Coraggio Consulting
Prince William Board of County Supervisors Meeting, Tuesday, May 13, 2025

Date: Tuesday, May 13, 2025
Place: Prince William County Board of County Supervisors, Virginia
Length: 6h 6m (video)
Official meeting video (Prince William County, Granicus): https://pwcgov.granicus.com/player/clip/3641
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 2026-10-29. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:41:28] me oh well they call them hard hats for a reason all right everyone we are going to start with a moment of silence and i would actually like to dedicate this um to neamp school school board member diane ralston who served her community with dignity and honor for several years um

[00:41:57] so let's have a moment of silence in her honor thank you everyone please rise if you're able for the Pledge of Allegiance.

[00:42:16] All right, before we go on to agenda item number three, there are quite a few changes that I would like to highlight.

[00:42:46] First of all, agenda item number 5A has been moved to June 3rd, 2025. I'm sorry, yes, to June 3rd, 2025. We have agenda items number 10I. Let me just get here real quick.

[00:43:05] i'm sorry 5i agenda item 5i is listed on top of the revised agenda has been moved to june 3rd 2025 i-10 has been deferred there needs to be additional time for the school board i'm sorry for the school board or school district and our department of parks and recs to finalize their agreement on buses and for the evening session items 13b and 13c have requested a deferral and

[00:43:42] will be deferred so i wanted to highlight those things and also too i want to say you know thank you to everyone who has come out today we have a really robust section in four i'm sorry the date certain i'm sorry for agenda items number let's go back for the evening session agenda items 13b and 13c have been deferred to june 24th 2025 um and i want to go back to what i was about to say for agenda um item number four we have a lot of people here who i assume are for that because i

[00:44:22] haven't seen a lot of these this many faces in quite a long time um and i want to let everyone know what we normally do is we vote on it you know the people associated with our resolution we come down we speak we have the other teams you know the other um the person who is receiving the um commendation our proclamation speak and then we take a photo what we're going to do is i ask everyone to stay here after we have done your proclamation or commendation because we're going to do everything at the end because we just have so many items to get through so if you are here for proclamation commendation after you know you are recognized please just go

[00:44:59] back to your seat because we'll hold all pictures at the end of the atrium and for board members i'm going to come back up here and I'm going to gavel a break, a recess for us to handle all those photos. So with that, I would like to return to the agenda. Agenda 9, item number 3, approval of the minutes. I'd like to get a resolution for 3A to 3C. So move Madam Few. Any discussion? All right, let's go ahead and vote. Vote unanimous. Supervisor Angry absent from meeting and all subsequent votes.

[00:45:39] All right, and I actually should have asked, just noted for our colleague, Supervisor Victor anger he will not be at the meeting today unfortunately he got delayed with travel coming home from a funeral so our prayers and thoughts were his family so moving on to um agenda item number four again that's what you know we're all here for i would love to get a motion for 4a through 4-0 so moved madam chair second all right any discussion if not let's go ahead and take a

[00:46:07] vote vote unanimous thank you and for those of you just came um if you're here for proclamations accommodation. I just wanted to let everyone know that you guys know, again, we're going to take everything, all the photos at the end. So for 4A and 4B, Supervisor, oh, and 4C, okay. If you can

[00:46:32] come down and join me for the first three and then Supervisor Vega for 4D. Thank you. If members

[00:47:09] of the National Panhellenic Council can come to the front. Thank you very much. Does everybody

[00:47:57] settle? Great. Madam Chair and my wonderful colleagues, it gives me great pleasure to present this commendation today to the National Panhellenic Council. The National Panhellenic Council, or NPHC, is composed of historically black fraternities and sororities commonly called the Divine Nine, and was founded in 1930 at Howard University. The Divine Nine engages in various initiatives and events throughout the year in Prince William County aimed at promoting community development, education, health, and service, which includes

[00:48:35] providing scholarships to deserving high school seniors in our county through the Jermaine Jackson Ph.D. Scholarship Program, hosting the annual MLK Youth Oratorical Competition, which provides a platform of students to showcase their oratorical skills, hosting the annual 5K Run and Walk for a cause to support the Council Scholarship Program and foster community engagement through fellowship and competition.

[00:49:06] And last, certainly not least, participating in various service activities, such as the wreaths across America at Quantico National Cemetery to honor veterans. The Prince William County Board of Supervisors hereby commends the members of the National Panhellenic Council and its divine nine organizations for their steadfast commitment to excellence, community service, and leadership.

[00:49:32] for serving as powerful catalysts in promoting unity, pride, and positive change within our communities in Prince William County. Thank you so much for the work that you do. Is there someone that would like to come forward? Thank you.

[00:49:53] To Madam Chair and the rest of the board, my name is Lorraine Jackson, and I am president of the National Panhandle Council, Prince William Stafford Council. I humbly accept this recognition on the behalf of the council.

[00:50:11] As mentioned, we are very active in the community, and we do so not for the accolades, because we believe in the mission of our different organizations, and we believe in giving back, and we also believe in living here in the Prince William County area.

[00:50:30] Once again, I want to thank you humbly on the behalf of the council for this recognition. Gracias. Merci. Thank you very much.

[00:50:50] I'm going to give this to you to safekeeping until we take our photos. Okay. All right. Next one. You guys can be seated because we're all taking photos at the end. And as they're being seated, the Divine Nine consists of Delta Sigma Theta, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated, Phi Beta Sigma, Zeta Phi Beta, Kappa Alpha Psi, the iotas, and Omega Psi Phi, wherever they are.

[00:51:24] Okay, you can take this in. For those associated with the Mental Health Awareness Month.

[00:51:43] That includes voice, nominee, Trillium. And Madam Chair and my august colleagues, because this is Mental Health Month, I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to acknowledge everyone that participates in supporting in our county.

[00:52:09] Mental health is essential to our overall physical and emotional well-being. The goal of Mental Health Awareness Month is to raise awareness and understanding of mental illness and the importance of appropriate and accessible services. Mental illness will strike one in five adults and children in a given year, regardless of age, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, or economic status.

[00:52:35] Furthermore, an estimated two-thirds of adults and young people with mental health disorders are not receiving the help they need, and the cost of untreated and mistreated mental illness and addictive disorders to our business, state, and local governments and families have grown tremendously.

[00:52:56] With proper treatment and support, many of those who have mental illness can recover and lead full, productive lives with the proper support. The Prince William Board of County Supervisors hereby proclaims the month of May 2025 as Mental Health Awareness Month and proclaims their continued support for awareness and understanding of mental health and the need for appropriate and accessible services for citizens with mental illness.

[00:53:24] Congratulations. Good afternoon. I'm Reverend Dr. Michael Sessoms, pastor of the Little Union Baptist Church in Dumfries and also co-chair of voice virginia's organized for interfaith community engagement and i just want to say that when i came back from iraq in 2009 i had a serious mental illness and by the

[00:53:59] grace of god um i could have been you know had a severe crisis because i didn't know what i was dealing with but thanks be to god my daughter knew the signs and symptoms of ptsd and so i could have been one of the unlucky ones, if you will, that had a mental health crisis. The police were called, and I may not be standing here today. And so I want to thank God for the work that

[00:54:38] Supervisor Bailey championed in building this crisis receiving center that I hope will open in September. It's going to save so many lives. And I just want to also thank all the partners who partner with us to help bring awareness to the CRC.

[00:54:59] And thank God that when this place opens, when someone has a mental crisis, if they don't have a bed locally at a hospital, they won't be shipped all the way down to Norfolk, Virginia, if there's a bed, but they'll be able to get the help that they need right here in Woodbridge.

[00:55:20] And we're going to have a first-class crisis receiving center that will be state-of-the-art and that will be the example for all of Virginia. And I want to thank all of you, council, for helping making it happen.

[00:55:40] Thank you so much. We're going to give this to you guys for safekeeping. We have quite a few. And I actually need to make sure the other holes.

[00:55:58] It's hard to get them. We'll give these to you for safekeeping. All right. And I'm sorry if you want to hand this over to... For your safekeeping, we have no. Thank you. And for all those here from Military Appreciation Month, if you can come to the podium.

[00:56:21] It's a Marine. Yes. Madam Chair, thank you for an opportunity. As a military spouse, it is a privilege to serve in all capacities along beside my friend, Supervisor Vega.

[00:56:45] Our nation owes an enormous debt of gratitude to the brave men and women who serve in our military. These selfless individuals put their lives on the line to protect our freedoms and our way of life. We must never forget all that they and their families do on our behalf.

[00:57:07] During this month and always, Prince William County shows its gratitude and appreciation to all service members, veterans and their families for their tremendous honor, courage and commitment to our country and protecting its values.

[00:57:23] The Prince William Board of County Supervisors hereby proclaims May 2025 as Military Appreciation Month and urges all citizens to honor and celebrate the contributions of our military community. Thank you so much.

[00:57:39] And we have Colonel Colgate. Madam Chair, Board of Supervisors, I'm Colonel Jenny Colgate. I am the commander of Marine Corps Base Quantico. I've been there since July of last year, and I can tell you that the just over 28,000 personnel that we have stationed on Quantico truly appreciate the partnership that we have with our counties.

[00:58:04] We're lucky enough to have more than one county. I can't say that we have favorites. However, you all do an amazing job supporting all of our heroes on the base. Everywhere within the county, everywhere we go, they're always recognizing.

[00:58:19] Everybody is so grateful to say thank you for your service. which truly goes a long way. You don't know, as you're just talking about mental health, you don't know what our service members have gone through, where they've been. So just a simple thank you. We really appreciate that and really appreciate our partnership with the county.

[00:58:36] So thank you for taking the time to do this. Well, just for later. And thank you so very much. Supervisor Vega, if you want to come down for 4-D. And if you are a nurse or if you're here for Skilled Nursing Care Week or for Virginia Nurses Week, we'd appreciate if you'd come up.

[00:59:06] Thank you, Madam Chair. certainly want to acknowledge Supervisor Gordy, who is a veteran, our county executive, Mr. Shorter, and Supervisor Victor Angry, who, as our chair stated, is not with us today. Thank you all for your service and for the sacrifice that you've made for our great nation. So round of applause for these fine men. I have the privilege of reading this proclamation in honor of Nursing Care Week here in the Commonwealth of Virginia. But before I do so, I want to acknowledge two nurses that are here on Miss Tanisha Allen and Mayra Morales Martinez if you guys can scoot up

[00:59:41] forward don't be shy come on so I've had the privilege of serving with Miss Tanisha Allen she's also an elected official in Stafford County and she serves on the board of county supervisors so when she's not carrying and saving people's lives you can find her advocating on behalf of the people of Stafford County Mayra and I you can find us on the soccer fields on the weekends screaming our heart out for our boys who play soccer on the same team but certainly want to thank her also for her sacrifice and dedication to our community and it's truly an honor that both of you made the time to be here today so thank you. We want to acknowledge not just skilled

[01:00:17] nursing care week but Virginia nursing week as well as registered nurses in the United States continue our nation's largest health care profession constitute sorry our nation's largest health care profession. Nurses meet the many and emerging health care needs of our community in a wide range of settings, including their service on the front line of the pandemic. We urge everyone to celebrate nurses' accomplishments and efforts to improve our health care systems and show our appreciation for the nation's nurses, not just during this week, but at every opportunity throughout the year. Therefore, it be it resolved that the Prince William County Board of Supervisors proclaims May 6th through the 12th, 2025 as Virginia Nurses Week

[01:00:56] and May 11th through the 17th, 2025 as Skilled Nursing Care Week in appreciation of their unparalleled impact and their contributions to health care and the caring of our community. Thank you very much. First of all, I want to thank the Prince William County Board of Supervisors for the recognition. On behalf of all the nurses within our region and in the Commonwealth, thank you for this recognition.

[01:01:29] Oftentimes, nurses go unseen or underappreciated. And so just like with our first responders and our military, just saying thank you to us goes a long way in our mental health and knowing that we're valued by our community. So thank you again for the recognition, and go nurses.

[01:01:48] We have a proclamation for safekeeping. One of you, don't fight amongst yourselves. I'll make an extra copy so people can have them. All right. We're making good time here.

[01:02:05] We're on to 4E, and that is to proclaim May 28th, World Hunger Day, so everyone associated with this proclamation, please come on down. Good crowd. Okay. Madam Chair, if I may real quick as people come forward, I forgot to acknowledge also Supervisor Bodie has shared with us that his mother was also a nurse, so we use this moment to also remember her.

[01:02:32] And I believe your wife was also a veteran, correct, Supervisor? And Supervisor, we were a military child, so we've got... All right. I was going to say, yeah, roll hard.

[01:02:50] Okay. World Hunger Day falls on May 28, 2025, and is an opportunity to recognize the impact of food insecurity on our neighbors in Prince William County and to highlight the vital work and critical services of organizations working to fight hunger within the county.

[01:03:10] In Prince William County, approximately 37,000 residents experience food insecurity. Hundreds of caring volunteers from various organizations in our community donate their time, money, and energy to deliver meals to our fellow citizens. Therefore, the Prince William Board of County Supervisors hereby proclaims May 28th, 2025, as World Hunger Day.

[01:03:34] We have a lot of folks. I know we have a lot of different organizations. Can we get one representative down here? I was going to have someone from the mosque. No? All right. Would you like to come down? Anyone? one? All right, you right there. Good afternoon. My name is Dr. Megan Franco. I'm the Executive Director of Northern Virginia Food Rescue, and I just want to thank Chair Jefferson as well as the rest of the Board of Supervisors for bringing that awareness to hunger and understanding what it means. And I'm a stats person, if anybody knows me, and it's kind of scary to see that hunger and food insecurity right here in the county has gone up just a little bit. We're a little over 40%.

[01:04:14] That's scary. And I've had this conversation. I'm like, what are we going to do? We have to come together and help our neighbors out. And I challenge anyone that has any preconceived notions about hunger and things like that. And folks are just assuming that somebody's lazy or why is it my issue? Well, I personally can tell you that my mom worked nine to five and then she went to school from six to 11 p.m. She went on to become a nurse. So that way she can take care of my three brothers and I. So no, that woman wasn't lazy. So it is our issue to come together. So that way you can help a little Megan out to eventually become the executive director

[01:04:50] of Northern Virginia Food Rescue. All right. Thank you so very much. You guys can all be seated. You know, she has all the proclamations. We'll give them out later. We got a whole little stack

[01:05:08] there. For those associated with 4F, Building Safety Month, please come on down. All right, all right mandy and me all right come on come on guys come on all right 4fn is to proclaim may 2025

[01:05:46] building safety month building safety month takes place in may to raise awareness about building safety and the need for modern building codes and it helps individuals families and businesses understand what it takes to create safe and sustainable structures building safety and fire prevention officials in prince william county work year-round to ensure that the places where we live work, worship, play, and learn are safe and sustainable. They have saved countless lives due to the implementation of safety codes at the local and state levels. Each year in observance of Building Safety Month, we acknowledge the essential service provided to all of us by the

[01:06:25] local and state building departments, fire departments, and federal agencies that work together to protect our lives and property. Therefore, the Prince William Board of County supervisors hereby proclaims may 2025 as building safety month thank you madam chair members of the board my name is mandy spina i'm the director of development services thank you for proclaiming may as building safety month in front of you you'll see personalized hard hats for when you're out on site visits or ribbon cuttings

[01:06:57] you can use those at your disposal but may 2025 marks 45 years of building safety month This raises awareness about critical building safety issues and really think about in any given week or day how many times you go into a building, whether it's your home, where you work, or where you play, and how much we take for granted that each building is safe.

[01:07:23] So this year's theme is Game On, really focusing on the collaboration that it takes to ensure safe buildings. So with me, I have my peer collaborators, Chief LaBelle, representing the Fire Marshal's Office, and in the back, Acting Director of Public Works, Luke Heisman.

[01:07:40] So for us, in terms of Prince William County departments, there are three departments that are critical to building safety. Development Services, Building Development Division, Public Works Neighborhood Services Division, and the Fire Marshal's Office. So again, thank you for the recognition, and thank you to our staff who work tirelessly to ensure our buildings are safe.

[01:08:00] Thank you. Thank you very much. All right, transportation, come on down for Bike to Work Day. Thank you.

[01:08:26] Bike Month is recognized by the Commonwealth of Virginia as an opportunity to increase public awareness of the many benefits of bicycling, promote bicycle safety, and encourage bike riding through organized activities such as bike to work events, club rides, family rides, and bike rodeos for children.

[01:08:45] To increase public awareness of the viability of bicycle commuting in the Washington metropolitan region, bike-to-work day events have been organized in over 100 locations, referred to as pit stops, around the region on Thursday, May 15, 2025, including several right here in Prince William County.

[01:09:03] In support of Bike Month, the Prince William County Department of Transportation has committed up to $3,250 to insist in planning efforts, educational opportunities, and free resources to promote Bike Month and Bike to Work Day activities.

[01:09:18] The Prince William Board of County Supervisors hereby proclaims the month of May 2025 as Bike Month and May 15, 2025 as Bike to Work Day and endorses the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board's regional Bike to Work Day efforts.

[01:09:36] Would you like to say something? Certainly. I'm Alan Muchnick, co-chair of Active Prince William. We promote active mobility throughout Greater Prince William. I wanted to thank the county's Department of Transportation for supporting this event for about 15 years now.

[01:09:57] And with nine, and there used to be ten pit stops, including in the cities of Manassas and Manassas Park. and broadening their bike month promotions now to include the whole month and additional events.

[01:10:14] And they've also provided bike repair kits at all the public libraries. So really thank you. We're moving along in Prince William County. I've got to say I'm really glad that today is not Bike to Work Day. And it's Thursday, and it's just going to be cloudy.

[01:10:32] And you don't have to ride all the way to work. You can just commute to a transit stop or a park-and-ride lot. And, of course, a lot of people do work locally. So thank you. All right.

[01:10:50] We're on to 4-H, and that is to proclaim May 18th through 24th National Public Works Week. If we can have public works come to the front. Thank you, guys. Public works are our infrastructure, our roads, bridges, tunnels, schools, and reservoirs, for example.

[01:11:13] The Prince William County Department of Public Works and its dedicated staff are integral to the daily lives and well-being of all residents within our community. These committed professionals actively protect and improve our vital national resources, diligently adopt and enforce essential codes and regulations, and expertly build and maintain critical infrastructure to effectively serve our community.

[01:11:35] The quality and effectiveness of these vital resources and services encompassing their careful planning, thoughtful design, skillful construction, and responsible management are a direct result of the expertise, dedication, and tireless efforts of our public works staff.

[01:11:51] Therefore, the Prince William Board of County Supervisors hereby proclaims May 18th through May 24th, 2025 as National Public Works Week and calls upon all residents to gain a deeper understanding of the important work performed by the Department of Public Works professionals and to recognize their vital contributions to the health, safety, welfare, and quality of life in Prince William County.

[01:12:13] Would you like to say a few words? Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the board. My name is Lucas Heisman. I'm the Deputy Director of Public Works. I'm here today for Mr. Katab Shamut, who is taking a well-deserved vacation.

[01:12:30] And here with me is the Assistant Director of Solid Waste, Monica Gorman, the Assistant Director of Neighborhood Services, Mr. Paul Lynch, and the Assistant Director of Environmental Management, Mr. Madden Mohan. It's an honor to be here today to commend and thank all of the public works staff for everything that they do from stormwater infrastructure maintenance and inspections to code enforcement, street name, sign, maintenance, landfill and compost facility staff, plan reviewers and inspectors from the work that the litter crew does, the mosquito and forest pest staff, and our construction crew.

[01:13:03] I want to take this opportunity and thank them from the bottom of my heart for the service that they give this county. Thank you very much. Go to the photo later. Madam Chair, can you make sure you get a picture of just you and he together?

[01:13:21] Because I've never seen him in a suit. Supervisor Weir, how many times have I said that to you? Madam Chair, one.

[01:13:42] Bob Weir, zero. We ain't keeping score. All right, but thank you. All right, let's move on to Foster Care Month. If we can get those associated with Foster Care Month come to the front.

[01:13:58] The Prince William County Department of Social Services, or DSSS, has 117 children in custody who need foster care.

[01:14:17] DSS, has 36 staff members in its Family Support Services Division dedicated to the youth in custody. 50 local foster families assume the responsibilities of providing adequate care and love for foster children in DSS custody.

[01:14:32] Therefore, the Prince William Board of County Supervisors hereby recognizes the month of May 2025 as Foster Care Month and proclaims their continued support of foster parents and staff who help the children and families in our community. I mean, again, the work that you guys do in this department cannot underscore enough how invaluable that is to our community.

[01:14:53] Do you have a few words? Good afternoon, Madam Chair Jefferson and members of the board. I was told twice by DCXO Johnson to keep it short, so I'm going to keep it short.

[01:15:09] Thank you for recognizing and celebrating National Foster Care Month. The DSS leadership team and staff are appreciative and honored to accept this proclamation. This is a meaningful reminder of the work being done every day by foster parents, human service case workers, child advocates, and community partners to ensure the safety and stability of well-being of children and youth in foster care.

[01:15:34] So I want to take a moment to, this is my team, my leadership team, and I want to take a moment to say thank you for all the work that you do, all the obstacles that you endure to ensure that the kids in our custody are safe. And thank you for your continued support.

[01:15:55] All right, Joshua Lee and the folks at the Area Agency on Aging, if you can come forward.

[01:16:05] The Prince William County region includes Manassas City and Manassas Park and is home to more than 100,000 residents aged 60 and older, representing over 18% of the region's total population.

[01:16:40] The number of older adults in our community has grown by more than 400% since 2000, outpacing overall population growth and reflecting a demographic shift that underscores the need for age-friendly services, infrastructure, and engagements. Prince William County recognizes the importance of building age-inclusive communities that embrace the aging journey and empowers all individuals to live with dignity, purpose, and connection.

[01:17:06] Older adults often serve as volunteers, community leaders, and role models, continuing to shape our community with their wisdom, service, and talent. Therefore, the Prince William Board of County Supervisors proclaims May 2025 is Older Americans Month in Prince William County and encourages all residents to join in celebrating the important contributions of older adults and work together to flip the script on aging.

[01:17:31] Do you have any comments? Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the board. Now, similar to Phyllis, I'll keep it short. Not same as Mandy. I don't have any personalized, you know, hard hats or little grabbers I can give you all, but I'll work on that for next year as well.

[01:17:51] But I don't have a Prince William Area Agency on Aging. I'd like to express our appreciation for recognizing May as Older Americans Month. This year's theme being Flip the Script on Aging, which does challenge the outdated stereotypes that often define aging by decline and limitation.

[01:18:10] Instead, it encourages us to recognize older adults as active, capable, and essential members of our community. I also want to acknowledge the dedicated work of our advisory boards and our commissions and our agency staff who help ensure that older adults in Prince William have the resources, the support that they need to age in place with dignity, independence, and with purpose.

[01:18:32] Thank you. And I'm going to give you this until we meet again. All right, let me grab.

[01:18:51] Yes. We are on to 4K. I promise you we will make it through. No. This is for National Prevention Week. So if we could have community services come down, Georgia and your team. Every year, we become more aware and able to recognize the signs of mental health and substance use disorders.

[01:19:27] And we learn how we can help implement prevention strategies. And we see more and more examples of effective evidence-based programs. As we continue to learn more, we must continue to recognize the seriousness of substance use and mental health issues in our communities, the power of prevention, and the tireless efforts of those working to make a difference. The small daily actions done by individuals combined with the actions of families, communities, and coalitions come together to make up the larger bold movement of prevention. And as we recognize the important work of the Prince William County

[01:20:02] Community Services Wellness and Prevention Team and the Prevention Coalition of Greater prince william county therefore the prince william board of county supervisors hereby proclaims the week of may 11th to may 17th as national prevention week do you like to have a few words um thank you madam chair board members i appreciate you all once again um recognizing the hard work um that the prevention and wellness team at community services does um we are a party of five um i'm

[01:20:39] happy that there are five of us after years of two. But we may be a small team, but we do have a really big impact in our community. Not with just the five of us in our man and woman power, but the partners that we have in the community through our prevention coalition. I know some of you all have members of your staff that attend those meetings and collaborate with us on our strategies. So I just want to say thank you again. This year's theme is telling your prevention story.

[01:21:10] um hashtag my prevention story um my team and i we have our own prevention stories and this is why we do what we do every day um and we encourage you all to um poke into the prevention coalition of greater prince william website and share your stories there or on that facebook page because there is someone um or something that happened in you all's life to get you to where you are today and that was probably prevention based whether you know it or not um so we invite

[01:21:39] you all to be preventionists just like us every day so thank you again all right and those associated with 4m the specialty treatment document if you can make your way down i'm missing oh wait i'm missing no yeah all right sorry emergency i apologize the emergency medical service this week come on la belle come on back and i'm gonna assume it's only you because you

[01:22:17] guys are so busy out there in the field okay i take that back you're real hard this year we recognize the 51st anniversary of the National Emergency Medical Services Week. The members, career, and volunteer of Prince William County's Fire and Rescue Systems EMS teams provide life-saving care to those in need 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They engage in thousands of hours of specialized training and continuing education to enhance their life-saving skills because access to quality of emergency care dramatically improves the survival and recovery rate of those who

[01:22:52] experience sudden illness or injury. The Fire and Rescue EMS has grown to fill a gap by providing important out-of-hospital care, including preventative medicine and follow-up care. Therefore, the Prince William Board of County Supervisors hereby proclaims May 18th through May 2024, 2025, as Emergency Medical Services Week, recognizing the value and the accomplishments of our EMS providers, and committing to forging a future for the next generation of EMS professional.

[01:23:23] Chief LaBelle. Good afternoon. Thank you very much. I'll be brief. We're certainly thrilled for 51 years of recognition. We're certainly lucky to have both volunteer and career members. The vast majority of work is EMS, but I also want to point out that a lot of the proclamations that you're giving out today are part of the continuum of care and safety within our community, and we couldn't do it without the other people here today.

[01:23:49] Thank you very much. All right, now we're on 4M. So those associated with the specialty treatment document, please come on down. The price is right. Treatment courts are specialized court docket programs that allow individuals to enter long-term drug treatment and agree to court supervision instead of receiving a jail sentence. Treatment court participants who complete their

[01:24:25] program can have their underlying criminal offenses dismissed or expunged, but if they fail to do so, their case often goes through the traditional justice system. The way treatment courts are set up they facilitate community-wide partnerships bringing together public safety and public health because of how treatment courts work they improve the education enjoyment housing and financial stability of our participants and they promote family reunification and reduce foster care placements in 2019 prince william county established a veterans treatment docket and in 2022 we established an adult drug treatment document therefore the prince william board of county

[01:25:03] supervisors hereby proclaims May 2025 a specialty treatment docket month thank you thank you madam chair and board I appreciate all of your support that you've given so far I'd like to introduce who we have here today who really runs the dockets I have Sarah Allen who is the adult recovery court coordinator and I have Steve Austin who is the director of CJS and I also have a volunteer veteran mentor, Gary. He is one of the most important people on our dockets as he

[01:25:41] interfaces with those who are going through the veterans treatment docket. As I said, thank you very much. On behalf of Judges Irving, Coleman, Jarvis, and Covington, I'd like to take this moment to speak about the incredible work being done on our and your specialty treatment courts and dockets for justice-involved veterans and citizens of Prince William County. Currently, we have 40 participants in our dockets and courts, every one of them working hard to earn a graduation. It's a tough road that they have to go through in order to graduate, often taking over

[01:26:21] 300 to 500 days to complete. Our staff of volunteers are made up of community-wide partnerships which bring together aspects of public safety, public health, and the justice system, which are often normally found in their own silos. To date, we have graduated 30 participants from our specialty treatment courts and dockets, and I'd like to thank you for this proclamation, and when one

[01:26:51] person rises, we all rise. Thank you. All right, Colonel Allen West, if you can come down, and

[01:27:06] anyone else associated with National Correctional Officers Week? Thank you. Correctional Officers

[01:27:43] Week offers an opportunity to acknowledge and honor correctional officers for the vital contributions they make each day and for the sacrifices they make to protect our community. Correctional Officer Week formally honors the professionalism, dedication, and courage exhibited by these officers in their demanding roles, and recognizes their selfless concern and courage as they endure the increasingly complex challenges in the field of corrections.

[01:28:07] The Prince William Manassas Regional Adult Detention Center Correctional Officers are well-trained law enforcement professionals dedicated to providing hope through education, training, mentoring, counseling, and the treatment of inmates to promote and encourage post-release success. Therefore, the Prince William Board of County Supervisors hereby reclaims the week of May 4th to May 10th, 2025 as National Correctional Officers Week in Prince William County, Virginia, and publicly salutes the service of our correctional officers and our community. Colonel West, do you have any words you'd like to offer? I promise to keep it short.

[01:28:47] Today, I brought a small team of folks with me today because I know it mentions a national correctional officer week, but we cannot accomplish our goals without our support staff. I have with me today a mental health professional, somebody from the medical team, and also one of the sworn staff members because it definitely takes a team to accomplish our goal and our mission. But inside our facility, we have, like I said, our medical personnel, our mental health, support staff and some of them do some of the challenging and critical work in public service they manage people with crisis they ensure safety and security

[01:29:23] and provide care and guidance while upholding dignity and professionalism and compassion on their work is demanding sometime often unseen but absolutely essential to the safety and in a security of our community I just want to say thank you for recognizing us and I appreciate it all right and the The last one is 4-0, and that's National Peace Officers Memorial Day and National Police Week.

[01:29:58] Chief Newsom, if you and anyone else who wants to join you for this proclamation can please come down to the podium. I'm just saying EMS has a lot of people outside. I hope you all have a crew, too. I don't know.

[01:30:15] He's like, I'll write something. Since 1962, our nation has designated May 15th as National Peace Officers Memorial Day, and the week in which it falls is National Police Week.

[01:30:32] Prince William County is blessed with professional law enforcement officers, all highly qualified men and women who, by temperament and training, are fully prepared to meet the everyday challenges they face. It is proper and fitting that we give them special recognition, and remember that those law enforcement officers who have given their lives in the line of duty from Prince William County, the Commonwealth of Virginia, and our nation, as well as those who continue to courageously and consciously maintain a delegate balance between the liberty of the individual and a high degree of community protection. Therefore, the Prince

[01:31:09] William County Board of Supervisors hereby proclaims May 15, 2025 is National Peace Officers Memorial Day, and the week of May 11 to May 17, 2025 is National Police Week. And we encourage our county's residents to make a special effort to let those officers from various law and law enforcement agencies who night and day make our county a safe place to live work and play know that they are appreciated thank you all right good afternoon chair jefferson members of the board

[01:31:45] i'm pete newsham i'm the chief of police here in prince william county joined by second in command lieutenant colonel missouri as you know in prince william county at our police department we have lost four officers in the line of duty officer pete white officer mike pennington officer chris Young and Officer Ashley Gwinden. There are another 24,000 names etched on a wall in Washington, D.C., the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Wall. Sadly, additional names will be

[01:32:19] added to that memorial this year and probably for years to come. This recognition of Police Week for us is huge, to remember those heroes who were willing to put their lives in service and in defense of others. The other reason why this week is critically important to us is to remember the survivors. It's the family and friends that were left behind. And I can tell you during the course of police week, we spend a fair amount of time with our survivors and we tell our survivors that

[01:32:57] we will never forget. We will never forget their loved one's sacrifice. And I want to thank the Board of County Supervisors for this proclamation, because what you are saying on behalf of our county is that our county will never forget. So God bless you and thank you. Now, if everyone who is here for a proclamation or accommodation, if you can make your way out to the atrium and group yourselves, we'll come out and do photos. And anyone from the dais, if you would

[01:33:32] like to join us for photos, please go outside. I will go up and I will gavel out for a 20-minute

[01:33:37] recess. I am gaveling out for a 20-minute recess. Recess is over. We're going to go ahead and get

[01:34:24] started with agenda item number five, consent agenda. I know we have one person missing. I don't know if he has anything he wants to pull, but I want to see if anyone has anything that they want to pull for the consent agendas. Supervisor Franklin? All right, 5T. Does anyone else have Anything on the consent agenda that they would like to pull?

[01:35:06] All right. Supervisor Gordy? Madam Chair, I move that we approve items 5A through 5H, 5J through 5S, and 5U and 5B. Second. All right.

[01:35:23] Let's go ahead and take a vote on those items.

[01:35:40] Unanimous. Supervisor Votie absent from the vote. All right. Thank you very much. We are going to go on now to 5T. Supervisor Franklin. Oh, you just want to pull it?

[01:35:56] Okay. Did you want, I mean, do you have any questions or did you just want to pull it to vote it down? Okay. I mean, do you want to make it a motion to approve or to deny it? All right.

[01:36:13] Supervisor Gordy. Madam Chair, move to approve item 5T. Second. All right. Any discussion? Do we have any discussion? All right. Let's go ahead and vote on it. Motion passes 4 to 3.

[01:36:40] Supervisors, Bodie, Franklin, and Chair Jefferson voting nay. All right. We are now moving on to agenda item number six, and that is public comment time. I am waiting for the list of people who would like to speak in person.

[01:36:58] For those of you who are new, I will call you up in groups of five, and you will be speaking at the back. When you speak, please state your name and the magisterial district or where you generally reside. And then after we finish with, and you'll also see on the screen up there, there'll be a timer, a clock.

[01:37:18] And then after, when we finish with in-person, we will go to remote. So the first person I have, Leila Bartroff, Robert Loreno, Thomas Bortner, Owen Meyer, and Austin Haynes.

[01:37:35] If you guys can all go to the back. And ma'am, you may speak. Good afternoon. My name is Leila Bartroff. I live in the Gainesville District with my husband and our three children.

[01:37:52] And I am here to speak to you about the increased property assessments on Page Land Lane. In 2023, our property was assessed at just over $588,000 with a $6,000 tax bill. Today, it is assessed at $4.5 million.

[01:38:10] Our tax bill is now almost $41,000. In two years, our taxes have increased by almost 700%. In your last meeting, Supervisor Weir claimed that the tax rate was unsustainable since it would raise property taxes by two or three hundred dollars and that was going to cause undue hardship. That is exactly what is happening to me and dozens of my neighbors in Gainesville right now, except that we aren't struggling with a tax increase of a few hundred dollars.

[01:38:40] We are all being bankrupted by tax increases of tens of thousands of dollars. My husband is a public school teacher in Prince William County. I work compliance in the mortgage industry. We are a regular working family doing our best to build a stable future for our children.

[01:39:00] Even if I or my husband picked up a full-time second job that paid above minimum wage, we still couldn't earn enough in a year to pay that bill. This is not something a little hustle or saving can fix.

[01:39:16] It's an impossible burden, and we're not the only ones feeling it. Our neighbors are just like us. they are teachers, military retirees. They cannot afford this either. What makes my home so valuable now? Nothing. It's the exact same home I've lived in for years. There are no improvements or additions.

[01:39:38] The only difference is that you rezoned it to allow for data centers. But that project has been stalled by litigation that's beyond our control. The development can't move forward, and yet we are being taxed as if it has. What I'm asking for is basic fairness. These property assessments should be paused or adjusted until the lawsuits are resolved. Please don't let working families and retired individuals bear the cost of a project that hasn't even broken ground. The lives of the

[01:40:13] people who live on Pageland are being irreparably harmed by these taxes, and your inaction is making it worse. This is more than just undue hardship. This will drive our families to financial ruin and will have implications that last for generations. Please give us a clear and fair path forward. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon, chair and members of the board.

[01:40:47] I'm going to specifically talk about the point in the attendee. My name is Robert Lozano. I live in Coles Magisterial District, and I serve as a cop master for PAC 1355 out of Bennett Elementary. I'm also the training chair for Prince William District in the Scouts.

[01:41:10] I respectfully request that you do not initiate the change of comprehensive plan for 16,000 John Marshall Highway in Haymarket. Camp William B. Snyder is a vital resource for youth development in Prince William County and beyond.

[01:41:26] It's where boys and girls grow into leaders through outdoor learning, teamwork, and mentorship. Just this past weekend, my pack camped in Snyder. In addition to regular scouts units and in our council, I saw trail life youth sharing space.

[01:41:50] Over the last two years, I also witnessed Cub Scouts summer camps where many young youth ages from 7 to 11 learn new skills and build lifelong friendships. What is truly special of this place is those summer camps are also run by scouts.

[01:42:13] youth across our entire county and Northern Virginia. This allows hands-on practice on leadership and mentor young scouts. I want my son, my scouts, and scouts in the region to be able to experience the same experience that I have as a scout.

[01:42:39] I also want adults to be able to train in this place and experience, as me, the joy of help in leadership of these young people. Camp Snyder is already established and needs funding to improve operations and enhance his grounds.

[01:43:01] So we can continue our mission, and we depend on your vote for preventing the changes on this resolution. Help us protect the unique asset of Prince William for the youth and the region.

[01:43:18] Do not initiate the change of comprehensive plan for 16,000 John Marshall Highway in Haymarket. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hello, my name is Tom Bortner, and I am a resident of Lake Ridge in the Occoquan District.

[01:43:46] Thank you very much for this opportunity to address. I'm speaking on behalf of, same as the last gentleman, 1600 John Marshall Highway, 16,000, excuse me, John Marshall Highway, and how important that is to scouting in general in this district and to the scouts that I specifically represent, which are three different organizations, all sponsored by St. Matthew's Lutheran Church. A male troop, a female troop,

[01:44:19] and a venturing crew, which is, as you may know, a combined organization of older scouts from 14 to age 21, as opposed to the other two, the troop level, which is ages 11 to 18. Our boy troop has almost 60 scouts. It varies at this time of the year. His scouts progress up from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts, and this is important for them to be able to consider other troops. And so we have about

[01:44:51] 60 members, and we have about 60 adult members. In the girl troop, we have 13 members and about 24 adult members. And in the venturing crew, we have 12 in the crew and 26 adults. Now why is all this important because it's very important for us to have a great facility like William B. Snyder available where we can go and put our scouting skills and knowledge to use and to learn new

[01:45:25] skills and knowledge in a facility that's available to us. Now this is important not only to the 100 plus years of scouting for the males that have been in Boy Scouting, but now that we've become Scouting America. We also have a lot of female members that are joining Scouting America and some have in fact made the highest rank of scouting Eagle Scout. A very important facility for us is to be able to use a resource like Camp William B. Snyder and also this consideration

[01:46:03] of the 16,000 property, that it can then benefit us by being transmitted in its current status, not as it is proposed to be changed, so that we could benefit from receiving those resources and apply them to Camp William B. Snyder and to other scouting requirements. This is important to me not only as a current leader, but in fact, I have two sons who have become Eagle Scouts and have taken advantage of William B. Snyder over the years.

[01:46:40] Thank you very much for your time today. Thank you. Now, if you've already spoken, I'd appreciate it if you have a seat. And before I call the next speaker, Mr. Jacob Mosher and Alec Mushnick, if you guys want to go to the back as well, you may. All right, next speaker.

[01:46:59] Good afternoon, Madam Chair and the Board of Supervisors. I am Owen Meyer, and I live in the Alcaquan District. I really appreciate this opportunity to share. Talking to people my age, our biggest concern is jobs. Prince William County. While it is a strength that many of our county's residents work in and around D.C., it leaves college-age students wondering how we can build the future here. Right now, too many young professionals are forced to look elsewhere for work. If we don't address this, Prince William County could lose the next generation of workers. After investing so much in education, as we should be doing, this could cause serious issues later on.

[01:47:40] Beyond jobs, housing affordability is a serious barrier. I saw that there will be a June 3rd vote on the county's first affordable dwelling unit ordinance, which is a step in the right direction. But it cannot be the only step. Without accessible and affordable housing options, young workers simply won't be able to stay, no matter how much we love this county.

[01:48:01] The decisions we make today will shape whether Prince William County remains a place where young people can live, work, and thrive. I urge the county to take proactive steps, not just in housing, but in fostering new job opportunities to ensure that the next generation doesn't have to leave the community we call home.

[01:48:19] Thank you again for your time and consideration. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon, Chair, members of the board. My name is Austin Haynes.

[01:48:35] I live in the Brentsville Magisterial District. I'm a land use planner with Bean, Kenny, and Corman. I'm here today representing Scouting America's National Capital Area Council. I am also here to ask you today not to initiate a change to the comprehensive plan for 16,000 John Marshall Highway in Haymarket.

[01:48:55] This change was added to a resolution that would have made Congress proud. It is a long-winded, multifaceted resolution on transportation and mobility issues, of which this comp plan change has nothing to do with. Scouting America has owned this land for over 25 years and yet was not notified or spoken to about a possible change to the master plan for their property in any kind of official capacity.

[01:49:19] Where is due process? As you have already heard, the National Capital Area Council of Scouting America is a non-profit organization that benefits thousands of youths and adults in the DMV metropolitan area with one of its greatest concentration of scouts here in Prince William County. As a non-profit, NCAC must constantly seek to raise funds and manage its assets to maintain and grow its facilities and programming. Randomly downplanning this property from a commercial asset to parks and open spaces is akin to a non-official taking. The Parks and Recreation Authority rented this property for years and then a couple of years ago decided

[01:49:57] not to extend the lease. Let me make this clear. This is an attempt to downplan land to parks and open space, but the Parks and Rec Authority doesn't want it, thus creating an asset value of zero as opposed to a taxable income-producing commercial opportunity. The Scouts, after trying to work with Parks and Rec, then moved forward to determine the best use of this property as an asset, and it was determined that it was not usable by the Scouts due to its size and shape.

[01:50:25] Thus, it was put up quietly for sale. As this is the entrance to Camp Snyder, the scouts wanted a user who would fit with the surrounding community and not overwhelm and destroy the aesthetics as you come towards the camp. They have diligently worked with a potential buyer and will shortly be bringing an application forward that will add two single-story Albrecht TechFlex buildings that are professionally owned and managed.

[01:50:49] The neighbors will be notified. There will be public hearings to share their thoughts and feelings as to the proposal, something that the scouts were almost deprived of with this motion. Thank you for your time this afternoon, and please do not change the comp plan for 16,000 John Marshall Highway.

[01:51:05] Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon, members of the board. My name is Jacob Mosser, and I reside in Woodbridge, Virginia, and I'm honored to speak here today representing Scouting America National Capital Area Council.

[01:51:26] My job in our community is to help manage the 67 scouting units, over 2,000 youth who are involved in scouting here in the community. I'm here to represent and speak. Our CEO of our council was here, but unfortunately had to leave to catch a flight.

[01:51:41] So I just wanted to read remarks he had prepared in speaking on item 10D. As you all are probably aware, Scouting America is a youth leadership development and character building non-profit that every year serves over 20,000 youth in the DMV area.

[01:51:59] Our programs serve all youth from ages 6 to 20 years old. The organization owns 1600 John Marshall Highway, as well as Camp Snyder, which is north of the state of property. Our local nonprofit currently carries both properties on their balance sheet.

[01:52:18] Changing the current designation of the property would significantly diminish the value. Camp Snyder, which serves over 20,000 visitors every year, not only from the scouting community, right, scout leaders, scouts, and their families, but also outside guests, people from the community come and use that property.

[01:52:38] A large percentage of the visitors are from Prince William County as well, right here in our own backyard. These visitors generate tax revenue for the county as well as, you know, people know where Prince William County is when they come to Camp Snyder.

[01:52:54] The sale of 1600 John Marshall Highway will allow our council to take the sale of that property and reinvest in Camp Snyder to allow it to be and to continue to be a successful camp for the future and serving youth in the community. We ask that you keep the property's current designation so that we can maximize the value.

[01:53:16] We are currently under contract with St. John's Properties. Again, our intent is to invest the funds from this sale into Camp Snyder so it can continue serving the Prince William area and to continue to provide life-changing opportunities for the youth of our community.

[01:53:33] And on a personal note, I'm an Eagle Scout, a long-time resident here in the county. This property, 1600 John Marshall Highway, right, it's not currently used by NCAC, the National Capital Area Council. I see the sale of this property being able to allow Camp Snyder to be upgraded, certain properties on the space, and allow it to continue to serve our community.

[01:53:58] Thank you for your time. Thank you. Next speaker. Good afternoon, Chair Jefferson, members of the board. I'm Alan Muchnick, co-chair of Active Prince William and a resident of the city of Manassas.

[01:54:14] Active Prince William advocates for active mobility, public transportation, smart growth throughout the greater Prince William for healthier, safer, more livable, affordable, equitable, and sustainable communities. We look forward to the public hearing on the draft Prince William County Comprehensive Traffic Safety Action Plan.

[01:54:34] We've already submitted input for that draft plan and look forward to a strategic traffic safety plan with effective implementation. Thank you for approving the matching funds for Rails with Trails feasibility study today along the VRE Manassas line.

[01:54:50] This potential trail could provide much-needed active mobility access across Bull Run and ultimately all the way to Alexandria. We were also pleased to attend the recent Transportation Town Hall meetings by the Department of Transportation, although those meetings would benefit by including a presentation and facilitated public discussion of the proposed candidate transportation projects for upcoming funding applications.

[01:55:18] For example, no information was presented on the transportation alternatives and revenue-sharing applications that you've just approved on the consent agenda today. Finally, regarding item number 10-D, agenda 10-D, which is the initiation of a comprehensive plan amendment related to removing the Route 28 bypass and Manassas Battlefield bypass from the comprehensive plan, we are disappointed that the shared-use paths associated with those two roadways are being removed at the same time, since active mobility projects that are in the comp plan should have independent utility.

[01:55:53] We look forward to the restoration of those trails in the comprehensive plan and to the county's acquisition and development of part of the Flat Branch floodplain as part of a regional park, which would be an awesome addition to central Prince William County.

[01:56:13] Thank you. All right. Thank you so very much. We do not have anyone else signed up in person, so I'm going to go to Supervisor Andrea Bailey for remote public comment time. Thank you, Madam Chair. Shall we begin? Yes, we have one speaker signed up for the public comment time, and that is Larry Moss.

[01:56:32] Thank you very much. Good afternoon, everyone. Madam Chair, Board of Supervisors. Thanks for allowing me to speak today virtually. My name is Larry Moss. I'm a member of the Princeville Magisterial District. I'm also a business owner in the county and serve as the committee chair for the Prince William District, Scouting America.

[01:56:55] I'm here today to request that, like others that have already come forward, that you do not initiate a change in the comprehensive plan for 16,000 John Marshall Highway. The National Capital Area Council would like to be able to sell this property to ensure the long-term sustainability of William B. Snyder Camp, which is a vital part of the National Capital Area's scouting mission to continue to develop young leaders for the community and our nation.

[01:57:24] You know, Camp Snyder has been a local jewel for over 25 years now, and it's essential that we invest in the upkeep for its future. The sale of this small parcel of land would help provide necessary funds to maintain the camp, allowing to continue serving our scouts and our communities for many years to come.

[01:57:45] Now, as an executive coach, leadership coach, I work with many local leaders, business owners, educators, and community advocates, and a remarkable number of them attribute their foundational leadership skills to the time they had in scouting. They learn resilience, teamwork, and integrity through the challenges and opportunities offered at places just like William B. Snyder.

[01:58:08] I'm also the proud father of two Eagle Scouts, and I can tell you, attest personally, that the profound impact that scouting has had on their development into responsible, service-minded young men. I've witnessed this transformation firsthand. And becoming an Eagle Scout wasn't just about earning the rank.

[01:58:26] It was also about developing the character, the perseverance, and a sense of responsibility. The experiences they had that shaped them into the men they are today. So selling this small parcel of land isn't about diminishing our community's resources.

[01:58:43] It's actually about strengthening them. By investing in the future of Camp Snyder and scouting, we're ensuring that generations of scouts will continue to learn, grow, and become the future leaders of our community, maybe even members of this board. The same scouts that provide thousands of service hours every year to our communities.

[01:59:03] So let's think about this strategically, and by allowing the sale of this small portion of land, we're making a commitment to preserve and enhance Camp Snyder, a place that has given so much to our community and will continue to do so for years to come. Thanks again for your support and your consideration.

[01:59:22] Thank you, Mr. Moss. Does that conclude our participants? Yes, ma'am. Thank you so much for your help. i see an alicia van there that's you alicia okay just want to make sure okay madam chair back to you all right thank you very much um before we move on to agenda item seven public hearings supervisor gordy madam chair i want to move to defer item 7c to a date certain of uh june 3rd

[01:59:55] i will second that there any discussion on 7c all right i second it to june 3rd yes i mean we We don't need to vote on it, do we, do we?

[02:00:21] Not really, no. It's a motion. It's a motion, okay. Vote unanimous.

[02:00:39] All right, thank you so very much. We are going to move on to 7A and 7B, and those, hold on one second, are the public hearings for, I'm going to go ahead. Do we have any presentations on say associated?

[02:00:55] No, no, no. Does anyone have any questions on, I'm actually going to do these separately, 7A. Does anyone have any questions on 7A? No? Madam Chair. Supervisor Bailey? Can I move for approval? Oh, wait, hold on.

[02:01:11] I want to go, I'm going to go over to 7B. Okay. Does anyone have any questions on 7B? Because I'm going to open the public hearings. Okay. All right, anyone have questions? Okay, so I would now like to open the public hearings for 7A and 7B. Do we have anyone signed up to speak in person or, okay.

[02:01:27] We do not have anyone signed up to speak in person or remotely. So I'm going to go ahead and close the public hearings for 7A and 7B. I would also like to get separate motion on these items. So can I get a motion to move forward with 7A?

[02:01:43] Move for approval, Madam Chair. Second. All right, is there any discussion around this? All right, let's go ahead and vote on 7A. Vote unanimous.

[02:02:00] Supervisor Gordy abstaining from vote. All right, let's go on to 7B. May I get a motion to move it forward? So moved. Second. all right any discussion on 7b do you have supervisor franklin for 7b i believe so hold on let me get there is but i don't remember who it is can we get somebody um from planning to do you

[02:02:37] someone from planning can give us the end user applicants counsel all right some all right thank you i believe one of the users is panera all right their stock is not doing so well right now All right, go ahead and vote.

[02:03:09] Vote unanimous. All right, thank you so very much. We are now moving on to county executive time, and that is agenda item number eight.

[02:03:25] Mr. Shorter, the floor is now yours. Thank you very much, Madam Chair, members of the board. Just a few quick updates, if I can. One, there were no directives issued during our last meeting. In terms of directives closed, I want to quickly touch on commercial landscaping, The groundwater study and funding for additional noise testing for landscaping, we provided you with a landscaping sites inventory that identifies all the county-maintained sites

[02:03:57] and noted that the Department of Transportation created the commercial land use permit inventory in that memo that was sent out. We also provided you with information about the groundwater study that Public Works will launch this month in partnership with the USGS and Virginia Tech.

[02:04:16] We also provided and staff identified funding to cover the cost of the additional noise testing and technical assistance associated with the refining of the noise ordinance. And we brought that forward at the last meeting and you voted for approval.

[02:04:32] So all three of those items were closed since our last meeting. I wanted to also highlight a few really kudos to staff. I want to first recognize our Parks and Recreation staff for all of the incredible work they've done in hiring all the needed lifeguards for this year.

[02:04:54] That is, they will now be ready to open all pools and water parks on Memorial Day weekend. This is a very big deal. You can remember over the last few years, we really had a tough time recruiting, especially lifeguards.

[02:05:09] So I just want to give a big acknowledgement to Parks and Recreation for the great work. I also wanted to congratulate our Office of Youth Services for their successful recertification. This is very similar to accreditation for youth services with full compliance.

[02:05:26] This is a tremendous achievement for them, and I just want to thank all the staff in our Youth Services Office, our newly created Youth Services Office, for their attention to detail and the commitment to doing things the right way. I want to congratulate our Community Services Agency for receiving the Jack Wood Award from George Mason University, which recognizes the incredible partnership between Community Services and George Mason's College of Public Health in launching the Peer Support Specialist Workforce Pipeline.

[02:06:02] So big congratulations. I saw a few photos from the Recognition Award ceremony, so congratulations to Community Services. I also wanted to recognize that the American Planning Association Virginia Chapter 2025 Annual Conference is coming up in July.

[02:06:22] Prince William County will be featured in three sessions at the conference. Staff from our Planning Office and Transportation Department will be featured. The sessions will address the county's efforts focused on inclusive multimodal transportation, affordable housing, and the update to the noise ordinance.

[02:06:40] Again, a testament to the great work happening here in Prince William County and to the staff that are leading all of those efforts that we are now being highlighted across the country. They have here that this...

[02:06:56] All right, okay. And so the last item I wanted to congratulate on and highlight on is from the Office of Elections. We received an award. They received an award from the Elections Assistance Commission.

[02:07:15] The commission recognizes best practices in elections across more than 3,000 counties and cities. Our elections office received an award for innovation for the practice of posting all results tapes online for maximal transparency.

[02:07:30] They also received an honorable mention for the I Voted Sticker Contest. No county or city in Virginia has ever won an award from this commission. So a big shout-out and kudos to, yes, kudos to the staff and certainly to the director, Eric Olson, for all of his work and leadership with elections.

[02:07:54] Finally, I want to just make sure I mention that we are having our Memorial Day event next Tuesday, May 20th at 6.30 p.m. We will be honoring and remembering all of the brave men and women who gave the greatest sacrifice, In particular, we will be honoring Sergeant Robert Posey Jr., who was killed in Vietnam and whose name is being added to the memorial this year.

[02:08:20] And with that, Madam Chair, unless there are questions, that is all for me. All right. Does anyone have any questions? I don't see anyone in queue. So, all right. Thank you so very much, Mr. Shorter, for your update. We are going to go to agenda item number nine, and that is county attorney time.

[02:08:37] Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the board. For item 9A to authorize closed session, we will have consultation and discussion with legal counsel and briefings by staff members pertaining to the acquisition of real property for a public purpose with the accompanying legal advice from counsel and briefings by staff members pertaining to actual litigation regarding specific legal matters requiring the provision of legal advice by such counsel regarding land acquisition of property interests for right-of-way on the site of the former Applebee's Grill and Bar restaurant located at 13850 Noblewood Plaza.

[02:09:09] owned by GSR Investment LLC for the Miniville Road-Prince William County Parkway Interchange Project, where such consultation or briefing in an open meeting would adversely affect the bargaining position, negotiating strategy, or litigating posture of the public body. We will have consultation and discussion with legal counsel and briefings by staff members pertaining to the acquisition of real property for a public purpose, with the accompanying legal advice from counsel and briefings by staff members regarding specific legal matters requiring the provision of legal advice by such counsel regarding land acquisition of property interests for right-of-way on two parcels located at

[02:09:45] 17521 and 17529 Fraley Boulevard, owned by Carmen A. Bostic, trustee of the Altamire Family Revocable Trust for the Route 1 Fraley Boulevard widening project, where such consultation or briefing and open meeting would adversely affect the bargaining position, negotiating strategy, or litigating posture of the public body.

[02:10:05] We will have consultation with legal counsel and briefings by staff members pertaining to the discussion or consideration of the acquisition of real property for public purposes to include park purposes where discussion in an open meeting would adversely affect the bargaining position or negotiating strategy of the public body with the related discussion concerning an economic development item regarding a prospective business or industry or the expansion of a prospective business or industry where no previous announcement has been made of the business or industry's interest in locating or expanding their facilities in the County. Along with the related discussion or consideration of the investment of public funds for economic development matter where competition or bargaining is involved,

[02:10:43] where it made public initially the financial interest of the county would be adversely affected and where discussion in an open meeting would adversely affect the litigating posture, bargaining position, or negotiating strategy of the public body. And finally, a personnel discussion relating to the Office of Community Safety Director.

[02:11:00] These items are appropriate for closed session pursuant to 2.2-3711A, 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, and 8 of the Virginia Code. Move for approval, Madam Chair.

[02:11:15] Second. Let's go ahead and take a vote. That was a lot. Vote unanimous. And Madam Chair, members of the Board, item 9B, as you know, every year the General Assembly session has all the bills that go through both houses, then to the Governor and then back to the General Assembly.

[02:11:40] We work to call through numerous bills. We need to update the county code for those. This is just authorizing the public hearing. The public hearing will be on June 3rd. And if you have any questions, we're available to discuss. So moved. Second. All right, let's go ahead and vote.

[02:12:00] Vote unanimous. Thank you, Madam Chair. All right, thank you so very much. All right, we are going on to agenda item number 10, agency time.

[02:12:15] Mr. Shorter, if you would like to tee up everyone. Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Looks like Christina Wynn is on her way down with her team. Christine is going to be presenting on item 10A, Innovation Park Infrastructure Master Plan.

[02:12:34] Good afternoon, Chair and board members. Christina Wynn, Economic Development and Tourism. So in the spring of 2022, the board approved $100,000 appropriation from the Innovation Fund to hire a consultant to look at the Innovation Small Area Plan and prioritize those things in the plan in terms of making improvements to make the innovation area, small area plan come alive.

[02:13:10] And so I'm actually inviting Tom Flynn, who has failed miserably at retirement, who is going to go through the results of that study and that work.

[02:13:26] Thank you. Thank you, and good afternoon. It's good to be back here, even if it's a little rainy. I'm Tom Flynn. I'm an advisor to the Department of Economic Development and was one of the lead staff members as we went through this process.

[02:13:43] And is it a, right? Oh, I think it's that one. See? Oops, no, did I do it? Yeah, there you go. You retire and you forget these things. So just, I thought I'd back up a little bit and talk to you a little bit about, you know, Where we started in 1991, the board and the vision for Innovation Park, just to remind everybody about, you know, the idea was to create a high-class corporate research park around this acreage.

[02:14:14] In the mid-90s, the board went out and bought some 500 acres of land. It kept growing. In 2020, the board adopted an innovation small area plan to sort of reset and replan the area.

[02:14:35] And that's where we came out of where we got to today. Because part of that was a lot of infrastructure improvements in a plan that was supposed to be over 20 years. Some things have happened since then. You'll see them right there. And so the board directed us to go out.

[02:14:52] They allocated money. The staff hired AECOM basically to look and give us some preliminary design and cost estimates and then also help us prioritize which were the ones were the highest priority and which ones could we afford within the money we have.

[02:15:08] All this would be funded out of the Innovation Parks Fund, the special fund set up from the land sales. We engaged lots of the county departments, we engaged the Owners Association, as well as developers and landowners, and came out of that with a priority of enhancing connectivity between the two nodes that were identified in the small area plan, one being Farm Brew Live, which is now Nova Live, saw that, and then obviously the SciTech campus.

[02:15:43] So the first one of these recommendations is doing something to really invigorate Discovery Boulevard. These are the existing conditions out there. You can see it's rather bland. It's wide. You don't see a car in these pictures. You don't see anybody walking in these pictures.

[02:16:00] The small area plan really wanted to encourage both of those things. And so the recommendation is to spend about $5.6 million to do a number of things to really make that a more livable street, more friendly street by completing the sidewalk, bringing it down to one lane, putting parkings along it, putting a bike lane along it, landscaping the median, and installing lighting.

[02:16:28] So at the end it would look something like this. This is an earlier rendition that still shows two lanes. As we got into this a little bit further, the Department of Transportation said you're You're not going to have enough room there without a really major overhaul of the street.

[02:16:45] So we went down to one lanes with the bike lane and the parking along the side. So you can see a very, very different aspect, and hopefully bikers and walkers along it. This is more the actual drawing behind it, but it gives you a sense.

[02:17:02] You'll have about an 18-foot-wide median in there, a car lane, and then a bike lane, and then all the way over to the right, the sidewalk. So that's Discovery Boulevard. The other recommendation to spend money out of the Innovation Fund is on the Stormwater Management Pond.

[02:17:22] This is the pond that's downed by two silos. We thought this was a really great amenity to attract people around there and really bring some life and use this amenity better. So the recommendation here is to build a stone trail that goes all the way around the pond.

[02:17:41] connects to the trail that will come down Discovery Boulevard, as well as the existing trail that's on Route 28, install some decorative lighting, install some benches, that sort of activity. And the cost for the estimated cost for that is about $3.6 million.

[02:17:58] So those are the two funding recommendations that came out of the study. There were a lot of others, and I just want to briefly run through some of the other recommendations that were part of it. that didn't need to get funded or are sort of pending, if you will.

[02:18:14] In landscaping along the Prince William County Parkway, that really got done with the Jug Handle Project. We're holding off on the street furniture until the Innovation District branding comes along. Same with the public art, until we have a public art policy.

[02:18:30] And then we have some smart city infrastructure for further study. In terms of unfunded infrastructure, the big one here is the pedestrian bridge. We only have $15 million to spend. We didn't want to put it just into one place. The roundabout, put that off until we get a buyer for the land down there.

[02:18:47] The shared use path along Prince William County Parkway, we thought it would be better to get VDOT to pay for that at some point in the future. And you can see the rest of the list there. Just to give you a heads up where we are with the Innovation Enterprise Fund, $22 million in the fund.

[02:19:08] There are some encumbrances there, so we had approximately $15.2 million in unencumbered fund balance to work with. And this all is driven by the resolution that the board adopted to establishing the Innovation Economic Development Land Bank policy, that all the proceeds from the sale would go back into improving infrastructure, making economic development improvements to this.

[02:19:34] So if the board nods and says, yeah, we're fine with these priorities, the next action will be the Department of Transportation will come forward with a request to allocate the $9.2 million so they can have the money to design and build that.

[02:19:52] And then we'd be looking at some type of spring 2026 action for the board to take for approval of those construction contracts with an opening of sometime in 2027. questions okay so um don't cut your don't cut your day job okay don't quit that was funny all right supervisor weir supervisor vega supervisor weir just go

[02:20:26] just go just go thank you madam chair 5.8 million for improvements to discovery boulevard the middle of an industrial sector and data centers who's going to use it we have a lot of activity going down to two silos. The county owns roughly about 60 to 70 acres of undeveloped land down around on Discovery Boulevard. As that develops, we would see that. We're seeing a lot of activity out there on a Saturday and Sunday. There's parking up and down Discovery Boulevard.

[02:21:01] So we really think that that will really help enhance that view. I'm just looking at the map and I'm looking at the nature of current development there, what is the reality of it, and it is literally essentially a data center alley, and we want to spend $5.8 million on beautifying that road, and I've got dirt roads in my district that people are screaming to me about that I think we could make better use of monies, and there are other infrastructure improvements we could use, and I'm not particularly amenable to making Discovery Boulevard look better when, quite frankly, nobody lives there.

[02:21:42] And then it seems like there's a considerable amount of money for a stone dust trail or a gravel trail around a retention pond. Madam Chair, I can't be in favor of either of these things. I think there are better uses for the money. So, Supervisor Weir, I think the, remember, this money can only be used in Innovation Park.

[02:22:08] It is for Innovation Park purposes. And in terms of, yes, are there a lot of data centers there? But the big thing we're trying to do is connect the town center with Farm Brew Live. And that is critical to having that pedestrian access and being able to create that additional multipurpose kind of routes.

[02:22:32] If you look today, there's still, as Tom said, almost 100 acres of county-owned land that is not developed. Our vision, collective vision, is that those are going to be value-added employers that are working there.

[02:22:50] And so we are going to be bringing a lot more employees to that district right along that Discovery Boulevard road. I would simply respond that I think there are better uses of the money for improvements within the district other than this.

[02:23:05] And until you have an end user and until I see that it's not another data center or another distribution center or something that's not going to be pedestrian friendly, shall we say, or engender additional pedestrian traffic or serve as an attraction to residents of Prince William County, I mean, I would want to defer any further investment on that type of thing.

[02:23:31] Now, if you bring a project, let's say you want to bring a theme park there or, you know, restaurant row or something like that, then I'll be amenable. But as long as the use is as industrial as it is right now with the exception of two silos, I just don't think it's a wise investment of the infrastructure funds.

[02:23:54] I think there are other infrastructure issues that could be addressed. I hear you, and I understand. but we are trying to economically diversify this county and attract high-value-added employers, and those employers are looking for the types of amenities that are spelled out in this area.

[02:24:16] And so otherwise, we're just going to keep getting the same thing. Anything else? All right, let's go on to Supervisor Vega, and I apologize. She's actually quite funny. That's my chair. She has really good impersonations.

[02:24:32] Christina, some projects like the shared use path are dependent on VDOT grants, correct? In terms of the future? Yes. Sorry. Okay, and as we know, oftentimes, or most of the time, a grant funding is not a guarantee.

[02:24:50] What happens to the plan if, let's say, Plain Devil's Advocate, we don't have a VDOT grant to fund something like this? Well, ma'am, I think what's happening here is that we're asking that the board fund this project in its entirety. That is the ask here.

[02:25:06] And again, like Christina said, I just want to make sure, again, I'm sorry, Rick Canizales, you're Director of Transportation. I just want to make sure that we understand the project. I know, as Supervisor, we have called it a beautification. There is some beautification happening here, but the gist of it is to make those connections, like mentioned earlier.

[02:25:21] You're trying to get from point A to point B in multimodal means, right? So you're trying to get there through your car, your bicycle, walking. When you have a university that's as close to an entertainment facility as two silos in, you're going to want those multimodal connections. We made the trails, we made the trails over by University.

[02:25:39] Those trails are being connected to what the development is putting out there with the town center. Those trails have been connected on Discovery Boulevard as well as University to reach out to this Discovery area in order to extend that trail to be able to connect those two facilities.

[02:25:55] So you see it's a whole access plan and a whole grid for that innovation area that crosses 234 and we have to be sure to get those bicycles and pedestrians safely through that area, and into the area that we want them to, which is that area of two silos and all the facilities that it has within it.

[02:26:13] Thank you. Thank you, Rick, for that. That gives me a little bit more concern in regards to, so we have $22 million to work with, yes? Less the encumbrances, so $15 million. So there's $6.8 million encumbered.

[02:26:37] Okay. Let me follow back up with you. Okay. Let me gather my thoughts. Yeah. And I think what Tom was saying, if these were, so the items, there's, these were the items that, the two items that were identified with funding, the discovery and the stormwater pond that would be additive to the park, would enhance the placemaking, add that this would make a more attractive employment.

[02:27:16] But there's these other projects that are not funded. And so if the board would rather choose something else, other areas, that's what we're here to discuss and prioritize because we're not, staff will come back later with the staff items for specific projects to budget and appropriate at that time.

[02:27:42] Gotcha. And I'm sorry, ma'am. I just wanted to make sure that we understood those connections that I was talking about making. this doesn't show it, but this trail will be connected to the Trail to 28. So the trail that's on 28 right now will connect straight into this facility that can take people from 28 right into innovation. Then this facility will connect to the sidewalk and trail that we are creating along Discovery all the way through. So that's how you see the connection.

[02:28:11] So now you're making a connection all the way from university, where the town center is, where George Mason is. You're making all that connection all the way through the intersection there, the major intersection, down Discovery, across the campus there, the entertainment campus, and into, back into 28th. So it's a full pedestrian and bicycle connection you are making to that entire network. You're basically finishing up the network in that area.

[02:28:38] Right, and I'm not opposed to it. I mean, Tom, you know, this entire innovation, I think we should call it the Innovation District, since we've been talking about dis, that's what it is. Well, you know, it's neat. Everything that is happening in this area is pretty unique in many ways, and so I just want to make sure that we're, you know, one, looking at it holistically, which based on the presentation we are, but two, that we are aware of the funding limitations that we have. I know that it's a very aggressive project, proposal, but I just want to be realistic with, you know, the resources that we have in place, and I do think that the approach that is being asked of the board

[02:29:17] to prioritize right now is the right approach to take because ideally we would like to have all of the funding needed to see this through but i understand um the funding limitations that we're presented with and i and i think too like part of that strategy that holistic look is if we're making strategic investments into the park we're going to help to drive land values which then we can get more money to finish the rest of the parks but we're going to be able to attract quality employers and that's what everybody wants i think i hope all right supervisor um gordon

[02:29:55] thank you madam chair um miss adams amy adams innovation district from george mason university and her the consultant from stiletto right there um would you mind coming forward i'd like to ask you i mean from from the perspective of the individuals who are doing the research into activating the innovation district what do you see are the key things that we ought to be investing in that's going to attract the businesses that are going to enhance this community for us super

[02:30:32] hey uh thank you for having us here it's an excellent segue because we're going to be talking more specifically about the innovation district in just a moment um but certainly you know this really does build on what's happening in other communities that we're seeing communities of innovation or innovation parks or research parks expand sort of the catchment expand the activities and again this is exactly what we're going to be talking about in just a moment because we've heard from the community in terms of some of the things that they want to see around mixed-use housing other amenities transportation and modal connections to be able to help get folks from one end of the district to the other are all really important components and considerations

[02:31:12] that we've certainly been looking at and that we are looking forward to chatting about as we get into the next presentation i don't know if that's helpful uh yeah very good thank you so i might add um having been on the scitech campus for 22 years and um talking with our students talking with our community right so one of the beautiful things about this area is people are coming to work right they're not in their offices they're not working from home they are coming and they are here and they like to get out right walk to different meetings and that's what we're going to try to create through this innovation district is that the collisions that happen that drive innovation. And I guess just to kind of paint a picture of the students on the campus, right? So

[02:31:49] we have 100 beds right now with University Village. We'll be increasing that substantially. And I can tell you, most of those students don't have cars. They're international students. They don't have a vehicle. They are landlocked. They get on the shuttle, the George Mason shuttle, to go to the Manassas Mall for Walmart, right? They don't get out to have that social life. If they do, it's got to be an Uber, but they are on very low wages, right, as graduate students. So this connectivity, The bike paths, the walking, really will enable that vibrancy, right?

[02:32:20] Because the companies also want to connect with the students, which are the future employers. So it creates those collisions that I think really drives the economic development that Christina was talking about. Thank you both. I just, you know, I was doing some analysis for my district.

[02:32:36] And if you take a look at the age groups in our district, when you get to 19, the population shrinks. And then it doesn't grow again until the 45 age group. So we have this very, it means the starting workforce that many companies need does not exist in Prince William County, or at least in my district.

[02:33:00] And in this area, we've got Innovation Town Center, we've got University Village, we've got Manassas Mall that's coming on, you know, that'll be coming up before us. We have another multifamily development coming up down on the other side of Hornbaker that's part of the Amberley Avera apartments is an expansion of that. In trying to find ways, just like that young man said earlier today, we need to find housing for these young people. But it's not just about the housing. It's about the other things. They want the nightlife. They want

[02:33:35] that connectivity. And right now, the biggest activity that we have sits at the end of discovery. And that is what's happening at Two Silos or Nova Live now. And so as all of this comes online, we've got to create these connectivities.

[02:33:52] We've got to make this easier. And at some point, yes, we have got to get that bridge. There's no way on God's green earth I'd ever cross the parkway on foot, ever. And so we're going to have to get that pedestrian bridge. I'm already talking to the developers for Innovation Town Center about that.

[02:34:10] But, you know, with everything that George Mason is doing through the SciTech campus, the innovation district, you know, we've as the county, we've got to make the investments that are going to serve to attract the businesses. And it's not just, you know, yeah, the share paths, all these things are a means to an end.

[02:34:27] They're not the end and of themselves, but it's about creating the space that somebody says, I want to do business here. And I've been in different places. I've been in San Antonio. I've been in Dallas, Irving, Texas, Houston, all over the country. and I've seen these places just like, okay, well, there's a lot of park, where are the people?

[02:34:45] That was a decade ago. Now you go, they're the people. The businesses came. And so sometimes you've got to make the upfront investments in order to bring the people because they've got to see what they're moving into and that there's an actual vision that is actually being fulfilled rather than something that's sitting in a binder on a shelf.

[02:35:04] And so I look forward to seeing how we can further enhance this. You know, the trail around the water management pond was something that I've always thought was something I needed to do. But anyway, that's what I'm excited about, and I thank you.

[02:35:21] All right, Supervisor Franklin. Yeah, thank you. And some of these slides kind of answer my question, and I'm glad Supervisor Gordy kind of mentioned about some of the planning in that area because what I was having a hard time, I mean, I guess the pedestrian bridge is going to help with this, is if you're on the George Mason side, like where the Hilton Performing Arts Center, I think the plan is to connect all of this.

[02:35:49] But if you're biking, that's probably fine. And if you are driving, obviously that's okay. But if you're walking, that is quite a walk, even if you, exactly. And also, but even if you create the trails, I mean, I guess if you're looking for a leisurely 30, 45-minute walk, that's fine.

[02:36:06] But I was just calculating, even from, like, the FBI building, walking to two silos. That's still, like, 25 minutes. Yeah, it's 20. I just looked it up. It's a slow walk. Yeah. Well, and so because if you go to slide, slide, let's see here, six, I was asking Tom.

[02:36:30] I said, where are these people going? And, you know, he was telling me what's going to be built up around there. And so I'm assuming there will be additional retail. There would be additional things for them. Like, in your mind, where are these people going? Because he said two silos.

[02:36:46] I'm like, well, that's all the way up the street. And I'm not sure I want to walk all the way up the street to two silos. But then he was mentioning there would be other retail and multi-use around it that we're building up, I'm assuming? In innovation, at the town center, there's the retail.

[02:37:01] Across the way. Yes. Across the way. Yes. Right. So do those people presumably live at the town center? Well, they're either living at the town center or, you know, the campus, George Mason campus. And they took the pedestrian bridge over.

[02:37:16] And they're walking, yes, they're walking. And they may be, but they may be walking or scooting over to silos or whatever. But there's also just people during the day, right, that want to get out and walk. There's a lot of employees that are working in this area, and people do want to get out and walk around.

[02:37:38] Yeah. And there's no there's no sidewalks. There's nothing. Sure. Yes. Agreed. And I'm in support of this plan. I do want us to just be mindful that, yes, there are people walking for exercise and then there are people who want to leave their buildings to go get lunch somewhere.

[02:37:53] Two Silos is way up the road and is a 25 minute walk, 23 minutes if you're walking fast. And then across the way, you can cross over. And so I just want us to be thinking about realistically giving people options who are actually working in some of these industrial complexes over here.

[02:38:14] So I agree with the plan, but I want us to be realistic in that all these people will have to be walking for leisure because if they're walking to go somewhere, it's still a long way away. I hear you. All right, Supervisor Bode.

[02:38:31] Thank you, Madam Chair. just to sort of dovetail off of that but in the other direction um you know ncs technologies is right there plant direct is right there right now those folks they they have to get in their car to go anywhere substantial right i'm thinking about in terms of the ecosystem that you were talking about that suresor gordy was talking about you know folks will be able to then simply leave their their their place of business here and from ncs and plant direct it's not a 20 minute walk it's like a five- to ten-minute walk at most.

[02:39:01] So there are other businesses in that area that it's a much closer walk to. So I think that it's a good idea to start enhancing that and showing that people can have activated spaces. It isn't just them jumping in their car and driving somewhere. But just a couple comments around the plan.

[02:39:21] I like the idea of really taking that stormwater management pond, which is basically just a random asset that is there for stormwater management, turning it into some kind of activated space with the trails, the lighting, what have you. And so there's going to be two scenic overlooks that are planned for it.

[02:39:37] Has there been much thought around additional things? I know that in other areas there's, you know, not a full-on boardwalk, but a boardwalk light that sort of goes back over the water, then comes back off. So that's something that really makes it more of an amenity versus just a stormwater management point.

[02:39:55] We can't go too close to the water because we're constricted by our agreement with the Corps of Engineers. So we have to observe a certain environmental protection area around the water. Sure. And how about landscaping around it? Absolutely. That will be part of this as well, as long as lighting around the trail.

[02:40:17] Because honestly, like was said earlier, this is an opportunity to make small picnic areas something that when folks are coming out, they can spend time and you actually see people activated there versus either just walking or, you know, driving by. So I wanted to leave that with you.

[02:40:32] In terms of the on the roadway side of it, understanding that, you know, this is going to become a more walkable, bikeable, multimodal type of corridor on Discovery, how much thought is there around, you know, refuges for the pedestrians crossing Discovery at certain places, knowing that, yes, there's only a few businesses up on sort of the north side, there's that long stretch of land between NCS and then two silos, but knowing at some point there's going to be more crossings that will need to happen, and how much sort of right-of-way do we have on either side to accommodate that?

[02:41:08] I'll leave the right-of-way question up to Rick, but that's something we certainly can study as to how do people cross Discovery Boulevard. But with it being slowed down, you know, I can remember when people used to drag race up and down Discovery Boulevard in the middle of the day.

[02:41:25] That was not that long ago. They used to shoot movies about doing it out there. But I think that's something that DOT can look at when they do the engineering work on it as to the pedestrian crossings across Discovery Boulevard. Sure.

[02:41:40] And the last thing, just looking ahead at what this could be in the future, let's definitely look at, especially if the right-of-way would allow it, places where there could be bus stops. Because if you're talking about the level of density in businesses and mixed use that we're talking about, To me, it's always a disservice when we have a bus stop that's in a travel lane or a bus stop that's in a parking lane or something like that.

[02:42:05] We need to start having forward thought on that. And so I think we should at least start looking at that in potential areas that we know are going to be activated areas that we want to see the development. And if I actually could play on what you just said, with the next item coming up with the Innovation District and the programming associated with that potential future, when Supervisor Franklin asked, where are these people walking to?

[02:42:31] Like, I think we're looking at, you know, maybe there's an area in the park that is, you know, food trucks. You know, maybe there's, you know, some sort of outdoor networking or something like that. Maybe there's something to do with kids.

[02:42:48] Like, we've got to be preparing for the future and what we want to see happen, not necessarily what's there today. Yeah, the last thing, thank you for that. And actually getting on that, you mentioned some of the things you guys are still looking at, sort of smart city designs and stuff like that.

[02:43:03] Let's really lean in there. I know that one of the biggest things that folks want to see now is self-service in their public areas. We know this area kind of is a dead zone right now when it comes to that. So when it comes to attracting especially young people, they don't want to walk somewhere and suddenly they have no self-service. They can't stream anything. They can't show anything to their friends.

[02:43:20] So just thinking about that too. Thank you. Thank you. All right, Supervisor Bailey. Thank you, Madam Chair. This is exciting. And it's exciting from a lot of different perspectives. I can definitely support it because as we watch the phases from 2020 up until now, it's been moving a little bit at a time.

[02:43:41] Thanks, Kenny, for your comparison. It's been moving a little bit at a time and strategically moving a little bit at a time. And I know in that quarter, it goes back to something that my colleague said earlier about small businesses and people wanting to be here and live here in this area and to the young man that mentioned today make create something where we want to come back and work here and thrive here so i i see that this is the futuristic answer to that and so uh i i do appreciate that and i also

[02:44:17] appreciate that when you talk about creating the jobs you know the the the medical piece that we were looking at in that area and them having entertainment and a place to go to play and thrive where two silos is and we're just open malarkey all of that I see the vision to this and so I really appreciate how you're bringing us along I don't like the monies I don't like the dollars but it costs I realize that and so there is a potentiality for us to give more input on the

[02:44:53] the money piece but I see the vision all right I don't see anyone else so thank you very much for part a yes I was just going to say I see next steps um quickly is there anything else that you need from us as a board are you no forward to move forward prosper I think this was really good

[02:45:13] feedback and and appreciate that all right thank you so very much thank you okay just waiting for

[02:45:46] you all right so the next item today is to talk about the innovation district we have today you've already met her laura blennis with stiletto she was our consultant as well as amy adams with george mason university and so we have the the team has made during the study period which we originally had gotten a $50,000 Go Virginia matching grant for the planning grant for the Innovation

[02:46:22] District in which we hired Stiletto to do that work, we've shared those updates with the board. Now we're at the place that we're going towards a $2.5 million Go Virginia implementation grant. And we're here to ask for $250,000 out of the EDOF to match that grant. And so we want to just provide kind of an update of what we've been doing since we've provided an update. And then

[02:46:55] what would the implementation of that GoVirginia grant be? And just so you know, Region 7 has already um approved the go virginia grant and it's going to go to the state in june i believe for approval and so with that i'm going to invite laura to give the presentation thanks thanks christina and uh and hello everybody thanks again for having us here uh this afternoon it's a real pleasure uh to be back with you and so as christina mentioned we want to just walk you through where

[02:47:30] we're at uh what we learned through the uh process and then amy's going to talk a little bit about next steps and what the Go Virginia implementation grant is going to be used for. So we're going to dive right in. It's a great segue from the conversation we just had in supporting the things that we need to look at from a foundational, intentional infrastructure perspective to support these types of initiatives, and I'll talk a little bit more about that in the presentation.

[02:47:56] And so the vision here for the Innovation District, and we heard from, we're going to show you a map in a moment, and I know we went through that a little bit in our conversations individually that we would have had. But what we're really trying to accomplish here is being envisioned to be an interconnected hub of discovery and really taking this as an area of innovation, building on what's there already with the Innovation Park and the SciTech campus, and connecting the dots to a broader initiative that's going to connect world-leading researchers.

[02:48:25] We've heard about the importance of supporting students and gainful employment opportunities. It's going to feed into all that, which I'll show you in a moment, around the goals. So the mission is really about bringing together those world-class facilities, which we've got in the SciTech campus, among other areas, expertise and resources to accelerate this economic impact for Mason, the Prince William County, and the city of Manassas as well.

[02:48:50] So a few of the goals. This initiative is really about building partnerships, strategic partnerships between industry and academic institutions to really increase that talent pipeline and attract, retain, and grow businesses. We've heard the conversation around what the Innovation Park is today.

[02:49:06] What we're trying to imagine is where can we take this in the future with really intentional development in the land that we have left in the boundaries of the district, which we'll show you in just a second. The goal is to offer education and workforce training opportunities that's tied to industry needs, which we really want to see as an outcome.

[02:49:25] We want to create an environment that enables the exchange of ideas between innovation generators in academia, industry, and government, and healthcare. we'll talk about the sectors in just a minute. It's about attracting and retaining the young professionals, establishing resources to support emerging tech startups, offering programs to help businesses at all stages to grow and prosper here in the county, and to build the community by fostering that connection, the outreach and the inclusion, really those connection points. So this is the map of the district, and this is really just to outline what we've got in the area already and what we want to build upon.

[02:50:00] And so what's encompassed in this area is the SciTech campus, we've got the Manassas Regional Airport, and then, of course, we've also got the Innovation Town Centre, which is up next to Mason, the SciTech campus. You'll see in the purple area outside of the main boundaries of the district is the historic downtown of Manassas, and the future Innovation District component may be where the existing mall location is, where you may want to extend it over time.

[02:50:29] But what we're trying to be able to understand here, based on what we were just talking about around infrastructure, is how do you move people from one end to the other? How do you create those connection points so that they're not just going into one facility? We want to take advantage of the fact, as my colleague Amy had already mentioned, people are actually working in this area because you're building stuff.

[02:50:48] So they need to be there. It's not all hybrid. You're in life sciences. We're going to talk about the sectors in a second. And so it's very exciting. And how do we take and leverage the land that we do have left to really maximize that impact and create those connection points? So the transportation infrastructure is quite critical in making sure that people can move in and around and really create those connection points.

[02:51:10] This is really kind of what helps to illustrate where we're at and where we're going. And so the slide, the column that shows the business park shows, oh, dear, just hang on one second. The slide that shows the business park is what we have today, which is manufacturing uses, office uses, and some labs.

[02:51:26] We've also got some walking trails, but you just heard from Tom and Christina. We're hoping to expand upon that, and intentional and targeted development. But what the Innovation District will do is add in elements around shared facilities in the core of the development, some networking assets, programming to support companies, and focus in strategic sectors, which we're going to talk about next, strategic connections to the universities and college in a more intentional and meaningful way, an overarching promotional campaign so we can get people really thinking differently and attracting companies, taking advantage of all of the talent that you have in and around a two-hour radius, really, of this area, and then focus tenant recruitment to support broader development.

[02:52:05] And so that's kind of really helping to show visually where we want to go with this. I'm conscious of the time, so we won't go into the weeds on all this. Amy's actually going to talk a little bit about these components because it's really how we've baked and prepared the Go Virginia implementation grant, but it's really focused on marketing and branding, industry support and collaboration, and workforce programming, which you'll hear more in just a sec.

[02:52:28] The four sectors that we've narrowed this down to, and this is based on a ton of data collection and analysis and understanding your strengths in your educational programming, your research capabilities, your innovation ecosystem and the workforce that you already have here and the businesses that are here. So it's about life sciences and biotech, aerospace and defense, cybersecurity and data infrastructure and semiconductors and electronics. And so these are areas we really do believe that this particular region has strength that rises above competitors in other jurisdictions so that we can attract those companies and that talent

[02:53:03] pipeline and keep them here. So we're really excited about this. I won't go into the, you know, certainly welcome to answer any questions on this, but we're really focused on impact and outcomes for you. And so you see in the column for Prince William County, we're trying to create that economic return. We're trying to build the workforce. We're trying to make sure we have that focused and intentional development, but it all comes back to really keeping the folks that are here. As we've heard in earlier presentations, the young professionals want to stay here. Let's do something to be able to keep them here and that's really the goal with this development.

[02:53:37] We are going to highlight just a couple of things on what we heard and then I'm going to ask Amy to come up and talk a little bit about next steps and what we hope to accomplish in this next phase of the implementation grant. And so in some of the conversations that we had with all of you, really great feedback which has been incorporated in terms of the work that we will be doing in the next phase, but received some validation around the concept itself. Some concern raised around the concentration of data centers, and we're mindful of that, which is why we have the focus in those four priority sectors. So any new development that takes place in the existing land that's left, we really would like to see in those four focused areas so that you can make sure

[02:54:16] you can maximize your impact and your potential overall economic impact for jobs, GDP, and all of those great things that we're all looking for here. So we've addressed that, wanting to make sure. We've already talked about that in the priority sectors. Ensuring that OmniRide is involved in the district, and they certainly have been part of a number of the conversations, making sure, again, back to transportation, the multimodal components, some really neat things that they're doing, and we think it's a great pilot area for some of those new initiatives to take place. And also looking at attainable housing and engagement with the county K-12 system, just making sure that that's part of it as well, and so that's been factored in and will be included in the

[02:54:55] implementation as well. So the three priorities and again I've already mentioned it's marketing and branding, industry support and collaboration and workforce programming. Amy's going to talk a little bit more about that and these are the components that have helped to inform what we've actually put forward to GoVirginia to help support this next phase so that we can get to those outcomes and really activate the district with the Innovation Park of course being part of that in addition to the SciTech campus and, again, where that airport is.

[02:55:24] And with that, I'm going to pass it to my colleague, Amy, from George Mason. Amy. Thank you so much. All right. Well, wonderful seeing you all again and really excited to share where we are taking this grant. Again, $2.6 million grant.

[02:55:40] We've raised $1.3 million in match for that. And to summarize our aims, we are going to build the plane while we are flying it. So we are going to first, our first aim is to build the infrastructure. We want to create a sustainable governance and finance model.

[02:55:58] So this is not a two-year grant project, but this has a sustainable future that really creates impact in the city of Manassas and Prince William County for many, many years to come. While doing that, we will also be offering several rounds of programming.

[02:56:16] Number one focus is creating a workforce accelerator. So we'll be offering life science certificate program aligned with industry need. We will be creating capstone courses that align and connect our students, our senior engineering students, with startups and smaller companies that typically do not invest.

[02:56:35] The value being to drive new innovations and collaborations in collaboration with the university and also being able to connect that workforce with the companies. VDB has had data out. Students who have internships in these types of experiential learning with industry, they stay.

[02:56:51] They're much more likely to stay in a young professionals program. We'll also have several ways that we'll be engaging with the K-12 schools and many other ways that we will continue adding additional educational opportunities, including Nano Boot Camp.

[02:57:08] On accelerating commercialization, we have three main programs that we are focusing on. Number one is an international soft landing program. I can tell you, having been at the university, I know that we do not have enough IP alone to fuel the economy there in Innovation Park and the surrounding region.

[02:57:26] So really looking to soft land international companies. We've actually talked to Nalgene, who's looking if this works to actually own a 30,000-square-foot accelerator in Innovation Park, seeing the really amazing assets that we're building on. And that's through also the county's investment in Endeavor 234 and the Northern Virginia Bioscience Center.

[02:57:48] We'll also hire two tech mentors that will help support companies across the sector. So not just life sciences, but across the sectors. These will be individuals that have been serial entrepreneurs, very successful in the tech business. Having learned when the tech businesses are working with the SBDCs, if they're not directly aligned in their areas, there's that lack of trust because they don't understand some of the things that they are facing.

[02:58:14] There will also be accelerator programs, so constant programming. As we were talking about, the density of people getting out, right, constant programming to engage people of all levels of businesses to ensure that they have the ingredients they need to succeed. And then finally, this was actually recommended by Secretary Seguera and built on by Christina, is an innovation access program.

[02:58:37] And so consider it like a buy local district where our startups have access to pitch and to share opportunities to beta test, et cetera, with local buyers from government, from schools, from large industries, et cetera. And so these are expected outcomes.

[02:58:54] Again, a very economic-focused grant. And there's no crosstalk across these. We have done very careful consideration of the numbers. I won't go through any of them individually. And this just shows a timeline.

[02:59:11] I won't, again, spend a lot of time here just to let you know. As Christina mentioned, Go Virginia Region 7 unanimously approved our grant to move on to the state. They said this was the grant that aligned most from everything that they've seen align most with their mission of economic growth and diversification of northern Virginia's economy.

[02:59:33] We present to the working group tomorrow for state, and we will know by June 10th if it's awarded. And if so, we will begin on July 1. We have a lot of the team already in place. I can tell you we're already starting because we have a very aggressive schedule ahead of us.

[02:59:48] For example, we already have marketing materials in process so that we can launch that soft landing program when we go to Bio International in Boston on June 16th. So working very closely with Helena at the Economic Development Office on that as well.

[03:00:06] And just to show you, I mentioned we had $1.3 million in match. We have embedded the 250,000 asks into this and hoping that you'll vote to provide that for us today. But you can see here, and this does not include everybody, we had additional funders who came through after we submitted these slides.

[03:00:27] But there has been tremendous community engagement. Over 50 organizations have been involved throughout the planning process and just a community that's really excited to bring this to the region. Thank you. Thanks, Amy, and thanks, Laura.

[03:00:45] So, again, we're just here to staff recommends the authorization of the performance agreement and a $250,000 grant out of the Economic Development Opportunity Fund so that this project continues to move forward.

[03:01:02] And then with the hopes that I imagine we will probably check in more often over the next two years but with an ultimate ask in january of 2026 this group coming back and talking about more of that long-term sustainability and what is that governance and financial model to have a innovation district that is not dependent on necessarily grants all right thank you so very much i'm going to open up for questions if we have any questions and then and we can have any discussion within a motion.

[03:01:40] So Supervisor Bode, do you have questions? Yes, Madam Cheryl, and thank you for that. I'm going to have most of my comments under the discussion. So my one question is, I know two slides back, you sort of talked about the governance structure, and that's one of the early things, and it makes sense that it's going to come in. My question is, since I'm a nerd, I started researching all this stuff, especially at the last time we had a roundtable at Hilton, And so I've been looking at different ones throughout the country, and one like Cortex, for example, in St. Louis, they have an interesting governance structure.

[03:02:14] It's very inclusive. So, you know, knowing where we sit, knowing us as a region, knowing us as a county, you're very well aware of our culture as a county. Sort of how are you sort of framing and looking at the cross-sector governance body that's going to really make it inclusive and sort of really makes this sort of pop in terms of the leadership of it?

[03:02:33] I'll start, and I also welcome Laura to weigh in as well. So we do see this as a 501c3 with ownership by the university, the county, the city, and a board also represented by the diverse sectors of the industries for which we will serve, as well as transportation and others really to make sure, again, that we're thinking about the holistic innovation district growth.

[03:03:02] Do you want to add? Yeah, just to build a bit on that, it's very much going to be built in layers because there are a lot of different stakeholders. We want to make sure that folks' voices are heard in participating. We heard that through the planning stage.

[03:03:18] You've got a very engaged community, very enthusiastic and positively engaged community. Really, the support that we've seen from the industry perspective is certainly one of the best that we've seen really throughout the nation. So we're really proud of that and the team at Mason and in the county and within Manassas.

[03:03:39] And so layers. So as Amy mentioned, 501c3, partnership with sort of the three entities likely. But then, you know, a steering committee that's going to be comprised of perhaps working group chairs that are going to be focused in the different components within either the sectors or the functions.

[03:03:56] So in the planning stage, it would be really around the governance and the finance and the marketing and the branding. but then as we move beyond that to a sustainability model, likely focused by sector to make sure that you're providing the right programming and supports by sector. So it will evolve quite a bit over the next 24 months with sort of an interim sort of component, which, as Amy mentioned, building out the teams already and getting people teed up to participate because folks are very interested in continuing to support in whatever way they can, as we've seen already with the matching contributions that we're getting.

[03:04:28] I don't know if that's helpful. It does. Thank you. Great. All right, I don't see anyone else with any questions. Supervisor Gordy. Yeah, thank you. First of all, again, I just want to thank you for all the hard work that you guys have been doing on this.

[03:04:45] I've been certainly learning a lot and appreciate some of the meetings, like with Dr. Clark. When he came, Dr. Clark is a person who's done a lot of research on innovation districts and what makes them successful.

[03:05:01] could you speak to you know just kind of those elements that that demonstrate that that this is not just pie in the sky dreaming for us that we really are on the edge of something incredible here um so sure thank you thank you for the question and uh as we look at building on the presentation that mr clark had provided there's there's certain elements that communities need to have in order to make sure that you've got the right ingredients so you need to have a sector focus which we worked on in the planning piece you need to have a value proposition to make sure that

[03:05:40] you're offering something that's different that where companies are going to want to be able to come here which is part of the implementation grant around your programming and activating the space you need to make sure you've got the right governance structure financial model we had some concepts developed in the planning piece we're going to be moving that into the implementation component to make sure that that's locked down multi-level government and institution support is another component there's really six pieces and this is what I'm sharing with you now the multi-level government go Virginia very pleased so far you folks and your support the city support and we're seeing this as very much a trend that we're seeing more participation

[03:06:15] from municipal county and state level governments to really step in and support these types of initiatives because cluster development has fared better post-covid than traditional business park areas there's a lot of data we've done actually a ton of research collection and analysis around this, and there's no doubt about it. Occupancy levels are higher. The activation of the spaces is higher. And so if you look at the six components that are needed around a champion, university government support, value proposition, sector focus, the right structure, and really making sure you've got that market demand, you've got the framework in place, and the

[03:06:51] implementation grant will really help to solidify all of those pieces. But you've got all the right elements. You've certainly got an active industry, which is very important because you need those anchor companies and an anchor institution, which you have in Mason, which is a really great start to setting you up for success. Thank you. And going into your appendix slides, one of the things that amazed me is that we've got our nation's capital here, and yet we don't have a innovation district established in Northern Virginia. And so this is really something that I

[03:07:31] think for, for Prince William County, as we've talked in other issues earlier today, as we're trying to, you know, I'm, I'm grateful that we, we are not dealing with a lot of the issues such as the business parks that are, that where other localities are, are dealing with empty office space. We almost have the opportunity to sort of turn the narrative to something that's very unique and very different and somewhat decoupled from just federal government activity. And so

[03:08:07] from your perspective and looking at just kind of regionally, you know, what are the things that you're going to be working on specifically and looking at the timeline that you have, some of the things that we could be doing as the county to kind of help further from land use, from other economic development, things that we can be doing to help lay the groundwork in support of the Innovation District.

[03:08:49] I mean, I think just, you know, continuing to, as we're going through, you know, I believe we're going to be doing a zoning update. There's a TIA district, you know, in this area, there's a lot of complications in terms of the zoning and regulations and so forth.

[03:09:08] And trying to attract the right type of employers, but allow them to do what they need to do that meets kind of the needs of the district itself. So I think those types of things continuing on with, you know, just a good place, good business practice in terms of being competitive from operation costs and tax and so forth.

[03:09:32] And I think, you know, things like what we just presented before, you know, investing in the park and putting back in that infrastructure to add to those types of amenities. I think those are all really good positive things that help bring this district together.

[03:09:50] all right i don't think we have any more questions so if we can get a motion madam chair i move to approve second all right we'll give that to franklin um all right additional discussion supervisor bode thank you madam chair and thank you for the presentation thank you for all your work on this you can tell i'm really excited about this even though it's not in my district it's okay i'll give tom the win on this one but seriously though we share this as a as a a crowning and multi-jurisdictional jewel and gem and the potential is immense. So I think this is a really good starting place for us to really look at

[03:10:28] changing the narrative around the county and what people see when they think of Prince William. So that said, really appreciate how you guys have grounded this in very core values and mission. But I know that we've had discussions about other things. You've talked about them too. So I'll just talk about them very briefly. The attainable housing, especially for the workforce they're looking at doing here. We've seen, I mentioned Cortex earlier, you know, there's Kendall Square in Cambridge, ones that really have had difficulties over time, so looking at that housing piece, that can undercut, frankly, the entire ecosystem because if you're really only gearing towards one segment of who's going to work there

[03:11:06] and not looking at your young professionals that are just starting, but also the folks who are going to be serving those folks. You can talk about a rich ecosystem of restaurants and malarkey and all these other amenities. Those folks shouldn't have to drive an hour in because they have to live too far away because the housing isn't attainable anywhere near where they're working.

[03:11:27] So making sure that we're doing that. And again, knowing that as folks sort of network and grow, especially from a university standpoint, having a continuum of housing to follow them as they go through their life stages, I think is going to be key. The second one is multimodal transportation, regional connectivity.

[03:11:45] We talked about that quite a bit, especially with those investments. Triangle Park, Buffalo, Nicaragua, Niagara Medical Campus, really looking at those areas that have really beefed up that transportation network and look beyond how do we just get cars around this area, but how do we get people in various ways.

[03:12:06] I know Mason already has a shuttle system, really looking at enhancing that, buttressing it with OmniRide, we talked about that, looking at those areas that are within a 15, 20-minute drive in a shuttle in a car. Downtown Manassas, you talked about Manassas Mall, these areas that we know will be key sort of outside amenities that are close enough.

[03:12:26] But also, again, knowing that, especially if you're having folks, like you said it earlier, who are coming from another country, coming from another part of our country, or moving into these places who don't have a car. I harken back to my experience at Georgetown. I lived on the West Coast my entire life, moved to Georgetown.

[03:12:41] I wasn't going to get a car for four years. So how did I adapt to being able to use a local transit system? And that was back when Metro was really, really good. So having that as sort of a key component, being able to get people around without having to even think about needing a car, I think is going to be key.

[03:12:59] And the last thing is sort of talking about how can we, on one hand, be appealing to a global audience while still being very deeply enriched in what makes us unique and uniquely Prince William, right? And we'll throw Manassas in there too.

[03:13:14] But, you know, elevating us with a unique identity, right? How can we say, hey, we are a global destination for these businesses that are looking everywhere in the world. We're not just competing with, you know, Arlington or Fairfax or even in D.C. We're competing with other parts of the country.

[03:13:29] We're also competing with other countries in North America in some cases to relocate and have people start their offices, kickstart things. So how can we have, you know, unique offerings in terms of a culture? We already have a good basis for that on the east and the west side with some of our unique offerings of cuisine, of these enclaves of different folks that come from all over the world.

[03:13:51] We know that one in five people in this county come from another country already. So how can we really lean into that while also saying, here, now that you're in Prince William, this is why you should love to be here and work here and live here and start your family here and start a career here. So having those kinds of things is really where we want to go.

[03:14:07] So I just wanted to impart that on you. why I'm excited for this, why I think this is a really great game changer for this and continue to have those sort of three things on our minds as we continue down this journey. Thank you, Madam Chair. All right. Does anyone else have any comments? All right. Thank you. Let's go ahead and take a vote.

[03:14:30] Vote unanimous so much. Madam Chair,

[03:15:24] if we're ready, we're going to start with item 10C and turn it over to planning for item 10C, 10D, and 10E. Thank you. Good afternoon, Chair Jefferson, Supervisors. My name is Eric Griffiths with the Planning Office, and I'm the case planner for CPA 2025-0004. And essentially, this is a request to initiate a comprehensive plan amendment to amend the long-range land use for approximately

[03:16:00] 170 acres uh in the brentsville district from conservation residential 1b to c res 1c um and this will allow for a proposed community of a single family attached dwelling units uh the subject properties are located uh along route 15 and brents in the brentsville managed magisterial District. Essentially, it's north of the Madison Crescent Activity Center, and staff is recommending

[03:16:36] initiation of this comprehensive plan amendment. This is the zoning map. Currently, these are about 13 parcels that are currently zoned A1. You can see they're adjacent to additional A1 and SR-1 zoning districts.

[03:17:02] The requester is going to be planning on also submitting a companion rezoning to planned mixed residential for this area. Essentially, these are the current long-range land use and the proposed long-range land use.

[03:17:22] On the left is the current long-range land use, C-Res 1B, and on the right is the proposed long-range land use, C-Res 1C. Also want to point out there is an environmental resource protection overlay in this area because C-Res, the conservation residential, allows for cluster development that will allow us to mitigate that, essentially, impacts to that environmental resource.

[03:18:02] And this is the demographics. And speaking of demographics, what we're really talking about is certainly an uptick in density here. And you can see that in terms of both people and dwelling units. And certainly, we're not talking about, since this is purely residential, There are no jobs here that are going to be factored in here, but there is going to be certainly a more intense development that will come with this comprehensive plan.

[03:18:34] And staff is recommending that this be initiated for the reasons stated here. It's adjacent to other neighboring residential areas.

[03:18:54] It's probably most compatible probably with the R2 planned areas, which are, you know, more compatible in terms of density. But the requester is also filing a companion rezoning will allow us to work with, will allow the county to work with the applicant to address mitigation issues that may impact the rezoning application.

[03:19:24] And I know you know this, but it bears repeating this. Initiation of the CPA does not mean that the board approves the CPA. It just means that we're initiating to further study it for further consideration. And that's all I have for you, so I'll take your questions now.

[03:19:41] Thank you. Supervisor Gordy. Thank you very much for the presentation. Just to clarify, the accompanying rezoning is for an age-restricted community.

[03:19:57] That's correct, sir. Um, so, um, uh, what is you, you, when you, you use the density and you, the population, is it like three on average of three people per household? I would assume that in an age restricted community, it would, that would be less.

[03:20:14] That's correct. I think that, um, that, that age restriction comes, will come with the rezoning. Yeah. Uh, because that, that my understanding is that that comes that with the rezoning application. And when that application comes in, it'll allow us to, with this initiation and the rezoning application, it'll allow us to further sort of study that.

[03:20:36] So the numbers that are shown here, sorry, I kind of screwed up the, are not based on that age-restricted population. So this is just what we normally would identify as, you know, what the development would be without that age restriction.

[03:20:58] So it'd be significantly less. So, you know, we wouldn't anticipate a lot, you know, significant impact with schools. It's sort of lesser impact with transportation, too. But, again, we could study that further when they submit the rezoning.

[03:21:15] And in the working through this process, you know, this is a heavily treed area and ensuring that as much tree preserve as possible, along with, of course, the environmental areas are going to be key as it goes through the middle of this property, which also will reduce some of the developable area.

[03:21:43] And so I would ensure that we're making sure that we're providing those tree saves within this area, as is just a recommendation. Yeah, we'll certainly work with our environmental people, our watershed, and they'll certainly be involved with the CPA in the rezoning applications.

[03:22:10] So, yes. Thank you. That's all I have for now. Thank you. All right. Anyone else? All righty. I'd like to go ahead and get a motion. Madam Chair, move to approve.

[03:22:26] Second. All right. In discussion, Supervisor Weir. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm not going to jam this up. I'm going to go ahead and vote in favor of initiating it. But I do have some concerns with respect to the traffic on Route 15 because that varies from four lanes to two lanes, four lane to two lane, four lane to two lane.

[03:22:46] And I'm tired of piecemealing the solution to it one half of a turn lane at a time. Given where it's at, I'm not all that concerned about the intersection at 29 and 15.

[03:23:05] but as you go northbound, because of the issues we're having both at the railroad tracks and the intersection with 55, I am going to want to see some very detailed traffic numbers on this. Supervisor Cordy.

[03:23:22] Thank you for saying that, Supervisor. You and I are on the same page on that. I've already had conversations with the applicants as we, because in the last week I've driven up and down that 15 corridor, and there are some days you feel like there are people who are using that left-hand lane as a as a drag racing um and it and it's just people trying to jam to get themselves up into the front of the line um and it's certainly creating a dangerous situation um and and so uh you know i hate these merges it all it does is create it actually creates congestion because

[03:23:58] everybody tries to pile up in the left-hand lane and then that makes everybody have to stop so um i'm completely in concurrence with you on that all right doesn't seem like anyone else So let's go ahead and take a vote on this one.

[03:24:21] All right. Before we move on to 10-D, I know that there is a lot of conversation about 1600 John Marshall Highway and Haymarket.

[03:24:40] I'm going to go ahead and separate that out so that we can discuss that separately. I'm sorry. Supervisor Franklin? Sure. I would also like to pull off. We're on 10-D now, right? We're on 10-D. Okay. I also want to pull out the portion to remove some of the roadways, particularly Heathcote to Antioch.

[03:25:04] Just wanted to pull that, and I guess we can talk about it once we get there. But I know in the past we've discussed us wanting to include that for public safety issues, and so now we're removing it. So just wanted to kind of go on record as kind of opposing doing that.

[03:25:21] So Heathcote Boulevard, James Madison Highway slash U.S. Route 15 to Antioch Road. That's what you want to pull off? That's right. Okay. All right. I have, all right, let's move forward. Good evening, Madam Chair and members of the board.

[03:25:43] The next two items are in response to a directive given to staff. So the first one, 10D, is kind of a hybrid initiation request since it deals with both land use and transportation matters. Mark McCaskill will be presenting that case, and then the case following that will be also in response to an initiation request and will be presented by Reza Remyar.

[03:26:09] Thank you.

[03:26:20] Thank you, Chair Jefferson and members of the County Board of Supervisors. In this summary, as mentioned, it deals with both mobility chapter changes and land use designation chapter changes.

[03:26:35] So it is to initiate the amendment of the mobility chapter. to remove roadway references for Manassas Battlefield Bypass, Route 28 Bypass, Sudley Road and Route 234, and just noted from your discussion that you said to remove the Heathcote Boulevard to Antioch Road and to add the widening of existing Route 28.

[03:27:04] For the land use changes, to change, as mentioned before, there was discussion about 1600 John Marshall. So the other changes that are noted are these five G pins on Ballsford Road and Sudley Road to change those from office mixed use to mixed use.

[03:27:26] The next slides are just the series of maps that correspond to each of these changes. So there's the corresponds to the existing and the proposed of removing the bypass.

[03:27:43] In this case, it may be a little difficult to see because the bypass parallels the road up there. But the end of the bypass would be removed. I don't think this has a laser pointer on it.

[03:28:02] All right, there we go. Yeah, so just kind of that part.

[03:28:17] This is existing Route 28 bypass and the proposed removal, and existing Sudley Road and the proposed removal of the widening, the existing Heathcote Boulevard and proposed removal, the existing Route 28 and the proposed widening.

[03:28:54] And this is the actual, the 1600 John Marshall that was noted under discussion before I walked up here. And these are the other five addresses and properties to change from Office Mixed Use 3 to Mixed Use 3.

[03:29:23] So the staff recommendation was following from Directives 24-13 and Directive 25-05. And the original staff recommendation is to initiate the amendments to the mobility chapter and to initiate the changes in the long-range land use designations.

[03:29:51] So I believe that's the end of the presentation. All right. Thank you. I'm sorry. Are there any questions, or does anyone have any questions before we move forward? All right.

[03:30:07] We don't have, it looks like we don't have any questions, so I would like to get a motion to move forward. But knowing that, again, Heathcote Boulevard, James Madison Highway, slash U.S. Route 15 to Antioch Road, and 16,000 John Marshall Highway, Haymarket from I, you know, making the change from I-30 industrial to parks and open space, that change, G-PIN 7697-15-7017, those two will be excluded from the motion.

[03:30:41] So moved. Second. All right, so approximately moved and seconded. Any discussion on those? All right, Supervisor Bodie. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for the presentation. Appreciate staff's work on this. um you know we had a citizen come earlier during public comment time um manassas resident but i still think his uh his his point is is on key and i know some other folks have mentioned i know that when paulo and i were at the um at the vdot events last week it was mentioned while i'm not going to be against the removal of the roads i think that part of the this initiation should include looking

[03:31:19] at keeping the trails and the shared use paths in the mobility plan in the map um in some cases it may not make sense but in other cases you know we have flat branch we have some of the other areas where even if there's not road connectivity that's established um we should look at keeping at least planned uh trails planned shared use paths to have connectivity between those neighborhoods um so i just wanted to to talk about that first sure thing madam chair members of the board rick Thank you for the question.

[03:31:50] Supervisor Rodeo for the comment. We'll take a look at that as we take a look at the initiation. What we're addressing right now is removing the facility as a road. The road came with an on-road trail. So we're looking at removing that facility as well along with that. As we look at that, if it makes sense to put a recreational trail through that that we can take a look at, we'll get with parks, we'll get with you, and we'll get with all the board members to make sure it makes sense.

[03:32:16] but we can take a look at that as we do the study. Appreciate that. Thank you. And then in terms of the Route 28 part of this, just want to make sure that as we look at initiating this widening for 28, that we're looking at a multimodal approach and also looking at, I know it's been mentioned before, having that parallel of Old Centerville Road alongside of it, looking at a holistic type of analysis of that widening, knowing that there's one there's a lot of jurisdictions that go through that that line uh that corridor but also looking at the fact that we have an opportunity here to especially

[03:32:54] alongside the yorkshire small area plan which is is uh going to be on the books here pretty soon really looking at and revitalizing and transforming what that corridor looks like um i know in other uh other parts of the commonwealth they even looked at things around you know selective widenings on part of it and not other parts even having uh center lanes that they might be good for BRT or for priority lanes at peak times.

[03:33:20] These really innovative things that I think that as we talk about the constraints of 28 and knowing what's built up all around it, that we can really look at having not just a widening, just a rote widening sort of that, but having a really innovative approach where we look at, like I said, Olsenerville Road and also innovative things around having a multimodal holistic look at that corridor.

[03:33:41] Thank you, Supervisor Bode. couldn't have said it better myself. We will take a look at that. Thank you. David McGettigan from the planning office. We may pull that particular part of this initiation into the small area plan and have it concurrently work with the small area plan. All right. Anyone else? All right. Thank you. I

[03:34:10] guess let's go ahead and take our vote. Unanimous. Supervisor Vega absent from vote. All right. I would like to, since it's first on the agenda, let's go to the Heathcote Boulevard, James Madison Highway, u.s. route 15 to antioch road so moved is there a second second all right it's been properly moved and seconded pulling it up for discussion yeah my my concern here was i know in the past we've

[03:34:48] talked about just some public safety concerns with the road being connected to antioch and then kind of going towards the fire station and beyond the hospital without having to get into traffic. Our public safety officers, particularly our fire trucks, so I won't be supporting this, but just wanted to kind of put out my reason for why.

[03:35:13] Supervisor Rear? Madam Chair, I don't disagree. However, I think what needs to be taken into account here is that the route is no longer viable. It's blocked on one end by a subdivision that's getting built where they won't have access from the east and on the west end on the roadbed.

[03:35:31] The Hefners have built another house blocking it on the west end, and Rick and I might disagree a little bit on this. It's proposed terminus on the west end on Antioch between a blind curve and the bridge deck.

[03:35:48] It just wasn't going to work, but in any event, it's not viable because of some land use applications that have come in, and there's no longer the access to the route that was initially planned, so this is just taking something out that can't be built. Supervisor Franklin?

[03:36:06] Yeah, and can transportation maybe speak to that a little bit? Because maybe at the very least, I'd just like maybe to defer it to get some more info on that. And thank you, Madam Chair, members of the board. Great question.

[03:36:24] We'll take a look. This is what this study is doing. We're going to look at, we're initiating this to look at the feasibility, to include all the factors that Supervisor Weir has brought on to see if that actually makes it unfeasible or if there's still a possibility to do it, we can take a look at all that as part of this study, ma'am.

[03:36:40] Understood. Thank you. Thank you. Tony Austin, Planning Department. In addition, as I said, initially this is a transportation and planning effort to do more research with this. However, listening to the concerns, we will include other agencies such as public safety as well to weigh in on the impacts of the removal of these features.

[03:37:05] So we already have a motion and a second that's after it. You're fine? All right, let's go ahead and take a vote.

[03:37:12] we forgive you no need oh i'm sorry vega stepped away she will not be here for this vote we are

[03:39:12] going to go on to the next one john marshall highway um i know that you know the scouts have spoken to a number of people and they've come in um to talk about what their concerns for this project are um this is a case i think that a number of the board members you know are not in favor of moving forward with this one but i would like to get a motion just so we can initiate the discussion so moved all right it's been properly moved and seconded let's have a discussion let's see supervisor bode it's up first sure thank you madam chair um appreciate the conversation that

[03:39:50] has already been had you know i strongly support open space and preserving natural areas obviously um but i believe this proposal raises consider serious concerns about fairness land use continuity and economic economic opportunity um this parcel has long been designated for light industrial for tech flex uses uses that are low impact job creating and serve as a buffer between the nearby homes and the interstate and some of the other uses in this area um with all due respect to the scouts understanding where you guys are i view this as a land use planning lens and so to me the opportunity for economic development here is good you know we often talk about uh wanting to

[03:40:27] really find spaces in the county for even smaller tech flex businesses as they get crowded out by data centers in other areas well this is an opportunity to do that we have an active contract that will do just that so to me it would send the wrong signal frankly to while they're in active negotiations go oh just kidding this will be parks and open space now which could jeopardize that contract so for those reasons i'm going to uh um not support changing the long-range land use designation um and i'm going to support keeping as i3 thank you madam chair super reservoir thank you madam chair i mean if this had been handled in a more timely fashion probably wouldn't be

[03:41:05] talking about this but i think we initiated this 16 months ago maybe 18 months ago and the sad truth is this was not was not and has not always been designated i3 in fact it was always been a1 still is a1 and until 2023 was designated as parks and open space um the property owner initiated long rate or cpa in 2006 never followed through then it then filed a small land use change map application in 2021 that was, I still believe, of questionable legal status, whether the county

[03:41:44] even had the authority to do it. They paid no fees. It wasn't examined. No one's ever done a review as to whether this was an appropriate use of the property. Let's get to the property itself. It is a long, narrow strip on the north side of 55. You cannot put an entrance on Antioch, as we found out with the hotel. Maybe Rick can speak to this. There is not sufficient site line from the Route 55 intersection to the bridge deck, so you're not going to be able to put a commercial entrance on Antioch, just as we weren't able to put a commercial entrance on the hotel

[03:42:19] side, on the other side of Antioch. It's got a separation median strip in the front of it, which will restrict your access from 55, creating U-turns in front of the retirement community. it's incompatible with every surrounding use from agricultural to parks and open space to the hotel across the street to the retirement community across the street uh why the apple or why the owner wasn't notified i have no idea but this has been going on for a year and a half nobody's

[03:42:54] down planning anything this is just what it was i'm returning it to to what it was to protect to protect that area this is not the place for industrial development especially heavy industrial development zoning and the implications of that. We're not precluding the sale of it by changing it. We're just not allowing it to be sold for industrial use, which is not compatible with the hotel next door, the retirement community across the street, or any of the surrounding agricultural and residential uses. This is just correcting something that never should have been

[03:43:32] done and has not been fully vetted by planning and I've been asking that question of planning for at least the last 18 months and gotten a absolute response every time has this been has this plan been vetted the answer was no has this has this submission been subject to any fees the answer is no it was just a coloring exercise in 2023 we need to restore it to what it was I

[03:43:59] I, Seth, maybe you can speak as to why the park didn't renew the lease, but it was part of the park until 2023, I think 2023, maybe 2022, but it's just not a compatible land use designation for that area, and quite clearly it sticks out like a sore thumb on that map.

[03:44:20] All right, I'm sorry. I would like to, before we go any further, you know, my apologies to Supervisor Franklin, but Seth, if we can, if you are able to address Supervisor Rear's comments. Madam Chair, members of the Board, Seth Heiner-Vos, Director of Parks and Recreation.

[03:44:43] If my memory serves me correctly, I believe it came down to funding. We had the opportunity to, I believe, extend the lease, but due to lack of funding to actually execute the approved master plan for that parcel, we passed on that opportunity.

[03:44:58] if my memory serves me correctly. You also passed on the QBE softball fields, and we had a similar circumstance in town. And I don't remember anybody being advised of it, but so be it. I'm sorry, anything else?

[03:45:18] All right, Supervisor Franklin. I'll withdraw my comments. I just wanted to just kind of echo some of the things that Supervisor Bode said with regards to, you know, why also I'll be supporting this. I do want to acknowledge Supervisor Weir's concerns about kind of the aesthetics of that particular area, and I think we're just going to have to continue to work with him to kind of figure out how to maintain as much as possible.

[03:45:46] But obviously, plans are already kind of being made based on what we did in our comp plan. So I'm just going to stick with kind of what we've already decided. Supervisor Weir. Thank you, Madam Chair. I would simply note that it's going to be difficult to make that happen.

[03:46:03] The parcel is extraordinarily narrow, and I am guessing that in order to make this work for any type of tech flex or industrial use, it's going to require significant buffer waivers or restrictions beyond what is required.

[03:46:19] The property is very, very narrow, and it's going to have a buffer requirement on 66. In fact, it's even set back from 66, and it's going to have a significant buffer requirement that the folks that live in Carter's Mill are going to make an issue of and demand a full buffer.

[03:46:41] It's going to be real difficult to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear in this case, and I just don't see any way forward where you're going to make it compatible with what's out there, so I'm just going to continue.

[03:47:01] Is there anyone else? So what I will say my concern is that the Scouts are now under contract to develop that parcel based on the current zoning. And I am reluctant to change that current zoning because there is a contract.

[03:47:20] I mean, certainly when that comes up, when they submit their project, there's going to be a lot of discussion around it. Madam Chair, we're not changing the zoning. I know, it's CPA. What I said, I'm sorry. Let me start over.

[03:47:36] i don't support the cpa simply because there is a contract on the land so okay second part they're going to have to come to us i believe to um when they come to us and discuss the application that's a great time for us to talk about whether or not it's a fit in the area um so am i clear i just want to make sure that i'm clear you know i they came to my office before the meeting and let me know that they do have a contract on land and again i i informed supervisor weir um of that and you know i believe that they made their rounds last week and some things you know perhaps

[03:48:16] have changed you know they're actually officially under contract um for one i understand this is not heavy industrial it's tech flex office park so we're talking about a one-story office building that's brick that is a type of development that is also found near residential communities you know again i you know i remember or vaguely remember when you made this request and i apologize I didn't realize, you know, who it exactly would impact.

[03:48:45] And now that, you know, I have had additional conversations, you know, with the scouts. And I really do value their contributions to our community. I value the work that is done at Camp Schneider. And I want to make sure that's able to continue. I mean, I understand that, you know, people are nervous about change and nervous about growth.

[03:49:05] And, you know, we have a number of instances in this county where there is incompatible developments next to homes and schools and national parks. I just don't agree that this is out of character for that neighborhood.

[03:49:22] Supervisor Bailey. Yeah, I just need clarity right now. So we're discussing what was just presented right now or something different? And pardon me for, are we discussing, I'm a little confused.

[03:49:40] yes okay okay 16,000 John Marshall Highway okay all right I just wanted to make sure it was a I got confused all right I'm so sorry um you're good Supervisor Franklin then I actually have a question um so this may be a little out of order but if we change it to commercial would that still satisfy the potential contract or no all right we're looking at you bro this is a little unorthodox

[03:50:16] come on down and it's okay to say come on down i know you weren't expecting all this we weren't either but here we are yeah and i'm wondering if commercial will work because there may be somewhat of a compromise excuse me austin haynes with being kenny and corman representing scouting america ncac the comp plan as it stands now meets the needs of the boy scouts all as we're asking

[03:50:54] or in scouting all as we're asking is that there be no change understood thank you all right thank you vega so i want to be clear if we leave it as is how long will we um or will the scouts continue to operate because we keep talking about preserving and allowing you all to do what it is that you all do and so if that happens this land is as usual or are you going to no this land is across i-66 from camp snyder so it's on the other side of the highway this was always one of the

[03:51:28] extraneous pieces uh we're actually going to use the funds to redo camp snyder it's it's due it's 25 years old uh it needs a complete rehab we'd like to update some programming uh very likely some of the funds will be even used down at goshen but most of the fun well a good chunk of the funds will be used to camp snyder that that is the main plan here is to keep the funds within the snyder but snyder is across the street that that little section where you see the highlighted yellow says POS, and next to it says CMO OM3.

[03:52:02] The only thing that they're looking to do anything with is what says CMO OM3. We'll leave the other part POS. We don't care. As Supervisor Weir said, that's so narrow at that point you couldn't build on it anyway. Thank you. Don't go too far.

[03:52:19] You can actually just have a seat. Have a seat right down there. I'm sorry. I have a feeling you might be back up. I'm giving you permission. Supervisor Weir. Thank you, Madam. Chair. Supervisor Franklin, I like your question. I like your way of thought. Let me read from their 2021 Statement of Justification. I'll paraphrase it. We believe the change is justified due to the location of similar uses just east of the property on John Marshall Highway. There aren't really similar uses east. It is the desire of the owner to rezone the property to the M2 district to allow

[03:52:54] development as a contractor's yard or similar low-impact commercial industrial use. If the EI designation is deemed to be inappropriate the owner would like the property to be designated CEC so although the terminology has changed with the new comp plan at the point in time that they filed it yes comp 2 or comp 3 would have been acceptable absent an industrial designation from their own justification and I kind of like to know why staff can't find this but I can but through a an archived website that I have I'm actually going to pick it up you know I apologize

[03:53:33] mr haynes but if you can come back i if this is if you are able to talk about what are the boy scouts specifically looking to do with the parcel that is developed what can you share with the public right now it is uh actually supervisor weir described it before exactly what we're looking to do it's single story tech flex space uh it's approximately 16 feet tall uh all brick uh i mean And we're coming in with an application.

[03:54:03] So St. John's property is the purchaser of record. Well, it would be the contract purchaser. Yeah, it's strictly tech flex, one-story building, all brick. Brick and glass, sorry.

[03:54:21] All right. And it is what it, okay, Supervisor Rear? Madam Chair, I would simply note that you don't require an I-3 designation for tech flex. That's correct.

[03:54:36] We understand that, but if we down plan it to POS, that changes everything. We can do what we need to do in the current comp plan. To Supervisor Franklin's assertion, would you be comfortable with Com 2 or Com 3?

[03:54:52] What we would request is that we don't change the designation at all. So you wanted I-3. You're not willing to go anywhere from I-3. I would be very happy to sit down with the supervisor and talk about that possibility as part of the...

[03:55:11] we also wait hold on before we go any further he actually has to confer with his client i mean that's the big thing here the scouts are not he cannot make this decision on his own right now in this moment he was not prepared to come up here i appreciate you for being gracious and doing that and giving some clarity um but he is not ready to make that on the spot you know um i'm sorry i mean i just want to be clear is what are you getting at do you think that a data center is going to sneak in under here?

[03:55:40] I think I-3 zoning would allow that. Not that it would be big enough. Madam Chair, I would suggest I'll offer a substitute motion. I don't think there's any real time crunch on getting this initiated. How much time would you need, Mr. Haynes? I'm not sure what you're asking. For a lower designation than I-3? To see if that would work? If there's a compromise level? I would be happy to take a meeting with the supervisor afterwards to look at the comp plan and zoning together for what our use is, but that's not what was on the table today.

[03:56:19] Understanding that, what is our second to the next meeting? So we have next week, we have, next week is the work session. June 3rd is our next regular board meeting. Madam Chair, I would make a substitute motion to defer further consideration until June 3rd.

[03:56:41] Madam Chair, I think I'm next. First of all, we have a, is there a second? All right. There is no second for that substitute motion. Who? Wait.

[03:56:59] No. We need a second. It's a substitute motion. We need a second. There was no second, so the substitute motion is going to die. I'm going back into the queue because, yes, Supervisor Franklin. Yes, my apologies. I feel like I threw this off the tracks.

[03:57:21] I am supportive of where we are now, which is wondering if there could be kind of a midway. But to keep this train going, you know, I'm happy to just move forward with the current motion or with voting on the current motion.

[03:57:42] Madam Chair, if I might. What you could do is initiate a CPA with some, let us look at an appropriate long-range land use for tech flex that would be less intense than I-3 if it would still work as part of, we can even combine it as concurrently with a potential rezoning application that might come in.

[03:58:10] Does that, hold on, does that satisfy your concern, Supervisor Weir? My understanding is whether we move the motion forward and then you would amend it, you would report later with options instead of parks and open space? Right, yes. That's fine with me. In your initiation would state that you would look at some other less intense long-range land use than I-3 and that we could run concurrently with a future rezoning.

[03:58:40] You said you're fine? I just want to make sure, Mr. Hayes, is that something that you think that your client would be comfortable with? Madam Chair, I am actually uncomfortable with it without talking to my client because we have a motion that's come through that we were not even spoken to about ahead of time that we found out about accident.

[03:59:07] We came here prepared to talk about this. I've offered and am very welcome to sit down with Supervisor Weir and talk about a concurrent CPA change to whatever is proper for TechFlex.

[03:59:24] The scouts have no desire to do a data center or anything heavy along those lines. We know what we want to do, and if there is a lesser comp plan that works, we would do that concurrently with a rezoning, if that's what makes sense to everybody.

[03:59:45] But for today, what we don't want, we're prepared to leave it just the way it is for today. But I am more than happy to have further discussions. All right, I know that I have other people in the queue. We do have a motion on, I'm going to let Supervisor Gordy and Bodie go, and then we will get to the solution.

[04:00:08] Gordy. So just from a process standpoint, I mean, it's going to take a while to get through the CPA, but then if we have an application that's already being filed that could actually end before the CPA, no, but I'm saying they could submit the application.

[04:00:25] And so I actually – I was waiting for – when Supervisor Weir made his deferral to June 3rd, I thought it had to be – I would be happy to second that motion in order for this conference to take place.

[04:00:44] But I thought procedurally you had to agree to it. Or she. You. Sorry. So I'm happy to support a deferral so that they can get together and have a meeting and see if there's another zoning that works for both parties.

[04:01:08] I'm going to interject here real quickly because I just want to make sure. I don't want to go in circles. It sounds like, and Supervisor Rear was the one who made the directive to initiate the CPA. and he is willing to look at other zoning types other than i3 um and it sounds like you're willing to have conversation because you needed to talk to your client and such before we go any further i just want to be clear because i'm a little confused right now i mean we already have a motion on and that is to accept it to um move forward with the cpa and it sounds like a number

[04:01:48] of people of us a number of folks don't want to do that we can either i just want to talk to Andre, because she's a parliamentarian. We can vote that down. We can amend it, which I just feel like, you know, at this point it might be cleaner to go ahead and vote it down and then have, you know, to possibly defer, I mean, to June 3rd. Is that okay with you? Or would you prefer, I mean, I just want to make sure because there needs to be having conversation. Can I have about 10 minutes to step outside? Yes, you may. All right. With that then, I'm going to go ahead and give us a

[04:02:24] five-minute recess so that we can have the discussions we need to just thank you all right

[04:03:20] we are back i've had a few conversations and stuff so let's get us back on track um i think the best thing moving you know and supervisor bode has taken himself out the queue so i think the best thing for us is just go ahead and take a vote on this one um take a vote on the current motion and to be clear madam to the current motion is to initiate the cpa right yes okay so

[04:03:43] yes the current motion is to initiate the cpa all right thank you so very much i um i know that there is concern that data will be put on this property i don't think this is fitting and as the applicant has said they already have plans we will see what they have for us when the application is

[04:04:19] filed and you know i guess when we meet again so moving forward we are now going to go on to 10e Good evening again, madam chair and members of the board Tony Austin planning department This is again also a response to a directive given to staff

[04:04:55] And reservoir me are will be doing the presentation for this item. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much I'm reservoir from your from planning office Today I'm presenting this zoning map amendment initiation request This is a request to the board to initiate a zoning map amendment to remove nine areas as identified in Stantec report in 2023 Stantec study

[04:05:33] and conduct a comprehensive review of the data center overlay district boundary for additional removal. The map shown here highlights the boundary, the data center overlay district boundary, and also the location of the proposed nine area for removal.

[04:05:56] This is, here is a brief overview of the keyboard and directives that led to this amendment request. On May 14, 2024, the board issued Directive 24-23 directing staff to expedite a review of data center over the district boundary and recommend any necessary adjustments.

[04:06:16] On June 11, 2024, the board directed planning office to analyze the 2023 STANTEC study that recommended the removal of nine areas and asked also planning office to bring recommendation on those areas to the board.

[04:06:36] On December 17, after following a staff presentation on Stantec analysis, the board directed staff to bring forward an initiation for a zoning map amendment to remove those nine areas from the data center over the district boundary and also conduct a broader reassessment of the boundary for additional removal.

[04:07:01] This slide summarizes Stantec analysis on the nine proposed removal areas. The study identified nine areas, totally approximately 1876 acres that may no longer compatible with data center development due to changes on their planned land use zoning and also topographic and environment challenges on this site.

[04:07:25] The planning of this analysis support removing these nine areas from the data center over Lady Stake boundary. This amendment process will be conducted in two separate phases.

[04:07:41] Phase one focuses on removing the non-identified area and the planning office will conduct this phase. Phase two involves a broader reassessment of the data center overlay this boundary and planning office will do this project with the help of a consultant.

[04:08:07] Phase one will be simpler than phase two, we will have community engagement, we will notify the property owners on these nine areas about these recommendations and we'll explain how these recommendations impact on the property, get feedback from them and then do further analysis and then draft or zoning map amendment and then we will have DORAC meetings and we will present our recommendation to PC and board of

[04:08:37] that. Phase two will be a comprehensive review step. We will hire a consultant to help us. We will develop a methodology for our purpose. We will conduct boundary and non-conforming use analysis. And then we will have community engagement, stakeholder meetings, get their feedback. And then we will prepare our zoning map amendments draft and then direct meetings and then present a recommendation to Planning Office Board.

[04:09:13] Staff recommends the board to approve initiation of this zoning map amendment to remove the nine area identified in 2023 STANTEC report from data center overlay district boundary and review data center overlay district boundary to identify additional properties that may no longer be suitable for data center development.

[04:09:36] And that's end my presentation. All right, waiting for questions. I don't think anyone has anything.

[04:09:55] I'm the one who made the directive. Okay, after me, Supervisor Bordy. I mean, to be quite frank, this should have been easy. I felt that we should have seen this a little sooner. The nine areas identified are not buildable.

[04:10:14] And honestly, I just feel like the vote right now is going to be a formality. What I'm more interested in is reviewing the boundaries overall and identifying any properties that should be removed. You know, part of this was born out of a discussion about eliminating the overlaid zone.

[04:10:33] And I had concerns. I had concerns about unintended consequences. You know, I had concerns about, you know, we don't know what we don't know. But since then, Loudoun County has eliminated data centers by right.

[04:10:48] And that's something that I'm watching closely. I don't think that we have the votes on this board to eliminate the overlay outright. But that is something where I'm strongly considering. I would like to see us move a little bit more quickly on this boundary review.

[04:11:05] I mean, I know that, you know, time and money are always the biggest issues, but I ask for this to be expedited. And I'm not directing it at you. I just want to make sure that this is not you. This is how I feel in general.

[04:11:22] And I do think we have to have an honest conversation about data centers and data center growth in this county. You know, I've said I would like to see a work session on, I know that's a contentious topic, but it's something we've got to discuss. We've got to discuss who we are as a county and how we grow.

[04:11:37] When we were talking about innovation earlier, that is a great and exciting area. And when we talk about us as a county and our identity as a county, that should be a part of the discussion. That should be a part of how we see ourselves and how we talk about ourselves and how we sell ourselves.

[04:11:55] But innovation could have been even greater if we didn't have so much data center development going on over there. And I'm saying this because I've spoken to businesses around there. businesses that want to expand even further, but the price of land is just so high. I just wanted to get that off my chest. Again, this is not directed directly at you. It's just how I feel about the subject overall. Supervisor Weir. Ditto. I agree with absolutely everything you said. Quite

[04:12:32] frankly, this is sort of a meaningless exercise. We're going after the low-hanging fruit that can't be built anyway because nobody's going to tear down an apartment complex. Dominion Power is not going to give up possum point because they're going to build a gas gen plant there or something else i mean i mean i'm not going to oppose it but it's largely a meaningless exercise and doesn't really address the elephant in the room and i think innovation is a very good example as i pointed out earlier you've got all kinds of data centers already in existence that's sort of you know

[04:13:10] incongruent with the development plan for innovation. In fact, there's still parcels immediately adjacent to some of the areas where economic development wants to invest that are still within the overlay and can be developed as data centers. I mean, I guess this is just kind of a nod to how outdated the data center overlay district is, and I'm not going to stand in its way, but I don't think it really accomplishes anything. And I think, to the Chair's point,

[04:13:47] I think we had an expectation of a much more in-depth analysis, review, and proposition to us with respect to the removal of areas or the elimination of the overlay district in its entirety. I'm not going to pontificate any more on this. I mean, Madam Chair, if you need a motion to approve, I've been so moved, but I just think it's of limited value.

[04:14:17] Well, since I have a motion, I'll go ahead and second. Okay, I'll give it to Gordy, and then I'm going to go to Bodie. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm largely going to agree with some of the comments of my colleagues. I will ad nauseum remind everyone that the Stantec report came out of a directive that I gave years and years ago to look at areas to remove from the overlay.

[04:14:39] The fact that it's now 2025 and we're starting to just now initiate the Comprehensive Plan Amendment to do that is frustrating. But I will disagree in that all of these parcels are unbuildable. Some are. I would say a majority of them are, but there are a couple, including one in my district, which is not unbuildable.

[04:14:59] So I think that that needs to be considered as we continue to talk about this. I, too, will agree that I think that the much more comprehensive review is the one I think that this board is really looking forward to. And I hope that that can move faster than my directive from four years ago to get to this point, frankly.

[04:15:18] But I will just put that there. I'll be supporting the motion for the reasons I just said. But I did have one question. So let's say we initiate this, which it sounds like we're going to. And between us initiating it and then the final vote somewhere down the road, hopefully not too far from now, when we vote to actually remove it and finish that CPA, someone runs in and files a land use application to rezone or SUP or something to build something.

[04:15:48] What would happen in that interim and how would staff handle that? So thank you for the questions, Professor David McGetty and for planning office. we would um if the the comprehensive plan is is changed then it would not get a no on land use and probably a recommendation from the staff uh that it be denied for the rezoning um and it would be um very easy for the board to to deny uh rezoning if we've changed the long-range land use to uh the zoning overlay district removed it from the zoning overlay district so and so to be

[04:16:27] clear if and then obviously so if we removed it from the overlay and they try to go by right between now and us removing it from the removing the these things from the overlay what would happen then i don't think uh the if it's already zoned for industrial use then they could go by right okay yeah if it's already zoned in the overlay and we haven't done this yet then they could go by right okay i that's what i thought but i just wanted to make sure thank you all right

[04:16:57] thank you madam chair and i and i want to echo everything that you said uh as well um and while i appreciate the effort and i'm going to absolutely support this um i think one of the things and going even going back to the jlark report um is we shouldn't be building data centers in our homes and schools and i think we also need to be taking a look at this this overlay district in anything that is around residential homes, we need to be, as we look at phase two, that needs to be something that we absolutely need to look at, in my opinion, number one. But number two,

[04:17:36] this is something we need to move quickly on. I mean, everybody says, do not put these things in your homes and schools. And so we've made that mistake in my district all over the place, And we're feeling the pain of all that, both from the construction side and from the operation side.

[04:18:00] Supervisor Vega is also, she's got the worst example of how this went wrong with Tanner Way and Great Oak. And so, you know, but these are decisions, I think, need to happen sooner rather than later.

[04:18:16] We can't wait two years to continue to evaluate. We already know, everybody who's evaluated this says these things should be near homes and schools. We should take action to eliminate by-right development of data centers near homes and schools.

[04:18:32] And in my view, that will be 1,320 feet, which is a quarter mile. And so I appreciate all the work, Reza, you've done on this. And but I'm hopeful that we can that this happens quickly, that we can take action to help provide relief to our community and the fear that many people have in our community that a data center is coming next door.

[04:18:59] And so, yeah, sooner rather than later. Thank you. All right. There's no one else. Let's go ahead and take a vote on this.

[04:19:19] Unanimous. All right. Thank you. Moving on. Thank you very much to planning the presentations, Madam Chair.

[04:19:36] We're going to turn it over now to transportation. for items 10f and 10g madam chair supervisor voting thank you madam chair i just need to find it there we go oh i got it then i'm chair before the board considers and votes on item uh 10f sorry h2 yeah okay 10f and 10h with uh which talks about um well the the author of the school

[04:20:11] zones and as well as the uh fields uh authorizing an agreement with the school board for county use of maintenance in school fields and facilities i need to declare a personal interest in this matter my wife is a school's employee as a school's employee my wife and our members of group which will be affected by these matters i'll be participating in these matters because i am able to do so fairly objectively in the public interest thank you madam chair i'm chair members of the board rick canazos your director of transportation again today uh coming to talk to you a little bit about automated traffic enforcement. And what we're doing here today

[04:20:48] is we're looking for a few actions from the board. But the action today is only to authorize the public hearings for the ultimate action we will be talking about. First, we'll talk a little bit about red light enforcement and where we are with that program and the pilot and what we would like to do there. Next, we will talk about school zones and work zone enforcement. We'll give you some of the information that we've gotten, some of the data that we've gotten there, and then we'll talk a little bit about next steps and recommendations and what we're trying to do here. By my side is Richard Weinman and Lieutenant Sean Peake, who have been integral in making sure that this moves forward the way it has, and making sure the program has

[04:21:27] been working and the pilot has been moving forward. Paolo Belira behind me has also been working with us as well, and I'd like to thank them all before we start the presentation. Red light running enforcement. The first thing I have to mention about this is that we are obviously very delayed on this. The delay has been caused by many factors, but the major one being the fact that there was no agreement set up and no way of permitting this through the signals that VDOT owns in our system. Once we get this done, which we have accomplished that, we have accomplished figuring out an agreement, figuring out a way to get the permits, we

[04:22:03] will be the first jurisdiction with VDOT-owned roads that will have this program in effect. We were a little ahead of VDOT. Obviously, the legislation was passed a couple years ago, but we were a little ahead in VDOT in trying to put the program together. So we're hoping to have the first four sites up that you see listed up there by this summer and start collecting that data from those sites.

[04:22:28] And hopefully the last five sites, which includes the new site that we're looking at at 234 and Country Club Drive, have those in by the end of the year. so we can have some data for you before our recommendations the next coming year. Our thought on this is that we extend the pilot program for another year, and that's going to be our recommendation coming up shortly here.

[04:22:49] I want to get into the school zones now, though. And what I want to get into first is the notices and the fines paid to date. Not to date. Actually, I want to take that back. This is up to the calendar year. We wanted to give you a close sample of the calendar year and what we got from where the program started.

[04:23:06] We have data beyond that that we will be putting together as we come forth with the public hearings and the ordinance. But as of the last calendar year, the police department did look at 15,000 notices. Almost 4,500 of those were warnings.

[04:23:25] As you know, we have to put a 30-day period in each one of these zones, and we only do warnings in those 30 days. And then the notices proceed those 30 days. We have, the police up to December had looked up 10,000, almost 700 notices, and if you look at the pie chart to the right, out of those 10,700 notices, about 6,500 were paid, so about 60% payment rate, and about 4,200 were not paid.

[04:23:55] The reason this seems like it's a little bit more, or a little bit less of a payment rate is because, again, there's a lag in the collection, right? There's a lag in us mailing the notices, a lag in people paying, us getting the collection and putting it into our coffers. That lag is about 30 to 60 days.

[04:24:11] We have looked at the numbers beyond the 30 to 60 day mark here, and I'm happy to let you know that we're closer to an 85 to 90 percent payment rate of these notices. We get a little closer into the financing of this, and we see the 15,000 notices we talked about, the $10,500 that were issued. The total fines collected on those $10,500, that 60% that we talked about was about $617,000, which we owed $154,000 back to the vendor as the vendor takes a piece of that collection. And then so we had the transfer of funds of $463,000. We have had

[04:24:51] some expenses to this program, including the fixing of some of the school sites in order to make them feasible to put in the the speed enforcement as well as the officers looking at these uh notices in in overtime right now they are not using their time I want to make sure that you understand that this is an overtime uh situation for the officers that are looking at these notices at this time I think this out of the presentation this is the most important slide because it shows you that the program is doing what it's supposed to be doing now this is the Woodbridge uh speed camera uh we show you this one this the Woodbridge obviously has two schools

[04:25:27] So we have two different times during the morning and two different times during the afternoon when we look at this data. But I wanted to show the bottom line there that you see is that in October of last year, when we did not have this program in place, the speeds running through that area were somewhere between 29 to 34 miles an hour.

[04:25:44] So everybody was speeding through the school zone at the time of the school zone. Not everybody. Richard will tell me I have to come back and say the 85th percentile of vehicles, which is what this is based on. The 85th percentile vehicles were speeding up to 35 miles an hour. Now the 85th percentile vehicles, after the program has been put to effect, has gone down to speed limit or below.

[04:26:05] This is a decrease of speed somewhere between 3 to 6 miles, in some instances 9 miles an hour, which is very significant in safety, especially safety through a school zone. The enforcement efforts to date, and a big kudos to Lieutenant Peake and his group.

[04:26:25] Again, 15,000 notices looked at in about a half a year. They're looking at about one to two per minute. So it's very good. Again, we have 5,900 notices issued out of the 6,148 that were reviewed. So they're looking at these and approving them at about a 96% rate.

[04:26:44] So the cameras are capturing. I know the police is being very conservative in the way they look at these. if the school zone was happening on a day that they had an early dismissal or a snow day or something like that happened, that day did not count. So we're only looking at doing the program when the day is consistent with what school is supposed to be doing on morning and in the afternoon basis. Again, this is not a get you program. We talked about it. It's a program to shift the community's aspect of driving or way of driving. The other great piece of news I got for

[04:27:18] you is the court hearings. Out of 15,000 notices that were looked at, there was only 18 hearings that have come to the courts. That is an incredible number. That's amazing. I think Lieutenant Peake will tell you that the judges look at this differently, that each case is individual, but again, only 18 out of 15,000. So I think that shows the effectiveness of the program. Again, after showing you this effectiveness, what we're looking to do is to do the final deployment of all the school zones that we have left uh implement the construction zone program at the devlin uh at the devlin construction uh job that we're going to have coming up this uh this

[04:27:58] summer we're also looking to see if we can implement it at route one at the job we have we have coming there and at the minneville uh parkway job to see if we can do something there as that that consists of a lot of maintenance of traffic uh we're going to shift our focus this summer to take a look at the red light program like i mentioned get those four signals up by the end of the summer or the equipment up for the four signals up by the end of the summer and hopefully the remainder by the end of the year uh so what we're looking for here today from you is we're looking for you to extend that red light program so we're able to move forward uh and and install those get the data bring that back to you again next year to see what kind of recommendations and actions you'd

[04:28:37] like to take on that but as we're moving forward we would like to recommend that the uh that the speed camera on the school zones and at the construction or work zones be approved as a permanent program we will be uh today as i mentioned earlier it's only asking uh the authorization to hold the public hearing we're planning to come back to you with a to the public hearing on june 3rd and then possibly coming back as soon as june 24th maybe july 8th with not only the ordinance

[04:29:07] but the work plan, the resource plan, and making sure that you know exactly how the enforcement on this is all going to work. So again, today's the authorization. That's the action we're looking for you, authorization for both the public hearing for extending the pilot program and an authorization for a public hearing to make the speed camera program permanent.

[04:29:35] Thank you. All right. Thank you so very much. Supervisor Vega. Thank you, Madam Chair. Rick and team, thank you for taking the time to brief my staff and I. I know that we had a very robust conversation where I stated that the main purpose of this program is to change behavior, right?

[04:29:54] Not to really focus on what revenue this might generate because that's not the intent or the purpose by which we established this pilot program, if you will, but to ensure that the data shows that people's driving behavior is, in fact, improving. I was delighted to hear that at some point it is your desire to not have the need for this program if we do achieve that goal.

[04:30:18] With that being said, I did ask some questions of you all, and I also gave you guys a heads up that I would be asking them publicly. It's beyond the record and for the general public to understand what it is that we're doing and where we're going with this. For Lieutenant Pete, can you talk a little bit about your officers and the training and or requirements?

[04:30:37] Who is reviewing this and or approving? Yeah, so those that are reviewing it are those in Special Operations Group that work with me. So those are senior officers. We're not using newer officers. They have LIDAR training, radar training, and specialized training.

[04:30:57] Also, we get training through the vendor of how the equipment works. And then I work with them pretty much daily and weekly as we're doing these reviews to consistently work with the vendor on any issues that we have with the cameras and things like that. So we go through it line by line, make sure that the photos are working.

[04:31:15] The photos are consistent. The tag matches the car. The vehicle matches what the tag says it is. And if it's not, we reject it or we send it back to the vendor for clarification. And prior to us reviewing, it is reviewed by the vendor. And we do have, I will mention, we have Dan's side right behind me from our vendor, Medoxo, with us today, too.

[04:31:36] So pretty much part of my job is to work with those programs as well. But I deal with the vendor pretty much on a daily basis. I think I've dealt with them just tonight while we've been here at the board meeting at least three times on three different events to get back to citizens in a timely manner.

[04:31:55] Thank you. Does that help? Yeah, just, you know, want the public to know that we're not just picking random officers. There is training that goes behind this, and there is a process, so I just want to be very clear in regards to that. I'll add real quick. I've mentioned through our command staff and to Rick, I don't think we should be just adding just people from other light-duty assignments just to do this.

[04:32:21] It's years of experience that are working on this program with me. It's been pretty successful, I believe. We work hand-in-hand with county transportation on a daily basis to ensure that the lights are visible, the lights are working, flashing, and things like that.

[04:32:39] We do the audits throughout the week to make sure. So we also jointly work with schools to make sure if we find one bulb out or something out or something obstructing it, we get that taken care of. Because if you're going through a speed camera sign and you don't see the flashing lights, we want to be able to say that those are flashing.

[04:32:56] And those are some of the things that come up in court, too. And thank you for that. I think that's really important. You know, there's a sentiment when we first started to talk about this that folks were afraid that this was going to be like a gotcha program and that we're out to get folks. But we just want to reassure folks that we're crossing all of our T's and dotting all of our I's.

[04:33:13] So thank you for that. Rick, talk to me a little bit about the data. Who has access to it? How is it stored? And where are we in terms of compliance with state code? We are in complete compliance with state code, ma'am. And thank you for the question. I think, just so you understand, the vendor holds the data at all times.

[04:33:31] What the police receives is files from the vendor so they can review the information. Once that fine is paid and things are settled, that document has to be destroyed within 30 days, or the information has to be taken out within 30 days of that.

[04:33:47] Now, oh, sorry, 60 days is what I'm telling you, 60 days of that. With that said, though, if you do have a fine that is unpaid, You stay in the system as an unpaid fine until that fine is paid. So we do have that data continual. Okay, and then to be clear, when you talk about construction work zones, who's conducting the work and what are we talking about?

[04:34:09] Thank you for the question, ma'am. We're doing the road construction, building construction, somewhere where you have to close a lane, there's a deviation of traffic, where there's maintenance of traffic that allows or has asked for the motoring public to lower its speed through that area. That is where those cameras would be used.

[04:34:24] But it's us, that's where I want to go. It's us, ma'am, yes. Okay, great. It's our construction project. Great, and then the last question that I have is, what is the revenue used for? Right now, the revenue is being used to pay for the operations. As part of our coming back to you on the 24th or the 8th with the ordinance and the work plan, that'll identify where we would like the revenue to go to.

[04:34:47] And as a county, I think we've talked through this throughout the entire time of the pilot program, where we had said that we want those excess or additional revenues beyond the operation of the program to go into a traffic safety fund that funds traffic safety. As you knew earlier today, you approved and authorized a public meeting for the comprehensive traffic safety program.

[04:35:09] We're hoping to use that plan to be able to identify projects that these monies can be used for and go further in being able to use these monies for those types of projects. So in essence, it's self-funding. I'm sorry, ma'am? It's self-funds. Yes. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. That's all I have, Madam Chair.

[04:35:26] Supervisor Bailey. Thank you, Madam Chair. It's self-funds. We love that. We love that. And we also love that there's been consistency. And every time you've come back to us, there's been consistency. It's who is working, as Supervisor Bailey was saying, on the project.

[04:35:43] And so, Sean, we thank you for partnering with the Transportation Department because this was born out of when we were in, and we still are in, an era where there were some fatalities and we needed to do something quick. And so I just want to compliment you, both departments, on just doing something quick to make sure that our citizens are safe and bringing it to fruition because it had, you know, government moves slow, but I think you've expedited this in a faster path.

[04:36:13] So we appreciate that. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you, Madam Chair. All right, I don't think that we have any more. We don't have anyone else. All right, so let's go ahead. Motion to authorize, Madam Chair. Second. All right.

[04:36:28] Any further discussion? All right. Let's go ahead and take the vote. Vote unanimous. All right.

[04:36:44] Before we move on, Mr. Short, if you allow me, I'm going to make a quick change to the agenda because we're running a little long. And I know that we're going to have to get a staffer out of here to tend to a personal issue. So we are going to finish up with transportation, 10G.

[04:37:02] After that one, we are going to go into closed session. there's one item that we have to handle and then we come out we're going to certify that and then we're going to resume the agenda but i will move supervisors time towards the end before we adjourn because you know i want to make sure that we start the seven o'clock meeting with the land use issues and the public comment time and so forth um but again i want to make sure that we are being sensitive of staff members time so let's go forward with 10g right i'm sorry and i should to mention this, both items F and G were included in the presentation.

[04:37:39] Oh, we're included in F and G. Okay. So move for approval. Second. I don't think there's any discussion. Wait, hold on. Yes, there is. Supervisor Booty. Just very quickly. I wanted to thank staff, Lieutenant Peek, everyone for their work on this. I know as soon as Arvega said, there was some initial skepticism around all these programs.

[04:37:54] But again, and I know that I joke with Richard Weinman about this, as the person who has the best or worst performing speed zone in the county right now, we see that it works. even to the point that people are actually now taking other roads to avoid the speed zone, which is, I guess, good and bad at the same time.

[04:38:12] But again, I wanted to thank them on this and really appreciate the fact that you guys are able to show definitively with evidence and data that it's working. So thank you, Madam Chair. All right, we don't have anyone else, so let's go ahead and take the vote. Motion passes six to one.

[04:38:40] Supervisor Weir voting nay. All right, thank you, everyone. We are going to go ahead and take one item to close session. So we will be back, hopefully not too long.

[04:38:53] thank you everyone we are back i am going to go ahead and we need to certify so moved madam chair

[04:40:04] second all right let's go ahead and take a vote on that unanimous all right now we have two resolutions the first one um and it is um authorized settlement of a condemnation of the property interests on the side of the former applebee's grill plus bar restaurant located 13 850 normalwood plaza owned by gsr investment llc a virginia limited liability Company, Mendeeville Road slash Prince William Interchange Project, Circuit Court Case CL25000

[04:40:42] 764-00 Neasco Magisterial District. So moved. Second. All right. Any discussion? Let's go ahead and vote. Unanimous.

[04:41:02] All right. Thank you. And the second one is to authorize settlement in lieu of a combination of two parcels located at 17521 and 17529 Fraley Boulevard, owned by Carmen A. Bostick, Trustee of the Altamore Family Revocable Trust, Route 1, Fraylor Boulevard, Winding Project, Potomac, Magistriona District.

[04:41:20] So moved. Second. Any discussion? All right, let's go ahead, vote. Vote unanimous. All right, thank you. And I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Charter.

[04:41:36] Thank you very much, Madam Chair, members of the board. I first want to thank you for your support and endorsement of what has been a very extensive recruitment process. I also want to thank Deputy CXO Dan Alexander for leading us through the recruitment. And welcome and congratulate the next director of our Office of Community Safety, Dr. Talhida Asin, if you will come down and say a few words.

[04:42:02] Congratulations. Your mic. Okay, there we go. Thank you, Madam Chair and members of the board. I'm really, really honored and excited to continue the work that the office has begun over the last two years in really developing the pipeline for data to drive our investments in safety and security in the county.

[04:42:30] programming as well as our community engagement. Really excited and thank you for the opportunity. Thank you and congratulations. All right so we are running a little bit behind schedule so what I'm going to do is I'm going to continue. Mr. Shorter, when I'm finished you're going to pick up back up with agency time for Parks and Recs. We are going to go straight into our 7 o'clock meeting and we are going to do the public hearing for 13a as 13b and 13c have been deferred to

[04:43:05] tuesday june 24th then we will do public comment time and then we will circle back and do supervisor's time and then we will go into closed session for our final item and then we will adjourn so with that mr shorter if you want to continue with agency time nh all right so turning it over to Seth Hendler Voss, the director of our Parks and Recreation Department for 10-H. Thank you, Mr. County Executive. Madam Chair,

[04:43:44] members of the board, Seth Hendler Voss, director of Parks and Recreation. The item before you this evening is consideration of an updated cooperative agreement with the Prince William County School Division, which spells out the partnership that allows the Department of Parks and Recreation to permit the use of elementary and middle schools throughout the county mainly for youth athletics the agreement was originally established in 1989 it was it was revised a few times in 2002 2006 2015 last time it came before the board was 2017 our department

[04:44:21] currently permits approximately 130 fields and 35 gymnasiums across 46 different school sites and again these are mainly for registered sports leagues youth sports leagues and in fact 25 percent of our permitted time is allocated to school sites. It's about 35,000 hours a year.

[04:44:44] And in exchange for the permitting rights, the department maintains the school fields and we pay the cost of staffing and cleaning for the school gymnasiums. And in total, this equals approximately $3.15 million annually. And that's budgeted with the Department of Parks and Recreation.

[04:45:03] Without the cooperative agreement, we would have to provide these fields and indoor spaces to meet the demands of our youth sports partners. The agreement does not have an expiration date and it's brought to the board from time to time when it is deemed necessary for updates. There is a parks and a schools committee that meet quarterly to just check in on how the cooperative agreement is performing and they've recently identified a series of necessary changes, many of which are

[04:45:36] operational, and that's why we're before you this evening. The notable changes in the updated agreement include establishing a cost share for the replacement of artificial turf fields at seven of the schools. Currently, the agreement is silent in regard to those costs. Now, we'll be sharing those 50-50 with the schools. Over the next four years, we're going to be replacing seven fields.

[04:46:06] Another notable item is some updated fees for mainly staffing costs to reflect the increase in wages from 2017 through today. And then lastly, there's also a clause in there that specifies that as new software is integrated into the permitting system, that that cost gets split between the schools and the county to a not exceeds limit for the county.

[04:46:36] We recommend that you approve this resolution to authorize me to execute this updated agreement so we can continue this very successful partnership and provide opportunities for our very large sports community to enjoy these amenities, which are needed for them to compete and live into the quality of life values set forth by the board.

[04:47:02] All right. Thank you so very much. Does anyone have any questions? All right. Does it look like we have any questions? Can I get a motion? So moved. Second. all right any further discussion all right let's go ahead and take the vote vote unanimous all right thank you so very much again we are going to move supervisor's time so that we can stay on track

[04:47:31] with our meeting um we are going into um the rezoning for grease and overlook if the applicant can move forward can step forward good evening my name is jessica pfeiffer um with walsh

[04:48:06] Colucci, Lubley, and Walsh here on behalf of Kay Hovnanian Homes for this rezoning. Here with me tonight are Martin Reiser and Mark Burrell with Kay Hovnanian Homes, Greg Drew, our civil engineer with IMeg, and Les Adkins, our transportation consultant with Galloway. Kay Hovnanian is the contract purchaser of these four parcels, which total a little less than 81 acres in the Brentsville Magisterial District. To orient you, this is Wegmans, Route 29, Old Carolina Road, and this

[04:48:42] is Thoroughfare Road, where it ends today at the intersection of Old Carolina Road. The property is zoned A1 Agricultural, and this rezoning is for PMR, Planned Mixed Residential. The comprehensive plan designation is RN2 Residential with a transect of two, which calls for one to four dwelling units per acre.

[04:49:06] Kay Hovnanian is proposing 210 single-family detached homes, which is on average 2.6 dwelling units per acre. This slide is the contextual layout showing the proposal and how it fits into the surrounding area.

[04:49:22] The proposed density per acre aligns with the surrounding density. This is our illustrative plan. This plan shows 210 single-family detached homes. There are three types of homes differing in sizes and unit widths for a variety of housing.

[04:49:41] The applicant has worked closely with staff, with the result being the layout that you see here. Some of these changes included a reduction in the number of homes, more open space, more tree preservation, more amenities, and more centralized amenities in the center of the development.

[04:49:58] This layout allows for over 33 acres of open space, or almost 42% of the property, of which just under 14 acres is tree preservation area, which is protected by limits of disturbance. This is significantly more than the required amount of open space, which is 30%.

[04:50:17] The applicant committed to an amenity package, including a central park, amenity area, and amenities near the stormwater management facility. They also committed to shared use paths along Old Carolina Road and the portion of thoroughfare road that they are extending to Newfoundland Way.

[04:50:37] This is in addition to the on-site trails and sidewalk within the development. Between Planning Commission and now, the applicant has also committed to a monetary contribution for this portion of shared use path you see here in orange to be constructed once it connects to adjoining pedestrian facilities.

[04:50:57] These are details of the amenities. The applicant has committed to two play areas with play equipment for ages 2 through 12. Examples are shown here. Between Planning Commission and now, the applicant has committed to provide a multi-use court similar to this image.

[04:51:17] It will be a minimum of 1,500 square feet, and the location will be provided in connection with Site Plan Review. The applicant has worked with the Historical Commission and county staff on cultural resources, signage, and amenities. These include three historical information signs along the on-site trails and a Virginia DHR roadside marker along the shared use path on Old Carolina Road.

[04:51:44] In addition, they've committed to a memorial boulder along the on-site sidewalk and trail network. The purpose of the boulder is to commemorate the historic nature of the settlement and educate about the unique history of the area. This boulder is proposed to be near the front of the community, where it will be seen along the trails and sidewalks, and it will also be landscaped.

[04:52:09] A traffic impact analysis was prepared for the rezoning, and it concluded that this proposal would not change the level of service compared to the future without the development. Some of the improvements that are occurring is on Old Carolina Road. The applicant is dedicating right-of-way up to 38.5 feet.

[04:52:28] We are installing a 10-foot shared use path and constructing a right turn lane and taper into the property. Along Thoroughfare Road, we are dedicating right-of-way up to 67.5 feet from the center line, providing a 10-foot shared use path, providing a right turn lane and taper onto Thoroughfare Road Extended, and we are extending Thoroughfare Road from the Old Carolina Road and Thoroughfare Road intersection to Newfoundland Way, and that is this portion that you see right here, Thoroughfare Road Extended.

[04:53:03] During our community outreach, we heard concerns about the intersection of Route 29 and Old Carolina Road, particularly on Saturdays. Although the Grayson Overlook development does not cause the need for improvements at this intersection, K. Hovnadian heard the input from the community and looked at what they could do to improve this intersection.

[04:53:23] The applicant will improve the intersection such that the existing one lane on Old Carolina Road at the intersection will be widened to accommodate three lanes, a designated southbound left, left and through lane, and right lane to result in three lanes.

[04:53:41] This results in an improvement on Saturdays from a level of service F to a level of service E. These are the homes that are proposed, and these images are from our design guidelines. For community outreach, we submitted this rezoning in June 2022, and since that time have had three meetings with the Hopewells Landing community and two meetings with the Blue Ridge Farms community.

[04:54:05] The locations of those communities are seen here. Here is Blue Ridge Farms, and here is Hopewells Landing in two sections. We also met with the adjacent property owner located right here. Following the Planning Commission hearing, we sent out 77 letters to those outlined in yellow dots offering meetings in person or virtual or any other preferred outreach, phone calls, email, etc.

[04:54:31] We received four responses. We had two individual meetings at Wegmans, one phone call, and have been corresponding with the fourth person. This is a list of proffers that were added as a result of that community outreach that was had. We have added two fences for adjacent property owners that ask for them.

[04:54:51] They will be a minimum of six feet in height and privacy in style. We've added the multi-use court that I previously mentioned that was asked for by the Planning Commission, but one of the residents across Old Carolina Road also said she would like to see that happen. For Blue Ridge Farms, we added a proffer requesting that the Grayson Overlook rezoning.

[04:55:10] Middle schoolers go to Gainesville Middle School instead of Ronald Reagan Middle School. We added the monetary contribution for the shared use path along Old Carolina Road when it connects to other pedestrian facilities. We added streetlights along Old Carolina Road, one north of the intersection of Old Carolina Road and thoroughfare road, and one south as requested by a nearby property owner.

[04:55:33] We added the Route 29 and Old Carolina Road improvements based on community outreach. and we also added an always stop warrant analysis and if warranted we will install stop signs for stop signs at the intersection of old carolina road and thoroughfare road that was also at the request of a nearby property owner this is a project that has taken the time to address community outreach and transportation environmental cultural resources pedestrian connectivity and layout aspects to result in a better project that is compatible with the surrounding area and will

[04:56:10] improve old carolina road staff is recommending approval the planning commission unanimously recommended approval and i seek your favorable action this evening and a few of the property owners are here this evening um a few may speak but i did want them to just um wave or stand in support of the project they're back in this area um one of these property owners has owned the property for um over 100 years um we are available for questions all right thank you i'm hoping that their family owned it for over because that's a long time all right does anyone have any questions

[04:56:49] for the applicant all right seeing none what supervisor we're the school proffer sure uh where is it where is it where is it middle school blue ridge farms could you explain to me what middle school blue ridge farms means um when we met with the blue ridge farms community they said our middle schoolers go to ronald reagan middle school and ronald reagan middle school is over capacity, we would like you to ask the school board for your middle schoolers to go to Gainesville

[04:57:29] Middle School. And I actually wanted to elaborate on that. So this is from the latest CIP. And this is Gainesville Middle School and Ronald Reagan Middle School. And Gainesville Middle School is at 85% utilization in 2028-2029. And Ronald Reagan Middle School is at 117% utilization.

[04:57:52] Our student generation is 31 middle schoolers. So Gainesville Middle School has the capacity for an additional 230 students, and we are generating 31 students.

[04:58:12] So it is just a request that can be made to the school board. Ultimately, there will be redistricting that would need to occur for that to take effect. but we did say we would let them know that that it would be our wish to go to Gainesville Middle School. This seems to be a recurring theme of late and I don't like it. It doesn't take into account things like Smith Crossing which are going to add additional kids to Gainesville Middle. Some other stuff that's been that's being built out there are already approved and I don't think we

[04:58:44] should be putting school boundary line decisions in the hands of neighborhood HOAs. You know our kids go there your kids can't we're hardly qualified to do it and i suspect they're less qualified than we are so i don't really like this being part of the consideration just my two cents all right do we have any other comments all right say none if we can go ahead and have our planning staff do their presentation good evening chair jefferson uh members of the board

[04:59:23] scott meyer in the planning office so this uh jessica walked us through a lot of the application So this is the site here. You've already been oriented. It's just shy of 81 acres. One of the biggest issues that we had was there are some parcels that are not included in the frontage.

[04:59:44] So as we were looking at pedestrian improvements, again, you have these two triangular pieces here that are not included. And then you have a little break. And then you have Love Church site, which is down here, which has previously been approved. So that was one of the challenges just in terms of trying to get pedestrian connections.

[05:00:03] But this is their request before you. It's the request is to rezone to plan mixed residential. Just to recap here, it is a plan for RN2, which is basically residential low density, density of one to four dwelling units per acre.

[05:00:20] It is well within that appropriate range. This kind of, you know, we look at this as completing the planned development in this area. Again, the residual areas that are not included in the frontage were an issue.

[05:00:37] And also we have this environmental feature, which we want to point out the applicant has been very responsive to. They have extensive tree save and open space areas that are following that area, you know, in the western portion of the site. This is the subject property.

[05:00:52] Again, it's east of Old Carolina Road, south of Thoroughfare. The environmental constraints analysis, it points out the connectivity of the environmental features. You'll see in the next following graphics that the open space areas follow that pattern, which is a positive thing.

[05:01:15] So if you look at this, this is here where the environmental features are. So the applicant's been responsive. The initial proposal had numerous units within the tree preservation area that has since changed. We feel that they've been responsive to the environmental features.

[05:01:32] There's central amenity features, as Jessica pointed out. There also is, you know, there's focal areas. We always look at what will the residents, you know, be able to utilize in the area. the extensive network of trail connections around the periphery of the site and amenity areas where it makes sense that was something also that came up at the planning commission hearing as well this is the master zoning plan shown the different land bays again just to another big thing was the

[05:02:07] pedestrian improvements some of those are off-site and we have transportation staff here to address that as well if needed. Staff is recommending approval. So the Planning Commission recommended approval but there were three recommendations. They wanted the school's proffer to be further looked at. Staff still feels that that is out of the purview of the planning office. The applicant has a right to ask for schools to redistrict but that is out of what we look at. The applicant's

[05:02:41] also committed to a hardcore area as well and there as uh they also did extensive outreach to the adjacent property owners so with that staff is recommending approval with the latest proffers date of april 8th and again this is consistent with the rn2 uh the residential neighborhood designation um it's proffered that we have a cohesive layout um we know what we're getting There are connected open spaces, on-site amenities.

[05:03:09] This is also providing a contribution towards affordable housing. With these kind of developments, we're not able to get in affordable units per se, but the applicant has offered a monetary contribution, which is in line with the policy. And this also meets numerous policies of the strategic plan.

[05:03:27] And with that, I'll be happy to answer any questions. We also have environmental staff here, Will Shoup and George Phillips, from Transportation as well, if needed. Thank you. Thank you so very much. Supervisor Rear? You're still in the queue. Did you have a question? All right.

[05:03:44] Supervisor Vega, then Bodie. Thank you, Madam Chair. Scott, so what can the board do in order to ensure that we have some clarity and or direction when it comes to the school situation? And if there's nothing, then I think that should be clearly stated.

[05:04:02] Yes. Supervisor Vega, good evening. So, um, just staff, uh, mentioned that, excuse me, I'm just kind of, I'm just getting into the proffer analysis part of my staff report here. Pardon me. Um, yeah. So on page 35, the bottom bullet staff cannot support, uh, the proffer as presented.

[05:04:23] We had mentioned this going into the planning commission. Um, we had mentioned this to the applicant and, um, the, this is really more of a school board issue. We just felt it's better not put in the proffers. And we had mentioned that, and the applicant retained it in the proffers.

[05:04:42] But it's out of the purview that we were able to look at it. Yeah, and thank you for that, Scott. I think that that should probably be better practice moving forward for other applicants. Also, not to include it, because if there's nothing that we can do to actually enforce it or hold them to it, then there's no point in offering it up.

[05:04:59] But I'm going to go ahead and defer to Supervisor Gordy, because I think he can elaborate a little bit more and expand on some of the concerns that I may have. Wait, hold on. Oh, I'm sorry. I thought he was. Thank you. No, we have Bodie, then Gordie. We have, okay, Bordie, the B part is up.

[05:05:16] Right. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Scott, for the presentation. Just wanted to have one question on sort of the pedestrian network. This should come as no surprise to the applicant. I asked it when they met with me. Thank you again for meeting with me. Looking at some of the pedestrian network and the connectivity, both from the trails, but also especially that main drag coming down from old Carolina Road, Was there any sort of analysis of pedestrian crosswalks, maybe a speed hump, knowing that especially once folks come down off Old Carolina Road, going especially down towards that main sort of amenity area, they get going pretty fast.

[05:05:52] It's a pretty straight shot. Thank you for that comment, Supervisor Bode. We did look at that, and we could do speed humps and a crosswalk in that location because it is a location where people should know to slow down because that is the trail connecting.

[05:06:08] Appreciate that. Thank you. That's all I had. The Ordy part of Ordy. Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, on the school, I mean, this is the frustrating part. We have schools that are over capacity, but then we have schools that are well under capacity.

[05:06:29] I've said this repeatedly. I've said it with our school board members in the chambers. We need to do boundary changes. We need to realign. Now, politically, for them, that's a very difficult thing to do. It's going to cause pain.

[05:06:46] Granted, it's easier for them to take land that has no one currently living on it or doesn't have a residential development and rezone that to a school before there are people who are living on site and then have to get moved from one school to the other. And we're running into this in numerous parts of the Brentsville District where a lot of the development is in areas where those schools are over capacity.

[05:07:14] But in some of these neighborhoods, they're literally going to be passing schools that have capacity to get to the schools that they're zoned to that are over capacity. And so this is something that I continue to work with the school board and with the superintendent, my chief of staff, our Brentsville district school board member.

[05:07:36] We talk about this all the time and is something that we are working on and will continue to work on. There is capacity in schools. We just got to get the boundaries changed. And again, in speaking with the superintendent, when schools get to a certain level of capacity, they become inefficient.

[05:07:54] So we need to maintain a certain level of participation for those schools so that, I'll give you for instance, T. Clay Wood, it has dropped down to about two-thirds capacity. Because of that, they had to kill, well, kill, that's the wrong word.

[05:08:10] they had to eliminate their great drama program because they just didn't have the funds to support it anymore. And so we need to find ways to continue to keep these schools running at efficient levels.

[05:08:29] And so those are things that we continue to work on and can discuss. I would like to talk about the interparcel connector that had been originally proposed in the solution. on Newfoundland Way into Hopewell's Landing.

[05:08:49] Oh, I was going to say, could you, the solution that we have to address that, because I am concerned about connecting.

[05:09:24] Right now, to send anyone through Hopewell's Landing to get on to 29 is not the right solution. And so I know that the reservation is there. The road is already there for making the connection.

[05:09:40] but we've talked, I don't believe we should make the connection at this time until we finish our evaluation of Route 29, the study that is ongoing. Could you speak to the solution that we're looking at here? Yes, sir. So VDOT right-of-way is within Hopewell's Landing. So these roads that you see here, including Newfoundland Way, up into our property line, I believe this is the best one to show so this is vdot right of way right here and then the county owns this parcel so we have

[05:10:15] discussed putting an emergency access barrier up in this location within the county owned parcel for just emergency access whether it be a jersey wall but we can add a note to our master zoning plan saying if approved by county transportation and vdot we will install a temporary barricade in that location for emergency access. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. All right. Is there anyone else who has any questions for planning? Because if not, I just want to reiterate again,

[05:10:54] 13B and 13C have been deferred to Tuesday, June 24th. So we will not be doing the public hearing for those items. With that, I would like to open the public hearing for item 13A. And that is the rezoning for Grayson Overlook. I have two people who have signed up to speak in person.

[05:11:19] James Jackson and I don't know if this is Clayton Perel. All right so if the two of you can go in the back and if this is your first time speaking just so you know you'll state your name in the magisterial district where you reside. You have three minutes to speak and you'll also see the

[05:11:46] time up there on the screen good evening now this is not my first time being here i just put the mic a little closer so we can make sure that we hear you thank you sir how's that okay like i say this is not my first rodeo actually this is my fourth time being before the board i don't i don't seem

[05:12:20] like it got different people every time i come here so i don't but um like say um i won't continue to repeat over and over our desire to sell our property. And like she said, our property is over 100 years old. No, I'm not close to 100, but I feel like it at times. And like I said, I don't know y'all keep transcripts of these things or not, but like I said, I'm not going to keep repeating

[05:12:59] myself. The last four meetings has stretched out for over, for us, 26 years. We've been doing this for 26 years and we have yet to get the green light and um you know can you imagine just waiting on anything for 26 years you know to get to a point you've been disappointed and bitter because all around you there's development and our property is still sitting there when are we

[05:13:38] going to get a green light the um the first two committees that i've came before you know to me they did nothing but dragged their feet they dragged their feet while we were digging graves and uh digging graves for those people that should have could have benefit from the sale of that property now this is my last time i'm this is my last time one way or another this is my last time

[05:14:13] coming before you and i got four words and i'm gone let's get it done no no no i'm sorry we cannot All right, sir, here we go.

[05:14:34] My name is Clayton Powell, and I am the grandson of the original property owners, the late Alfred and Frankie Strother. The property was purchased in 1920 and was a farm until the passing of my grandfather and my grandmother in 1969.

[05:15:02] They invested in this property with the intent of passing it down, their wealth, to the next generation, my mother, Gladys Powell, and her brother, James Strother.

[05:15:19] The property was then passed down to another generation of Powells and my cousin, James Jackson. In order to accumulate wealth, the survivors another generation requires a financial commitment to pay the taxes to maintain the property.

[05:15:49] It also means ability to sell the property as well. In 2005, my family and my cousins started this journey of selling our property with the hopes of passing the assets to our children.

[05:16:07] But to date, at 79 years old, I am the last of the siblings of my siblings who would never see it pass to their children. There are three other properties bordering our property, and those owners would also like to see the zoning changed to PMR.

[05:16:35] We sincerely hope that this revised application of rezoning is approved. Thank you very much. All right, thank you. Supervisor Bailey will move on to remote. Thank you, Madam Chair.

[05:16:51] Shall we begin? Hello? There are no speakers at this time. Thank you so much. Have a good evening. All right. Thank you. Is there anyone else? Thank you. Is there anyone else who want to speak? All right. Well, all right. All right. Stay your name. Magisterial District, you get three minutes.

[05:17:13] Look at the monitor. My name is Raymond Bernat. I live at 7612 Old Carolina Road, so I believe I'm in the Brentsville District. We've been there for 30 years and watched traffic explode on our road. I don't know if that's the right word. Maybe I'm not supposed to say that here in this, but it's, it's, it's gotten to the point where it's, it is absolutely insane on old Carolina road. I don't know how these 220 plus houses are. I don't know where these people are going to go. So I don't know who's saying that, that they did some type of study or they talked

[05:17:50] to certain people. They certainly never talked to my wife and I, uh, they never talked to most of our, they talked to one person up the street that I know of, but that is it. Uh, we also came to the planning uh commission too and there were a couple of people there like i unfortunately i don't remember what their names were right off hand uh but they were also very concerned about the traffic on old carolina road and it's been a concern i think for a long long time so i don't think this is something that just came about yesterday um so that would be the only thing

[05:18:25] that the problem that i would have is the density of this is it it's it's pretty enormous to throw 225 more cars potentially at least probably as a minimum onto old carolina road in the mornings in the afternoons in the evenings so that's kind of all i have but not against the development i'm just against the number of homes on the on the development but anyway i appreciate your time thank you well thank you and so with that i'm going to go ahead and close the public hearing for agenda item number 13A and I'd either like to give the staff or the applicant a chance

[05:19:05] to address the comment that was made about traffic and then I'll open it for additional questions based on we did send out letters between the planning commission hearing and the board of county supervisors hearings to 77 people up and down old Carolina road route 29

[05:19:43] Lucas court and we also picked up Melton Court right here in order to have the widest range we could of picking up as many residents as we could. In terms of transportation, we have been working on this project since June 2022. We have done a TIA. We have looked at transportation improvements to help the broader area, not required with our development, but to see what we could do to fix the the network as a whole and to really help what we heard is that the biggest backup in traffic at

[05:20:23] that intersection is saturdays and what we can do is make that queue on saturdays significantly less in addition to that taking care of our traffic with turn lanes the thoroughfare road extended and then improving pedestrian connectivity on this side of Old Carolina Road wholly.

[05:20:49] All right, Supervisor Gordy, did you have any questions? No, Madam Chair, thank you. And I want to thank everyone who came out to speak tonight on this case and to the family members. And I've been talking to Dr. Brown, who's on our historical commission, and about, you know, ensuring that we're also very respectful of the historical and cultural aspects of the community in the thoroughfare area.

[05:21:20] We are mindful of, I'm also mindful of the transportation challenges. And, you know, when we were talking about the, even going back as far as the comprehensive plan, when we downed, I believe it was the board at the time, downed, scoped the Old Carolina Road to maintain it as two lanes.

[05:21:49] But I think the improvements, I know when I'm on Old Carolina Road, the backup at 29 with the light is a key factor. And I think the improvements that will be coming at the intersection to allow more left-hand turns onto 29 will certainly make some significant improvements.

[05:22:07] And as we continue forward, I will ask our transportation department to continue to monitor speed on this road and conduct studies. and if we need to find ways to do traffic calming in this area, and this is something that I will bring up in my monthly meeting that I have with transportation, we will continue to keep this as a topic of conversation to monitor Old Carolina Road as this moves forward.

[05:22:37] With that, Madam Chair, I move that we approve this application, which is item 13A. Second. All right. It's been properly moved and seconded. Do we have any additional discussion? Supervisor Rear.

[05:22:57] Thank you, Madam Chair. This is more of the same old thing. A hackneyed group of assembled properties, disconnected green space, disconnected pedestrian improvements, sidewalks to nowhere, no real addressing of the traffic issues.

[05:23:15] Don't fool yourself. The intersection improvements of 29 and Old Carolina aren't going to do anything because the primary movement is straight through. It's not a turn issue, it's a straight-through issue. I mean, yes, this is in the Brentsville District, but I could stand on my back deck and probably pitch a rock and hit it.

[05:23:32] We've got to stop doing the same old thing. The density is too high. Old Carolina isn't designed to take this type of traffic. It's in the wrong place on Old Carolina. The issue isn't traffic on Old Carolina so much as it is speed, particularly on the area north of this.

[05:23:51] it backs up at the terminus of 29 it also backs up at 55. We need to do a better job of planning than we're doing. All right anyone else has any additional comments or discussion? All right seeing none we can move forward with the vote. I just wanted to mention we made the change on the master zoning plan so the proffers before you tonight reference that revised plan and the date of those revised proffers and the revised plan

[05:24:30] are May 13th, 2025. So, Madam Chair, members of the board, I believe the motion is to approve based upon proffers dated today. Thank you. All right, thank you so very much. We're good. Motion passes 6 to 1. Supervisor, we are voting nay. All right, thank you very much. We are now going to move on to agenda item number 14, and that's public comment time.

[05:24:55] So, while they're getting the list, it's the same as public hearing. You know, I'm going to call people up in groups of five, You start with stating your name, Magisterial District. You can look up the screen.

[05:25:11] You will have three minutes to speak. I was going to say, Michelle, I have no vic. I've kind of spread out. Yeah, you got a first chair for this.

[05:25:29] Yeah, I did. Wait, hold on. I forgot. Where is my card? Oh, this is in the room. Nope. I must have left it in the back. Text message for Joanna's card. No, I left it in the back. Go get it. There it comes. I'm going to, that's what I'm about to do. Go get my card and fill my chair.

[05:25:53] All right. Thank you, everyone. I'm going to start. We have Maddie Burns, Steve Amato,

[05:26:35] Ryan Bartroff, Karen Molokak, Amanda Odette. And I apologize for any names that were mispronounced. All right. Our first speaker, you may go ahead and speak. You may go ahead and make sure the microphone is close by so we can hear you. Hi, I'm Maddie Burns. I am a resident of the

[05:27:09] Occoquan District. Thank you, Madam Chair and board members. What I'm speaking today is about the memo between our police department and ICE that was approved earlier today. What we are signing up for by our police department coordinating and complying with the facilities agreement with ICE is their unrestrained targeting, use of force, and widespread persecution of our neighbors and our community, allowing ICE to use and profit from our county's police training center sends a message that we are okay with their tactics.

[05:27:47] Allowing ICE more access to our county, our police department, and its facilities is not a vote for law and order. In fact, ICE under Trump is antithetical to due process and civil rights, including to immigrants with legal status and to citizens. ICE's power in the law enforcement space is increasingly unchecked, and allowing ICE to use our facilities would be a horrendous act of compliance that would put a stain upon our county for years to come. Their operations in 2025 have been honed to profile and disappear our neighbors to remote private prisons in the U.S. and outside

[05:28:26] the country with no due process. We absolutely cannot make Trump's executive overreach and recently genocidal work easier. This compliance is not okay anywhere and it is certainly not okay in our county. If random arrests and disappearances can happen on camera with hundreds of witnesses to federal representatives like the mayor of Newark, it can happen to all of us. We have all seen the videos of fellow Americans being disappeared. No one is safe from this terror.

[05:28:58] That includes immigrants, people of color, union leaders, politicians, organizers, college students, citizens. Capitulation to ICE under pressure from fascist currents in our government and society will not make Prince William County safer. In fact, it will only make the target on our own back for arrest and illegal abduction more likely. Fascism is never valid, and it is certainly not in line with our counties, our states, and our country's ideals. ICE was already prone to abuse

[05:29:34] with its racial profiling and its detention centers, most heinously in its private contract prisons. Ice under Trump has become a weapon of widespread terror to all Americans. Their vests may read ice, but they are the brown shirts of modern day. Never again. Certainly not in Prince William County. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hello, I'm Amanda Audette. I'm part of the Ocaquan district, and I don't have anything written, so forgive me. I am also here about the

[05:30:12] the memorandum of agreement between the Prince William County and ICE for use of their training center. I know this vote was earlier today, but I did not have childcare and could not make it.

[05:30:27] So I'm here to ask you to reconsider this agreement. I'm here because I'm scared. I've seen so many YouTube videos of ICE agents who won't identify themselves taking people off the streets and it might not be happening here but I'm still scared and I can't help but feel like the optics of our county accepting money from an agency that's not upholding their ideals or our ideals

[05:31:05] just looks really bad and seems unnecessary so i i wish for our county to say no thank you to working with ice in its current state so please reconsider this agreement thank you next speaker please good evening members of the board my name is ryan bartruff and i lived in the gainesville

[05:31:41] district i've lived in prince william county for 13 years my wife and i are raising our three children here i work in our public schools supporting teachers and students throughout the Gainesville area. Several years ago, we learned of the plan for the Digital Gateway and realized that we were literally in the middle of it. We did our research and made the best decision we could with the information that we had. When the board voted to approve the Digital Gateway, we thought that we would be moving on to the next chapter of our lives.

[05:32:10] Instead, we find ourselves stuck. Tonight, I ask this board to recognize the terrible position that you have put my family in. My modest home on our small piece of land is being taxed as if it is a gigantic data center. Last year, our property assessment nearly quintupled, and then this year, it doubled again. You're charging a public school teacher and a family of five over $40,000 a year in property tax. That's half my salary. In your excitement to complete the biggest investment to this county's economic base, you're ignoring the

[05:32:49] fact that the data centers don't own the land yet. The zoning applications are currently in legal limbo. What was pitched as a rapidly moving development has stretched on and on with each case and every appeal. But you're taxing us as if there's already a data center in my backyard.

[05:33:08] My wife and I are not a multi-billion dollar company, and the financial burden you've placed on us is unsustainable. This goes far beyond pricing people out of the county. You're causing financial ruin and driving us towards poverty. If you continue taxing us in such a reckless and illogical manner, then everything that we have worked for and saved for ourselves and for our children will be taken from us. Tonight I'm asking you, please provide us with relief until the litigation surrounding this project is resolved. We don't have the means to pay tens of thousands

[05:33:44] in property taxes for a development that hasn't even started and is slowly working its way through the courts. I understand that development is complex. I understand that lawsuits take time, But I don't understand why working families who have acted in good faith are left holding the bag.

[05:34:05] This board has the power to pause, to reassess, and to ensure fairness. If you come to visit, I won't be able to show you the data center that you think is there. Only the home that was once our sanctuary, but has now turned into a nightmare.

[05:34:22] I ask you, please, exercise your power in the name of sanity and compassion. Please help my family. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hi, so I don't have anything written down, so I'm going off the cuffs, but the particular item that I do want to address is...

[05:34:47] I'm so sorry, sir. It's hard to hear you, so make sure you adjust the microphone. Also, start with your name and your magisterial district, please. My name is Stephen Tilly, and I'm in Prince William County, Woodbridge, Virginia. The item that I take issue with, particularly I want to discuss, is particularly item 5T in regards to what was mentioned earlier.

[05:35:11] Prince William County Police Department and ICE using the Mike Penning Center Base Training Center and money being accepted for this. This is extremely dangerous because ICE has had a, ever since Donald Trump has returned to power as president, there's been a string line of abuses and court orders that ICE has been violating due process.

[05:35:38] And the common trend I'm seeing with ICE agents that have been documented is the government told them to do this. This is no different than the Nazis' excuse in the Nuremberg trials, that they were just following orders. That didn't fly in Nuremberg, and it does not fly in this country either.

[05:35:57] And one of my concerns is, one, U.S. citizens, as well as immigrants, whether documented or undocumented, are going to be targeted. Three U.S. citizens' children, one of whom has brain cancer, were deported by ICE.

[05:36:14] And a judge appointed by Trump himself tried to intervene to no avail. So this is not only a concern because of ICE's presence within Prince William County, as well as the entire state of Virginia, in regards to their illegal activities.

[05:36:33] But this is also prepping the police of the Prince William County Police Department to actively participate in blatant disregard for the rule of law. and federal court orders that strictly prohibit the denial of due process, which this does risk of enabling. Thank you.

[05:36:49] I'm so sorry. Before you go, if I can get your name again, because we have a sign-up sheet and you didn't sign in. What is your name? You said Steve? Steve and Tilly. Steve and Tilly. All right. And I ask if you, you may go, our next speaker, but I ask if you have already spoken, please make sure that you are seated because we have to make sure that people remain seated.

[05:37:12] All right. Next speaker. Got it. Okay. Thank you.

[05:37:30] Good evening, Board of County Supervisors and Madam Chair. I'm Steve Amato from the Occoquan District. And I want to thank the Board of County Supervisors who didn't vote on April 22nd to decrease the property tax.

[05:37:46] In fact, those supervisors who didn't agree to reduce the property tax rate increased my real estate property tax in fiscal year 2026 to over $407.

[05:38:06] Yes, I'm being sarcastic because I am not pleased with how this board has looked at feedback and information that has come from your constituents to reduce these rates.

[05:38:21] Since the majority party has been on this board, my personal real estate tax over eight years has increased $1,700, which in perspective is about 60% of my family's grocery bill, 20% of my homeowner's bill insurance, and 50% of my vehicle insurance.

[05:38:48] In the FY26 budget, the property tax revenue is going to generate about 13% more. The Board of County Supervisors, who did not agree to reduce the Prince William County government full-time equivalent growth, has now added nearly 100 more new FTEs in FY26.

[05:39:15] In March and April, I came to this chamber with a business case. And I thought it was a pretty simple business case, looking at total FTEs over the past seven years. budget surpluses over the past six fiscal years. Where is the financial and fiscal responsibility if we're generating so much revenue that we have this surplus? Nothing's getting plowed back to the taxpayers. In FY26, I challenged the board and the Prince William County exec to identify

[05:39:52] programs because we're going to need to start reducing programs with these high costs that we're wanting to keep slamming at them. Where savings can be taken, stop growing the county government FTEs. Don't approve any new FTEs until we start filling these current vacancies.

[05:40:08] That's money being wasted. Reduce seriously the school revenue sharing to at least 52 percent. Otherwise, more citizens are going to be taxed out of this county. More people will be looking at the social services to rely on how can you supervisors who did not agree to vote reduce those rates look at your constituents and say i hear you but i'm raising your taxes thank you all right our final in-person speaker please testing hi my name is karen molakach i'm actually

[05:40:46] a non-resident uh i'm in burke virginia in fairfax county um but i just wanted to add to something that people spoke about, um, much more eloquently than I did, uh, regarding the memorandum, um, for the use of facilities by ICE. Um, I just want to add one other consideration, which is, you know, um, given that this has passed and maybe, you know, we'll see how, what, whether it can be reversed, um, what, you know, what will be done to mitigate the second-order effects of the loss of community trust

[05:41:25] that will likely happen as a result of this agreement, what resources will need to be allocated to mitigate this, and to what extent has it even been considered what the impact on public safety this loss of trust will lead to. So I won't dive into the details that have been described by others better than I can, But just inviting you to consider that and whether it was actually priced into the deal of $28,800, and maybe it should be.

[05:42:00] Thank you. All right. Thank you so very much. Do we have anyone online? Are there any speakers? Andre, I don't think there are anybody. Okay. No, Madam Chair.

[05:42:18] All right. Thank you so very much. So we are complete with public comment time. We are going to go back to supervisor's time before we go around the dais. I would like to start with the motion for 11A to 11F. So moved.

[05:42:34] Second. Any discussion? If not, let's go ahead and speak. I mean, let's go ahead and vote. Let's speak or vote? Let's speak. I should say speak now forever.

[05:42:50] Hold your peace. All right.

[05:42:59] Unanimous. Supervisor, we are abstaining from vote. All right. I'm going to start. I'd like to mix things up. Supervisor Bodie. Thank you, Madam Chair. I don't really have too much. Just wanted to talk about a few things.

[05:43:16] As folks well know, unfortunately, there was a tragedy at Westminster, at Lakeridge, a couple weeks ago. There was an officer involved shooting, and unfortunately, part of that situation, someone lost their lives. And it's a tragedy that we never want to hear about.

[05:43:34] A family that was literally torn up by issues around mental health. I'm not going to say too much more else because there's an ongoing investigation with that. But I just want to let everyone know that the family that was involved and who was the center of this tragedy is on my mind, of course, and on my heart.

[05:43:49] The entire Westminster facility and their folks are on my heart as well, as well as the folks in the greater community that continue to see these types of issues sort of play out. And knowing that we continue to look at these issues and how we can do better to protect our citizens from mental health and mental illness.

[05:44:08] some of the outlays that happen from there. The only other thing I really wanted to address and I appreciate Supervisor Vega for mentioning it at the outset of the meeting at the top is acknowledging nurses. As Supervisor Vega said at the outset my mom was a nurse. She passed away in 2016 as a result of some issues that she was dealing with between mental illness, substance misuse and uh uh being on shelter for for large periods of time um but she spent a lot of her professional life trying to help other people um i just say that to again uplift the nurses in our

[05:44:47] lives but also connect it to my more contemporary uh period of my life uh as some of the folks on the dais know a couple years back i also lost my stepson cyrus um and the reason why i bring that up in terms of this context is he had a whole uh uh cross-section of genetic disorders that led to him having a lot of health issues so for a large sections of his life he was on a ventilator um he was hospitalized and towards the end there we have unfortunately had to make the choice of does he live the rest of his life on a ventilator or does he live the best life he can and for large amounts

[05:45:24] of that time, he had skilled nursing to look after him while he was with us. He had skilled nursing when we go on trips, when he was going to school, went to Lake Ridge Elementary just up the road. So there are a lot of ways in which nurses enhance our lives, enrich our lives, and take care of folks when they are at their most vulnerable and when they are needed. So everyone that has a nurse in their life whether it's a loved one someone's taking care of a family member or what have you know that they are obviously and usually hidden figures that support so many families in

[05:46:03] our community so i just want to say that last piece um and thank you madam chair thank you so very much um supervisor rare thank you madam chair i'll keep it very brief i would just invite everybody to patriot high school 5 30 thursday to listen to dominion's newest set of plans in their ever-changing set of plans for the Wishing Star to Morrisville route, I just want to reiterate to the board that I suspect I'm going to be asking the board to be a respondent party in the rate case when it comes forward, because it impacts a lot of county-owned properties and a

[05:46:39] lot of county residents. Thank you. All right, Supervisor Bailey. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just briefly going to go through, I mean, I've had a very exceptional month in April and in May thus far and just participating in the Lakers celebrity luncheon was fun and supporting our basic law enforcement when they graduated. It was number 60. It was just wonderful. And then attending the Hilton Performing Arts Center anniversary gala in April. And then congratulations to my colleagues

[05:47:12] in Gainesville and Brinsville for the malarkey media farm brew live ribbon cutting. That's really pinnacle to our county and so really proud of that and then community forum uh for ungun gun violence and our new community safety employee um was one of the guest speakers there and what's her name i'm sorry um community safety anyway we just yes hasim miss dr hasim she's wonderful so we're very fortunate to have her um and then uh thanks to my staff for attending the youth Wellness Conference on May the 3rd, 80th anniversary

[05:47:52] for the installation of our volunteer firemen in Dumfries and Triangle. And so, Chief Nana, welcome back. Glad to have you and your staff. And then on the 6th, I was very fortunate in working with Kathleen from Public Works and Ricky from Transportation. And we went and we looked at the beautification program they've created with lighting and the projects and the florals in the community to really enhance the Potomac District.

[05:48:20] On the 7th, I attended the recruit class graduation. And then on the 10th, congratulations to Forest Park High School. I was so honored to attend with Madam Chair the 25th anniversary and groundbreaking ceremony for the Legacy Walk.

[05:48:37] Forest Park has been with us for 25 years, and that's a big salute to them. And for all the citizens and residents that participated and support staff from county and to Congressman Eugene Vindman and to Senator Russett Perry, all of you who participated, County Exec Shorter, Elijah Johnson, Colonel Colgate even gave us a platoon of Marines.

[05:49:11] So they had a great time as well. So it was a great time celebrating and focusing on mental health in our 5K walk on this past Saturday. So I thank the community for the support in that regard. Upcoming events, Potomac is growing and moving forward.

[05:49:27] We are going to announce our new Potomac District Town Hall Fettler Market Study that has just been conducted for the residents in the Potomac District. It's going to be at Southbridge Community Center on the 22nd at 6 p.m.

[05:49:44] And so we invite you to come and support. And then lastly, Madam Chair, I want to offer this directive without objection. I'd like to issue a directive that focuses on the board to consider increasing the net financial worth limitation for tax relief for elderly individuals and disabled individuals, because the limit has not been decreased in more than 20 years, and to allow the proration of the exemption when only some of the owners of the property qualify for the exemption.

[05:50:17] To focus on that, I think an increase would better reflect the current financial situation of the residents of the Potomac District and countywide. I would like to direct the county exec to work with myself to schedule and advertise and hold a required public hearing for the board to consider amending county code section 26-38 to increase the net worth limitation from $340,000 to $400,000 for the tax relief for elderly individuals and disabled individuals.

[05:50:54] The county exec is directed to work with the county attorney's office to draft the necessary proposed county code amendment for the board's consideration, and this has been exercised with the county exec and the county attorney and our finance department. Thank you.

[05:51:11] All right, thank you. Supervisor Gordy. Thank you, Madam Chair. I've just, the last couple of weeks, had some great opportunities to meet with folks in the community, and I want to wish our SEEK community a happy new year and was able to join them at the Vaseca Mela event that they had on April 27th.

[05:51:35] I also want to congratulate Malarkey and Bellagio on the opening of the new distillery and the Proof Restaurant. I thank all my colleagues who joined us for the event on May 1st and look forward to and wishing them very much success on this investment in our community.

[05:51:57] Also, on May 1st, I was able to participate with Jackie Smith, our clerk of court, in a Law Day art ceremony and share a proclamation in honor of the Law Day ceremony with the folks there and recognize the young artists in our community and their celebration of law and our Constitution.

[05:52:19] And then yesterday, I really appreciate Rob Orson from our parts department. He gave my staff and me a tour of the Ned Distiller House. We now own that and starting to get to work on refurbishing it. And it's quite, I still am amazed at the quality of craftsmanship that was done by hand, you know, 200 years ago.

[05:52:43] So it was just fantastic to see it in person for once and for all. So with that, Madam Chair, that's all I have. Thank you. Supervisor Franklin. Yes, thank you. I just want to highlight a few things.

[05:53:00] I was able to shadow our 911 operators on April 23rd in our Public Safety Communications Center. Again, was able to shadow them and just want to thank them for the work that they do. Later that day, I hosted a housing roundtable at the Ferlazo Building and just want to thank the planning department, the housing office, and HAND for the informative presentations that were given. On April 25th and 26th, I attended the VACO Board of Directors meeting in Williamsburg, Virginia. And later that evening, I attended the Hilton Performing Arts

[05:53:36] Center gala celebrating local leaders who support the culture and arts here in Prince William County. On April 30th, I attended the Transportation Open House at the Falazo Building. And later that week, On May 2nd, I attended the Transportation Department's Annapolis Way project grant opening in North Woodbridge.

[05:53:56] I actually was not there, but wanted to thank my staff for being part of that and wanted to thank our Transportation Department and our county exec team for getting that road improvement underway. On the 30th, I also attended the juvenile detention center, did a tour there, where I had the opportunity to speak with some of the counselors and program operators in looking to see some of the improvements that need to be made.

[05:54:31] Obviously, we have some of this coming down the pipe in our CIP and would hope that that remains a priority for this board as there is a lot of need for our JDC simply because of how old it is. Also was able to tour Jiffy Lube Live and get kind of a backstage view of their venue, talk to them a little bit about the noise ordinance and some other key things that we have going on here in the county that they should be aware and participate in.

[05:55:02] And then on May 8th, I attended the Nova District Department of Transportation Spring six-year public meeting where I addressed and provided comments alongside Supervisor Bodie to the Commonwealth Transportation Board as well as VDOT about transit issues here in Prince William County in the Northern Virginia region.

[05:55:22] Also, I attended the memorial service for former NeabSchool School Board member Diane Ralston and just wanted to thank her family for having her as a gift to our community and serving. And our current NeabSchool School Board member, Tracy Blake, was here earlier.

[05:55:41] Didn't get a chance to recognize him, but wanted to thank him for his service as well. A couple of upcoming events. May 15th, I'll be at the Woodbridge VRE between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. for Bike to Work Day. So please feel free to stop by.

[05:55:58] And on Saturday, May 31st, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., I will be hosting Dumpster Day at Fred Lim Middle School. We will have our Shred truck there on site for the entire event. So please come out to that. And then just two more things, need to issue a directive.

[05:56:14] The General Assembly recently authorized the county to create a local ordinance that establishes a local foundation and soil management fund, which will provide local dollars to assist owners of private property or a common interest community with addressing foundation management and soil settlement repairs on previously developed lands.

[05:56:36] Madam Chair, without objection, I would like to direct the county executive to work with staff to develop a draft ordinance for the board to consider for adoption. The ordinance should, at minimum, include a list of criteria to be used for qualifying projects for use of the funds and a recommended funding amount to be budgeted and appropriated to the newly established Foundation and Soil Management Fund. The county attorney's office is directed to review the ordinance and any recommendations for legal issues, and I'd like for this item to be scheduled for a public hearing and brought to the board for consideration as soon as possible, but no later than September 9th, 2025.

[05:57:12] This comes at the direction of several communities I have in my district, Potomac Club, as well as Harbors of Newport and a few other communities that have been having soil issues and some foundational issues from 20 years ago that is just now kind of rearing its head.

[05:57:32] and the bonds on those communities have run out, so they can't, the HOAs cannot use those. And so they are seeking support from the county, and we went to the General Assembly and said we need authorizing legislation to do this. And so Delegate Roja Henson put in this bill, and State Senator Jennifer Carroll Foy attempted to put in some funding behind it, which we were not able to get done this session, but we can still create the fund.

[05:58:00] And so I wanted to kind of put that out there without objection. Madam Chair. Supervisor Vega. Thank you. I don't necessarily object, but I just want to be clear that you want to use public dollars for this. That's correct. And I do understand, you know, that it does have the state's stamp of approval.

[05:58:20] I won't object, but I would like for you to, I don't know if you have to amend your directive or if you're just not opposed to me asking that we add for staff to come back with accountability measures, you know, that will ensure that tax dollars are actually, you know, being used accordingly and that there is oversight.

[05:58:41] Are you okay with that? Yes. And then also when staff does come back to us, I would like more of the history because I don't know what you're talking about in regards to these soil issues that have been stemming for 20-plus years. So I think it would be very helpful. Yeah, maybe worth at some point, And we can discuss this later, maybe some type of work session where we spend 30 minutes or maybe even less on it, just to give some background.

[05:59:03] Because there may be other communities suffering from this as well. And then with that, I just have three notices of intent. Andy Whedon for the Cherry Hill Community Development Authority. Lori Greenwood, Cherry Hill Community Development Authority. And M.N. Rowe for the Animal Advisory Committee.

[05:59:23] Thank you. I just want everyone to know she's the one who also votes for us not to adjourn. Supervisor Vega. Thank you, Madam Chair. There's no time for you to yield. On April 25th, I had the honor of attending the law enforcement graduation. Congratulations to all of our new now officers for all of their hard work and dedication throughout, I believe it's six months of hardcore training. We are excited that you chose Prince William County, not only to serve and to protect, but to also grow your career. We wish you much success and pray for your safety.

[05:59:57] On April 27th, along with basically, I think all of my colleagues, we celebrated Vaisaki Day with our friends in the Sikh community. So I want to thank my dear friend, Devinder, for always being so kind and generous and being a great host every time that we go to this wonderful event.

[06:00:13] Supervisor Angry is not here, but on April 28th, we hosted an immigration town hall at Iglesia Puerta del Cielo. I'll translate that for you. It's church doors to heaven. It was a great town hall. There's a lot of fear-mongering and misinformation going around, and it was just very, very great to come together as a community with members of the Latino community.

[06:00:34] I want to thank Chief Newsham for being present that night also to talk about how we comply with the law. As law enforcement officers, it is our job to enforce the laws and to do it right. And we discussed General Order 45.0, so if there's anybody that's feeling any type of way, if you feel uncertainty, Please know that here in Prince William County, we act with the utmost transparency and whatever fear-mongering there's going around.

[06:00:58] You can rest assured that your elected representatives are keeping an eye on it and that we're doing everything by the book. Also, on May 1st, I had the opportunity to attend Media Night over at Malarkey and the Proof Kitchen and Bar, and we had a great time, great food. It's a great atmosphere, great vibe.

[06:01:14] I will always say it, Tom, you have a great place right there. Live Brew what? That's, yes, they changed the name. but just really excited for everything that's happening in that area and what that's going to mean for Prince William County. On May 2nd, I also attended signing day for our Fire and Rescue Cadet.

[06:01:35] Congratulations to William Belke on deciding to, you know, have a career in our fire department system. We are certain that you're going to do great in this program and want to let folks know that they actually expanded that and now have an EMT component. So if you have a rising junior or a rising senior, This is an excellent program that you can look into.

[06:01:53] I also want to congratulate our graduating seniors. It is graduation season, and we are about to be really busy at all of these graduations. So congratulations on achieving a great accomplishment. Looking forward to celebrating you all. And also want to wish all of our mothers a happy Mother's Day.

[06:02:11] I hope that you all have had a great time. I know that the most important title that I will ever have in this lifetime is that being called Mom. and so I'm so incredibly blessed to be Nacey and Arianne's mother. So to my colleagues on the day, to our mothers, congratulations. I hope that you guys had a great time, and that is all I have.

[06:02:28] Thank you, Madam Chair. All right, thank you so very much. I would like to begin my comments with my notice of intent to reappoint Deborah Riggin to the Towing Ordinance Advisory Board and appoint Lawanda Warthen to the Joint Recreation Center Advisory Board.

[06:02:48] Bear with me, because I got a directive, and it is long. But it was sent to everyone twice. Without objection, I would like to direct the county executive to work with staff and coordinate with the Marine Corps-based Quantico to analyze and provide the board with recommendations on how to further implement Comprehensive Land Use Policy 30, which, quote, recognizes MCB Quantico as a valuable asset deserving protection to ensure that future development adjacent to or near MCB Quantico does not negatively affect the mission of the military base, end quote.

[06:03:24] This work should include, but not limited to, reviewing the county's purchase of development rights ordinance, which already includes, as a purpose, working cooperatively with the Marine Corps base Quantico to support their encroachment control program for lines located near the base.

[06:03:40] It should also include reviewing the U.S. Department of Defense readiness, and environmental protection integration, or REPI, program. The county attorney's office is directed to review the information and recommendation for any legal issues. When the work is complete, the county executive should report back to the board with their recommendations during a board meeting or by memorandum as they deem determined appropriate. All right, so I still have a little bit of time. All right, thank you. And the final thing that I wanted to say is quickly on Saturday, May 17th, that is this Saturday from 10 a.m.

[06:04:16] to 12 p.m., I'm doing a coffee and conversation, and I am going to be doing that in concert with the Dale City Civic Association, the Mid-County Civic Association, the Lake Ridge Agaquan Coal Civic Association, Loka Pelt, and Woodbridge Potomac we have a misspelled, Committees Civic Association. So that is this Saturday at 10 o'clock in the Development Services Building, 5-County Complex, Suite 202, I'm very excited to kick off this event.

[06:04:45] It is something that I hope to do on at least quarterly and really start working more with our civic associations. With that, we have one final item. We are going to go into closed session. Yes. See, this is the problem when we have these breaks, people.

[06:05:04] You know, we lose our stamina. All right. We got it. All right, we got it. We lose our stamina. Speak for yourself, Madam Shane. All right, let's go. Hey, I'm not the one who complained. All right. let's settle down so we can recertify so moved second okay all right so we are

[06:05:38] all right thank you and so our next meeting second is on tuesday may 2nd let's vote may 20th whatever let's go at a zero let's go it's cool I put it in my locker. I was going to give it to him.

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