Coraggio Consulting
Prince William Board of County Supervisors Meeting, Tuesday, September 17, 2024

Date: Tuesday, September 17, 2024
Place: Prince William County Board of County Supervisors, Virginia
Length: 3h 32m (video)
Official meeting video (Prince William County, Granicus): https://pwcgov.granicus.com/player/clip/3548
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 2026-10-31. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:28:44] Now in session, let's begin with a moment of silence. Thank you so very much.

[00:28:59] If you are able, please rise for the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance. The Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

[00:29:21] All right, thank you so very much. We are now on to Agenda Item 3, and that's the Accommodations and Proclamations portion of our agenda. And I'd also like to note for Item 3B, we have a substitution. Maria Burgos will not be here. I believe it's Ms. DeLonghi.

[00:29:38] And I was going to ask my colleague, Supervisor Yesli Vega, to come down, seeing as she is the first Hispanic American elected to DeVore County Supervisors. And so with that, can I get a motion? So moved. Second. Any discussion?

[00:29:55] It's not. Let's go ahead and vote. Vote unanimous. Supervisor Bailey absent from meeting and all subsequent votes.

[00:30:11] I would also like to note that Supervisor is absent due to COVID. and she expressed her regrets for not being able to make the meeting today. So I'm going to go now for 3A. I would like to have Supervisor Franklin join me for 3B. Supervisor Vago will join me for that one.

[00:30:45] If we can have Ms. Eagles and any other members of the community who wish to join her.

[00:31:08] Good afternoon.

[00:31:33] I just want to recognize my service authority appointee, Ms. Joyce Eagles, who many of you know was a long-serving member of the community, long-serving member of the Woodbridge District who recently passed away, but her contributions to Woodbridge and really Prince William County at large should definitely go noted.

[00:31:54] So I'll just read a little bit and then just wanna recognize her family, her husband, her son, and certainly wanna give you an opportunity to say a few words. One of my distinct pleasures since being elected Woodbridge District Supervisor has been getting to know Joyce Eagles.

[00:32:10] She was such a delightful person with a kind and caring demeanor. She also had a very sharp mind and a keen intellect. Her willingness to serve her community was evident in all that she did. Joyce Eagles graduated from the University of Massachusetts with a B.A. in zoology.

[00:32:26] She worked at the Beltertown State School helping mentally handicapped children for six years before moving on to other pursuits in Iowa as Doug completed his Ph.D. in postdoctoral work. Joyce and Doug Eagles moved to Manassas, Virginia in 1974.

[00:32:43] Their family moved and ultimately settled in Woodbridge, where they have lived for over 40 years. Most of Joyce's work has been as a volunteer, showing her passion for education, nature, history, conservation, and preservation. And I had the privilege to reappoint her to the Board of Directors of the Prince William Service Authority two years ago.

[00:33:03] During her more than 30 years of service on the board, she held the positions of secretary, treasurer, vice chair, and chair. She made history by being the first woman appointed to the board and being the longest-serving member of the Service Authority Board. The Service Authority is but one of many organizations where she made her mark in Prince William County.

[00:33:21] Her involvement with the American Association of University Women, the PwC Library Foundation, the PwC Library Board, and the Virginia Cooperative Extension are but a few of the many ways she contributed to the well-being of our community. Joyce's legacy of service will be forever in Prince William County through every person she has met and the important progress she has made for this county.

[00:33:45] Joyce Eagles leaves a legacy that will inspire others, and for that, we will always be grateful. And now I'd like to recognize Mr. Doug Eagles. Thank you. Like me, Joyce was a biology major in college, And I learned more about the processing of human waste than I ever imagined I would from her.

[00:34:10] She took great pride in serving in that capacity. And I'd like to provide a plaque here honoring her. So I'm not quite sure what's the proper protocol here. We can have when we take a photo.

[00:34:26] We can take a photo with it, and we'll give it to Supervisor Franklin. Okay. Do you have any other things you want to say? I'm sorry? Do you have any things you want to say, sir? Do you have any things you want to say? Do you have anything else you want to say? No. Okay. All right. Well, thank you.

[00:34:41] Let's go get a picture. Yeah, I'm Joyce's son, Ross, and I just make it quick that I like to say I met my mother on March 27, 1978, and if I'd known then what I do now, I mean, her legacy throughout the county is just so rich, and she was telling me jobs and jobs of people who did something, you know, who you go to to find something out and how you get help throughout the county and, you know, everything.

[00:35:13] So I'm just, I'm pleased that everybody's remembering her the way they are. And I hope it continues. Thank you.

[00:35:27] All right.

[00:36:42] We are going to move on to item 3B. And that is to proclaim Sunday, September 15th through Tuesday, October 15th, 2024, is Hispanic Heritage Month. I'd like to have Supervisor Vega and Shereen DeLong come down. And anyone else who would like to celebrate this.

[00:37:00] September 15th, 16th, and 18th, we mark the independence of numerous Latin American nations.

[00:37:27] In 1968, the United States began to observe these celebrations as an official Hispanic Heritage Week, later expanded by President Reagan to the last full month from September 15th to October 15th. This year's theme, Pioneers of Change, Shaping the Future Together, aims to capture the important role our Hispanic and Latino communities play in helping grow and strengthen our democracy.

[00:37:51] Prince William's diversity is part of what makes our country strong, welcoming, and vibrant. And during this time, we celebrate the whole Hispanic-Latino community for the parts they play, from entrepreneurs to students to leaders to role models and to family members.

[00:38:07] Did you have anything you want to say? I'm putting you on the spot. All right. Do you have anything you'd like to say? Thank you, Chair and members of the board. With me today, we have Olay, our internal PWC organization for Latino employees.

[00:38:24] i'll ask them to come forward for a photo the purpose of the organization is to foster understanding of hispanic and latino cultures among the prince william county workforce to collaborate with other employee groups to share a diverse perspective to promote education productivity professional growth and the general well-being of hispanic and latino employees and to contribute to the appreciation and recognition of hispanic and latino employees throughout the workforce.

[00:38:53] Any members of OLE? So, good afternoon. My name is Mirna Toursios, and I am proud to serve as a community leader, both in my formal role as a Prince William Library Manager and in a leadership role within the Prince William County Organization of Latino Employees, also known as OLE.

[00:39:12] At Prince William County, we believe our employees are our greatest asset. We're committed to fostering a culture of respect and recognize the inherent value of every individual. National Hispanic Heritage Month offers us an opportunity to honor and celebrate our Hispanic and Latine employees for their dedication and contributions to the county. Additionally, the entire county workforce serves tens of thousands of Hispanic and Latine residents, business owners, patrons, and visitors. On behalf of OLE, I would like to extend our sincere thanks to the Board of County Supervisors and the Office of Executive Management for recognizing the 2024 National Hispanic Heritage Month and acknowledging the contributions of Hispanic and Latine employees at today's meeting. We invite all county

[00:39:52] employees to join us in celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month through OLE's

[00:39:55] planned activities and events which can be found on the Ola SharePoint site. Thank you. You can tell

[00:40:50] who are the frequent flyers because they know to start lining up. Come on down. So item 3C is to reclaim October 6th through October 12th, 2024 is fire prevention week. Now most fires occur in the home and most fire related deaths occur where there are no working smoke alarms. Thanks to the early warning smoke alarms provide, the risk of dying in a house fire is cut in half when they are installed and functional. To help spread information about smoke alarms and raise awareness about their life-saving capabilities, Prince William Fire and Rescue is marking Fire Prevention

[00:41:26] Week with open houses at local fire stations and a public safety expo at the Pfizer Stadium on Saturday, October 12th. At these events, the public can learn about public safety agencies and find information on resources to help keep our community safe. We are proud to recognize october 6th to 12th is fire prevention week um chief labelle do you have any remarks thank you chair jefferson thank you members of the board uh mr sorter uh i do have a few brief remarks first is that this year's theme is to make smoke alarms and make them work for you focusing on the

[00:42:05] installation the testing and the replacement smoke alarms should be placed in every bedroom they should be placed in the common area outside your bedrooms as well as on every floor but of course they don't work if they don't have batteries in them so please make sure they have batteries please test them and also recognize they're good for 10 years and after 10 years they should be replaced and we encourage folks to to keep track of that and as you mentioned October 12th we're very excited to have our first community-wide public education fire prevention event will be

[00:42:40] right out here at Weissner Stadium we'll have a great representation of volunteer and the DFR staff really looking forward to seeing everyone as well as other county agencies so thank you very much madam chair um could i ask one question in terms of replacement my understanding is that the smoke alarms turn yellow physically and that's an indication of when they should be replaced is that true or not true i don't believe that's true yeah okay what i'll say is there there may be some brand out there that we're not aware of if there is that's a pretty unique feature the best way on

[00:43:18] the back of every smoke alarm there's a date yeah and at the 10-year mark that should be replaced thank you chief thanks for the clarification question because i just replaced all mine

[00:43:28] because they were yellow so don't need this hey moving on to item 3d proclaim september 23rd as

[00:44:51] Car Free Day, Rick Canizales. All right. On September 23rd, Prince William County will mark Car Free Day, an international event encouraging greener transit options. Car Free Day invites residents of Prince William County and the whole region to think creatively about how they change their commute, whether by adopting a hybrid work schedule, joining a carpool group, biking, or any other method. Reducing the region's reliance on cars will improve air quality, mobility, energy

[00:45:25] conservation and parking demand and we encourage all residents to take part to celebrate the event community connections is sponsoring a raffle for those who choose to take the car free or car light pledge on car free metro dc.org would you have any words or anything you want to add good evening madam chair members of the board my name is bryce bear with the department of transportation and it is my pleasure to introduce eileen sheridan who's going to accept the proclamation today Eileen's one of our community partners she's a member on our Trails and Blue Ways Council and she's also a member of the Greater Prince William Trails Coalition so regional events

[00:46:05] such as Car Free Day go a long way to help promote greener more environmentally friendly opportunities and our community partners are one of the biggest advocates for making sure that we have the infrastructure necessary in order for people to make that choice so without further ado Eileen. Thanks for this recognition I'm going to be really fast because I signed up for citizens time so I'm going to use my time there for a few extra words but I encourage everybody to use your feet and your bikes and any other non-car means you have to

[00:46:41] get where you need to go thank you thanks let's grab a photo sure we are now on to the consent

[00:47:34] agenda and I'd like to entertain a motion for items for a through for I so move madam chair second all right any all right discussion Supervisor Vega thank you madam chair can we pull item 4c please yes we can Supervisor Franklin sure for item 4h which is to authorize a public hearing to consider a deed restriction

[00:48:13] related to a land and water conservation fund grant just want to point out that this is for trail improvements at the Neabsco Regional Park within the Wood Bridge District thank you all right doesn't look like we have anyone else And I'd like the motion to reflect that we're going to pull out 4C.

[00:48:32] So the motion amended is 4A, 4B, 4D through 4I. Vote unanimous. All right. Let's go on to 4C. Do you want to do a motion?

[00:48:49] I'd prefer to do the motion and then have discussion, or do you just want to talk about? Yeah, because I guess depending on the response I get, it's going to determine whether I want to support it or not. All right. So I will let you go ahead. Thank you, Madam Chair. Rick, hi. I'm not sure if you're the one that can answer.

[00:49:06] A few questions that I have, concerns. I know that an email came out from Gretchen on September 3rd, but it was just pretty vague, and then once the agenda comes, we have more details in terms of what the resolution states. And so, for me, it says, deploy artificial intelligence detection and tracking technologies to collect data and analyze near misses at high crash locations across the county.

[00:49:27] Can you talk to me a little bit about this? What type of data are we talking about? Are we talking about face recognition? Where is this data going to be stored? because I do personally have concerns of Prince William County residents being tracked, especially when you consider the number of folks that work in this industry, if you will, and the sensitivity of the nature of the work that they do.

[00:49:45] So can you elaborate a little bit in terms of what all of this entails? Thank you for your question, ma'am. Rick Canizales, your Director of Transportation. Chair Jefferson, Supervisor Vega, I don't know exactly, and you were correct, I don't know exactly the technology that's being used and what it's recognizing, but from my understanding of Virginia code, we cannot collect facial recognition data.

[00:50:13] We can only collect car data, license plate numbers, what happens in a situation. I think this is more of a situation where it would be recording an accident, and you would be able to see what would happen in that situation, and the AI would analyze that situation and what the incidence was.

[00:50:32] But I don't believe, and I'll confirm for you and get back to you, that it has any other recognition than the actual autos on the road. Thank you for that, Rick, because it also talks about, I guess, other recommendations that would be made.

[00:50:48] And so I'm just a little curious about said recommendations without having a clear understanding of what all of this entails. But to confirm with the county attorney in regards to the code that Rick mentioned, is that correct? Madam Chair, members of the board, both the state and federal codes do have restrictions on what can be captured.

[00:51:10] I don't have the specifics in front of me right now, but obviously we would not be able to capture any information that we are not authorized to. Okay. Thank you. And is this time-sensitive? Do we have to vote on this today?

[00:51:28] It's an agreement that we're trying to collect the money that's been allocated to us for this program from the federal government, so we can take a look at this, get you more information and come back to you. Madam Chair and to my fellow colleagues, I would feel more comfortable if maybe we could put this item for our next meeting once we have all of those questions answered, if nobody objects. I don't have any objections. I do see a couple other people who want to speak, so Supervisor Weirdan Franklin. Thank you, Madam Chair. Rick, in your discussions about the data, could you find out what we're going to retain, how long we're going to retain it, if it's going to be reported anywhere? Because I know other jurisdictions

[00:52:05] have had that issue, particularly with respect to license plate captures. So if you could just factor that into your discussions and your determinations as to what we're going to be required to do. Yes, sir, Supervisor. That was something mentioned by Supervisor Vega. We'll look into all the questions that you have asked.

[00:52:24] Just from a quick read, from what we understand, it is GPS-based data, and it's about near misses and stuff, so it doesn't recognize a lot of what we're talking about today, But I will come back and confirm with everybody and have that information and get it out to the board. Thank you, Supervisor Franklin.

[00:52:44] Yeah, I just want to clarify. So this is just for us to accept the grant funding from the federal government, right? Yes, ma'am. And then there are, I'm not going to say restrictions, but there are certain requirements for how it is used.

[00:53:00] Yes, ma'am. Okay. And so, yeah, I think I just want to point out that this just gives us resources to do, to use digital technology. And it sounds like there are going to be certain standards for what can and cannot be used via a state code, but more importantly, the federal government.

[00:53:17] And I think that we can decide under that, you know, if we want to use it for facial recognition or things of that nature. Agree that we don't want to use it for those type of scenarios. But I, for my part, also want to just say we don't want to turn away federal grants either.

[00:53:34] But certainly come back with the information. but this allows us the flexibility to have more tools in our toolbox to handle some of these issues that we've been talking about over the past several years, including speeding and pedestrian safety. Someone alone?

[00:53:49] Thank you. Sorry, Supervisor Vega, then Supervisor Vega. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, Supervisor Franklin. I only saw three bullets listed here. Yes, ma'am. And so, again, I get that we are trying to allocate those funds and get those funds, but before I open that door, I want to make sure that I know exactly what we're going to do with that money Because as we all know with government, when you open a door, very rarely do we shut that door.

[00:54:08] So I do appreciate your willingness to come back with answers. And what looks to be like the support of my colleagues on the day is. We're going to do that. I want to go through, yeah, we're going to do a motion to defer, but I want to go through Bodie, then Gordie. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Rick, for that.

[00:54:24] Sir Resume, I appreciate your concerns about this. Ultimately, I will be supporting the motion to defer, but understanding that also there's a lot of good that can come out of this grant funding we'll be getting. It's obviously, as was said, part of our belt and suspenders approach, looking for the safe streets for all program, looking at more study, more planning around traffic safety, especially that pertains to motorists, pedestrians, and bikes.

[00:54:47] And I know that everyone on this dais cares about that. So I appreciate you continuing to find resources and funding sources like this, especially in those in there. So we know that eventually, near the end of this process, we're going to have probably a list and a menu of projects that will help support this endeavor. And as much as we can get other people to pay for that, the better.

[00:55:05] So I want to say thank you for that. But, of course, I'll be supporting our deferral. Thank you, sir. Supervisor Gordy. Thank you, Madam Chair. And in the narrative here, it talks about that you identified three ways to meet the intent of the grant.

[00:55:22] So it sounds like you were able, you in coordination with county police, were able to carve out or design a demonstration project. Were there other opportunities, other types of things that could be incorporated into this?

[00:55:41] Was there a menu that the federal government? So not that you have to answer today, just kind of as we have this conversation next week as to what the other options may have been. We'll have the answers to all your questions in a memo back to you before the next meeting, before we bring this back to you again.

[00:55:57] Thank you. Madam Chair, one last question. do we have anything of the like already in the works here in the county in terms of AI technology for any other purposes no ma'am this would be an initial project okay thank you Rick yes ma'am I'm going to go ahead and make a motion to defer now second all right any further discussion all right we can take a vote vote unanimous I apologize deeply as you can hear I have a little bit of a

[00:56:36] cough it is not COVID but I am not feeling my best self so I am going to start public comment time and I apologize to everyone because I might have to go sit in the back for part of this but I do apologize because I want to let people know that I take it seriously when you come to the board chambers and you know I do want to hear what you have to say it looks like we only have one speaker right now signed up for in person all right Eileen Sheridan when you go up please even I said your name to say your name we have people go into the back we go to the

[00:57:15] back just say your name and where you generally reside and if we have any other speakers please give the list to you know vice chair Bodie my name is Eileen Sheridan I live in the Occoquan district and I'm using the opportunity to be here for the car free day to talk to you sure and start to interrupt you it's a little hard can you hear me the mic a little bit closer thank you so So Eileen Sheridan, Occoquan District, I'm using my attendance here at the Car Free Day to bring up an issue I think is very important,

[00:57:54] which is ensuring that our comprehensive plan is accurate and updated and forward-looking for trails and blueways and bike and ped access. The CESMP, I think, gives us an opportunity to ensure that we have accurate and updated data with regard to that, but I just want to cite an example that shows what happens when our plan isn't updated, and we learned during the I-66 expansion

[00:58:31] that since we didn't have a trail along I-66, we didn't get any of that money from the state to implement and build a trail along there. So even though we might not build a trail tomorrow or build a trail in a year, it's important that it's in the comprehensive plan.

[00:58:54] Other organizations look at it. I was just at the NBRC Trail Summit last week, and VDOT brought up the importance of having our comprehensive plan updated for trails. And also, you know, I don't want to neglect Blue Ways, but even, you know, the Trails and Blue Ways Council is waterways too.

[00:59:16] So we need to make sure we document, put in, and take out areas for canoes and kayaks in our comprehensive plan. That's it. Thanks. Thank you, Ms. Sheridan. Thank you for all your services are at Occoquan District Appointee. If anyone else, I think that's it.

[00:59:33] Ms. Madden, do we have anyone online? Okay. Thank you so much. We are going to shift out of public comment time and move on to item number six, our public hearings. Do we have any agencies that are going to be giving any presentations?

[00:59:50] All right. All right. Does anyone have any questions for staff before we open up the public hearing for Item 6? Mr. Riser Gordy. Hey, Rick. Mr. Canizales. Got a couple.

[01:00:06] Just got one question for you.

[01:00:19] Rick Canizales. Thanks for coming down. So on Item 6B, this is related to a gas easement that is supposed to come in alignment with a road that's eventually supposed to connect University Village, University Town Center to George Mason University. My real question is, I know we have some challenges related to this road due to some environmental conditions there.

[01:00:45] And I'd like to get with you to try to understand that because that sort of changes the whole connectivity between the projects and the university. I mean, I absolutely support what's happening here with the gas easement. that entire uh that corridor that connects the two is something i think is is something um i hope we can accomplish but we need need to have a conversation about we will all right we'll get with the officer thank you for that any further questions all right uh hearing none i'm going to

[01:01:21] go ahead and open up the public hearing for items 6a through 6 yeah 6d as in david um we have one person signed up to speak so miss sarah ford please take to the microphone you have three minutes to speak unless you are the head of a non-profit organization then you will be able to request five minutes to speak good afternoon i'm sarah ford executive director for willing

[01:01:58] warriors thank you chair jefferson thank you board of supervisors for the opportunity to be here today to be in front of you again i appreciate your time appreciate this opportunity to take this important vote that will not only impact our warrior retreat but will impact our warriors and our families that we serve now and well into the future. It is our honor to serve this community and to serve our warriors with cost-free respite stays at the Warrior Retreat. We see lives changed.

[01:02:24] We see lives saved with every stay, and we do not take that for granted, and we do not take your support. We do not take the support of the community. We do not take the support of this board and of the citizens of Prince William County for granted. Our warriors know. Our warriors know this community supports them and has their back they feel that when they come many of our warriors our veterans are from right here in Prince William County right in the districts that you serve we do have warriors that come from other parts of the country they're doing their rehabilitation they're doing their recovery here in this area and they choose to stay they choose to stay once

[01:02:58] their time of service is done they want to stay in this area because because of you all because of the people here in the county they feel the love they feel the support they want to be a part of this community. And for that, we are so appreciative. We couldn't be in a better place to serve our military families. Right now, we have 27 warriors, 27 active duty and veteran service members staying at the retreat for a week-long stay. They're receiving counseling services for PTS. These warriors are coming from some very, very dark places. These warriors that go through this program have either attempted suicide or have had suicidal idealizations.

[01:03:38] They're coming for this program. They're staying at the Warrior Retreat to basically have their lives changed, to feel that resiliency that they need to go back, that they can go back to their families, not just their units, not just their military brothers and sisters in arms, but to their families and to their communities.

[01:03:58] And for that, we can't put a price tag on that. But with your support today, with your vote for our tax exemption, we can say that that money that we can save, that money is money that we can use then to not only continue the programs that we provide, but to further the programs that we provide, to expand upon the programs that we provide.

[01:04:20] I know I've mentioned this statistic before, but we have served over 2,400 active duty and veteran service members at the Warrior Retreat, and those are with retreat stays. We've served countless others with day programs and different programs that we provide through our services.

[01:04:38] And I've mentioned that we have not lost a single one, a single member to suicide that has come and stayed at the retreat. But unfortunately, with this program that I'm talking about, that they're staying at the retreat right now, there's been warriors lost because they're on the wait list to get into this program, this very same program that we have 27 warriors at the warrior retreat right now.

[01:04:57] We can't have that happen. As a community, we can't allow that to happen. So we need your support so we can grow those programs. We can offer more programs. And we plan to. That's our goal for 2025. We want to offer more week-long stays for these warriors that need PTS counseling and expand upon our moral injury program, again, to save lives, to change lives, and to strengthen our communities.

[01:05:22] So, again, thank you for your support, and I appreciate your time. Thank you so much, Ms. Ford. Do we have anyone in the audience who has not signed up to speak who would like to speak on 6A through 6D? Seeing none, do we have anyone online? All right. Therefore, I will hereby close the public hearing for items 6A through 6D.

[01:05:41] Can I get a motion to approve 6A through 6D? So moved. So moved? Second. Moved and properly seconded. I heard Weir and angry. Any discussion? Hearing none? Supervisor Weir? With respect to 6A, I just want to say this has been a long, hard road.

[01:06:04] Longer and harder than I thought, and I really appreciate this board's support for this item. And I can finally get this off my plate, off of her plate, and I really appreciate it. Thank you. If there's no one else, let's go ahead and take a vote.

[01:06:27] Vote unanimous. Thank you so much. Back to you, Madam Chair. All right. Thank you so very much. We are now on to county executive time. I would like to turn the floor over to Mr. Shorter.

[01:06:45] Thank you very much, Madam Chair, members of the board. A few quick updates for me, and then I want to follow up with the conversation that we really started last week during public comment time I did send a memo out yesterday regarding board directives so just want to remind the board we have been issued 52 directives this calendar year by the board and as inconsistent with the memo sent out 26 remain open that we are actively working on my plan

[01:07:20] at these board meetings is really to reflect out the directives that were issued in the prior meeting to make sure that we are clear about the directive and also clear about which agency will be taking on the directive. Quarterly, I plan to send out a memo in similar format as the one I sent with current directives, where they are in the process, and will certainly invite any questions that you all might have about those reports moving forward.

[01:07:51] Certainly want to be as deliberate as possible as we go forward with the directors. And am open to any follow-up discussion around that the collective board is interested in around more finely tuning language on what directives are and how we use them moving forward.

[01:08:11] Also want to give just a quick acknowledgement to the Office of Management and Budget. The Government Finance Officers Association has awarded us for the 37th consecutive year a Distinguished Budget Presentation Award for just the phenomenal work that is done around our budget.

[01:08:35] So I just want to acknowledge Dave Sinclair and really the entire team for the great work that they do each and every year. We talked about it last week because the Solheim was coming, And now we are on the other side of what was a phenomenal event.

[01:08:54] I know some of you will likely give kudos, so I'll just say to the entire team, thank you for all that you did. The world's eyes were on Prince William County last week, and you did just a phenomenal job planning and preparing and certainly executing the Solheim.

[01:09:16] So to all of the agencies and all of the folks involved, thank you for the phenomenal, phenomenal work. And finally, Madam Chair, I want to return back to the conversation we started last week.

[01:09:34] And really, I'll say this is a continued effort to ensure that we are really focused on government transparency and building trust in our government. Now, we have heard from many of you very directly about initiatives that you want to see action on and execution on.

[01:09:55] We've been working as a team really for the last few weeks and months. I have also met with the leadership team for the county and plan to continue those meetings to focus on the initiatives that we will highlight today.

[01:10:10] I'll say that what we have been really making sure that we do with this project is create a platform for the community to engage us directly and be aware of what is happening and follow along.

[01:10:30] So what we are about to pull up, it's really an Engagement HQ website that will allow our residents, that will allow you to follow along on these initiatives. So last week we talked about permitting.

[01:10:48] We have talked about a number of other projects and initiatives. This will essentially be the platform that we use moving forward to provide for updates on those initiatives. Ultimately, this is the first wave of those projects.

[01:11:06] We plan to update this website with several more, and we'll continue to do so for the foreseeable future. I'll say that for me, I know a number of other jurisdictions are using this same platform to not just provide updates to residents and to their communities, but also get feedback from their communities.

[01:11:31] And so it's a very unique platform, and I think one that will ultimately prove us well. Can we pull it up? Oh, it's, no, no, no.

[01:11:50] Hopefully we'll get it up soon. That said, we chose initiatives initially, and I just really want to give credit to our Transformation Management Office for really helping us to work through the details of how we would configure and talk about these respective initiatives and also want to give credit to the agency directors and all of our agencies especially those who will be highlighted as part of one or multiple initiatives for the work that they did to quickly come up to speed

[01:12:27] and then be prepared to provide content. That said we have created with this I think we are we've established criteria this first wave of initiatives is really those that have come up over the last few weeks things like permitting we have we've talked a good deal about and you know we have made great progress on the solar app the 3-1-1 and all the work that do it is doing and

[01:13:03] other agencies are doing to get us prepared to have a 3-1-1 platform for residents to engage. We talked a lot about mobile integrated health, which we are renaming for the site, our community safety initiative, the great transformation that is happening around our community partners program, and that has really been ongoing. And we've also talked a bit about parking enforcement uh and while parking enforcement won't be on the first wave of

[01:13:37] initiatives we are going to uh we are going to include on this first wave um panhandling so again all things that this board is familiar with and and that certainly our community has heard us talk a lot about uh and look forward to uh the platform whenever we could get it up

[01:13:58] Okay. All right. What I'll say while we wait, part of, obviously, our agencies are working on countless projects constantly that ultimately have an impact on the public's experience with our government. And we have been talking really for years about customer experience, the public's

[01:14:35] experience with our government. And so these initiatives really seek to improve the customer's experience with our government. Now, that said, many of these initiatives have some impact in terms of and multiple agencies have a role to play. What I will say is that the criteria that we have used to pick the few projects that will go on this platform really was focused on making sure that these initiatives and projects were mission-focused, consistent with our vision,

[01:15:13] that they were consistent with our strategic plan, realistic in terms of implementation, and that there was a direct and very visible impact to the community. That is important to say because, again, these initiatives, while critically important and what we have heard directly from the board, it's important also to understand that our agencies are working tirelessly on way more than this.

[01:15:43] These are the projects and initiatives we wanted to highlight for this purpose. I'll also say on this platform, given how dynamic the platform is, agencies will also be using the same platform to provide for updates as we go.

[01:15:59] This is our first time using it. It's called Engagement HQ. It is active and live right now. And so the community can go to this website. I'll ask maybe, Nick, if we could scroll down, and maybe if we can go into the community safety initiative.

[01:16:22] What you have by way of framework on this engagement website is context, that is to say what the community safety initiative is, a description of all of the work that is happening in terms of that initiative.

[01:16:43] And then on the right, and this is consistent with each of the projects that will be identified and highlighted on this platform, you have milestones, clear action that the government is taking collectively to bring these, to execute, if you will, to bring these projects to fruition.

[01:17:05] So you could see why it is important for us that the initiatives that we identify on this platform have very clear milestones, very clear action. I'm excited about this work. We will continue to refer back to this page, this landing page, and we will continue to update it.

[01:17:25] I'm sure the questions will certainly come in. We will also be working internally, and that is not just the cabinet, but the entire leadership team. where we are meeting monthly to talk about these initiatives and many more.

[01:17:41] So this is, again, the first wave of initiatives that we listed. And we have at this point identified 17 additional, not additional, 17 total projects that we plan to put on this platform for the public's review and for questions.

[01:18:00] Some of these initiatives will be asking for real-time feedback, if you will, from the public. To that end, we talked last week about permitting, and there has been so much work done around the permitting process here in the county.

[01:18:21] Clearly, as you can see, one of the first initiatives that were identified. What I'm hoping to do during CXO time in meetings coming is bring our agency directors forward, give them an opportunity to really give you, the board, and the public an update on these respective initiatives.

[01:18:45] And I'd like to start with that today. I've invited Mandy to come up and talk a bit about what we see here and to give an update on where we are going in terms of the permitting process and improvements to the process. Thank you. Madam Chair, members of the board, Mandy Spina, Director of Development Services.

[01:19:06] I'm very excited for the permitting process initiatives to be included in PwC Works. I realize the significance that the permitting process plays in the overall support of our county residents and our businesses. And with that, this platform allows us to really showcase the things that we've done and the things that are in the pipeline.

[01:19:27] So development services goal in this initiative is really to modernize processes. We're focusing on meeting the customer where they're at in their journey. Our permitting process has changed since COVID from a more face-to-face interaction to now largely fully online.

[01:19:42] That's changed what their journey looks like. So we're really focused on meeting them where they're at. I, along with my team, are a firm believer that communication, collaboration, and partnership are really the key to any project and a successful outcome. So what you'll see on the page, our main goals of this project are really to achieve cost and time savings for our customers.

[01:20:02] We want to reduce the uncertainty for our developers and our contractors. What we've seen over time is that for our customers, they thrive when they have predictable and consistent services through permitting. We want to eliminate unnecessary steps, streamline processes, promote predictability and improve service delivery, and really enhance the customer service delivery through modernization.

[01:20:24] So I wanted to highlight some projects that you'll see up on the screen, some that are completed, some that were recently just rolled out, and ones that are in the pipeline. So as we look through, and Nikki scrolled down, at the very bottom of the page in the fall of 2024, when COVID hit, we had to move to an automated electronic system very quickly.

[01:20:45] And with that came a quality control implementation that used to be done face-to-face at the counter. So you'd come in, submit your application and your documents, changes would be made on the fly, and then we would submit those documents in. Well, for electronic, you were having to do that without the face-to-face interaction.

[01:21:01] What we were seeing was because of some of those processes put in place, we were seeing around a three to five business day turn time for quality control review before it even made it through to the technical review. Sometimes it would go around seven to nine business days, just depending on staffing.

[01:21:16] With some of the implementations that staff has done over the past two months, they have now got that time down to one to two business days. So a significant time savings for our customers. Some implementations that we roll out, we market them through constant contact and other channels. And some of them we just roll out quietly and the customer just may or may not notice that the improvement has happened.

[01:21:38] So that's one that we rolled out that has had significant impact to our customers. And Nikki, if you'll scroll up, as we move to what's in the pipeline, on September 9th, we rolled out the ePortal customer document upload process. So ePortal is where any customer will go in to submit their application, submit any documents that our team needs to review.

[01:21:59] Our prior system, when you uploaded those documents, it went into what our customers would call the abyss, and they did not know if the documents were there. Sometimes they would upload them as many times as three to four times because they didn't know if they were in the system. Well that causes staff time as they're working through it, it causes the customer time.

[01:22:17] So on September 9th, we launched the feature where customers can now see in real time their documents as they upload them. They also have the ability to name those documents. And so it's easier for staff to identify some of the multiple submissions they may make. So that's one thing that recently happened.

[01:22:32] And as I get into one of the areas that we're really excited about, I do want to mention that my deputy director, Ricky O'Connor and I, along with Chief Smolsky, will be coming out to your offices to talk with you about very specific issues. And we're really looking forward to that collaboration to get input from you all.

[01:22:49] But as we move down, what you'll see is, Upcoming in the fall of 2024, we are partnering with the Chamber of Commerce to work through a holistic approach to the permitting process. As many of you are as aware, the permitting process is not one specific instance, it involves multiple agencies, multiple touch points, and so the Chamber's really taken a proactive approach to work with us to identify those.

[01:23:12] And so with me, I have Jonathan Barber, a member of the Chamber of Commerce and CDC, to provide more information to you on their efforts. Good afternoon. I'm Jonathan Barber with R.W. Murray. I'm the owner and president of R.W. Murray.

[01:23:31] You know, as part of a collective effort to give constructive feedback, we've been a member of the CDC since its inception in 2000, I believe. And, you know, based on the recent challenges with the growth and development, and a lot of them have come about as a transition over from an in-person plan submission to an electronic plan submission, We partnered with the chamber to convene a group of business stakeholders to sort of facilitate a dialogue to generate some recommendations to the county with an effort to improve the overall development services process.

[01:24:10] As of right now, there are 133 individuals participating through the chamber on that, and that represents 75 different companies. so it's a pretty comprehensive you know range of companies and the focus is on four areas in particular on the site development plan review process site plan approval process the building permit approval process the inspections process and then on the bond release process those are sort of the four areas that based on our feedback that we're getting through the chamber and through the CDC that we're really seeing these challenges on that we we've got some some

[01:24:49] room that we can continue to improve. The companies comprising this group have diverse backgrounds. With development experience, there's companies that do work in Prince William, obviously, but in a lot of other jurisdictions that when we have clients that are coming to Prince William County, they're also looking at parcels in Loudon or Fairfax and other jurisdictions.

[01:25:11] And so as a general contractor based in Prince William, we obviously want them here in Prince William, so we're trying to get as much feedback as we can to develop sort of a list of best practices that can be put into place to improve what I would call the overall customer experience for companies looking to develop property and to establish their business in Prince William County. Currently, we're working through, schedule-wise, a series of meetings in September on each of those four areas that we're focusing on.

[01:25:49] The goal right now is that we're going to publish that list of recommendations from the chamber and CDC to development services leadership by the end of October. That's our timing that we're trying to move along. It's got a lot of headway, and we're trying to take advantage of that while we're there.

[01:26:07] We anticipate there's going to be some short-term deliverables that can come out of that, maybe things that can go into place by the end of the year that can really, simple things like what Mandy was talking about with, you know, the QC process and doing that, some low-hanging fruit that can come in really quickly.

[01:26:24] And then there's probably going to be some longer-term commitments that are going to take, you know, a series of meetings with representatives of the CDC, the chamber, and staff to get those in place. But the hope would be those could be, you know, Q1 of next year rolling into that.

[01:26:41] From our perspective, that's what we'd like to do. So really from the Prince William Chamber of Commerce and the Commercial Development Committee, we're excited about the opportunity to have this feedback from a wide cross-section of the development community taken to heart by the development services leadership.

[01:27:00] We look forward to working together with the county to improve that overall customer experience. If any of you have any questions or anything, let me know and be available anytime you have any questions. Thank you. And some of my colleagues have questions. I guess my first question is for Mandy. Thank you both for coming here and doing this presentation.

[01:27:15] one of the big concerns I've heard from businesses is that there are different inspectors who review a project you know how is this being addressed so we will be that's the focus of the meetings that we're coming around to do with each of your offices is more surrounding the specific details so there are multiple types of inspections multiple departments involved and one thing that I do want to address in talking to my leadership team is having a monthly inspections meeting to kind of go through best practices frequently asked questions things we're seeing in the field but then the training that needs to be identified as well what we hear

[01:27:52] sometimes is maybe inspector a goes out they'll say one thing inspector b comes out and says something completely different and sometimes there's multiple reasons that may happen and so we want to get to the root of that address it through ensuring we have communication and collaboration between our teams and then getting specific feedback from businesses as well thank My other question real quick, this is again something I was told I haven't tried to build anything recently or actually ever.

[01:28:22] Now if I'm submitting plans for a debt, for example, will I get an electronic confirmation of the submission? You will get an electronic confirmation. We actually did roll out, and it's part of the platform, a property owner notification as well where if there's work happening on your property, a contractor submits documents.

[01:28:41] As long as we have your email address and contact information, you will be notified of that as well. But we also try to proactively reach out to obtain that contact information. And then the ePortal system will let you see that as well. Thank you. I'm going to go over to Supervisor Weir. And why do you go find your name?

[01:29:01] All right, Supervisor Franklin. Sure, yeah, mine is on the permitting piece. So I will say that I'm actually glad to see this because a number of the challenges I know that I've spoken to you about And Mr. Shorter are actually listed here, particularly reducing uncertainty for developers and contractors, eliminating unnecessary steps and streamlining the process.

[01:29:22] Those two alone, particularly the latter, I hear from, and I've said this before, small businesses all the way to your big developers who have the same issue about, you know, we filed this paperwork, we submitted this paperwork, and we thought we were good, and then we were told, oh, okay, now you need to do this.

[01:29:41] And so having a process where, and I've heard this particularly from small businesses, just tell me everything I need, you know, so I can get it all done at once. Because as you all know, each day that goes by is money spent by the small business or the contractor or whoever.

[01:30:01] And these small businesses sometimes can't survive. There's one particular business, I won't say who it is, but we were able to get them open. but they spent two years with this process and darn near ran out of money to do it because a lot of the money went towards fees, and they're a small business.

[01:30:18] They just don't have the excess money that some of these larger companies have. So I'm glad we're on the right track here. I do want us to focus more on the technical side. I know that we are innovatively using technology to streamline the process more, But what I would encourage you all to do also is just focus on the human resource part, too, the mentoring part, the technical assistance part.

[01:30:42] And we may not have the staff for this, and if not, we need to know this. But with these small businesses particularly, we almost have to kind of walk each step with them and hold their hand because a lot of them don't have the attorneys to be able to do all of these things for them.

[01:30:59] but of course you all are working on thousands of permits too so you may not have the capacity if that's the case we we would like to know that because i think more important than all of this is making sure those small businesses know each step that they need to do and they understand how to do it thank you for that and one thing i will add to that too thank you supervisor franklin is development services does have a small budget small business project management program which we've presented to you in the past it has specific criteria one thing that my deputy director and i are working on now is integrating more to the other small businesses that may not fit into that category. And really partnering with economic development and their small business program

[01:31:38] to get out more proactively to talk to the community. Sometimes the word of mouth is more important. They may already have their business set up, but they know the next person getting ready to open their business. And then they can be made aware of our services, and they may not fit into that criteria of what our program is. So we are starting to expand that service as well in conjunction with economic development.

[01:31:58] Supervisor Vega. Getting rid of red tape. I love it. Speaking my language. Real quick, going back to the ePortal. Are we going to be a little more flexible on that? Because at least from the last time that I personally used it, if you started the process online, you had to stick to that process.

[01:32:20] You couldn't walk in and hand over whatever it was that they were requesting. Is that still the case, or are we going to look at making that a little more flexible? it is the case but we are working on making it more flexible so more to come on that okay because that's one of the biggest complaints I hear and if we can be a little more flexible it would be great but thank you for this I wasn't expecting it but I do know that it's been a long time coming since my very first term those were some of the initial first meetings that I had folks being frustrated people want to do business in Prince William County you know and we just have to make it easy for folks to be able not just to open their businesses in prince william county but to be able to thrive so thank you for this welcome

[01:32:58] supervisor gordy thank you madam chair thank you mandy for this and very excited about what you're presenting here um two things um i look forward to having the one-on-one with you um a couple of key points i'd like to discuss uh particularly um is the role of the engineer stamp in the architect stamp. In a lot of counties, that's enough for you to get your permit. From here, it does not seem to be enough to get your permit. And to what extent that we as a county open up

[01:33:33] ourselves to liability if we start to change those plans that have been stamped by someone who's licensed, bonded, certified for those plans. So I'd like to really dig deep into that and better understand that and then on the inspection side I know one of the things CXO shared with me is kind of moving more to a case management approach so that when the second inspector comes they know what the first inspector guided and told and and so that there's that context and understanding I hope that's the case of how you're going to start to approach it so that you know the poor person

[01:34:12] who's standing there waiting to to get approved uh you know gets told oh you've got to pull this out you got to take this even though that was what the previous inspector told them that they needed to install so i think all of these things working together is very exciting i look forward to having further dialogue and seeing tremendous progress on this front to help support our business community thank you and i think really appreciate the business community for coming in and partnering with us to try to look for those means of improvement so that we can be a place that businesses want to do business,

[01:34:51] a county in which people want to do business. Because I've had a couple of companies come here and say, we don't want to do any more business in Prince William County. And that is not a message I want to hear. So thank you for that. Supervisor Ingrid. Thank you, Madam Chair.

[01:35:08] Thank you, Mandy. I don't do a lot of thank yous, but I just want to look at your role in your position and then look at, you know, the man who you came in behind and he moved on up to a deputy CXO and really what you all have done in transforming or evolving your office, which you have, again, done an excellent job with.

[01:35:32] So we were talking a little bit earlier in our audit committee about, you know, how our auditors come in and we always, you know, we're improving. So this is always an improving process. We know that there have been some concerns, some issues, some challenges, but I love how we're streamlining now and I don't my one question would be is this the first time we've done something done this in the department to really look at these enhancements and improvements is it in other words is this long overdue I will say it's a continuous effort I've been in the department since 2013 and I've watched us go through multiple changes you know a lot of times they're code related as codes change we have to implement those processes but we're always working

[01:36:10] with the business community so I've watched Wade do that in his role and staff in general I think we're really based on collaboration even with our partner jurisdictions we're working with them on processes to say how do you how do you interpret this code um so we're always open to that and i think it's been something that's been ongoing um but now it's you know post-covid there's a lot of different ways to do permitting and how do we meet customers where they're at now and that's always changing yeah so let me just end by saying this um you have a very tough job because your Your department goes so deep in so many areas.

[01:36:45] When you talk about inspections, that could range from existing buildings that we have to, again, we talked about small homes, small businesses, large developments. It's like you run the gamut on all this. Your department could never be big enough to do all the things that we need to do.

[01:37:02] It couldn't be because we would literally have to buy, you know, I mean, pay for hundreds of people to do this. But what that means is that we have to have patience in all this, right? And so I really love what we're doing, how far we've come, and just the development that you've done with the development in the name. But I know it's always going to be evolving circle.

[01:37:20] There's always going to be something else. But where we are right now, you're looking good. And thank you for these enhancements that we have. So thanks. Thank you. And one thing I'll point out, too, Nikki, if you could scroll all the way to the bottom, what you'll see is when we work to look through, what does the end milestone look like?

[01:37:35] For me, there is none because it's always going to be changing and updating. There's always things that we can do to continuously be better. I call it brick by brick that we have to build what's happening. And that's what you'll see here is there's always room for the next step even after this. So I look at this to be continual as we move forward.

[01:37:53] Thank you. Thank you. And Supervisor Bode? All right, did you have something? I just wanted to kind of also respond to Supervisor Angry's question. So I'm very excited about this partnership between development services and all of our sort of county agencies and the chamber and CDC, this partnership was happening long before this platform was created.

[01:38:17] So the agency is in constant, as Mandy has suggested, constant sort of and continual quality improvement. That said, this platform really is just a way to communicate that out, a place for each of you and for the community to say, well, what are we doing around permitting?

[01:38:36] Oh, there's a place to go get updates on that. And it's not sound bites. This is very content heavy. These are very clear milestones. And it's something that we can continue to say to our community, no, there's a place for you to go to get consistent updates and to give feedback.

[01:38:55] So I appreciate that question very much. Supervisor Bode. Thank you, Madam Chair. And that actually strikes at the heart what I was going to say is that so often when I'm talking to folks in the community, whether it's business leaders, residents, people that want to either do business in Princeton County or, frankly, just aren't really sure what happens behind the scenes, there's a lot of sort of spin up that I have to do explain very basic things, very basic relationships.

[01:39:21] The CDC, most laymen, people in the community don't even know the CDC exists, doesn't know what they do, don't know that partnership. And to your point, Executive Shorter, that's a longstanding partnership that I know has been going on years. Previous board, we even did a commendation to them all to talk about that partnership.

[01:39:40] So a lot of these under-the-hood, behind-the-scenes work has been going on for sometimes decades upwards. so i couldn't i can't commend more the uh the the the achievement which is having this out there because it helps us help you all tell the story what the county is actually doing um it also helps frankly gives us all a sort of same sheet of music to to read from we have businesses that come to us telling us hey what's going on how come x how come y how come you know my my friend who is also opening a business, how come he was able to do it in, you know, two months, and I'm

[01:40:18] here at month five, and I'm still looking around talking to the same people over and over again. So this is really, really helpful. Now, more specifically to this, thank you, Mandy, for all the work you've been doing, and thank you for your presentation. I really like how you have broken down the milestones, and frankly, stuff that's gone back a little bit farther than now, because frankly, we have, you know, projects, we have business owners who are in the pipeline right now who aren't really sure where that horizon is going to be, when that end incites them, like when they'll be able to open up another business.

[01:40:49] Because to Supervisor Gordie's point, we have some folks, frankly, they go through the process once. They've sunk so much time, treasure, and talent opening their first business or opening up their pilot version of their business. And they're like, this is too much. I'm not going to do this anymore. I'm not going to expand anymore. I'm going to open up a satellite office, even as close to the city of Manassas, because in some ways they still have slightly easier culture around opening businesses so this is a really great way to begin changing that narrative because a lot of it is also a narrative that we have to overcome and I think this is a really great step in the right direction so thank you for all your efforts on this thank you all right supervisor

[01:41:27] we're I was going to wait until the end my question was for the county executive's time not for this particular presentation I just had it in there very early lord okay thank you well Well, I'll say, I don't know, Mandy, if you wanted to say anything else.

[01:41:44] I know, I'm fine. Just thank you for the time. It's well under, just to see it on the screen, I think it's been really awesome for our team. And there's a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes, Supervisor Bode, to your point, that we're really excited to really showcase that.

[01:42:00] But understand that we are fully committed to making the necessary changes as we continue to evolve. So I'm very excited, and thank you for your time today. Thank you for your leadership, Mandy. I will say, obviously, a lot of work went into making sure that this platform has the context, the content that the milestones are organized as well as they are.

[01:42:24] If we could pull out of this back to the original thumbnails. And so these initiatives, each of them will have and or already have just as much content with waves intended, waves of additional projects to come.

[01:42:43] I just really want to give a big shout-out to the communications team. They have worked really hard over this last few days, some evenings, weekends, more than a few, to get this up and going with many more improvements to come.

[01:43:02] As you all could tell, this kind of platform is one that is cutting edge and one that we can do a number of things with. So I'm certainly excited. And just one more bit on execution. So as I mentioned a few minutes ago, this won't be static.

[01:43:22] So we are meeting consistently as a leadership team, that is all of the directors in the government, monthly to talk not just about these initiatives that will be lifted up as part of this platform, but about other initiatives that are important to the county government.

[01:43:39] So just want to thank the board for pushing. Thank the government for being up and ready for this challenge. We will, and I invite the community to hold us to it, follow along with us. If you have a question about what's happening on any of these initiatives, come to the page, and if there's a question that's not answered, let us know.

[01:44:01] I'll also say this does not replace the agency's website. So if you have a question about the permitting process as it currently exists, you would still go to the development services website and or whichever agency you need to touch.

[01:44:17] So this is not intended to be to replace, if you will, that functionality on our website. This is just to say we have important initiatives that we know are significant to our community, and we have created a place to go to get updates on what we're doing with those initiatives.

[01:44:36] And so that is all, and I'm certainly open to any questions. All right. I have Bodie, Gordie, and then we are. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a couple quick questions on that front. I've already registered on there while you were talking because I'm me.

[01:44:55] But anyway, so a couple questions. Do we know when the actual engagement portion, the engagement functionality of the website is going to be up and running? Because right now it's only sort of just because I have an account. I'm logged into it. I can't really do anything with it other than view things.

[01:45:11] Do we know what the timeline is on that? know for sure right now if there are updated milestones or updates to the milestones all of those who are registered will actually get pinged I don't know Nikki if you want to that's a great question Supervisor Bodhi so Madam Chair members of the board Nikki Brown communications and engagement so each platform will have its own or each project will have opportunities for engagement so when it's time for that so some of these you know as Chris had mentioned and I kind of executive mentioned we are really just trying to

[01:45:49] let folks know we have these projects we hear you were working on them as there are opportunities for engagement around these projects we'll turn on different pieces you can do polling you can do feedback you can do stories there's lots of opportunities within the platform itself and then as the county executive had mentioned we are going to be bringing on additional projects and we're hoping to do some around like facilities and some other things transportation so there will be some opportunities with those projects as well so that's the great part about this platform is it allows us to really choose engagement options that work for that project so while there aren't right

[01:46:28] now there there are will be in the future for sure and I'll just clarify something super quick in terms of registering. Thank you for registering. I love that. It worked. I tested it. That's great. I love it. So registering just allows you to engage with the platform, but anybody can see the platform.

[01:46:46] So you don't have to register if you don't want to. That will just allow you when those opportunities come up to be able to engage with us in that way, which we're excited about. In terms of getting updates, we will be adding that functionality to the projects where you can sign up to receive information about particular projects you want, it'll be great because it'll be on the project page, but then it'll also be on our sign-up page where you can sign up for a newsletter, and then these projects will be on there as well.

[01:47:16] And so when there are updates that the agencies send out, they can send them out through that as well. So to the county executive's point, if you sign up to receive information about the project itself and the agency sends that out, you will get that information directly to whatever account you sign up with.

[01:47:34] Thank you. And that was going to be my second question, is this going to be sort of a living thing where when things are updated, people have signed up, we'll get an update saying, hey, you know, you signed up for this way back when this project that you subscribed to has an update, and here it is, and here you can go back.

[01:47:50] Because far too often people will basically subscribe to something, they never get updates, and they forget that the website exists, and that obviously defeats the purpose, so I appreciate that. That leads me to my third and final question, Madam Chair, and to the team is, how are you rolling out the existence of this website to the community?

[01:48:09] So we are doing a soft launch this week. It literally just went live. We wanted to make sure that you all had a chance to see it. So we are doing a soft launch. We're making sure the registration works, so thank you. Actually, that's very helpful. And we are just trying to make sure that we can fix any tweaks.

[01:48:27] So next week you'll start seeing a lot more about it on social. We're going to do a release. So we'll do a lot more to push out. We just wanted to make sure that everything, allow people some, like a chance to register, make sure everything goes smoothly on our end.

[01:48:43] But we'll also, like I said, we'll add that sign-up piece to it as well. So all of that should be our target is next week where we push it out, and we'll share that with your offices, and we'd love for you all to share that with your constituents as well. And if we could scroll all the way up to the top. So in pushing out the release and other materials on this, the brand PWC Works, which I have to give credit to the team for, we are going to stay consistent with that brand.

[01:49:13] So PWC Works, all of the materials that come out about the site, about programs associated with the site, will have this tag, PWC Works. Thank you. All right.

[01:49:29] Before I go on to Supervisor Gordy, I just want to say one thing. I mean, it's a great-looking sign. I'm playing around with it. Is there any plans to make it accessible in other languages like Spanish? Yes, ma'am. So it's kind of hidden. We're working on that.

[01:49:44] But if you go up to this top left, you'll see there's a select language tab. And you should be able to pick different languages a lot. That is much appreciated. Supervisor Gordy. you know i love websites like this but how easy can they get to it from the county website how many clicks does it take to get there well it will be one right right now it's not on the home page but we will put it on the home page so that people can see um if you can picture our home page

[01:50:20] for the website there's several icons that are hidden in the middle there we'll put something there so folks can get an update directly to uh to this page if they're interested in going there And by the way, language access is actually in the next wave of initiatives that we plan to include on the website.

[01:50:41] Franklin, where? Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm going to change focus a little bit. Another website that we've got, and it's the one that was put up in accordance with Directive 24-09, the zoning determinations. I noticed that it's got an active date of August 1, but there's nothing in it.

[01:51:03] And then there's also a piece in the description that it may not contain everything. Given the rather limited appeal time on zoning determinations, one, I'd like to know if indeed there have been any since August 1, because there aren't any in the system.

[01:51:22] And, two, if there are some that are not in here and the purpose is to provide information so that people can act accordingly and within the statutory timelines, how do we ensure that that happens in the future?

[01:51:39] I would need to actually take a look and we'll follow up with your office and then come back the next time we're all together, if appropriate, with an update. Thank you for the awareness, though. Supervisor Franklin. Yeah, actually, I may just...

[01:51:56] hold my comments because it was going to be about the CSI but it looks like we're talking more about the general website of how to find these things but I guess maybe one question I asked are we going to get another update on CSI publicly because if so I'll just save my comments for that well I'll say with these in it so my hope my plan I know I mentioned this a few minutes ago is for and this is the reason I brought this to the board meeting I'm planning on bringing directors up and or a number of directors up here and there not at each meeting during CXO time to

[01:52:32] give updates where appropriate on the initiative sure and so if there maybe if there is a question around CS I'm happy to kind of take that question back now sure yeah I'll just generally say just a couple of things at some point maybe when when Wesley is back to present it may be good for clarification to talk about how the advisory committee came about um i know there's been a couple of questions about that i know uh one lady who i met um she actually lived in my district and i said well how did you find out about this and she said well through your newsletter i was i was very pleased about that and i had never met her before so i was very pleased about that but

[01:53:08] it may be good to talk about how you all came up with the individuals that are part of this group number one and then number two um i'm curious if if it has a strategic plan that they're kind of going by guiding them with regards to how they plan to address some of these issues around pedestrian safety homelessness crime things of that nature and so if that's something that that can be addressed and then third and this is a bit of some feedback that i've gotten is that members of the advisory group want to have more of a say-so in kind of how the programming

[01:53:47] is actually implemented because I think a number of them have the experience working on some of these issues and so just making sure that in addition to them kind of being an advisory role that they can actually kind of get their hands dirty on some of these issues as well. I'm going to let you address that but I also do want to say one other thing that I think could be a positive I've talked about the work that we've done on Route 1 to reduce crime, and obviously it's not perfect.

[01:54:18] And I said this to Dan Alexander, but we really ought to, and we're doing this a little bit, but we really ought to take what we've done on Route 1 and kind of replicate that in other areas across the county. And I know we have certain individuals within the police department that are looking to do that, but I want to make sure that this CSI can be the platform for us doing that because we were really successful there and still are.

[01:54:43] And so let's make sure we're taking the lessons learned from that to be in other places. And I'll also say, you know, I'm not sure how we plan to kind of do some of the storytelling, but let's make sure we're talking to some of the individuals in terms of their experiences in helping to clean up the corridor.

[01:55:02] I mean, even talking to individuals who have received services from the county that were previously homeless, talking to them. how did you get in the situation, how did we help, you know, what can we do better? So let's use our successes, too. Definitely appreciate, Supervisor Franklin, your experience so far with Community Safety Initiative and the positive feedback.

[01:55:27] I'll say that the advisory group is that. It's advisory, not appointed by the board for that reason. It's not a governance group. I'm happy to make sure that we have that discussion with the advisory committee and bring it back to the board so that we do a more complete and comprehensive presentation on where we are.

[01:55:51] I'm very proud of the work that's been done so far and how quickly the team has worked to pull together and keep informed. That said, with issues around homelessness and panhandling, which I know this office will take a role in as well, we are hoping to use this platform to do some of that.

[01:56:17] And I think if we could pull back out, if there isn't a thumbnail, there certainly will be on a number of these initiatives. And so maybe the office will be the next up in terms of a pullout where I bring the director up to give a presentation and give an update to the board.

[01:56:36] But that is the exact intent here, to be able to give real-time active updates on where we are with some initiative that is, if you will, above and beyond in terms of creating a public experience with our government that is positive.

[01:56:54] That's great. Yep. And the only thing I'll say as I end with the advisory group, you know, if there is someone who works with vulnerable communities, let's let them, you know, give not only the advice, but let's let them go out with the implementation and work alongside our county staff with those vulnerable communities because that's their background.

[01:57:13] So we obviously want to be safe with our advisory team and we don't want to get into any liability issues, but certainly let them do what their expertise allows them. I'll say you're absolutely right. Lived experience is a primary component of this work, both on the homeless services side as well as on the sort of public safety side.

[01:57:36] And so you're right. I also understand that the team is working on an RFP to have some assistance with the strategic planning piece. You asked about strategic planning and if the work is consistent with what we've committed to and a part of any strategy.

[01:57:54] And what I'll say is that the team is working on an RFP to help with a third party in terms of that conversation around strategy. Supervisor Vega. Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess I just want clarity because last time I had my one-on-one with the team, it was my understanding that the team was still making their rounds to other supervisors in terms of what all is going to be implemented and voted on by this board.

[01:58:22] Because when Elijah presented to us the first time, there were mixed feelings as to what some of us wanted, what some of us agreed with, disagreed on. And we haven't had, you know, to Margaret's Supervisor Franklin's point, we haven't had that additional follow-up as a board.

[01:58:39] Just want to make sure that we are not being removed from that process. Because when that happens, then things tend to fall through the cracks. Last night at our town hall, we were basically asked again to look at these challenges that we're having in the county holistically.

[01:58:57] We talk about panhandling, we talk about homelessness, but we're not talking about human trafficking. We're not talking about the other factors, major contributors to the problems and challenges that we're having that I would call these folks subject matter experts because that's their bread and butter. That's what they do, and we have to do that.

[01:59:14] And so, you know, I personally would like to see more of a follow-up in terms of, you know, what the team is doing, what we're going to end up voting on as a board. Because it was my understanding that recommendations were going to be made. Initially, recommendations were made.

[01:59:31] We had some dialogue here on the dais. The chair mentioned her interest in wanting to see the pilot program. Yes, Madam Chair. I don't recall if it was for six months or whatever time frame it was. but the point is that nothing was really set in stone. And I just want to make sure that decisions are not being made by staff without it being vetted by the board and formally voted on.

[01:59:53] Very good. Glad we're having this conversation. They will be next up. We'll have the team come and do something very similar to what Mandy and team just did. Partnerships and all to the board to have this conversation and to be clear about what the office will do as part of regular course versus what it will bring to the board in terms of decisions, strategic decisions about program.

[02:00:21] Thank you. Anything else? No, nothing else for me. Thank you, Madam Chair. All right, then we are going to move on to Agenda Item 8, County Attorney Time. Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the board.

[02:00:37] This afternoon for closed session, we will have consultation with legal counsel and briefings by staff members regarding legal advice and personnel discussion regarding the following pending internal audits on foster care compliance, food and beverage tax, Board of County Supervisors' Records Management and Social Media Governance recommended actions, and the American Rescue Plan calendar year 2023 subrecipient monitoring report, where discussion in an open meeting would adversely affect the litigating posture, bargaining position, or negotiating strategy of the public body.

[02:01:08] We will have consultation with legal counsel and briefings by staff members pertaining to actual or probable litigation with the related legal advice regarding possible legal claims in response to insulin overpricing, where consultation, briefing, or discussion in an open meeting would adversely affect the bargaining position, litigating posture, or negotiating strategy of the public body.

[02:01:29] And we will have consultation with legal counsel and briefings by staff members pertaining to the discussion or consideration of the acquisitions of real property for public purposes to include for public parks and other public uses, where discussion in an open meeting would adversely affect the bargaining position, litigating posture, or negotiating strategy of the public body.

[02:01:48] These items are appropriate for closed session pursuant to 2.2-3711A137 and 8 of the Virginia Code. So moved, Madam Chair. All right. Let's take a vote.

[02:02:09] Vote unanimous. All right. Thank you. We're now on to Agenda Item 9, Supervisor's Time. Before we go around the horn, I'd like to start with a motion for Resolutions 9A through 9K. All right. Any discussion?

[02:02:30] If not, let's vote. Vote unanimous. All right. Let's go around the horn. We're going to start with Supervisor. We are today. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll keep it brief.

[02:02:46] I'd just like to thank everybody for coming out to last night's town hall. It was an interesting discussion. I think we took a lot away from it. The only other thing I have is what I guess would be Directive No. 53. Without objection, I'd like to direct county staff to review the Bull Run Mountain Service District and recommend any changes that staff determines appropriate for the board's consideration.

[02:03:09] The county attorney's office is directed to review any staff-recommended changes for legal issues. County staff should provide us recommendations in a memo to the board and or presentation to the board at a future meeting as staff determines appropriate. And that's all I have, Madam Chair. All right, we'll go on to Supervisor Bode.

[02:03:29] Thank you, Madam Chair. I don't have anything. Good evening, everyone else. Supervisor Angry. Well, let me just start by saying congratulations to the ladies. Soilham Cup. We brought it back to USA. And, you know, Mr. Short already said it, so it's a whole list of folks, but you all know who you are.

[02:03:51] Thank you, staff, for what you did to put on the most spectacular event that Robert Trent Jones in the Gainesville District, in Prince Irm County, in the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States of America, that brought over everything from...

[02:04:07] Oh, Princeville? I thought that was Gainesville. Wow. I could have smoked Gainesville. Princeville. My bad. Thank you for that clarification. I'll get out for you, Gordy. Okay. Good luck in Princeton County. And the list goes on. But anyway, I just want to thank all of the team for that work. If you saw that, it was pretty amazing.

[02:04:24] It was flawless. Last thing, there was one hiccup on the buses I just want to mention. So I want to publicly thank our school systems with the school buses, and I want to thank OmniRide for providing buses and making that happen. After that, transportation was flawless. I believe the event was a major success, and I just want to thank all that were involved.

[02:04:42] Again, congratulations. And to Robert Trent Jones for hosting that. I want to just make us aware as a board that October 8th and Mrs. Schroeder sent, you know, an email to the board about the Virginia Association and the Drug Supply Chain Security Act, which is going to have some significant, serious impacts to all of the Commonwealth for Virginia.

[02:05:04] Now, there are localities such as Prince William County, Fairfax, Loudoun, that really can do this. We're going to be potentially approving, and our hands are tied in this, $2.1 million to basically stand up this facility that, bottom line, the hospitals are getting out of the drug business for our first responders, our EMS, and all our providers.

[02:05:24] We're going to have to take on that burden for ourselves. He sent the emails, the $2.1 million initial build out of all that with like an $800,000, potentially a million dollar ongoing expense. My fear is the rest of the locality that can't do what we can do.

[02:05:40] So, you know, I'm just urging us to take a look at this. Vaco has sent a letter, you know, we're basically supporting all 95 localities with how this should be looked at and addressed more so that we don't have to, you know, pull the go switch on this. But I do want to thank Mr. Schroeder and staff and, you know, Chief LaBelle for getting us ready in the event that this should happen.

[02:06:03] The date, the drop date date is November 27th, folks. Our next meeting is October 8th. So we really need to be discussing how we're going to, in that time frame, really have a say with every county and locality on how we need to put a pause on this and figure out a better solution.

[02:06:22] Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair. Yes. I just want to clarify, Supervisor Angry, thank you so much for the positive feedback and the compliments related to Solheim in terms of buses.

[02:06:39] So we were prepared on Friday morning to stand up the county's operation. And, yes, I personally reached out, and we were prepared to start to provide for some support for the transportation. We did not ultimately provide any additional support to LPGA.

[02:06:58] LPGA ordered the additional buses, they got the charter buses, and they turned around the transportation situation very quickly on Friday. So no school buses and no OmniRide buses were used. Thank you for that clarification.

[02:07:17] Saw some buses. Supervisor Gordy, you can talk about the buses. So I did see the buses. I saw OmniRide. I saw four of them in a row coming in. I did see some Prince William County school buses there. So somewhere along the line, they were there. I don't know what the arrangement was.

[02:07:34] But piggyback, I am going to name names because I think this was a monumental lift by many different departments in Prince William County and within our community. And so I first want to thank our economic development and tourism.

[02:07:50] I mean, they shouldered the heavy lift on this. Christina Wynn and her team did a phenomenal job. Mandy Spina and her team, development services, there was a lot of equipment that had to be installed out there, required permitting and inspections, and everything went up on time and inspected accordingly, a huge accomplishment there.

[02:08:14] Security, our police, and Manassas police, thank you for all the extra time, the extra work that was put in to ensure that everyone was safe and secure. Our fire and rescue teams as well. Our emergency management, our public safety communications, all playing critical roles here.

[02:08:34] Our office of communications for the county. We did have to do one, a planning issue with the proffer amendment related to the hotel on site. So thank you to our planning department who facilitated getting that taken care of.

[02:08:54] That was a huge success, having that hotel on site. I have on my list OmniRide and Prince William County for the buses, so we'll just take it. Mr. John Coleman and the Robert Trent Jones Board of Directors, as well as the staff of Robert Trent Jones, fantastic hosts, beautiful golf course, beautiful job, and then the LPGA for all the work.

[02:09:22] They had people here for two years working on site, helping to get this together, so kudos to them and a great job. I want to thank Jiffy Lube for being a great partner and helping with the parking. There were 1,600 volunteers from almost every state and from many nations that were here.

[02:09:43] And then I also want to thank the residents of Lake Manassas who endured this in their backyard. Thank you for your graciousness, for your patience, and for being such great hosts for this event. And then one of the last things, there was a Virginia Women's Leadership Forum with eight national women site selectors.

[02:10:06] These are business site selectors that go out and look for sites for businesses to expand. They were all here on Thursday night, and that was in partnership with the Virginia Economic Development as well as the Northern Virginia Economic Development. And so thank you for that partnership and helping bring those folks here to Prince William County.

[02:10:24] And hopefully there'll be some fruits coming from all of that labor. So, again, great success on Solheim, and thank you to everyone who did such a phenomenal job. A couple of other announcements. On Thursday, we were scheduled to do the ribbon-cutting for the interchange of the University Boulevard and Prince William County Parkway.

[02:10:48] Unfortunately, that has been delayed. We are hearing it will be sometime in October, so I just want to make sure the community is aware that that will be delayed due to some unforeseen issues related with working with VDOT and Prince William Water. As Supervisor Weir said last night, great town hall, a lot of great input from the community.

[02:11:12] And so we look forward to continue to partner with the communities related to affordable housing and community safety. And then last Thursday, the groundbreaking for the ATCC expansion at Innovation Park with Governor Yunkin.

[02:11:30] This was a great announcement, 75 new jobs, millions of dollars of new investment in Prince William County, and with the opportunity to grow that even further in the future. And the last thing I just want to announce is that on October the 13th, we will be having the Brentsville Fall Bash.

[02:11:50] This is being coordinated by my office. It will be at the Burnside Farm in Noakesville from 2 to 6 p.m. everyone is invited to come out and join us to celebrate the farms the food and the small businesses of the Brentsville district and so look forward to having you there and you'll be seeing more announcements coming out very quickly and then lastly I just want to offer a speedy recovery to our colleague supervisor Andrea Franklin or Andrea Bailey Bailey sorry Andrea supervisor franklin hey there's 40

[02:12:30] well i guess i'll start with solheim and i'm not gonna go into it because i i think we we talked a lot but i actually want to thank our county exec for kind of leading this charge i remember i think i was vice chair at the time when the idea of solheim was brought to us and we had a meeting about that and thinking now how are we going to do solheim in gainesville it's going to be interesting But it was quite the success, and it was Mr. Shorter that kind of led the effort there.

[02:13:05] I also do want to point out Christina Wynn, because sometimes I feel like she doesn't get enough credit, but I really think that we have the best economic development director in the Commonwealth. I mean, that is absolutely the case. The fact that Solheim even thought about coming to Prince William is incredible.

[02:13:23] And I'll tell you, we didn't have these opportunities before Christina came on board. So thank you to all the work that she and her team did. Supervisor Gordy mentioned about our permitting process. We saw how well it did work, and so we know that it can. And so I want to thank Mandy and Wade and their team.

[02:13:41] And so thank you to our planners and really just county staff for helping us to get off the ground. A lot of people thank the state for their work in it, and that's great. We thank the state as well. But I want to thank the county because it was because of us that we were able to set that up.

[02:13:56] You talked about public safety. Without our local resources, we would not have been able to have a successful SOHIM. So thank you, Mr. Shorter, to you and your team. Just a couple of things. A recent event, Senator Jennifer Carroll-Foy and I hosted a meeting on Wednesday, September 11th, with labor leaders from Northern Virginia to discuss their key labor priorities.

[02:14:18] And so, we had a pretty productive meeting, about 20 people, looking forward to continuing those discussions more regularly. On Thursday, September 12th, I participated in the groundbreaking ceremony for ATCC and Innovation Park alongside Governor Yunkin and my colleagues here on the board.

[02:14:34] This cutting-edge facility keeps Prince William at the forefront of our biotech industry. Again, another product of our economic development team. On Thursday, I also participated, as I mentioned, in Solheim, had a great time there. And on the 13th, my team participated in Recovery Rocks, Rise, Recover, Rock One Together, which is a Prince William County Community Services community event at the Furlazo Building.

[02:14:59] And on the 14th, I participated in the Chili Cook-Off and Fall Festival at Stonebridge Town Center. I want to thank everyone who came out and for all the participants. I had a lot of chili, but it was very good, and so I always look forward to that each year. Upcoming event, September 28th, our dumpster day at Ripon Middle from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m.

[02:15:16] And October 12th, our Woodbridge District Community Fund Day from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. That is rescheduled, if you all remember the earlier time, and we will actually provide that location very soon. A couple of shout-outs I want to give to our school system, particularly Freedom High School.

[02:15:35] The metrics have come out, and they have increased their graduation rate by 8%, decreasing their dropout rates by 8.9%. they increased their writing sol scores by seven percent and chronic absenteeism is down by ten percent so want to thank freedom high school for all the work that they've done i've been a firm partner and supporter of there since i got on this board and they are really doing the work to make sure that our kids are well prepared to go out into the community so thank you to

[02:16:09] Lori Williams and the work that she does on the school board, and to Dr. McDade for her leadership. She's been named the top superintendent, and now we know why, and so just want to thank our school system and hope that we can continue our close partnership, so thank you. Supervisor Vega. Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to start off with just thanking county staff. I know that everybody's kind of talked about Solheim. I just want to highlight on the fact that when challenges were presented the county was more than capable to handle those challenges even though the

[02:16:43] responsibility didn't fall on our shoulders we heard the call and we have people that answered the call and for that it made the event that much more successful in my opinion so it just goes to speak to the folks that we have here in Prince William County and certainly want to say thank you to those confusing at Brentsville and Gainesville at least you didn't say Gainesville Georgia you all know what I'm talking about and on that note I want to go ahead and also thank county staff for the beautiful 9-11 ceremony that they put on this past week it's always a moment to reflect and to remember the events that unfolded in our nation's history on 9-11 and so

[02:17:23] it's truly a moment to come together and to reflect and I thought that it was beautifully done and I hope that moving forward we can continue to have it where it was held this year I just felt like it was more special more personal and so um thank you to the folks that put that on i also attended the groundbreaking ceremony really excited about the things that are happening in prince william county i wish that they were happening in the coals district but i'm not a hater so if it's happening in y'all's district i'm happy for you guys i'm going to keep showing up to your ribbon cutting ceremonies um upcoming events i just want to remind folks that we have the coat drive uh on november 2nd so if you know of a child that is in need of a coat please reach

[02:18:00] out to my office no later than October 25th we certainly need to know the number of jackets that you're going to be needing and the size lastly madam chair I want to go ahead and issue a directive I certainly do appreciate the heart that this board has for members of our vulnerable communities if you will here in Prince William County we certainly saw this board come together with the tax break that we just gave this organization out of is it hay market Bob yes Okay. Wounded Warriors. And I've been speaking with other constituents and certainly talking about the difficulties that they're having with affording the bare necessities of life. And so

[02:18:40] with that, I would like to issue the following directive without objection. I would like to request a comprehensive analysis of the potential implementation of a tax break for formally documented terminally ill residents in Prince William County. I know that this is something that the IRS already does, but if you've ever had a loved one or know somebody that is going through something as a terminal disease, if you will, it could be very challenging with the additional stressors added to making it to doctor's appointments, the cost of medicine, treatment

[02:19:15] that is not covered by insurance. I think that we owe it to them and to their families that are doing their very best with carts that they've been dealt with to look into this. So with that, Madam Chair, I don't hear any objections. Great, that's all I have. All right, thank you, everyone.

[02:19:32] I did want to just echo all our previous comments made. I mean, last week, Thursday, was a good day. It was a good day in the Brentsville District because we had a chance to do the groundbreaking with the governor for ATCC and then also go to the Solheim Cup.

[02:19:50] I mean, these are, I just want to speak for a minute on ATCC. That's the type of business we want, that we want innovation. We've got to make sure that we continue to cultivate those types of businesses and attract those types of businesses. And with Solheim Cup, I mean, what a wonderful way to showcase Prince William County.

[02:20:10] Robert Trent Jones is a beautiful facility. And Mr. Shorter, you and your team, I know you guys had a lot on your plate. And then, of course, we're bothering you with other things, you know. So thank you so very much for your graciousness, your sense of humor. You know, I hope that you and Christina Wynn, Wade-Hugh, everyone involved, Nikki Brown, I hope all of you guys got a really good chance to sleep.

[02:20:34] Probably not this weekend, obviously, but next weekend, you all deserve some well, you all have earned some well-deserved rest. I just want to note, October 19th is Local Government Day. My staff and I are going to start putting out information. It's from middle schoolers, 6th to 8th graders, introducing them to local government, and And hopefully, you know, again, we'll have more information coming out.

[02:20:58] It's going to be right here at the McCourt Center. And I think it's going to be a lot of fun, at least a lot of fun for, you know, the kids who like local government, student government and all that, maybe. But again, it's a way to, a lot of people don't realize what local government is, what it encompasses.

[02:21:14] And I know we have different internships, but I really want to expose more people to who we are and what we do. And I feel like middle school is a great time when kids are starting to think about their careers, starting to think about their options. and so that's why it's directed to them. The other thing I want to note is directives. I spoke with team staff. If people have directives, if you can work with staff so staff can help you get the messaging right, but also so that they know what you're looking for and they're in a better position to help execute directives a little bit more sooner. So that was passed on to me and so I want to make sure that I pass it on to the supervisors. You know,

[02:21:54] I encourage everyone to work with our talented staff and with that we are good until the seven

[02:22:00] o'clock meeting let's move now to closed session thank you closed session certified madam chair

[02:23:40] all right let's take a vote vote unanimous all right now we have a coming things a couple things to report out three madam chair I would move that we authorize the county attorney to execute a retainer agreement and any other necessary and or appropriate documents with outside legal counsel

[02:24:18] and authorize outside legal counsel to pursue litigation against the parties that outside legal counsel determines to be responsible for insulin overpricing. Second. All right.

[02:24:33] Any comments? If not, let's take a vote. Vote unanimous. All right. The next item to report out. Madam Chair, I move that the Board of County Supervisors do hereby accept as final the internal audit reports on foster care compliance, food and beverage tax, BOCS records management, social media governance, recommended actions, and American Rescue Plan at calendar year 2023 sub-recipient monitoring report with the finalized non-confidential reports to be made available to the public.

[02:25:12] Second. All right, I think there's any discussion. Let's take a vote. Vote unanimous. And then I believe you have a directive, Mr. Cordy. Yes, Madam Chair. Without objection, I'd like to direct the county staff to bring to the board a resolution to initiate a zoning map amendment to rezone GPIN 7594-TAC-98-TAC-1801, 7694-TAC-07-TAC-4561, 7694-TAC-17-TAC-0735,

[02:25:48] and 7594-TAC-96-TAC-8530 from PBD, Planned Business District, to A1 Agricultural to help facilitate recordation of a historic preservation easement on these properties. County staff should work with the chair to schedule this resolution for board consideration at a future board meeting.

[02:26:11] And I'll do, sorry, we need a second. That's a directive. I was kidding. Right. All right. Anything else? I think that's it. So thank you, everyone.

[02:26:28] It is 518. We are going to be in recess until 7 o'clock. Thank you.

[02:27:33] We are resuming for evening session. We are going to start with 11A. That's a public hearing. um so i want to make sure let's see if i have any signups oh yeah i'm sorry presentation i'm

[02:27:52] just i'm not feeling well y'all all right good evening chair jefferson and members of the board my name is jonelle cameron with walsh koluchy lubali and walsh i'm here tonight on behalf of the applicants sinva05a llc and sinva05b llc with me tonight with the applicants are steve green

[02:28:31] Jeff Piranha and John Smith. I have our civil engineer team here with Gordon Engineers. I also have our traffic consultants as well as our environmental consultants and an archaeologist in case there are any questions that you all have. We are seeking a proffer amendment and rezoning to better align the approved proffers with the proposed data center uses, specifically to increase the FAR, amend the transportation phasing, increase the height to align with the height permitted in the TIOD and rezoned three of the parcels from A1 to PBD. The property is located

[02:29:09] on the corner of Wellington Road and Freedom Center Boulevard. It is approximately 37.4 acres in size. The property is currently zoned PBD Planned Business District and A1 Agricultural. Data centers are permitted under the existing proffers on the PBD zoned property. The property is comprehensively planned, I-3 industrial. It is also located within the Technology Overlay District, and that sub-district designations are HO, Higher Education Office, Research and

[02:29:43] Development, and EO, Employment Center Office, Research and Development. Data centers are considered primary uses in the I-3 comp plan designations. This slide is a contextual exhibit to show you what is in the surrounding area. To the north here and here are recently approved data centers. To the west is a single-family home here and the western district police station here.

[02:30:11] To the south is a data center in this area in here. To the east is the Rixlew substation in this area in here and then a secured government facility in this area in here. The proposal seeks to allow a maximum FAR of 0.5 and a maximum building height of 85 feet, which is inclusive of rooftop mechanical equipment and screening walls. There is an exception for the elevator overrides. This slide is a zoom in of the proposal. The proposal again is to allow for 814,777 square feet of building

[02:30:49] square footage. The building to the south, this building here, is currently constructed. As part of this proposal, the applicant is seeking a 15-foot buffer in this area in here. This was a modification of the original approved rezoning and is part of the site plan for NVA 05A. The applicant is also proposing 50-foot buffers along the western property line. Those 50-foot buffers do allow for modifications as well. One is to allow for a 20-foot overlap and a utility easement.

[02:31:24] However, that is in this area in here, and the applicant is still planning to plant the plant units that are required for a 50-foot buffer, and there's a minor encroachment in this buffer area in here to allow for a truck turnaround.

[02:31:41] Along Wellington Road, the applicant is providing for a 50-foot buffer. Sorry, primary access will be from Freedom Center Boulevard in this area here and here, with emergency access being proposed from Wellington Road here.

[02:31:59] The applicant is also providing right-of-way dedication in the area that you see in blue here. From a transportation perspective, the applicant is proposing the same transportation improvements that were previously approved with the PBD rezoning.

[02:32:16] The only difference is the phasing has changed, so Phase A with the previous rezoning was Phase B, and Phase B was Phase A. The DCSM allows for encroachments into RPA for roads and travel ways.

[02:32:32] The applicant is proposing minor encroachments with this rezoning area and this area here and here that you see in white. That's about 0.3 acres of impact of the RPA, but it's only a total of less than 2% of the total RPA impact.

[02:32:51] To offset this impact, the applicant has gone above and beyond in its mitigation measures. In addition to proffering the required water quality impact and assessment, the applicant has created an RPA encroachment exhibit that shows 7.5 acres of supplemental planting areas, which are these light green areas in here throughout the site, and then also 3.34 acres of reforestation areas, which are these dark green areas in this area in here.

[02:33:21] They're proposing about a half acre of potential pollinator meadows through the gas line easement in this area in here, and they're also proposing the creation of wetland banks, which are in these areas here and this area in here. Sorry, this area here and then these areas here and here.

[02:33:42] This shows the existing RPA are the smaller areas that you see in the right. As you can see, the existing RPA doesn't have a lot of plantings, and it also has a lot of invasive species, So as part of the proposal, the applicant will also be removing those invasive species as they're doing that replanting.

[02:34:02] This slide shows the building elevations for NVA 05A. This slide shows the building elevations for NVA 05B. The applicant has proffered to include three of the five design elements set forth in the design guidelines that are in the data center overlay district.

[02:34:19] The applicant has also proffered that any new data center building will be in general conformance with these illustrative elevations that you see on the screen. And then in the next few slides, we wanted to do some line of sight exhibits for you all to be able to see what visually you would see from both Wellington Road and Freedom Center Boulevard.

[02:34:39] And what we did was initial planting five years and 10 years. So this is the view from Wellington Road here, and this is the initial planting, this is the five-year planting, and this is the 10-year planting. This is at the intersection of Wellington Road and Freedom Center Boulevard. So again, initial planting, five years, 10 years, and then this is on Freedom Center Boulevard with the initial planting, five year, 10 year. The applicant has proffered several cultural resource items. These can be found in proffers 15 through 19.

[02:35:14] The applicant has proffered to construct an on-site historical trail, which is the trail that you see in purple that goes here and here and here along the frontage of the property. The trail will include signage and or other historical features such as monuments or markers that create a historical interpretation of African history along this corridor, which includes the history of the Manassas Colored Horse Show, Manassas Horse Show and Fair Association, and specific historical African Americans in the area.

[02:35:48] The applicant proffered to plan the trail signage and historical features in consultation with the Planning Office, Department of Recreation, and the Prince William County Historical Commission. In addition, the applicant proffered to prepare an oral history report and a GIS storybook that will present the history found in the cultural investigation reports that were conducted on the property and the oral history.

[02:36:13] That GIS storybook will be available on a county website. site. Both of these reports are also to be planned in accordance with the planning office, Department of Recreation, and the Prince William County Historical Commission. The applicant also proffered to have an on-site archaeologist to monitor during grading activities on the site.

[02:36:38] And that concludes my presentation with a positive staff report and recommendation of approval from the planning commission. We request that the board also approve this application and I can answer any questions that you all may have all right before we go into the staff report is there any are there any questions for miss cameron supervisor weir just out of curiosity in the proffers you have a an annexation proffer with city manassas it basically says we would not

[02:37:13] annex if the city of manassas asked it's an old carry current moratorium that's been in place for how many years why is this necessary so you can actually do an agreement to annex without it being outside of that moratorium but it is a stand it's a leftover proper specifically from the usta and that was left over from ibm but if you would like us to strike it we can you can leave it in there but given the status of the general assembly and moratoriums on city annexations that's now going

[02:37:52] 25 years and probably will never end i just sort of question the utility of it but all right thank you doesn't look like there is anyone else gordon um so thank you for the presentation um let's go a little deeper into cultural resources because going back to the planning commission um and even working with the historical commission this has been um the source of a lot of discussions um and

[02:38:28] lot of hard work on a lot of good people to try to get to the right place on this. So coming out of the Planning Commission, can you speak to what you were seeking to accomplish from proffers coming out of the Planning Commission? Absolutely, and if you don't mind, I do have a brief presentation because I don't know if all of your board members, just to specifically walk through the Manassas Colored Horse Show and how this came out of the Planning Commission, but I'll walk through the history if you don't mind and then I can circle back to that. So the Manassas. I'm

[02:39:05] sure if you'll just give us some levity on time. Is that okay? Thank you so much. So the Manassas Colored Horse Show and this is the best. So this is Wellington Road. The property is sort of this area in here. So we at the Planning Commission public hearing it was deferred the first Planning Commission public hearing to do additional research regarding the Colored Horse Show.

[02:39:29] And the history behind the colored horse show is that African Americans were originally allowed to ride in the white horse show, and then they were told they couldn't ride, so they created their own horse show. And what we were able to do is we had that information, but between the planning commission and the board, our historian, because our client wouldn't let them give up, after going to the library three times in the relic room, they were told, you should check the Manassas Museum.

[02:39:58] So in the Manassas Museum, we were able to find additional information regarding the colored horse show. And based on the archaeology that was done on the site, so the applicant did a phase one. The applicant also did a metal detection on the site.

[02:40:15] They were unable to find any archaeology that linked to the colored horse show or to grandstands on the site. But what the applicant is trying to do by these proffers is preserve the actual history. So part of that is to make sure that the history can be told and it can be available to the public.

[02:40:34] So I can just briefly just run through with you some of these slides. I promise I know I'm the only thing on the agenda, but we have people signed up. So I can go super quick for you all. But the earliest evidence of the Manassas Colored Horse Show dates to 1906.

[02:40:53] Prior to 1931, there was limited information. However, the minute books really ramped up between 1927 and 1950. So in 1927, the primary focus of the activity was north of Wellington Road, where the grandstand, the show ring, and Shady Grove were north of Wellington Road, and then the flat track was south of Wellington Road.

[02:41:20] In 1931, the lease terms were highlighted for the racetrack field to the south, And there were discussions of moving the building and other equipment to the south of the property where the racetrack is located. However, they only received one bid and put moving the buildings on hold until 1931.

[02:41:41] And then we were able to find in the minute books, and as you see, they are very gentle, so you have to look at them with white gloves. There's information that talks about the price of admissions, the carnivals that were held. In 1936, there were discussions about repairs to the show ring fence, the racetrack, and replace roof on the best parts of the stable.

[02:42:02] And then in 1937, there was a failed motion to move the show plant to the racetrack side of the road. In 1938, the Washington Times discusses a new grandstand being built, but there's no evidence of where that grandstand was built.

[02:42:18] But based on aerials, it's not shown south of Wellington Road, which is where this property is located. In 1940, the Gaskins leased, and the Gaskins owned this property, their lease was renewed for the last time, and the association began considering leasing or purchasing a new site that was on Godfrey Farm at the crossing of the Southern Railway tracks on Route 28.

[02:42:43] And then October 30, 1940, the association voted to lease the Godfrey site for the future association events. And then this is the site here, and then the new site, the Godfrey site, was this area in here.

[02:43:00] In 1941, the horse show name changed, and then Frank Gaskins purchased the skeleton of the old grandstand and dancing pavilions. The removal and the relocation, so all of the items that, again, were north of Wellington Road, those were moved south to the new horse show.

[02:43:22] And then these are minutes from the final meetings that were recorded in 1950, and this is a 1949 aerial that shows the property was then farmed. There's no record of the actual horse ring being there anymore. And then we have other aerials that just don't show the grandstands.

[02:43:42] And this is important because the Historical Commission, one of their recommendations was, can you do a phase two on the grandstands? And based on all of the information that we have, we're unable to do, there's no evidence, and there's nothing really to do a phase two on, that the grandstands were south of Wellington Road.

[02:43:59] But what we have done, in addition to the oral history, the ArcGIS, the trail that will have signage, monuments, we also agreed, and there's a proffer, that there will be an on-site archaeologist. We proffered a minimum of two during grading activities.

[02:44:18] So in the event, during grading, there is an anomaly, that archaeologist will stop work, contact the county archaeologist, and they will discuss a scope on next steps to ensure that if there was something there, it would be preserved or recorded accordingly.

[02:44:38] Thank you. So coming out of the Planning Commission, you had one set of proffers, and I think one of the proffers was associated to purchasing some land for an interpretive center. But unfortunately, the way the proffer laws are written, the things that, I mean, we cannot ask you, All proffers are voluntary.

[02:45:05] We cannot force you to go buy property in order to approve this project. So the applicant came forward with a willingness to pay $1.55 million, correct?

[02:45:23] Correct. To the county to meet the intent and to allow the county to go and purchase the site and perform the things that were being desired. However, once again, the law has gotten away, and we cannot ask for that proffer.

[02:45:45] So what we have before us within the proffer statement is what has been determined to try to meet the intent of the Historical Commission.

[02:46:04] And so one of the things that has been brought to my attention is the concern related to the consultant that is hired to prepare the ArcGIS online. Can you speak to, do you already have a consultant hired, and how do you determine that they are the best qualified for this type of project?

[02:46:26] We have a consultant hired who is highly respected in this field, who has worked with the county on numerous occasions. And to be clear, they are hired to do the work, but the work is proffered to be done in consultation with the county archaeologist.

[02:46:44] the county's historical commission and parks and rec and so what that means is our consultant can't just say i'm doing x y and z and only x y and z it's designed to be a collaborative approach and which we're consulting and planning these things not only the arc gis but also the oral history and the trail and associated signage and monuments in consultation with those three groups Thank you. Madam Chair, I just want to go on the record and say the proffers that we have before us related to the trail were my idea. The applicant has not tried to back out of any requirements

[02:47:23] that have been imposed by, that were offered, or rather proposed by the Historical Commission or by the Planning Commission. The challenge we have before us is we have law, and we have to follow the law. And the proffers that were being demanded from earlier conversations were not legally enforceable all proffers are voluntary and there has to be a nexus to the project so we got had to go to plan c what could we do how could we meet the intent of what the historical

[02:48:00] commission has asked for and what the planning commission has asked for and given the fact that as we saw the history along wellington road and remember there are other two two cemeteries within proximity of this location going from Wellington and Sudley Manor all the way to you have the cemetery next that little triangle next to the Rixlew substation there's a cemetery there a Gaskins Family Cemetery and then again the horse show moved to the corner of Godwin and Wellington Road so the opportunity to instead of having a single place you literally could walk

[02:48:39] to the locations and experience the history at those locations and it could be something that be tied in with the Freedom Center as well and working and I've even had a conversation yesterday with my one of Marian Dobbins who's a actually a professor at George Mason University for African American history and she talked about how we can tie George Mason's history into this project. So what we have in the proffers tonight doesn't mean this project is said and done. We still have a lot more work to do. This history must be told. And it is a great history because

[02:49:19] if you take a look at this area, this is now innovation. But the innovation didn't start with George Mason University. It started with the Gaskins family. Because when they were told no, they said, oh yeah, we're going to go anyway. And they didn't just build a track, build a horse, and their family members are here tonight representing their family. But what they showed is that innovation and creativity and if you look at the stories in the papers and the advertisements and in the promotional packaging for what took place you saw a something that continued to grow

[02:49:58] provide more entertainment reach more people and and and literally set the tone for innovation and so I believe it sets the story for what the future of this area holds related to the innovation district which we'll be coming to you and talking to you about uh here in a couple of months um but that history didn't start with george mason it started with the gaskins family going back to the early 1800s if not even further back than that and uh and so this is a story that must be told

[02:50:31] uh and we're going to tell that story uh and so not only in in in in um in proper 19 will the planning office be involved the department of parks and recs and their historical folks uh the in the historical commission but i'm also going to be part of that and i hope we can also have the gaskins family come along with us and help us and especially with the oral history we have what's on paper but we need the oral history as well and we need to pull all this together to make sure that this history is told correctly and um and i've been i've had numerous and let me just

[02:51:05] say this as well. The first person I heard about the horse show from was Steve Green. I told it to Miss Dobbins and said, go find out more about this. She's my historical commissioner. Stack has already spent $300,000 on this history and is still willing to spend another a million and a half to help tell the story. So I think there's been some statements and accusations made that

[02:51:45] unfounded because of misinformation and disinformation. But I know the story. I know how this came about. And so I'm resting on what I know to be true. And so I've had more conversations about this case than I've had about any other single case in the past three years of me serving as a planning commissioner or as a board member. And it has all been about how do we get this history told. But it started with the conversation that they voluntarily told me about.

[02:52:17] So, Madam Chair, that's all I have to say for now. I look forward to the information coming from the staff. Thank you. Supervisor Franklin? Sure, yes, thank you. And thank you to the applicant, and thank you for, Supervisor Gordy, your comments and your work on this.

[02:52:33] I do want to point out, and I don't see Seth here, a couple of years ago I issued a directive with regards to preserving African-American history here in the county, And I do think that with part of our land use cases, even if it's coming from the private sector, we should incorporate that as part of the work that we're doing with the county.

[02:52:54] So I would like for us to kind of note that. And I'm looking at our planners in the front and making sure that we can incorporate that as part of our overall process of telling the county's history, particularly as it relates to African-American history. The other thing I just want to point out more specifically is Ms. Cameron noted kind of the work that we're doing with regards to preserving the Gaskin family history and Supervisor Gordy has done a good job of outlining that as well.

[02:53:22] I just want to kind of make that a little bit more clear for the public in terms of what we're doing. So along the trail, the applicant should provide signage and or historical features that creates a historical interpretation of African-American history along the corridor, including but not limited to the history of the Manassas Color Horse Show, Manassas Horse Show and Fair Association, and specific historical African-Americans with association in the area.

[02:53:48] The applicant is proffered to hire a consultant, as we've discussed, to create an oral history report regarding African-American history along the corridor, including but not limited to the history of the Manassas Color Horse Show, as we just mentioned, the horse show and fair association and specific historical African-Americans with associations in the area.

[02:54:08] The oral history shall be planned in consultation with the planning office, the Department of Parks and Recs, as well as the Prince William County Historical Commission. So this is a commitment that the applicant has made in terms of telling this particular history, and I am particularly excited about it because any way that we can get this history done and tell the stories that we haven't heard before or don't know as much about, I think is a win-win.

[02:54:35] So thank you, Supervisor Gordy, for the work that you've done on this. Let's continue to work on these issues together, and thank you to the applicant for making sure that this was an integral part of your application. Supervisor, I agree. I'm going to pull myself.

[02:54:52] We still got a ways to go. I'll come back at the end and chime in. I got some comments, but I'll save them for later. All right, anyone else? All right, then, let's have the county staff come up. Thank you.

[02:55:15] Good evening, Chair Jefferson. Supervisors, my name is Alex Venegas from the planning office, and I'm the case planner for the NVA 05A and B proffer amendment and rezoning.

[02:55:38] So this is a request to amend the original proffers associated with the rezoning point 2006-0052 and 2008-00154 so that the intent was to better align with the approved proffers for the opportunity for a data center use on this property.

[02:56:00] They're also asking for an increase in the permitted FAR, FAR floor area ratio, as well the height requirements the the rezoning involves these three parcels here and the rest of it the property is zoned pbd planned business district and they're also asking for development waivers and modifications and some of those are related to the interpretive trail that we that the applicant has proffered to the location again is along freedom center and near the intersection of

[02:56:38] Wellington Road with frontage on Wellington Road as well and staff is recommending approval. The long-range land use is industrial tech flex which is consistent with the data center use. It's also in the Innovation Park small area plan. The majority of the property is PBD related to the proffer amendment and the A1 is the three parcels that are intended to be rezoned as you can see all around the i3 is additional i3 some of them related to data centers

[02:57:15] in the south qts is over here we have an approved substation located on this property property the rick's loop substation we had a proper i mean a public facility review at the planning commission that was approved for this substation over on this side on the the east side of the property we do have another application in it's for nva05c so this shows the the limits of disturbance

[02:57:50] associated with the project there's two points of ingress egress along freedom center road one for the land bay a which is down here and then land bay b will also have ingress egress through freedom center road there will be an emergency ingress and egress off of wellington this shows the buffers associated with and some of the setbacks associated with the application this is an existing building that has a site planned approved for and they've already

[02:58:27] undergoing construction. So, you know, the situation is that they can build a data center on this property. They're just asking for additional height and FAR to accommodate the data center for the land baby.

[02:58:44] This is the transportation plan showing the turn lanes and cross-section of the Wellington, I'm sorry, the Freedom Center Boulevard. They did provide us illustratives. This is for the new building.

[02:59:01] They've already gotten an approved site plan for Land Bay A. This is for Land Bay B. And we did have some discussion on the RPA. We did work with the applicant as well as our environmental division and Supervisor Gordy's office to try to maintain the integrity of the RPA.

[02:59:21] They are including reforestation, which is you know will help with the overall project and and protect the Cannon branch tributary whoops, sorry and staff is recommending approval as proffered the proposed site layout is a plan development with the access improvements associated with this landscape screening mitigation contingency setback provisions

[02:59:53] So it's also in the data center opportunity overlay, and it's consistent and compatible with existing zoning around it, as well as the comprehensive plan designation. And we really worked with the applicant and Supervisor Gordy's office to make sure that the proffers, the voluntary proffers, met the needs of the intent of what we were trying to do to capture the cultural resources associated with that area.

[03:00:25] And with that, we'll gladly take any questions. All right. Thank you so very much. Supervisor Bode. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Alex, for the presentation and all the work you've been doing with the various stakeholders, including Supervisor Gordy's office on this case. I know especially between Planning Commission and now, there's been a lot of movement, so I wanted to lift that up for you and thank you for your work on that.

[03:00:48] First question, and you touched upon it a little bit, but if you can go back to the zoning and the land use on it. Like you said, this is already zoned PBD. That is correct. it's in the data center opportunity overlay district and it's already i3 so they could do buy right data center right now if they wanted to right uh that is correct but i just need to caveat that with uh they have three parcels that are a1 that they are rezoning as part of this application but you are correct within you know within the pbd they can build a data center and

[03:01:25] if they had done that route we wouldn't be able to get any of the proffers that they're asking that is correct as well so all the all the great uh historical aspects of the environmental all of that we wouldn't even be having this conversation if they just went by right correct that is correct okay thank you just wanted to establish that because folks still need to understand what we're looking at here in terms of what was possible if we weren't going through this this proper amendment and rezoning right now so thank you for that number two um can you talk about the evolution of the work around the rpas and where they start at the beginning of this process and where we are now where they're only touching a little bit of it yes uh supervisor

[03:02:04] bode uh originally um they did have some encroachment uh more significant encroachment uh but uh we had conversations with clay morris uh julie flanagan as well as uh supervisor gordy's office we met with the applicant and uh we tried to come up with uh ways to improve this to minimize Actually, they actually suggested to pull back out of the RPA to minimize the impact, and then they also offered the reforestation through certain areas throughout the RPA,

[03:02:41] which is an enhancement to what's existing there now today. Appreciate that. Thank you, Alex. Thank you, Madam Chair. Supervisor Weir. Thank you, Madam Chair. Going back to the A1 parcels, I'm going to ask for an opinion, not a fact, but I'm going to presume that if the A-1 parcels were left out of the equation, the development of the remaining PBD, given its shape and RPA encroachments, would be difficult, if not impossible, to develop without the A-1 parcels?

[03:03:20] So the answer to that question is they could build a smaller... You're correct that it wouldn't be what they can do with this approved, But they could put smaller data centers in areas close to, but with that being residential, there would be additional proffers that we would need, or they couldn't build it to the extent that they could with this proffer amendment and rezoning.

[03:03:50] Secondly, has the planning department looked at where the power is going to come from and what capacity there is? I'm presuming it's being drawn from the substation? To the best of my knowledge, yes, it's being provided by the Richardson.

[03:04:07] Has there been any analysis done by the county as to capacity for that and what other square footage or what other sites will be powered by it? So with that, I'm not a subject matter expert on, so we would rely on NOVAC and Dominion to assure that they could provide that power to you.

[03:04:24] Do we have that assurance from NOVAC? So I would have to defer to the applicant if they had that conversation. I believe they did. Supervisor Gordy, the applicant has been coordinating with, I'm sorry, Supervisor Weir.

[03:04:47] The applicant has been coordinating with NOVAC, and they've actually already bought the power from NOVAC for this site, and it will be provided underground to this site. Do we have any sense of what proportion of the 300 megawatts they'll be subsuming?

[03:05:04] So their stack owns three data centers. He knows what I'm asking for. Introduce yourself, please. Hi, Steve Green with Stack, the applicant. Yes, we have purchased 216 megawatts of the 300.

[03:05:22] Leaving 84 left for whatever else is there? Yes. I don't know who's, we don't know who that is. Good enough. Thank you. All right, it doesn't look like we have anyone else, any other one else in the dais.

[03:05:38] If not, thank you. Then I will open the public hearing on item 11A. We have actually one person signed up to speak in person, and that is Ms. Joanne Gaskins.

[03:05:56] If you can make your way to the microphone. We ask, and I've said your name, if you can state again and where you generally live. We need that for the records, and you have three minutes. Good evening.

[03:06:17] Can you hear? If you can speak up. Yes, my name is Joanne Gaskins, and I live in Manassas. We cannot hear you, ma'am. We can. And if you speak a little louder. Joanne Gaskins. Yes.

[03:06:33] I live in Manassas. Okay, I sincerely hope that what Gordy and everybody is saying is true because up until now, it has not been true. They've told so many lies from day one when it started with the Peterson Group.

[03:06:51] They had their yes man, Jay Norman, want to buy the land, but he told me it was for George Mason to do dorms and other things for that. And then after I sold it in 2022, they came up with Steve Green and he said that he was buying it.

[03:07:11] So I asked Jonel how that was possible for them to work together. She said they were partners. So if they're going to do what they say they're going to do with the trail and stuff, they promised to put the monument up.

[03:07:29] That didn't happen either. I was devastated when I talked to Jessica yesterday, and she told me that it wasn't going to happen. So if they're going to do it, they should do it and say they're going to do it. They did put a fence around the cemetery. However, the stones are still laying on the ground.

[03:07:47] They're not fixed. So if they're going to do these things, I would appreciate if they didn't lie to me all the time about what's going on because had I known that they weren't going to use it for George Mason College, I would have never sold it, the property to them.

[03:08:04] So it was all based on lies. Then they told me they were going to put in a trail like they have at the National Harbor. That was a lie as well. So if they're going to do it, they need to do what they say they're going to do. And, you know, and then it would be all fine, but they don't do it.

[03:08:20] It's just one lie right after the other. She stood before y'all and told you that I only asked for a street sign. That was a lie too. She said I sold the property four times. That was also a lie. I never sold it but one time. So, and they're still going on and on.

[03:08:36] She's even told the people, not her, but the people are telling the people that live in the property there that they're building a strip mall. Again, another lie. If you just tell the truth, it would be easier to take. So if you're going to do it, please do what you say you're going to do so everybody can get on the same page.

[03:08:57] So I would appreciate it and defer it for now until we know for sure if it's going to be done because based on the history, it's all been lies to me so far. The only good thing is they put a fence around it, and the fence, they've got a tree up against the fence, so a bad storm is going to blow the fence right down.

[03:09:16] So please do what you say you're going to do. Thank you. Thank you so much, ma'am. I believe, do we have anyone else signed up to speak in person? If not, we'll move on to remote. There is no remote speakers, and I will officially close the public hearing on 11A.

[03:09:39] All right, so we are going to move forward with this. You know, I'm going to hold on. I see people already lining up to speak. Supervisor Gordy, I'm looking to you for a motion. Madam Chair, before I make my motion, I thank you, Ms. Gaskins, for being here tonight.

[03:09:59] And while I was not a part of all those previous discussions and events that took place, I'm sorry that you've been lied to. No one should be lied to. My commitment, personal commitment to you, is that we're going to do this.

[03:10:18] And I hope that you and I will continue the dialogue and we continue to work together to tell your family's story, but the story of all the other families involved with what took place here for centuries.

[03:10:35] It's an incredible story. And so that's my commitment to you. I'm holding their feet to the fire. but I can tell you so far everything we've worked closely together to uncover and understand this history, and I know there's more to uncover, and that's why having the archaeologists and the consultants continue to be part of this process I think is absolutely critical to make sure that we get it right, and so we look forward to partnering with you to make sure that we honor what we say and the commitments that we've made here tonight. Thank you. With that, Madam Chair,

[03:11:14] We've already closed the public hearing, and I move that we approve a proper amendment in rezoning REZ 2024-00009-NBA05A and NBA05B in the Brentsville Magisterial District.

[03:11:30] Second. All right. Further discussion? Supervisor Franklin is next. Sure, yes. Thank you. And Supervisor Gordy kind of said some of the things that I was going in the direction of. Thank you to the Gaskin family for your comments.

[03:11:47] Again, as I mentioned earlier, I think this is an incredible story that needs to be told. So I can guarantee you, along with Supervisor Gordy, who's going to be leading the charge on this, that we will make sure that not only that your story gets told, but that we preserve that land in the manner in which we have committed.

[03:12:04] We've spoken to the applicant. They've given us their word, and I think we have a pretty good working relationship. And as Supervisor Gordy mentioned, whatever has happened in the past, We're going to start right now moving forward, and we're going to make sure that you all are taken care of. And here's the deal, and Supervisor Gordy, I think, can speak to this.

[03:12:23] Whatever issues you're having, you go straight to him. He's going to tell the rest of the board, and we're going to make sure that we work those issues out. So thank you for that. But again, as I said earlier, I'm excited about being able to tell this history. I'm kind of data-centered out, quite frankly.

[03:12:40] But any time that we get the opportunity to provide historical context here in our county, I think we should take it as an opportunity to do so. So thank you for your commitment to stay the course, and I'll know that I'll make sure to work with Supervisor Gordy to make sure that these become an actualization.

[03:12:58] So thank you. Supervisor Ware. Thank you, Madam Chair. I think I made my position well known at our last meeting where I stand on data centers and substations. They say insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, and it seems to be the case here again.

[03:13:18] I'm concerned about the health, safety, and welfare of the residents of this county, and I think continued data center proliferation, in this case, adding another 800,000 square feet of data center and association power usage probably isn't to the best interest, particularly given the shortage of both transmission and generation capacity that we're going to see in the very near future.

[03:13:44] It's interesting that in order to reach this, they've had to increase the far, increase the height, both of which will require substantially more powers, and that it took 10 waivers to accomplish this. All of that bothers me. But what bothers me most, the nature of the story aside, how wonderful the story is, put that aside for a moment. This is a land use case governed by statute and ordinance and i believe we're setting a dangerous precedent here um i am not fond of or

[03:14:19] in favor of negotiation negotiation of air quotes voluntary proffers and even though the proffers given are more limited um than some would like they give me pause particularly with respect to proportionality and nexus given that much of the history to my understanding is off-site and that brings up issues for me personally I'm not going to speak for the county attorney but for future enforceability or the viability of the proffers long term I don't think this is

[03:14:58] the way we should do things and even though it's in the data center overlay even though it is relatively by right this is a rezoning and a proffer amendment and I am not going to vote in favor of it thank you madam chair supervisor angry thanks madam chair um let me just start by saying so when we go through these uh issues such as this this is the board talking um and we welcome the constituents and uh you know giving our thoughts and so to the gaston family i first want to say uh this has been a journey in understanding and i love the history because

[03:15:35] i visited both the cemeteries um i know i do my research i walk out i walk these properties i learn everything i want to talk to these folks up here on the board for just a second about what this is. And so for you, you asked the question and you made the comment about selling your land the first time. And as we, as unfortunately, if they sell that land off to someone else, then different things change. So the dorms of George Mason University wasn't the plan of the next developer that came in, which brought us to where we are now. So I just

[03:16:12] want to say that, but I want to, I want to talk to the board about how we got here. It's interesting to me that since 2003, when I moved into this county stationed in the army working at Fort Belvoir. I had no idea of the black history of this county. There's so much rich black history. You know, I learned about thoroughfare. I learned about the settlement.

[03:16:31] I learned about the church that was burned down. I learned about the dance hall. You know, the things that we're trying to protect, and I'm going to give Supervisor Franklin here some credit because she gave a directive to talk about how we can identify this trail. So I want to say that as we talk about understanding this history and the horse rink and the slave, I'm going to mess that part of what it really is, but we have a trail, we have a website on our historical commission that identifies a lot of the African-American trail of Prince William County.

[03:17:07] I really want to make sure this is on there, okay? Our challenge has always been that much of these properties are private properties that land on its own. And when they sell, we learn things about our history of Prince William County. I imagine we're going to learn much more in the form of African-American contributions to Prince William County. As we do that, we have to recognize and acknowledge, and I want to make sure that those things are captured and preserved and protected and identified for the history of this nation, not just Virginia, not just Prince William County, but this nation of what really

[03:17:44] the contributions of African-Americans in the Princeton County. I don't want to make it a soundbite. I don't want to make it a piece on a board where someone can use it to gain whatever they're trying to gain. But the reality is there's so much rich African-American history.

[03:18:03] Now, I'm not even speaking to the fact that we're talking about disapproving this because this is where we are, and I know, you know, it's where we are. So I just want to make sure that as we learn and identify the history of African Americans in this county, that we identify it, protect it, put it in a place where it needs to be, and allow everyone to experience it.

[03:18:27] So I'm supporting the motion here. I think where we are, we understand many of the other benefits that have come with how we've benefited from data centers in this county and the opportunity for our commercial tax base. But I just want to get on record of recognizing the history of African-Americans in Prince William County and how we need to always protect it.

[03:18:53] So thank you, Madam Chair. Supervisor Bode. Thank you, Madam Chair. And first, thank you to the Gaskins family for being here. And thank you for your part of being a part of the larger tapestry, which is the history of this county, especially the black history.

[03:19:09] As was said by several of my colleagues, there is so much that we've learned of the black history, especially in that area over just the past four or five years, let alone the past 10 years. I'm just going to mention it very quickly. We can have more discussions about how we continue to push this message out.

[03:19:26] But just a week ago, the county executive sent us a memo updating us to Supervisor Franklin's directive from our first year in office several years ago on all the collecting, all the collaboration, all the reconciling and compiling and curating of the black history in this county.

[03:19:46] We've won awards in the last three or four years on the work we've been doing. And I say that to say that, as was said before, we see you, we hear you on what happened before this point. You know, we know that in the grand history of lands being sold and what have you, there's a historical context of that too.

[03:20:08] So that is not lost on us. But we will tell you, as was said by Suresa Gordy and Franklin, you have our commitment here right now that we have on the books proffers here that they've committed to. As was said by Suresa Gordy, a lot of the history that was found initially was proactively discovered and given to us by the applicant here.

[03:20:28] So can't speak for the folks that came before who holds this land now between you and now the applicant. but he has given us our word that he is committed to being a partner in making sure that we do everything we can to preserve that history. Which leads me to the part of the challenge of doing all this. As was said, we know that black history in this county isn't a one static place, right? It's not just in one place. Your family history spans this corridor. And so it's hard to nail down with just one land use case how to honor that history and make sure we're doing the right job there. So

[03:21:04] So I think that what's being worked through right now, both in the context of this land use case, but also the greater narrative that is the directive that Supervisor Franklin gave all those years ago, is building on that. So we have a robust continuum of how folks can enjoy, learn about, and remember the history of our county.

[03:21:24] That's why these linear trails, the historical monuments, the trail signs, everything that's being done is trying to honor the fact that the history here is not static. it's not just confined to one part of this area. But that means that we have to continuously work with all the applicants that come through. The county has to take a much larger role in this as well, and not just win our laurels for a land use case to fall in our lap, for us to continue to do that work. Because the last thing we want is for someone who's not as altruistic as this applicant to come along with some other parcel and not do the work necessary to even find out what's there.

[03:21:59] because we know that's happened. We don't know how much history has already been lost in the past because of folks who haven't done the right job. So we want to make sure that we do it right. That all said, as was said before, this is a land use case. Looking at the current by-right zoning, looking at the current long-range land use designation, a data center could go here right now today. Yes, it would be smaller. Yes, there would be much more things that they would have to do to get through the hoops to get it constructed, but they wouldn't be coming forward with the ability to preserve the history as they're say, or frankly, the environmental aspect of it as well.

[03:22:36] They've done a lot of work with Supervisor Gordy's office to pull back from those RPAs and stamp down a lot of what could happen from an environmental standpoint on this land. So I wanted to highlight that as well. The last thing I'll say about this is we are in a place where we have to figure out how we're going to continue to work highlighting the history across this county of the various families like you folks the Gaskins family in a way that again isn't just reactive to land use cases we're working on that we have the directive that Suarez of Franklin gave

[03:23:14] we're working through that but there's a lot more to be done and I hope that you all will stay involved in this conversation as surazagordi said another big component of what's to come with that directive and all the work there is the oral history we know that there's so much in especially black history that is not documented anywhere all large swaths of our history as a people is just in the heads and minds of our ancestors and our elders and we know that we have to capture as much as possible so i hope you all will stay engaged with this well after tonight so you can help us preserve some of that history thank you madam chair thank you supervisor um bodie

[03:23:53] supervisor gordy thank you madam chair uh just to um to add on to what uh supervisor bodie just said um i've already been in con we know that wellington road is going to be widened and so as it can as it does get wide my intent is that we bring the trail all the way to godwin um and i've already been in conversations with bae systems i need to connect with lockheed martin uh bae systems unfortunately as a tenant on that site but my intent is to work with them to see how we can

[03:24:25] also have them involved in this and to help support the development of this trail to godwin the couple things i always do when it comes to data centers number one i just want to let the community know as it comes to dirt you're bringing dirt in you're not taking dirt out all right so so that's been part of our conversation we've already addressed the power and and they already have because they've already got some other construction going on in the area they've already worked out their parking for the construction employees to not impede upon

[03:25:02] traffic or other homes or businesses in the area but that's all I have now Madam Chair thank you thank you one thing and I have said this given the challenges that we've had around proffers I think it would be very helpful if our county attorney would provide a briefing to our historical commission on what we can do as it relates to proffer so that they can work with us better as partners so that they can understand what our limitations are and I know you can't it's just

[03:25:36] advisory but but yeah this is having a better understanding of what those proffers are or what our limitations are I think would be helpful for us going forward thank you madam attorney madam chair members of the board the historical commission is not our client so we cannot provide them legal advice but we will coordinate with the planning office to see if there are some white papers out there maybe from other organizations such as vml and vaco to provide to the historical commission so we'll work with the planning office thank you so very much um i'm just gonna say a few things to close out i think the question here is you know not whether we tell

[03:26:16] the story but how do we tell it and you know I do sympathize you know with the Gaskins family I do sympathize with you ma'am when you're saying you feel like you're getting the runaround you know you're being told one thing then you hear another story and then another story and that's just not fair and you know I don't want this to be your experience of the county with the county I don't want you to think that everything is going to be like this you know and I also along with others on the board you know I want to extend that you know we're willing to talk to you and work with you and help you as best as we can because you do have a history to tell your story your family has

[03:26:56] deep roots in this county and has done amazing things in this county and we want to honor and recognize that we don't want it to be lost I also you know supervisor we are I am so done with data centers I'm sorry I'm just going to say it I am you know because we're also limited and I want to be clear what we can do with things that are by right and things that are in the overlay you know my concern with data centers is always it has been you know making sure they're in the right place you know i don't want them too close to you know homes and schools but i also want to acknowledge that we're crowding out other businesses when we keep approving data centers

[03:27:33] now to a certain extent our hands are tied you know um but i i just want to name that particularly innovation when i went to um the groundbreaking with everyone else on the board um for atcc on Thursday. That's the kind of business we want in the county. They bring real jobs. They bring actual innovation. So I would be remiss if I didn't name that. You know, there are going to be data center projects that I approve. They're going to be ones that I vote against. But I just want to be clear for everyone also on this board that if we want better, we have to ask for better.

[03:28:12] We have to think about better. You know, I don't want to be in one industry county, and I do get tired. When people, when I tell them I'm from Prince William County and the first words out of their mouth, oh, the data centers. That's not how I want our county to be thought of because we have a very rich history. We have some beautiful natural assets. We have state parks. We have national parks. The data center conversation has taken up a lot of our time. And again, there are projects I'm going to vote for. I am begrudgingly going to vote for this one.

[03:28:49] But I also want to be very clear, when I vote for projects, it's because there really isn't a good reason not to vote for it. And I feel this very strongly. I'm not going to vote against something without reason.

[03:29:09] I'm not going to say, well, I just don't like it. That, for me, is not good leadership. That's not the way that I'm going to choose to do things. But I do want to know, with this project, noting this project in particular, you know, Supervisor Gordy has worked with them, you know, and Ms. Gaskins, we are all going to work with you to make sure that you are involved every step of the way and that what was promised will actually happen.

[03:29:40] Supervisor Rear. Thank you, Madam Chair. I would be remiss if I didn't note this, but we've been here an hour and five minutes. and of that hour and five minutes we have probably spent 50 minutes talking about one set of proffers what we haven't talked about is the actual application haven't talked about the waivers haven't talked about the impacts transportation waivers sidewalks etc etc become a one-horse show

[03:30:12] pardon the pun and i just don't believe that's the way we should do business thank you and we certainly need to do a better job this is something we also have to talk about making sure that um our zoning ordinances and everything is matching with the comprehensive plan so we don't have need to have multiple waivers for one project um with that i don't see anyone else oh supervisor gordy yeah madam too just for clarification a lot of the waivers were with the original rezoning the underlying rezoning the waivers are just being extended so just to make

[03:30:46] make that point and that's a fair point thank you so much now with that i don't see anyone else so let's take a vote motion passes six to one supervisor weir voting nay all right thank you And I am also going to say this, particularly with Supervisor,

[03:31:21] where you've had a disproportionate amount of some of the controversial data center projects in your district. And that's one thing we also have to note, you know, that this issue, I've said it before, this issue disproportionately impacts certain parts of the county over others.

[03:31:39] So with that, we're moving on to Agenda Item 12, public comment time. No one? All right, no one has signed up. Do we have, no one's online either? All right, then... second i ain't hit the gavel yet i ain't called for a vote yet all right i don't know man supervisor franklin how you feel all right our next meeting will be on tuesday october 8th and with that we're unanimous and we're out

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