Coraggio Consulting
Prince William Board of County Supervisors Meeting, Tuesday, May 23, 2023

Date: Tuesday, May 23, 2023
Place: Prince William County Board of County Supervisors, Virginia
Length: 4h 10m (video)
Official meeting video (Prince William County, Granicus): https://pwcgov.granicus.com/player/clip/3321
Official Board of County Supervisors page (Prince William County): https://www.pwcva.gov/department/board-county-supervisors

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 2026-11-03. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:04] Good afternoon. It is 2 p.m. on Tuesday, May 23rd, 2023. For those who wish, please join me in a moment of silence. Thank you. If we could all rise for the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance.

[00:00:25] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, a God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, and thank you all for coming out today.

[00:00:43] Supervisor Bailey is just running a little bit late, but she will be joining us in probably about five minutes, but we're going to begin without her. We begin today's meeting. There are 12 consent agenda items, and if I could get a motion for 3A through...

[00:01:02] Actually, is there any that people want to pull? Supervisor Lawson? Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd like to pull three D as in dog. Supervisor Vega. 3E.

[00:01:18] 3E. Okay, thank you. If I could get a motion for 3A through 3I, with the exception of 3D and 3E. So moved, Madam Chair. Second. Motion made by Vice Chair Bodie, seconded by Supervisor Angry.

[00:01:35] Any further discussion? Supervisor Franklin. Sure. Just want to highlight item 3C, the purchase agreement for 14501 and 14598 Featherstone Road. I just want to point out that this is approval to execute a purchase agreement for two properties adjacent to Veterans Memorial Park, totaling 12 acres, and to accept a deed of gift of approximately 8.7 acres to achieve open space acquisition goals specified in the comp plan.

[00:02:08] And so I just want to thank those landowners for working with the county. That's going to help, again, with the open space discussion that we've had. As you all know, the Woodbridge District on the eastern end, we try to find open space wherever we can. And so we're looking forward to acquiring this property.

[00:02:26] So thank you. Thank you. Seeing no further discussion, please vote. Oh, okay, got her. Vote unanimous.

[00:02:42] Supervisor Bailey absent from vote. Could you clear the speaker's list? Thank you. That brings us to 3D, Supervisor Lawson. Thank you, Madam Chair. I don't know who from County Staff, oh, actually it would be Mr. Tom Smith. Is he in the house?

[00:02:59] Oh, there he is. Hi, Tom. So this is related to award a contract to a consultant who is going to help us with the permitting process for the coal ash at Possum Point.

[00:03:17] And it's my understanding that Dominion Energy has not conducted groundwater report for the proposed coal ash landfill. Will the consultant conduct an assessment or rely on Dominion's consultants to do such?

[00:03:38] Yes, good afternoon, Chair Wheeler, members of the board, Supervisor Lawson. Dominion is and has submitted reports on groundwater to DEQ. This is part of the regulatory process. They are required to monitor and have been monitoring groundwater for a number of years.

[00:03:55] And this consultant will be reviewing those reports, reviewing the results as part of their work, as well as reviewing any permit applications that they're currently preparing and have actually submitted the first part of that permit to DEQ. So they'll be reviewing both the application for the permits as well as any groundwater reports.

[00:04:14] So they are monitoring groundwater. Staff has been keeping an eye on it. We actually submitted some comments on one of the reports a few months ago. So they must and are monitoring groundwater and must do a corrective action plan, which is they're currently preparing and working on right now.

[00:04:31] Okay, so they're monitoring, and with that monitoring comes with reports? Correct, yes. Okay. It's my understanding that last fall there were, I think, five or seven DEQ violations for excessive metals.

[00:04:51] They do have what we call exceedances in the groundwater protection standards on the site. They're not technically violations. But because of that, they have to go into the next phase, which is an assessment and corrective action plan, which Dominion is working on and DEQ is reviewing, and that's something that we are reviewing as well.

[00:05:11] But they also have to address all those issues when they get a new permit for a proposed landfill they're proposing on site. So all that's going to be probably rolled into a brand-new permit, including groundwater corrective action as well as groundwater monitoring. Okay.

[00:05:26] And in light of the new legislation that Senator McPike sponsored, how will that play into moving forward and what the consultant's work will do to? Correct me. Help me out on the legislation.

[00:05:43] Was that dealing with the requirement to put in water source, water lines? I'm trying to keep up with all the legislation. I understand. I completely understand. Yeah, so if I'm not incorrect, that will require Dominion, if I understand the legislation correct, to bring public water.

[00:06:02] I believe it's within a mile or so of the facility. So that means Cherry Hill Road will end up getting public water as part of that. Well, you and I might be talking about two different pieces of legislation. The one I'm referring to requires Dominion to remediate contaminated groundwater before receiving any permit approval to the landfill.

[00:06:24] And that's near Potomac Shores, of course. Okay, yes. So the county, let's see, I have an advisor that is coaching me on this. The county required Dominion to install a multimillion-dollar wastewater treatment system to remove heavy metals from ash water and pond D.

[00:06:43] Correct. Prince William County would like the – we'd like the consultant to evaluate using the heavy metal treatment system to pump and treat contaminated groundwater as an alternative to the corrective action measure. And it's my understanding also, correct me if I'm wrong, that there are households that are on wells that are using bottled water right now.

[00:07:09] That was the case several months ago, and whether that's occurring right now. I know Dominion is required by legislation to either provide a treatment system or bottled water to make sure that folks around the facility have safe drinking water.

[00:07:27] And they're also going to be required to install a water line now to those homes for legislation. We, as the county, suggested that they look at using this treatment system, which they're going to be installing to treat the ash water. I'm getting into some details here.

[00:07:44] the ash water that's in Pond D, that's in the ash pond right now, they have to treat all that water. And we suggested that they look at a remediation for the groundwater in conjunction with that to combine those two and treat the water. So DEQ and Dominion has not yet responded to those comments. They're still under evaluation.

[00:08:07] Okay. So can we ask, can we include in the scope of work that the consultant evaluate all these factors that you and I have been going back and forth discussing to make sure, for example, that Senator McPike's legislation is key to any type of permitting process, that the remediation is complete before county staff signs off on any permits?

[00:08:35] We certainly can do that, Supervisor Lawson. I think that's certainly intended as part of the scope that we provided. It was a fairly general scope to look at all permit issues, and certainly groundwater permits are part of the submissions they're going to have to do.

[00:08:51] So, yes, I believe the answer to that is yes, we can do that. Now I have more confidence that that will be included in the scope. And we have three people signed up with further comments. I mean, this has been going on for a while. I do want to say you said before the county signs off on any permits was your phrase.

[00:09:10] I don't believe we're signing off on the permits. It's DEQ that are signing off the permits. I don't want anyone to be confused that the county is signing off on any brands. Well, then my apologies. I misspoke. So explain to me and the public exactly the consultant's role in advising us as experts, given the newness of a landfill with toxic coal ash.

[00:09:34] The role of the consultant is essentially to help and advise the county and the board in reviewing any permit applications, any designs, any groundwater reports that go into DEQ in order to provide comments. So we as a county will be commenting to DEQ and Dominion on any reports, designs, applications that they make.

[00:09:58] And that's the desire of the consultant to provide some expertise in digging in deeper into some of these issues. Okay, well, thank you. Count on me to keep a close eye on this. I was on the board when this all started eight, nine years ago.

[00:10:15] So thank you, and I'm going to do more homework on this, and I will follow it closely. Yeah, please be free to contact our office if you need a briefing. I know EO Supervisor Bailey had more detailed briefing on these issues. So she was going to ask some of your same questions, Supervisor Lawson.

[00:10:31] Well, we are to the punch. We have Supervisor, we have Supervisor Franklin and Supervisor Bailey. Probably some of them are the same, but that's no worries. I know you've been working on this for a long time. Supervisor Bailey. Supervisor Weir. Just to dovetail on Supervisor Lawson's comment with respect to the remediation and not being part of the scope, would it be beyond your ability to insert the word, insert slash remediation after impacts on item 1C of the review, just to ensure that it's within the scope of work?

[00:11:11] That would be no problem if you want to add that word, Supervisor Weir. That'll make me happy. Supervisor Franklin? Sure. And just to clarify, and thank you, Supervisor Lawson, for those questions, because I know several of us have been concerned about Possum Point since we got on the board.

[00:11:32] But just to clarify, you know, we are looking to hire this firm to help advise us since, as mentioned, you know, we've never had to deal with this before. So this firm, I'm quite confident with the recommendations from Supervisor Lawson.

[00:11:50] And, again, Supervisor Bailey has been working on this since day one. I am confident that they will kind of look inside and out. And, quite frankly, we can meet with those consultants and make sure that they are well aware of what the scope is that we want them to advise us on.

[00:12:07] So I just want to make that clear to the public that, you know, this firm is going to help us do what the county doesn't necessarily have the expertise to do. Correct. Supervisor Bailey. Thank you so much. And my apologies to the Gus crowd for being tardy, but I appreciate any questions that my colleagues might have in reference to Possum Point.

[00:12:32] Let me just back up for a minute, and Tom, if you will indulge me. Tom and I have been working on this and his team, along with Dominion, for a very long time, very long time. And I believe that his team and working with Dominion has left no stone unturned.

[00:12:50] That's why we need your input right now. This is a serious problem. The community, I am listening very carefully to the community as to what the community wants as well and their concerns. The problem had been lying dormant for a very long time, since I guess the 80s, Tom, or maybe the 90s.

[00:13:09] I don't know. Too long. Too long. And we have a strategic plan in place, we meaning Tom's team and myself, and working with Dominion as we go forward to make sure that we're addressing questions that not only the board may have, but the community may have as well.

[00:13:28] And I heard the tale, Ann, Janine, on what you were asking about the bottled water. I believe that that piece is close to being resolved in terms of the citizens. Former Supervisor Hilda Barg is very much involved in that, and we've been listening to her and her community as well.

[00:13:47] So we've gotten that kind of involvement. Dominion was very responsive to that in providing the bottled water, but Senator McPike took it to the next level to make sure that we have the appropriate infrastructure there that was never there before.

[00:14:04] So just like, and a reminder to the community, the Montclair drainage pipe didn't go unresolved. This is not going to go unresolved also. And so what I, Tom, would request once we get the responses back from the consultant, that we do, as we always do, go to each office and help bring everyone along to make sure that that's happening.

[00:14:29] Because I don't want there to be any more unrest with the community, any more unrest, to think that this is not being addressed because it is a serious environmental and health concern. And so thank you, both of you, and Supervisor Franklin, for your responses, because this is important.

[00:14:53] And as we resolve it, the key to this is resolving it not just with a Band-Aid, but with a solution. And so, Tom, I know that's where your focus is, but I just wanted to make sure that you knew that. All of you know, the audience as well, that there are very deep eyes on this.

[00:15:12] And if we have to go to second-level questions or second-level answers, we will do that. to heal this land, and to make sure that our citizens are safe. So thank you. Thank you very much. This is the Potomac Magisterial District. Do you want to move 3D, Supervisor Bailey? I absolutely do.

[00:15:28] Second. Motion made by Supervisor Bailey, seconded by Vice Chair Bodie. Any further discussion? Seeing none, please vote. Vote unanimous.

[00:15:45] And next is Supervisor Vega, 3E. Thank you, Madam Chair. Hi, Rick. I see you are the one next to this item on the consent agenda. I just want to confirm we're talking about battery charging stations here. Good afternoon, Madam Chair, members of the board.

[00:16:00] Rick Canizales, your director of transportation. Supervisor Vega, yes, we're talking about the electric charging stations for the vehicles. It would be eight of them at the Chin Aquatic Center, four, and at the library, another four. Okay, thank you for that. And these batteries contain materials like lithium and cobalt?

[00:16:19] I'm guessing so, man. Most batteries do. Okay, thanks for that. And so at the end of their life cycle, how are we going to dispose of these batteries? I'm not sure what the maintenance is on these. What we are looking to do for maintenance is either, and we've talked to facilities on this who will be maintaining this equipment, and they have given us a maintenance cost.

[00:16:45] And as you may or may not know, the federal government with these grants allows us to charge a user fee or set a charge plan on these that can put together money for maintenance so when those batteries need to be disposed of or however they need to be disposed of, they can be taken care of.

[00:17:03] Sure. And do we have a number as to what that fee would be? To remove the batteries or to maintain? That you would charge once the batteries need to be disposed of. And I ask because we want to be mindful of the environment. That's why we're making this big push and asking for $200,000. And so I want to make sure that these efforts are not actually being counterproductive and that we're, you know, thinking ahead and looking at, you know, this entire thing holistically.

[00:17:26] Thank you, ma'am. Yes. So do we have an amount as to what that might be? From what we understand from Fleet right now, as you see in the report there in the fiscal impact, Fleet has identified that they need about $20,000 of operating costs and would be asking forward on a 2025 budget if they do not come up with a charging or a recovered charging fee for the user that you can recover and not need those resources.

[00:17:56] Okay, and I'm not sure if this question is for you or for the county attorney when implementing these fees. Do we have to give public notice ahead of time or how is that going to come into play? I would believe that the answer is yes.

[00:18:12] Anytime we charge a fee for any service that the county has and we're going to collect money from a user, we will bring that to public hearing to make sure that not only is the board authorizing it, but they are okay with the fee structure as well. Okay.

[00:18:29] And last question. How much, I guess, notice throughout this process are we going to have once we know exactly how we're going to move forward with disposing these batteries? Ma'am, I'll get with facilities and see if we can get you an answer on the batteries' questions. A little better answer, more detailed.

[00:18:45] I just don't know how that is done. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Gonzalez, I just want to thank you because I know that Alexandria recently put in for this grant because we supported it at NVTA, and you guys were right on the heels of doing that. So thank you very much. I appreciate it. And I do want to bring to the attention that these also, and I understand the battery issue, and that's a very important issue.

[00:19:06] Supervisor Vega, thank you for bringing it up. But these charging stations just do bring environmental impacts, positive impacts to the environment by allowing these vehicles to be used at these public stations being charged and continuing to popularize the use of these vehicles to slow down emissions.

[00:19:24] Thank you. Can I get someone to move 3E? So moved, Madam Chair. Motion made by Vice Chair Bodie, seconded by Supervisor Bailey. Any further discussion? Madam Chair. Supervisor Bodie. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Rick, for bringing this forward. Thank you for your team for working on this.

[00:19:40] For the community's benefit, this is a grant application to look at federal programs that would bring two charging stations to both the park, the recreation side, and the library side, so four total, two each, four each, for the library and the rec side of Chin Park.

[00:19:59] Really appreciate this moving forward because, as Mr. Canizales just said, this is starting to look at really putting in more EV infrastructure throughout the county, and we're looking at supporting those constituents and residents that are investing in getting hybrid and electric vehicles.

[00:20:17] So this is a good step forward with that, and I consider this sort of like a pilot in us doing more of this throughout the county. Is there anything else you wanted to share on that, Mr. Tenezolos? No, sir, except for the fact that you're right. We are looking forward to expanding it. As we mentioned on the report, I think that as more of these opportunities come by, we'll take advantage.

[00:20:37] We've already identified a couple other sites for future locations. Great. And my only question, Madam Chair, if I could, I've seen in other localities when they have spots like this, and I know we have a couple out here too, is there going to be signage indicating that folks, the priority parking is for folks that are having EVs that are charging them? I think that there's going to be signage that says that the parking is only for EV vehicles.

[00:21:00] Appreciate that. Thank you so much. Seeing no for the discussion, please vote. Vote unanimous. Thank you. That brings us on to 3JKNL. If I could get a motion for J through L? So moved then, I'm sure. Second. Motion made by Supervisor Bailey, seconded by Vice Chair Bodie. Any discussion? Seeing none, please vote.

[00:21:34] Motion passes. Vote unanimous. Supervisor Vega abstaining from vote. So that brings us on to our time for proclamations. We have three proclamations today, the first being Building Safety Month, and I believe Mandy Spina from Development and Service is here. I'm going to walk down

[00:21:53] and start those off. Building Safety Month highlights the importance of promoting and emphasizing the safety and resilience of buildings within our community.

[00:22:32] This month-long campaign raises awareness about the critical role that building codes, inspections, and enforcement play in safeguarding public health, ensuring structural integrity, and mitigating potential risks in the building design and construction. By bringing attention to the importance of building safety and the initiatives, encourage residents, builders, and professionals to prioritize adherence to codes and standards, ultimately enhancing the overall safety and well-being of individuals and communities in Prince William County.

[00:23:00] Who better than Mandy Spina, who is representing our Department of Development Services, to say a few words about Building Safety Month. And while these remarks are being made, if anyone here is associated with proclamation, you're already up there, please congregate in the front of the dais. Thank you. Ms. Spina. Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the board.

[00:23:19] My name is Mandy Spina, and I'm the Acting Director for Development Services, and I thank you for proclaiming May 2023 as Building Safety Month. Building safety plays such an integral part of all of our lives, from the commercial buildings that we shop in to the homes that we live in.

[00:23:35] Our team has really focused on education and outreach this year, hosting eight events in the month of May, really focusing on giving education and information to our citizens, making sure they know how to keep their buildings safe and their homes safe. We focus on HOAs as well as setting up tables in our local libraries.

[00:23:53] We're also hoping that May is not going to be the only month that we do this in and to continue it throughout the year. We also held an event on the plaza that many of you were in attendance for on May 17th, really focusing on the day-to-day duties that our employees do in recognizing their day-to-day work.

[00:24:09] So I thank you for proclaiming this as Building Safety Month, and thank you to the team. Thank you.

[00:24:15] Next up is the meeting, the proclamation of National Public Works Week, May 21st through 27th.

[00:25:04] And I believe Mr. Smith is going to come back and join us. National Public Works Week provides the county with an opportunity to recognize and appreciate the vital contributions made by public works professionals who maintain and improve the county's infrastructure and services.

[00:25:20] This week-long celebration highlights the essential role played by these dedicated individuals ensuring the safe and efficient functioning of transportation systems, water supply, waste management, and other critical public sectors critical to the overall infrastructure of the county.

[00:25:36] It also fosters public awareness and engagement, encouraging residents to understand the value of these services and the ongoing efforts to enhance the quality of life in Prince William County. I'm pleased to invite Tom Smith, the Director of Public Works, to say a few words. And did you bring anybody with you?

[00:25:52] No, just me. Okay, that's great. Go out of the closet. Thank you, Chair Wheeler, members of the board. On behalf of the approximately 200 employees in public works, we thank you for this proclamation, and I give a shout-out to all the workers.

[00:26:07] And as Chair Wheeler indicated, it's not just public works in its organization, but various functions do public works activities, our Department of Transportation, and our service authority doing water and sewer, all providing vital services to keep our community safe and to provide them the needed services.

[00:26:29] I want to encourage those who are listening to think about making public works a career. As you know, we're still recruiting. We have many openings. I personally have been working in public works, believe it or not, for 39 years now, and it's been very fulfilling.

[00:26:46] Public service is a good job. I, as an engineer, we have engineer positions. We have environmental science positions. We have equipment operators, truck drivers, maintenance workers, fiscal analysts, all different kinds of positions that can be very rewarding, very consistent work, very rewarding, as I said.

[00:27:06] It's just been a good job to have, and you can make a difference in our community. So particularly amongst our young people getting out of high school, college, you know, think about making public service, working for local government, a career choice. Thank you for this proclamation.

[00:27:22] Thank you for all the support you all give every day to the Department of Public Works.

[00:27:26] Next up is May 2023 Military Appreciation Month, and this was put forth by Supervisor Lawson.

[00:28:10] Thank you, Madam Chair. I am going to start with some brief introductions. We have some very special people in the board chamber today, and I'm going to read a little bit about each family or organization, and then I will read the proclamation.

[00:28:35] And I'm hoping that the press who is here or is watching online gives this some extra attention. So this is a proclamation to proclaim May 2023 as Military Appreciation Month in Prince William County.

[00:28:54] And I'm going to start with a Brentsville family, Patty and Hope. Could you come up? And Keith, where's Keith? Where would you like them to stand as I read the... Oh, they can stand there. Okay. Can you guide them to...

[00:29:11] So this is Patty Steubenhofer and her daughter, Hope. Captain Mark Steubenhofer was born in Springfield, Virginia, and graduated from West Springfield High School.

[00:29:27] He was in the ROTC program at Clemson University, where he received his bachelor's degree in political science. He was commissioned as an officer in the United States Army. Mark was killed in Operation Iraq Freedom by a sniper on December 7, 2004.

[00:29:46] He left behind his wife, Patty, and her three children, their three children, Lauren, Justin, and Hope, who is here today, who have all been Prince William County School graduates. And I might add that, sadly, Hope never met her father.

[00:30:05] And as we celebrate May as, you know, Military Appreciation Month, we obviously are also very mindful of families like yours on Monday when we remember everybody who gave their all for our freedoms and for the defense of this country.

[00:30:22] And I know I speak on behalf of everybody in this room when we give our condolences to you. Okay. Diane Lunsford and John Dominick, would you please come up? They represent Serve Our Willing Warriors, which is located in Haymarket, Virginia, and provides a much-needed respite for our recovering service members.

[00:30:49] The challenge of a long recovery process takes a heavy toll on the entire warrior family. The Warrior Retreat at Bull Run is a place where willing warriors can get away from the medical environment with their families to relax, enjoy quality time together, and reconnect in a peaceful home-away-from-home setting.

[00:31:08] And again, on behalf of everybody, we are very grateful organizations such as yourself and John and his wife, Shirley, who's not here today, have poured countless hours and time and blood, sweat and tears and a lot of money into this organization to do all that you do for our warriors.

[00:31:30] So thank you on behalf of the board and on behalf of the county. And then last but certainly not least at all is a World War II vet who I am really honored to recognize today.

[00:31:47] He's a Brentsville constituent. This is Master Gunnery Sergeant Carol William Braxton, and he has indeed led an exceptional life. He was born, raised, and educated in Manassas. Mr. Braxton voluntarily joined the Marine Corps in 1943, wishing to protect and serve his country.

[00:32:11] He was one of 20,000 African-American Marines to train at a segregated facility and was then assigned to the first all-black combat unit in the Corps. He was selected to be one of 32 Montfort Point Marines to attend NCO Leadership School, becoming a drill instructor at Montfort Point.

[00:32:34] Mr. Braxton served courageously in the South Pacific during World War II and again during the Korean conflict. He continued his service with the Marine Corps Reserves, retiring as Master Gunnery Sergeant in 1980, the highest rank achievable at the time.

[00:32:51] In addition to his military and civilian careers, Mr. Braxton volunteered numerous hours to community service with the American Red Cross, American Cancer Society, and as a poll worker on Election Day. In June of 2012, Mr. Braxton was recognized for his outstanding career with the Congressional Gold Medal, the nation's highest award bestowed by the United States Congress.

[00:33:17] In June of 2020, Unity Braxton was renamed in honor of both Mr. Braxton and his wife, Celestine, who as a teacher helped integrate Prince William County Schools. And sir, it truly is an honor to meet you.

[00:33:35] I recently learned that you lived in my district, and I was thrilled when I found out today, this morning, that you were going to make us for this event today. And certainly on behalf of the board and the county, we are incredibly grateful for your life of service for this great nation and for all of the freedoms that we so enjoy. Thank you all for being here today. And now I'm going to read the proclamation itself. Whereas our nation owes an enormous debt of gratitude to the brave men and women who serve in our military, as these selfless

[00:34:11] individuals put their lives on the line to protect our freedoms and our way of life, we must never forget all that they and their families do on our behalf. Whereas in the month of May, we begin by celebrating Armed Forces Day on May 20th to honor and thank the courageous men and women who currently serve in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine, Coast Guard, and Space Force for their fearlessness and unwavering commitment to our country and its defense. Whereas on May 12th, Military Spouse Appreciation Day is an opportunity to recognize the strength and contributions of military spouses whose steadfast support and willingness to stand beside the heroes of our country plays a vital

[00:34:51] role in promoting the mission of our military and whereas on may 29th we pay tribute to the brave men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice by giving their lives and service for our country on memorial day by honoring remembering these heroic men and women we will never forget all that they have given so that we may remain free and whereas during this month and always prince william county shows its gratitude and appreciation to all our service members, veterans, and their families for their tremendous honor, courage, and commitment to our country and protecting its values. Now,

[00:35:27] therefore, be it resolved that Prince William County Board of Supervisors hereby proclaim May 23rd as Military Appreciation Month and urge all our citizens in honoring and celebrating the contributions of the United States military community. Thank you, and may God truly bless our military, and our great nation. Thank you so much. And I just want to thank Madam Chair and

[00:36:03] your staff and my staff who worked so hard to bring all this together. So this is certainly also a thank you to our staff. Madam Chair, if I may, in tradition for Memorial Day to the month

[00:36:16] of Port Marines, sir, we honor you. Thank you. I say that as a Marine Corps wife. We will now,

[00:37:38] that will take care of our consent agenda. We will now move on to public comment time. Today, in person, we have eight people signed up to speak. I will call the speakers five at a time. And if you can go to the back microphone and state your name and generally where you live in the county or your magisterial district at the beginning of your marks, that would be appropriate.

[00:38:01] The first five speakers are Alicia Gloss, Alan Gloss, Carl Greeten, chrissy foals and robert franklin good afternoon it's what an honor to be in the presence of a amazing world world ii veteran as as uh serve the country it's just amazing um but i'm here to talk

[00:38:36] about um something that happened three years ago i and my husband are all about government transparency we have been holding this board ever since they were elected uh accountable Three years ago, for a back story, this board held a meeting with the new majority Democrat, all five members were present, along with the then county attorney, not to, Mr. Shorter was not in office at the time, and the county, I'm sorry, executive, and then the county attorney, Ms. Roble, were all present.

[00:39:10] But the three board members, Supervisor Canlan, who's not here, and then the other two, Supervisor Lawson and Vega were not privy to this meeting. The Virginia statute states that if there are more than two people present, that constitutes as an open meeting and it has to be published to the public for them to come, but it wasn't. Only a select amount of people were there at this meeting where they discussed public business. That's another part. We wanted this board to be held accountable and apologize for it. We asked numerous times, but the chair and her arrogance, she doubled down. She insisted. Even though they're educated on this, they all know this

[00:39:48] rule. When they got elected, they were all given this training. She continued to say that she did nothing wrong. And I don't know if it was what the reasoning for it behind it was, but we had to sue. And by the way, the penalty for this, if they would have just apologized, was a $500 fine to a children's literacy fund. But this chair thought it was more important to be right and to not admit that she did something wrong. So we unfortunately had to sue, and the lower court said, you know, struck the case without even hearing it. So we had to then take it to this

[00:40:25] Virginia Supreme Court, which last week the Virginia Supreme Court overwhelmingly said that we won five to two, that it did constitute an open meeting law, and they violated that Virginia statute. What the public doesn't know is this board never voted, never told anyone that they were going to hold the taxpayers on the hook for funding their illegal activity. They never voted on it. They never discussed it. They secretly did it. So now the taxpayers are on the hook.

[00:40:52] I believe it's $150,000 for this. So they get to do illegal activities. We as citizens have to fund our own defense against the heavy hand of the government and pay for this lawsuit and pay to sue them. I don't think that that's okay at all. And I don't think that you guys on this board should think that it's okay. But I am happy that the Virgin to Supreme Court did hold you liable.

[00:41:17] All you had to do is apologize and admit and pay the $500, you know, to the children's literacy, but you chose not to do it. So I hope that going forward, you're going to learn from your mistakes. We're all about government transparency. I'm going to continue to be about government transparency and hold you all accountable, as we should.

[00:41:36] That's our right as citizens. So I just want to say that, unfortunately, it's a bittersweet victory because, you know, the taxpayers are on the hook for it. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Ellen Gloss-Coles. Last Thursday was a good day, a very long wait, but a good day for the people of Prince William County.

[00:41:58] Thankfully, the Virginia Supreme Court has spoken unequivocally and has ruled something we all knew, that the government cannot make backroom deals outside of the critical eye of the public. It is our right and y'all's duty to ensure transparency in government.

[00:42:14] While I understand Ann Wheeler said that this lawsuit was a partisan attack on Democrats because every Democrat was on this board was the ones that were being sued. That is a false accusation. I am a civil rights advocate, and unlike some folks on this board, I advocate for civil rights of everyone despite partisan affiliation.

[00:42:37] I'm proud of the nonpartisan nature of our group. We stand for government accountability, and this group is a collective effort of Republicans, Democrats, and independents alike that are held to keep the public servants accountable to we, the people.

[00:42:58] All we want is honesty and transparency in our government. You can make the stupidest decisions you want, which you did, but we want you to do it within our critical eye. Something that we used to have before Ann Wheeler was elected. When this all started, we only wanted to be included in the conversation, and we would never have went down the very expensive route to sue the county for violating open meetings laws.

[00:43:24] Instead, you all followed Ann Wheeler's lead when she doubled down and claimed to have done nothing wrong. She led you all astray, and she made the relationship between the people of this county and this board adversarial. It didn't have to be this way. I'm actually quite fond of a couple of you. Now we want the public's money back. You have spent $156,000 to date of our money to defend your individual violations of the law. And according to Ann Wheeler's inference in the Prince William times, she plans to continue spending more of our money. Why? Because she has no financial skin in

[00:44:03] the game. It's not her money being blown defending what the Supreme Court says is indefensible. It's ours. And let me be clear, the county has spent $156,000 to keep them from personally paying a $500 fine to help kids read. $500,000, $150,000, it doesn't make sense. This lawsuit was never a fiscally responsible way of spending our taxpayer money. I want this board to finally publicly vote on whether to continue spending money or to stop the flow of money and to vote to recoup our taxpayer money to give it back to the county. Ann Wheeler is a narcissist. The

[00:44:40] Democrats on this board erred in judgment following Wheeler's lead to double down three years ago. Don't make the same stupid mistake again and again. Following Wheeler has proven you wrong many times in the past. Please don't allow her inability to admit when she is wrong to take you down again with her thank you next speaker please hi my name is Chrissy Falls and I am a resident of the Gainesville district thought I would come introduce myself it's been a while since I've been to the podium again my name is Chrissy Falls Gainesville district so Mr. Weir

[00:45:14] I am your constituent welcome Mr. Shorter to our great county I also am the food rescue warehouse manager right here in the Gainesville district we put out 1.7 million pounds of rescued food 3.4 million pounds distributed into the community, 2.4 million distributed from the warehouse alone, 68,000 pounds delivered to homes.

[00:45:38] This is also part of the supplemental food that goes out to over 80 of the pantries in the greater Prince William area. I have also taken a position at Carried to Full Term as their outreach and volunteer coordinator. I also take care of the coordination for volunteers at the warehouse.

[00:45:56] So if you need anything to do, day or night, I got you. I am also one of the five human rights liaisons chosen for the county. So I'm all over the place. Pre-COVID, you can ask the rest of the board. My awful subjects in prevention were human trafficking, drugs, internet crimes against children, all of the awful things that skyrocketed during COVID that I am now more boots on the ground.

[00:46:25] So if you have any questions, I'll leave my email since I didn't make it to the end of your town hall because you don't have any of your constituents' emails. Again, it's Chrissy Falls. I'm here to help. Thanks. Thank you. Next speaker, please.

[00:46:44] Good afternoon. I'm Carl Gretton, and I live in the Gainesville District. We are against the Digital Gateway CPA on Pageland Lane and its associated rezoning. How about the developer recently removing most of the open parkland?

[00:47:00] Perhaps you've seen it in the papers. 800 acres. Sounds like you need to vote against the rezoning. In June of 2022, we notified the board that the Republican Party and citizens of Prince William County would establish a new board if you voted for the Prince William Digital Gateway. Now that the Democrats on the board voted for the gateway, what do you see on this slide? We can tell you that we have candidates in place to replace you. Why would you not listen to the citizens of the county in which you

[00:47:37] represent. One answer is that you violated the Virginia Open Meetings Law. Another absurdity is now you want the very citizens that you represent to pay for your crime that is under Virginia FOIA Law 2.2-3707. Since you have violated this law, the citizens of Prince William County have lost confidence in you. To put this in perspective, the Prince William County Board of Supervisors is a majority Democrat board. The Democrats on the Prince William County Board of Supervisors represent the Democrat Party. How has that gone lately? The bigger your re-election signs,

[00:48:15] the better. That way we know who is responsible. Just how good is the Democrat Party performing in regards to the following? The economy, the southern border, crime, inflation, indoctrination of school age kids, diversity, inclusion and equity, higher taxes, increased spending, lack of affordable housing, mental problems, electric supply dwindling, liberal lockdowns, vaccine mandates, Marxism and socialism ideologically, illegal aliens, decrease of merit and increase of equity, the veil of hypocrisy and political narratives. Wow, there are many problems that the Democrat

[00:48:53] Party has not had an answer to, and these are just a few. Instead of despair and survival, we want Prince William County to have prosperity and opportunity. Make Prince William County great. This does not sound good for you. Do not vote as lame ducks and drive your Prince William County further down the toilet. Vote against rezoning the digital gateway. Thank you. Our next four speakers, I don't know if Robert Franklin is here, Brian Landrum, Ayn Johnson, and Teresa Minns.

[00:49:31] Chair Wheeler, supervisors, good afternoon. I'd like to take this time to thank Supervisor Franklin for nominating me to serve on the Architectural Review Board. I'm proud to live in prince william county could you give us your name real quick just terribly sorry brian landrum woodbridge thank you i'm proud to live in prince william county and to raise a family in woodbridge prince william is a county of rich history and character and i'm honored and humbled by the

[00:50:03] opportunity to serve this county and its people even in a small way thank you thank you next speaker please good afternoon madam chair board of county supervisors county attorney and county executive Mr. Shorter. My name is Mrs. Aene Johnson and I am from the Woodbridge District. I'm continuing to speak publicly as a wife, mother, expected mother, and advocate for families who desire to foster and

[00:50:43] adopt the most vulnerable children within the child welfare system. Today I will pivot back to our family's correspondence with you, Mr. Shorter, and also with Courtney Tierney. We understand and know what the law states your responsibility is, Mr. Shorter, and we wanted to bring a few things to your attention again. Number one, we have the right to information as covered by the Freedom of Information Act. Number two, we have the right to transparency as covered by the Foster Parent Bill of Rights. Number three, we have the right to speak freely during public comment, as my family

[00:51:18] has done since March 7, 2023, and not be retaliated against by any entity within Prince William County. Additionally, we are requesting to have a meeting with you, Courtney Tierney, and Diane Gestrich. Mr. Shorty, you stated in writing that you would investigate and we're holding you to your own words.

[00:51:36] We want you to continue to investigate the following things and we don't want it to be hearsay. We want Courtney Tierney to be there as well as Diane Gestrich. The half-truths and why they were submitted by the Prince William County Department of Social Services to the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court.

[00:51:54] It's on the record and that affects my family. The wrongful and abrupt closure of our home as foster parents after we spoke during public comment on March 7, 2023, and after we contacted officials in Richmond. The false narrative being shared that our family is supporting children in foster care for money when money is allocated for foster children.

[00:52:17] Hence the reason why there is a VMAT, the Virginia Enhanced Maintenance Assessment Tool. Understanding as to why, and this one I think really bothers me, definitely bothers me. understanding as to why a recommendation was made to send police officers to our home to cause trauma to our family and children to come get our foster son. I've dealt with police brutality.

[00:52:40] I've dealt with three police officers being on my back, and it was recommended by the Department of Social Services to send police officers to my home to get a foster child that was not in danger. That does not make sense, and foster parents need to know things like that could happen.

[00:52:56] We have the right to be treated with respect and dignity. No matter what we've said, we have never disrespected anyone here in the county building. We have never disrespected anyone there at the Department of Social Services. Never. That's not our track record.

[00:53:14] And it's not going to start to be our track record. We will continue to ask questions. We will continue to advocate. Continue. And we will continue to move forward. And we do sincerely hope and pray that the children that are within Prince William County that haven't been adopted will have the opportunity to be adopted fairly.

[00:53:38] Thank you. Next speaker, please.

[00:53:53] Threesome ends, Potomac District, and all these people that were ahead of me, we have not spoken with each other. I'm covering a lot. Okay, Democrat supervisors are supposed to be working for the citizens.

[00:54:09] From the very first day, Chair Wheeler disrespected the citizens, robbing them of their citizens' time, their three minutes. And this Democrat board also had secret meetings, excluding the Republicans.

[00:54:27] I didn't know these people were coming here today. This is wonderful. Yes, you all did it. You all enjoyed it. Total disrespect. Then you allowed the harassment of Supervisor Vega by the Black Lives Matter group.

[00:54:45] Yes, you did that. You guys, Democrats, are guilty. Okay, citizens need to decide. Do you really want dictators? Because that is what Chair Wheeler is.

[00:55:02] If you had come to these meetings, you would see her snide looks. And then for the people with the data centers, excuse me, you voted for Chair Wheeler, that's what you're going to get, okay? I knew from day one who she was for.

[00:55:19] Then another thing, oh, there's so much. I say you're lacking in morality, you're robbing our independence, and you're all out to destroy the Constitution. You are tools to rob us of our tax dollars, to cripple us.

[00:55:35] Everything that was said before me, I agree with. And it is so. But you guys owe Supervisor Vega a major, major apology because you allowed that to happen.

[00:55:52] And Black Lives Matter is not a Black Lives Matter group. It is a Marxist group. Okay? Just remember that. And another thing, we have been importing people from Washington, D.C., Chicago, Baltimore, etc.

[00:56:08] the places i'm mentioning they are failing in their areas i have heard the worst information about baltimore and i'm going to call it like it is i mean what these people were saying before me i couldn't believe it it's i mean they were calling it like it is and as far as i'm concerned you're white collar criminals you will rob us of our tax dollars to you cripple us you are not here Oh, and that's another thing.

[00:56:39] The harassment of Sheriff Hill. Supervisor Bailey has her husband on the jail board. What is that for? Another way to get after our sheriff. Our sheriff is a black man. He's been a great person, a great leader for many years.

[00:56:58] He saved Prince William County. I was here in 2000s. I know. Thank you. That will conclude our in-person public comment time for today, and I will turn it over to Vice Chair Bodie for online public comment time.

[00:57:16] Thank you, Madam Chair. Ms. Mann, Ms. Madden, do we have anyone online?

[00:57:30] We did have five speakers signed up.

[00:57:47] I would think one would show up. Right. The only one we had to sign up this afternoon was Ms. Mendes, and she's here in person. Right.

[00:58:03] Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you very much, Vice Chair Bodie. Okay, that brings us on to 5A, today's afternoon's public hearing, and we only have one item. It's a resolution to adopt the Upper Aquapon Sewage Authority's 2022 restated and amended service agreement, which is countywide.

[00:58:22] I will, I don't believe there's a presentation, so I will officially open the public hearing for agenda item 5A. Ms. Madden, is anyone here to speak on 5A? Okay, if there's anyone who wishes to speak on 5A, please approach the microphone in the back.

[00:58:42] Okay. Seeing no one approached the microphone in the back, this will officially close the public hearing on Agenda Item 5A. Vice Chair Bodie, do you want to provide a motion for approval? Sure. So moved, Madam Chair.

[00:58:58] Second, Madam Chair. Motion made by Vice Chair Bodie, seconded by Supervisor Bailey. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, please vote. Vote unanimous. Very good. Okay, well, that brings us on to item number six, the county executive's time.

[00:59:16] Mr. Florida, the shore is yours. That's okay. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, Madam Chair and board members. I'll be quick, a few quick updates.

[00:59:32] I wanted to follow up on the request around the landfill and landfill operations. As stated last week, we were going to continue to monitor the landfill. happy to say that we had over 2,500 customers on Saturday. That was 700 more than last weekend, and it was a smooth process. So I just want to thank our team out at the landfill and Public Works for the work. Thank you, Supervisor Vega, for bringing it to our attention. Also wanted to

[01:00:08] report that FEMA has officially notified us that they are increasing the county's rating for the National Flood Insurance Program Community Rating System to a Class 6. This means that the floodplain management activities implemented by the county qualify our residents for a 20% discount in flood insurance premiums.

[01:00:31] This is a big deal for us and will be effective for policies issued or renewed after October 1 of this year. I want to certainly thank the staff in environmental management, in public works, emergency management, and development services for all their work.

[01:00:53] Certainly a big credit to them and certainly a big impact to our residents. So thank you to the team. And also wanted to just remind the board that I did send an email out as a follow-up from last week's discussion around the Fairfax County and Fairfax water involvement in our comprehensive planning effort.

[01:01:20] So certainly available to answer any questions there, but wanted to make sure that I brought notice to that email. All right. And that is all, Madam Chair. Thank you. Madam Chair. Thank you. Oh, I have to hit my button. Yeah. Thank you. Supervisor Bailey. Thank you so much. Mr. Shorter, would you say that that was the first time for that rating for Prince William County from FEMA?

[01:01:42] As far as I know, it is the first time we've been rated as Class 6, but happy to have the director correct me if that's not the case. Just a little plug. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Shorter.

[01:02:01] Ms. Robel, the floor is yours. County Attorney Time. Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the board. We will have one discussion in closed session this afternoon. It will be personnel discussions and considerations relating to the hiring of a new deputy county executive for general government, where consultation, briefing, or discussion in an open meeting would adversely affect the bargaining position, litigating posture, or negotiating strategy of the public body.

[01:02:23] And this item is appropriate for closed session pursuant to 2.2-3711A1 of the Virginia Code. So moved, Madam Chair. Second. Motion made by Supervisor Angry, seconded by Supervisor Bailey. Any discussion? Seeing none, please vote.

[01:02:42] Vote unanimous. Okay, thank you, Ms. Robel. That brings us on to supervisor's time. If I could get a motion for 8A through 8G for the appointments from last week. Madam Chair, could you separate 8A, please?

[01:03:01] Sure. Okay, so if I could get a motion for 8B through 8G. So moved, Madam Chair. Okay. Second. Motion made by Supervisor Angry, seconded by Vice Chair Bodie. Any discussion? Madam Chair. Supervisor Franklin. Sure, just want to highlight Mr. Brian Landrum and actually just want to thank him for his words this afternoon.

[01:03:23] I've never been thanked publicly for appointing someone, so it was a pleasant surprise and looking forward to working with you, sir. So thank you. Very good. Seeing no further discussion, please vote.

[01:03:48] That's all good. We separated.

[01:04:00] No rush.

[01:04:20] No worries. Thank you. Provider Lawson? Well, no, so. That's okay. This actually, it just says 8B. It just said 8B, but you meant. No, that's just the first one in the list.

[01:04:36] But it's okay. You got it. Okay. Very good. Motion made by Supervisor Lawson, seconded by Vice Chair Bodie. Any discussion? Seeing none. Oh, Mr. No. Okay. Sorry. Seeing none, please vote. Vote unanimous.

[01:05:04] Supervisor Weir abstaining from vote. Very good. We'll now go around the horn for Supervisor's time. I'm going to start with Mr. Angry because last week I started with Ms. Weir. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just one note, it was brought to my attention about the FY24 budget that we approved.

[01:05:23] I requested to include the master plan for the Dell City Neighborhood Library using savings from the previous master plans. So without objection, I'd like to direct county staff to provide a Dell City Neighborhood Library master plan using savings from the previous master plan savings, which was something that Mrs. Sinclair spoke about.

[01:05:48] so we didn't have to put it on the budget. So it's going to be the savings from previous master plan put together to do a master plan for the Dell City Library. Got a directive, and eventually do we need to vote on that and appropriate? No, we're good. Okay, okay.

[01:06:04] Thank you. Thank you, Supervisor Angry. Supervisor Weird. I've got nothing, Madam Chair. Supervisor Lawson. Thank you, Madam Chair. I would like to give my notice of intent to appoint Ms. Vida Carroll to the ARB, And I know the clerk has her resume on file.

[01:06:23] And then I am going to read something that I would like the folks that are here to honor the life and memory of Ms. Kim Hosen to join down here.

[01:06:41] Do you mind coming down toward the front? Would it be okay if we, I guess I didn't plan this out, But do something to, other than just stand. Sure.

[01:06:59] Actually, would you be okay if I go down there and do it? Is that okay? Sure. Thank you.

[01:07:16] Ladies and gentlemen, what I'm going to read is a record of what Congressman Jerry Connolly recently had entered into the congressional record regarding a very close friend of many of us,

[01:07:55] uh a fellow conservationist a prince william county resident just an all-around dear lady and actually she was also a mom to eli so eli you come over here by me um we want we want to thank you for sharing your mom with us um come on over i won't bite you um eli is also a county employee by the way um and um we're all grieving the loss of your mom but we never want to lose her memory I personally was one of her students, and I loved her dearly.

[01:08:31] Do you want to say something about your mom? Just her lifelong passion was the county and the environmental resources of the county and how great they are and how much they do for us personally and as a community. I don't know.

[01:08:47] She would be just completely ecstatic at the folks here and just what everyone's doing, and she always liked to say everyone was a seed and as long as everyone grows. It's wonderful to have such support.

[01:09:03] Thank you. You stay right here. Don't go anywhere. Okay, so again, Congressman Jerry Connolly recently had this read into, it was actually Tuesday, May 9th, into the congressional record. Mr. Connolly, Mr. Speaker, I rise to commemorate the life and work of Kim Hosen.

[01:09:21] Kim was a dedicated environmentalist who made significant contributions to the protection and preservation of the natural habitats in prince william county virginia kim was the founding executive director of the prince william county conservation alliance a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the natural resources of the region kim's tireless efforts led to the protection of approximately 300 acres of land creating the merrimack farm wildlife management area and establishing the bluebell festival which celebrates the acquisition of this area which now attracts nearly 1,000 people annually. Additionally, Kim initiated the wildlife garden

[01:10:00] which showcases what is possible for backyard habitats and launched the Merrimack Farm Virginia Master Naturalist Chapter. I was proud to partner with her to fight for an environmentally just solution to coal ash pollution at Possum Point. Kim was instrumental in establishing 40 miles of scenic byways all located in the rural crescent she also led the effort to rewrite the environment in the parks trails and open space chapter of the 2008 environment 2008 comprehensive plan further demonstrating her unwavering commitment to protecting the unique habitats and quality of life

[01:10:40] for all residents of prince william county her consistent reliable and knowledgeable voice for the environment and healthy communities made her an invaluable resource for prince william county's planning commissioners the board of county supervisors and residents who sought her expertise on how to best protect the natural resources of our area kim's contributions were recognized throughout her career these include the conservation and environmental education for potomac river national wildlife refugees complex from u.s fish and wildlife service in 2004

[01:11:16] conservations of the year from ducks unlimited in 2006 by the way that's the night i met her in 2015 influential women award from prince william living in 2015 native plant champion from plant nova natives in 2016 and the certificate of appreciation from the committee of 100 in 2022 kim's legacy will live on through the countless lives she touched and the natural habitats she help protect. Her commitment to preserving the environment and educating future generations will

[01:11:53] continue to inspire others to follow in her footsteps. Kim will always be remembered as a remarkable environmentalist who made a lasting impact on the world around her. She is survived by her two sons Eli and Jake. She will be dearly missed by her family and friends and our entire community. Mr. Speaker, I ask that my colleagues join me in commemorating the life of Kim Hosen and in sending her family our sincere condolences. Mr. Jerry Connolly, U.S. Congressman. That's a

[01:12:29] life that had a lot of meaning and purpose, and she obviously touched so many lives and beyond these board chambers. And again, Eli, we will not let your mom's memory fade. We're all committed to it. Thank you so much for being here today.

[01:12:46] Thank you, everybody, for being here. This is a sample of those whose lives can touch. Thank you very

[01:12:54] much. Supervisor Bode.

[01:13:58] Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Supervisor Lawson, for that. Ms. Hozen also served as the Wetlands Board Member of Paracaquan District since when I first got elected in 2020, all the way up until her passing. So I appreciate your commemoration of her with that. Now to a few housekeeping things for me. First, I would like to put in my notice of intent to reappoint David Delevante to the Board of Equalization and also wanted to just talk about a few events that have been going over the last week or so and talk about a few upcoming events. On Wednesday, May 17th, I, and alongside

[01:14:37] a lot of my colleagues, went to the National Building Safety Month celebration right out here at the uh the the plaza um my son miles got to join me too it's a great uh celebration of all of our folks that make sure that our buildings here the county are safe and that whether it's a residential or a business uh that folks feel safe within our buildings and all the team that is involved in that process on thursday the 18th i went to the virtually to the hunters ridge hoa uh board meeting uh really good time to get with those folks um as the only time i interact with them since they becoming, uh, Ocagon district, uh, constituents was, um, during the

[01:15:16] comp plan process, some of the concerns and, and things that they were concerned about. So it was good to sit down with them in a more informal setting to talk about a lot of the stuff that we're working on as a district and as a community. They ask a lot of good questions too. Uh, on the 20th, I got to attend the Rockledge Elementary 50th anniversary alongside my wife, a couple of my kids. Little known fact, my wife actually used to work for YFT as a psychiatric counselor for Rockledge, helping a lot of the most at-risk and vulnerable youth, put them on a more productive path towards adjusting to a lot of what life hardships are and making them better, well-adjusted

[01:15:55] students. So I appreciate you, dear, for all the work that you did there. Glad we were able to reconnect with some of your colleagues at Rockledge. Also attended the 2023 Blessing of the Fleet down in Belmont Bay. Always appreciate the Occoquan Maritime Association on the event they put on there. We have a great waterfront and maritime community for Prince William County on our waterfront community. So always appreciate getting a chance to get out there. And my son, Miles, joined me for that. He loves the cookies that the Prince William Marina donated to the project. On the 21st, I attended alongside my family, the Equality Prince William Annual Pride

[01:16:33] event up in Manassas at the Harris Pavilion. Appreciate Casa Brumar, quality Prince William, our clerk of the court, Jackie Smith, for her tri-seals van that goes out there, and all the other folks that made that event a success. Really appreciate the community outpouring of appreciation for LGBTQI community. As far as upcoming events, this coming Thursday, we have the Prince William Parkway Old Bridge Road Public Info Session at Kerrydale Elementary.

[01:17:03] I share this intersection with Supervisor Angry, so I will allow him to add any—well, he's already spoken. So this is a major realignment project that touched not only our two districts but the entire county, as this project will realign Princeton Union Parkway and Old Bridge Road to make it so folks can more cohesively go down the parkway towards 95, as opposed to using Old Bridge Road as a cut-through to get to 95 and other parts of the eastern part of the county.

[01:17:31] I know a lot of my constituents in the eastern part of my district, including myself, who lives alongside Old Bridge Road, have a lot of traffic concerns in regards to people continuing to use Old Bridge Road as a cut through to 95. And this realignment project will be a key part in connecting the mid-county and western portion of the county to 95 in a more cohesive way.

[01:17:51] I know that we have some other projects going on along the parkway to help that project. So, please, I hope everyone will join me in going to that public info meeting again Thursday, this Thursday, 630 to 9 at Carydale Elementary.

[01:18:07] I'll be attending as well. Also, on the point of mobility, we have an Occoquan District Mobility updates meeting coming up alongside PwC Department of Transportation and OmniRide, Wednesday, May 31st, 630 to 8 o'clock.

[01:18:24] That will be virtual. Please look out for correspondence from my office on that. It'll be sort of a belt and suspenders, holistic conversation about mobility improvements in the district and throughout. And finally, on Thursday, June 22nd, location TBD.

[01:18:40] It will probably either be hybrid or in person. We'll be having community safety town hall. I know that Mr. Alexander and some other folks on counties have been looking at the community safety initiative. We'll be talking about holistic belt and suspenders conversation about community safety. Thank you so much, Madam Chair. Thank you, Vice Chair Bodie.

[01:18:56] Supervisor Bailey. Thank you, Madam Chair. Good afternoon to everyone. Just to tell you a little bit about past events on May 17th, I want to thank Ms. Karen Smith and her staff at the ARC of Greater Prince William County for the amazing tour and discussion that I had that reflects the persons with developmental disabilities and what the wonderful job they're doing there and how the county can partner with them going forward.

[01:19:23] I enjoyed stopping past the National Building Safety Month celebration. I can't tell you enough what a great department that is, agency that is, and we just thank you for all that you do to make sure that we have safe, constructed, and secure buildings within our county.

[01:19:40] I was the honor of being the guest speaker at the Dumfries Elementary School on the same day with 50 young ladies at the elementary school and a mentoring program with the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, and it was exhilarating and energized thank you to four seasons for the community meeting that we had there i appreciate the invitation where i was joined by our police chief newsham and dan alexander talking about four seasons and the great work that we're doing in the surrounding area their their major concern was safety and dan i just want to thank you for addressing that and

[01:20:18] to the police chief and going forward and partnering to explain our future comprehensive plan to them. On May 18th, I was glad to attend the business appreciation event at the Hilton Performing Arts Center. Christina Wynn and her team did an excellent job, and Madam Chair, you did an excellent speech. It was really exciting for the first. Thanks to Mrs. Ernestine Jenkins for the invitation to attend the American Wartime Museum Dinner. It was always a pleasure, It's always a pleasure to acknowledge our military and the service that they give to us in protecting our country nationally and internationally,

[01:20:55] and in the honor of Supervisor, former deceased Supervisor John Jenkins. On May 19th, I attended the Boys and Girls Club tournament, golf tournament, and didn't golf, but I want to thank the community for supporting that event as we provide the services here from the Boys and Girls Club for our community.

[01:21:14] Later that evening, I attended the tribute to the labor dinner, and I want to thank the unions for how they work with us to build a stronger and effective skill set within our county as we build our workforce development here in the county.

[01:21:31] So thank you so much for the partnership there. On May the 20th, it was an honor to partner with our clerk of the court, Jacqueline Smith, And we had a ribbon cutting on the sales on wheels here in our community that would allow us to provide a service to our community for when they need to attend court cases or need to do voter registration or get sworn in.

[01:21:58] We have sales on wheels to pick up our citizens to make sure that they make their appointments and have the resources via vendors to do so. On the 22nd, thanks to the Economic Development for their Phase II business appreciation, in my district to the Burrito House in Quantico, the town of Quantico, and for Giorgio's, a staple in our community in Montclair, where everybody wants to know your name like cheers, we were able to give their appreciation as well.

[01:22:29] Upcoming events, we're going to have June 17, Dumpster and Shredding Day at Washington Reed from 9 to 1 p.m. And then lastly, I want to offer my sincere condolences to the family of Ms. Elsie Garrison, who left us at 101 years young.

[01:22:47] Ms. Elsie passed away at her home in Dumfries, Virginia, with her family and close friends on May the 20th. And as you recall, we did celebrate her 100th birthday here in the atrium. So her services will be held on Friday the 26th at 10 a.m.

[01:23:03] in Dumfries United Methodist Church. Ms. Elsie, we will miss you. I know your wings are waiting. Thank you. Thank you, Supervisor Bailey. Supervisor Franklin. Okay. Yesterday on May 22nd, I had the opportunity to tour one of Woodbridge's outstanding businesses, Emerald Ironworks, owned by Jason Pigott.

[01:23:25] Emerald Ironworks is a manufacturing firm and premier driveway gate and architectural iron company serving Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Maryland. The company started here in Woodbridge in 1981 and now has 60 employees here in Prince William County. As part of the Business Appreciation Month economic development, and myself recognize Emerald Ironworks for its continued success in the work that it does here in the community, such as partnerships with Potomac High School and its CTE program.

[01:23:55] So thank you to Ironworks. I will be back on Tuesday touring the facility with Congresswoman Spanberger, so looking forward to that. Last Thursday, May 18th, I attended the Make Your Mark event at the Hilton Performing Arts Center hosted by Economic Development Office.

[01:24:13] This event showcased the beauty of Prince William County and the many opportunities for businesses to grow and thrive. It was the first event that economic development has hosted of its kind. I think Christina Wynn told me they were expecting about 50 to 100 people and 300 people RSVP'd.

[01:24:32] So it was an incredible event. Looking forward to next year, I saw some businesses networking with each other, exchanging contact information. So it seemed to be a very good event, not only to celebrate businesses, but also to bring them together to network.

[01:24:47] So that was great. Just very quickly, I also attended the Americans in Wartime Experience Project. Thank you to Ms. Ernstine Jenkins for flagging that and wanting us to come and learn more. And on Friday, May 18th, I hosted Bike to Work Day at the Woodbridge VRE station.

[01:25:03] We had several bikers who signed up and other commuters who stopped by the table to receive free Bike to Work t-shirts, water bottles, and other giveaways. This program is in conjunction with the Washington Council of Government, and VRE encourages commuters to use the bicycle as an option for commuting to work if possible.

[01:25:22] Lastly, I just want to highlight, I was able to join some of my colleagues at Potomac High School for their culinary event this past weekend. It was an excellent event to highlight their culinary program. I will be honest, and I'm not just saying this because they're students, that was some of the best salmon I have ever had.

[01:25:39] It was incredible. I wanted to ask for more, but I didn't want to be that person, so I suffered in silence. But it was an excellent event. It was the seniors in the culinary program that was actually both cooking the food and serving the food, and I am looking forward to seeing them walk across the stage, but that was some good lunch.

[01:26:02] So thank you to Potomac High School for that invitation, and with that, Madam Chair, I yield. Thank you, Supervisor Franklin. Supervisor Vega. Thank you, Madam Chair. I just have one item that I want to express my gratitude. I want to thank transportation, public works, facilities, and fleet management, and, of course, the taxpayers of Prince William County for helping and allowing us to implement the pedestrian safety improvements along Old Centerville Road.

[01:26:27] We had a ribbon-cutting ceremony for this area yesterday morning, and we were joined by county staff from each of those departments, in addition to the constituents who first brought these issues to my attention. So a special shout-out and a special thank you to Chris Griffin. I know you're always watching, so thank you for making this happen.

[01:26:43] A missing portion of the sidewalk near Parkland Avenue was replaced, and the school zone for Yorkshire Elementary extended to include a new crosswalk for pedestrian access. With so much pedestrian traffic in this area, this was extremely important to me, considering the fact that it's right next to Yorkshire Elementary, and we have a lot of children walking in this area.

[01:27:02] New streetlights were also put in place to improve visibility in the area. I'm also happy to report that this project was done ahead of time and under budget using $733,000 in surplus funds and $200,000 in savings by doing the project in-house.

[01:27:18] I want to give a special shout-out to Mr. Salah because he was the one that actually designed this improvement, and because of him, we were able to save this money. and also kudos to Rick and his team in conjunction with Tom Smith and his team for getting this done so quickly and in such a cost-effective manner.

[01:27:36] It's much appreciated, and that is all I have, Madam Chair. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Vega. You know, people have already talked. It was a busy week. It's always a busy week. You know, the National Safety Awareness Month, that was really wonderful, and seeing the employees out there and getting to recognize the ones who had over 20 years, so much institutional knowledge in that department.

[01:27:54] We've got to keep it. I got to speak at the Department of Economic Development, Make Your Mark, and I'll say that there were a lot of people there. Hopefully that will be an annual event. The event hosted by the Americans in Wartime Experience was wonderful. That site is really coming along.

[01:28:10] I want to highlight that I attended the groundbreaking ceremony of the Nepali-American Community Center over in Manassas. It was awesome. There were like over 500 people there. It turns out that in northern Virginia there are probably over 20,000 Nepalese. community members and they're siting their community center right there on Ballsford Road. It was really, it was amazing food, people dressed up and really exciting and I look forward to that. I look forward to that ribbon cutting. I also got to attend the culinary event at Potomac High School.

[01:28:42] Those kids cook a lot better than I do and I will leave that at that. It was delicious. Got to attend the Equality Prince William Pride event. Glad that the county departments were out in force, you know, supporting that. That was a wonderful event. Yesterday, lastly, I got to speak at a new restaurant, Lahora Zaka Restaurant, which is over on Centerville Road.

[01:29:08] It's a new Pakistani restaurant, which has professionally trained chefs that were trained in Pakistan. And it's where the old Tandoori Village was. The name hasn't been changed yet. But if word-of-mouth advertising, it was just, it was delicious, absolutely delicious to be able to spend there.

[01:29:29] So I look forward to going there again. Additionally, my staff also attended the ribbon-cutting at Old Centerville Road, so kudos on that for Supervisor Vega. They said that was great. Lastly, I want to announce my intent to appoint Steve Nelson to the Board of Trustees of the Supplemental Pension Plan for Sworn and Uniformed Public Safety Personnel.

[01:29:53] That's a mouthful. And Ms. Madden, I believe you have his resume on file. So with that, and we can have that on the next time's agenda to appoint him. With that, we are done. It is 3.30 with our afternoon agenda.

[01:30:14] Oh, closed session. Ah, closed session. I knew I was forgetting something. okay uh we're going to go into closed session we will report after that report out after that and then we will take a break until our evening session so we will go into closed session thank

[01:30:27] you we are back from closed session if i could get a motion to certify please so move madam

[01:31:51] second motion made by supervisor bailey seconded by vice chair bode any further discussion seeing none please vote vote unanimous and um i will turn it over to mr shorter thank you madam chair and Board. I am excited to announce the appointment of Mr. Quinton Hayes to the Deputy County Executive for General Government role. We followed a very extensive recruitment process and went through

[01:32:31] a number of applications from a total of about 20 states and came to what I believe and we all believe is a phenomenal next deputy county executive. I want to invite Quentin to come down and say a few words, but want to certainly thank the board for your support in meeting him today. Quentin. Good afternoon, Chair Wheeler. Good afternoon, members of the board, Michelle, Mr. Shorter. Thank you for this opportunity. My name is Quentin Hanks, and I am excited

[01:33:07] to be the incoming Deputy County Executive for General Government. And as I'm learning, the language is DCXO. So I'm starting to learn the language already. As I've mentioned before, I am passionate about public service. I'm passionate about public administration.

[01:33:24] I'm eager to jump right in, and I'm eager to work with each and every one of you to understand your needs, understand your constituents' needs, and also work with you to deliver service delivery throughout the county. And so, again, I appreciate this appointment. Thank you for your trust, and I look forward to working with each and every one of you.

[01:33:42] Well, thank you, Mr. Haynes. On behalf of the board, I'd like to welcome you here, and I'm sure we'll be all working with you closely. And thank you for choosing to work in Prince William County. We are grateful for that. Thank you so much. Okay, with that, we are going to go to dinner tonight.

[01:33:58] We're going to go to Los Toltecos, and we'll be being there at 530. How does that work? 530. And those who want to drive can meet in the back at 5.15. And if you can let us know whether or not to wait for you, and then we'll all be good.

[01:34:18] And Mr. Hanger, welcome to join us. We can get to know you better over nachos. That would be great. Yeah, feel free. Okay, wonderful. Thank you. And we will be in recess. I will not say insured. We will be in recess until, okay, three or three and a half years.

[01:34:37] It takes that long. Until 7.30 tonight. Thank you.

[01:36:05] Evening. welcome back to the board chambers it's now the 7:30 p.m. session and we're gonna begin our evening session with public hearings as stated on the agenda item 10b has been deferred to an uncertain date at the applicants request which brings us to our only public hearing item for tonight for a special use permit for Rockwater farm in the Gainesville magisterial district I believe there's a presentation by the applicant to start or no yes yeah okay

[01:36:37] awesome welcome mr prater can i use the mouse okay thank you good evening chair wheeler members of the board brian prater with walsh collucci here tonight on behalf of the applicant which is rockwater farm with me here tonight is todd thomason who is the applicant and the owner operator of rockwater farm as well as mike massey our civil engineer and marion harders also with walsh collucci rockwater farm is a landscaping company that offers lawn care landscape installation

[01:37:14] of maintenance, hardscape, installations such as patio and the like. This successful small business has operated for 18 years in Loudoun County and is looking to relocate its operation into Prince William County. To do so, it seeks this special use permit application and respectfully requests an approval from you all tonight. This slide shows the general location of the proposed application. It is about a mile south of the Loudoun County boundary along Route 15 and about three-quarters of a mile north of the intersection of Log Mill Road and Route 15.

[01:37:51] The applicant's looking to relocate its current operation, which is just north of the Loudoun County line, so practically speaking, a lot of the vehicles in use associated with his operation are utilizing this corridor today.

[01:38:09] This slide shows the property, which is about just over 44 acres in total size. it's two parcels. One of the conditions will require, in connection with Site Plan, this to be consolidated into one parcel. This is the former location of a state prison camp that operated from the 1960s to about the early 90s, roughly, and that is these existing structures here.

[01:38:34] There is also an existing telecommunications facility here that is going to remain. These are some of the existing structures with the state prison camp. As I said, it stopped operation in about 1991, so it's been largely abandoned since then.

[01:38:53] And these are pretty unsightly buildings that would really be an eyesore if you could see them from Route 15 and desperately need some cleanup. So we think this is a great option for this applicant to clean up this property and turn it into a productive use. The property is currently zoned A1 Agricultural, and it is comprehensively planned AF Agricultural and Forestry.

[01:39:17] Landscaping services requires an SUP in the A1 zoning district. To be clear, this is not a nursery or Merrifield garden type of use that has a retail component. This is a landscape services company that is only available to Todd's employees and himself, the applicant's employees.

[01:39:37] Occasionally, a customer or two might come onto site, and that's someone who has signed up and engaged Todd Services and wants to look at landscape plant materials or other hardscape materials before installing them into their yards. Another observation with the overall use is that the bulk deliveries associated with it for larger job sites don't come to the site.

[01:40:00] They actually go off directly to the job site. And as noted by staff in the staff report, staff believes that this use is compatible with the surrounding area and land use. This slide shows an illustrative version of the special use permit plan.

[01:40:16] One of the things that jumps out is there's a lot of green on this property. The applicant proposes to maintain approximately 65% of the property as open space. That equates to about 29 acres. That open space largely consists of floodplain RPA as well as a good number of specimen trees.

[01:40:35] There are 50-foot buffers around the entire boundary of the property. Most of them will retain the existing vegetation, where this buffer adjacent to this property, which is used as residential but also has an SUP for a commercial stucco business, this buffer will be planted to a type C standard because that's the location of the existing driveway to the facility.

[01:40:58] There are two principal buildings proposed with this application. One office building of about 8,000 square feet for the administrative personnel as well as the design team. And then you have about an 18,400 square foot indoor storage building for equipment and materials that need to be sheltered rather than stored outside.

[01:41:20] There's outdoor storage bins here for your typical materials that are associated with this type of use as well as some ancillary storage buildings in this area. And some covered parking for the vehicles the lighter gray you see for the driveway and office parking That's proposed as asphalt to be paved and then this darker gray is proposed as gravel or millings The applicant intends to use millings that usually fuses together and sticks together doesn't migrate as much less maintenance And then this color here is the same material

[01:41:54] But would be a phase two in the event the applicant seeks to expand its overall storage area One of the benefits of this application is these buildings are located over 1,000 feet from the existing Route 15, right, edge of Route 15, excuse me, and almost 1,000 feet from the existing right-of-way.

[01:42:15] So coupled with all of the preservation along the frontage, you really won't see this use. If any of you have been up and down Route 15, you really don't see the existing structures that are there today. And then one of the things that the applicant did in working with staff was address environmental concerns.

[01:42:39] Environmental staff identified a potential concern regarding vehicles and materials migrating outside of these gravel millings areas and into the environmental features. So the applicant agreed to provide a condition, and this is a fence exhibit that is incorporated by reference in condition 5F, that will provide four-foot-high fencing in all of these areas in blue and green.

[01:43:06] Blue differentiates phase one, and green is phase two. That is something that got staff comfortable to mitigate the potential impacts into those environmental features and would prohibit and prevent that type of migration or vehicles encroaching into those areas. I think that agreement of the fencing as well as the great limits of disturbance that's committed to on the SUP plan are one of the reasons there are no environmental weaknesses in this current staff report. This shows the proposed monument sign that is conditioned to substantial conformance. This was in working with staff. It has the field

[01:43:44] stone and the split rail to go along with the journey through the hallowed ground theme. So staff was supportive of this type of fencing, excuse me, signage, and this slide shows some conceptual renderings that the applicant submitted to staff to give a general feel for the proposed buildings. However, staff and the applicant agreed throughout the process that given the large setbacks of these buildings and the vegetation along the frontage, the architectural parameters and conditions weren't needed. You didn't need a general or substantial conformance to specific elevations. However, the Planning Commission felt it important to have some

[01:44:20] parameters regarding the type of building that would be proposed, particularly the office building. And as a result, there is a condition that was added by the Planning Commission that details the type of building materials for the office building on the property, which are exposed wooden beams, metal exterior, as well as stone. So what you see on the bottom of your screen is the applicant's vision for that office building.

[01:44:50] This slide shows a rendering of the proposed entrance as well as gives you a view from the front of the property. As you can see, there's a lot of landscaping and you really won't see the site. It also shows the proposed entrance.

[01:45:06] As you can see, there is a raised median or a pork chop there to prohibit left turns. There will be do not enter signs to prohibit left turns, and one of the reasons for that is many of the accidents up and down Route 15 are largely due to rear ends, which are when there is a left turn into a driveway of an intersection.

[01:45:28] The car behind it, whether traveling too fastly, not paying attention, or traveling too closely, will run into the car that slowed down to turn left, and that's a good deal of the accident, so the applicant prohibiting this left turn is addressing a safety concern in that regard.

[01:45:45] This slide shows the proposed entrance. We discussed the raised median. It is a left out, right out, and left out, but the restriction on left in. And then what this really shows is the proposed 200-foot taper for the right turns into the site.

[01:46:04] That taper meets VDOT standards based on the trip volume associated with the proposed use. However, it required a DCSM waiver from Prince William County Turn Lane Standards, and that was submitted and approved by county staff. They approved the DCSM waiver largely because of the low trip volume associated with the use.

[01:46:24] Both VDOT and the county staff have reviewed this entrance and believe it's appropriate for the use. One of the other reasons for the DCSM waiver, or considerations I should say, was impacts to environmental features and the overall cost associated with constructing such a turn lane that's not warranted by the proposed use.

[01:46:46] On the left side, you see an image of the RPA that is associated with the black branch. And then on the right side, you see the existing box culvert that goes over Route 15. In order to provide the full-length turn lane, the applicant would have had to reconstruct this box culvert and add an additional lane to it.

[01:47:08] is at a very expensive as you can all appreciate and not a cost that's really commensurate with the impacts of this proposed application and then lastly here are some vehicles associated with the use i think some of the things to highlight are the vehicles up on the top that are associated with the maintenance crews and the landscaping crews the applicant has on average about 10 crews that dispatch from the site per day a little more during peak times less during non-peak times and and those use those vehicles towards the top.

[01:47:41] On the bottom are the larger vehicles associated with the use. You'll notice that while larger vehicles, they are not your dual rear axle dump trucks that are carrying and hauling dirt throughout the county. These are smaller vehicles, more an F-350 with an expanded bed to do things like mulch delivery and stone delivery.

[01:48:00] The applicant only intends to have six of these on the property and would only do deliveries about once a day as needed. And the reason for that is they want it to go out once, do all the deliveries, and then return to the site so it's not wasting time and money going back and forth to the site.

[01:48:19] And then, as I noted earlier, the bulk deliveries that are associated with job sites will go directly to the site rather than come to the applicant's property. Additionally, there's some deliveries associated during peak hours.

[01:48:34] I believe it's about three to four times a week for deliveries but that averages out to maybe once a week as you go across the entire year and those deliveries are not always tractor trailers sometimes they're smaller flatbed vehicles and in this instance you have an applicant that has gone above and beyond working with county staff to provide an application that's very clean and has addressed all staff's comments and concerns throughout the process this is why staff is recommending approval with a yes in every single category that staff provides analysis on and it's why that analysis is without a single identified weakness in the staff report.

[01:49:11] I think that's a credit to this applicant and small business owner really going above and beyond to mitigate any concerns of the application. And that concludes my presentation with a recommendation of approval from staff as well as the Planning Commission. Respectfully request your approval tonight and can be available for any questions.

[01:49:31] Thank you, Mr. Prater. Do we have any questions before we hear from the staff report? Supervisor Bailey. Just, if you could go back to slide 11, I just wanted to clarify something. I may have misheard you.

[01:49:49] Yes. Where the pork chop is, did you say that's a right out and a left out? Is that what you said? Yes. So his company vehicles would be able to exit left southbound on 15 or right northbound.

[01:50:11] It prohibits left turns into the site. Okay.

[01:50:15] Visually, I couldn't. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Seeing no further questions. Thank you very much. Thank you. I guess Mr. Meyer. Welcome, Mr. Meyer. Good evening, Chair Wheeler, members of the board, Scott Meyer in the planning office. Mr. Prater walked you through the application. I'm just going to add and supplement as needed. You've already been oriented in terms of where the site is. It's a 44.4 acres, contains two parcels.

[01:51:00] One of the things that we're conditioning is consolidation of both of these parcels into one Parcel that's to avoid a non-conforming situation staff is recommending approval To the left here, which you've seen the site contains considerable environmental resources One thing to remember is that about one-third of the site is being disturbed or developed with this special use permit We have defined limits of clearing grading One of the notable features is that this is responding and it's in alignment with the environmental features.

[01:51:37] That's one thing that we also look for, too. And in terms of the taper, if we had a turn lane, we would have considerable more environmental impacts, which we're trying to avoid. And also there's a cost feature with impacting that box culvert as well.

[01:51:53] The use is allowed through a special use permit in agricultural A1 zoning. This is from the staff report just to point out that 15.5 acres of the site is being disturbed, 35%. We also have an undisturbed 50-foot landscape buffer along Route 15.

[01:52:13] This is in the journey through hallowed ground, so we look for design. We look for landscaping, so all those we feel are being met. These are a few photos that I took before this went to Planning Commission back in the middle of March.

[01:52:30] Looking at the site right now, you'll see there's numerous buildings in disrepair from the former prison campsite. This is on the access road. This is going out onto southbound 15.

[01:52:46] You'll see the entrance right here. And then, again, this is looking in the opposite direction. you'll see the box culvert and the proposed access is about right here, just for perspective. Again, there's a lot of environmental features on the site. We feel the applicant's done a good job with avoiding impacts.

[01:53:04] There's always a balancing act where, in terms of the DCSM waiver, again, it meets VDOT standards, but what's causing this is it's in conflict with the DCSM. We do have transportation staff here to address any questions that you may have, and also Clay Morris from our Watershed Management Branch as well.

[01:53:25] You'll see here we have, again, the fence to contain, you know, the materials on the site. And, again, you've already seen this, but this is, again, conceptual rendering showing that carefully designed access point and also the prohibition.

[01:53:42] This is looking southbound on 15. You'll see with the raised curb, and there's also the signage prohibiting that southbound left turn into the site. And again, this is, there's a gravel road right now, but the north border with the 50-foot trees will be installed. Again, we have some conceptual renderings that are already in the report. In keeping with the journey through hallowed ground, we have that field stone, and we have those boards that we feel, you know, are important. So staff is recommending approval.

[01:54:16] When this went to Planning Commission, there was an additional condition added about the front building facade which the applicant has agreed to there were also a few other minor administrative cleanups to the conditions but staff is recommending approval with the revised conditions dated May 11th and we feel that through the special use permit the impacts are adequately mitigated we have use parameters we have a very specific access we have the interior portion of the site being developed the exterior being left undisturbed and we feel overall that the impacts are sufficiently mitigated and I'm here to answer any questions thank

[01:54:55] you thank you very much mr. Meyer any questions for staff supervisor weird evening smart I've got evening several questions I'm going to briefly touch on the first two and then the third one is going to be a little expansive on page Page four, when you're talking about use of the property, under use and zoning compatibility, you've got, as proposed, the landscaping service business is context-sensitive, lower impact, and responsive to the surrounding site constraints.

[01:55:35] Lower impact than what? A farm? A data center? You're referring to, I'm sorry, page four of the... Page 14. 14, I'm sorry, of the staff report. Page 14, the bullet point after use and zoning compatibility.

[01:55:52] By that, staff was referring to the fact that we have a very minimal disturbance envelope for the site. We have over two-thirds of the site which is being undisturbed.

[01:56:11] This is also a relatively low trip generator for what could be there with other special use permits. We also feel that by looking at the landscape features that are there, the applicant is responding well, meaning that they are observing the features that are there and they're minimizing additional impacts to the extent practicable.

[01:56:37] I mean, obviously, we have the turn taper, which is, you know, causing a very small impact, but it could be a lot more if we had that full turn lane. And it's also been determined that that meets VDOT standards and staff also were supportive of that DCSM waiver.

[01:56:56] So we look at the overall context of the area. It's also very far recessed back into the site as well. There's a lot of tree preservation along 15. So elements like that are what we feel are quite important. Secondly, on page 22, you've got listed as a strength that the applicant is the option for either water, public water, or well, or public sewer, or a septic field.

[01:57:24] But I don't see any analysis, given the distance they're going to have to travel to bring in public water and sewer. What is the analysis of what a commercial establishment like that would entail or force upon a well?

[01:57:39] How much well water would they have to use to supply significant or substantial water to deal with the operation? What would the impact be on surrounding wells? I've had somebody nearby ask what the impact on their well would be, and I don't see any analysis of where the impacts are, well versus public water, sewer versus septic field, that sort of thing.

[01:58:09] Has there been any analysis on that? What is the cone of influence? Has the county or the applicant done any review of that? We could have the applicant address that. Mr. McGettigan, if you have.

[01:58:25] Yeah. I just wanted to mention that we review the sewer chapter of the comprehensive plan for consistency with the sewer chapter. Those sorts of details are more a site plan stage review and analysis that we wouldn't get into at the comp plan level review, which this is.

[01:58:47] The applicant may have. Mr. McGerigan, I would point out, and I've said this both prior to my term up here and recently sitting up here, I'm not a big fan of determining things at site plan. To my view, site plan is too late often.

[01:59:03] I mean, we're seeing that with many applications that have come to fruition and are now under construction where things were going to be handled at the site plan. Everything from entrance details to building heights, I'd rather hash it out now and find out what the impacts are prior to approving it and then finding out what the detrimental impacts are later on down the road.

[01:59:23] I'm not a big fan of kicking that can down the road, nor am I a big fan of words like on balance, but we'll deal with that in a moment. Okay, thank you. I take your point. All right, is the applicant going to address the water or do I need to move on to the next one? The applicant is here And their engineer is here as well. Thank you chair wheeler and supervisor we are

[02:00:02] Generally speaking based on the applicants proposed use. There would be a little water demand. This is not a nursery They're not going to have all of their plant units on site and demanding water and they also don't have a Lot of toilets that you know, it might be the equivalent of a few single-family homes as far as water usage in that respect And so we wouldn't expect the overall impact from Well and Sewer to be too great with the proposed operation.

[02:00:28] Which brings me to the largest issue that's giving me a little bit of heartburn, and that's the transportation aspect of it. I've gone back through the file and I've reviewed VDOT's comments from December of 19, March of 20, and June of 22.

[02:00:48] And what I'm consistently seeing in the VDOT comments are that the site entrance is substandard from the intersection of Route 15 and 615, which is Loudon Drive. And the response I keep hearing is that it will require a disturbance of the wetlands.

[02:01:04] And you're essentially playing a game with environmental impacts versus traffic safety issues. I've heard from a variety of the residents. I've met with a variety of the residents. I've seen a lot of comments that have come in. And judging from VDOT's comments, in fact, I believe they actually say it, it's not acceptable for a safe site access.

[02:01:28] I'm kind of concerned that we have such a minimal taper. If you look at the language, the design waiver allows for a significant reduction in what both VDOT and the DCSM require for a safe access to that site, especially on a 55 mile an hour stretch of highway.

[02:01:59] In fact, I've got a quote here from Prince William County Transportation, that the applicant must provide a full right-turn storage lane and taper or submit a waiver. And that was from June of 22. So the question is, if there's such a traffic safety issue that requires a full turn lane and taper, what's the justification for such a major reduction on a 55-mile-an-hour stretch of highway, especially given the concerns with rear-ends, left-hand turns in and out,

[02:02:36] and I understand that you're proffering out left-turn access into the site, but I question how that's going to be enforced. I have heard that the applicant will require its drivers to go several miles down the road and turn around at 7-Eleven.

[02:02:51] I don't know how we're going to enforce that. I've heard concerns that the U-turns will be made at Loudon Drive, other locations. It's nice to proffer the no left turn, but if it's an unenforceable proffer, what good does it do, the residents who deal with the traffic and the traffic safety concerns on Route 15?

[02:03:15] You know, the report says this is an existing condition, and I'll grant you that the traffic safety in that particular corridor is an existing condition, but I would suggest that adding an ingress-egress at that point, particularly given the number of accidents in that area, that just simply exacerbates an existing condition and doesn't make the existing condition any better.

[02:03:41] So given all of that, how do we justify such a significant reduction in turn lane and taper? Madam Chair, members of the board, Paulo Bellito with the Department of Transportation. I'm joined by George Phillips.

[02:03:57] He's the transportation planner assigned to this case. When it comes to a DCSM waiver, there are a few things we'll look at. In this case, the waiver was for the turn lane. Based on the DCSM design speed, it does require a 400-foot storage and 100-foot taper. In this case, the waiver was for a 200-foot taper.

[02:04:16] What we look at is the traffic generated by the development. In this case, based on the turn lane analysis provided by the applicant, which looked at 36 vehicles per day in the peak hour, excuse me, 36 vehicles peak hour in the AM, We determined that the 200-foot table was adequate based on the low volume.

[02:04:37] So we require longer turn lanes when we see a higher development with higher generated trips. And, Paul, if I could just add, the 36 trips he's talking about are right turns in in the morning. And there are 19 p.m. trips in the evening that make that right turn.

[02:04:54] And it is a continuous flow right turn as well. I would simply note that that turn lane analysis and that traffic analysis is without a TIA, correct? A formal TIA? That's correct. A TIA was not done based on the generated trips.

[02:05:12] And the other thing, and I'll keep this brief and just leave it at this for the moment. One of the justifications, as I understand it from reading the documentation, is that the cost of a turn lane and a taper, in accordance with what's required by the DCSM, would be significant in terms of cost because of the existing stormwater infrastructure that's there and the impact that they would have to absorb to the environmentally sensitive areas.

[02:05:43] But I go back to Watershed Management's comments from June of 22, quote-unquote, but watershed management does not object to a full right-turn lane where the future lane would be located. And I think that's what we're talking about here is we're talking about a stretch of highway that in the county plan is at some point in time to be updated to a four-lane section.

[02:06:06] So if that's the case, why aren't we planning ahead for that, understanding that there's no funding for it right now? I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around traffic safety, four lanes planned, but opting out of the full DCSM requirement and full VDOT requirement for a turn lane and a taper.

[02:06:31] And I'll just leave it at that for the moment and we'll come back to it later. - Supervisor Lawson? - Thank you. So I wanna make sure I'm understanding this clearly.

[02:06:46] So our standards and the design construction standards manual is 400 feet for tapers. - Correct, 400 storage and then 100 foot for the taper, correct? 55 mile an hour. - Okay, sorry, one of you answered me and bundled that up into one answer.

[02:07:05] - It's 400 plus 100 foot for the taper, so 500 total. - So 500. So we are granting a waiver for 200 feet? - Correct. - And then does that include the 100 foot?

[02:07:21] - It's 100 foot, it's a taper, so it's 200 total. It's more of a taper and what we look at is storage. We require higher storage and taper based on usually trip generated. In this case, with the low volumes, we are approving a waiver based on the low trip volumes.

[02:07:39] Okay. So I'm going to get to that. So, Paolo, are we going from VDOT standards of 500 feet total to county allowing, well, actually... It's county standards. It's the county standards that we're waiving.

[02:07:54] VDOT, right. We've only invented a VDOT for this question. Are we going from 500 to 200? Correct. So it's really a 300-foot difference. Yes. Okay. The taper design is more of a gradual taper. Right. Whereas with our typical turn lane, it's a 400-foot storage, and then it has a taper of 100 feet.

[02:08:14] Right. Well, we call it a taper, not a turn lane, because the width tapers, right? Correct. That's transition. That's short transition. So this is what I'd like to learn from you. If we don't have a TIA, and we're saying there has to be an AM exception, right?

[02:08:35] Is that correct? A DCSM waiver. Right. For the AM exception? It's for the entire traffic. So you said that that would be southbound, 36 vehicles in the morning?

[02:08:52] Is that right? Based on the turn lane analysis conducted by the applicant, it's northbound into the site. It's 36 AM in the peak hour. I'm sorry, northbound. Yeah, northbound and 19 in the PM. Okay, so this is my question. How do we know where those vehicles are coming from if we don't have a TIA?

[02:09:12] And I don't, I'm assuming that the gentleman doesn't know who's going to be always working for him and where they're going to live and what types of vehicles, I'm assuming these are his workers that are coming onto site? Correct. So how are we making all these assumptions?

[02:09:28] I can't speak for the applicant, but you're correct that a traffic impact analysis is more detailed. It looks at the network, whereas a turn lane analysis looks at the distribution of traffic. And I can defer to the applicant if they want to speak on exactly how a turn lane analysis was conducted, but it is an engineering process that I can defer for more explanation.

[02:09:46] Brian, looks like he wants to jump up. So it was part of the turn lane warrant analysis, which is an engineered analysis done by a traffic engineer, which for a small business owner is at no small cost.

[02:10:06] They do have distribution. I understand that, but my biggest concern up here is safety. And they do have distributions in that turn lane warrant analysis that would be similar to a traffic impact analysis. So I believe it should be in your staff report.

[02:10:25] So, for example, they have the overall trips that are going northbound and southbound, and they give you that type of distribution. What page are we looking at? I am looking at the actual DCSM waiver itself. so I can double-check the staff report and see whether it's in there.

[02:10:42] So I still don't have an answer to my question. So if it's not in the staff report, it is something that was reviewed by staff. I don't know if I have the thing to pull up. Okay, well, I'll let county planning staff answer me then. Is there a way for me to show this on screen?

[02:11:03] Brian, I can jump in on the trip distribution side of it. Whenever we have a traffic study, or in this case a turn lane warrant analysis, An assumption has to be made how many trips are coming to and from the north, how many trips are coming to and from the south.

[02:11:27] In this case, and looking at it, I think it's roughly a 70-30 split, so that roughly 70% of the traffic to and from the site is from the south, and 30% is from the north. I appreciate that, George. I'm trying to determine how we know that.

[02:11:44] How did we verify that? Honestly, it's the applicant's understanding of where their workers are coming from, and it's based on existing traffic patterns. Okay. Existing traffic patterns onto this site that looks like it has no activity right now and hasn't had activity for decades?

[02:12:05] Well, it would be traffic patterns. For example, on Route 15 in the morning, there's a significant amount of traffic coming from the south and going north. But you said to the site. Well, to the site, I'd have to leave with the applicant.

[02:12:23] I would imagine there's not a lot of traffic to the site right now. It's a barren site, right? It's a barren site. But there's assumptions made that the applicant puts into it for where their workers are coming from.

[02:12:39] And part of that is the existing traffic and where houses and where trip generators are north and south. Okay. I'm not satisfied with an answer, unless Brian wants to give one that is. Just one other observation with how the distribution is created in this instance.

[02:12:59] Because of the prohibition on left turns into the site, you're going to have a majority of the trips forced to come from that northbound direction. So all of his workers that live south of the site, we're going to be assured that they're going to...

[02:13:17] Not all. There's nothing... I mean, I'm sorry, that live north of the site, we're going to be assured that they're going to pass by their work site, do a U-turn somewhere, go get a soda at the 7-Eleven, coffee, and then come back? That's the requirement because it would be an illegal left turn into the site.

[02:13:32] Right, and I shared Supervisor Weir's concerns on that, how we condition that and enforce it. A couple other questions for you, and you're probably going to have to get a visual that, I don't know if it was, Brian, if it was your presentation or county staff's, But can we have a visual of the site with the ingress, egress, and maybe a little bit better view with Loudoun Avenue?

[02:14:02] Is it Loudoun Avenue? Loudoun Drive. Loudoun Drive. It might be in mine. Did you want the plan or the existing aerial? Actually, either one.

[02:14:18] so yesterday when we had our virtual meeting i remember asking you um what is the distance from loudon drive to the new ingress egress and did did i understand you say earlier a thousand feet no it is 480 feet okay and brian can you tell me because the current ingress egress is a little bit to the north right if you can see my cursor it is right where the hand is okay so we're not moving

[02:14:50] it much no oh it's to accommodate that buffer okay that's right okay um couple other questions so i i noticed there's going to be a sign basically on the pork chop that says do not enter correct are there any other measures um any other ways to and to discourage deter drivers from from making that mistake of turning in left from the northbound there's a no left turns

[02:15:25] sorry the no left turn sign as you're approaching southbound that's also shown on the sup plan and then just from a practical matter um they're todd the applicant excuse me his vehicles he will be instructing his employees not to drive over the median or not to make illegal left turns for a lot of different reasons. And they're hourly employees, largely. So if they're getting told to take a more circuitous route to and from their occupation, that they're paid for an hourly rate, I don't think that they would have. Well, that's a bit of a stretch. But I see what you're trying

[02:16:04] to say. But we're hopeful that he's going to make it crystal clear to his employees that that's forbidden. Yes, I can assure you that he will. Okay. I happen to know a lot of people in that area, which is why I'm grilling you the way I am, and I frankly did yesterday in our Zoom call, because I do know that there are concerns with the Loudoun intersection, and then this,

[02:16:36] as Supervisor Weir said, exacerbating the existing conditions, but thank you, and oh, I do have one more question, and the VDOT comments, what do they mean by applicant needs to show the crossover spacing of the proposed entrance along Route 15 from an adjacent entrance intersection with dimensions to comply with vdot access management requirements so there are certain standards that i would rely on county staff and or our civil engineer that would have

[02:17:12] more details on these standards themselves but what vdot is asking in that instance and it is not shown on this plan but if i can oh no sorry there it is so you see this 480 plus or minus the line that goes from the proposed entrance to loudon drive that's what that comment's asking for for the applicant to show that on their plan so they can do an analysis as to whether or not that's meeting the crossover spacing requirements.

[02:17:38] Okay. And then same thing to the north, to that existing driveway. Okay. Thank you. I don't have any more questions right now. Thanks. Supervisor Franklin? Sure. Can someone remind me how many employees we're talking about, roughly?

[02:17:56] So roughly it would be 50 to 60 during peak and about 20 during off-peak. Okay, and then can you give an idea of what during peak and off peak means for this instance? So it would be we're right in the middle of peak right now for our organization business.

[02:18:14] This is peak, you know, spring as well as fall cleanup, but winter, summer, not as much. Sure, and then can you give a sense of the hours of operation for the business? So typically his employees arrive to the site between 6 and 7 to try to get there. A.M.

[02:18:29] Yes, 6 and 7 a.m., excuse me, to try to get there before traffic. As you know, landscape crews are very early and often to their job sites to get started. And then let me just confirm. I have it in my notes. I believe it is about 3 to 5 is when they would return to the site, depending on the overall route that they're taking, 3 to 5 p.m.

[02:18:51] Sure. And then I do understand there are waivers on the transportation front. and obviously there are concerns about traffic mitigation. Can you talk publicly just about, and we've done this a little bit, but I want to kind of in a clean discussion, what the comments from VDOT have been and how you all have addressed those comments, and if at the end of the day they have any concerns left with the project.

[02:19:18] And so a little background. Some of the, at least the first submission and second submission of this application were done under a separate applicant this was formerly millennium landscaping that was the prior contract purchaser of the property they fell out of contract and this applicant picked it up so i believe when we first responded there were the the comments that supervisor weir has referenced regarding the full turn lane or submit a waiver we had since submitted that waiver we first provided the turn lane warrant analysis and then county transportation asked for us to

[02:19:55] submit a DCSM waiver with that, and ultimately VDOT seeing the approval of the DCSM waiver and the fact that the proposed taper meets VDOT standards, they closed the comment, and I can show you in that.

[02:20:10] And closed comment means? Means that it has been addressed. Okay, thank you. Any other concerns from VDOT? There was the comment that was brought up about the access management exception, and you showed the spacing, and that is something that is typically addressed, commonly addressed at site plan.

[02:20:31] During the site plan. And then just wanted to point out that, you know, VDOT had some comments. You guys did respond to those, and they kind of worked with the county to resolve those issues. Thank you. Supervisor Bailey. Thank you, Madam Chair. Brian, on page 24, where it says, and this is just for my clarity, going back to something that Supervisor Weir had asked,

[02:20:55] On page 24 of the staff report, it says that the PwC-DOT gave approval for a DCSM waiver.

[02:21:12] Is that the same waiver that we've been talking about? Yes. And that was on June in 2022? I do not have the exact date memorized on that approval. Well, it says 2022 in here. That sounds about right. Okay. And for a little context of DCSM, waivers typically those are things that are addressed at site plan given the importance of this turn lane to this application we had to get permission from the planning office to pursue that dcsm waiver in connection with the special use permit okay i just wanted to you know when he gave the history that just alerted me to have we resolved that because that's important also and

[02:21:51] so the other question i have you mentioned um when you were talking about the trucks one question i in reference to the trucks, no tractor-trailer trucks, just the workman trucks that we saw here. Todd's vehicles, you will occasionally have deliveries, but that's...

[02:22:08] But no big, big trucks, like on 234 trucks. I can confirm with the applicant, but I believe there will occasionally be some semi-trucks that would do deliveries because of some of the materials. Because of the volume of the material, but that wouldn't be the norm. And no, that is the one-off.

[02:22:24] That's why I'm asking that. A lot of them are on smaller flatbeds, but I'm not going to stand here and say there will be no tractor-trailer delivering anything to the site. Well, in terms of safety, I'm comfortable with what I saw. I just wanted to, just for clarity's sake, because I can understand that that potentially could happen, but for clarity's sake, what I saw I'm comfortable with.

[02:22:47] So with that, what you just mentioned about, oh, and the other thing, the one trip per day, you had made mention to that. That is for the applicant's delivery vehicles. So those are things that would carry gravel, mulch, sand, topsoil, things that go out to job sites.

[02:23:07] Those typically, because they're going to go to multiple properties and multiple customers throughout a day, would leave once in the morning and return once so that they're not correct for deliveries to his customers okay so that that's okay and then um and this has nothing well it doesn't it doesn't millennium you just mentioned millennium that's an older older company that was there so no they were not there operating they were the prior applicant in this special use permit okay okay Thank you.

[02:23:45] Supervisor Brody. Thank you, Madam Chair. Brian, thank you for the presentation. Same thing with you, Mr. Meyer. Brian, you've talked a lot about the trips going in, and I know Supervisor Bailey just talked about the once-per-day trip going out. Is there any explanation on the number of trips going out of the employees?

[02:24:05] So you have a trip going out for the materials. What about the employees during the day? So the employees typically, as I mentioned earlier, would arrive to the site between six and seven in the morning so during peak hours and those those are the crew members the design team and the administrative staff are not required to be there at six in the morning but so the crew members and you have about 10 crews that can be three or four people you can do the math on those coming in a lot of them carpool to be honest to the site and then when they're leaving they're in the same vehicle most of the time at least two in a vehicle because todd doesn't have a vehicle for

[02:24:43] each of them to drive out. And then the individual employees that are on site come to the property and then stay on site. And when you say on site, you mean this site or on? This site. So those are administrative staff as well as design. He has a design team to do the pretty pictures to get the clients happy. But then the actual folks doing the work in the field aren't necessarily coming here. They're just going directly to the job site. So the crew members will come here to get his company vehicles and leave those are the ones that largely carpool in the morning they don't

[02:25:19] have to though there are subcontractors for hardscapes patios and those type of things those subcontractors report directly to the site and do not come onto the site gotcha yeah there's just the use of site was being in two different ways here so i wanted to make sure everyone was clear on there's the site as in the applicant site we're talking there's also the job site which is somewhere else whether it be in loudon princelium what have you and that there are some folks that are working on these projects that never even go to the applicant site because there's subcontractors, what have you, they're going directly to work.

[02:25:50] All right. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a few questions. Just to be clear, TIAs are usually done for volume analysis and impacts of volume on the road, right? Like, I mean, is that, like, this is so small volume, it doesn't necessarily require a TIA? Yes.

[02:26:06] So as part of the application process, pre-application, you submit a TIA deferral, and it looks at the overall volume of trips. And this only had 307 VPDs. The threshold is 1,200 VPD daily.

[02:26:24] So you didn't necessarily need to do that. But it did have a turn lane warrant analysis done, which is what's applicable in this case. Is that correct? Correct. Which is often done for commercial site entrances that don't require a TIA or do require a TIA. And last is, you know, you talk about the length of a turn lane for storage, and that's because if there's a high volume of trucks they get backed up and they then they have to have storage for while they're making their turns but that's not expected in this case is that a fair assumption correct because it's a continuous turn in so there's nothing at that entrance that would

[02:26:59] be stopping those vehicles turning in and if you count out the timing of those peak hour trips like I think 36 was the number right in that right turn that's for over the course of an hour so that's a little over one car per every two minutes. Okay, great. Thank you. Supervisor Weir. Thank you, Madam Chair. Follow up on Supervisor Franklin's question with respect to the waiver. What I find interesting is that you essentially contend that VDOT has signed off and closed the case, but in looking at the comments from June of 22, which is part of the continuation

[02:27:38] of their comments over both renditions of this application. They note, and I quote, any design waiver approval for substandard turn lane tapers for Route 15 is not under the purview of the office, meaning VDOT. So essentially, they're not closing it because they're satisfied with what the county has done. They're closing the case because they are, the county has essentially negated their impact by policy is that a safe i would have to go back and look at that comment

[02:28:13] i don't have it june in front of me 6th of 22 comments and and it just quote any design waiver approval for substandard turn lane tapers for route 15 is not under the purview of this office and then um i have that now and the applicant's response noted that the trips warranted or the trips generated by this site do not warrant a full-length dedicated right turn lane and a 200

[02:28:48] foot taper is required and shown and directed them to that for more analysis their comment was closed and typically how vdot operates when they no longer have a comment related to something they will say comment closed if there was still an issue you can look back in some of the other vdot comments they will say please see comment 3.01 above i would simply point out that there's no further VDOT analysis after June of last year.

[02:29:15] And then to Supervisor Bode's comment, with respect to peak hour traffic and that, you're asserting that there's roughly 36 trips peak hour, and I'm having a hard time coming to grips with that when you've got 50 to 60 employees, mind you, a significant number of them might be carpooling, but a number of them are going to be admin staff coming in, and you've got outbound trips where the crews are leaving in the company vehicles, I find it hard to believe it's going to be limited to 36 trips per peak hour, especially at that point in time. And I'm

[02:29:54] really concerned given the relative speeds and the relative traffic, especially at the peak hours with commuters going both northbound down southbound on 55, or excuse me, on 15 at, quite frankly, a relatively high speed in that particular section. And I'll just leave it at that for the moment and and I was just gonna wait make one observation excuse me on the peak hour and I believe for the ITE code that applied to this turn lane warrant analysis I believe the peak hour is between 7:30 and 8:30 in the morning as we indicated a lot of the applicants trips would be prior to that

[02:30:33] to avoid having them in traffic arriving to the site and I would simply note that the ITE manual doesn't really have a clear trip generation for landscaping services. They've got it for nurseries, but for this particular operation, there is really no ITE number to which we can relate or we can apply, which makes our job even more difficult.

[02:30:55] Supervisor Lawson. Thank you. So back to the DCSM waiver that Supervisor Bailey was asking about regarding last June. To be clear, that hasn't been granted by the Department of Transportation.

[02:31:13] That's in this SUP application, correct? No, that was approved. That's why I... The DOT approved it? Mm-hmm. Okay. And that's typically, like I said, that's... So, go ahead. It's typically a site plan process.

[02:31:29] Right. And we had to get special permission to pursue that during the special use permit process because of that. Okay. And that's why they reviewed it. And it's a little atypical of a situation. Typically, that's addressed at site plan. Okay. That's interesting to me.

[02:31:48] I'm glad I asked because that was confusing. And you said it is atypical? Typically DCSM waivers, except for you're familiar with buffers, which are a classic DCSM. But typically transportation DCSM waivers are usually addressed at SitePlan. Right, exactly.

[02:32:04] And then, so as far as, because one of the things I was confused about, too, is this application was filed in 2020? I believe so. But that was millennial. Because I wondered, like, why has this taken so long to get here that contract purchase or change?

[02:32:24] Sorry, I'm getting a tickle in my throat. So I don't see any further questions, and we do have a public hearing that we still have to go through. Do you want to? Just something quick.

[02:32:40] Yeah. This is very easy. Mike? Oh, sorry. Just real quick. I didn't see anything in here, and maybe I missed it, but just for point of clarity for the community, There's no concern with lighting at all with this?

[02:33:00] We have not heard anything, and I believe there's a condition that limits the height of parking lot lighting. Okay. Just wanted to make sure in terms of traveling. Thank you. I suggest we, for time's sake, we get to hear from the public.

[02:33:15] We have 13 people signed up tonight to speak. Each person, when they come to the microphone, if you could just state your name and generally where you live in the county or magisterial district, And this is a public hearing on this SUP, so we ask people to speak to this SUP.

[02:33:40] And I will call them up five at a time. Our first five speakers are Ben Pennington, Alex Lopez, Jessica Lopez, Tom Sheehan, and Ernesto Rosales. And there will be a clock if you take up the whole three minutes, but maybe everybody won't, so please proceed.

[02:34:17] my name is ben pennington i'm a member of the coles district i support this project for rock water farm i do appreciate the hollowed ground sign motif as well and again i support the project thank you thank you next speaker please my name is alex lopez i live in the monastic park area and i travel through this you have to make sure you speak loud enough so we can sit i'm sorry no My name is Alex Lopez. I live in the Manassas Park area, and I travel through this area frequently to see loved ones.

[02:34:55] And I think this would be very helpful traffic-wise, and I approve of this project. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hi, my name is Jessica Lopez. I've been resident of the county for about 20 years now and travel frequently on Route 15.

[02:35:14] I do know that there is danger, but that's on the drivers, I feel like, not on the projects. So I think a landscaping company would be great. Thank you. Next speaker, please. My name is Tom Shin, Gainesville District.

[02:35:32] I have some photographs I'd like to share with you if it's all right. I have been following this project through its long history, and I attended the Planning Commission hearings, and I'm concerned about a few things.

[02:35:56] The government objected to the traffic issues of this site numerous times, and finally it ended up with them granting a waiver. A waiver doesn't really solve anything.

[02:36:16] It's just a way of ignoring a problem. Bottom line, this adds yet another flashpoint to the Highway to Heaven, the local name for that portion of Route 15.

[02:36:35] The environmental people also rose considerable concerns about the property. They initially required or requested a wall to be built, and it was finally wavered, and they accepted a four-foot-high chain-link fence.

[02:36:58] A chain link fence is not going to, and a line on a drawing, a map, is not going to protect the wetlands there. These photographs are from the current use at the current property.

[02:37:21] Another issue that's come up during the Planning Commission review, Rockwater announced that it had tried to find industrial property initially, but it was all too expensive and that they finally settled on this site.

[02:37:43] The construction portion of this operation is considerable. It's not like a landscape operation that occasionally builds a brick sidewalk.

[02:38:02] These people are building patios and swimming pools and a number of pretty heavy construction. And my concern is that if this site is approved, it's going to allow the Campbell's nose in the tent, and there is going to be more and more people wanting to put industrial into agriculture.

[02:38:28] I respectfully request that you deny this SOP. This site is way too delicate. There are too many issues for it. Thank you, sir. Thank you. And before the next speaker, I'm just going to call up the next five.

[02:38:46] Diane Keene, William Keene, Luis, Brittany Whalen, and Jeff Anglin. Please proceed. How are you doing? My name is Ernesto Rosales. I reside in the local Manassas Park area.

[02:39:04] I travel Route 15 very often, every now and then. But based off of hearing what they have put into place to avoid any traffic, I don't think There should be any issue on Route 15, and the stuff they have in place, I feel like, is adequate.

[02:39:26] And I do approve of Rockwater creating and using this land to create their landscape business there. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hi, I'm Diane Keene.

[02:39:43] I live in Haymarket, so I travel up and down Route 15 frequently. And I do believe that this would be a great usage of that property. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please.

[02:40:00] My name is Willard Gein. I live with Diane Gein. I also travel up and down Route 15, and I believe that Rockwater Farm would be a good addition to the area for jobs and lots of things.

[02:40:20] And that property certainly could use some help. Thank you. Next speaker, please. And feel free to pull the microphone down. I don't think that'll be necessary because I can talk very loud. That comes from being Italian, and I won't move my hands.

[02:40:37] I live next door to this site. Could you tell us your name? Louise Horwath. Thank you. I live next door to this site. It's a sin that when the state owned the property prior to the sale, all this junk laid there, and I can see it from my house.

[02:40:55] It can nothing be anything but an improvement from my perspective. I'm not worried about the noise, and my driveway is right next door to his, practically. So I'll be impacted by the traffic going in and out. Accidents have not occurred because of the people that live on that road as much as the people that come through that road.

[02:41:17] And I can tell you, they've been landing in my front lawn recently. This is an issue of traffic that this county and the state should have addressed many years ago. And I don't think that should be a precursor to someone that is going to clean up a property, make it look better than it's looked in years, and is enterprising to bring labor, jobs for everybody.

[02:41:46] I think if anybody should have an objection, it should be me. And I have none. I don't personally know him. I only met him at the last meeting. So it's not like I'm a friend or a relative. I will be a future neighbor if it's granted. it, but other than that, I have no connection to this gentleman. I live next door, and I have to go through an SUP, so I know what he's going through, and he's going through it on a larger scale. My husband is now deceased, but he had applied for one. We were granted one, and we were appreciative, but we had nothing more than similar to horse trailers, and you allow that all

[02:42:25] through. The problem out in front of my home is nobody polices the double yellow line. I almost got killed going home to my own home. And it was late at night and there wasn't traffic. And traffic isn't going fast at the peak times. Backs up. I see it every night in front of my house. If anybody's going to be a watchdog to this, it would be me. And I have a front row seat. You people can all talk about it, but you don't live next door to it. And I think if I'm not going to be opposed,

[02:42:57] you shouldn't be either. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hi, I'm Brittany Whelan. I live on Bull Run Mountain, so that's the Gainesville District, and right across the street from what we're talking about.

[02:43:14] And honestly, the safety issue is a systemic problem along that corridor. It has nothing to do with the applicant. There's driveways lining that thing. There is always rear end. It is not because there's going to be a land sink company.

[02:43:33] I mean, the urban sprawl is coming. We are going to get developed out here. Everybody kind of hates it, but a landscape company with about 40 employees at top peak season is much better than a data center or high-density housing development and the traffic associated with that and the construction associated with that.

[02:43:55] So I approve or I hope that you guys approve the applicant. Thank you. Before the next speaker, I'm just going to call up the next five. Jill Zazakowski, Doug Guevara, Casey S-H-A-R-R-E-R, maybe, not sure, Karen Sheehan, and Blaine Pearsall.

[02:44:25] Please proceed. Hi, my name is Jeff Anglin. I live on Bull Run Mountain as well. I've been a resident for 35 years in that area. I think it's a great idea for, and I approve as well.

[02:44:46] Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hi, it's Jill Czakowski, Polish. I married into that as well. I've been a resident of Northern Virginia for 30 years. I live right on the border of Loudoun County and Prince William County Parkway, and I'm extremely familiar with Route 15 because I'm a mom who travels to teen boys constantly to Manassas for basketball tournaments or baseball tournaments. I'm also in a background, my mother taught 25 years of driver's education. And so the number one thing she drove down,

[02:45:20] it is the driver's responsibility to be attentive and to obey traffic laws. And it's also the police's responsibility, as I have a brother who's in law enforcement, to enforce those laws. Pushing it on a business is completely absurd. If there's concern about safety, increase the traffic enforcement. I'm on that road all the time and I very rarely see a police officer.

[02:45:43] So if the board has that much concern about safety, I would expect to see more police enforcement. And I'd also say when I'm there during rush hour, there is no 55 mile an hour zone. And I grew up in rural Virginia where 55 was often, often exceeded. I'd also like to add to those pictures that were taken. I grew up on a 240 acre beef cattle farm and those pictures of nothing different from a farming or agriculture much less a landscape company my father regularly had areas that he would dump mulch or he would have wood that he was doing some type of construction for beef cattle so that is completely expected even if you had an agricultural zoning to see

[02:46:23] something like that what i'd like to see is an improvement because it's an eyesore right now there's a junkyard not even far from it that was approved this is a landscaping company that's It's going to be back from the road. They're going to probably plant trees, and I see no issue with that.

[02:46:38] I'm all for small business and supporting small business, and I really don't see why there's such opposition. So I support it. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening. My name is Doug. I've been a Gainesville resident since 2010. I'm very familiar with the site.

[02:46:55] I drive by it almost every single day. I really believe that if there was any time to turn this property around, this is it. I'm a small business supporter, so it's nice to know that a small business owner wants to turn around what currently is an abandoned site, a state prison.

[02:47:15] So I really support the idea of turning that property around, making it a place of productivity, provide job opportunities, and serve the local area. So I really don't think that the applicant should be penalized due to an ongoing issue of distracted drivers.

[02:47:33] I think that's a statewide issue, not necessarily based on the applicant's idea. So I really think that he shouldn't be penalized for that, and I totally approve the plan. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please.

[02:47:49] Casey. It's Casey. Casey Schartzer. Schartzer. Thank you. Casey Schartzer. I live in Haymarket. Lived there for the past 15 years. I live right off of 15, just south of 55. Travel that road every day, twice a day.

[02:48:05] You know, I don't see any issues with bringing a successful landscape company into Prince William County, growing and being prosperous and helping our county out be as good as it is. So I approve this plan.

[02:48:22] Thank you. Next speaker, please. Karen Sheehan, Gainesville District, and representing the Rose Hill Estates HOA, I request five minutes. Sure. Surprisingly, I agree with everyone here that supports this landscape business and supports small business and supports improving the visual presentation along Route 15.

[02:48:57] So kudos to everyone that wants to see a successful business succeed. My issue, sole issue, and I live a mile from this site, my issue is that the county is giving exceptions and waivers for traffic, entrance, egress, and ingress that is going to endanger the residents of the county.

[02:49:31] That is not the business owner's problem, it's the county's problem, and it's the problem that this board has to deal with acknowledging that while this may be a very, very fine business and a very good idea, this is the wrong place to put it.

[02:49:53] Something else that's not going to have trucks and vehicles lining up to get into this business, making U-turns in the community to get into this business, and restricting left turns where people are going to want to make left turns, that is on the county, that is on this board, that is on the Department of Transportation.

[02:50:21] I have a real issue with the fact that the staff report declares the transportation section as a strength. If you're granting a waiver and the Department of Transportation requirement for safe entrance is 500 feet and you're granting them 200 feet, that's a weakness.

[02:50:44] That is not a strength. There's so much concern about the exceptions that have to be made to this traffic entrance and exit that that just indicates a real weakness with this plan.

[02:51:06] Also, what in this SUP is going to prevent this business from building and disturbing more than the 15.5 acres into the RPA wetlands? What watershed management raised multiple concerns that the existing wetlands are endangered and a chain link fence is not going to stop that.

[02:51:29] There's also nothing in this SUP that limits the size and quantity of vehicles to this business. You saw in those pictures, which were taken at their current site, that they've got some very large trucks, very large trucks, very large industrial activity on that site.

[02:51:52] And they're acknowledging to you that they want to relocate what's on the Loudoun County site to this Prince William County site. Again, back to the traffic issues. From 2018 until January of 23, there have been 65 reported accidents in this 2.3 mile section of Route 15. 16 of the accidents with injuries occurred just

[02:52:30] within the half mile right at this site. That's 62 and then 24 of the property damage accidents occurred in that same half mile. So 62% of the 65 accidents occurred in this one half mile stretch and we're going to put a business with trucks of varying sizes, ingress and egress, and we're going to add that to the mix of this one half mile? That doesn't make any sense. It does not make sense

[02:53:08] to put a business to the detriment of the health and safety of our residents. If this county is going to ensure the safety of the residents, isn't it worth spending the money, whoever has to spend it, whether it's the business owner or the county, to make sure that the ingress and egress from this business is safe on this road in the way it exists today. Please do not approve this application

[02:53:44] on this site. Next speaker, please. And before our next speaker, I just want to call up Marie Weekly, who is our non-resident speaker. Mr. Pearsall, please proceed, Mr. Pearsall. If you can wait Mr. Weakley yeah thank you good evening Blaine Pearsall historical commissioner for

[02:54:19] Gainesville district I'll be speaking as a resident this evening I live on Loudon Drive I had an opportunity to read through the staff reports today I think it was released a couple days ago have a couple of reservations with regards to traffic and safety Loudon Drive is a dirt road for 50% of it. I live on the northern section. If you're driving north on 15 and you're just picked up your kids, my kids, down the street south, I'm going to pass Loudon Drive right at that intersection. I'm going to go up, cross the county line into Loudon County. I'm

[02:54:58] going to take a left on New Road, which is a dirt road right there by Peb's Paintball. I'm going to take a left down that dirt road. I'm going to go down to Loudon and then take a left. And my house is off of that road. I know when there's accidents on 15, sometimes we hear them. We definitely hear the police and the ambulances. And then there's a number of cars that come down our road. A couple weeks later, it has to be regraded. So if we're talking about no left turns going south on Loudoun, how are these trucks going to come north and then take a right? Somebody's running late to work.

[02:55:36] maybe 30 of the workers are coming from Loudoun County and they have to come from the north to the south, they're going to go and they're going to cut through, drive down Loudoun, come out to Loudoun, take a left onto 15, and then take a right into their work establishment. What's the stop and prevent the big trucks from doing that as well? In the report, it appears that there was a count of vehicle counts on Loudoun Drive. 220 is what it states in the stop report. Well, that's on the paved side of Loudon Drive, not on the gravel side. I see maybe 15, 20 vehicles a day,

[02:56:15] two buses go up and down that road. In some cases, you'll catch a bus do a three-point turn right on that south entrance of Loudon Drive in 15. So my primary concern is going to be the additional volume that will potentially end up, if not policed, going up and down Loudon Drive,

[02:56:37] And then those additional left turns from Loudoun on to 15th, which is where majority of those accidents occur, which is why when I'm driving my kids north during major traffic time, I'm going to pass that intersection, go all the way up into Loudoun, take a left, and then come down Loudoun Drive.

[02:57:01] So I'm not in favor of the SUP as it's written. I have no issues with an additional landscape business in the area. But I think some further review on how to handle these traffic and the additional traffic and the safety is warranted.

[02:57:18] Thank you very much. Thank you. Next speaker, please. My name is Mark Weekly. I own Chantilly Turf Farms. Rockwater Farm has been my customer for 18 years. I've just been impressed the way he's run his business, the way he's grown it. i would think he's the kind of businessman prince queen county would want and hope you approve his application thank you thank you before we close our in-person public hearing is there anyone else who wishes to speak on this issue just approach the microphone in the back and if you give us just your name and generally where you live that'd be great good evening my name is brian arnold

[02:57:58] i'm a fellow small business owner in loudon county but i live right off of route 15 off Lime Kiln Road. So I see the traffic every day. I drive approximately 45,000 miles per year in my truck. So I'm up and down Route 15 on a daily basis. I used to work with Rockwater Farms as a subcontractor. They since have gone their own way with it. However, what I can see is that they are an upstanding part of this community. They're trying to bring more business to Prince William County, albeit taking it away from Loudoun County and bringing it to you guys instead.

[02:58:36] I don't see any problem with this traffic pattern on Route 15. I mean, I live right off a lime kiln, so I have to merge in from 15 every morning and turn left across traffic where everybody's coming on a downhill at a very high rate of speed, typically, while I'm taking my kids to school.

[02:58:54] My only close calls are with people crossing the WL line. I've seen it on the regular. I drive a big dually truck, so I'm not as concerned with that, but at the same time, I don't want to get hit head-on. I don't want my children to be hit head-on. My son's driving now. My daughter will be within two years.

[02:59:11] So this process of oversight and review, in my opinion, the paperwork has been processed, and I'm in favor for it. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? Seeing no one approach the microphone in the back, this will close the in-person portion of our public hearing.

[02:59:34] Ms. Madden, do we have anyone online for our public hearing? Sure. I'll turn it over to you. hearing there are two speakers. Thank you, Ms. Mann. Let's begin. Your first speaker is Jessica Grove. Good evening. My name is Jessica Grove and I reside in the Gainesville District and I frequently drive down Route 15 and like Mishian said, I love the idea of small businesses and family-owned businesses coming into the area, but the rate of speed that travels down 15

[03:00:13] And the rate of speed that a truck pulls out into traffic and pulls over to the side with only 200 feet of space just causes a lot of concern.

[03:00:30] I don't have any problem with the business. I am very concerned about the loss of life or injury that can happen at this intersection.

[03:00:46] And that really worries me. Yes, it is the driver's fault, but you're adding to it. You're adding a really bad situation to a not great one that's already there.

[03:01:01] So I would like you to figure out a better solution to this problem. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Grove. Next speaker, please. Your next speaker is Elena Schlossberg.

[03:01:22] Good evening, everyone. So I just want to make an observation that, sorry, I'm cooking dinner while I talk to you that the planning commission meeting had so many more residents show up. And I think that is indicative that citizens don't believe that their concerns are going to be listened to, which is why I think you have so many less people there tonight in opposition.

[03:01:57] I obviously go to Karen's house on a regular basis. And when I go to Karen's house, I pump those brakes to make sure that people are watching me from behind. So the reality is it is a dangerous road. There is no way that you're going to have people truck, truck the way to 7-Eleven, come to the parking lot and go back the other direction. So to not have a left-hand turn, they're going to find a way to turn around and make a U-turn sooner.

[03:02:29] It's going to be dangerous. This was, you know, the fixer upper house. This is a fixer upper property and the applicant got it for cheap because it has issues. And because they got it for cheap in the Royal Crescent, which still exists, that means that they should have to invest an appropriate left-hand turn lane into their parcel. It's not okay that other people should have to be at risk of accidents because this applicant doesn't want to pay for the appropriate left-hand turn lane into their business. It is not the same as a single-family home that has a

[03:03:08] driveway off Route 15. You're talking about an industrial use, industrial landscaping. So I don't think that you're going to listen to the community, but it should be on the books. And I would hate to have Karen, look at her right now. I would hate to have Karen come back and say, I told you so, and I'm going to hold you accountable because you know that she will.

[03:03:31] So you should do the right thing. I doubt that you will. The applicant should have to go back and address these serious safety concerns. It's not just about Route 15. It's that they chose a location that isn't appropriate. It's not about their business, and it's not personal. It's just a safety hazard.

[03:03:49] Thank you very much. You should defer this application until this safety issue is addressed. It's not our responsibility to ensure that they buy cheap property and then don't have to invest in appropriate traffic mitigation. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Schlossberg.

[03:04:05] Anyone else online for this evening's public hearing, Ms. Vann? No, not at this time. Thank you for your assistance. Back to you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Vice Chair Bodie. Thank you, Ms. Vann. As always, this will conclude the public hearing on Agenda Item 10A.

[03:04:25] I see Supervisor Lawson wants to speak. Madam Chair, I actually have a few questions for staff. But before I get there, well, this would be specific to the crash reports that were referenced.

[03:04:41] Paolo, yeah, I told you I wanted to visit about that. I do appreciate everybody coming out tonight. I'm sure many of you drove a long distance to get here. This is a land use case. As much as I appreciate businesses coming to the county, we have to look at it from many angles.

[03:05:01] And safety is certainly a big one for us. It certainly is for me. So my questions are really going to be focused on safety. And I want this business to thrive in Prince William County, but I also want everybody to be safe. So somebody referenced 65 accidents within a half a mile of the site, or I'm sorry, 62 of them within a half a mile of the site.

[03:05:29] What do we have from either the Prince William Police Department, or what can you reference related to the crashes? Because I did watch the Planning Commission hearing, and I do know that Commissioner Berry gave a recommendation, which we can talk about in a second.

[03:05:45] But tell me what we know about crashes. Sure. Thanks, President Lawson. The database that was mentioned is the same database that we use. This is based on county crash reports that's reported to the DMV and then VDOT and put in a database. We also looked at the segment. We looked at a smaller segment, about a 1,000-foot corridor.

[03:06:03] There was a pattern of rear ends. We observed 23 crashes since 2015, many of which are rear-end collisions. That is attributed to a vehicle trying to make a left turn and stopping and being rear-ended, whether it's a failure to maintain proper control or a failure to respond properly to the braking vehicle.

[03:06:27] Okay, I'm sorry. Real quick, Paolo, sorry to interrupt you, but you said 23 of those are rear-ends? 23 total of those, 15 were rear ends. We also observed deer, what we call fixed object off-road, vehicle loose and control.

[03:06:43] Okay, okay. And I just want to break this down a tiny bit more. Left, typically rear ends because of vehicles that are stopping, trying to take a left, in either direction? It's typically making a left crossing a travel lane.

[03:06:58] So in this case, for example, if you're going northbound, making a left onto Latin Avenue, There were some instances of rear ends based on that. Yeah, but I mean north and southbound, it's a problem. Southbound, it could also be a problem if there's no turn lane, correct. Okay, so you said 23, and this is since when?

[03:07:19] 2015, we just took a quick snapshot of the corridor, about 1,000 feet by the entrances to Loudoun Avenue and to the site to get a general idea of the patterns. Okay. So, do you know if the 65 that was referenced, was that a longer corridor? I believe so, yes.

[03:07:34] Okay. All right. Keep going. I'm sorry to interrupt you. Sure. So, we sat down with our traffic safety team to look at it. When looking at the site, one of the things we look at is stopping site distance. For example, we want to make sure a vehicle can see the stopping vehicle at a certain amount of length.

[03:07:54] In this case, there was clear line of sight at a straight roadway, and it includes the 20-foot taper. So you have the right-turn movement in. In terms of the left-turn movement in going southbound, that concern is mitigated by the prohibition of the left-turn movements. So based on that, it adequately mitigates that specific concern.

[03:08:12] Okay. And then a couple people commented, and I understand because I definitely used Route 15, not a ton, but certainly enough, about, you know, the double yellow line. so there's probably a lot of no passing from what I recall traveling a lot last year there's there there's a lot of double lines right correct so not a lot of opportunities to pass safety issue systemic issue along corridor when the gal said that I thought of the Planning Commission's comments and concerns and

[03:08:46] if I recall correctly they want us to do a study on the speed of the corridor can you refresh sure the comment was to look at uh improving safety looking at speed and increasing traffic looking at traffic safety measures uh what we have actually is a grant we received from the usdot to look at a county-wide safe streets for all that includes looking at corridors such as route 15 that are higher crash rates or higher speed so it is something that they'll be looking to as part of a comprehensive effort that richard wyman our traffic safety manager will implement over the next year, year and a half.

[03:09:22] Okay. And if this SUP gets approved tonight, that obviously would be, the study would be included with? The study will go regardless. We're going to look at, see where we have patterns, high crash rates, high speed. Typically, your larger quarters, such as Route 15, Route 1, and Prince William Parkway.

[03:09:42] Okay. There's probably not a lot you can do related to the speed, correct? That's, I mean, that's driven by? Correct. It is driven by a VDOT and a speed study, and they look at 85th percentile, so it is something that's out of the county's control.

[03:09:58] Okay. All right. Thank you, Paolo. Okay. I don't see any further discussion. We have 10A. It's in the Gainesville Magisterial District.

[03:10:14] Does anyone want to move approval? Madam Chair, I'll deliver a motion, but I want to make a comment first. I'm going to make a motion I don't want to make. Can you save your comments for discussion, please?

[03:10:31] I'm going to explain why I'm making the motion that I'm making. I don't have an issue with the use. I have an issue with how we got here, and I'll get into that when we discuss this. I've just got serious concerns about how we got here and what's contained in the staff report, and I'll go into that on discussion of the motion.

[03:10:53] I'm going to read the whole motion in. Bear with me. It's going to take a minute. I'm a bit of a stickler on this. Whereas this is a special use permit request to allow the construction of an 18,400 square foot equipment and material storage building, 8,000 square foot office, product display area, and storage bin slash building for a landscaping services business in the A1 Agricultural Zone District.

[03:11:19] And whereas the subject is a 44.4-acre property located along northbound James Madison Highway Route 15 and east of its intersection with Loudon Drive, and whereas the site is designated AF and is partially located within the Environmental Resource Protection Overlay in the Comprehensive Plan, and whereas the site is currently zoned A1 Agricultural, is located within a domestic file overlay and is partially located within the James Madison Highway Corridor Overlay District, and whereas the Code of Virginia empowers the Prince William County Board of Supervisors to review land use applications to ensure the health, safety, and general welfare of the public

[03:11:56] and whereas the Board has adopted a zoning ordinance codified as Articles 1 through 10 of Chapter 32 of the Prince William County Code of Ordinances for the purpose of promoting the health, safety, and general welfare of the public and of further accomplishing the objectives of the Code of Virginia, Sections 15.2, 2200 and 15.2, 2283 and whereas the Code of Virginia provides that a zoning ordinance may include provisions for the granting of special use permits and the Board reserved unto itself the right to issue such special use permits and whereas the staff has reviewed the subject application and whereas the Prince William County Planning Commission at its public hearing on March 22nd

[03:12:33] reviewed SUP 2020-00007 and whereas a Prince William Board of County Supervisors public hearing duly advertised in a local newspaper for a period of two weeks was held on May 23rd and interested citizens were heard and whereas the applicant has not adequately addressed questions regarding traffic safety, traffic flow and traffic projections and whereas the applicant has not adequately addressed questions regarding potable water and sanitary sewer impacts and whereas the board finds based on the factors outlined in county code section 32 stroke 700.54 with respect to the application

[03:13:08] that the balance of factors in that section weigh decidedly against approval of the application and that each of the factors individually would suffice to justify denial of the application, including but not limited to the following, the factor of concordance with the nature of the proposed use, including factors such as traffic, noise, light, hours of operation, and the number of employees involved weighs against the application as the proposed use may be hazardous or conflict with the existing and anticipated traffic in the neighborhood,

[03:13:36] The factor of concordance with the county's transportation plan weighs against the application that's proposed development requires a waiver of DCSM Section 602.07 to allow the proposed 200-foot right-turn taper rather than a right-turn length of 400 feet with 100-foot taper.

[03:13:53] and the factor of concordance with the county's potable water plan weighs against the application as the proposed development plan is unclear with respect to whether it will utilize on-site well water or public water to service the property and the impacts surrounding wells has not been determined and whereas the board finds a public necessity, convenience, general welfare and good zoning practice weigh against the approval of the application now therefore be it resolved by the Prince William Board of County Supervisors in order to promote the health, safety, or general welfare of the public special use permit,

[03:14:26] SUP 2020-00007, Rockwater Farm, Gainesville Magisterial District is denied. Yes, and I will email that to the clerk. There's a motion. I'll second it.

[03:14:46] Motion made by Supervisor Weird, seconded by Supervisor Lawson. We're in the discussion. Everybody gets two times, five minutes each. If you feel you need to take that, who wants to go? Madam Chair, I'll go. I second it because I want to discuss it.

[03:15:02] I don't want to completely deny this project from coming to fruition. I'd like to work to keep it alive. I'd like to think that the applicant can continue to work to mitigate the safety concerns.

[03:15:23] I don't know if millennial, millennium, whatever the first applicant was walked away when they thought the turn lane was supposed to be built, and that's a big price tag. But the reality of it is safety needs to trump costs.

[03:15:41] And I'd really like some answers on how we can make this business work, but not compromise the community's safety concerns. I don't know if the supervisor can answer me on those I know we're done talking with with the applicant at this point but did you did you send the resolution I can you do you have any you rattled off a whole bunch I'd like to

[03:16:15] see it you don't have any cop hard copies I have a hard copy of it but I have meant to instruct that language pretty much it well I'm guessing my colleagues want a copy. I can forward it to the board if you give me a second. Your time is still going, Supervisor Lawson, if you want to use it. I'll wait and hear what my colleagues have to say, but I think it would be a shame to get this far in the process and deny it when there

[03:16:53] is possibility that we could continue to work to mitigate the safety concerns. I'm sure the resident next door who spoke would absolutely like to see a major improvement to the site and I don't blame you but but but I'm sorry no I'm sorry you can't say anything it's all right yeah I'm sorry about that ma'am but but we have to look at this through many different lens and and transportation and safety is a big one for all of us and I'm familiar with this area in this corridor but

[03:17:33] yeah anyway okay yep so I was going to do a point of order but because it sounds like you want to have more discussion than doing a motion to deny but just want to be clear that there is a motion on the floor to deny so I you know if you are looking to move away from that I would advise that either that be withdrawn or we take the vote and then continue on or substitute motion we have motion on the floor we're still having discussion supervisor we're and then

[03:18:12] supervisor Bodie and then myself madam chair I'm supervisor Franklin I'd be more than happy to withdraw the application and entertain a motion to defer but I had to make what's wrong emotion sorry and you all have eat in your email now I'd be more than happy to withdraw it or or acquiesce to a motion to defer. Like I say I don't want to vote against this application. I met with the applicant. It was

[03:18:49] my belief perhaps mistakenly that the applicant was going to attempt to lengthen the taper which would pacify me. Wouldn't completely satisfy me but it would pacify me. My greater issue was how we got here. I'm looking at a staff report that has no weaknesses listed in it. That as was pointed out earlier we're issuing a waiver that regards transportation safety a waiver that comes after

[03:19:24] three rounds of vdot comments noting that that the existing condition or the existing plan is unsafe i have a problem with that i have a problem with no analysis of the potable water the wells versus um hooking up to the the county water supply and there being no weakness um there's a comment in the staff report about how there's no public opposition, but I've seen public opposition. I've seen petitions come into this county, and I'm curious how you can make that

[03:19:59] comment without mentioning what's come in in writing, what's come in in email. I mean, I'll be more than happy to withdraw my motion if somebody wants to make a motion to defer, because I'd like to give the applicant the opportunity to address a longer taper, which would make me happy happier i should say with respect to the transportation part of it it's not going to alleviate all of my concerns but i'll be willing to settle for better than bad

[03:20:31] but i i having real problems digesting this particular staff report uh and i'll reiterate what i said on the last land use application that we had come before us i am not a fan of the language on balance. That's a subjective determination. County attorney, county executive, and I might disagree on this, but it's my view that staff's position to give us objective information, an objective analysis of what the strengths and weaknesses are. The on-balance

[03:21:08] part of it, my understanding of the statute, that's the planning commission and the board's determination to make that subjective determination. I have issues with where that, what kind of problems that creates in a different realm, and I'll take that up with Mr. Shorter at a different date.

[03:21:28] But yeah, I would be willing to withdraw or acquiesce to a substitute motion for a deferral if we're going to address the taper. So we're still in discussion. I'm going to go and then Supervisor Bode.

[03:21:45] You know, from what I can see, staff has addressed the issues. They've looked at the safety. They've addressed it. VDOT has addressed it. i think it's a wonderful project um i'm not quite sure why i you know i i trust staff i trust the fact that the analysis has been done um i'm you know the corridor may need improvements but it's not really the uh responsibility of the applicant um so i will be voting against your motion of denial supervisor bode thank you madam chair um i appreciate the conversation we're having

[03:22:21] right now, because I know we've talked a lot as a board about traffic safety and sort of the role of development in impacting traffic safety one way or another. I just go back to the fact that when we are looking at these cases, we're looking to make sure that the applicant in question is the one that's mitigating its own impacts. Not that it's going to be leaving the corridor better than they found it, not that they're going to alleviate something else that is outside of their realm of impact but they themselves either through proffers or through their improvements to whatever conditions we're talking about whether it be roadways schools services whatever it is they're mitigating their

[03:23:01] own impacts and as far as i've seen with everything that's been shared with us the staff report in what was uh testified by our own county staff and the applicant they seem to be doing that to the best of their ability to the point that the vdot you know they they're fine with these changes They're fine with the taper as it currently stands.

[03:23:20] Our own transportation department take a look at it, and they have no further questions or weaknesses as per this. That said, I have a hard time denying it when it has a clean bill of health as far as that's concerned. And again, they are mitigating their own impacts that they're creating, which is what we look for in these projects.

[03:23:38] I hear all the folks that have concerns about the traffic and the size of vehicles and what have you. However, as was said by quite a few of the speakers that came tonight, those systemic issues, those existing conditions is not the onus of the business owner to fix.

[03:23:56] Their only onus is to make sure that they're not leaving this corridor worse than they found it, and they seem to be doing that based on what we've been given tonight. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Supervisor Angry. Thank you, Madam Chair. I will not be supporting denial. I will not be supporting deferral.

[03:24:13] If it ever comes around to me, I will make a motion to approve this. What you have is a traffic problem on Route 15 that we can talk about later, but this is a great project. I love what the neighbors said, that it's going to take a horribly bad area, and they're going to turn it beautiful, and we're going to create some jobs, and it's a business.

[03:24:33] So I think everything about this is great. I don't think the applicant should have to sit through this and let's talk about a road that has safety issues on it. We can address that, whether we talk about extending that road to a four-lane or figuring out what's next to do with it or putting more police on it.

[03:24:51] I think that's a separate discussion than what we're talking about here with this project. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Supervisor Angry. Supervisor, we are your second time speaking. Madam Chair, I appreciate that you and other members of this board trust staff in their analysis.

[03:25:17] I'll be blunt. I do not. I think I'm pretty much on record, having stated that on any number of occasions, we from that microphone. My attitude has not changed sitting on this side of the dais.

[03:25:34] Trusting staff delivers circumstances like this. Staff told you that a berm and 14-foot trees would hide an 88-foot tall building. You can see it online. It's not the case. It's not even close to the case. They gave you a plan in this particular instance where the building was

[03:26:10] supposed to be behind a berm at a lower elevation what we got instead was a berm and then the land built up to that berm level and then a building sitting on top of it so there's no berm to hide anything and there's certainly no trees in this circumstance we've got an existing condition where the applicant isn't really alleviating all of the additional issues that it will create a turn lane would address it by code a longer taper would partially address it but we're waiving

[03:26:47] that safety consideration that safety improvement because it's too expensive that's what the record shows it's too expensive for the applicant to construct that because of the limitations of the property in terms of an environmental aspect rpas resource protection areas that sort of thing that's what you get when you buy a piece of property like that and i'm not willing to exchange traffic safety for expediency or for a lower cost we've that's been the mo of this county

[03:27:27] for decades and it always comes back to bite us it's not just large projects like this particular data center we've seen it along balls ford supervisor lawson can attest we've had similar issues with ingress egress to things like hotels where lo and behold at site plan it doesn't work or there are larger traffic issues i'm not i'm going to get off my soapbox now uh i like i said earlier i am willing to defer it and give the the applicant the opportunity to further address uh the traffic safety concerns of potentially limiting that taper as we talked about in my

[03:28:05] office and i have some sense that they were going to do that there were some options to extend it by another hundred feet that would probably bring me to the point where i would reluctantly approve this but in its present circumstance I just can't do that supervisor Bailey thank you madam chair I see this as an opportunity for us to work with VDOT when our transportation department to rectify a problem that has been existing

[03:28:38] for a very long time even prior to us being a member of this this dais and so I think it's an opportunity for us to look at the safety issue with this road and engage with MVTA, VDOT, and our Transportation Department to decide how we can improve for the citizens in this area, this road.

[03:29:08] Because it seems like to me that it's been ignored for a very long time. And not pushing the lever on our Transportation Department because I think you do an impeccable job in your department as it relates to our roads and traffic.

[03:29:25] But I think it's an opportunity for us to be serious about improving this road as it relates to safety for our citizens. I am going to not support, Bob, your recommendation or resolution because I didn't have an opportunity to read it in detail.

[03:29:45] But the other thing is I do have concerns and sentiments for your consideration and what your concerns are. I do respect that. But I think it's an opportunity for us to get serious about making sure that the road is safe and whatever discussions need to be held in support from my perspective, though it's not in my district, I offer my support in that because I think it's an opportunity for us to get serious about it.

[03:30:17] So I just wanted to offer that. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Supervisor Bailey. Seeing no further discussion. Supervisor Lawson. Supervisor Vega hasn't gone or Supervisor Franklin.

[03:30:35] Okay. So, if we are going to get serious about the safety concerns of Route 15, why would we exacerbate with an application tonight that is before us when I suggested that maybe we defer it, continue to work through the transportation problems?

[03:30:59] So, I don't think you can talk out of both sides of your mouth and say that we're going to approve this project while also get serious about the safety concerns. It doesn't work that way. So I, like you, Supervisor Weir, don't feel comfortable approving this project at the expense of safety.

[03:31:20] Sir, I hope that your business thrives regardless of where it is. But we have a serious responsibility up here when we're looking at land use applications to look at it through many different lens, not just the economic development lens. And I personally don't think that the waiver is seriously mitigating the transportation concerns.

[03:31:44] As you've heard me tonight, I'm concerned about that. And full disclosure, my husband has a lot of buddies that live in this area. They're the ones who brought this to my attention, not any of my political friends that have spoken. This was brought to my attention through personal friends that live in the area off of Loudoun.

[03:32:04] and i i truly want to help you but i can't do it at the expense of existing concerns which have already been laid out and then just exacerbate the problem with your special use permit that offers these waivers so i'm i'm going to support the denial i don't want to but i feel like i don't have a choice because clearly there's not enough interest to defer and continue to find um a win-win for everybody supervisor franklin yeah i just want to be clear i believe the motion

[03:32:44] to deny was withdrawn chair i i'm i'll move to substitute for a deferral i assume we can have entire discussion about deferral is that correct right second no i'll second it okay we're going to talk about motion to deferral who wants to start i've already said my piece about a deferral

[03:33:23] supervisor weir i'm going to support the deferral simply because it gives the applicant the opportunity to continue with the discussion about the traffic safety and hopefully we could come to some mutually agreeable circumstance I can't I can't understate my concerns but I believe there is the opportunity to come to a middle ground on this and reasonably quickly okay anybody else

[03:34:03] before I speak so I won't be supporting a motion to defer the applicant has worked with county staff. They have worked with VDOT. I feel they've resolved the safety concerns. You know, you're welcome to your opinion and your concerns. I still say I will defer to staff in terms of the entire application had no deficiencies in it. I welcome their business. I, you know, we do have, if we have issues of safety on the Route 15 corridor, I'm not going to pin it on this business and make them try to fix something by deferral. That doesn't seem to be, you know, kick the can down the road.

[03:34:40] we did that for years in Prince William County I can't support doing that if we have concerns in the route 15 corridor we should as supervisor Bailey said we should look at those and address those but not pin them on this application in this and this applicant I just can't support that so I will not be recommending deferral madam chair members of the board I apologize I can't find it in the staff report real quickly I don't know if actually this is an SUP not a rezoning, so we don't have the one-year time frame.

[03:35:14] However, I have just forwarded to the board a letter that I just received from the applicant's attorney with regards to their concerns, with regards to whether the board would amend the proffers or conditions or the denial, and if any board member has any questions with regards to that or our previous legal memo that we provided to you, I'm happy to take you into closed session if you have any questions.

[03:35:36] Madam Chair, Supervisor Lawson? I just shut down my laptop, so is the county attorney suggesting we look at our email right now? I just received a letter from the applicant's attorney, and I wanted to share it with my client so that you had it before you voted on this matter.

[03:35:53] So why don't we go into closed session, then? If you'd like to go into closed session. Or is that what the board is interested in?

[03:36:14] I'm firing it back up. Okay, well, since I have the microphone, Madam Chair, I'm not suggesting that this applicant, we're not penning the fix of the entire Route 15 corridor on him. Don't misunderstand me. But the applicant is, every applicant is expected to mitigate the impacts.

[03:36:37] And the waiver that was granted is what the hang-up is. So, to be clear, I'm not expecting Rockwater to fix the entire Route 15 corridor. That's just simply not reasonable.

[03:36:55] But I certainly don't think that adding to the existing problem is reasonable either, which is why I would really appreciate a deferral to give this gentleman and his business an opportunity to eventually get the special use permit, but with everybody comfortable at the level that we need to be for the safety reasons.

[03:37:22] Supervisor Weir, your second time speaking. Madam Chair, I am not quite sure how to deal with this. I have an issue with a letter from the applicant's attorney being introduced in the middle of a deliberation and one that everybody here doesn't have access to.

[03:37:55] Given that the letter contains some references to an issue that I have discussed earlier with both the county attorney and the county executive, it sort of underscores my concerns that I voiced several hours ago with regard to process and staff reports.

[03:38:12] I would be more than happy to go into closed session and discuss this with the county attorney. However, if the board does not want to go down that road tonight for any number of reasons, I would suggest that a deferral would obviate the necessity for that closed session.

[03:38:34] And we could take it up at a later date, ideally at the next board meeting. So if there is a positive vote on the deferral, I will be more than happy to discuss this particular issue that's been raised at our next meeting in closed session.

[03:38:57] If the deferral fails, I will move to go into closed session to discuss the issue because I think it's relevant to a larger discussion with respect to this and other land use applications. Supervisor Angry. Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, we have a motion on the floor.

[03:39:13] We have two motions on the floor. They've been both properly seconded. Can we call for the question and move on before we talk about closed session because let's end this, see where we go with this, and move on. Thank you, Madam Chair. We do have to finish discussion.

[03:39:29] Supervisor Vega gets to go, and then we can vote. He called the question, Madam Chair. There's no discussion.

[03:39:46] Supervisor Vega. Thank you, Madam Chair. I am not supportive of a deferral. We are here now, and I believe that we can make a decision tonight.

[03:40:01] However, based on the email that we just got, I think it would be prudent for us to go into closed session. For me personally, it would make me more comfortable in the way that I plan on voting if I have an opportunity to read the attachments and the actual body with some time that the county attorney just sent.

[03:40:19] And so I know that Supervisor Weir would like to entertain the idea of going into closed session. Just want to be on the record saying that I don't support deferral, but do want the opportunity to go into closed session and discuss the email we just received from the county attorney. Okay. Supervisor Franklin.

[03:40:35] Sure. I'll just say very quickly, I, too, am not in favor of deferring. I will also say that with regards to the motion itself, I don't think we got that before now. And so it would have been helpful maybe to have that beforehand. And I think to make sure that this discussion was had in advance and then the county attorney could have actually advised us before now, as we did actually have a closed session earlier today.

[03:41:00] So I also don't want to go into closed session because I've heard from the public. I've heard from both the applicant and as well as our county staff. And I just don't see the need to both defer this to a different date to vote or defer this discussion to after closed session.

[03:41:21] So I just want to put in my one-eighth for that. Okay, we have a motion for deferral. I see no further discussion. Please vote. Motion fails.

[03:41:36] Okay. Motion deferral fails. Oh, okay. Motion to deny. Can we vote on that?

[03:43:25] Motion. Sorry for the confusion. Motion fails. Two to six. Okay. Madam Chair. Madam Chair. Actually, Supervisor Vega.

[03:43:45] I'd like to move, Madam Chair, that we go into closed session. Second. Motion made by Supervisor Vega, seconded by Supervisor Franklin. Madam Chair. Discussion. Discussion, yes. I changed my mind. Thank you. Okay.

[03:44:01] So, Madam Chair. Do we need a vote to go into closed session? You need a vote to go into closed session. It would be consultation with legal counsel and briefings by staff members regarding specific legal matters requiring the provision of legal advice by such counsel pertaining to legal advice regarding land use and proffer law with regards to the special use permit, SUP 2020-00007, Rockwater Farm, and also possible potential litigation regarding this matter where such consultation, discussion, or briefing in an open session would adversely affect the bargaining position, negotiating strategy, or litigating posture of the public body,

[03:44:41] and this item would be appropriate for closed session pursuant to 2.2-3711A7 and 8 of the Code of Virginia. So moved, Madam Chair. They are, yeah, so, yeah, it's already done, yeah. Okay, we'll go into closed session.

[03:44:57] We'll make sure we know all our legal options, and then we can come back. Vote unanimous. Okay, excuse us.

[03:45:10] From closed session, if I could get a motion to certify.

[03:46:36] So move, Madam Chair. Second. Motion made by Supervisor Bailey, seconded by Vice Chair Bodie. Any discussion? Seeing none, please vote. Madam Chair, I make a motion to approve item 10A.

[03:46:52] Second. Choose permit SCP-2020-0007. Second. Motion made by Supervisor Angry, seconded by Supervisor Bailey. Discussion? Seeing none, please vote. Motion passes, 6-2.

[03:47:14] Supervisors Lawson and Weir voting nay. Okay, thank you. That concludes 10A has been passed. 10B has been deferred to a date uncertain, as I mentioned earlier. We are now on to item number 11, public comment time.

[03:47:30] okay now that the chambers have cleared we are moving on to public comment time number 11 i will

[03:48:42] call the first five speakers to come up to the podium to speak alicia gloss alan gloss melanie west or weist alexander rains and theresa mince i know that some of the folks slept already during our closed session okay i know that miss gloss i believe you are first good evening board alicia gloss coals i spoke earlier today about the virginia supreme court ruling last week in our

[03:49:16] favor five to two against supervisor angry bailey bode franklin and chair wheeler who's not in here at the moment who all participated in an illegal meeting without notifying the public three years ago all we wanted was transparency from our government officials but we got the opposite rather than apologize for what you did and pay the maximum fine of five hundred dollars going to a Children's Literacy Fund, you thought the best interest for the county was to spend $150,000 of taxpayer money to defend a simple $500 fine just to be right. The responsibility of the

[03:49:53] malfeasance belongs to the top leadership, and that is Chair Wheeler. Because of your need to be right, you forgot the real mission as a community leader, and that is service to the people of Prince William County. And you thought the best course of action was to spend taxpayer your money to prove you were in the right. I'm sure with your elite, wealthy background, you're used to getting your way, so you continued as if nothing happened. Unwilling to be accountable to the people of Prince William County. You thought you would just swat us away as if we were meaningless. You decided to wield the heavy hand of the government to force taxpayers to sue to hold

[03:50:29] you accountable. So we did. This process wasn't a level playing field, though. While we as citizens had to fund from our wallets a lawsuit to force you to be accountable, you in the dark, in the quiet, decided that the taxpayers would fund your defense of your illegal actions. So this board gets to commit illegal actions, and when the citizens attempt to hold you accountable, you have the taxpayers fund your defense? Does that seem just to anyone? This seems corrupt to me and not in the

[03:51:04] best interest of the citizens of Prince William County. You as a board can vote set policy but not in the darkness and not in secrecy from the citizens of Prince William County. We as citizens will always demand a transparent and open government. This board was found by the Virginia Supreme Court in a five to two ruling of violating the open meetings statue of Virginia and I am demanding and I hope others will join me to demand that you refund $150,000 in taxpayer money back to the people of prince william county due to this board's malfeasance also think about all

[03:51:41] the things that could have been done with 150 000 what could have been funded that was left off the budget also please remember to vote in june in the primary and also in november for the general election thank you thank you miss claus next speaker please thank you for saying my wife's name right supervisor bode and wheelie seems to get it wrong every single time helen gloss coles the united states was founded on a simple premise that we shall have no royalty and no rulers abraham lincoln said it best at the gettysburg address government of the people by the people

[03:52:21] and for the people shall not perish from the earth amen mr president anne wheeler being the most unstudied leader in history decided that an election was a mandate that she should rule over the people and trample our rights unfortunately our laws and patriots in this county refused to let her install herself as royalty. I'm sure you've all heard a queen joke or seen a meme about Chair Wheeler and her four court jesters. Some of the funniest jokes have an air of truth to them. Ms. Wheeler thinks she is a queen. She might not call herself queen, but those in the

[03:52:57] know and employees of the county will absolutely tell you that is how she acts. We know that when power transfers from the people to the government, it does not matter which party you vote for or if you have a party at all big government is always oppressive and the people are the ones that will always lose my bipartisan group of patriots gathered small dollar donations together to hold ann wheeler her narcissism and the lemmings who blindly follow her hair-brained ideas in check in a scathing 44 page decision the supreme court of virginia broke every argument all these those

[03:53:36] teams of lawyers that y'all hired came up with now i'm demanding that one of you do the right thing and put up for discussion the funding of defending the violations of public trust that these five members committed. People, I need you to understand that the board, as supposed good stewards of our money, decided it was a good idea to spend $150,000 to prevent themselves from paying a maximum $500 fine.

[03:54:01] That goes to help kids read. I've never been a math scholar, but even I know that $500 is a much better use of taxpayer funds than $150,000. How many cops could we have trained for that money? How many 911 operators? What could $150,000 have done to help out homeless veterans? They blew our money because Ann Wheeler is a narcissist. It's time that we demand our money back. Please contact your board members, all of them. Contact your state legislators. Demand that the county be made whole. Most importantly, vote. Vote the June primaries, which is open for early voting right now, and vote in November.

[03:54:36] and put the horrible legacy of the Ann Wheeler Board to the annals of history and hope future boards will learn that the government belongs to the people and not to a ruling class. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Three Cements, Potomac District.

[03:55:01] I want to thank the law enforcement and emergency responders for their service. I was distracted today, and I didn't take the time to thank them, so please forgive me. and when I do that, if I do that in the future, just let it be understood that I thank you for all you do. I do not thank this board, though. This board here is very self-serving. This Democrat board, you haven't even done one term and you voted to give yourselves a pay raise because you know darn well you need the 45 days to steal the election. That's why you want 45 days

[03:55:40] of early voting, etc, etc, etc. Okay. And yes, you need to pay our tax dollars back. Oh, and Wheeler, you should have been here when Citizens Time started. You went out to say goodbye to other people. If you're going to make us wait all night to speak at Citizens Time, you need to be here right along with our county exec. I'm sorry, I'm not here to make any friends. You know that, and most people know that. I thought you were here. You ran to work for the people, but no,

[03:56:18] you did not. You never ran to work for the people. You're self-serving and you've shown it in everything that you've done, especially that illegal meeting that you had. Oh, and excuse me, I do need to say to a supervisor where, yes, the staff here did ignore you. Yes, they did.

[03:56:39] your request made sense they ignored you why because they knew they had these others bought and paid for they don't have to pay attention to any anything you're right about our roads being safe okay and I don't want to hear any more garbage about well there's no cops there's no policemen on the roads oh drop dead you guys do their job and see how you like it okay see how you like it. But you people up here, the Democrat Party is a very dishonorable party. But I want

[03:57:18] the Republican Party to start waking up and do their job or go join the Democrat Party because we don't need you. We need somebody to protect our Constitution, our Constitution. You are traitors.

[03:57:33] You work for the destruction of America. Thank you for your time, but you do not work for us. you work for yourselves. Next speaker, please. And now for something completely different. Chris Brown from the Woodridge District. I'd like to address the board and bring to light some of the

[03:58:06] issues with the homeless shelter at the Falazzo building. There are a number of issues. I'll start with pillows. I became a resident last week of the shelter, and there are no pillows on the beds, And they were taken out, apparently, several months ago due to a bug problem, and they haven't been brought back.

[03:58:29] There is a bed bug oven that they use for sleeping bags, but apparently not for pillows. So I would appreciate it if some effort could be brought to bear that we'd bring back the pillows, whether people supply their own or the county supplies them.

[03:58:49] That's up to them. But if you can imagine sleeping without a pillow, you know, the eight of you, if you could give up your pillows tonight, I think you'd know what I mean. It's important to have that. The lights over there are never turned off completely.

[03:59:09] I sleep under a harsh light. As you know, it's a gym, gymnasium. It's not really a homeless shelter. And I sleep directly under those harsh lights. And with no pillow, I stare straight up at the ceiling. And I think I'm psychotic for lack of REM sleep.

[03:59:25] I haven't slept well in a week, so there's some other issues. Only one of the four showers works in the men's room. The guy who's supposed to help find you apartments, there's a seven-week wait to talk to him, and that's because of a lack of funding, they tell me.

[03:59:52] My case manager made an appointment with me yesterday. At 10 o'clock, she didn't show up, and she didn't even leave a voicemail to tell me she wasn't going to be there. So I don't know what happened to her, but I had all my logs ready to show her that I've been looking for apartments. And that's another issue. We need more truly affordable housing in this county because there's a real need for it. The food is supplied by churches. It's very nice that they do that, but I think the county should do that. They have a bigger budget. The food is not nutritious. It's a starch fest. It's, you know, pizza one night,

[04:00:29] fried chicken the other no very few salads the only good thing over there is the the bath towels are very uh very comfortable um um but um i know that there's another homeless shelter in the works it's in the pipeline but it can't come soon enough i personally if i were on the board would vote that we take all the people the 50 or so that in earned for allows our shelter and put them back in motel rooms until such time as the new shelter is ready. That would be very important. And I thank

[04:01:03] you for listening to me. Thank you very much. Is Bill Billard here? Madam Chair, members of the board. I hope we all learned a lesson in humility. It's pretty easy to just say I messed up. Heck, I've been married for the past two months and I'm starting to learn and admit when I make mistakes to my newly wedded wife. But it's very humbling, very humbling when you do such a thing. This

[04:01:39] weekend is a very very special weekend it's not pride weekend it's not pronoun weekend it's memorial day weekend where we honor the brave men and women who fought and died for our constitutional rights and our liberties but unfortunately we got people who want to advocate for infringing upon those rights and it's very very sad they all do this in the name of feeling safe they protest in front of the national rifle association's headquarters thinking that will

[04:02:13] somehow end gun violence. That's the equivalent of protesting in front of a mosque on the anniversary of 9-11. That's bigotry. It is an ideology. Gun control is an ideology rooted in racism, and it's a pro-segregationist ideology. People who advocate for such a thing should be ashamed of themselves. And another thing, the county is looking very, very ugly. Over on the West End, all that construction, it looks terrible. Pretty soon it's just going to look like a concrete dump, and the crime is up. We've got people advocating for heinous criminals in these areas. Anytime

[04:02:52] somebody defends themselves, they want to hail the criminal as a martyr. I mean, that's insane. There was a man who recently had to defend themselves against a mob attacking him, and one of them was a pedophile, the other a domestic abuser, the other was a drug lord or a drug dealer. Why do we come to a society where we want to hail people like that as heroes?

[04:03:23] but the man who defended himself using the second amendment rights being demonized it's pretty sad that we come this far as a society but we can do better listen to the will of the people or november you'll have to face the consequences thank you y'all be safe that will conclude our in-person public comment time is madden do we have anyone online then i will turn it over to

[04:03:54] supervisor brody thank you madam chair miss man shall we begin your first speaker is adam bowling Hi, my name is Adam Bolling. I am a resident of the Montclair community. I'm also the pastor of First United Presbyterian Church of Dale City on the corner of Minneapolis and Cardinal.

[04:04:21] And I'm here this evening as a person of faith and as a clergy person to voice my support for a firearms ban on county property, especially parks and recreation property. I think it's interesting that we talked for a long time tonight about traffic safety, which is very important.

[04:04:41] But I also point out that gun violence for those aged 24 and under now takes more lives than traffic fatalities. And that is because gun violence is now a public health crisis in the United States.

[04:04:58] We know that looking at statistics that more guns don't make us safer. Otherwise, America would be the safest place in the world. We have more guns than people in the United States, yet we are far from being the safest place. The American Journal of Medicine reported in 2016 that of all firearm deaths in nearly two dozen populous, high-income countries that included Australia, France, Italy, Spain, and the United

[04:05:28] Kingdom. 82% of them were here in the United States. And 91% of children ages 0 to 14 killed by firearms in this group of nations were from the United States. We have had more mass shootings this year than any other year in United States history. We need to keep our weapons of war out of places of peace. As a person of faith and as a pastor, I look forward to the day prophesied

[04:06:03] in Isaiah 2, where weapons of war will be turned into instruments of harvest. But we are called to do our part to make that happen and prohibit weapons of war in places of peace and on county property and in parks and recreation therefore i employ implore you to support a firearms ban on county property especially in parks where our children play i thank you for your time thank you

[04:06:36] pastor adam next speaker please your next speaker is mark scheifler good evening uh mark scheifler uh coles district i uh i i very much enjoyed the discussion on uh traffic safety and transportation safety in general in the previous discussion. I'm glad that that is important to the board.

[04:07:04] The reason I signed up to speak today is I saw a news release showing that the police department cited a vehicle going 129 miles an hour in a 45 mile an hour speed zone on Briggs Road. And that is baffling to me that a vehicle could get up to that highest speed on a roadway that's been designed in this county. And I'm just concerned that, you know,

[04:07:40] we're designing these roadways where vehicles can reach that speed is unacceptable. And again, And we need to do different things as we move forward and try to improve traffic safety in this county for all users.

[04:08:00] And, again, I do applaud you guys to supporting transportation and mobility projects with safety improvements as a large legislative agenda item to work with a legislative body to come up with solutions or funding.

[04:08:20] But, again, it also comes down to, you know, looking at our current policies that we have, especially with our DCSM and roadway designs. A lot of the roadway designs are, you know, for principal arteries are 69-an-hour design speeds.

[04:08:39] For Route 1, Route 234, business, like these major arterial corridors are designed for higher speeds than what even the market speed limit is. You know, Fairfax just dropped their speed limit on Route 1 to 35 miles an hour, and Arlington is proposing their Route 1 to be 25 mile an hour speed limit design, so that it makes it safer for all users to access the area in any motor transportation.

[04:09:06] So, again, I continue to work on updating the DCSM to make roadways safer and working with the state to come up with solutions to help fund more transportation safety.

[04:09:22] Again, it somewhat comes down to, you know, are you going to help fund congestion relief, which, again, you know, always leads to wider roadways and higher speeds for vehicles, especially off-peak. And sometimes there might need to be a compromise in how MBTA distributes funding, and maybe they can distribute funding for safety as well as congestion as you go forward.

[04:09:47] So I continue to hope you support safety improvements on our roadways. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Scheichler, and thank you, Ms. Vann, for your support. As always, have a good evening. Back to you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Supervisor Bodie. Madam Chair.

[04:10:03] Supervisor Franklin. Sure. Mr. Shorter, can we have someone look into the issues at Fralazzo, particularly as it relates to the bugs and then particularly the pillows? Absolutely. I took a note and sent it to staff as soon as I heard the comment. Thank you.

[04:10:22] Okay. That ends our work for the evening. I will entertain a motion to adjourn. So moved, Madam Chair. Second. Motion made by Vice Chair Bodie, seconded by Supervisor Bailey and Discussion. Bailey and Bodie, sorry.

[04:10:40] Seeing none, please vote. vote unanimous we are adjourned back on June 6th

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