocashok claims that the county did not have the right to dredge and is seeking damages

[04:11:57] under a theory that the county inversely condemned its property. We've reviewed the claim and the applicable easement and are satisfied that the county had the full right to dredge that reservoir and to do it over the property of Pokershock and that we acted in accordance with the easement terms.

[04:12:15] Accordingly, we'll ask the board to deny the claim. And Representative Pokershock is here and is entitled to address the board on the claim. Good to meet you, Mr. Nick. Good to see you. Good to see you. is there any question for County Attorney Jeff Minks? Seeing none, the sound looks like the claimant is here this evening. I know you want to make a presentation. Feel free to do that, sir.

[04:12:43] Thank you. My name is Henry Howell. I'm an attorney. I like to think of myself as a constitutional attorney. I represent property owners throughout the state of Virginia against the government and Utilities trying to protect their property rights, especially to just compensation.

[04:13:07] I've been practicing law 44 years. I've been practicing eminent domain law exclusively for owners for 22 years. So I've been practicing law 44 years. I love my work as constitutional work.

[04:13:26] I'm here to emphasize that private property ownership is a fundamental right. Oh, I wanted to say beforehand, I loved your invocation, Councilman Scheider.

[04:13:42] I loved it. And Dr. Casey, wonderful that he looks out for prisoners because a great teacher says, we're going to be judged by how we treat them. And of course, but for the grace of God, there go I.

[04:14:00] So that's a great thing. Number three, I salute the citizens who are exercising their fundamental constitutional rights of speech, assembly, the right to petition their government. If we don't use these rights, they go away because there are plenty of people that don't want citizens to exercise those rights.

[04:14:29] Now, our Constitution of Virginia, and I'm presuming each of you swore an allegiance to the Virginia Constitution as well as the United States Constitution as part of your being a public servant. I understand family members have witnessed children getting special credit because they are children of elected public officials. Well, I mean, thank you, mom. Thank you, your wife. Thank

[04:15:03] you, the children. You've been away for so long. Well, my mom was the first woman elected to Norfolk City Council and served 18 years. So I was there. My father was elected to the General Assembly and ran for governor and was lieutenant governor and I was his son having to do all that as his only son. So I've been in public life quite a bit. When my father first went to the General Assembly, he swore to uphold the Virginia Constitution, but he never read it. And he went

[04:15:41] back to his copy they gave him to his hotel room and started reading it. And among, in section one, equality, and rights of men, James Madison came back from Philadelphia and wrote the Virginia Constitution. These sections on our fundamental rights have not changed. Among the rights, the enjoyment of life and liberty with the means of acquiring and possessing property,

[04:16:15] and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety. Our country is special in terms of how much we protect private property rights. Payment of just compensation. Take no more than you need. But just compensation is all there is to help a property owner whose property is needed. I think we remember

[04:16:46] Section 11 of the Constitution was amended in 2012, where 72% of the people who elected Obama voted for that amendment, identifying private property rights as a fundamental right. What does it mean be a fundamental right? We need to protect that the same way we protect speech or the right of assembly or the right to practice the religion we want, the right to associate with people we

[04:17:21] want. That's private property rights. Now, let's deal with the facts of this case. And I tell you, I haven't been able to stay in business representing property owners in eminent domain by taking on losers. We take on meritorious cases. We assess this case. Now, Mr. Minx seems to suggest we're blowing smoke, but we studied it. We studied the 1958 easement that said, and I hope you will

[04:17:56] read it, and my letter lays this out to you, that says the reservoir was for water supply. The use for water supply ended in 1985. For 41 years, or 40 years, nothing was done on the reservoir.

[04:18:19] It filled up with silt. It was never used for water supply. And to suggest a wastewater or storm sewage pond is the same as what this property was taken for, an easement, for water supply is ridiculous. You approved the project, but it's for runoff. I mean, it's a satisfied DEQ. It didn't

[04:18:51] even exist in 1955. And he says some broad language about, oh, we can keep it up for water supply. Please read the easement, because what is being done is not for water supply. Now, the president of Polka Shot came to the county. I guess he spoke to the county attorney and said, know, we've got an easement. The guy said, look, I recognize it's not a big deal, but at least I want you to recognize that the easement that you have doesn't allow you to do, turn it into storm

[04:19:26] water pond. And he was blown off. But he's the type of guy who's going to hire some attorneys on principle. We're not talking about a lot of money. You know where the money is? Paying me and my partner, I'm getting $5.50 an hour now, after 44 years, paying me and my partner to prove that this was an unconstitutional taking, that there was never contemplated such a use by the original easement that was condemned. Nowhere in the record on this project is there anything about water

[04:20:05] supply. Nothing. It was abandoned as a water supply reservoir, and to call a BMP pond a reservoir when it's for storm sewage water runoff is not the fact. Now, we may lose in circuit court. When my young partner came, well, he's 40 years old, he's young for me, at our first hearing where

[04:20:38] they're trying to throw out our case, he gets into the court and the judge takes the time off the record to speak to the county attorney saying that Mr. Minx, right before the hearing, had called him to let him know that the county attorney's office was hiring the judge's clerk. And he came out in open court and said that to my young fella and then said to the deputy county attorney, well, if you had anything to do with that, I thank you. Now, you know, we may not win in circuit court,

[04:21:15] But Court of Appeals, they're going to take a look at it. The Supreme Court, if we lose in the Court of Appeals, we're going there because this is all we do. It's a great case. I like this case because of the recalcitrance, the ignoring fundamental constitutional right to just compensation and not saying some old easement from 1958 allows me to do a BMP for DEQ.

[04:21:50] and after 40 years you haven't used it or maintained it in any way and you say oh we never abandoned that easement for the reservoir and water supply. Ultimately the county will lose the case. I'm here to try to save you money. I like this county. I'm impressed by everything.

[04:22:11] I'm impressed by you but we'll see what happens. I came here because I got out of my bathing suit took a shower, got on my suit, drove three hours to be here. Why? Because I love talking about property rights. And never before has an attorney allowed me to talk directly to his clients.

[04:22:40] He could have accepted our complaint and said, that's sufficient notice. No, you got to go to the board. We come to the board and say, well, you got to give a specific amount. So we write another letter just going on and on and so i am my father's son i ain't giving up i thank you for

[04:23:03] your time thank you sir um did he did the attorney leave so we didn't even have an opportunity to ask him questions i'm sorry you might have questions i don't know i heard the applause you get off the stage i'm sorry there may be questions i apologize what i'm impressed with sir

[04:23:39] is you are um back here for like a second like you walk off the stage like a concert and then thank you an encore and then come in for the encore i'm so so you know i'm nervous yeah yeah you're right you know i got i wasn't expecting a huge crowd and it's you know i thought i'd make a fool of myself but anyway you've been very i i'm appreciate i don't want to ask the Board, do you have any questions for this gentleman?

[04:24:10] This one was Bill Howell, your father? What's that? Was Bill Howell, your father? Henry Howell. Keep the big boys honest. Okay, okay. Ran for governor three times. We paid a lot of money to get his name known. Any other questions?

[04:24:29] I'm appreciating you. Thank you. You are one heck of an attorney, but you made one really, really good point, which is that this is something that really should be decided by a judge. And because of that, it is important, given this particular question in the law, that we provide that opportunity for it to go to a judge.

[04:24:55] And with that, I'm going to go ahead and make the motion to deny the claim of Pocashock, LLC, requesting compensation for alleged inverse condemnation of property. Can I have a second? Second.

[04:25:11] All in favor, say aye. Mr. Chair, just one comment. Yes, sir. Let's have some discussion. Mr. Chair, if you're right, and you win, by going through the court system, you're actually going to set a precedent that will perhaps be binding.

[04:25:29] I'm happy to respond to anything, but I'm not in the business setting precedent. I don't think this is a case that merits precedent because the facts are so strong. But it's on your dime. We're doing it. So have me go at it.

[04:25:46] Okay. Any other questions? I have a motion. I have a properly second. All in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed. The motion passes. Thank you, sir. Thank you very much. You bet. Good to see you. Good to see you. Madam Clerk.

[04:26:06] B, confirmation of the selection of a new county administrator. Mr. Chair. Board members, I have a motion to confirm the selection of Dr. Kevin Catlin as the new county administrator effective August 24th.

[04:26:21] Can I get a second? Second. Is there anyone, anyone would like to have any kind of discussion on this? All in favor, say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Madam Clerk. see appointments. Mr. Chair, the first appointment. We should have done like a. All right. So first appointment on the interim county administrator of those you're referring to? Yes, sir. Yes, ma'am?

[04:26:55] Yes. Okay. The first appointment is for the interim county administrator. Okay. Could I please get a motion for that? Motion approved, Mr. Chair. Can I get a second? Second. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Next, we have two appointments to the Community Criminal Justice Board. Thank you.

[04:27:16] Can I get a motion? So moved. Can I get a second? Second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Next, we have four appointments to the Community Transportation Advisory Committee. Can I get a motion, please? So moved. Can I get a second? Second.

[04:27:31] All in favor? Aye. Madam Clerk. Next, we have one appointment to the Economic Development Authority. Can I get a motion, please? So moved. Can I get a second? Second. All in favor? Aye. Madam Clerk. We have two appointments to the First Tee of Greater Richmond.

[04:27:49] Can I please get a motion? So moved. Second. And a second, please. Thank you. Got that. All in favor? Aye. Thank you. Aye. Madam Clerk. We have five appointments to the Richmond Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Thank you, Madam. Can I get a motion? So moved.

[04:28:05] Second. Can I get a second? I hear the second. All in favor? Aye. All right. Lastly, Madam Clerk. Last, we have two appointments to the Social Services Board. Can I get a motion, please? So moved.

[04:28:16] I get a second? Second. All in favor? Aye. Thank you, madam. Madam Clerk. D, consent items. Mr. Chair, there have been no requests from board members to remove items from the consent agenda for public comment. Thank you. Do any board members have items that they wish to remove? If not, I need a motion to approve the consent agenda. So moved. Thank you. Can I get a second? Any discussion on that at all? All in favor? Aye. Mr. Chair, I didn't hear who the second was. Did I hear who was the second? Did I hear a second on the?

[04:28:55] I will second it. Okay. Thank you. All in favor? Aye. All right. Madam Clerk. Item 16, 15-minute citizen comment period on unscheduled matters. This time is designated for citizens to talk to the Board of Supervisors.

[04:29:13] It is not a time for dialogue with board members, and it is not a question-and-answer period. Those conversations can easily occur with individual board members outside of the board meeting. As a reminder, the board's procedures state no citizen shall speak on any matter of business that is a subject on the Board's agenda for that day, and each speaker shall have three minutes to address the Board.

[04:29:34] We have five speakers, if they'll please come forward and speak in this order. Thomas Curl, Lisa Thompson, Carrie McAvoy, Mike Uzell, and William Shoemake.

[04:29:54] -Members of the Board, my name is Thomas Curl, and I'm speaking on behalf of Chesterfield Citizens for Responsible Government. As Joe Casey retires, residents will hear a great deal about his accomplishments. What they're unlikely to hear is the cost. Under this administration, Chesterfield's budget grew from approximately $1.4 billion in 2020 to nearly $2.4 billion today, a 75% increase.

[04:30:22] Let that sink in. Total property tax collections from 2019 to 2026 went from $494 million to $742 million, a 58% increase. Let me repeat that.

[04:30:40] The taxpayers were asked to contribute 58% more, while county government grew 75% larger. You all know this. Yet despite billions of dollars in announced economic development and all the big names, projects and tax incentives, homeowners still pay approximately 79% of all real estate tax revenue.

[04:31:04] The promised shift of the tax burden away from the residents never arrived. The headlines were diversified. The tax base is not. And it's been that same ratio for 20 years. Infrastructure tells a similar story.

[04:31:20] Chesterfield's population has grown about 13% since 2019, but traffic congestion has become a daily reality for residents. Anyone driving Route 360, 288, Hull Street, or Midlow Pike already knows the result. Growth has been approved faster than infrastructure has been delivered.

[04:31:37] And then, and then there is the Shoesmith Landfill. What a freaking disaster. You should all be ashamed. We all know how bad that is, but you know what we had to do? Our organization had to spend our own time, effort, and money last week, two hours with the bankruptcy attorney, because you chose to remain silent.

[04:32:02] You hide behind DEQ, and you hide behind Hunt and Williams. That's unacceptable. State inspectors documented the discharges. They say it's damaged infrastructure, inadequate storage, significant environmental concerns. Mark, is public safety clean air and clear water?

[04:32:19] I'm just asking for a friend. Residents have every right to ask, how did this landfill get to $65,000 or 65,000 gallons of contaminated water every day, end up bankrupt, unmanaged, threatening a watershed, connected to our drinking supply? Why no communication to the citizens, guys?

[04:32:39] Right? Not only that, these people wouldn't be here. I was here last June when in the dark of night, you decided to make the decision to vote on the data centers. I came up here. This guy, Minx, stopped me.

[04:32:54] Mr. Carroll, your time is up. I'm not finished. Mark, I listened to you for five minutes. You can listen for another minute for me. I will, thank you. The outcomes are clear.

[04:33:10] A 75% increase in county spending, a 58% increase in total property tax collections. Homeowners still carry roughly 79% of the real estate tax burden. Growing traffic congestion despite years of rapid development. And a bankrupt landfill creating one of the most significant environmental risks Chesterfield has ever seen.

[04:33:31] Folks, this isn't leadership. I hate to tell you that. This is not leadership. Ms. Thompson?

[04:33:51] Lisa Thompson? Good evening. All over the state and our nation, new harms from data centers are being reported every day. Noise pollution that keeps residents up at night.

[04:34:09] Chemical discharge into streams. Depletion of groundwater. Diesel generators supposedly built as backup, running full-time, belching their toxic fumes, near neighborhoods and schools.

[04:34:25] What guarantee do we have that this will not happen in Chesterfield? We want to hear how Google is going to prevent this from happening here. In addition to the degradation of the environment and private property, Chesterfield residents are now paying much higher utility bills because we must import energy now for this data center industry.

[04:34:50] We want Google to explain how they plan to pay their own way, provide for their own energy needs. Google came to this county with a promise of powering their 1,500 acres of new data centers with nuclear fusion.

[04:35:08] This is an untested technology in its infancy, but are we going to hold Google to that or let them freeload off our energy grid? What's the plan? For the two campuses in western Chesterfield, where will the thousands of gallons of water that these centers use every day, where is that going to come from?

[04:35:30] Our reservoir? The James River? Who's going to pay to run this connection? There are so many legitimate questions and concerns that your constituents want answered. To this end, we demand a community meeting with Google officials to explain what their plan is and how they will prevent these environmental harms and ensure that local residents don't bear the cost. This shouldn't be hard to arrange. Google's own website says that they, quote, want to be a good neighbor. We start with people, they say. We listen,

[04:36:09] partner, and we show up. Perfect. We want them to show up at a community meeting and listen to our concerns. You cannot expect the people of Chesterfield to blindly trust this huge corporation to take our needs into account. If you think we should trust some corporate entity to do what's right without our oversight and involvement on our part, I have just two words for you. Shoesmith, landfill. We must, we must do better. We must do better this time.

[04:36:46] We demand a meeting with Google before the work starts on these projects out west. We deserve transparency and input. We deserve to voice our legitimate concerns. Am I alone in this request? We're your constituents.

[04:37:05] You are not lobbyists for Google. We are your constituents. All right? We're asking to please be sure these damages and harms are not felt here by the residents of Chesterfield. thank you kerry mcavoy hi good evening thank you for having me tonight my name is kerry mcavoy and

[04:37:43] i'm a resident of midlothian i'm an environmental professional and i serve as an appointee on the virginia council on environmental justice which i believe gives me a bit of a unique perspective on this topic um i'm here tonight to urge the board to place a moratorium on additional data center approvals and construction i don't believe the residents have been given sufficient time information or transparency to fully understand the scale of development that's being proposed There's significant public confusion regarding how many data centers are proposed, approved, under construction, or in development right now.

[04:38:18] Public statements and communications from elected officials have been inconsistent, making it difficult for residents to understand what is actually planned. Many of these projects advanced through negotiations and tax incentive discussions conducted under nondisclosure agreements, which limited public awareness and engagement. When I raised concerns with my elected official, immediately after hearing about the Google projects, I received a generic response from a private economic development attorney who, number one, will undoubtedly cost the county thousands of dollars in legal fees, and number two, dismissed my concerns completely by providing me some blanket template language that have failed to address any of the issues I raised in my email.

[04:38:53] Multiple neighbors who share concerns receive the same response from the same person. We deserve transparency, engagement, and direct answers from the representatives that we afflicted. While I recognize the importance of technology and economic development, growth should not come at the expense of our natural resources and community character. Data center development, as we're all here and we all know, requires extensive land clearing that permanently removes forests, wildlife habitat, and open space.

[04:39:17] These forests and wetlands provide critical benefits, including flood protection, stormwater management, water filtration, carbon sequestration, and habitat for native species. Once these resources are destroyed, they simply cannot be replaced. In addition, data centers create substantial demands on electricity and water resources.

[04:39:34] They increase the need for transmission infrastructure and contribute to noise, heat island effects, and other quality of life concerns. Equally important, and this might be my main point, is that we don't know the cumulative impacts of these data centers. We can understand individual ones, but right now there's nothing out there that is a comprehensive evaluation of cumulative impacts of these data centers, at least not that the public is aware of.

[04:39:57] We need to understand the combined effects on traffic, noise, air quality, energy consumption, water resources, habitat loss, and community character. The level of concern within the community is evident, as you can see. And we wanted to let you know that a petition calling for greater transparency, meaningful public involvement, disclosure of negotiations and agreements, and an end to county participation NDAs has already gathered more than 2,000 signatures.

[04:40:20] The board also carefully should weigh the promised economic benefits against the long-term environmental and community costs. As was stated by Lisa, Chessfield has the lowest data center equipment tax rate in Virginia, so I question if we will actually be provided with the community benefits being promised. I respectfully ask the board to place a moratorium on additional data center projects until residents are provided transparency, meaningful public involvement, and comprehensive cumulative impact analyses.

[04:40:46] Many localities across the country and organizations in Virginia have made the same request. So I conclude with a little statement that we're at a crossroads right now. The county is at a crossroads. They feel once the forests are cleared, the wetlands are destroyed, and the industrial infrastructure is here, those decisions cannot be undone.

[04:41:04] Those losses are permanent. The decision before you is not simply about economic development. It is about what kind of community we want to leave for our future generations. Thank you for your time. I'm sorry.

[04:41:22] Our next speaker is Mike Gusell. Yeah, Mike Gusell, I think, is next. I'm sorry. Yeah, there's only five people that have signed up for this section.

[04:41:42] That's correct, Mr. Chair. All five slots are full. So if I understand correctly, Mike Gusell with one L is going to be next. And then William Shoemake. Is William here? Yes, sir. And then that's all the speakers for this time, correct? And then the other folks are at the end, right?

[04:41:58] There are other speakers in the last comment period of the evening. Yeah. No. Yeah. But did you sign up?

[04:42:14] No. What's your name? I haven't signed up for the last one. Happy birthday. Sorry, let me just understand.

[04:42:31] Are you signed up for the later? I know I've signed up. Is she signed up for the later? Yes, sir. Okay, let's do this. after Mike Gusell and William Shoemake speak, then she'll speak after that, and then we'll have one last speaker at the end, okay?

[04:42:47] Yes, sir. Happy birthday. Yes, ma'am. I'll make a suggestion. If they're all here to speak about the data centers, then if that's what they're all here for, then let them all speak now, so that if they want to take off, they can't. Do you want to just do both of them now?

[04:43:05] Okay, I'm with you. All right, so do you agree with that? Okay, so what we'll do is, what's the suggestion of the board is, that we'll have all the speakers now. So, yeah, so all the folks that were meant to speak, that are signed up, that are signed up.

[04:43:28] Okay, we'll do it that way. All right, thank you, my board. Mike Uzell. Okay, Mr. Chairman, members of the board, Dr. Casey, I'm Mike Uzell from the Bermuda District. I'm also a member of Chesterfield Citizens for Responsible Government, and I've heard mentioned tonight already about non-disclosure agreements, NDAs. You probably know already I believe they have no place in county's business dealings. Citizens need to know what this board is agreeing to

[04:44:07] before we can support or oppose any economic development project, period. Tonight, however, I'll address a different kind of NDA. This one involves the shoesmith dump. Your public silence is deafening. Your silence would infer that you have some type of NDA among yourselves to tell the citizens nothing. Your only claim has been that the county has been some kind of hero for alerting the state to a leachate problem and then getting a letter from the state attorney general's

[04:44:46] office signed by a former member of this board saying the county has no enforcement authority. Dr. Casey, why is this county spending millions of dollars for a social media and community relations department to tell us how great everything is in this county?

[04:45:09] Well, this shoesmith problem is not so great. Dr. Catlin, I hope you're listening. Please take note. The shoesmith catastrophe in the making is of huge concern to citizens. This board and the county administration have a duty and an obligation to, number one, tell us what you know and when you know it, good or bad.

[04:45:37] Number two, tell us your plan of action. And number three, keep us informed. For months now, you've done none of this. When people are kept in the dark, it stokes fear and misinformation.

[04:45:54] Your attorneys may be telling you to keep quiet, but public trust disintegrates more every day you keep silent. elected officials should not have NDAs transparency means you have nothing to hide silence means I'll

[04:46:26] let the citizens fill in that blank William Shumak good evening my name is William Shumak Will Shumak I'm here on a purely personal capacity as a resident of the Midlothian district and a very someone who's very proud to call this wonderful county my home I along with lots of

[04:47:03] people read in the paper about Shoesmith and the alarming situation and the eye-popping numbers. They were talking about what it would cost to remediate it. I just wanted to come down because I know a little something about the waste industry, and I just want to share some ideas that maybe folks have thought about, but how we could reduce that number and address the issue.

[04:47:26] Pump and haul is by far, well, you have to in the short term, is the long-term most expensive way to handle it. I'm sure people are looking at maybe the county and DEQ at establishing some kind of facility on site to treat it, but there's another way that you can possibly address it, and that's with what's called a leachate evaporation system. Shoesmith has methane. I mean, they're selling it, and it's part of the bankruptcy case, but you can actually develop a system that you channel the methane. And from the leachate, you create steam because most of the leachate is in the water

[04:48:04] capacity. And you separate the materials that you're troubled by and you concentrate them and you burn off the steam. And then that way you can then properly landfill what remains. I think in the long term, that could be a much cheaper alternative of how to address this and to remediate it. I bring it to the board's attention because I know that the methane is being sold.

[04:48:28] it's part of the bankruptcy estate, but that is something that might be able to channel, to be channeled and used to fix this extraordinary problem that's obviously causing you and everybody else in the county concern. So I would encourage the county with expert staff to look into the possibility of what's the cheapest way to remediate it, if it's the county or somebody else.

[04:48:53] But I think you want to look at the possibility of a leachate evaporation system, given that it's part of the bankruptcy. I think we, the county may want to monitor that to see whether we can have a voice in how we can solve this at a minimum cost to the taxpayer while preserving the environmental quality for our citizens and our wonderful community and environment. So thank you for your time.

[04:49:21] So Madam Clerk, if I understand correctly, we're going to be moving to the speakers that were going to be speaking at item 20. Is that accurate? Yes, sir. What I would like to do, ma'am, is I want to go in the order of the folks that were signed up there. So I see that number one is Jerry Turner. Jerry, if you want to come down.

[04:49:54] Yes, sir. The next five speakers are Jerry Turner, Renee Eldred, Sarah Widener, Leah McEldery, and Victoria Sagstetter. Good evening. Good evening, Jerry Turner. I'm not here to talk about data centers.

[04:50:12] I'm here to talk about what I was planning on talking about last month, and it got so late, I said I'm not waiting past 12 o'clock. But I want to go back to the spring run, a spring line crosswalk where Josanne Basile was killed by a vehicle.

[04:50:33] After that meeting two months ago, I was told that Chutfield had advertised for a contract for putting crosswalks. And it came in at either $2 million over what was budgeted or for $2 million. But it only got one bid.

[04:50:54] That one bid is what you guys should be concerned about. Only one contractor wanted to bid on that project. When I was working at a real job, we bid on things even though we didn't want it.

[04:51:11] If we didn't want it, we would raise our price. The only time we would not bid is when they wouldn't pay. I'm hoping with a billion-dollar budget, the county is paying their bills. But I'm not sure about that.

[04:51:32] Because I've been up here a couple times when a contractor has come to you guys and asked to be paid for work on a contract that they felt like the county was out of their contract, But the county asked them to do it, and rather than not doing it and having to go through a whole bunch of hassle, they went ahead and did the work, and then came to you guys to get paid, and you were advised not to pay them.

[04:52:02] Well, that apparently is coming back to bite y'all, because people don't want to do work in Chesterfield County. The next thing y'all need to consider is, what is a life worth? I would hope that Josanne Basil's family would think her life was worth $2 million.

[04:52:24] We know what Charlie Byers' wife's family says his life is worth. It's $35 million. Four years ago, spring run, spring line was approved, and nothing has been done as far as the crosswalk goes.

[04:52:41] They started another building behind the one they've got already filled up. That means there's going to be a lot more people trying to cross Midlothian. The good thing about all of this is you've got a police station going up right there next to it, and they won't have far to go when somebody else gets run over.

[04:53:01] Last week at planning, Dr. Casey was unintroduced to one of the new planning people that had been hired. Mr. Turner, your three minutes are up. I want to get a couple more comments here. And he introduced me as Mr. Turner.

[04:53:18] He always tells us to do the right thing. I didn't know I was known for doing that, but I'll take it. I was listening to a Lieutenant Kilbore on TikTok, and he has a quote from General Norman Schwarzkopf.

[04:53:36] The truth is that you always know the right thing to do. The tough part is doing it. The county needs to move forward on these crosswalks, and maybe it'll save somebody else's life. Thank you for your time.

[04:54:02] Mr. Turner, just so you know, we just approved to the TPO for that project. It's approved. The money's approved. My name is Renee Eldred.

[04:54:20] I'm here tonight to speak to y'all about citizen participation. I know everybody in the room does not want data centers. I don't particularly care for myself, but they're a necessary evil that's going to be around for a while.

[04:54:36] We need to figure out a way to make them better, not to consume so much energy, whatever. But the ones that they're complaining about tonight were approved 13 months ago.

[04:54:55] And from what I've seen in the, went back and looked at the video, nobody here tonight was there to speak. There was 17 or 18 people that spoke for it.

[04:55:10] But it went through planning commission and the board of supervisors and the community meeting. And nobody spoke. Nobody came forward to say, I don't want a data center here.

[04:55:25] The citizens need to pay attention. There are ways that you can use Notify Me to get planning meetings, board of supervisor meetings, community meetings.

[04:55:41] It's not all on the county to say, here, this is what we're doing. But every meeting, every meeting is put out there for you to see.

[04:56:01] You just got to look, every single one of them. I've been doing this for almost 40 years. I have been coming before this board since I moved into my house in 86. You got to pay attention. Nobody was paying attention.

[04:56:19] It, NDAs or not, nobody was paying attention because it was literally on the docket. Folks, this is an opportunity for everyone to speak. You are noticing that we're staying quiet. You are also. Thank you.

[04:56:34] Go on, Renee. I'm not saying what they're doing is bad, but unless you pay attention to what goes on around you, you cannot voice your opinion about it. I guess I'm wasting my breath.

[04:56:52] I was hoping maybe that some of the citizens that were here tonight might actually take a little bit more interest in what goes on in the county and start participating start but this was like i said this was zoned 13 months ago so i see my time is up thanks thank you renee madam clerk

[04:57:21] sarah weidner good evening my name is sarah weidner i'm a resident of midlothian i've had time to sit with something that you said at last month's meeting that if a zoning request is legal you must approve it or risk the county being sued.

[04:57:45] It occurs to me that if your role were that passive, we wouldn't need an elected board. We would only need the county attorney's office. You were elected to represent the interests of the citizens while working within the law. Allowing these data center deals to be negotiated under strict non-disclosure agreements entirely without public input and subsequently celebrating the real estate transaction behind them feels very far from the transparency and representation for which you were elected.

[04:58:17] These data centers sit within two miles of over 50,000 residents. The diesel emissions from testing and operating backup generators, not to mention the construction, will directly impact thousands of young children who play outside every day, drastically increasing pediatric asthma risks.

[04:58:36] Meanwhile, the 24-7 low-frequency hum of these facilities and power substations can permanently disrupt daytime focus, learning, and sleep. We're being asked to sacrifice the literal peace, health, and quiet enjoyment of our families to prioritize massive tech infrastructure and tax revenue over human lives.

[04:58:56] Three minutes is not enough time to scratch the surface of how this domino effect threatens our health and safety. While the public discussion focuses on energy and water use, Google's centers bring hidden environmental destruction directly into our neighborhoods. Widespread clear-cutting for massive power corridors, a relentless cycle of toxic electronic waste, and substations risking catastrophic failure all threaten grid instability near our homes and schools.

[04:59:25] Furthermore, we're permanently tearing up land for massive physical footprints that rapid tech evolution could render entirely obsolete in just a few years, much like the room-sized computers of the 1970s shrinking to fit in our pockets.

[04:59:45] We risk permanently scarring our community for a temporary infrastructure. The physical cost to our communities is more than we can bear. What will happen to property values in high-value neighborhoods like Halsley, Summer Lake, Roundtray, Magnolia Green, Fox Creek, Collington, and more?

[05:00:02] With massive industrial footprints, severe deforestation, and intense heat generation, we face a heightened risk of local flooding, rising temperatures, and ecological devastation to the Swift Creek Reservoir, harming our water quality, air quality, and wildlife.

[05:00:20] If legality is your primary concern, I ask you to use the full power of our county ordinances, strict zoning conditions, and environmental laws to protect Chesterfield, rather than using the threat of a lawsuit as an excuse to surrender.

[05:00:36] Ms. Wagner, your three minutes are up. Leah McElderry.

[05:00:54] Third time's a charm. All right, good evening. Of course, it's a good evening. I'm here with all of you on my birthday. I'm going to make it short and meaningful because my babies and my husband are home waiting with cake and candles. I'm speaking to you today about data centers. This discussion is about more than technology.

[05:01:10] It's about trust, transparency, and responsible stewardship within our community. Major decisions regarding buildings, particularly data center development, have moved forward without any public knowledge, input, or public engagements. Conversations surrounding Locke and Sky have happened and are continuing to happen behind closed doors, protected by non-disclosure agreements, private negotiations, all will people just like me who live in our community have to live with the consequences. We are left with limited information and little opportunity to participate or voice opinions or concerns about where we live and raise our families. If this data center was truly beneficial for our community, for our people,

[05:01:47] then I ask you, Board of Supervisors, why is so much of the process being hidden from public view? As a Chesterfield community member, along with everyone else who is a member of our community, we deserve open communication from the beginning, not after negotiations are happening, not after they're done. We deserve to understand how and why our land is being used. We deserve to know about infrastructure builds, changes, and impacts. We deserve to understand how these changes will impact our lives, our health, our homes, long before anything is written in contract. I look to you, Board of Supervisors, to be our voice. Each of you chose to be a part of this board to speak on behalf of your people, to represent what your people want. I can tell you, we don't need fancy

[05:02:25] surveys, we don't need another meeting. We are here. We are loud. We are telling you, say no to data centers. Our county's land is a limited resource. Once these data centers are up, we cannot go backwards. Once our land is converted from its natural state to industrial use, the land is permanently changed. We must ask ourselves, is this the vision that we have for Chesterfield?

[05:02:48] Do we really want to sell out to AI data centers, big corporations, and industrial use? Again, Board of Supervisors, you have the power to say no. I would be remiss if I didn't bring up an interesting fact that made me raise my eyebrows and captured my attention last month. I sat right over there for the entire four-hour board meeting with two of my friends and neighbors. We listened to countless awards given out. We listened to conversations about land use and contracts for schools versus 55 plus communities. We listened to a woman asking for permission to utilize her own home to run a child care. There were photos of each of these projects. There were members who spoke on behalf of these projects. There were discussions and seeking approval. Board members,

[05:03:25] I must ask, where are the discussions on behalf of the data centers? Where are the photos for the approval. Where was the information about the potential use of the land and public input for the 1,300 plus acres of land? As I sat last month, a woman had to ask permission to watch children inside her home on a tiny parcel of land, a residential lot. And yet tonight, I'm sitting in this room fighting for a chance to be heard about the 979 acres used for Sky and 350 acres that will be used for Locke, begging the board to listen to the people for the data center that impacts our entire community. Make it make sense. Ms. McAdelry, you're three minutes around. I'm

[05:04:01] almost done. Again, Board of Supervisors, you have the power to say no. Health and quality of life concerns, these are to be taken seriously. Continuous industrial noise from the time of construction to the lifetime of the data center. Northern Virginia residents will be the first to tell you that they have to board their windows, put mattresses against their doors just to try to find a quiet spot inside their home. And even then, sometimes it's not enough. Why, Board of supervisors, would you do that to your people? You have the power.

[05:04:35] Take up next, Victoria Saxeter. I'm going to guess I am. All right, good evening. My name is Victoria. I live on Mosley Road near the proposed 880 acre Google Data Center site. I'm here tonight with my three children. I've been very patient because I think it's really important for them to understand how local government works and how the decisions made in this room shape the community that they will grow up in. My family moved to Mosley because we wanted the peace and quiet of

[05:05:14] a rural community. We invested in Chesterfield County, believing in the vision outlined in the comprehensive plan. Massive industrial development on this scale was never part of that vision, and it clearly wasn't part of what families like mine expected. I have a number of concerns about data centers being so close to our home and all my children's three schools, where they will spend so much of their time over the next 10 years. But my greatest concern is the widespread use of diesel generators and the uncertainty surrounding their operation. Virginia regulators recently expanded permissible uses for these generators to include not only emergencies, but also planned

[05:05:51] outages and periods of grid strain, times when electricity demand exceeds what the existing infrastructure can comfortably support. As data centers continue to drive demand for power, how can we be certain our electrical infrastructure is sufficient to prevent prolonged generator use?

[05:06:09] The truth is, we can't. We won't know until these facilities are operating, and by then, residents could be subjected to extended periods of generator emissions while waiting for costly infrastructure upgrades. Even under normal conditions, these generators are tested regularly.

[05:06:25] While an individual unit may only be tested once a month, an 880-acre campus could contain dozens of generators spread across multiple buildings with staggered schedules. That means neighboring families may experience noise and air pollution far more frequently than expected.

[05:06:41] I won't bore you with the facts about these noisy generators and the health consequences of the poor air quality they produce. I'm sure you're all aware of the respiratory and cardiovascular risks as Dana centers are a hot topic in Virginia politics. What I will say is that many Chesterfield residents have already witnessed what can happen when industrial sites are not adequately managed.

[05:07:03] From the odor violations and recent fire at Skincorder Landfill to the environmental disaster at Shoesmith, public confidence and oversight has been shaken. Time and again, we hear that the DEQ is the problem. Then I hear from the DEQ that they just lack the resources necessary to effectively monitor the facilities already under their jurisdiction.

[05:07:26] Yet we continue adding to that burden. Once these facilities are built, the consequences are long-lasting and difficult to reverse. They will experience, for 10 years, they will experience this, the construction and all the hiccups. Economic development should enhance our communities, not diminish them.

[05:07:46] I urge you to place the health of residents and the future reputation of Chesterfield County ahead of short-term promises and uncertain benefits as you evaluate proposed data centers. Ms. Agstetter, your three minutes are up.

[05:08:10] Okay, Madam Clerk, thank you. we're going to go back to item 17. We're going to start with deferred items for previous meetings. Yes, sir. We have no deferred items from previous meetings. Item 18, zoning requests. Mr. Chair, you have one deferral request, which is 23SN0072, Midlothian Microtel. The applicant is requesting a deferral to the board's August 26, 2026 public hearing. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Everyone, this is a

[05:08:44] public hearing on the deferral of case 23 SN0072, Midlothian Microtel. Is there anyone would like to speak on the deferral of this case? If so, please come forward and state your name. Seeing no one, I don't see anyone from Microtel. I'm going to go ahead and close this. Make sure there isn't anybody. Mr. Chair, you may want to ask again. Yeah, I'll go ahead and ask the question

[05:09:18] again. This is a public hearing for deferral of case 23 SN0072, Midlothian Microtel. Is there anyone that would like to speak to the deferral of 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 on the deferral

[05:09:41] it's back before the board uh this case is i'm sorry all right i'm going to go ahead and close

[05:10:20] this public hearing on the deferral it's back before the board this is in the midlothian district i'm going to go ahead and make the motion to defer uh case 23 sn 0072 to the boards August 26, 2026 public hearing.

[05:10:36] Could I please have a second? Second. Thank you. Any discussion? All in favor, say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Any discussion? All right. Thank you. Madam Clerk. Mr. Chair, you have six zoning requests on your consent agenda for this evening.

[05:10:53] For the benefit of the public, consent items are those cases where the applicant accepts staff's recommendation and there is no previous opposition. 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 24SN1345 in the Clover Hill Magisterial District. Butler Setback and Buffer Exception is a request for conditional use plan development to permit exceptions to ordinance requirements in a semi-urban neighborhood SU district known as

[05:11:26] 9600 Reams Road. The 5.82 acre property is developed with one existing single family dwelling and this request proposes subdivision to create a second lot. A single-family dwelling with a communications tower is located on the property today.

[05:11:44] The existing dwelling is unable to comply with today's setbacks as well as the buffer requirement for lots fronting along arterial roadways. Planning Commission and staff recommend approval subject to the conditions in your staff report. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Everyone, this is a public hearing for Case 24-SN-1345.

[05:12:03] That's the Butler, Sephack, and Buffer exception. Is there anyone who would like to speak to this case? If so, please come forward and state your name. Seeing no one, I'm going to go ahead and close the public hearing. It's back before the board. This is in the Clover Hill District.

[05:12:19] Ms. Schneider. Thank you. Yeah, this is a pretty straightforward. They're just trying to separate off the portion of the land they want to sell and keep the portion that has a mobile cell tower on it.

[05:12:40] So, I move to approve case number 24SN 134 with the subject to the, oh, 1345, I apologize. Subject to the conditions in the staff report.

[05:13:01] Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Anyone opposed? Madam Clerk. Next is 25SN 1121 in Bermuda Magisterial District. Racetrack at Ruffin Mill rezoning and adjustments is a request to rezone from employment center EC, agricultural A, and corridor commercial CC to warehouse and distribution WD with conditional use to permit gas station and convenience store with accessory tractor-trailer fueling plus adjustments to ordinance requirements for development standards on 11.31 acres located

[05:13:37] in the western corner of Ruffin Mill Road and Walthall Center Drive on property known as 2136 Ruffin Mill Road. The proposed use would feature a gas station that includes an 8,100 square foot convenience store, high flow diesel fueling lanes, tractor trailer parking spaces, and standard passenger vehicle fueling pumps. Planning Commission and staff recommend approval subject to the conditions in your staff report. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Everyone, this is a public hearing on Case 25SN1121, racetrack at Ruffin Mill rezoning and adjustments.

[05:14:13] Is there anyone who would like to speak to this case? If so, please come forward and state your name. Jerry Turner.

[05:14:32] This, you're not allowing enough room for tractor trailers in here. Gas station, yeah. But to try to get a tractor trailer in there, especially if you've got six of them trying to get in there one time or more, this is a bad, bad idea for what you want to call an 18-wheeler gas station.

[05:14:57] It's just not enough room there. It's probably okay for a gas station to service cars, but not for big rigs like that. Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to speak to this case? With that, I'm going to go ahead and close the public hearing.

[05:15:17] It's back before the board. This is in the Bermuda District. Mr. Engel. I will state first that there is a truck stop directly across the street from this that's already in place and been operating with no issues to get in and out.

[05:15:34] With that being said, I make the motion to approve case 25 SN1121 subject to conditions in the staff report. Thank you, Mr. Ingold. Do we have a second? Second. All right, any discussion? Yes, Ms. Snyder. Is it similar in size, the same acreage, or no?

[05:15:52] Yes, and this is right off of 95, right at the Walthau exit, and it's immediately off the exit. On the opposite side of the street is a current truck stop, and this is on the 95 side of that street. Got it. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Schneider. All in favor? Aye. Anyone opposed? Madam Clerk.

[05:16:14] Next is 25SN 1315 in Matulka Magisterial District. Richardson Farm Animals is a request for conditional use to promote a farm, keeping of farm animals in an agricultural aid district on 1.72 acres known as 3909 Lake View Road.

[05:16:31] The applicant is currently keeping four goats on the property and wishes to retain these goats that they currently have. planning commission and staff recommend approval subject to the conditions in your staff report. Everyone, this is a public hearing on case 25 SN1315, Richardson Farm Animals. Is there anyone who would like to speak to this case? If so, please come forward and state your name.

[05:16:56] Seeing no one, I'm going to go ahead and close this public hearing. It's back before the board. This is in the Motoka district. Mr. Carroll. Mr. Chair, no one actually came out and spoke against this it is for goats and I think they've been there for a while in the neighborhood I think it's a reasonable request make a motion to prove case number two five SN thirteen fifteen subject to the conditions in the staff report second I do have a discussion discussion there's been cases in the past where I've had some concern about too many animals per acre but I looked

[05:17:34] this one up, and this is totally within reason for the goats. So, I have no objection. I just want to be consistent because I've turned down other cases because there wasn't enough land for the animals. Thank you, Mr. Engel. Any other discussion? All in favor, say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Madam Clerk. Next is 26SN2022 in Dale Magisterial District, Southside Baptist Church child daycare is a request for conditional use to permit a child daycare center in a semi-urban

[05:18:09] neighborhood su district on 6.84 acres known as 6000 iron bridge road a child daycare center that serves preschool through school age children up to fifth grade is proposed the child daycare center would care for up to 50 children and operate monday through friday between 6 30 a.m until 6 p.m Planning Commission and staff recommend approval subject to the conditions in your staff report.

[05:18:36] Thank you, Madam Clerk. Everyone, this is a public hearing on Case 26, SN2022, Southside Baptist Church Child Daycare. Is there anyone who would like to speak to this case? If so, please come forward and state your name. Jerry Turner, what they've got here is what you need to have, a fence down there for the kids to play.

[05:19:07] If one came through a couple months ago or a month ago, they had a deck. They thought that's all they had to, somewhere, and I brought this up at planning, somewhere in the code, if they're going to open up a daycare, they need to have a fenced-in play area.

[05:19:25] I know y'all saw the article in the paper about a kid getting out on Chippenham Road. That church now has a fence all the way around that facility. So if they don't, somewhere in the regulations, if they're going to open a daycare center, they need to have a fenced-in play area.

[05:19:51] Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Turner. Anyone else would like to speak to this case? I'm going to go ahead and close the public hearing. It's back before the board. This is in the Dale District. Dr. Hilton. Now, I must say that we need more child care facilities in the district.

[05:20:11] So I'm glad that this church has stepped up and provided the adequate facility for residents of the Dale District to have child care at their doorstep. And also, I would say the staff here could also use it.

[05:20:29] You want to be very close to your kids. Father three, I can tell you that when they get sick, you want to run there. So I'm glad to see we're going to have this at our doorstep. So with that, I ask that I make a motion that we approve the case.

[05:20:47] Let me see. The case 26SN2022, subject to the conditions of the staff report. Thank you, Dr. Hilton. Do we have a second? Second. Any discussion?

[05:21:03] Aye. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Madam Clerk. Next is 26 SN 2049 in Midlothian Magisterial District, Muthusu-Bramanian Accessory Dwelling Unit is a request for conditional use to permit an accessory dwelling unit attached in a suburban community SC district known as 12103 Wexwood Place.

[05:21:29] The 0.79-acre property is developed with one single-family dwelling, and this request is for one accessory dwelling unit attached. The applicant plans to convert the existing basement into a living space for a family member to occupy. Planning Commission and staff recommend approval subject to the conditions in your staff report.

[05:21:49] Thank you, Madam Clerk. Everyone, this is a public hearing on Case 26 SN2049, Muth-Sabranian Accessory Dwelling Unit. Is there anyone who would like to speak to this case? So, please come forward and state your name. My name is Paige Muthi-Zubramani, and I submitted this request.

[05:22:06] Thank you for your consideration today. This is just to add a stovetop to our existing basement because the county code requires that anything with a second stove within your home be considered an accessory dwelling unit.

[05:22:21] I've been going through this process since February. I, too, have young kids at home. And so I also ask that you either reconsider the definition of an ADU or make this process more streamlined so that more of our residents can take in aging family members within their home.

[05:22:42] This will reduce the burden of new single-level living communities. I just feel like this process could have been a lot easier, including with the deed restriction that was required. I feel like the deed restriction, in addition to normal building permitting, should have accomplished everything that this goal was.

[05:23:02] Of the list of county organizations who had to approve my application, fire, safety, that was included, the county library had to approve this, and that just feels like it is an unnecessary burden.

[05:23:19] So, thank you. Yeah. Any other? Then I'm going to go ahead and close the public hearing. It's before the board. This is in, of course, the Midlothian District. I'm just going to go ahead and make the motion to approve 26 SN 2049, subject to the conditions in the staff report.

[05:23:39] Second. Any discussion? All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Madam Clerk. Last on your consent agenda is 26 SN 2066 in Midlothian Magisterial District. Wood Agricultural Rezoning is a request to rezone from Employment Center EC to Agricultural A on 26 acres fronting approximately 1,575 feet on the west side of Otterdale Road on property known as 900 Otterdale Road.

[05:24:09] The property is a residual portion of the Watkins Center South development that obtains zoning approval for a data center in 2025. The applicant intends to use it for agricultural purposes since it was not intended to serve the data center development to the West.

[05:24:25] Planning Commission and staff recommend approval subject to the conditions in your staff report. Everyone, this is a public hearing on 26 SN 2066, Wood Agricultural Rezoning. Is there anyone who would like to speak to this case? If so, please come forward and state your name.

[05:24:43] With that, I'm going to go ahead and close the public hearing. It's back before the board. Is there a chance that there's someone from staff that could have a question? If they'd be willing to come up. Good evening, Dr. Miller.

[05:25:01] Good evening. How are you? Good, good. So I'm looking at the case there, and I'm noticing that what they're interested in doing here is to return it back to agricultural. Yes, sir. Would this be a good example of a setback or something that could help with any noise that would come from a data center?

[05:25:19] I think the subject property here in this case is setting up an example of where they are taking out the previously permitted data center use in the property. It's going to go back to agricultural, which is only going to allow for agricultural uses at best.

[05:25:35] And this property also has a RPA feature that's going to also set up a buffering between itself and then the future data center that was approved previously to the property, to the north and the west of the subject that's highlighted on the current slide, so.

[05:25:52] The answer is yes, right? Yes, sir, yes. Okay, so that would serve as a buffer, right? Correct, the RPA will not be able to be impacted or cleared. Right, okay, and I'm curious to know, at the bottom there is kind of like a white space there. What's going on there?

[05:26:08] The white space that's inset down there by the label, that's actually adjacent property, not part of this case, and it was not part of the other data center approval. Right, so there's actually property there that is um would would be protected as far as a buffer is concerned correct meaning that if there were any sound that were coming from a data center that they would be protected from that better correct just to be clear you're referring to this area down here is that yes sir dr miller so yes those are actually already occupied by dwellings they're already developed for single family homes not part of the case and they will actually be protected by the down zoning of this

[05:26:44] property to agriculture. That's exactly right. And I want to make the point that here we are having a case that is when we're trying to add additional buffer, we're trying to find a way to go ahead. And I want to just appreciate the property owner and the fact that they were willing to down zone this case, which unfortunately people are not going to realize, especially folks that in this room because they left so okay and with that in mind i'm going to go ahead and approve

[05:27:17] the down zoning of case and i've lost track of the number 26 sn 2066 um subject to the conditions in the staff report can i get a second please second yeah all in favor any discussion all in favor say aye aye anyone opposed thank you madam clerk mr chair you have one discussion case which is 25 SN 1153 Marlbank Farms residential rezoning and adjustments. Mr. Ellis. Good evening Mr. Chair,

[05:27:50] members of the board, Mr. Harris. 25 SN 1153 in the Mitoika district is a request to rezone from the suburban community district to the semi-urban neighborhood and semi-rural neighborhood districts with adjustments to ordinance requirements for development standards. The property is outlined in white above. As illustrated on the aerial plan, this site's currently undeveloped and the land use plan designation is RN4 for this property. A residential development proposing 302 single-family

[05:28:25] cluster-style lots is proposed. The minimum lot area for the cluster-style lots on the southern portion of the proposal will be 4,500 square feet for a minimum. Additionally, at least 30 lots on the northern part of the development will have a minimum square footage of 40,000 square feet.

[05:28:43] The overall density of the proposal is 1.42 dwelling units per acre. Requested adjustments ordinance requirements include relief from constructing a shared use path, sidewalk segment along Hickory Road, and allowing a parallel utility easement within required buffers. These are the applicant's proposed elevations of the homes. In addition to proper variation in elevation, acceptable siding materials include brick, stone, masonry, fiber cement, engineered wood siding, or high-grade vinyl are all permitted. These are additional elevations. The proposed development

[05:29:21] provides quality design and architecture resulting in an attractive and harmonious community, which will result in reduction in density and unit count currently permitted on the property. I do want to clarify one aspect of the school projection numbers included in the school section of the staff report. The 2030 program capacity projection for the Matoika Middle School numbers are actually much better than what are reported in the report at 80.2% to 82.8% program capacity. The staff report currently reflects them at being over 105%, which is an

[05:29:58] error in the report, and this information was verified with schools this afternoon. The planning commission and staff do recommend approval. We'll be happy to answer any questions. Thank you so much. The board members, do you have any questions for staff? Mr. Chair, I do. Yes, sir. This property, subject property, was zoned originally for residential back in 2006, is that correct?

[05:30:27] And the amount of units that were zoned in 2006 were approximately 330, is that correct? Correct. And part of the comprehensive plan in this area, which was approved many years ago, and I don't know exactly what date it was, but it was before I got on the board, the density that's allocated here for all of the land around this is actually four units per acre.

[05:30:56] Correct. Is that correct? Yes. And at one time, there was another company that came in and proposed to do 790 units in another zoning case on this property. Is that correct? Yes, that was withdrawn, but yes. But part of that would have required them to put a sewer line along the backside of this property, which would go from this property east to approximately 3,000 feet.

[05:31:24] And back then, I remember in that case that the people who owned the property did not want to allow for a right-of-way for the sewer line, and therefore the case stopped because of that. Is that correct? I'm actually going to let utilities answer that question, if you don't mind.

[05:31:40] Okay. Is anybody here?

[05:31:53] Good evening, Mr. Chair, Mr. Carroll, Board of Supervisors. Matt Ramble, Utilities Department. Mr. Carroll, you're correct. The utility easement challenges extending that 3,000-foot sewer extension was one of, I believe, several issues challenging that previous case.

[05:32:09] Besides the numbers, I mean, it met the comprehensive plan at less than 800. Hypothetically, if in the future, if someone decided to own that land, decided to sell the right-of-way for a sewer line, and you could put a sewer line in from here, 3,000 feet east, would that also open up all of the other land in this area for development?

[05:32:33] That's right. Making public wastewater available to that region, it would open it up for development. Water is already available. Correct. along the majority of the roadways through there yes but there is sewer capacity across the street for some of the residences that are proposed on this is that correct that's correct but the application is before us this evening the the smaller uh lot area lots those areas have been analyzed by utility department staff and can be served by the sewer to the south um thank you i think another well let me ask you this question on the back side of this where the estate lots are going i think there's a proposal to turn the rest of that into a conservation easement is that

[05:33:12] Correct. Did I hear that right from staff? I'll look back to planning for that one. Yep, yep. Yes, that is correct. Okay. Back to utilities. If that was to become a conservation easement, how difficult would it be to come back later if someone changed their mind and decided to sell the other parcels for right away?

[05:33:38] How difficult would it be for them to come back in and put a sewer line in through a conservation easement? We're requesting, or the applicant, part of their proposal on this project is proffering dedication of a sewer easement to allow for a future extension and utilities as we're looking at this area septic systems can certainly last for a long time but over a long enough timeline the county may desire constructing sewer through here so we're getting the applicant to proffer it so it may be available at some point in the future but certainly not a part of the proposal that's before us other than that potential future access okay

[05:34:12] So somebody else in the future who sits on the Board of Supervisors could come in and propose that they, through eminent domain, number one, provide a sewer line through there. Is that right?

[05:34:29] So they would be recording it with this. That's only on their property. Correct, on this property. I'm talking about the other people who own the other land. But downstream, that missing easement, correct. Someone could come in and say, we're going to take your land through eminent domain and put a sewer line through there, starting from here all the way down across all of the other properties. That's correct.

[05:34:45] if one of the proposals that I'm proposing, which is to change the comprehensive plan and reduce all of the densities around this land back to agricultural, it would make it more difficult for someone on the Board of Supervisors in the future to come in and do that, right? That's right. And it would make it more difficult for an applicant to come in and say, I want to now develop all this land, because actually the comprehensive plan would not call for that type of density. Is that correct? Correct. Okay. That's all the questions I have for staff for now. I may have questions for

[05:35:20] the applicant. Is the applicant present? Let's go ahead. There is no public hearing here, is there? Yeah, the applicant will get a chance to present before the public hearing. Yeah. Good evening, Mr. Chairman, members of the board. Jeff Geiger here on behalf of the applicant. We've been here late this evening. I have a presentation. I won't go through it other than to show a couple quick

[05:35:53] slides. As Mr. Carroll mentioned, it was originally rezoned. The property does have lots entitled on it. It was 330 homes. Another proposal came in for 700. It was not the view that the applicant, Mr. Emerson, had for this property. He asked a different question. Is there a better way to implement a reduction of the number of homes that were entitled and provide more open space? And so So we came up with this new vision, cluster of the homes, adding large lots, and creating that conservation area.

[05:36:25] And this is the slide I wanted to get to that kind of gets to some of the questions that were being asked before I got up here. The area in red is that area in conservation. Yes, the utilities department did ask us to put in a proffer to allow for future extension of the wastewater, but your planning staff was also working with us in conjunction to make sure that there is no other development within this area that is green and it will be forever locked down.

[05:36:57] You said the area in red, it's green. Green. I guess I am. For everybody else in the room, it's the area in green. Area in green. I apologize. That came out of my mouth. It's been a long night, but, yes, the area in green is what I was referring to.

[05:37:17] It will be locked down. You will not have additional lots here. We are just facilitating the county's desire for an easement, should they ever need it in the future. So with that, we believe we have a great project for this property that reduces the total number of lots on the property and really represents the last line within that existing wastewater line that Mr. Renbolt was talking about.

[05:37:46] This will be the last portion of the property that can be serviced by that line. This ends development on that line and development in the area, as Mr. Carroll noted. With that, I would ask that the board approve the rezoning request before you, subject to the property conditions set out in your staff report.

[05:38:08] Thank you, Mr. Geiger. Board members, are there any questions for the applicant? I reserve my questions for now. I think there's some people from the committee who want to speak. Okay. Everyone, this is a public hearing on case 26 SN 1153, Morrow Bank Farms, residential rezoning and adjustments.

[05:38:27] Is there anyone who would like to speak to this case? If so, please come forward and state your name. Linda Kidd Fleshman. My husband and I are highly opposed to the density of this proposed subdivision and all the problems it will bring.

[05:38:46] Even more chaotic traffic on narrow two-lane country roads, noise, trash, overcrowded schools, Contrary to what your statistics say, overburdened first responders, destruction of both natural resources and wildlife habitats, just to name a few.

[05:39:03] This project brings zero direct or indirect benefit to the Matulka community. The only beneficiaries from this project are Chesterfield's tax coffers and the developers' deep pockets. Adding concrete channeling along Hickory Road and the loss of viable soil will increase flooding issues for our adjoining property.

[05:39:23] due to less absorption and increased runoff. We've already experienced this firsthand since roadway changes were made to accommodate Maturka Middle School across the street from our home. The loss of trees, green space, vegetation, combined with increased asphalt, cement surfaces, will increase local temperatures.

[05:39:42] The loss of natural wildlife habitats, including the destruction of migratory birds' nesting grounds, will force animals to seek food and shelter in neighboring yards. The dramatic increase in unnatural lighting will confuse wildlife, cause loss of species in the area, and prevent stargazing.

[05:40:01] People live in the Matulka community, a small part of the Matulka district, because they like the rural atmosphere, open farmland, trees, wildlife, etc. They live here because they don't want to live in the Midlothian Hall Street area, no offense, or near the density of a city and the problems it brings.

[05:40:21] The village of Matulka doesn't want or need this proposed urban sprawl by developers reshaping our landscape for their company's profit. There is no housing shortage in the village of Matulka, and there is no infrastructure to support this proposed subdivision. One house per five acres would be the most appropriate for the property in question, and similar to the surrounding area.

[05:40:44] Clearly, the density should be no more than one house per acre. The current zoning approved in 2006 was not appropriate then or now, and the current zoning request is not appropriate for our community either. This proposed development by Emerson Companies will be detrimental to both the area and the quality of life that Matoaka Village residents currently enjoy.

[05:41:07] We implore you, Chesterfield County Supervisors, stop the out-of-control growth now and keep the village in Matoaka a more rural, natural, thriving community. Don't inflict this density on our citizens. Inappropriate zoning was approved 20 years ago, but it should not be used to the detriment of current residents. And just because one has the right to do something, in this case, cram over 300 houses on 213 rural farmland acres, doesn't mean it's the right thing

[05:41:38] to do. And everyone in this room, including Mr. Emerson himself, knows that. Hello, I'm Dennis Fleshman. I'm married to that wonderful woman there. I've lived there for 15 years. I grew up as a country boy in French George County. I moved to Dinwiddie and lived there for 10 years on seven acres when I met my wife. So I just chose to move to Matoka on four acres of wooded area right next

[05:42:17] to this farm and I enjoyed it. It's pretty peaceful and I'm not against development. I know things will eventually get developed and that's a piece of land, but that kind of density is just not for that area. I mean, Mr. Carroll knows the area. Well, I don't know if y'all drove down Hickory Road and going by the middle school, but it's a rural area. And there's so much traffic now that a traffic circle was put in just a half mile from there.

[05:42:51] Traffic circle. Now, why do they need a traffic circle unless they already had enough traffic to warrant that? And we have an excessive amount of traffic, period, from the middle school and the elementary school from parents dropping their kids off and bringing them in the morning and the evening.

[05:43:10] Well, let me talk about the development. One, the retention pond across the street that was created in front of the middle school, They say retention ponds don't flood. That retention pond has flooded multiple times, and it's only getting the water from the front parking lot.

[05:43:25] And it spills over, goes into a ditch, comes across the street and dumps in a creek beside me, right beside our property, and has filled up our driveway, covered our bottom driveway, the water from it. So then additional water coming down the road is going to make that situation even worse.

[05:43:44] And as far as the not developing the surrounding area to save the green space, it's a creek. Big Branch Creek on the oldest map I can find is there. It's drawn out. The creek begins from springs on my property.

[05:44:03] There's water literally coming out of the ground. Then the creek joins and goes right around the back of that property. You cannot develop the back of that property. There's no way. There's no way you could develop the back of the property. The back lots is going to be buttoned right up against the lower levels in the creek area.

[05:44:21] It's wet. And we've had, it actually shrinks well soil like the gentleman said in the last meeting because we've had to spend $18,000 to remediate water under our house, which is our land is the same level as the field.

[05:44:40] And right now, there's water stands in the field all the time. The developer's going to run into all kind of issues with clay and foundations. Our well's only 24 feet deep, and it's never gone dry. So what does that tell you? The water level is high.

[05:44:57] Water's going to be a problem. Foundation's going to be a problem. And the traffic, as far as a crosswalk there, that's a joke. You'd have to hire a police officer to get the people across the street because people run over us. Mr. Fleschman, your three minutes are up. People run over us walking our dog across the legitimate crosswalk between the park and the school.

[05:45:16] Thank you. Thank you, sir.

[05:45:29] Steve Meadows. I am familiar with that area of the county. And it confuses me that you have a density area and then a low density area. Why not make it all the same, either low density or not? I know people want to make a profit, a lot of profit.

[05:45:46] And you do have to have concern now about water. So I'm baffled why you're approving a city-size subdivision and then a countryside subdivision.

[05:46:12] some heels. Renee Eldred here. There's been so many people that did not want this here, and I know that most of the time y'all say it's by law we have to have a reason. Maybe this is one of the cases that we can say no and take our chances with the court to see what happens.

[05:46:46] I'm under the understanding that if it does go to court, if any case goes to court and they come back and want to build they have to build by the standards that are in the ordinances with setbacks and everything so i mean the back end maybe not so bad but the front end and in this area it is so dense and i know the zoning ordinances allow that now to to get your your concentration in in your

[05:47:21] areas, and it's at, what, 1.4 units per acre or something, but it's still so concentrated in that front that it's not going to fit Metolica. It's just not. It's with the amount, I know there's not very many people here now, but there was quite a few at the meetings, and I don't know, maybe we ought to start testing the waters with the court system, so thanks.

[05:47:55] Jerry Turner. It's another one in case y'all need to say no. So, all you got to do is say no and deal with it later on, but you need to start saying no. Thank you.

[05:48:15] Are there any other speakers? With that, I'm going to go ahead and close the public hearing. It's back before the board. This case is in the Matoika district. Mr. Carroll. I'm sorry.

[05:48:31] Did you? We don't have to, but don't you normally offer the applicant an opportunity for a bubual? After he closes the public meeting. I have no problem at this point if the applicant would like to provide one. Thank you. I just didn't want to skip over it. Okay. Thank you.

[05:48:46] I appreciate the opportunity, Mr. Chair, Mr. Carroll. We heard this evening from some of the comments about what are the public benefits. In my abbreviated presentation, I didn't talk about how we are straightening the curve.

[05:49:04] We are widening the road out in front of us, and we are going to provide a crosswalk so that the residents here can get to the school. These will be one of those crosswalks that you see with the yellow flashing beacons, not just a standard crosswalk.

[05:49:22] We heard about stormwater and water. I don't know when that pond was created for the middle school, but as you know, we have enhanced stormwater requirements that are far more stringent than when that stormwater pond was created.

[05:49:37] We have to comply with those stormwater requirements that are in place now, not then. If we do have water, if we do have poor soils, the density goes down.

[05:49:55] We don't get to make it up somewhere else. That was one of the points your planning staff worked hard with us on, why we have the conservation area. If we lose lots, we can't make them up anywhere else, and the density will go down.

[05:50:14] That's our risk. We talked about, we heard comments about Matoka Village. It is a great place to live.

[05:50:29] It is a rural area, but we do have smaller lots, smaller subdivisions to the south of the school along this very line, this very line that we're using, where we're at the end of the line. And I would submit that we do need to give people an opportunity to live in this area.

[05:50:52] We have an opportunity to do that here, yes, the slots are smaller, but they will be great neighbors just like the existing neighbors that are in this area.

[05:51:08] They will care for their community, they will be active in the community, and they will enjoy the conservation area on this property and the rural lifestyle that everybody else gets to enjoy. We just get to do it at a price point that people can move into, where we can get them the opportunity to live in this area.

[05:51:31] So with that, I would suggest or ask again that the Board approve the rezoning request before you, subject to the proper conditions set out in the staff report. Thank you, Mr. McGregor.

[05:51:46] With that, I'm going to go ahead and move this. This is in the Motoka district, Mr. Carroll. Question for staff.

[05:52:03] In the old zoning case in 2006 that's approved, were the stormwater regulations different back in 2006 and what they're required to put in compared to what they're required to put in today? Maybe utilities can answer that question. I know the answer is yes, but I need everybody to understand the difference.

[05:52:25] Mr. Spadley's actually not feeling well tonight, so I gave him the night off, but I can certainly answer that. The answer is yes. The regulations for stormwater were very different back in 2006. So if that case in the future gets built, they're not required to put B&B ponds in or water retention like they are in this case.

[05:52:44] Is that correct? The 2006 case? Yeah. They would actually have to install B&B's. Okay. Yeah. So the entitlement of the zoning of the property would be different than the stormwater regulations. They have to do them then? Correct.

[05:53:00] Okay. All right. Just wanted to make sure, one way or the other, because I think one of the things that wasn't spoke to tonight, and I'm going to ask the applicant that question now. Thank you. Where's the applicant? So you're required now, in this case, to control the water runoff from that property. Is that correct? Yes, sir. Am I seeing where the BMP ponds are, one on the left and one on the right? Is that what the blue space is? The blue spaces are actually our amenity space, one of your requirements. So where are the BMP ponds that are going to control the water runoff?

[05:53:39] we will still have to engineer them into the site. So if they're not in the site now and you have to engineer them in, then possibly you could even lose more lots. Because you're not going to be able to put them in where the conservation easement is. Correct. We cannot put them where the area in green is.

[05:53:58] Is there a calculation on how big those? We haven't done the engineering on that. That's done at Plans Review. Okay. And one other point just to make, I know some people urged denial because it's reasonable.

[05:54:15] The standard here is it is zoned, and we're reducing the density down. So we think we've come up with a better project than what was originally put in place. And so we feel this is a much better outcome for the area than what was originally approved in 2006.

[05:54:38] I know that staff wants, in this case for you or the applicant, to dedicate a right-of-way for a future sewer line. What if I took that out of the zoning case?

[05:54:57] How would the applicant feel about that? No concern. And that would, I know staff's not going to like that, but it would, in fact, make it more difficult in the future for someone to come in and rezone the land again around this and put a sewer line in, because then they'd have to, it would be part of a conservation easement.

[05:55:19] And I would submit to you the value, if that take had to occur in the future, the fact that it's restricted down to conservation, the value is very low. It's 4C that you would want to make a motion to exclude, accept the proper.

[05:55:35] You would just not accept the proper. Accept the proper. Except for the proper, but not proper 4C. But not 4C. Okay. The only thing by taking it out, the easement out, would be that it would be more difficult if you take it out for other properties around there to develop at the five-acre lots, which are agricultural right now in that area around it.

[05:56:03] So it would make it less easy to be able to do that. That being said, it's really honestly six on one end, half a dozen on the other. If you leave it in there and somehow someone's septic in the area failed, it's probably going to cost too much for them to get the line there, but it would still give them a path.

[05:56:23] But once you put that conservation easement in, that area can not come back for zoning later. green is done when you put the conservation easement on it okay i think my concern is not just that area though my concern is all the properties around it mr ringer your mic's not on sorry that's what you'd be eliminating if you take it out is the ability for anybody in that

[05:56:55] area to go to sewer later and um for people to develop later because it's going to cost too much and it's just going to make it not feasible to develop if you take it out so just so that i understand the the sewer line that's there can you show us where that currently is where it would be it's not there where it would be it's an easement show me the easement is that the red there um here i'd be glad i'd be glad to show you mr dr miller um the easement that they're that dpu's requesting or utilities requesting would run along the creek here and come down uh you may recall in

[05:57:35] the um conversation that mr carroll had before i got up here for my presentation right um there is a sewer, Mr. Renbolt can come down and correct me if I'm wrong, but there's basically a sewer connection way over here, about 3,000 feet away, and then you'd have to then, the right side, yeah, and so you, so you would then have to keep going to make that connection for that sewer line, so it ultimately, the sewer would be pulled this way and through. So just so I understand, the, the density of the folks that are in the southern part of this property, they would have

[05:58:12] sewer correct yeah it comes if you look at the bottom of the screen i just drew an arrow it comes from the uh whether that's going to be the south so we're only talking about the so even the properties that are in the center on the northern side they would all be septic or sewer they would be septic so the northern part would be septic but the southern part would be sewer yes and the conversation we're having right now is that easement that would be going along the northern

[05:58:44] to the western side yes sir i have a question how much density from the current entitlement to this case what's the the decrease in the number of units 28 units were reduced so it's 28 less than they could build right now because we can't take away the 2006 zoning that's correct if we

[05:59:16] don't pass this the 2006 zoning stays in effect by law so um it's if we say no then they could come back and build 28 26 what did you say 23 no i'm talking about more 28 more so if we pass this the area can have max would be 28 less than there would if we don't pass it correct however we don't know where the bmps are ultimately going to go which means that it's probably going to be even

[05:59:50] less correct it's probably going to be more than 28 less because you're right there's no way with today's current standards on those bmps that they're going to be able to keep that density and would like the conservation area does permit bmds yeah so you can put them in the grid could but what's the topo look like yeah every this falls this way and this falls this way so this area down here would be served by a BMP in this area. This area would be served by a BMP in this area. But you can't put it in the blue, though, because that's your amenity space, right? Yeah.

[06:00:27] The question was, does the color blue represent BMPs? The answer is no. It represents amenity space, but we are allowed to put BMPs in amenity space. They're just not shown up here.

[06:00:53] You can incorporate a BMP into an amenity, but it's going to have to have other features to be part of the amenity space. It can't just be a BMP and be called an amenity. It has to have other features, sidewalks around it, maybe a fountain in it, things like that.

[06:01:12] You can't just have it as a BMP and call it an amenity. And you don't count the water surface. Could you tell me what size those smaller houses are going to be and what you consider to be more affordable?

[06:01:32] The square footage of the houses themselves? The smaller ones, yeah. Yeah, it would be somewhere between 16 and 2,000 square feet. Okay. And what is the starting price? Are you estimating? $399 to $499 to $499.

[06:01:53] You can't build in the market today anything less than $400. All right. Thank you.

[06:02:25] Well, Mr. Chair, we had two community meetings on this. And I know that there were a lot of people who came to the community meetings. And I don't think there was, truthfully, anybody that lives in this area of Matoka that was in favor of the zoning case.

[06:02:43] At least that's not what I got from the room. The applicant has tried, in my opinion, to reduce the density here. The one thing that was brought forward at the community meeting had to do with the sewer question.

[06:03:04] If this property was to be done in 330 units, as we spoke about earlier, it would require sewer to get connected all the way across and all the way down to work. The applicant came in and said, well, there is actually sewer capacity across the street that could service the southern section.

[06:03:24] And I think as part of the zoning case, they've actually proffered to improve that sewer line. And this, to me, has been a difficult case because I know the people that live in the area. I know the people that don't want the development here.

[06:03:44] So I'm really perplexed because if you leave it, in the future someone can come in and do the 330 units. If you change it, we reduce the density here. And if we strike the sewer line from it, it makes it even more difficult for anybody to develop anything else in the future around here, which is what the people in Matoka want.

[06:04:11] But what has not been spoken about tonight and what would happen when we change the comprehensive plan. And I've asked certainly the people who have spoken to come and speak to the public meetings that we're going to hold on the comprehensive plan. And we've had the discussions, we've all had discussions with our planning commissioners and with staff on different changes to the comprehensive plan.

[06:04:35] We just haven't scheduled the public meetings yet. But all the land around here that is currently in the comprehensive plan for four units or more, which is, you can't see in this picture. If you could scroll back to the original first page of the zoning case, please, so the community can see it.

[06:04:59] First, that picture would work, too. That one there. Nope. Next one up. That one. Okay. All of that, I guess, yellowish-orange land that you see where it says residential neighborhood four, all of it right now in the comprehensive plan is zoned for four units per acre.

[06:05:20] We're going to change that, provided everybody from the community comes out and supports that. But the thing you have to understand, if we do it, if we take away the ability to put a sewer in and we change all those residential densities down, all those lands are owned by private individuals.

[06:05:40] They're not owned by developers. They're owned by people who are just regular people like the people who spoke tonight in the community. And when you do that, you devalue their land. You devalue their ability to make money on their capital investment in the future.

[06:05:56] And it may not just be for them today. It could be for their children in the future who inherit that land, who are then put in a position where they can no longer sell that capital investment to make any money. But I'm willing to do that because in the future someone else can get elected and they can come back before the board and say, well, can you change it back?

[06:06:16] Because somebody else did it in the past. Some previous board member in the Matoka district thought it was appropriate to put higher density here. Some previous board members thought it was appropriate to put in place for an east-west freeway to come all the way through the heart of Matoka and allow for future higher density.

[06:06:36] And this board removed the east-west freeway. I don't think that, and it could have been the thought that this particular property could have been served, but it's actually not close to where the east-west freeway would have affected it. But I'm perplexed because I have a zoning case that is well below the density of the comprehensive plan.

[06:07:01] There is nothing in the staff report that says that this is an issue. There's nothing from the fire department that says they can't provide service. There's nothing from the police department that says they can't provide service. There's nothing from anything in the staff report that says they can't provide service for this.

[06:07:20] So I look at it and go, okay, so where is, and I've said this many times before, Where's the legal justification to deny the zoning case? I have another one coming up that actually has one that is an issue. So, you know, I'm in a tough spot here, Mr. Chair, because I have my personal feelings and then I have my legal obligation, which is conflicting me.

[06:07:50] And certainly the rest of the board will have an opportunity to vote. But under the comprehensive plan and under what's been presented by the applicant, I don't see where I legally have a choice but to make a motion to approve this case.

[06:08:07] Other board members may feel differently, and they may vote differently. But I have to look at the law and whether or not we'll get sued. And I will ask our attorney, Mr. Minx, if without having a legal justification that's designated in this case, if we were to deny it, would the applicant have an opportunity to sue us?

[06:08:33] Yeah, I mean, that would be why an applicant would sue us. And I'll be honest with you, we've not analyzed this case to determine whether there is some justification to deny it.

[06:08:53] So I don't know that I can, you know, but based on what we've heard so far, you know, it sounds like you've got recommendations of approval from both staff and planning commissioners. And the planning commissioner approved it 5-0, I believe, didn't they? And I guess the fact remains what you pointed out before, and that is that this property is already zoned.

[06:09:15] It can already be developed at a density higher than what's before you right now. So that is the state of the property at this point. All right. Well, Mr. Chair, my motion would be to approve case number 25 SN 1153, subject to the conditions and the staff report.

[06:09:36] Thank you, Mr. Carroll. Can I have a second? I'll second it because it's a lower density, and even if we change the comprehensive plan in that area, it does not take away this case that's already been passed and its ability to have more units than it currently does now.

[06:10:02] So I understand exactly what you're saying and why this is such a tough case, but in the end, we're making less ability for people to build there than we otherwise would be. So I'm going to second the motion.

[06:10:19] I'm going to move toward discussion because there's some things I want to say. Did you want to say something, Ms. Schneider? So I was leaning towards saying no on this, but I didn't realize that it was already zoned ahead of time. There's no, like, magic denial somewhere, hidden anywhere, staff.

[06:10:48] Okay. I just, I look at that, the number of houses there just doesn't feel, I mean, I don't know. I don't know what they were thinking that they could. I mean, did they think that they were going to build on top of the conservation area before?

[06:11:05] Is that why there were so many houses? It wasn't a conservation area. Well, okay. What I'm saying is that it looks like all wetlands. I mean, did they think they were going to build on top of wetlands? That's way bigger than that page looks. There's plenty of room to build in there. Now, would they build a building as much?

[06:11:21] Maybe, maybe not. Yeah. Okay. Any other thoughts? Dr. Hilton, do you have any thoughts? No, Chair. No? Okay. I mean, I'm kind of on the same page in that what's different about this case, as opposed to the two cases that I was wrestling with last month, is that this one is already zoned.

[06:11:47] And so because it's already zoned, now what is left to be attempted is to improve it, at least improve the current zoning, which I see the effort that is being placed into attempting to figure out what to do. I am concerned with regard to the comprehensive plan and we went through ZOMOD that I was so concerned around whether there were loopholes in ZOMOD that if in the event,

[06:12:26] they could call it amenity space now, which amenities can be defined in many different ways and in here, what I'm hearing now is that one of the ways that this can be defined is to see if it's possible to move the water into each side of the dense zoning and as Mr. Ingle is saying put a path around it in a fountain and that would be the amenity. You would still have to have the number of percentage of acreage in there and the water surface itself doesn't count. Does not count.

[06:13:03] does not count right so what that would lead to most likely is a drop in the density would that be a right view once they go through the environmental engineering and all of that my my guess is they're going to lose something but i couldn't give you any idea how much they're going to lose if i can't guarantee that but that's my guess all right okay miss senator i just feel like you know they if if they know that that's the case right now they're basically just trying

[06:13:39] to jam in as many as they possibly can to make as much money as they can and and figure out a way of getting around the water that's the um i don't know i guess that's kind of my take on it and i i get it that's what builders are as my husband would say you know people are in business to make money but sometimes it's, yeah. The one thing that I think didn't get discussed that happened in the community meeting, people talked about lowering the density, and so the developer did drop it by

[06:14:12] 10, and he also proffered, and I think I can ask the applicant if I'm correct on this, that 25% of these units would be age-targeted. Is that correct? Yes, 25% are age-targeted, so they will have first floor living. And then to the question on amenity space, remember also really amenity space is the equivalent of open space. And then your ordinance has what's called strategic amenity space. Strategic amenity space is where you find the improvements that you actively use, either

[06:14:46] passive or active recreation. The clubhouse, the pavilion, the landscaped area, the playground, and that's noted in pink. And so, it is within, as we go and design, the layout that you have here is something, when we go through that TRC process that your planning staff has, they ask us to prove that we have enough space to satisfy your amenity space requirements and your strategic amenity space requirements. And so, that's all this plan does. It just identifies that we, A, can meet it, but when we get into final engineering and we have to design the ponds, we have to design the roads,

[06:15:23] and we have to look at the soils, and we have to look at the roads. We will lose density. This will have constraints that will force changes. And so, that's our risk. We can't come back and say, "Hey, we want to move these smaller lots into the large lot area." That can't happen. And so, if we lose some of the lots in the upper part, the northern part, because a lot doesn't perk, we lose a lot. We can't make it up somewhere else. And so we really feel like it's stricken

[06:16:01] in a way that we bear the risk of what we're showing you here today is what we can achieve. And if we can't, that's our problem. Mr. Chair? Yes, Dr. Hill. So when you all go to site plan, then if it is a reason you can't build on it, you're going to be rejected during the site plan process so really you're asking for the highest density now and then you're hoping that it's going to be cut down during site plan yeah well not hoping or you or you you're hoping you're not

[06:16:40] but but i mean yeah we kind of we i mean as i look at it right as i look at it i think it's going to be likely cut down i bear the risk and so so you yeah so i just want to make sure i fully understand because I mean that's as I read through the case that's what I I kind of felt that the real determination is going to be made during a site plan and let's say we what you hear today wasn't quite true because they're on the south side we're on the north side we have better soils we can we

[06:17:14] actually can get more yield I don't have the opportunity to go up it's a cap can't go up above it and if I bear the risk if I don't get there and if the density and the facts that you've heard today say that no the soils are bad we we got water we got issues that at when we turn in all the final engineering with the site plan process your team reviews it in detail your your environmental engineering team looks at our stormwater plants make sure they're in compliance with the stringent stormwater laws that we now have to comply with and if all of a sudden that means we have to lose

[06:17:52] some density then that's what happens and i just want to be clear in that the the most dense area is currently farmland it is currently farmland there are no trees there you can walk in uh drive by and you're looking straight into the field another element that's within this request is we have to build a six and a half foot berm along hickory hill road along hickory road redid that because there is no trees to provide screening as you're driving on hickory road you're about three and a half four feet in height you're going to look into a grassy berm that's planted

[06:18:31] with new landscaping, and so the perspective of the community will differ with this improvement along Hickory. Got it. Any other discussion? Mr. Chair, I would also say if the soils are bad and they can't build on that lot for whatever reason, they would lose those lots as well, so if it was just because if we were to approve this, it doesn't mean that that's what they can build right because if the actual conditions on the property don't allow for building there then

[06:19:08] they will lose that land too so i mean this whole case in my opinion turns on the truth the fact it's already zoned that that that that's that's it just it's already zoned uh any other discussion all right with that all in favor aye aye any opposed madam clerk i'm not sure that the uh Was the motion made with the rejection of that profit condition?

[06:19:41] You know, Mr. Chair, I do need to make a motion. No, you didn't ever make the motion. I'm so sorry. Yes, sir, we did. Mr. Carroll, you did make a motion. It was seconded by Mr. Engel. No, no, we made a motion to approve subjecting conditions to Stafford Court, but I actually wanted to strike the language for the profit.

[06:19:57] How do we handle that? Well, you're fine. It's just that he's just saying that's not the motion that I intended to make. That's correct. It's not the motion I intended to make. I intended to strike the sewer line. And I thought that that was the motion that you intended to make. So I'm just clarifying that.

[06:20:14] So with that logic of striking the sewer line, can you explain to me what the logic is for striking the sewer line? Sure. It's going to make it more difficult in the future for people to develop the land around there because they won't have access to a sewer line. Who would be paying for the sewer line?

[06:20:30] The developer. And if they were to put in that sewer line, And would that then open the doorway for them to put in the larger lots? Well, the developer wouldn't be required. Here's the other thing. If this case passes as is and you leave the sewer line in, the developer is not going to be required to put the sewer line in.

[06:20:47] The developer is going to be required to leave the easement. If someone else comes down the road and they change the density back and they say, we're going to allow for all the density to come out here, which I don't think they would get elected, frankly, if they tried. but if they did then the next development over not this one the next development over would be required to put the sewer line in and when you add this run of sewer line to what they would have to put in the other piece it becomes unfeasible for them to afford to do it which means if we take the sewer line out the easement out they take that sewer line easement out right right or even if

[06:21:26] leave it in it doesn't matter because the next guy in is going to be the one required to pay for it they're not going to be able to afford to do it they're going to go i can't do it even if we get the right of way on the other side they they can't do it because and they're not going to be able to make the numbers work because i'm not sure what the what the what the run is there mr geiger do you know what the length of the the print of the property is on left on that side i do not but it's thousands, over a thousand feet long.

[06:21:57] Yeah. Probably 2,000. So whether you leave it in or take it out, it's prohibitive in the future once we change the comprehensive plan around it. Mr. Chairman, if I could just interject this, and I think that what Mr. Rumble would say is that since it would be prohibited with the easement in the case or without the easement in the case, his preference would definitely be for the easement to remain in the case and for you to accept that proper.

[06:22:24] But I think the preference of the community would be to remove it. And I understand that, but I just want to make sure that... I know what Matt's preference is. But if indeed is prohibited in either scenario, his preference would be to have easement. I'd like to ask someone else if I can, just if I'm permitted to do that, Mr. Chair.

[06:22:45] Yeah. What do you think? Okay. I'm going to amend my... The motion that I made was not what I meant to make. I would like to make a motion now to approve case number 25SN1153, subject to the Conditioned Staff Report, except, and I had it up here a minute ago.

[06:23:06] 4C, I think. Is it C? 4C. 4C, which was the requirement for the developer to have to put a right-of-way easement in for a sewer line. Correct. But I would like that to remain a buffer. Well, it will be because it's in a conservation easement, but that's fine.

[06:23:27] And I will amend my second to align with your motion. Is there any further discussion? I have one other question. So let's walk down the path of if you had to put in a septic tank for a moment.

[06:23:49] If you put in a septic tank, then you would have to have at least one acre lots. At least, and you'll likely have to have even bigger lot area. And so I just want to, I know we talked about hooking up to the sewer line, but also if you follow the path of not hooking up to the sewer line and still trying to build on it, just want to point that out that I don't think that that's going to work either.

[06:24:17] So just to your point that you brought up earlier. You're talking about on the other zoning case. Well, the other zoning case, a lot overall were spread out. I mean, you can bring it back up and look at it, but that required sewer. And so it wouldn't work for if you didn't have a sewer line.

[06:24:32] Yeah, just why no one's done anything since 2006, because they didn't have a sewer line for the entire property. They had sewer for the front. Right, I just want to show that they're at an impasse either way. So I just want to kind of walk down that path for everybody to understand that, too.

[06:24:49] Right. Any other discussion? Yeah, so I just, we brought up the map of all the other people, or all the other parcels that were around it, that were undeveloped. Is that going to, I mean, affect their ability to sell those properties then?

[06:25:05] It won't affect the ability to sell them. It'll affect the price they can sell them for. Yeah, Mr. Chair. Yes, when we open the public meetings for the discussion on the comprehensive plan in the future, I expect that there's a couple of people in this room who will be there to express their concern for us to change those properties around there to agricultural.

[06:25:30] The people that were in the two public meetings that I held, that's what their desire is. And there was a couple hundred people in both of those meetings. maybe 100 or so in the second but a couple hundred in the first and so i would hope that those people from the community will come out to the public community meetings that we have on the comprehensive plan and support the change in reduction of density in this part of the county because they want to preserve what they want to preserve out there and and certainly that's what we're going to put forward for consideration and i've already had that conduct uh meeting with staff on that i'm I'm looking for someone from planning.

[06:26:10] We've had that discussion, right? Shocking has said yes. Okay. Where are we at, Mr. Chair? Any other discussion? I think we are ready. We have a motion. We have a properly second. All in favor? Aye. Anyone opposed?

[06:26:27] Madam Clerk. Item 19, public hearings. A, to consider the exercise of eminent domain for the Centerpoint Parkway Extension Project. Ms. Walker. Hello, Mr. Chair, members of the board.

[06:26:43] This is a public hearing to consider exercising eminent domain for the Centerpoint Parkway extension project right away and easement acquisition. Centerpoint Parkway is one of six projects in this area to improve capacity in the region.

[06:27:03] We'll provide an east-west connection parallel to Powhat. We have been under design since 2024 when the board appropriated bond funding. project has now advanced we have a awarded a executed a construction contract pending clearing the right-of-way there were three parcels that were impacted by this project we have been able to successfully settle two of the three we've been working on negotiations since january the last parcel we actually have a verbal agreement with um they are a apartment

[06:27:40] complex and they have chosen to run the agreement by their lien holder just to make sure they're good with it and then they'll sign off on the agreement so we're just in order to stay on schedule because we knew we were in good shape but right away we went ahead and advertised and I have a contract already so this will give us access to that property while we get the final documentation signed and then I do have some slides to aid in answering any questions you may have. Thank you, Ms. Walker. Board members, are there any questions for staff?

[06:28:14] Everyone, this is a public hearing to consider the exercise of eminent domain for the Centerpoint Parkway Extension project. Is there anyone that would like to speak into this issue? If so, please come forward and state your name. Chair Turner, there again, you're taking people's property from them. You say, well, we're giving them a fair market value. They don't want

[06:28:49] want to sell it so you can't say well if you if if it was your property and you didn't want to sell it you'd be fighting no you're not taking my property sooner or later the county has got to saying well we need to take their property because it's going to affect our schedule now because you didn't schedule your schedule is messed up it's not their fault and you say well we're giving them

[06:29:21] a fair market market value that may not be the case they may have sentimental value they may have their favorite dog may be reared out there. Who knows? But just saying, well, we're going to take your property because it's going to affect our schedule. Now, I'm sure that the property needs, the county needs it, that road continues through there because y'all have let everybody build out there that and now you're having to catch up with the infrastructure. But you need to, if you want

[06:29:56] to do that, you need to pay for it. Don't just start taking people's property because you've got the ability to do that. That's not right. Just taking people's property because you could say, we're going to use eminent domain and take it. That's not right. Thank you.

[06:30:17] Is there anyone else who would like to speak to this case? All right, I'm going to go ahead and close this public hearing. It's back before the board. Is there any discussion? Yes, Mr. Chair, I have a question. Go ahead.

[06:30:33] What is the total property size that we're taking on that one that isn't unsettled? So, the unsettled property is Creek Point. It's an apartment complex. We have come to terms. Our initial offer was $116,100 for 0.6 acres of permanent slope and drainage easements, so VDOT can maintain the drainage out there.

[06:31:02] 0.07 acres for temporary construction easements which would revert temporary they expire after we're done with the project and then 0.05 acres for utility easements along the corridor they countered our 116,000 with 142 750 which is an increase of 26,000 we agreed to their counter and that is so that they can replace five crepe myrtles and that they can add some additional screening along the new extension and do some additional landscaping along the buffer so we've

[06:31:39] come to terms it's just a matter of being able to access settled settled we're trying to get their bank to agree and the banks take a longer time so instead of going through that we have a willing seller that's agreed to the price and if the bank holds up the process then we'll be able to move forward through eminent domain but we have a willing seller at a willing price and so really the only people that we're talking about is the bank and my understanding is that was their choice they didn't have to do that but they wanted to just do a double check well they better check

[06:32:16] with their lender. Mr. Chair. Dr. Hilton. You know, Chessie, I think that this gets a little confused with kind of the situation in my district where we're trying to do the sidewalk.

[06:32:32] Yes. We had just one townhouse community that we can't get a quorum from, so we had to end up going through the courts in order to actually obtain the access that we need. And so as we talk about sidewalks in in in the community um it's not always clean it's not always easy it's it's some setbacks here there um in timeline it happened but um i just want to commend you and your staff and also the legal staff for working through those um issues and in that one situation

[06:33:10] you know you all have been working i think for like a year two years to try to get the quorum And they just can't get enough homeowners in HOA to agree to come to the meeting to vote on us taking possession of the land there.

[06:33:27] And we're, I think it's like about $4,500. So you have $4,500 holding up an entire sidewalk project where you have the threat of pedestrians being hit as they travel up and down the street to go to the amenities that they need.

[06:33:46] And so, you know, I just want to take a moment. I know you get beat up a lot in the community. But, you know, I just want to say thank you for your diligence. And, you know, let's move forward with what we have on the table. I know it's difficult, but let's move forward.

[06:34:04] And I appreciate what you all are doing. I will make a motion. Okay, let's go ahead and do that. That's a motion. Was there any other discussion, Mr. Carroll? No, he asked my question. Okay, we're good. All right, so go ahead and make that motion. sir? So moved. Okay. What are you moving exactly, please? To consider the intimate domain for center point part extension project. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Can I please have a second? I'll second with one comment. I'll second it with one comment. Yes, sir. We are dealing with an LLC

[06:34:39] here that, as Mr. Engel said, agrees to a price and agrees to sell. We have seen other ones where we're actually dealing with a homeowner that has a personal attachment and other things and I agree with Mr. Turner on that. It's a lot more difficult for me to approve something like that than it is for this. I hope that we will get this completely settled so we don't have to do it, which we've been very successful in almost every other case that we've moved forward like this. Staff has been able to successfully work with the property owner to resolve the issue and not have to go

[06:35:16] through eminent domain. Am I correct on that? Correct. Okay. That's my comment, Mr. Chair. Thank you, sir. So let's go ahead and vote all in favor. Aye. Anyone opposed? Madam Clerk. B, to consider the exercise of the eminent domain for the Western Area Infrastructure Improvements Project. Ms. Walker.

[06:35:35] Similar situation, Western Area. As you know, we have been under construction since January of 20... when did we start construction out there 25 um and under a design build contract the design builder has been moving forward with construction along the north south collector road now called john thomas way while they were finalizing the design plans to improve duval road those plans have been finalized they know what right away they need to improve the road um and we started to acquire that

[06:36:13] right away February of this year there were 13 parcels along Duval Road that were impacted we have settled nine of the 13 there are four remaining parcels to one of two parcels on for one owner and the other two for another owner and the particulars with what we have left to settle with those is Main Street Homes is the development on the south side of Duval Road they own two of those parcels and we've had some good negotiation negotiations are ongoing they

[06:36:49] have some requests of us that we are working through one is they requested that we move all their power poles along their frontage due to cost and time we've said no to that we're waiting here back on that one they've asked for us we are extending water line along Duval Road they wanted us to extend that to their development we've offered to pay for the engineering for that and they and pay for their construction and then they're looking for a letter from us from planning that confirms their encroachment that was approved with their zoning case will still be okay and that

[06:37:24] there's no changes to that and then we also are waiting on a counter dollar amount they have not countered on that yet and then the other two parcels are owned by um mr gill who again we've had good ongoing discussions with he's just requesting a couple of driveway aprons to be built built some extra gravel he wants to save a few trees and have them replanted and then we're also waiting on him for a counter dollar amount as well and those are the last four parcels across two owners that we're working with and we have to get out there to get the utility poles moved and

[06:38:01] get the road done before the high school opens in 27th so that is the summary i have slides for that too if that helps answer any questions any questions for staff i do miss walker have a question for you. I just want to make sure what it is that we're voting on. We're voting on the package, correct? Meaning we're voting on all these properties in one fell swoop? Yes. Okay. I want to be really clear in that it seems like to me that East West has asked some questions around or it was we've made a deal with them or we're in process with them. But I want to make sure are we voting

[06:38:39] on the opportunity for the eminent domain or are we also approving the different agreements that that we've made with these property owners? - Just the eminent domain. - Just the opportunity. - Yes. - Main street. - Main street. - Thank you. - Yeah.

[06:38:54] - But just main street. So I just wanna be clear-- - Not the terms. - We're just voting on the eminent domain for the Western Area Infrastructure Project, right? - Correct, yeah. - All right, thank you. Any other questions for staff? Everyone, this is a public hearing to consider the exercise of eminent domain for the Western Area Infrastructure Improvements Project.

[06:39:15] Is there anyone that would like to speak to this issue? so please come forward and state your name. Jerry Turner. There again, it sounds like you got it under control, but when you're dealing with the government, it's never under control. And when you start talking in the domain, as far as I'm concerned, you're taking people's property. If

[06:39:50] you'd come and say, well, we're not really taking it. We just need to come to, it sounds like you got an agreement. I'm not sure what, why you need to do in the domain if you're that close to coming to an agreement other than you just waving that flag up there and say, if you don't act right, we're going to move forward with eminent domain. That's something that should be the last thing y'all ever do is try to use eminent domain. If you can't get your negotiated right, you need to

[06:40:24] get another negotiator in there. Come up with something else because that to me is the last thing you want to do is start waving that eminent domain flag. Anyone else would like to speak on this case. All right, with that, I'm going to go ahead and close the public hearing. It's back before the board. Is there any discussion? Mr. Carroll. I think where we failed, and if you want my honest opinion, is when those two zoning cases that Main Street now control were approved, we

[06:41:01] should have required in those zoning cases for the right-of-way as part of the negotiation for them to give us this land. So truthfully, we screwed up. We should have required it of them during the zoning case, and then we wouldn't even be having this discussion right now. And as far as them running a waterline, when their zoning case got approved, they knew that they were going to have to run the waterline. They were going to have to pay for it. It's a requirement that they calculated into the cost of their case and the cost of their development when they did it. So I think it is

[06:41:36] appropriate not to say we're going to pay for waterline. And truth of the matter is, we should have required this in the zoning case, and that's something we missed. I don't know if when we were doing this we considered it or not, so maybe you can answer that question, because I thought this was, I thought these happened around the time that we were approving the road improvements in the schools. So I don't know if you can see on the screen, I'm kind of fit three plan sheets together

[06:42:16] here but this is the two part this encompasses the frontage of the two parcels for main street homes the red that you see along the frontage has been dedicated through the zoning case which is the bulk of the right away that we need over here right here you'll see a green little bit of sliver that's a little bit of temporary construction easement we just need a little bit more room to be able to do this work because the road curves so the right away that was dedicated doesn't cover quite enough room for us to be able to do what we need to do.

[06:42:51] And then the yellow slash pink, it's another little sliver here, represents room for the utilities that we need to relocate. We did not pay for the red that you see here. That came through the zoning case. Okay, so we did require some, we just didn't require enough.

[06:43:08] Correct. And that little bit is about $5,000 worth that I circled that we need for Main Street Homes. Mr. Carroll, since you brought it up, I thought I heard you say, just so that we were going to pay for the engineering?

[06:43:28] We were trying to be good partners and offered that. We technically don't have to. I can show you there real quick. It's hidden.

[06:43:44] So we are actually including water line along Duval Road, bringing water east to west along Duval Road.

[06:44:09] the county's paying for that they have requested this is their site down here this is john thomas way at the roundabout our water lines coming here and turning and we and it does make sense this will be under construction it'll probably be more cost effective for them to go ahead and extend the water line this is what they want us to pay for the design and to extend that and we only need $5,000 worth of a little bit of temporary construction easement and utility easement.

[06:44:44] We're paying the cost to bring the water to them, effectively. What's the cost to the engineering? I think we estimated $20,000? $15,000 to $20,000? Something like that?

[06:45:03] Any other questions for Steph? Have I closed the public hearing at this point?

[06:45:21] Have I even done the public hearing? I've lost track. I thought you had, but go ahead and do it. I have a motion. Mr. Chair. Yes, sir. I hope that we can resolve this, especially with the developer. They should really actually be bending backwards to help us, not the other way around, which is why you actually have to do eminent domain in this case, to actually move them forward on this.

[06:45:54] I don't think what we're asking for is unreasonable. I make a motion to approve and authorize the county for eminent domain on these right-of-ways, and that's my motion. I'm going to go ahead and second that.

[06:46:09] All in favor? Aye. Anyone opposed? Madam Clerk. C, to consider ordinance amendments relating to Chapter 8, Stormwater Management and Water Quality. Mr. Smith. Yes, these are ordinance amendments that were really rate adjustments required by the State Water Control Board that would be effective July 1, 2026, you've already appropriated the anticipated funding.

[06:46:33] It would generate about an additional $150,000 annually, which would be used to convert two part-time positions to full-time within environmental engineering. These are changes we have to implement just based on the requirements from the state, but it is a public hearing. Thank you, Mr. Smith.

[06:46:50] Board members, any questions for Mr. Smith? Everyone, this is a public hearing to consider the ordinance amendments related to Chapter 8, stormwater management and water quality. Is there anyone who would like to speak to this issue?

[06:47:05] If so, please come forward and state your name. Renee Eldred here. I'm assuming this is a state that has raised these fees. Somebody needs to get a grip on them. Their fees are increasing, where was it, 50% to 62%.

[06:47:27] They did all these laws to change to make affordable housing. affordable. And this is just going to get passed along to the developer, which is going to get passed along to the people. So I see that it has been since 2014 that they were initiated, but

[06:47:55] this one fee went from $6,912 to $14,300. That's ridiculous. People need to start talking to their delegates, their representatives for the state, and just make them understand that they do one thing on one hand to get affordable housing, and they do something on the other one to mix it out. So, thank you. Thank you, Renee. Any other ones, anyone else

[06:48:33] would like to speak to this case? All right, with that, I'm going to go ahead and close the public hearing. It's back before the board. Is there any discussion? So moved. All right, so I hear a motion. That motion is to approve, I suspect, the ordinance amendments, right? Yes, sir? Okay.

[06:48:52] Can I get a second? Second. All right. All in favor? Aye. Anyone opposed? Madam Clerk. D. To consider the creation of the Sawmill Station Community Development Authority, Mr. Harris. Chairman, members of the board, this is a topic we've been talking about in the last couple meetings.

[06:49:10] We talked about it in your afternoon session today. So just more of a procedural note for you all. This is a two-part exercise tonight. It's just for you to receive comment on the petition that you have received from the landowner for this district.

[06:49:27] Again, this is a mini Magnolia Green, if you will, on Western Hall Street, provide $6 to $6.5 million of project proceeds for transportation improvements related to this particular neighborhood, but your action tonight is just to receive, again, comment from the community.

[06:49:46] You're not taking a vote. You will hold a public hearing and then close it, and then you have already approved tonight a set, a second public hearing for your July meeting where you'll actually consider the ordinance that's associated with this that goes through and takes the steps to create the district.

[06:50:04] So it's a two-part exercise, but that's really what is on your agenda for tonight is just receiving comment on that. So I'm happy to take any questions that you have now or any other point. All right, board members, are there any questions for staff or in this case, the interim deputy county administrator?

[06:50:25] All right, everyone, this is a public hearing to consider the creation of the Sawmill Station Community Development Authority. 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.

[06:50:42] It's back before the board. Is there any discussion? And you actually are not required to discuss it tonight. You'll have a public hearing next time. State law requires this as a two-part process. All you do is take comment tonight on the creation, and you've done that.

[06:50:58] So you really don't have nothing else that you need to do tonight. All right, so do we even have to have a motion? No. Okay, so we can go ahead and skip right over that. Madam Clerk. E, to consider an ordinance to amend County Code Section 19.2, zoning ordinance relative to setbacks from electric transmission lines.

[06:51:20] Mr. Jenkins. Good evening, board members. This amendment to the zoning ordinance imposes a new setback between the boundaries of new easements for electric transmission lines and new subdivisions. It will not apply to existing easements that are already recorded within the county. And will only apply to easements recorded after the effective date of the ordinance, which is on the date on which it's approved, which would be today if you approve it today.

[06:51:43] There are no specific planting requirements for this 100-foot setback, but like the special setback from limited-access highways, vegetation is required to be retained within this area. Vegetation removal would only be allowed to prevent interference with the electric transition lines and to allow for installation of pathways or trails within the easement.

[06:52:04] This amendment was initiated back in March by the Planning Commission, following a public hearing in April. They reckon of an approval. It was deferred at your last meeting in May. Any questions for me? No. I do have one question. Okay, yes, sir.

[06:52:20] In the event that we might want to run utilities through there in the future, is there -- should we have that in the ordinance that if we needed to be able to run utilities through there, we could? Through the setback area? Yeah. As long as they're not -- I mean, it would be a two-part.

[06:52:38] It would be, I don't want to remove any vegetation, but if there's no vegetation there and they needed utilities to go through there, I don't see why we wouldn't be able to do that versus taking out another buffer somewhere else. So I'm just trying to be forward-thinking that we add that to it.

[06:52:54] Yeah, that makes sense. Are we okay to do an in-line amendment here? Yes. I think it'd be pretty simple to say and to allow for installation of pathways or trails or utilities. Correct. Yeah, we certainly do. Okay. Yeah, I would caution you on that because inevitably that's where the developers will say, well, we'll just put all your utilities there, and then I don't want you to then lose the intent, which is to retain the trees.

[06:53:23] We have that happen. I wanted it to be that you could only put it there if the trees were already not there. You couldn't remove the trees to put them there. I did say that. I don't know that it got clarified, but I did say if there's no trees there, then it's available for utilities.

[06:53:41] And I'm not saying they would do this, but if I were a developer, I would probably timber the land before I subdivided it and zoned it, and then there would be no trees, and then I could put the utility. Okay, that's fine. So I would just caution you on that one. Yeah, in that case, then we wouldn't need to— My point was to try to save the trees later by allowing it if the trees weren't there, so I guess it's six on one end, half a dozen on the other.

[06:54:03] Thank you, Jesse. Thank you, Jesse. Mr. Chair. Yes, sir. I mean, you inadvertently just brought up a very strong point to this, and you know what I'm getting ready to say. If a developer decides that they want to do a development, and they don't want to have to worry about the buffer, then you literally go in and get a timber permit and timber the sections that you want ahead of time.

[06:54:33] And you've essentially negated the buffer, because you have a right to go in and timber the land. So you can go in and timber it ahead of time, get rid of the buffer, and then turn around and come back in and do it. Now, that would be really stupid from my perspective because I think the lots that would be up against that buffer would be a lot more valuable with a thick tree buffer than the timber room.

[06:54:57] But if you, again, if you were worried about retaining the trees and what Jesse said, they would come in and put the utilities there, we don't want to put utilities as part of this. We want to make them leave the trees, which is the intent of what we're trying to do. No, no, I get what you're going with.

[06:55:15] But I appreciate the original intent. The original intent always was to create a greenway. That was the original intent. And so it feels very important to me to be able to keep that in. So the question that I guess you're asking is, do we need to put another piece of the puzzle in there, another statement, to ensure that that occurs, as opposed to timbering it, as you're suggesting?

[06:55:44] Can't. You can't, okay. if it's already there then we're good it's not it's not legal it's their private property this chair it's their private property they have a right to timber it if they want to we had a big huge piece of property on the western part of hull street a couple years ago they decided to timber it so they did they clear cut the whole thing and then everybody came to me saying oh my god what did you approve out here they're going to build everything like no nothing it's their land they decided to clear cut it fair enough okay any other questions for staff all right everyone this is a public hearing to consider an ordinance to amend county code section 19.2 zoning ordinance relative

[06:56:23] to setbacks from electric transmission lines. 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? Yes, Mr. Chair.

[06:56:39] Yes, sir. So I was at a public meeting the other night at Manchester High School about a Dominion Virginia power line that needs to be replaced. And we have infrastructure that goes from the southern part of Matoka all the way up to Malothian that was put in 75 with these big towers. And now they're coming in, as the gentleman spoke earlier today, and putting a monopole in. But in order to do that, they have a 230 foot right away. They've only cleared 150 feet of it. And now they have to come in and clear the whole right side of it where the timber is. And guess what? It's right next to

[06:57:14] neighborhood right next to Bay Hill Point. And so we had probably 200 people from Bay Hill Point there with Dominion who are now going to be stuck with Dominion having to come in because they have the right-of-way clearing all the trees that butt up against all these houses now in order to put the new monopole line in. And then later they'll come back and take the other stuff out. So by doing what we're doing right now, we're going to protect somebody in the future from losing their tree buffer next to their house. And I think probably everybody in Bay Hill Point would have said, why didn't we do this 20 years ago? We're in the 70s.

[06:57:54] Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'd like to think we're a little smarter now. Motion to approve. Thank you, sir. Can I have a second? Second. All right. All in favor? Aye. Anyone opposed? Madam Clerk. F to consider an amendment to County Code Sections 9-29 through 9-32 relative to the Rehabilitation Ordinance.

[06:58:17] Mr. Harris. Mr. Chairman's board, this is a potential amendment to this program. This is your real property rehab ordinance. We've studied this extensively, Mr. Bloomfield and his team.

[06:58:32] The intent here tonight is to restrict this program down to really be able to use it as a full revitalization tool, but restricted to the residential side with a value cap of half a million dollars and under, adding in a number of other protections for the program, some review protocols, as well as a streamlined application process.

[06:58:55] We haven't been getting the traction thus far in the program that we're necessarily looking for, and we felt like we had some potential liabilities on the commercial side. So relying on, again, on Mr. Bloomfield's experience in other localities to really dial this in, and we really want to turn it loose and then see what we can do on the revitalization side for some of our older neighborhoods.

[06:59:17] So that is, that's the goal of this. Happy to take any questions you might have. Any questions for Mr. Harris? All right, everyone. There's a public hearing to consider an amendment to County Code Sections 19-29, I'm sorry, 9-29 through 9-32 relative to the rehab ordinance.

[06:59:39] Is there anyone who would like to speak to this issue? If so, please come forward and state your name. Renee Eldred here again. Y'all need to scrap this program. I'm sorry. This program has been around for decades, and nobody uses it.

[06:59:58] You have upped the price. Now, I'm going off a memory from probably 20 years ago. You've upped the price of the house, the value of the house. You've reduced how much you've got to put into it, because I believe it used to be $25,000.

[07:00:19] Let me get to my, I lost my place. Many years ago, they were complaining about the red tape to even get into the program. At one point in time, if you pulled the board down, you couldn't get your program.

[07:00:42] If you knew about it later, you couldn't get your program because you'd done work to it, so it couldn't be assessed at its value going forward because they didn't know how much you had done to it, so you didn't have a starting assessed value.

[07:00:59] I have known people who tried to use this program, and they fussed about it the entire way through. Also, I'm not mistaken, you lowered the last three years on this, what you get out of it.

[07:01:15] I thought it was 100% for 10 years, but I could be wrong on that. But it probably costs more to operate the program than you're getting out of new value in the homes that you're doing for the year.

[07:01:31] So I don't know. I don't see many people using it. I haven't really kept track of it that well, but in the past, it was not used. And also, I don't know what they're doing right now, but in the past, you had to fix your house.

[07:01:52] Then the first year of the assessment, after you fixed, you had to pay the full value of the assessment because they couldn't prorate it, which to me, I was like, these people have spent all their money. Now you're going to make them get the new assessment value for that first year, and then you get the reduced tax rate from the other, because they couldn't prorate it.

[07:02:17] So, I don't see the value in the program. Thank you. Thank you. Any other comments on this topic? With that, I'm going to go ahead and close the public hearing. It's back before the board.

[07:02:33] Is there any discussion? Ms. Schneider. Matt, were we not trying to encourage more people to use it by making these changes? Yes, ma'am. Absolutely. Absolutely, and I think some of the points that Rene raised, I think we have addressed with the application process and the way that you come in and you get the inspections.

[07:02:58] So we've heard some of that feedback. That cleanup has been incorporated as part of this, but it's really intended to give Jesse and his teams a tool that they can really go out there and push. I think the usage has been low, but I think on our side, we haven't really pushed it quite as hard as we could have.

[07:03:16] So I feel like we're, we feel like this is a tool we can do that with if approved. So this is with community enhancement, getting them to go out? Yes, ma'am. Okay. That's a great question. With that, Ms. Schneider, would you like to make the motion? So moved. All right.

[07:03:33] And can I get a second? Second. All right. All in favor? Aye. Anyone opposed? Madam Clerk. G, to consider dissolution of the Centerpoint Charter Colony Service District, Mr. Harris. Finish off the hat trick.

[07:03:48] You have the elimination of the Centerpoint Service District is the subject of this public hearing. We put this in place 20 years ago. It has served its purpose. We have stepped down off of the obligations of the property owners in this district.

[07:04:08] We did that back in 2019 and continued to not see some of the other components that we expected to develop as part of this project. So we have reviewed this and discussed it with the board members over the last year or so, and we feel like that is a good time to basically eliminate the incremental rate.

[07:04:30] We still have the ability through financial policy to reserve some of the incremental revenue, but the rate would go away so that primarily the homeowners that are in this district, which is the bulk of the folks that are in there, would be paying the same real estate rate as everybody else, but I think it serves purpose.

[07:04:50] We have other sources, as Mr. Carroll can attest to through CBTA, to handle these obligations. All funds that have been collected up until now for this purpose would continue to be used for this purpose, so they don't fall into some general category. So with that, I'm happy to take any questions the board might have.

[07:05:09] Board members, any questions for Mr. Harris? Everyone, this is a public hearing. Yes, sir? I'll wait until I have the public hearing. Okay. Everyone, this is a public hearing to consider the dissolution of the Centerpoint Charter Colony Service District. Is there anyone who would like to speak to this issue?

[07:05:25] If so, please come forward and say it's your name. Seeing no one, I'm going to go ahead and close this public hearing. It's back before the board, and I'm going to just turn it over to Mr. Carroll. Just a quick question. Matt, you said the money would be used for construction projects that are still within the district there, correct?

[07:05:44] Yes, sir. Could some of that money be used for sidewalk projects in the district there? ordinance is pretty well prescribed in terms of what it can be used for relative to the interchange, but we should have enough, you know, expenditures associated with that. I'm not sure that sidewalk is one of those uses, but. Well, the reason I asked that question was because someone actually made a recommendation that we keep this tax district in place and use the money for sidewalks. No, I did, I did read that comment. It was in, just so everybody knows, I actually read the

[07:06:19] public comment. That's not an option here. That's not in the scope of it. That's why I asked the question because someone did make a recommendation in a public comment period that we that we all read and since we're having this under discussion I thought it was good that we can at least answer one question that was that was asked for in the public comment period that unfortunately we couldn't yet utilize this money for that particular reason. So, Mr. Schmetterman, wherever you are. We answered your question. Thank you, Mr. Carroll. Let's go ahead. Mr. Carroll,

[07:06:52] you want to make that motion? Sure. Motion to disdissolve the. Okay. Can I get a second? District. Second. All right. All in favor? Aye. Anyone opposed? Madam Clerk. It should have been yours. It was your district. So if you want that motion, you can. You want that motion? Okay. All right.

[07:07:10] H to consider a lease amendment with T-Mobile Northeast LLC. Ms. Snow. Mr. Chairman, members of the board, Mr. Harris. This is a public hearing to consider a lease amendment with T-Mobile at the county's Bonaire Tower. T-Mobile has leased space on the tower since 2007 and has requested that the lease be extended for an additional five years beginning October 1, 2027 with four

[07:07:41] five-year renewal terms. Rent will increase to $41,976.15 and increase an additional 15% each renewal period term since the tower is located on state property half of the rent will be paid to the department of juvenile justice a public hearing is required to lease county property approval is recommended after the public hearing thank you ms snow board members are any questions for staff everyone this is a public hearing to consider a lease amendment with t-mobile northeast llc is there anyone who would like to speak to this issue if so please come forward and

[07:08:20] state your name. Okay. Renee Eldred. I have a question, literally. Since it's on state property, half the money's going to the juvenile. If it's on state property, why is the county leasing it? Just ask him. Plus, I wanted to make one comment. Y'all should have made the people stay to the end to do the second public comment period so they could get an idea of what goes on.

[07:09:01] Rene, that had occurred to me. I just want to let you know. Mr. Chair. Mr. Carroll. I think the answer to that question is that this is a public safety tower, and they're leasing space on a public safety tower that's part of our public safety radio network system in Chesterfield County.

[07:09:20] And so that's why we are in a lease agreement with the state for this particular piece of property for one of our radio towers that controls our public radio system that works for a fire, police, sheriff, and the entire county. the answer your question is that's why we're on that property and that's why it uh it gets split that way and i think that was a little bit of information that was actually left out of the presentation perhaps so that but that was a good question motion approved mr chair all right we're going ahead and we've made that we're going to close the public comment yes sorry let's go ahead

[07:09:55] and close the public hearing it's back before the board any discussion all right you i hear a motion can i get a second second all in favor aye anyone opposed madam clerk 21 closing announcements mr chair before i make any closing announcements i'm going to turn it over to my board to anyone that would like to speak as far as closing announcements mr chair yes sir just want to make sure that we uh we got everybody wanting to speak for us because it matters i just want to make sure yeah just want to make sure i have no no closing remarks

[07:10:34] I want to just say a couple of things, and this has been a powerful meeting on many levels, and I think it was a really good indicator for Dr. Catlin. We're glad that you're here.

[07:10:51] Kind of give us a feel what Chesterfield is about. I want to appreciate Mr. Harris for stepping in and being the deputy, not only just being the deputy county administrator, but to be the interim. I'm very grateful for that. Did you want to, Ms. Snyder?

[07:11:10] Hopefully, you're not going to run away now, right? Are you okay? Are you okay? Okay. I'm not worried. Mr. Chair. Yes, Mr. Regal. We had a lot of people here tonight that spoke on some data center cases that were approved over a year ago.

[07:11:31] And I don't think they understand that actually all of the information is public information. and all of those zoning cases were not done under an NDA. The name of the user was not announced, but the zoning cases were clearly, for data centers, very well publicized, very well shared with the community, and they have the strictest proffers in the country on water.

[07:12:01] And I think that we need to make sure that our media team puts that out, that the case did occur. when it occurred, all of the meetings that took place for that to occur, and all of the things that were agreed to, because I think much of what the people, not all of what they said, but much of what they said was addressed in the proffers, and we just need to make sure that they're aware of it.

[07:12:26] They're walking around, they obviously don't know that the cases, number one, have already passed, they can't be taken away, and number two, all of the great things that were put into the proffers to protect the people that live in that area. So we need to get that out.

[07:12:41] Yeah, Mr. Carroll. Having been one of the people that conducted one of the public community meetings on this, actually mine, though, there were a lot. There was probably a couple hundred people at my meeting that we held that was put on.

[07:12:58] And it was advertised on multiple social media pages, one in particular that people read that they and some of those people who are part of that social media page were in fact at the community meeting. I don't know that they came to the voter supervisors or planning commission meeting, but they were at the community meeting when it was explained. But that being said, I think there is a lot of misinformation in the community that needs to be addressed. I don't think it'll still solve the feelings that the

[07:13:38] people in the room have tonight. Even if we said that we put the most stringent case in the planet earth in, I don't think it'll solve the way some of the people feel about data centers. But I do believe they need to have their questions answered. And I am going to be requesting that Google, since they are the principal data center that people are talking about and the locations in Chesterfield, I'm going to be requesting them to come back and hold community meetings similar to what Commonwealth Fusion has held in Chesterfield County to explain to our community what their intentions are and what the restrictions are that were put in those zoning cases.

[07:14:18] I think that people have a right to ask the question. I agree with what Renee said, that people need to pay attention. Some people didn't like that, that they want us to spoon-feed everything to the community.

[07:14:34] We did. We pushed it out. We notified the community. We advertised, we put signs out telling them we're holding public meetings and we held public meetings i'm not sure if you held one in your district um and so um but that being said there were still a lot of people didn't get it and so we just need to i think get with google get them come down here and they need to go before the community and and let the community know what they're proposing and i think that will at least help for the people to understand uh where it's coming from so that's going to be my request in in the future, Mr. Chair.

[07:15:09] Yeah, you're absolutely right, Mr. Carroll and Mr. Engel. I mean, the challenge here, of course, is that there's been a breakdown in communication. And the question is, what could we do better? And then the other side of it is that I think that Google, this is their fight.

[07:15:24] And the folks that were here, especially the first speaker, were very, very clear, as they said, they want to hear directly from Google. And you know what? They're right. And that was exactly what I said to Ruth, probably when we sat down with her, and it was the same thing that Laquan, Dr. Hilton, and I did, is, you know, I, she was, we were having this conversation, and she was like, well, we're doing so much in the community, and we're doing all these things. I went, stop, just stop. You're not doing what you should be doing, which is talking to the community. We're more than happy to coordinate that, but it needs to happen. Now, what the challenge has been is that the data centers have gotten really a lot of traction, or challenges

[07:16:04] around taxing and that gave a it was kind of a barrier around the budget that was happening on the state level to actually move us forward because it was confusing the conversation and now that we have the budget behind us on the state level i'm glad they're done i think it's time to move forward with making sure that we push out all the information all the the challenge all the things we've done to ensure the health, welfare, and safety of our community.

[07:16:38] And I'm looking forward to that meeting. Madam Clerk, any other comments? Madam Clerk. Mr. Chair, we need a motion to adjourn to the regularly scheduled Board of Supervisors meeting on July 22nd, 2026 at 2 p.m. in room 502 of the county administration building.

[07:16:54] So moved. Second. I got a second. All in favor? Aye. We stand adjourned.

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