Coraggio Consulting
Prince William Board of County Supervisors Meeting — Work Session, Tuesday, July 14, 2026

Date: Tuesday, July 14, 2026
Place: Prince William County Board of County Supervisors, Virginia
Length: 5h 40m (video)
Official meeting video (Prince William County, Granicus): https://pwcgov.granicus.com/player/clip/3866
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 2026-10-27. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:02:32] it is two o'clock on tuesday july 14th let's begin with the moment of silence thank you so much

[00:40:29] please rise if you're able for a pledge of allegiance all right thank you everyone there is no need to do um agenda item number three so we are going to go straight into public comment time if you have not been here for public comment time before you're going to go to the back to that

[00:41:07] microphone um and make sure that you adjust it because if i can't hear you none of us can hear you and up there is the screen it will have a time limit everyone gets three minutes i'm going to call people up in groups of three i ask that when you get up there please state your first and last name in the magisterial district where you reside for example deshaundra jefferson potomac magisterial district so with that i'm going to call helen taylor mary ann mccone i am sorry i am um this

[00:41:44] third person i need a little help rachel is there a rachel um and then marcus atkinson or ruth yeah kathy yeah okay that's you then that's you i'll trust you sorry i thought that was an r all right so ma'am adjust a microphone and we're ready hi my name is helen taylor i live in the brentsville

[00:42:20] magisterial district for 47 years my address is 11602 kettle run road noakesville and i'm the co-owner of Windy Knoll Farm for 40 years. Most of you have visited, and I thank you for that.

[00:42:36] I'm here to speak to you, the box, legal counsel, and administration. The topic is the Dominion Electric Noakesville to Bristow 230 kilovolt line. That electric line construction is now under review. The citizens of Noakesville and the surrounding area are working diligently to have Dominion place the 230 kilovolt transmission line along Route 28, underground.

[00:43:08] Please do not approve any document or motion that in any way dilutes our resolve. Please stay with your resolution, your motion of December 16, 2025, quote, to underground the new transmission lines.

[00:43:26] In the motion on today's agenda, focusing on only the two routes, No. 5 and No. 12, that traverse county-owned property, communicates to Dominion that the other above-ground routes are more acceptable.

[00:43:42] They are not. Currently, under the very capable leadership of Christina Wynn in economic development, Prince William County has invested in an agritourism study and plan, agritourism. This involves promoting agriculture and tourism in Prince William County.

[00:44:03] Having overhead electric transmission lines through our rural area, primarily around Noakesville, all but destroys the potential in making this plan a success. These new electric lines destroy, by eminent domain, private property to supply a singular private industry data centers.

[00:44:27] Please revise your motion to reflect the wisest and most acceptable approach to supplying the electricity need. That is, do not support or favor any of the currently proposed routes.

[00:44:44] Do please support only underground transmission lines along Route 28. You will see that this is the shortest and most direct route from the Noakesville Switching Station to the desired endpoint. Thank you.

[00:45:00] Thank you. And you do not have to give your exact address. Just give us the magisterial just right. Next speaker, please. My name is Mary Ann McCone. I'm in Brentsville District. So I am also speaking about the Noakesville to Bristow 234, 230 kilowatts.

[00:45:27] So Board of Supervisors, this is a partisan resolution favoring Bristow over all other areas in Brentsville, specifically Noakesville. And is this your nod, your tacit approval to Dominion to build power lines along routes 10 and 11 pink and green routes. Noakesville and its environments have much to offer to the Brentsville District of Virginia, such as its citizens, farms, farmettes, homes, woods, protection of wildlife, fragile ecosystems, a buffer for climate change, aquifers, and streams that drain into the Pacific, I mean into the Chesapeake watershed. Not only

[00:46:03] will building these massive 180-foot power lines put the power line and but the power lines themselves along the pink and green routes 10 and 11 will destroy hundreds of acres of woodlands aquifer streams and importantly homes farms and businesses resolve instead to prohibit any of the above ground routes in Brentsville and demand dominion underground the power lines as well as find a less invasive and destructive route vote no thank you next speaker please

[00:46:35] Hi, my name is Kathleen Flory. I live in the Brentsville District. I've lived here for 31 years. Originally attracted by the promise of now the defunct rural crescent. Above ground lines would destroy our investments, quality of life, and settled expectations, and threaten the social and physical health of our and your communities. Please vote no. Thank you.

[00:47:07] Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon. My name is Marcus Atkinson. I am in the Occoquan district. I come to you today as a representative of the Eastern Prince William Basketball Association, which is also known as EPWBA. I am a league administrator. More pertinent to this conversation, I am the league scheduler. I'm coming here today to highlight some challenges that we've had with being able to get gym access with our program.

[00:47:44] Just want to give a quick background of our program. Our program has existed since 1971. For a quick math for everyone, that's 55 years that we have existed. We are the largest basketball program on the eastern side of Prince William County. We are the second largest sports program, youth sports program, in the eastern side of Prince William County.

[00:48:05] We average between 600 to 800 participants each year. We primarily get our gym space through middle schools and elementary schools, through Prince William County Parks and Recreation. During our off-season, which includes our travel component, we use high schools.

[00:48:23] Why am I here? I'm here to highlight some of the issues that we have experienced while getting these gym spaces. Of course, there's conversation that's ongoing about the sports complex that has been going on for a while. This is more of a footnote of the existing issues that we have with our gym space.

[00:48:42] First of all, I want to just mention that Prince William County as a whole has a very limited amount of gym space. We do use the schools primarily. Right now, just looking at the county and all the resources that we have available, we have about three community centers on our side of the county if we're not using the schools.

[00:49:03] And we're competing with three other recreational programs, or two other recreational programs, as well as 13 registered AAU programs that are within the county. That's not including other groups, volleyball, other groups that use the gym space.

[00:49:20] We just simply don't have enough gym space, and that makes it very challenging. On top of that, we've had a number of issues with schools who have done last-minute cancellations. We have one school in particular in the past three months that has canceled the same day within a couple hours of our practices four times since April.

[00:49:40] We also have had requests to use high schools where we have put requests in for three, four months at a time and not received any response. While we're considering the sports complex and how we want to handle things with that, we have an existing issue that needs to be addressed.

[00:49:58] there's not accountability to the schools and how they allow community use to their facilities it is creating a lot of issues for us as a program to be able to expand our program which reaches a lot of kids in our community i just want to highlight that issue and hope that sparks some conversation thank you all right thank you so very much i'm going to now turn it over to supervisor angry for a virtual comment time thank you madam chair looks like we have two signed up no good afternoon. Oh, nobody has signed up online. I was online. Thank you. All right.

[00:50:34] Thanks for this. Back to you, Madam Chair. All right. Thank you so very much. That ends the public comment time. We are going to now go into agenda item number five. That's county executive time. All right. Thank you very much, Madam Chair, members of the board. Good afternoon. So four directives issued during your last meeting. I'll go through them. There was one directive for staff to draft a resolution for the board's consideration to initiate a comprehensive plan amendment that would include provisions to House Bill 257 related to social determinants of health. This directive was

[00:51:08] assigned to our planning office. Staff was also directed to place a resolution on an upcoming Board of County Supervisors meeting agenda to amend the terms of the Animal Advisory Committee from one year expiring each December 31st to a term that is coterminous with the board's term.

[00:51:29] This directive was assigned to the clerk of the board. The clerk's office, by way, was also asked to resend the report that shows the terms of other boards, committees, commissions, as most of them are already coterminous, but we will certainly send that out.

[00:51:48] Three, staff was also directed to survey residents in the vicinity of the Pat White and Birchdale Recreation Centers to determine their level of interest in a community garden and bring back findings and recommendations to the board. This was assigned to our Department of Parks and Recreation.

[00:52:05] And finally, staff was directed to schedule and advertise public hearings on the September 1st board meeting agenda to amend the purchase of development rights section of the county code to make changes to the PDR committee, to make a board-appointed committee.

[00:52:25] This directive was assigned to our Department of Parks. Well, actually, no, it was assigned to the Department of Public Works. There were no directives closed. In terms of memos, last week I sent the board an update on the county's FY 2027 Competitive Community Partners Program.

[00:52:43] Very excited to announce the support of 32 community organizations as part of that program. Want to thank Dave Sinclair, Kim Dowden, the Office of Management and Budget, really for coordinating the program. But all those who volunteered on the selection committee want to certainly thank them for their efforts as well.

[00:53:03] I also want to remind the board that I sent an update regarding the Fire and Rescue System Station Replacement Program last week and the need to renumber Station 30 to Station 28 to align with the county's construction sequence of stations.

[00:53:22] And I also provided an update to the board on the county's affordable housing fund application process. So the county's Office of Housing and Community Development completed the Notice of Funding Availability period, and they provided five affordable housing applications, or I should say, received.

[00:53:42] We anticipate announcing the award recipients at the beginning of November of this year and begin to execute those agreements. This process certainly reflects the board's vision for affordable housing in this community and the increased housing opportunities for residents here in Prince William County.

[00:54:01] Now, I know that a few board members at the end of this week will be going down to the NACO conference. Very pleased to announce that the county has received four NACO awards this year, achievement awards this year. The awards honor innovative county programs that improve government operations and certainly improve the quality of life for residents.

[00:54:23] To go through that very quickly, those four programs. First, the Police Cadet Program was honored and received an award this year. As you know, the Police Cadet Program supports the long-term recruitment and retention efforts for our police department. The Seals on Wheels Program, run by our Clerk to the Circuit Court for strengthening the community's access to essential court services to residents, received an award.

[00:54:49] The Route 1 Corridor Revitalization Initiative, which is coordinated in a six-segment strategy that aligns transportation investments with economic development, community revitalization, and long-range land use planning along the county's most significant multimodal corridor also received an award.

[00:55:12] And then, finally, the collaboration between our Transportation Office of Community Safety and Transformation Management Office on building the community connection, cooperation, and collaboration for community safety initiatives.

[00:55:32] All four received an award and just wanted to make sure the board was aware of that for those board members that will be traveling down for the conference at the end of the week. Big congratulations to all the departments involved in the great work that had to go in for those awards. And with that, Madam Chair, that is all for me.

[00:55:49] All right. Thank you so very much. I know I see people jumping in the queue, but I want to thank our county staff, and I want to say congratulations to our Clerk of the Corps, Jackie Smith. Seals on Wheels has been amazing. I remember when it was just an idea, and she, that program, just so everyone knows, is 100% grant funded, I believe, correct?

[00:56:07] And so she has worked, her and her team have worked very hard to make that possible and to secure the funding needed for that. Supervisor Bailey. Thank you, Madam Chair. Good afternoon, everyone. I just echo what you said, Madam Chair, in terms of the seals on wheels.

[00:56:24] It took Jackie from the embryonic stages of a vision to it's actually happening and servicing our community. And so we are most appreciative for her partnership in that, she and her team. I also wanted to just thank the county exec for two specific things.

[00:56:41] One was the affordable housing process of which you announced. We have, since the COVID era, it's not gone yet, but it is in our rearview mirror since 2020. That is absolutely a program that we've been working on since then, understanding the needs here in this county and how we can make it happen for everybody.

[00:57:02] and to see the program and the process come to almost the end and actionable in the community is very important for the sustainability of our citizens here in the community. And so we appreciate that. And then the other thing, the community partners program, something that we learned as a board, again, with the COVID era, the needs in our county and the non-for-profits that we're serving at a higher level that we're either not partnered with or acknowledged in the community so they can serve at a higher level.

[00:57:35] That program has just done a total revamping, and so that helps us as we serve our citizens in our respective districts. So just wanted to highlight that and say thank you for keeping, for you and your staff keeping your eyes on the prize in both entities to make sure that Prince William is sustainable but also the right place to live.

[00:57:56] Thank you. Supervisor Bode. Thank you, Madam Chair. In the interest of time, I'll just ditto everything that Super Razor Bailey just said. Kudos to the county exec and everyone on the team that continues to make Princeton County a standout community, and we continue to be recognized by that by both VACO and NACO.

[00:58:14] But a question, especially based on what was just sort of said in light of public comment time. Mr. County Executive, you had sent a communication to the board a couple weeks ago in regards to the ongoing issue with the basketball association, some of their challenges around getting court space.

[00:58:31] Could you speak to that a little bit, just high-level Sparks notes on that? Okay, sure. So, yes, I did send a memo to the board once I got word that this was really a continuous issue that our Parks and Recreation Department is dealing with. I'll say that, and you all know this, the Parks and Recreation Department does have an agreement with our school system for the middle school and elementary school gyms.

[00:58:56] High school gyms are not included in that agreement. Let me ask, is Seth here? No, okay. So high schools are not included in that agreement. For the middle schools and elementary schools, we rely on the central office for that coordination. I will certainly, you know, I know that Seth and his team work really hard to make sure that that relationship is strong.

[00:59:19] And so we will continue to navigate and work with that principal for that particular middle school through the central office. So I want to be clear that we don't manage that principal. as a county government. But we certainly will continue to work through the central office and try to make sure that we are doing our best to make sure that the school is honoring the agreement that is in place. All right. I'm sorry, did you? No, I just said, I'm going to save the rest of my comments on that for supervisor's time. I was going to save my comments too. So, all right. Thank you, Mr. Shorter. All right, then. I don't see anyone

[00:59:57] else in queue. So let's go on to agenda item number six, and that's county attorney time. Good afternoon, Madam Chair, members of the board. This afternoon in closed session, we will have consultation with legal counsel and briefings by staff members regarding specific legal matters requiring the provision of legal advice by such counsel pertaining to local taxation authority law and election law, where discussion in an open meeting would adversely affect the bargaining position, litigating posture, or negotiating strategy of the public body.

[01:00:24] This item is appropriate for closed session pursuant to 2.2-3711A8 of the Code of Virginia. So moved, Madam Chair. Second. I'll give that to Supervisor Bailey. I know you'll get many seconds in, Mr. Bode. All right, let's go ahead and take our vote.

[01:00:45] You know what? I'm going to challenge you to move some things, Mr. Bode. All right. Vote unanimous. All right, thank you very much. We are now moving on to agenda item number seven. That is our work sessions. I know I've seen some people from Eastern Prince William Basketball Association, you know, come a little late.

[01:01:04] If you can just stay here, listen to the meeting, because we are going to address some of those issues. So, Mr. Shorter, if you want to tee folks up. Absolutely. Thank you very much, Madam Chair. members of the board. So as we start this series of presentations, I just want to first welcome all of our transportation partners, the leaders of VRE, OmniRide, and we have NVTA, Monica Backman here. First, we'll hear from Rick Canezales, director of actually, so you may recall that on July 1, the Department of Transportation became our Department of Transportation and Capital

[01:01:42] Construction. And so I want to welcome Rick to the podium as he gives this update as director of our Department of Transportation and Capital Construction, or DTCC. He'll be followed by leaders from our transportation partners, starting with VRE, then OmniRide, and then NVTA.

[01:02:02] Thank you so much, County Executive Shorter. Good afternoon, members of the board, Madam Chair. As you heard, I'm here to present to you as your new Department of Transportation and Capital Constructions Director, Rick Canizales.

[01:02:21] Thank you for the opportunity, again, in approving this move and this transition into this kind of department and having the faith in our department and getting us together to be able to create a one-stop shop for construction for the county.

[01:02:37] And I hope this makes it a little more efficient, a little more effective for you and for the program as we move forward. But I'll talk a little bit about that in a second. Today, I wanted to make sure that I gave some thank yous out and some shout outs out first to Supervisor Bailey as the chair of VRE.

[01:02:54] We have Miss Katie Cho here with us, who is the chief executive officer. And I know you serve well with her on the VRE board as the chairwoman of that board. I'd like to thank Supervisor Angry for being the chair of OmniRide and serving here with Dr. Bob Snyder as the chair of OmniRide and representing the county for us there and being able to move those aspects.

[01:03:15] And again, I want to thank Chair Jefferson for serving as NVTA chair under Monica Backman, the NVTA's chief executive officer. I'm just a board member. But thank you very much for those.

[01:03:31] I'd also like to thank my staff. Megan Landis is here, Evandro Santos, and Kevin Weirich are here. They represent our department at all these, what we call the alphabet soup of transportation, and all these committees and boards.

[01:03:47] So I appreciate them for all their work. Also, as you heard, we won a couple awards there, so we are an award-winning department already as a new department. but I wanted to thank Megan Landis here as she and her staff helped generate those applications and make those applications possible for NACO, so appreciate her.

[01:04:08] With that said, I will start the presentation off today and just talk a little bit about what we just discussed, which is the Department of Transportation and Capital Construction. I will then hand it off to your deputy, new deputy director of DTCC, Paulo Bolida, who will go with the updates.

[01:04:28] But as of July 1st of this year, with the vision of the County Executive Shorter and the board, we were able to implement a centralized capital delivery department as Department of Transportation and Capital Construction. This new department will be in charge of constructing all new transportation facilities, public facilities, including fire stations, police stations, the judicial center, government buildings, new park facilities, recreational trails, as well as greenways.

[01:04:59] So we will be the construction of all anew for the county. We will continue to coordinate with parks. We will continue to coordinate with FFM in regards to they will be at the end maintaining these facilities and continuing to do maintenance.

[01:05:14] So we'll continue to coordinate, as well as parks will continue to do some of the vision planning for the facilities before we move them forward to construction. The DTCC does consist of four divisions. First, we have our Transportation Planning, Traffic Safety, and Inspections Division.

[01:05:31] We have the Capital Transportation Division as well as the Capital Facilities Division. The Business Services Division is our one-stop shop for all financial and administrative for the department. And those will be the four divisions that make up this new department.

[01:05:50] The Capital Transportation Division, which is the one you will hear about today as part of a transportation infrastructure report, continues to be responsible for design and construction of all major transportation projects in the county. We also currently have 23 pending transportation grants, a total of $1.2 billion.

[01:06:06] Some of those were acted upon last Thursday with about $300 million coming to the county. And we will discuss those and bring those up later date. The budget that we have right now is about $750 million for current projects. This does not include the projects that are coming up in the future.

[01:06:24] Government facilities, we have about $173 million, and Parks and Recreation, $59 million. This is the monies that we have in hand now. Obviously, the projects that are coming out of this are worth a lot more and will grow that budget even further. So we are very excited to move forward with this new department, with the transition of the new department, making sure that we're bringing this department together.

[01:06:44] You will start seeing as we come to you on your monthly meetings that it will be a Department of Transportation and Capital Construction that comes to you, not just the Department of Transportation. You will be hearing about capital projects at the same time as you will be hearing about these transportation projects. This is just the beginning of some of the changes you'll see, but you'll start seeing committees come together.

[01:07:03] Our CIP meetings are starting to come together. Our procurement is starting to come together. Our legal is starting to come together. And these are some of the efficiencies that we're looking for that I know you envision than the county executive shorter envision as part of this exercise. So with that said, I, again, appreciate and thank you for having the faith in our department and moving forward and taking over all the capital construction in the county.

[01:07:24] With that, I will let Paolo Belita go forward with our major transportation project update. Thank you. Thank you, Rick. Good afternoon, Madam Chair, members of the board. Paolo Belita with Transportation and Capital Construction. Strict mention, we'll be giving a brief presentation on our major mobility projects.

[01:07:43] It doesn't include all our other efforts, but we wanted to highlight some of the key projects that really make an impact to the community, and we'll talk about it based on the different phases. So starting with major projects under design and plumbing engineering, the first major project is the Van Buren Road Extension Project. This is the extension of Van Buren between 234 and Cardinal Drive. When we developed this PowerPoint at the time, we had about $10 million in funding. As of last Thursday, this project is now fully funded with an additional $179 million in NVTA six-year program funding. So this project is now fully funded. The design

[01:08:17] itself will be completed sometime middle of next year. The next is the Clover Hill Road at 234 intersection improvements. This project is going through a plumbing engineering. It's not in full design. And one of the things we're working on is an upcoming information meeting on June 30th at the Manassas Regional Airport, working closely with the city on future commitments. And the intent is to use outside sources funding moving forward. So the project is only partially funded at $3 million. Another key project along the 234 business corridor is the innovative intersection improvements under design, excuse me, operational improvements. This mainly consists of sidewalks

[01:08:56] and new crosswalks and operational improvements. One key element is a sidewalk under 66 on 234. It's currently a missing gap. It also includes additional missing gaps along the corridor along with new crosswalks and reconfiguration of lane assignments at intersections.

[01:09:13] This project is designed. We hope to begin construction in early 28th, with completion in 2030. Another major project, we're going through what we call an IAR, which is an interstage access report. An IAR determines the specific design to move forward.

[01:09:29] So right now, we're going through the IAR effort with our consultants in VDOT. The concept we have here is from several years ago. Since then, we've really narrowed down the footprint of the project. We've actually moved the ramp so it doesn't really impact as many properties. We hope to finalize this study this fall that will include a public information meeting once we have a concept available.

[01:09:50] The next project we talked about, the recent board meetings, this is the North Ward Bridge Pedestrian Bridge Project. We're getting ready to go to a construction bid. We hope to advertise for construction this fall. You can see the location here on Route 1, VRE stations to the bottom right of the map.

[01:10:07] Rollins 4 Road Roundabouts project. We had a very successful information meeting recently. This includes two roundabouts, and an exciting part of this is a road diet between the two roundabouts. So this project is about 90% design. We hope to advertise for construction late this year with completion in early 2028.

[01:10:28] The next two projects are upcoming projects. These are funded through SmartScale, the first of which is the 294 Corridor Improvements. This looks at innovative intersections on the parkway between Smoketown and Caton Hill. We're looking at extending right turn lanes, modifying the intersections.

[01:10:43] We have a new intersection, innovative intersection, we'll call it a through cut. Essentially, you're eliminating the through movements at the intersection. You're adding additional bike pad access. By taking away that movement, you're getting more green time along the corridor. We like our innovative intersections, so this is another one that's upcoming in the future.

[01:11:01] Another upcoming project is the 29 corridor improvements, also funded by SmartScale. This looks at adding capacity on Route 29 between Linton Hall Road and Somerset Crossing, includes additional trails and sidewalks, and additional intersection improvements west towards Lake Manassas Drive.

[01:11:17] So both these projects are getting ready to begin. We're looking to come to the board to appropriate the funding for both these projects this fall. So upcoming design build projects. We have the University Boulevard Extension Project. This is the last segment of university. Once completed, this is behind Jiffy Lube and right in front of Gainesville High School.

[01:11:35] you'll have a full connection of university from the express lanes all the way to innovation and the city of Manassas. So it's fully funded. We're looking to advertise the full request for detail proposal by the end of the year and we hope to execute the contract early next year and begin the project. Another very exciting project we discussed at the last board meeting. Last week the board awarded the contract for the design build contractor. This is the Sudley Manor at Wellington and Prince Wayne Parkway interchange very innovative design initially we looked at a single point urban interchange at this location what we've learned is the amount of utilities

[01:12:12] and gas utilities and the way so really what we're looking for is eliminating the traffic signals ensuring we're minimizing impact to the utilities and making sure we keep the access to innovation town center and surrounding communities so very early in the process this is just a concept it is subject to change. The intent is to complete this project late 2028, early 2029. And one thing to highlight on this with this design, we're going to be able to move forward construction while keeping the signals operational. So it makes the maintenance traffic a little easier having the access right-of-way at this location. So other projects in the right-of-way and utility phase,

[01:12:51] a major route one project in the town of Dumfries. We're nearing completion of the right-of-way phase. We hope to begin construction early 2028 with completion in 2031. Realignment of Prince William Parkway and Old Bridge. We hope to wrap up the right-of-way phase and begin construction sometime next year with completion in late 2028.

[01:13:11] So this will realign Prince William Parkway as your primary movement and Old Bridge teeing into the intersection. Another exciting project in the North Woodbridge Smaaya Plan, which was really envisioned as part of Smaaya Plan, was the Marina Way extension between 123 and Annapolis Way.

[01:13:28] This really complements not just the SMARIA plan, but the upcoming developments in this area. So I'm going to highlight a couple other major projects under construction. Our very exciting, many of the Prince Wayne Parkway interchange, we had a very successful groundbreaking.

[01:13:44] You can see there on the concept, we're moving along. The intent is to complete the project substantially late 27, early 28. And what makes this project really exciting is the development coordination we have with Buchanan and Quartz. And you can see we work with building the maintenance of traffic roads you have there in blue.

[01:14:02] So late summer, early fall, we're going to begin rerouting some of the traffic. All the left turns at the intercession will be rerouted with the exception of the heavy left turn movements northbound on the parkway onto westbound Miniville. It's a very heavy movement. We'll maintain that. We'll maintain that movement and all the through movements.

[01:14:18] But all the left turns outside of that will be rerouted to use the MOT roads here you see in blue. Summit School Road Extension and Telegraph Road Winding. This project is nearly completed. We hope to wrap this project up this fall. Yes. Another project we began construction late last year is the Devon Road Winding just north of University Boulevard.

[01:14:40] There's been some concerns with some safety issues that we're working with our contractors and schools and police on this, but this is moving along. We hope to complete this project in spring of 2028. Another key project in the Old Bridge Corridor is the realignment of Old Bridge at Occoquan.

[01:14:56] This project is under construction and will be completed in summer of 2027. Not only does it realign old bridge there at a dangerous curve, we're looking at additional bike pad enhancements, additional turn lanes, and the ability to turn right on red and survive the boaty. I know we were talking about that, so this project is moving along.

[01:15:14] Just a couple projects to highlight, not the extensive list of our bike pad projects. We have the Sudley Manor Drive Sidewalk, a fairly funded grant project that's under construction or getting ready to go to construction. On the bottom right, we have the Occoquan Greenway Alcoast Reconnection Project in the town of Occoquan, getting ready to go to construction.

[01:15:34] Another exciting project is the sidewalk on Prince William Parkway over 95. Right now, all you have is a dirt path that's being used. This will construct an essential missing sidewalk segment. On the bottom right, we have the Token Forest sidewalk. This is nearing completion.

[01:15:50] And a couple other major projects under design, Grand Park Road sidewalk, as well as the Lionsfield Road sidewalk. both under design. And just to wrap things up, we have a couple of other projects. We have the Bull Ridge Drive Sidewalk Project. I wanted to highlight that. It's not a fairly funded project. It is funded using transportation profit for funds.

[01:16:07] So with that, happy to answer any questions. Record time. All right, Supervisor Bode. Thank you, Madam Chair. Quick comment, then my question. Thanks for the presentation. A lot going on in the Yawka Projection. I appreciate every single project.

[01:16:24] Really appreciate all the work that you guys are doing. And so for my question on the 123 Old Bridge Road, Paulo, you're getting almost as fast as Rick in the presentations. But you sort of blew through it. So just my question is, the graphic you had on there, is that the latest in grace or is that just a previous iteration?

[01:16:43] Thank you for the question, Supervisor Bode. That is a previous iteration. Like Paulo mentioned, we will be coming to you as well as to the public later this summer and later this fall for a public meeting with a new concept that we're working on right now with our consultants.

[01:17:00] Right now we're working with VDOT and trying to get the structure right. We have the traffic numbers correct. It's just the structure we're trying to get correct before we can take it to full concept and pass that IR. But we will get with you as soon as we get that concept so you can take a look at it.

[01:17:16] And again, we'll bring it to the public, hopefully early, late this fall. Appreciate that. The last thing on that is just that signal light over on the sort of, I know on the graphic it's left, but it's actually north. That signal, I think, is one of the last things we have to talk through. You know, we want it to be a little bit farther up at Riverview Lane, but we can talk about that offline.

[01:17:33] We'll have those discussions as we bring you the concept. And, yes, I've been teaching Paulo well. Appreciate it. Thank you. All right. Thank you very much. Supervisor Angry. Thank you, Madam Chair. I don't know, maybe Paulo or you, but can you just explain what MOT is and then really just a little bit more about once that traffic is rerouted through those bypass road how long will that process generally be i know that road is going to go away eventually on the other side um but just want to explain since it's recorded i know we're going to have a another town hall update yes sir and the town hall will be very timely

[01:18:12] it'll be right before uh the mot roads are actually open and we start moving traffic so i'm looking forward to your to your town hall and being there and explaining to the public how it be but for a quick explanation here uh today uh what we'll be doing is in probably the early fall we will be closing down this intersection from left turn movement so the main intersection will not be allowed to make any lefts except for the triple lefts that come off of the parkway onto minneville road northbound so as you see where my hand is and making that left that has those triple lefts there that will be that will remain open throughout the

[01:18:50] entire project the other left so will have to be done through these what is called maintenance of traffic roads that's what MOT stands for maintenance of traffic roads which are these two roads that were created here this road will at the end of serving as the maintenance of traffic road will serve as the spine road for the courts district development this other road on the other side it will not this leg of this road once we stop doing the maintenance of traffic and stop using the lights will be eliminated that's why it's in pink this will be eliminated will be cul-de-sac'd within the property and

[01:19:29] this leg of the intersection will not exist so this intersection you see here this this new signal you see for courts will only serve three legs which is why we feel it's efficient enough to deal with the interchange traffic with that That said, the road up here will also, when we create it for the maintenance of traffic, will be created as a ramp road.

[01:19:52] When we come back and we're done with the maintenance of traffic, we will tee this road into Elm Farm so it serves like a normal intersection to handle the traffic that relates to that parcel itself. So just a quick background and some quick future of how it's going to work out.

[01:20:08] Again, I look forward to the town hall and being able to explain this in more detail. Yeah, and thank you for that. And let me just say, when they put in, now that bypass road on Elm Farm was pretty much done. When they put that road in, it is just amazing how fast they move. And I don't know what grass seeds they use, but I need that grass in my yard.

[01:20:25] That grass is completely green and grew like overnight. So it's a beautiful road, you know, to think that we're going to tear it out when it's all done. It's pretty impressive. Some of it. The blue will remain along with the orange. Yeah, yeah. So thanks for that.

[01:20:41] No problem, sir. All right, Supervisor Gordy. Thank you, Madam Chair. Rick Palo, thank you for the presentation. One question I do have on the Sudley Manor Wellington Parkway is, you know, where it crosses the parkway and comes into the VDOT-owned property, there's the Gaskin Cemetery.

[01:21:01] And I just want to make sure that we've given enough space to protect the Gaskin Cemetery that's sitting right between where this is going to go and the data center. The quick answer is yes, sir. We will make sure as part of the design process, which this will go through as well, it's just going to be in parallel to getting some stuff done.

[01:21:22] But we will do an analysis of all cemeteries within the area that we can find, and everything will be done to avoid those areas. Okay, thank you very much for that. And then the last thing is Route 29, appreciate what you're doing there. During our next meeting, let's kind of take a deeper dive on that.

[01:21:40] Yes, sir. Route 29 is a mess. and I know you're trying to do your best to figure out some things that we can do in here, as well as on Sudley Corridor. They kind of have some of the similar challenges because you have a lot of businesses that have their own direct access, homes with direct access to these highways, and it's trying to manage how we kind of maintain the flow of traffic, deal with people crossing, you know, making left-hand turns.

[01:22:12] These are two, in my mind, they're two of the biggest challenges that we have, at least in the Brentsville District and certainly in Western Prince William, except for maybe Route 28. But, again, similar problems over there.

[01:22:27] But I appreciate what you're doing. I look forward to learning more about that and the progress on that front. We will make note and definitely make an agenda item for our meetings. Thank you so very much. Supervisor Bailey. Thank you, Madam Chair. Rick. ma'am he's catching up with you so i'm just saying but um no i just uh just three quick quick things one is uh the vre bridge um uh i know we've in in supervisor laquois district that's something that been worked on quite a bit and so um just thank you for keeping your eye on the prize with that

[01:23:03] that collaboration is very important and then um the phenomenal jurisdictional uh collaboration that you've done with the town of Dumfries and the council and the county uh we've not had that kind of robust partnership uh in a long time and so it has made a difference when we talk about Fraley Boulevard yes ma'am and the vision that the town of Dumfries has with their comp plan yes ma'am and and just so you are aware ma'am uh we just had a meeting uh just uh this past week with the new public works director, as well as the planning director there,

[01:23:42] to let them know and give them an update on what we're doing and made ourselves available to give council or their planning commission an update. And I appreciate that because it has gone from us working in silos to us having transparency. Yes, ma'am. And that's critical when you talk about the entire Prince William County region.

[01:24:00] It's critical. So I wanted to thank you for that, The mayor has given me permission to use his title of making sure that people can go to and not just go through. So I'm really proud of that. And so I thank you so much for that collaboration. The other thing is when we talk about multimodal and what that means to our community, you know, making sure that bike and pedestrian improvements are made, I also want to thank you.

[01:24:27] One of the places we started back in 2020 was the Grand Park and Lionsville piece. And so I'm really grateful for that and you and your team keeping the eye on the prize for that. And I just want to say to Megan, you know, ensure your grant thumb and fingers because we're going to continually need that.

[01:24:46] But that is a result of how these projects move forward. So thank you also for that. I really appreciate that because we're talking old infrastructure that you're enhancing. And so I appreciate that. Thank you, ma'am. Okay. And then the last thing I want to say is – oh, no, I'm not going to say it now.

[01:25:03] Thank you, Madam Chair. All right, thank you so very much. And, Rick, you can call us on the next one. Sure, and as you can see, I just want to mention one last thing, that in reality, you know, Prince William County and our new Department of Transportation and Capital Construction has the county under construction.

[01:25:19] You saw the number of projects we have there. We have more construction projects than I've seen anywhere in Northern Virginia happening right now, so we're very excited to continue that and be able to move forward. Like Supervisor Bailey said, trying to do that as well with multimodal projects such as the sidewalks and trails that we support.

[01:25:35] And we try to support our transit partners by doing those kind of facilities, which we'll talk to you now. Our first presentation will come from the chief executive officer of the VRE, Ms. Katie Cho. Good afternoon, Chair Jefferson and members of the board.

[01:26:13] I'm here to present on Virginia Railway Express, VRE's blossoming transition to regional rail and VRE's benefits to Prince William County and its residents. Nope, I got it. Found it. My name is Katie Cho. I am about a week off from my six-month tenure as CEO. I moved here to Virginia from Massachusetts in January. I've spent my entire career in the public sector focusing on transportation infrastructure, most recently at the MBTA in Boston. But I have particular expertise in construction management, infrastructure policy, capital planning, ADA

[01:26:52] compliance, asset management, and climate resiliency and sustainability. I would like to highlight one thing about my career that you all may appreciate. I spent seven years as chief engineer of the Boston Public Works Department, and that really gave me an understanding of the pressures that municipalities face and the challenges of being held directly accountable by its constituents, and that's really shaped my leadership, and I bring that perspective and that leadership style to running a railroad. I want to acknowledge the VRE Operations Board members on the Prince William County Board of Supervisors, especially Supervisor Bailey, who is our 2026

[01:27:32] VRE Operations Board Chair. Thank you. But also Supervisor Gordy, Stewart, Bodie, and Supervisor Angry. All of them have been exceptionally supportive of me and VRE during my transition, and each are helping to set VRE up for success now and in the future. So I want to take this as my chance to remind you all that you own a railroad, along with eight other jurisdictions that make up PRTC and NVTC. VRE is the 14th largest commuter rail in the nation.

[01:28:07] We operate 32 trains a day out of three rail yards, one of which is in Prince William County, along 87 miles of track. VRE services 19 stations, four of which are in Prince William County. That is second only to Fairfax County, who has five stations.

[01:28:24] But as we add the Potomac Shores Station, which we are hoping will be under construction shortly, that is in Prince William County being developed with private funds, you will then be tied with Fairfax for the most number of stations in the system. While service levels right now are consistent with the recent past, The long bridge construction work is impacting our ability to run service, I would say, smoothly.

[01:28:52] It might be the way I would describe its impacts. The long bridge work windows, where we take time out of the middle of the day to let them do construction instead of having trains run across the bridge, limits our service across the Potomac into D.C., which means limits our ability to service Lawn Font Station and Union Station.

[01:29:12] We are essentially running the same service we have run in the recent past, just in a much smaller time frame, just smaller windows around that construction window. We do terminate some of our trains at Alexandria instead of running them all the way through into Union Station. And to accommodate that and where the trains are at certain times of the day, we do what we call the Alexandria Shuffle right now, which sounds very glamorous.

[01:29:38] It is not. If you are out there at the station, it means that we put passengers from both the Manassas Line and Fredericksburg Line on one train at Union Station and L'Enfant and then have the one of the lines switch to a train that is stationed at Alexandria when we hit Alexandria.

[01:29:54] So it's a bit of a shuffle of passengers. We have it down so that it's quite smooth now, but it definitely is not something we will continue if we didn't have to be doing it. with these disruptions, ridership has been steady. Total ridership on VRE is drawn from 120 zip codes and 35 jurisdictions across the Commonwealth. Almost 56% of our passengers board at the three furthest stations on each of our two lines, one of which, Broad Run, is in Prince William County.

[01:30:27] Broad Run is also our third busiest station in the system. The latest ridership counts from April 2026 indicate that 20.2% of our ridership lives in Prince William County, while 26% of our riders use stations in Prince William County. So that means that VRE is attracting people into the county on a daily basis from outside its borders. And as we all know, commuters develop routines and spend money. So this is an opportunity for businesses in the area to continue to capitalize on. And we also run two reverse trains every day, which means the opposite direction of a typical

[01:31:05] commute. And we found that 30% of our passengers on those reverse trains get off in Prince William County. So we're bringing them from beyond the borders into Prince William County. VRE is not just a comfortable and convenient way to travel to and from DC. VRE connects communities along the I-66 and I-95 corridors. It increases the geographic area from which businesses can draw customers and employees, and increases the geographic area from which Virginians can affordably access employment, housing, and services. VRE provides congestion relief,

[01:31:42] carrying the equivalent of one lane of I-95 traffic every day, and that adds up to a total of 60 million passenger miles a year. VRE keeps Virginians in Virginia, providing affordable commuting options for an average daily commute of 35 miles. And VRE contributes to economic development in conjunction with local buses and OmniRide and the Metro, generating $1.5 billion annually for Virginia's tax base. More than 75 percent of VRE's riders are federal employees.

[01:32:13] VRE is an affordable commuting option that connects the areas with the highest density of jobs to areas that provide affordable and accessible housing for individuals and families. Several of VRE's jurisdictions are pursuing transit-oriented development opportunities, including Prince William County with the Potomac Shores development, Fairfax County around Lorton, and Manassas Park, which has undergone a significant transformation thanks in part to its aggressive TOD policies.

[01:32:42] And VRE really is an affordability solution. Annual savings for individuals or families who own a car but commute by VRE three to five days a week quickly add up to thousands of dollars each year. Now, I live car-free in Alexandria, both because I like to live my values and also to save money. But living car-free, even with the amount of public transit options that I have, can be challenging. And in most areas of Prince William County, it is unrealistic. But significant additional savings come when a household can avoid buying a second car, which is realistic,

[01:33:17] adding up to over $17,000 per year when both adults are commuting on VRE in one car rather than a two-car household. And these numbers are based off of 2025 fuel costs, which we know are a little out of date at this time. VRE is also an affordability solution for the Commonwealth.

[01:33:37] Rail is the most cost-effective way to move people. It's just the way that we talk about road costs and rail costs and how they are framed in public discussion that makes it feel different. We're one of the few areas in the country building both highway lanes and rail tracks, so we can do direct cost comparisons. The cost per mile to construct additional track is about half or less of the cost to construct a new highway mile in the same geographic area.

[01:34:05] And as I mentioned earlier, VRE carries the equivalent of a lane of I-95 traffic every day. So that's a direct comparison. And it's a significant improvement on the return on investment over highway capacity improvements. Now, the typical commuter rail train carries about 800 passengers.

[01:34:25] Our capacity is anywhere between 800 and 1,200 passengers. For congestion, no matter what, that's cars off the road, no matter what alternative mode they would be taking besides the train. One train would take about 15 coach buses or 740 to 800 cars to carry the same number of passengers.

[01:34:44] And that's based on the average occupancy in the latest DMV moves study. If you line all the buses, the 15 buses up on the highway for the 16 trains that we run per commute, that would be three miles of buses on the highway. But that is far better, and I would absolutely take it, Dr. Bob, over everyone being in cars.

[01:35:06] With today's average daily ridership, so this is not full trains for all of those trains, we take 28 miles of cars off the road every commute. If we were running at or near capacity on every single train, for each commute, not even for both commutes a day, we would take an additional 45 miles of cars off the highway.

[01:35:27] Those cars are there right now, we all know, we've been through that traffic, and present a significant upside to the transportation system as a whole by increasing ridership on rail and mode shift. Oops, I went too far. Let me go back.

[01:35:44] When we're comparing emissions, you can imagine if we're talking about that many miles of cars, it is a similar emissions story. Even with our diesel locomotives, VRE is the most environmentally advantageous mode. With those diesel locomotives, one train for one mile emits 133 grams of CO2.

[01:36:07] The same 15 buses that we were talking about before is 990 grams of CO2 per mile. And then the cars, even when we account for occupancy that's above single occupancy vehicle and EVs, is 289,600 grams of CO2 per mile for moving the same number of people.

[01:36:31] That's 2,000 times that of VRE, and that is one mile for one train. So multiply that by the 32 miles of trains that we have per day by the 87 miles of track. Rail is also the safest mode of surface transportation, and getting everyone, riders, employees, and the public home safe each day is our first priority.

[01:36:56] Crime and public safety events are exceptionally rare on VRE. We maintain close relationships with local law enforcement and run safety drills and workshops with first responders each year. These relationships include Prince William County. Safety and Security Program Administrator Lana Clemente participated earlier this year in a tabletop exercise with WMATA and Prince William County first responders.

[01:37:21] BRE also offers passenger train emergency response trainings, those are Peter trainings if you ever hear about them, to all first responders. And I would really like to encourage Prince William County first responders to take this training, given the mileage of tracks and the number of stations that we have in the county.

[01:37:39] The training is currently offered in person or live virtually and is a great opportunity for us to engage together. But we're also working on an on-demand model that will make the training more flexible given the challenging schedules that we know that first responders have.

[01:37:55] The other important public safety opportunity this year for Prince William County Fire and Rescue personnel is to participate in our full-scale drill scheduled for October. This will give hands-on experience navigating our vehicles, tracks, and other challenges that typically arise during rail emergencies.

[01:38:15] Representatives from public safety agencies can reach out to VRE to sign up for both the Passenger Train Emergency Response Training or to participate in the October drill. VRE is at the beginning of a period of significant transformation.

[01:38:32] Last year, the Operations Board adopted System Plan 2050, a roadmap to transforming the VRE from a commuter rail to a full regional rail system. System Plan 2050 has two phases, one ending in 2030 and one completing the program in 2050.

[01:38:51] The 2030 service plan is funded and underway, including a recently announced, as in last week, announced $25 million build grant for our Alain Font Station. It takes advantage of 2030 as a system plan 2050 and 2030, takes advantage of the investments the Commonwealth is making through the Transforming Rail in Virginia program.

[01:39:14] And the 2030 milestones and the 2030 service plan maximizes the use of existing rolling stock and its infrastructure. The full 2050 transformation will require significant increases in locomotives and rail cars and some more moderate infrastructure improvements to allow for high capacity near subway frequency service.

[01:39:35] With the frequency and service planned for both 2030 and 2050, along with the expansion of connecting transit along the corridors, the region's transit systems will work as one integrated network, allowing reliable transit service between jurisdictions and two destinations like the Washington Manassas Airport.

[01:39:59] In fact, just this morning, we had a meeting, thanks to Supervisor Bailey, with the Washington Manassas Airport and to look at ways to serve the airport and to potentially transition broad run into a transportation hub and gateway to the area. In 2030, enabled by the capital investments currently underway, VRE can increase its service by 63 percent. That includes service seven days a week, three to four trains an hour during the peak, doubling or more our off-peak and reverse

[01:40:34] service and adding up to nine express trains per line. But between now and 2030, we are not being idle. We're working to diversify and increase our ridership, and we're taking advantage of new opportunities for service, like running special events trains. Our first example of that was the fireworks train on July 4th to celebrate the nation's 250th anniversary. We sold just over 1,600 tickets on those two trains, and of those 678 riders, 42% of those tickets boarded at one of the four stations serving Prince William County riders. The reception and success of these trains

[01:41:13] makes me very optimistic for the future. Now, these new offerings and the service improvements scheduled for 2030 and 2050 create benefits beyond the commuter. Communities along the corridor will see increased activity due to the ease and flexibility of travel. We're looking to develop partnerships with local tourism boards to promote leisure travel by VRE. It's a new opportunity.

[01:41:39] Having greater bidirectional and frequent service will create opportunities for businesses to establish new locations along the corridor and to attract employees from a broader geographic area. Our goal is to work with local economic development offices to use VRE as a tool to attract and retain businesses throughout the rail corridor, and we want to keep the service accessible to everyone.

[01:42:01] We are evaluating fair technologies and new offerings to keep up with the industry and make it easier than ever to ride. Getting to 2030 and those service increases is a major effort. We have six major construction projects in the works, including broad run expansion and lead track, which are located in Prince William County. The proposed leasing of additional locomotives is underway. The procurement of 21 new rail cars is in production, and the new station at Potomac Shores is ready to break ground. We are modernizing our passenger information displays, so we have

[01:42:41] not forgotten customer service as part of our work. And we have local projects here in the county that are underway, including the Woodbridge station improvements, the Woodbridge station's parking garage elevator modernization, and the rip-on station rehabilitation. So I want to thank you for your time. Happy to take questions, and I would like to offer tours to all of the supervisors so that you can experience our service, meet our staff, and get a behind-the-scenes view of our operations. If you don't mind, Victor, I'm going to go to Supervisor Bailey, and then you. Thank you,

[01:43:17] Madam Chair. I appreciate that. Katie, welcome again, but you're not new anymore. We are excited that you decided to move from Massachusetts and come to Prince William County, where it's going to happen in the central part of our nation. And so we really appreciate you being here, the first female CEO of VRE.

[01:43:38] And I have to say that because that's important to say in an industry where there's a lot of progesterone going on. But anyway, I didn't say that. Well, testosterone. Yes, testosterone. I'm sorry. I said progesterone. I'm sorry. It's the other way.

[01:43:53] Thanks for correcting me. But y'all know what I meant. Anyway, so with that, I wanted to say congratulations to you and your team, Joe. Joe is usually our legislative arm on VRE and helping us navigate that portion of it.

[01:44:12] But we're very fortunate to have representation from Dr. Bob Omni-Ride and from DRPT. Am I saying that? DRPT. Yes. And VPRA. And that partnership is critical as we move forward these projects in our region to connect everyone.

[01:44:34] And so there is a paradigm shift with that. If you could highlight for us, please, that's just an entree. If you could just highlight for us, please, that paradigm shift and where you see the organization going as we serve this region.

[01:44:50] Absolutely. One of the reasons why I did make the move from Massachusetts to Virginia is the amount of support passenger rail has in the Commonwealth. It's one of the few, actually VRE, and Virginia is one of the few places in the nation that's actually expanding their passenger rail and their commuter rail systems.

[01:45:09] So it was a really exciting opportunity for investment. And a lot of that is done in partnership. We can't do it all at the local level. And really, VRE is a local service. As much as we consider ourselves Virginia's commuter rail, very much locally owned, locally supported, and governed through a local system.

[01:45:27] And so the partnership with VPRA and DRPT on the policy and the funding level is critical for us to be able to work on these investments and this major expansion. Thank you. And then in closing, I just wanted to say welcome to our new CLO, to our organization, Ming Chao Core, who is our new lawyer for VRE and comes to us from Arlington, but with a wealth of knowledge as it relates to public service in the local arena, in the local region.

[01:46:01] So thank you for your presentation. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. And Supervisor Ingrid? Thank you, Madam Chair. First, great presentation. I don't think I've seen it like this before. So really enjoy the new, fresh day to look.

[01:46:18] I want to also thank you for the 4th of July train and, Dr. Snyder, for the OmniRide. I know it was a super hot day, so a lot of folks kind of chose to back out. A lot of things are changing that day, so thank you for that. One question, when you talk about the greenhouse gas emissions by mode, which is an interesting slide, I think that can help a statement that I continue to make on this board, which is our transit in Prince William County is the bus and VRE.

[01:46:48] It's Omni-Ride, it's Fair, TC. I don't think we're ever going to see Metro. You are our Metro. And when we talk about this greenhouse gas emissions, which is always an ongoing conversation in many industries that we talk about, one industry that I think we can narrow down on significantly is ourselves, these cars that you're talking about on the road and getting people to use the train and the bus.

[01:47:11] So I just want to really thank you for putting that slide out there because it really helped me a lot. Now, just a quick question. One thing I didn't hear a lot of, and you're right, VRE has a lot of moving. The long way, did you mention that anywhere? I didn't. A short mention.

[01:47:27] It's a VPRA project, but it is pretty significant in terms of its impact now on our service, but then also enables the future increase in service. I know because I remember we did that kind of ribbon cutting where, you know, we were presented a big check and they were going to start on that.

[01:47:44] When is that to start? Do you have a kind of timeline of that? Longbridge is already under construction. They're working on the first phase now and they're making great progress on it. They are still scheduled to be completed toward the end of 2030. And we meet, I'm going to say monthly, but I'm quite sure it's much more than monthly in reality, to make sure that we're well integrated, we know what's going on, we're able to help them out where we can.

[01:48:10] Yeah, thank you. Because I know that's the game changer piece, getting that bridge done, than just drive the train on everything else. Hey, drive the train. I like that. Didn't even intend that pun, but thank you very much for that. All right, thank you. Supervisor Gordy? Thank you, Madam Chair.

[01:48:27] Katie, thanks for coming out and sharing with us today. And, I mean, you certainly are, you know, the vision for the future for VRE is something that I'm very excited about. And back at the end of May, I took the train up to Philadelphia from Manassas.

[01:48:48] And then just driving through, going through Alexandria, across the Potomac, through D.C. to see all the construction that's ongoing. It's amazing, you know, to sometimes we talk about them in our meetings, but then to see it actually at work and happening is very exciting.

[01:49:05] And to see that actual progress that's taking place, which is going to open up incredible opportunities for us for the future. In terms of our current plans, particularly at Broad Run, and you mentioned, I love that statistic, you said about 9.6% of riders board at Broad Run.

[01:49:27] And I'm going to put this kind of parlay this into something for our transportation department is Piper Lane isn't going to work for the future. We need a solution to come from 28 or from Route 28.

[01:49:44] Fauquier County is building, developing, Culpeper is growing and developing. There are much more commuters coming up 28. Norfolk Southern is double-tracking from Noakesville to Calverton, which will then double-track all the way out to Culpeper.

[01:50:01] Can you speak a little bit about any potential opportunities for growing VRE's potential beyond Broad Run and to reach some of those new commuter areas that are south of Prince William County? Absolutely. So the current system plan 2050 does not include any geographic expansion, But we will have an opportunity about every five years really to refresh that plan.

[01:50:24] And so that gives us another maybe two as we start these discussions. And thinking about where that new commuter pattern is and where those commuters are coming from is an opportunity. Now, the one thing that will have to happen if we add jurisdictions to VRE is that they will need to join PRTC.

[01:50:43] And so there is an administrative part of that that will need to be worked out with those new jurisdictions and counties. But it is certainly on our radar because we do believe that there is a market there. And we certainly know that there are commuters that are coming from those areas. Yeah, thank you for that.

[01:51:00] And, you know, and there was one slide that you had that we don't have in our slide deck. Are you able to go back a couple of slides? And it kind of talks to that that showed that one there. We don't have this slide. Oh, you know why? It's animated. I can get it to you.

[01:51:17] Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, absolutely. And so, yeah, so just to see, you know, because I know, you know, with Omniride reaching into Warrington and out points out at Front Royal, so we already are seeing the growth. We're already seeing the demand coming from points south and west of Prince William County.

[01:51:36] And I think this is something definitely is both PRTC and VRE we're going to have to look at going for the future because those areas are growing. and I think that's all the questions I have appreciate you coming out and sharing with us today thank you thank you so much Supervisor Bodie thank you Madam Chair thank you Katie for coming before us always great to have all our transit agencies here giving good transparency I know you present a lot to the the BRE operations board not a lot of that frankly gets out to the broader public here in Prince William County so really wanted to commend you for for bringing it to us a very well packaged presentation here I'm going to go to something that you mentioned in your presentation around

[01:52:15] sort of looking in and exploring the tourism side of this, especially when Longbridge is up and running, having sort of leisure travel come down to Prince William County or reverse commuting at some point as well. My two questions is, the first is, as you've talked about sort of destinations within the county that people could come to are towns.

[01:52:33] It's a little bit different on the Manassas line. You have full partnership with the two cities. But on our side, the Fredericksburg line, I'm thinking of especially Occoquan and Dumfries, how they are not actually that far away from the stations and what you're sort of exploring, looking at there in partnership with those towns? Yeah, you know, we're in the really early stages of this, so I'm open to whatever opportunities might be available. So this is an area where we want to work really closely with the county to determine who are the right people to be talking to, what is there that could be either magnets to bring people into the county and be those

[01:53:10] destinations that they're coming to, or potentially areas where people can stay. You know, you decide to fly into Washington Manassas Airport, you get a hotel in Prince William County, and then actually commute to other areas from here on VRE.

[01:53:26] So there's a lot of opportunities, but figuring out how to actually develop those partnerships and then market those opportunities is something that we're at the very beginnings of. So I don't have a great answer for you right now, but if you have ideas, I would really love to engage with any of you on that sure and um then my last quick comment and i see christina wins over there somebody coined this now from rail to the river and it applies to both occoquan and dumfries especially as they're building out their waterfront we have the riverwalk project in occoquan it just makes a lot of sense and in both cases there's straight shot roads from the vre stations to those towns and they're coming up too and i think they would really love the partnership

[01:54:04] yeah i would love that too all right thank you so much supervisor la croix so i live in belmont Bay. And so, you know, most of my neighbors ride the VRE and it's wonderful. But as a real estate agent, that is one of our biggest selling points that I can put that on there and how many miles to it. So it's just up the road. One of the things that I've been doing is selling in Potomac Shores for a long time. And there's been that hope of the VRE coming. Can you tell me the timeline on that?

[01:54:37] Yeah, I can tell you what we know. So this is an agreement between the developer, the county, and VPRA. But obviously, we're sort of the key that brings everyone together. And so just recently, VPRA and the developer signed an agreement to test the soil where the station is going along the right of way. That soil testing, if they're not in the ground today doing it, will be happening within the next two weeks. And that is the first step to construction.

[01:55:06] So when we get the results of that soil testing back, we'll have a better answer as to when the actual groundbreaking of the station is. But this is, I would say it's imminent, certainly more imminent than it has been in the last 10 years that the discussions have been underway.

[01:55:23] So would you say it's going to happen? As much as I as VRE can say it's going to happen, I will say it's going to happen. What is the soil testing that you're talking about? Um, so, uh, rail, soil along the, uh, right of way can be contaminated.

[01:55:40] It's got, you know, a hundred years worth of trains that have run over it. And so what they're doing is testing to determine if it's contaminated and if it is contaminated, what it's contaminated with, so they can determine, um, what to do with any soil that needs to be excavated.

[01:55:56] Has that happened throughout this, like, did it happen in Belmont Bay as well? um so it uh probably i would say the answer is probably but um this is very localized in terms of the ownership because it's a railroad right-of-way there's certain um there's there's kind of different rules that the railroad right-of-way lives under than um it would in sort of outside the right-of-way so i don't know if they're directly comparable so what's the next step so after the soils tested because like i said i've been selling homes there for five years and it's always been, oh, there's going to be the VRE, and it never comes to fruition.

[01:56:33] Yeah, I hear from riders and residents as well, so I can relate. So the next step after the soil is tested will be for the developer to sign an agreement with VPRA to basically break ground on the project.

[01:56:52] The project is fully designed, and I believe that it's fully permitted, or at least the permits have been filed if it's not fully permitted. And the developer has a contractor. So it's really everything is stacked up to be waiting on the results of that soil testing. So when everything is done, what is usually the time frame that it all gets blessed from blessing to getting it done?

[01:57:15] I am not entirely sure how long between getting the soil testing back to the actual shovel in the ground. I have heard from the developer that the construction is about a year. So once they are able to put that shovel on the ground, it's about a year.

[01:57:31] But I am not sure how long it will take for VPRA and the developer to come to an agreement on the final shovel on the ground. I do know that VPRA is motivated to make this happen as well. They want the station. So we're all lined up to make it happen. Wonderful. Thank you.

[01:57:48] All right. I'm going to jump in. And thank you so very much. I had a chance to meet you before the board meeting. Thank you, Supervisor Bailey, for bringing her by my office. So excited to work with you, and I'm so excited with everything that you're presenting and the vision that you're bringing to VRE. So looking at slide 15 and when it's 2030, what the goals are for there, how close are we to that?

[01:58:13] Are we going to be able to see, for example, weekend service before 2030, or is it all really, are you waiting for the long bridge? So we are legally constrained by agreements between CSX and VPRA in terms of when we can run additional service that is based on the Longbridge.

[01:58:33] So there is an agreement between those two parties that say how much traffic, rail traffic, can travel over the rails before Longbridge is done. So we are constrained. That said, we are really interested in seeing if we can bring it earlier.

[01:58:52] But I am not in a position to be able to say we absolutely will be able to yet. Gotcha. Thank you so very much for that. I have Supervisor Bailey. Madam Chair, thank you for allowing me to come behind you. I wanted to say target time frame 2027 to be determined.

[01:59:13] That was for you. And then I wanted to say thank you to members of the board, Tom and George and Kenny and Victor, specifically Victor, because he and I have to work in tandem in partnership with VRE, and I really appreciate your support as the chair of VRE and making sure that we are navigating appropriately on all cylinders.

[01:59:38] I really appreciate that. And just to let the public know, we hold, in terms of decision-making, about 30 to 35 percent of the VRE board for the region. And so we should be very proud of that. Thank you. Supervisor Gordy.

[01:59:54] Thank you, Madam Chair. One last thing. I did want to just point out and really appreciate VRE and your leadership in joining us with the Nexus 234. We have Amy Adams who will be presenting in our economic development team here later because when we think about the future, you know, that reverse commuter is going to be essential to help us have success within our innovation district centered around George Mason University.

[02:00:25] And so your partnership, OmniRide, is also a partnership with the Nexus 234. And thank you for helping to invest in this and helping us develop a plan for the future, for the economic growth and the growth of George Mason University in this innovation district.

[02:00:43] It's going to be a key piece of success in order to make this a success. And so really appreciate your leadership and being part of Nexus 234. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, it's been an exciting opportunity, and a lot of good discussions have happened.

[02:00:58] That's where I really see Broad Run becoming a transportation gateway to the area to serve the airport, the innovation district, and the county overall. Thank you so very much, Rick. We're ready for the next. All right. Thank you.

[02:01:16] Thank you, Ms. Cho, for that. Madam Chair, our next presenter, we've been talking a lot about partnership and about multimodalism. This is our biggest partner in multimodalism throughout the county as he serves as the executive. Director of OmniRide PRTC, our bus service here in the county, our next presenter, Dr. Bob Schneider.

[02:01:36] Thank you all very much. I was very, very excited by Rick's presentation because we love those roads. That allows our buses to move quickly, the sidewalks. Every one of our trips begins with some level of individual mobility, whether it's in a mobility device or on foot, someone is walking to a vehicle.

[02:01:58] So whether it's a VDOT park and ride lot, the sidewalks in Dale City, etc., it all makes a difference. and we are thrilled to see that ongoing construction. So a couple of different things. I really want to give a service recap. I'm going to be definitely much more on the Rick and Paolo side of presentation today, but happy to talk questions.

[02:02:15] I know your neighborhoods. I know your districts. I'm coming up on 10 years next year, living in Prince William County. I've literally been in every single magisterial district between yesterday and today. That's how involved. I am a Prince William County resident. I love being part of Prince William County, and OmniRide is part of Prince William County every day.

[02:02:34] So right now, we have award-winning ridership growth, genuinely award-winning. We were runner-up in the state's ridership growth competition, losing out to Blacksburg. We frequently lose to universities when it comes to density compared to Prince William County, but we're going to work on that, too.

[02:02:50] Our service growth right now comes through reinvestment and grant-funded routes. We really are mainly funded by the motor fuels tax. We've had extensive discussions. We don't need to rehash that there. This is not a budget session, but it does give that sense of reality and expectation. Here's what I really wanted to share. This is our I-95 express growth. So as you can see, FY 2024, so we're talking two years ago, massive growth on the I-95 corridor, performing fantastically.

[02:03:19] Again, when we presented this, our FY26 ridership had not been finalized. It has, the numbers only got better. When you look at I-66, let me back up one, you can see it's done to a 1.2 million scale. I-66 is our newest marketplace in terms of the toll lanes in Prince William County, and the ridership is booming. To be just over 200,000 two years ago and to now be approaching half a million, so we're seeing almost a 50% increase in a short amount of time. It's fantastic. The university lot is almost full. We are probably about 90% capacity, and no, they're

[02:03:54] not all data center workers, I promise you. We've spent a lot of time out there building connections on the i-66 corridor with the business community it's working very very well we've been able to expand to warrenton we've been able to expand to front royal we've just since this presentation was put together we've had our service expansion approved so we're going to have a new route that i'll talk about a little bit more we'll have service out of prince william county for the first time out of the west but we're adding a new metro express route that'll start this coming year as well as a new route that takes us to union station noma and that has been an area that we haven't had a lot of service that will come out of the university lot. It's a very great opportunity on

[02:04:34] the I-66 corridor. It is our highest growth area, not named the Stafford County area. So we'll talk a little bit about that. Local Metro Express service. We ended up coming in ahead of last fiscal year. Again, we had to wait for our data to come in. We have seen the growth heavily on the Route 1 corridors. All the places you would expect. Great performance. We are thrilled. I'm going to bounce to this slide first. So a couple of things we're doing and a lot of what we're doing right now is very tactical. We have strategy. We'll talk about that. But we are really looking at a granular level of when are people riding and when do we have our standing loads. And yes,

[02:05:10] we have standing loads. What we've got right here for July 2026, as I mentioned, it's either grant funded or we're reinvesting. Our new service, Front Royal Gainesville to Washington, that new PM trip, grant funded. Dale City to Washington, new PM trips added. That's where we're reinvesting.

[02:05:26] We're able to take resources when we have those standing loads and reinvest those dollars back of the system. Dale City to Pentagon. Of course, that's Dale City. That's why we love the construction and planning proposals from NVTA as well as the Department of Transportation because that'll speed up our service. That is one of the ways by speeding up our service we have more trips and we bring more trips for the same cost and that is one of the advantages that those projects bring. As I mentioned, these are your neighborhoods. So it's not only Dale City, but we have improvements Mont Clair to Pentagon as well as Lake Ridge into Washington DC. These are minor changes, but these are the pinch points that your constituents, who are our passengers, talk to us about on a constant

[02:06:05] basis. The very exciting thing we're doing is we have a Manassas Metro Express. It's our Route 60. Currently, it's Monday through Friday. This will be the first time in the history of Prince William County that you can get out of Manassas and Western Prince William other than on a car. You will be able to ride from the Balls Ford lot to Tyson's on that route. It's a fantastic opportunity. That is the number one area that we are getting weekend service requests. We expect that to perform very, very, very well. So if you're in Manassas, Manassas Park, or along the Sudley Corridor, there's access there. Or you can drive, of course, from all points, from Haymarket, even up from Warrington, Gainesville resident. I'm a proud member of the Brentsville District.

[02:06:44] We also have some new timetables. We have some additional midday trips to improve frequency. We have several routes in the middle of the day that only see a bus every two hours, that only see a bus every 90 minutes. We're just trying to close that down to 45. And so being able to have the revenue opportunity to have the growth and the efficiencies that we bring to the table.

[02:07:04] For comparison, I think VRE mentioned their daily riderships around, what, $9,000, $10,000. We're in the $11,000 to $12,000 per day range, and we're able to do it for one-third of the cost. We don't have the expensive infrastructure, so it gives us that flexibility and that opportunity. So being able to reinvest those dollars, and really great investment along the Route 1 corridor, the Dumfries Connector, so that Route 1 travels from Woodbridge, VRE, all the way down to Dumfries.

[02:07:29] So we're not only connecting communities, we're connecting to nodes and modes. And that is very important to us as we continue to do it, including improved service on the Lake Ridge route. So continued growth in all of those areas in your neighborhoods for your constituents. Backing up, one of the areas that we committed to the Board of Supervisors when we stood here back in April for budget presentation is some of the routes that we introduced two years ago, just the ridership isn't there.

[02:07:59] And a really good example of this is our Route 51. we had introduced our microtransit service in Dumfries, and it was gangbusters. Like, unbelievable growth, very excited. So we took that ridership projection and identified where should we add a fixed route, and we really started to look at how that fixed route would grow.

[02:08:16] It has actually been very static for us over the last year. And that's one of the things we're looking at right now is we're going to identify, we've already identified, most passengers are riding to connect to a Route 1 frequency. So what we're looking at doing is converting that area to full-time microtransit, adding it to be more robust, to serve more rooftops.

[02:08:34] What's great, it's a demand response service. It's half the cost of Big Bus. So it's an automatic savings going into the gate, and we can take those dollars and reinvest it and give you frequency of every 30 minutes on Route 1 for the first time in the history of Prince William County. You will actually have reliable, consistent transportation from Woodbridge to Dumfries, traveling right through the Neabsco District with connections into Lake Ridge, with connections through Dale City.

[02:08:58] It's fantastic. And we're doing this at what is essentially a revenue-neutral piece. It's not truly revenue-neutral, cost-neutral, excuse me, because we do have to pay our workforce. And the number one cost for us is labor, jobs. Jobs right here in Prince William County. Many of our workers do live outside the area, but tons of them live right here in Prince William County.

[02:09:19] And, of course, these are our residents, our neighbors, and our friends. So what we're looking at is with those top three eastern routes operating this area, we can take this route, which is low ridership and high cost, and convert it. Same philosophy and approach, we're looking at Route 94.

[02:09:35] This was a 90-minute frequency route. When we redid the services, it was kind of a, how do we stitch all this stuff together? And can we stitch all this stuff together? And it was a bit of a flyer. I, quite frankly, had a bed of a Diet Coke with staff that if I'm wrong, this route will be gone in a year.

[02:09:51] Matter of fact, it's performing exceptionally well. The bus comes every 90 minutes. So routes that come every 90 minutes, imagine your car only starts every 90 minutes, and your keys only work three minutes at a time, and you probably have to walk a mile to get to your car.

[02:10:07] And the ridership we've got is unbelievable with all those constraints for comparison. So what we're going to look at is knowing where our ridership is, that's from the Lake Ridge Corridor, straight down past the New Kaiser facility, to Potomac Mills to Stonebridge Garage. By the way, the Stonebridge Garage continues to grow for commuter service, and it's a great hub for connecting transit.

[02:10:27] But where we're not seeing the ridership is beyond that. So what we're looking at doing is adding a microtransit option. We are not abandoning our riders. They are riders that are accessing jobs and education at Nova Community College Woodbridge, one of our key partners. They are working at Potomac Mills Mall.

[02:10:43] They are accessing for laws of building, for government services. These are essential things for jobs, for living, for play. What we'll do is re-hone those services and we'll be able to get to potentially a 45-minute frequency. we're cutting the frequency in half for basically zero additional cost and that's what we're looking at we are a cheeks and seats organization it's how we judge and it's how we evaluate if it's not performing well we're constantly revisiting to make improvements and give you that efficiency that you look for and expect so what is this process for these two routes we have an award winning program for customer outreach and information we call team 360 we spend a lot

[02:11:21] of time on buses we talk to passengers we get ideas we don't walk in with the solution and expect it, this is what we're going to do, we go to our passengers and get that information. Lower cost delivery, bringing in microtransit, again, it's half the cost of big bus service. Instead of a million-dollar type coach or something at $600,000, we're acquiring a Nissan Leaf for $45,000 that's sitting on a parking lot right now that we can go get. So those are the kinds of options that we're looking at, which makes us much more flexible, much more reliable, and we can really adapt to what's going on in Prince William as things happen. So we'll continue that

[02:11:56] outreach as we move forward. We'll bring this to the Board of Commissioners this fall and hopefully have a recommendation for a winter implementation. Our goal is to maintain coverage and invest in productivity. Productivity, we're talking about 35 to 40 people per trip, not per hour, per trip.

[02:12:14] So fantastic ridership and we're excited to continue to do it. As mentioned before, the motor fuels tax does cap our growth. We really don't have new revenues. Prince William County is gracious enough to continue to be able to basically maintain what is inflationary for us. We have to keep up with wages. We have to keep up with the benefits costs. We have to keep up with the price of fuel. It's not always an easy thing when it comes to diesel. So managing that, what we have done, and we do this every year, is we put together proposed enhancement opportunities for the Board of Supervisors. But this past year, we did a 285-page update to our comprehensive

[02:12:51] plan. It is as granular as microtransit for the entire service area of Prince William County. But for example, we have two cases here. One is the innovation microtransit zone. We have the zone connecting into VRE, connecting to the airport, connecting to downtown Manassas, serving our good friends at George Mason, serving our good friends at Micron. What we're lacking is the resources to do it. But the great news is we have what year one costs are, what are capital acquisition costs, and all of those startup, and we've got this broken down for each and every magisterial district.

[02:13:26] From what I can find right now, and I put the Gainesville Microtransit Zone in there, from what I can tell, the UVA Haymarket Hospital is the only hospital that does not have transit service in the DMV. That's an example of where there's just a tremendous resource, the medical arts that are there, the jobs that are filling in. Haymarket is booming.

[02:13:47] Gainesville is booming. I know. I'm, like I said, a proud member of the Rentsville District, but I spend a tremendous amount of time in the Haymarket area. So we know the Gainesville District exceptionally well, and it's booming. So we're ready. We've got fixed route options. We have connectivity.

[02:14:04] We are ready to go when the opportunity comes, tying into, again, all of our regional partners tying in with Virginia Breeze. We are looking forward to this next year applying for grants that will take our warrants in service down to Culpeper. When I answer a question you might ask, we're already eyeballing Bealton.

[02:14:21] Identifying the Route 28 corridor, that's obviously in Fauquier County, but that's where we work with our friends at DRPT. So we look for outside-the-beltway funding that may include even capital resources to add park-and-ride lots. As I came in this morning along Route 3, looking at the Route 15-ish corridor, the Remington park-and-ride lot is almost full.

[02:14:40] You don't know where that is? The park-and-ride lot's not much bigger than this room. But the point is, it's full all the way out in an area that has no transit. So they're already developing, whether it's vanpool programs, ride shares, and the things that keeps that active and engaged as passengers, the commute is rough, we're faster.

[02:14:58] We've calculated, we believe we are the largest user of the toll lanes by volume. With the number of trips we make per day across our coaches, we get you there faster. And that's one of the great things that we have about those express routes. Can't stress enough, we have the strategic plan documents.

[02:15:14] Hopefully we'll be visiting you all this fall and sitting down with you and looking more granularly at your magisterial district. Where we are now, these are on the street by the way, these are our mixtape buses. We are celebrating our 40th anniversary. Yes, all of you will have a chance to come out and see them in person, maybe even drive one.

[02:15:33] Hint, hint, nudge, nudge. I promise you it's safe. I promise you it's safe. If our chair can do it, you can too. We are really going to have an active, exciting 40th anniversary. sure you'll see two of our express buses on the interstates already, and we've got them operating in the neighborhoods because we don't want to just celebrate on the toll lanes. We want to celebrate in our community. We want to celebrate in Manassas and Manassas Park, and we want to celebrate in Montclair, and we want to celebrate in Dumfries. These are all exciting things that we do. We are obsessive about community engagement. Quite frankly, it's the number one way that we're able to grow ridership without growing our frequency. The number one thing people ask for when they talk about

[02:16:11] service is frequency. Can it come more? You heard our good friends at Vary talk about, can we get to 20 minute frequency? That's exactly what our customers are asking us for. But in the meantime, we know there's someone out there that could ride, but they don't know how to ride yet. So we are, that's where we are again, tactical, but it's a strategic mentality, but tactical actions of working with our good friends at the chamber. Partnerships with Micron, we're hopefully in this next few months going to be able to start working with them so that maybe we can start develop some programs an opportunity to get people to ride into our Gainesville area but can we get that I can get you from Front Royal to DC but I can't get you from Gainesville to Bristow so if we can

[02:16:50] start to close those gaps imagine what that does for the Nexus 234 area in terms of economic development and growth we are very very focused on placemaking figuring out working with the identity of each of the small area plans figuring out how we can offer and tailor those services for example, you don't need giant 40-foot buses every 15 minutes in Occoquan. But what do you need?

[02:17:11] You need microtransit. Those are the kinds of things because we understand Belmont Bay. We know Belmont Bay doesn't need tons and tons of buses all day. What do they need? Peak circulators. But we're ready to raise the questions of mobility. What about bike share? Don't worry, I'm not trying to do it. But we want to ask those questions because if you're not asking the questions, you'll never have the answer. And one of the things that we're very proud of is because we do live and work in our own community. We are our own consultants, but we do bring in Kimley Horn.

[02:17:40] We do bring in national experts to come in and advise and inform. We are key strategic partners with NVTC. They provide us a tremendous amount of data and resource, as well as DRPT, who is our number one, technically our number one funder of commuter services right now is our passengers.

[02:17:57] After that, it's Prince William County. After that, it's DRPT. Business partnerships, I cannot stress enough we built our partnerships with you with uva health with micron we are now at a point where the question is when are we going to get service and i say one day and so that's kind of where we are but we continue to push we are there for the ribbon cuttings we're there to talk about businesses where we do have service as a great example is dale boulevard and lake ridge we're going into the restaurants and say do you have workforce that is transit dependent does anyone have reliability issues at wegmans because what do you need at stonebridge what do you need at Potomac Mills. So these are relationships we've always had, but right now, while our

[02:18:35] ridership is growing, but our local service is stable. While we reinvest, let's go pull our partners back in and say, let's give us a new look. New buses, highly reliable, a great app that tells you exactly where your bus is. So if it's 101 degrees outside and you don't want to stand on the street corner for 15 minutes and sweat, you can track your bus and you can watch it turn the corner and then walk out just in time so that your ride becomes easier. It's easier for your family. It's easier for your friends. And one thing that I will stress is you give the community a

[02:19:09] gift of zero fare service. It is not fare free. It is not free because what it is, is we utilize the motor fuels tax and other resources. But as a result of that, we have higher ridership. Because of that higher ridership, we bring in more money from DRPT than if we charged a fare.

[02:19:27] So it basically gives you at Prince William County a net offset. And what that does is that continues to drive ridership. It continues to drive utilization. Historically, our ridership, when I got here nine years ago, our local ridership was about 720,000.

[02:19:43] We're at 1.2 million. And we have fewer revenue hours on the street than we did in 2015. So we had more hours of service in 2015, but we have 500,000 extra passengers. And that's a testament to the work and what the organization's done and your leadership.

[02:20:01] So with that, growing ridership is where I wanted to end because I think that's how you can evaluate and judge your transit system, cheeks and seats. And I would love to answer any questions you've got. I usually have the end slide, but this one's so cool with the bus, I would prefer to leave it up here. Thank you so much.

[02:20:16] I'm going to go to Supervisor Angry first because he is the chair. Well, thank you, Madam Chair. Not a question, just a statement. And I want to, you know, echo what Chair Bailey mentioned with BRE and the partnership relationship with OmniRide and our PRTC.

[02:20:35] And the fact that this year we have shown, like, a tremendous success stories of both services. I will say that OmniRide, we have been picking up trophies and awards this past year that have just been pretty amazing.

[02:20:54] So I'm going to just take a quick little story. going to go back because we always forget how these things happen in 2020 when COVID hit most horrible year ever we had big plans big dreams for both our services transit services and then everything was put on the shelf and we were in reaction mode for many things we got out of that slump really around 2024 and here in 2026 we are exactly where we need to be and the last thing on your slide I love is growing ridership because that's for both of these services frequency is our next task that we need to really invest in these transit because as I said I don't think

[02:21:32] we're going to see metro and this is our metro so I think this is what we need to be investing in so great presentation thank you both not a question just a statement thanks thank you so very much supervisor Bodie yeah thank you madam chair thank you Dr. Schneider for the presentation and all the work you've been doing and I especially want to highlight the adaptability that you sort of talked about sort of the midpoint of your presentation you try a route may go gangbusters then you keep it you look at ways enhancing refining it but if it doesn't work you don't just keep it there to keep it there you say hey let's nix it let's privet and go in another direction so I wanted to highlight that and commend you for that adaptability mindset um

[02:22:11] had a couple questions uh going in reverse sort of where you you ended here in growing writership and I know um we had a conversation probably a couple weeks ago now about young people and how right now there are some young people which are fine getting on the bus. There's other young people with a stigma there. They're not sure. Their parents may be very auto-centric for whatever reason. They don't get on the bus. As we talked with my daughter, who actually took a bus earlier today, in fact, what's your ridership growth strategy around young people, especially your older high school kids where, yeah, they may take a school bus or they may drive

[02:22:48] to school, but then after that, in their third place options, what have you, whether that be a mall, employment, what have you, what's your strategy around growing our young people and their ridership? Advertising doesn't work. We can put up the coolest signs. Something like that does, I'll be honest with you. Stuff like that makes the bus cool. It makes it fun. Putting up more signs, telling people about it doesn't make the difference. What makes the difference is going into the schools and doing presentations and partnering in with youth advocacy groups, boys and girls clubs, employment opportunity, so we know who hires teenagers, working with

[02:23:26] Prince William County and being inside the schools for the internships. Those are the very kinds of things we're active in doing. Sadly, we did not pick up a summer intern this year. I guess some of the public work stuff was a little more exciting than a planning intern. But our strategy is on a one-on-one relational level. But more importantly, are we going places they want to go? They are not trying to get to DC. They are not trying to get to Tyson's. They want to go to Potomac Mills.

[02:23:50] So are we making it easy to have one-seat rides? Are we giving them frequency? And if we're giving them frequency, it reduces the barrier of information. They know they can just walk out, stand there, and then they can use their phone and look. So it's getting at that granular level inside the schools. And we had presentations as recently as last week with some of the summer programs. We're even working with some of the summer school daycare programs. And we bring them our facility, or we'll go visit them with a bus. And our drivers tell the story. That's all part of it. And if we can catch people wearing that 15 to 17-year-old decision-making, that actually

[02:24:29] shapes where they decide to go to school. That shapes not only when they get to school, where they decide to go work. And even if it turns out that they're going to go somewhere where, yeah, they're not going to end up riding transit, they're going to support it because they know that if they don't, a person that they love and care about or supports them does. And that comes from, even if you own a small business, and in downtown Manassas is a really good example, you may drive and park your car, but your customers don't. Your workers don't. And your workers aren't coming from Manassas Park and Manassas City. Your workers are often coming from Prince William County and Woodbridge. And so that's that cross mobility and understanding of

[02:25:04] why we work so hard in the region. It's actually, you know, we're examining the concepts of adding even further outreach, more people. There's only so many places we can be. And with a community this big, there's more we can do. My last question is actually a great segue, because my last question is about cross-county connections, right? How do you connect Lake Ridge to Liberia, for example?

[02:25:25] These areas where you know there is a lot of sort of cross-county, cross-districtional travel, and right now we're great, and you talked about connecting Gainesville to Bristow, for example, but like I said, connecting a Lake Ridge to a Liberia corridor, place that we know people need to travel right now it's just not in their mindset they can jump on trying to get across the county or at least into the the cities in the midpoint of the county can you talk about that and so your vision of the future around doing that some more yes right now we only have one route it's the 96 that's our wood bridge to downtown manassas option uh more specifically we've had some proposals and our budget enhancements to take some of those trips and go all the way up to the university lot

[02:26:03] because we want to connect george mason we're going to connect micron and we're going to connect to that park and ride lot. So yes, you could work at the McCourt building and live in Front Royal and take a two-seat transit ride. That's the kind of thing that we're looking at. But what is that vision? Inside that, let me back up, inside the strategic plan, we have routes from Dumfries to Manassas because the number of individuals that are in the Dumfries area that need to go get building permits. They have to ride all the way up to Manassas, or sorry, ride all the way up to Woodbridge, make a transfer, and then take the proverbial slow boat from China to China to get to Manassas to do that. It's an entire day to file a business permit or to apply for Social

[02:26:42] Security when you don't have those resources. So we're trying to shorten that, but it's also traffic reduction. Every time a full bus goes through a traffic light, that's 57 cars moving through like that. So when you start to magnify how much traffic is on 234, backing up 8, 10 cars in three lanes along 234 in the Montclair area, one full bus that is able to move people across the county immediately eliminates an entire light cycle every single time. And it's not one light cycle at one light. That's a complete light cycle of savings across the entire corridor. So just imagine 57 additional cars at Dale and Miniville every morning. 57 additional cars at Dale and

[02:27:22] Gemini. So as you magnify that through, it also comes back to the greenhouse gas question. For every gallon of gas a car burns, that's 19.5 cubic feet of CO2. Never mind the VOCs, never mind the Knox. So as you reduce that and you think of all that truck travel that you have along the 234 corridor and all the car traffic, that becomes an industrial area and something we want to make sure we preserve in terms of the environmental tourism with the Prince William Forest. Connectivity to the battlefield. So there's assets and resources not only along Lee Slovenia State Park, the Potomac, the waterfronts. We also want to take a look at some

[02:27:58] of those more inbound areas that have great preservation notes to it. Good example is Bristow and the historic park there thank you all right thank you so very much i wanted to jump in because of something you mentioned about advertising that's not how you're reaching people but i want to talk to you about the leisure riders um and how are you distinguishing between commuters and leisure you know are the leisure the people who are more likely to take omni link and how do we get more of the leisure type of travelers on our transit system truthfully the biggest challenge we have is we don't have a lot of frequency in the middle of the day it's service every 90 minutes

[02:28:34] every two hours, and that's when your leisure travel happens. Now travel into DC, etc., we're able, we have a Route 95 and a Route 60, so if you have your car, or if you live in the Manassas area and you've got some routes that connect you in, you can easily access Tyson's Corner, you can easily access the Lorton Station. But in terms of leisure activity, we are very, very limited. It's going to be primarily right around the downtown Manassas area and in Eastern Prince William along route one we are just limited due to the resources and the routes we've got we continue to to attend the uh prince william chamber senior programs they've got so we we are constantly at all those

[02:29:10] different activities we have partnerships and with some of the businesses that run travel and leisure tourism up to dc i think it's the the bluebird uh but blue's in the name for the the bus company forgive me blue trails i don't know try to think of now we're all going to google it yeah there's is it i think it's bluebird and so they they do different kinds of tours so we're talking to them about what the options are because they could actually organize those same tour for completely free on board an omni ride bus as we access some of those areas continuing to be something of interest we would love to be able to line up after a gnats game we'd love to be able to line up after

[02:29:50] a beyonce concert and be able to bring people take people into prince william county to work all day and then be able to line up at night and bring them home from ballgames and activities in the evening. Again, it's a resource constraint. And so we're ready to do it. We have the fleet. We have the talent. We have the planning. It's the ability to pay for those labor hours that really just holds us back right now as the motor fuels tax, as we all know, is just a limiting resource.

[02:30:13] Got you. Thank you so much. I'm going to go to Supervisor Bailey, then Stuart. Thank you, Madam Chair. Dr. Bob, congratulations on your awards. I was there. I saw them. That's good. Because they're well-deserved. You work very hard with you and your team to provide service for us.

[02:30:32] I wanted to, one of the things that, as we have grown into this multimodal world, and we're growing and growing and growing, one of the opportunities that we had, again, coming out of COVID, and I hate to go back, but look where we were and where we're coming to, is microtransit.

[02:30:52] And I was having a conversation earlier about this. And microtransit is such an opportunity, and I've noticed it a lot in my district with our seniors, and they love it. They really do love it. But it's also an opportunity for our younger generation to get around in the county or to get from the VRE stations to D.C. or to wherever.

[02:31:21] You know what I mean? So what's the future? Because I know we've done pilots, and they have been extremely successful. What's the future for our microtransit? What does it look like in terms of funding? And what does it look like in terms of it actually being a multimodal arm for us to enhance our transportation?

[02:31:42] It is absolutely, right now, our number one tool in the toolkit. If we're going to expand a new area, we don't do it with a big bus, we do it with microtransit. What we would pay in consultants to tell us where we should go, we can learn from our passengers Because they'll tell us exactly where they are, and they'll tell us where they live and where they want to go.

[02:32:03] They'll tell us time of day. They'll tell us how many. By simply offering a lower cost than Big Bus service, we save time, we create jobs, we create opportunity, and we're able to, and again, because it's the middle of the day as well, it fills in that leisure gap as well. You're not having to rely on Big Bus, but it connects neighborhoods into those different areas.

[02:32:23] Microtransit is absolutely part of our toolkit, and again, it's one-half the cost of what it is for Big Bus operating in what we call revenue service. So you see those big buses on Route 1, half the cost is microtransit. Microtransit cannot serve Route 1. Microtransit cannot serve Dale City alone.

[02:32:40] But what it can do is, if you know those cul-de-sacs along Dale Boulevard, it is very, very, it's up to a mile to get out to Dale Boulevard. It's up to a mile to get out of Montclair. How far is it to walk from Potomac Shores to get to Route 1? It's not feasible.

[02:32:56] So microtransit is where we layer in those services. And that's also how we can take advantage for those three or four passengers that are riding us in the morning to get to VRE. Microtransit can continue to serve them while we redirect resources to higher frequency areas such as Kaiser, Potomac Mills shopping area, and those districts tying into Occoquan.

[02:33:18] Again, those are leisure areas as well. So we do have those opportunities to do that reinvestment. But we have not had a failed microtransit service yet. It's wildly popular, and students do love it or that youth loves it because it is a tech-savvy thing. And so it is something that does appeal to them.

[02:33:36] And one of the other things it does is, quite frankly, we talked about adaptability. We can expand anywhere, and if no one's riding from that area, it doesn't cost us any money. And that's one of the advantages because if no one's riding in that zone, we're not staffing it. And so it's one of those ways that we're able to expand and cover rooftops.

[02:33:54] so there is a lifeline service it does cover the rural area of noakesville but if no one in rural noakesville needs a ride it's okay because the service isn't being delivered because it isn't being asked for and that's what demand response is and that's what makes us so efficient with those dollars that we get and the vehicle cost is unbelievable so with my my little minute what i the next question i want to ask how often do you do uh surveys uh from your organization just to understand what like level of customer service, like level of need, that kind of thing. How often

[02:34:31] does that happen? We now do them annually, but actually we have our new transit app. Customers tell us all the time now because we have added a feature that allows them to tell us was the bus clean, was the bus dirty. We do survey for what are destinations that we want to go. So we can continue to capture that information. We have partnerships with NVTC, DRPT, all the regional surveys that you see come across your email we are all part of that informational we are reinstituting our annual customer service survey we suspended that during the pandemic and then with the budget challenges we faced we just that didn't quite make it back in but between the transit app

[02:35:07] and our new survey cycle we'll have the information on an annual basis thank you thank you manager thank you supervisor stewart hey dr bob thank you very much for being here um you know thank you for everything that you do with OmniRide. I go out to the university parking lot at 29 and I talk to riders once or twice a week. And everybody is really happy. Some of those people I know are actually physical neighbors of mine. They live very close to my house and they talk about riding

[02:35:44] in. And a couple of things about that, the drivers and dispatchers, which are also stakeholders, I guess, in any company, like, you know, your employees, they're very happy with what they do. They seem, like, really ecstatic about working for OmniRide.

[02:36:03] So, you know, that's one thing I wanted to point out. About microtransit, so it seems like, yes, that's something that would appeal to seniors and younger people alike, especially since, you know, when we look at the numbers, I know for me, when I turned 16, the first thing I did was, you know, this was like 40 years ago to go get my driver's license that's not happening at the same frequency anymore all right and so some of the younger folks that i talk to especially in gainesville do talk about transit i know a neighbor of mine who works at the pentagon takes omni ride every day his daughter commutes

[02:36:41] in just for fun she goes hangs out in dc and then meets up with dad at the end of the day and they get back to Haymarket. But, you know, and the question about where you see microtransit going, you know, this one thought that she had with me was, is Waymo coming from microtransit? Is, you know, will I be able to take microtransit from Haymarket straight into DC, for instance, without taking the bus? You know, that sort of thing. And maybe that's like a longer term

[02:37:19] term vision. And also there are areas, and I know you're going to be coming to our offices to talk about this, that I see the map and like the layout, you know, encompassing the hospital. I see the little bump outs here and there for things, but there are other amenities in the area that I think would serve, would be served well to also have microtransit go to those areas, especially for younger people and for seniors who this program really seems to target. And so I look forward to talking to you about those areas just as far as some tweaks are concerned.

[02:37:55] So one thing I do want to mention, so that example right there of the Haymarket zone, there's ones all around it that I just didn't bring. So the idea is that would be the first one we would bring because that is the core that is Haymarket and Gainesville. That is our shops at Stonewall.

[02:38:11] That is our connectivity Virginia gateway. That is the hospital. That is right there at Washington Street in downtown Haymarket. That's the first one we bring. Right to the left, right to the right, and more. So there's more opportunity to provide.

[02:38:27] But that's, like, those are our top two priorities right now. If, you know, the resources came in, where would we go? Straight to Nexus 234, straight to that Gainesville Haymarket area. Because that is a booming economic region right now. Yeah. Both are.

[02:38:43] Thank you. Yes, sir. All right, thank you so very much, and thank you for coming out today. Rick, who's up next? Thank you, Madam Chair. Up next is MVTA Chief Executive Officer Monica Backman before she steps up here.

[02:39:01] I would like to thank Chair Jefferson representing us as the member of the MVTA and Monica and her staff as well as the rest of the MVTA for voting on the program last Thursday that allowed for Prince William County to be programmed almost $300 million of improvements on four projects.

[02:39:21] Now, the reason I bring this up is because we've been talking a lot about multimodalism. We've been talking about partnering, about economic development, and how transportation focuses on all that. Ms. Backman and NVTA have been very focused and very committed in making sure we have a multimodal network, a well-established network, and promoting economic development throughout all northern Virginia, but especially here in Prince William County.

[02:39:45] With that said, on the $300 million, I wanted to use that, our program that we had got on Thursday as an example of that. Van Buren Road was funded through that program. That's a major road effort that we've been moving through that NVTA has been helping us design that we did a NEPA on.

[02:40:02] The Route 15 Railroad Overpass, now that's a safety improvement. So they're not even just worried about multimodalism, but about traffic safety, because that is a major traffic safety improvement over our railroad system on Route 15 near the 66 interchange. They funded the 234 trail improvements over at Innovation, including a pedestrian bridge over to Innovation across the parkway.

[02:40:26] A great example of a pedestrian and bicycle improvement being funded by them. And then finally, the last project was the Dale City Transit Priority Network, which looks at robustness and sees how we can develop lanes that only serve those that are using the transit system or HOV system in our counties.

[02:40:43] So I just wanted to show Ms. Backman's dedication and commitment to multimodalism at Northern Virginia. Today, she's here to talk to us about her BRT plan, and I leave it now to Ms. Backman. Thank you. Thank you so very much. Thank you. Thank you for having me here. I will be really brief because Rick took half of my presentation.

[02:41:02] So I'm Monica Backman, the CEO of the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority. And I will start out by saying this slide is now outdated, given the authority's action from last Thursday. Instead of the $5 billion that we invested regionally, we're now at $5.8 billion.

[02:41:19] Of that amount, Prince William County has received $1.2 billion. And that includes almost $300 million on the four projects that Rick just identified. You can see the other projects or some of the other projects listed on this slide. I will not read them, but it does get to us being a multimodal planning, programming, and funding entity.

[02:41:42] In the older days, I would say, people would always say, oh, you fund roads. Yeah, we fund roads. We fund transit. We fund trails. The only thing we do not fund is air travel because the projects must benefit the taxpayers right here in northern Virginia.

[02:41:59] So I'm here today to talk about our Bus Rapid Transit Action Plan. Last July, the authority adopted unanimously the BRT Action Plan. This plan is the blueprint for having an integrated, connected bus rapid transit system for Northern Virginia, but also the Metro COG region.

[02:42:19] Of the 28 routes, and we like to call it one system, 28 routes, we are currently advancing five of the 28 routes. You can see Route 1, Route 7, West End Transit Way, Duke Street, and Metro Way. When this plan is fully implemented, hopefully by 2045, you can expect to see 47 million riders on this system.

[02:42:42] 27,000 trips shifted from cars to this BRT network. And then 23 tons of carbon dioxide daily that's now avoided. So those are big numbers. But we do realize that implementing a system like this does require time, it requires planning, it requires patience, and it requires funding.

[02:43:07] So in this BRT Action Plan, there are six routes that directly involve Prince William County. There's the 66 Express route, which starts in Gainesville and ends at the Vienna Metro Station. There's the Virginia 28 South Route, starts at the VRE Manassas Station and ends at the Dulles Airport.

[02:43:29] There's the Manassas Connector that also starts at the VRE Manassas Station and goes to the Northern Virginia Community College, Manassas Campus. The Prince William Parkway Route that also, again, starts at the VRE Manassas Station and goes to Potomac Mills.

[02:43:48] There's the 95 Express, which starts in Dumfries and goes to Crystal City. And last but not least is the Route 1 South, which starts at Potomac Mills, goes to Fort Belvoir, and hopefully will connect with what Fairfax County is doing for Route 1 for their BRT network.

[02:44:08] I am here today to talk to you about getting some of these routes in your mobility plans, strategic plans, long-range plans, comp plans, whatever plan you as a governing body need to have these routes in to align yourself for further study and potential funding from NVTA.

[02:44:28] As you all know, we can only fund capital investments with our 70%. We can also only fund projects that are in our long-range transportation plan. Our current plan was adopted in December of 2022, we are currently in the infancy stages of the update to that plan.

[02:44:48] So if you feel as if one of those six routes or all of those six routes are ready, that the county is ready to advance, now is the time to get them in. But please do not think that if you do not get them in this transaction that we're working on now to be adopted by the authority in December of 2027, we update transaction every five years. So you will have additional opportunities. And again, that's only for NVTA funding. The other components to this is talking about the regional connection that this BRT system makes. I heard several comments this afternoon saying, you know what,

[02:45:25] we may not get Metro. I'm not here to say, yes, you will, or no, I will not, or no, you will not. I have lived in the county for 22 years, and there's been no metro. But that does not mean that Prince William cannot have high-capacity, high-quality, safe, efficient, bus rapid transit that will provide some of the mobility options necessary.

[02:45:47] You heard Katie talk about VRE and what they're doing, and Bob talk about PRTC. This will be a complement to these services. As I mentioned, several of the routes in Prince William will actually start at VRE station. What we're currently doing with the update of the long-range transportation plan, we're doing what we call phase two of the BRT network.

[02:46:10] We have been asked to make some refinements to some of the routes, make some adjustments, make some tweaks. That's what we are currently doing. And again, we said full implementation, hopefully by 2045. This will be a stagnated implementation. Some routes are ready to go a lot sooner than others.

[02:46:28] But this gives you a complete picture of how the system will look. And again, safe, efficient, reliable service. Then there's the F word, funding. Everyone asks about how this system will be funded.

[02:46:45] Because the authority, we cannot legally pay operations or maintenance. I will tell you that I've had conversations a few with the Secretary of Transportation about this BRT plan. We also, in addition to getting these routes in the authority's long-range transportation plan, they should also be included in the Commonwealth long-range transportation plan, which is VTRANS.

[02:47:10] Why? That is the vehicle to align yourself for smart-scale funding. We are also talking to the feds, and these conversations are ongoing because we hopefully will align ourselves to give federal dollars. We do not want any single entity to carry the burden singularly of trying to advance something of this magnitude that really benefits the entire region.

[02:47:37] And when I say benefits the region, here are some of the logos, and it's not even inclusive of everyone, but some of the logos of organizations and agencies who have participated with us on this study process. And I'm saying they have participated with us, but this participation is ongoing.

[02:47:58] You will see DDOT, Maryland, the district, WMATA, because again, when we had our working groups, and now that we're back to doing phase two of this study, we have all of the partners at the table. Because as a user, you do not want to be stopped by jurisdictional lines.

[02:48:15] You don't want to say, well, you know what, I'm here at the boundary line and this locality doesn't have it. now what do I do? So we want to make sure that this is really holistic and that this plan is something that all of our Northern Virginia localities buys into, but Maryland and the district as well. But because I'm the CEO of NVTA and we can only fund what's in Northern Virginia, that is why I'm here today. I hope this will not be the last time I'm here. I'm hoping that you will put some of these routes in your plans and we can come back and have different conversations about implementation and execution.

[02:48:52] Thank you. Oh, one more thing, if I may. I do have to thank Chair Jefferson. She serves on our Planning and Programming Committee, who made the recommendation to adopt the funding program as recommended by staff, and Supervisor LaCroix, who serves on our Planning and Programming Committee, and really all of you, because you've really been supportive of NVTA.

[02:49:13] I see Supervisor Bode's LinkedIn post about BRT, so we really, really appreciate that. So thank you. All right, thank you, too. And before I turn you over to your supervisor, Tom Gordy, who we got like two out of three people here live in the Brentsville District.

[02:49:29] I don't know what's going on over there, Tom, but okay. I wasn't going to say anything, but, yes, I do live in the Brentsville District. So BRT, and this is more of a comment for everyone up here. When we look at updating the next comprehensive plan, We need to be more specific about BRT and the transportation improvements that we want to make.

[02:49:53] Fairfax, you know, with the one, I think it's a great opportunity to come down to Prince William County, but we may need more infrastructure to actually make that happen. You know, I've had preliminary conversations with our transportation team. I'm sorry, your new name, Transportation Infrastructure, you know.

[02:50:08] Capital Construction. Capital Construction, you know, God of the Roadways, whatever. I don't know, Rick. an honorary jamaican citizen only in four chambers um but that's something we are going to need to have more conversations about is making sure that we are properly linking things and taking opportunities that other counties are presenting themselves to help make things a little bit easier for us now going to the f word that is a dangerous word funding we are going to start talking about our budget our next budget cycle in the fall and i know we're going to have discussions other

[02:50:45] discussions around sales tax we've really got to be intentional about how we fund all this i mean this has been a great discussion but seeing how everything links or could better link is really important if we are serious about creating a multimodial system we need to make sure that everything is linking properly oh metro so yes this is we don't have metro and i had a conversation i got to um have a brief conversation with randy clark from wamada in the winter talking about metro and kind of the proposal for us is to have these alternate transportation systems linking up

[02:51:22] metro is in a tough situation right now even if we wanted and we were able to bring them down to the county it would take not just several years but several decades and we've got to be mindful that we are a growing community we're a growing county and moving people around is critically important so i want to thank you for coming i just want to say those few words it's been a It's a pleasure to work with you.

[02:51:44] You know, I know you also got your start, I believe, in Prince William County. I'm just like, you know, I like to rib some of the other jurisdictions in NVTA. But, you know, we are a growing community. And having everyone here to talk about how we create those partnerships has been really good.

[02:52:01] So with that, I'll go to Supervisor Gordy. Thank you, Madam Chair. And, yeah, I just told my thunder. I was going to point out another Brentsville District person here today that is leading our transportation programs here in Northern Virginia. thank you for being here monica you know uh incidentally uh uh in 2005 when i worked on capitol hill uh we were working on the highway bill and we talked about bus rapid transit 21 years ago for northern virginia and i was working for hampton roads and we were talking about it potentially down in hampton roads because we had challenges down there as well and and um and so

[02:52:38] here we are now talking about looking out at 2045. So make the point that we've got to have a 25-year frame of reference and a planning window that looks out that far. And at some point, we've got to start, we need to put the marker down and say, this is what we're going to plan to, because we're looking about a 25-year period in order to implement any of these types of things. And so incidentally, you know, in 2005, we didn't have NVTA. We didn't have, you know, someone sort of

[02:53:14] trying to kind of serve as the air traffic control for everything happening for transportation. And so I think we're now in a better place so that we can control in each jurisdiction is now understanding that it has to work with all the other jurisdictions to make these things happen.

[02:53:32] I would, one thing I would ask you to do, because it wasn't really evident in the slide, but could you just explain bus rapid transit for the public and so that they can understand what this exists how it's different from like other transportation and transit things that we have so thank you for that and I don't I can just go so as Ms. Chow said with BRE it's a commuter rail and it's fixed rail those tracks are where they are they cannot deviate from where the tracks are unless they build new tracks. And that's the same with Metro Wheel. That's heavy rail service. So they run

[02:54:09] throughout the day, but it's still a heavy rail service. So you have commuter rail that's running during traditional peak periods, and then you have a heavy rail service that's running throughout the day. But the key words in it is really fixed guideway. BRT can be fixed guideway. What Fairfax County is doing on Richmond Highway, it is fixed guideway. They are running their BRT system when it's implemented. They've added additional lanes to Route 1, and that BRT system will run essentially in the median. However, other BRTs do not have to be fixed guideway. Some will say fixed guideway

[02:54:45] is the preferred bus rapid transit, but you can have signal preemption, giving the bus the signal so that the bus doesn't have to wait at a light, because the key word in BRT is rapid. Making sure that the bus goes faster than you can in your car, if you adhere to the rules of the road, but making sure that those trips can be rapid, can be quicker, can be faster.

[02:55:14] So it could be dedicated lanes, like with your Dale City Transit Priority Project that we funded. It's adding a bus-only lane. It can be bus-only lanes. Now, you will have to talk about violations and what you can do to prevent people from violating, because what you don't want to do is to have the buses having slower trips because of violations.

[02:55:36] But you can do signal preemptions, you can do bus-only lanes, you can do fixed guideway to ensure that those travel times, that the arrival times, the departure times are what they say they're going to be. Traditionally, they're a lot shorter than what we would call a local bus system.

[02:55:55] Thank you for that. And, you know, so when you think about this in terms of, you know, with OmniRide, and so, you know, from a public's perspective, you know, can you explain how, instead of this being in competition, how they enhance each other?

[02:56:13] Sure. And what I will say, because I'm asked this often, who will operate? Right now, I do not know. We are, NVTA, we are not an operator. That's what I do know. We do not operate. But we have several operators in this region. And I had a conversation with Dr. Snyder probably last year about him potentially operating the routes that are in Prince William County.

[02:56:34] Because, again, for us, it's more important to have those linkages to the other systems. I know that Fairfax County, because I heard them say it, they're not interested in having anyone else operate the one. And that's okay, because what's most important is providing the linkages.

[02:56:52] So we need to have the operators at the table to make sure that it's seamless for the user. Will that mean the buses that are in this BRT system are all branded the same way? I like Bob's 40 anniversary picture, but are they all branded the same way so that a user will know that, hey, that's the BRT bus compared to another bus?

[02:57:15] It is not in competition. It's designed to make some of the longer haul trips. And especially for Prince William County, because we don't have Metro, you have VRE, you have OmniRide, it is not meant to compete. And I will dare say it's not to be, this BRT isn't to be in lieu of Metro.

[02:57:33] Maybe the county does get Metro one day. But this is something that can be operational a lot sooner than Metro without competing with your local transit. Thank you very much. Thank you. And Supervisor Bode. Thank you, Madam Chair.

[02:57:50] Thank you, Monica, for being here. Again, like I said to other folks, really appreciate the opportunity for us to present to us at one of our open board meetings. We have folks that represent us on NVTA. You acknowledged them earlier. But a lot of the work that gets done under the hood in NVTA happens there and doesn't really get shown as much out here.

[02:58:07] So really appreciate the work. And I'm going to actually touch on something that you just mentioned at the end there, which I've always viewed BRT as an on-ramp to building a commuter in a transit culture in Prince William County. You know, we have our BRE, we have OmniRide, but we don't really have anything that's in between.

[02:58:23] And that's where we really see BRT fitting in at that, where we're able to have real mass transit that acknowledges that we don't have, outside of the main corridors, a lot of places where rail would make sense, where even light rail would make sense, but BRT does.

[02:58:39] And so from that, I will also say thank you and you and the board and VTA for the Dale City transit, the dedicated transit lane study. And it links up really well with the funding you gave us a couple of years back with the landing transit hub funding.

[02:59:01] Those things link together really well because we're starting to have that conversation. We have these major areas we're looking to develop, Quartz District, the Dale City Core, the landing, and having that culture of transit begin to rise up alongside those new building communities really changes how we look at those areas.

[02:59:18] So I wanted to thank you for that. My question is, and it goes back to something that Chair Jefferson said, is it looks like now sort of the thought is now that you all have adopted the transaction plan, And you're getting into phase two of sort of looking at how it sort of jives with other regional planning, how we can best set ourselves up to avail ourselves not only of NVTA funds to start building this out, but you mentioned VTRANS.

[02:59:44] We also know that through the Commuter Choice Program for 395, they've been doing a lot of funding in the Route 1 corridor in Fairfax. It's like we can handshake that, get funding from them. How can we make sure that our plans as a county and even CTB align with what you have been doing at NVTA to really make sure that when we really start applying for the F-word funding, we're able to align everything and really hit the ball, hit the ground running with that?

[03:00:10] Thank you. That's a great question. And I should go back and say this BRT action plan was born from doing the current long-range transportation plan. We as staff, we get a key opportunity to look at what are the needs of this region. Transaction is fiscally and geographically unconstrained.

[03:00:27] So we can see the gaps in the network, and that's how BRT is born. When you align yourselves with this action plan, when you take these routes and put them in your mobility plans, do comp plan amendments and things like that, you notify us because, again, any project we fund, it must be in transaction.

[03:00:46] And that's the same for V-Trans. Getting smart scale funding and being in V-Trans is really lock and step. But it doesn't stop there. And it's our job to help you and to be a champion for your implementation of the BRT routes that are identified.

[03:01:05] Appreciate that. And I guess that my question turns to Rick and his team. Knowing that, as Chair Jefferson said, we have some very loose sort of references of BRT to measure some of the other things. What's the next step from our comp plan and mobility chapter, what your team sort of heads up to align ourselves with the BRT and the BRT action plan?

[03:01:28] That's a great question, Supervisor Bodie. I think right now we are set up to be able to do something quickly. As you mentioned, we do have a transit plan as part of the mobility plan that includes a loose language and loose roots on what could be BRT. I think now that the NVTA has established more set routes of what they're looking to do and trying to include in there, incorporate into their plan, it's something that we can look into.

[03:01:52] We can either look into it in a comprehensive plan amendment to bring it to you before the next transaction adoption so we can start including maybe not all but some of the routes included in there that are more feasible and come back to add the other ones that are at our next update of the comprehensive plan.

[03:02:11] That's something we can do and we can make sure that we get it done in enough time to see and start seeking the funding necessary to start implementing or at least start studying what we need to do to make sure that this works and is being able to be implemented with the other regional plans and routes around the region.

[03:02:29] I guess my last question, this is more for my colleagues as well, going along this beat, is what would be the most helpful for you, Ms. Backman, in terms of that? Are there priority routes from a county perspective, our top five routes, our top three routes? Well, to Rick's point, adopting it, I wouldn't call it piecemeal, but for smaller bites of the apple, knowing that, as Supervisor Gordy said, this is a 25-year plan.

[03:02:53] I know I'm out of time, but what would be the most helpful for you? Well, you just hit the nail on the head. Really, out of those six routes, what are your priorities? I'm not here to tell you what your priorities are. You are to tell us, because you know the constituents, you know the land base, the land uses. So you tell us, of those six routes, which ones are more short-term versus medium and long-term. And that's the kind of information we need, and we can, you know, work with you on that. But again, we don't control land use, nor do we want to and you have your pulse on the situation and what the citizens want and for you to tell us

[03:03:28] what are your priorities based on that list or is there a route that we haven't looked at that you would like us to study thank you so much thank you thank you supervisor angry and thank you madam chair and i think i can answer that question because dell city you know utilizes omni ride and we we did that mindful exercise looking at that dedicated bus lane thank you to your engineers rick because they were so impressed with just putting that together and i'm happy to see that you all have funded that i think we did that a couple years ago year and a half ago so i

[03:04:02] will say to this board it's ideas like that that we should be doing studies on that will align us to your point monica for this opportunity of you funding it and because again i keep saying you know our bus system our vre is our metro now to that point i am not in no way saying drop metro from the roles of coming to Prince William County because if you ever want to fund all of that yourself, we'd be more than happy.

[03:04:28] We do not. So I don't want to take that off the books. I know there was a discussion sometime before. I say those things because I do recognize that our transit system is VRE and OmniRise. So I just kind of want to pull that out because I'm happy to see that you all are looking to that study.

[03:04:48] We did that with the intent that what we were seeing was that we had to cut a lot of routes along Dale Boulevard because it would run the entire length of Dale Boulevard, but there were some areas that were a lot more vacant because what was happening, people were saying it's easier for them to be in their car to get down to the Hornalot Road than it is to get on the bus.

[03:05:10] So to your point, Ms. Rockman, Monica, thank you so much for recognizing that the R, the rapid, doesn't mean you can rapidly drive in your car, But if we can get a bus that has a lane, maybe not 24 hours, but doing certain peak hours that can get up and down that road, we can get passengers back to the bus, which then in turn helps us with our greenhouse gas emissions, which then in turn helps us with our public safety.

[03:05:33] So it's a domino effect. So I just really love this conversation. I think it's very timely. And I just want to say thank you, Kelly Easterly and my team, for doing that mindful exercise of looking at that dedicated bus lane because it really paid off. And so thank you. Thank you, Rick.

[03:05:48] thank the team. All right, Supervisor Bailey. I like what you just said, Mr. Chairman. That was pretty good. That was pretty good. I wanted to, well, I got four things. One is congratulations, Monica, for your recent award from COG. Oh, thank you. We are very proud of you, so thank you, and to Dr. Bob as well. Both of y'all got, so that's the partnership right there, and I wanted to say that I wanted to thank Madam Chair and Delegate Sewell for representing us on your NVTA board as well. That, you know, people who live here representing us and making sure that

[03:06:26] we get where we need and have those tough conversations is very, very key. So thank you to them both. But also relationships matter, but also advocacy matters. And so one of the key things that I would encourage my colleagues, if we are not, we need to get back in the game and come and advocate at your board to make sure when we're having these tough discussions and we are looking at our comprehensive plan, that we are supporting them.

[03:06:55] And we're not just sending a document to you, but people see that we are supporting them. So that's one of the things that we're talking about also in VRE about advocacy and how we do that. And so thank you for saying, you know, don't just put it in a document, but come and talk to us as well.

[03:07:11] So I think that's very key. And sometimes we lose sight of that. When we're making those requests, I want to congratulate you on the BRT futuristic execution, because going back to, yeah, those conversations about Metro needs to be held.

[03:07:31] But until Metro can kind of get themselves aligned where they need to be, because they're dealing with an older system as well. I think this is absolutely very key as we go forward and utilize what's in our toolbox as well.

[03:07:47] And so in preparing for that, what do you think, and this may be a question that may or may not be answered right now, what do you think when we are looking to choose what routes or what does that look like, what do you think will be an opportunity for us to really delve into even deeper than what's right in front of our face?

[03:08:11] What's behind us that we can look at when you talk about resiliency and all of that and costs and all of that? What should we really use in our toolbox to make these decisions? That is a great question. First, I would say that we work with Rick and Paolo hand-in-hand.

[03:08:28] That's probably one of the reasons why the county has been really, really successful in getting MBTA revenues. It doesn't stop when an application is submitted. We talk about concepts. We talk about, okay, what's your strategic plan? Rick notified me when you adopted your mobility plan, so we have an idea of what's going on.

[03:08:46] But to take it a step further, and I think Dr. Bob and Katie said it, what areas do you have in the county that are primed for this today versus what areas are primed for a little longer term or shorter term or midterm? And when I'm talking about primed for the densities, you want to have ridership and you want to be able to grow.

[03:09:07] But the system, as Dr. Bob said, can be nimble, it can be flexible a bit, but what areas are of need of a bus rapid transit system today versus based on some of the planning and zoning that you have in your plans, what will be a little longer term?

[03:09:26] Those are some of the key elements of this. These six routes that we are showing, it's because we've had conversations with your team saying these are areas that will benefit from bus rapid transit right now, like getting people from Gainesville to Dulles on a system that removes them from a single occupied vehicle.

[03:09:47] You know, we don't have Metro, so we're not taking Metro out to Dulles. But how can we get people to the airport and these other activity centers that you already have in place? How do we get people to the community college, Potomac Mills and things like that, that you already have in place?

[03:10:02] Because when we did our own public engagement on this, this is what we heard from the citizens. Like Katie and Bob said, citizens will tell you where they want to go. And these are some of the comments we received. I would love to get to the airport without driving. You know, I would love to go to Potomac Mills, take it from this side of the county, getting from east to west, west to east, however that relationship works, or if we're going to the community college.

[03:10:29] And that's really how these six routes were born, because we heard from the citizens and your team saying, here are areas that we can, that could benefit from bus rapid transit today. Thank you very much. Thanks, Madam Chair. Supervisor Stewart.

[03:10:46] Thank you so much for your presentation. i really appreciate it um just looking at like the map and and the and the routes um i see route 21 from haymarket stopping in centerville then going to vienna i mean that seems extremely low hanging fruit especially for the amount of people that want to connect that way that live in that area um and i'm not just saying that as a gainesville supervisor but i know like in talking the people at the OmniRide station that's golden and we already have the lane the express lane on

[03:11:24] 66 right so done um we've we've got the people that want to do it done um it just looks like there's a one stop in Centerville before continuing on to which which would also be great my church is right near there where that stop is right so um but but no i mean there are some low-hanging fruits here that i see that would that doesn't maybe a couple phone calls and we can be up and going in a week well and some some some markings on the bus you know

[03:12:02] and i don't want to undercut the importance of the f word going back to funding i got it because it does require you know making sure that adequate funding is available and for us to really fine tune some of the routes you know we don't want people to come out and think oh you know you're blowing past my home these are right you know swatches is what we call them but we would have to fine tune but funding is very important for this and we're getting buy-in or have buy-in from the department of rail and public transportation again i talked about the secretary but now people we have to show up with the funding right right well you know i know some folks in in in fairfax

[03:12:40] that you know yeah you put in 50 cents i'll put in 50 cents we'll see what we can do you know i'm just saying a couple phone calls well and i will tell you we have with the authorities action last night well over one billion dollars on those five brt routes so when i say the authority is committed to bus rapid transit from our end from a capital perspective we are committed Billion dollars.

[03:13:06] We'll take it. Thank you. All right. Thank you so very much for all this. And thank you, everyone, who's come out today to present on transportation. Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair, members of the board. Just want to, again, thank the staff and the team.

[03:13:22] I mean, this is who keeps Prince William County moving that you have behind you here today. So just want to give them a big thanks for showing up. And I just wanted to mention before I went that I am an Occoquan district resident. Thank you very much, ma'am.

[03:13:39] Thank you for your time. I don't know what to say after that, Chris. All right. Thank you very much, Madam Chair, members of the board, and to the team of leaders who just presented. Thank you all for all that you do here. As you know, mobility is a big part, a main focus of our strategic plan, and so seeing these leaders here today certainly goes a long way, and they've showed it in terms of the direction that we are going.

[03:14:05] So thank you all very much. For item 7B, Madam Chair, I'm going to invite Director Tanya Washington, I see the planning team here as well, to give an update. As you know, this is a result of a directive. She's going to be providing an update on zoning ordinance, directives, applications, et cetera, and the workload of the office.

[03:14:28] So with that, Director Washington, I will turn it over to you. Good afternoon, Madam Chair, members of the board. tanya washington director of the planning office and as county executive noted i have a number of updates are related to the planning offices work program applications and a number of key projects so i'll go ahead and get started so first i want to start with an overview of the planning office

[03:15:04] workload by the numbers starting going from left to right so we track our active land use cases by month. And for the month of June, we had 213 active land use cases, 23 accepted cases. So those are the new cases coming in that have gotten through QC and 18 completed cases. So those are ones where the board has taken action or the planning commission, if it's a PFR, but those are cases that are completed. And look at FY26, since we just recently completed that fiscal year,

[03:15:42] We had a total of 189 completed cases and 225 accepted cases. Just speaking more broadly, in terms of board directives, we currently have 25 open directives, 23 comprehensive plan amendments as of the end of June, and 21 development policy amendments.

[03:16:05] These include ZTAs, and that is through last week because we added one. There are three active small area plans and three other small area plans, future ones, that are in the queue. Additionally, we have several major projects underway, other planning initiatives, the sustainability and resilience comprehensive plan amendment, the comprehensive zoning ordinance update, thoroughfare historic district, and updates to the data center regulations.

[03:16:30] And I'll have more details about a number of these efforts later on. Again, just because we just completed FY26, I wanted to note quite a number of major accomplishments by the planning office. And this first one is really a credit to the board.

[03:16:49] The board approved 5,192 new housing units and 11.3 million square feet of commercial and industrial development. I think for me, when I saw those numbers, I was like, wow, because that's actually more than last year. In terms of housing units, it was over 3,700 housing units last year.

[03:17:08] I would say probably a good number of these are in the Brentsville District, Vent Hill Corridor, because there were a lot of big projects. but that just shows you the volume of new housing units that the board is approving as well as non-residential commercial development. Additionally, the planning office released the online build-out analysis dashboard. We published the data center development dashboard and map. We also conducted a community engagement, community stakeholder engagements for several efforts. The Vent Hill Corridor Small Area Plan, the Sustainability and Resilience Comprehensive

[03:17:44] plan amendment, as well as a comprehensive zoning ordinance update. The board initiated the Fetler Park small area plan, which we'll be launching soon. We also won a grant from the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. This is the Housing Affordability Planning Program Grant Award for Yorkshire, as well as in partnership with the city of Manassas Park for an affordable housing implementation plan. Internally, we rebranded our three core divisions. We also have been supporting the county's implementation of the Affordable Dwelling Unit Ordinance that went

[03:18:18] into effect in December. We have a number of efforts underway to enhance the land use review process. And on PwC Works, we have six of our projects highlighted there. So I'm going to first talk about our land use caseload. Again, as I noted, we track active cases, open cases by month, and this shows you the active land use cases for all of FY26 by month.

[03:18:48] And you can see that, and this is across all case types, so rezoning applications, special use permits, cultural resources, projects, minor modifications, public facility reviews, et cetera. And as you can see, we had a low of 188 cases in December and as many as 230 cases.

[03:19:10] But it kind of gives you a sense of the volume of our active caseload, which is really kind of around 200 for any given month. Again, this is new caseload volume across all of FY26 by month.

[03:19:26] So these are all the new applications, the new comprehensive plan requests that we're reviewing that come into our office. And again, this ranges from 12 in December and as many as 28 in February. This chart, this shows completed cases, again, across all of FY26 by month and across all case types, and it ranged from 10 to as many as 23. We also track how many cases the board has completed

[03:20:03] by fiscal year. Some of you may remember you've seen this chart from last year, so we've added FY26 data, and you can see, and this goes all the way back to FY20, and you can see, generally speaking there is an increasing trend of more cases that are being completed by the board and this means cases where the board has taken some type of action whether it's either approval or denial but a final action has been taken and I will note that for FY26 the board reviewed 89 land use cases which is slightly more than in the last the previous fiscal year the other thing I will

[03:20:41] note is that the orange bar chart the orange bar is the number of board meetings in that fiscal year and so if you look at FY 20 compared to FY 26 the board has fewer board meetings during that fiscal year compared to FY 20 but has approved almost twice as many cases or not approved but completed twice as many cases taking final action on them we also have a comparison of completed cases by type for both the Planning Commission and the board for FY26. In the last fiscal year,

[03:21:19] the Planning Commission reviewed 82 land use cases. 48 of those were on the expedited agenda, so that's 59%, so a slight majority of those. And the majority of them were rezonings and proffer amendments, or 41 and 24 special use permits. For the board, again, the board reviewed 89 land use cases 63 of those are 70 70.8 percent were on the consolidated agenda and so again that's really a key part of your agenda to be able to take action on quite a number of cases without having to go through the full public hearing but that means that you're actually able to get through

[03:21:56] more cases in any given board meeting and again the largest numbers are 53 rezonings and proper amendments and 27 sgps i wanted to share a number of efforts we've undertaken to to improve our case management process for lane use cases in terms of ftes for the land use review division so that's the division that's led by alex venegas the assistant planning director for that team and they're the ones who handle rezoning applications special use permits profit amendments the board

[03:22:32] approved some additional FTEs during this last fiscal year. We've filled those. We received one principal planner FTE as part of the adopted budget, and then an Isle of Cycle principal planner. Those have been filled. And as part of our new fiscal year, FY27, of the four FTEs in total that we received, three of them are for the land use review division. There are three senior planner FTEs, and those are out right now to receive applications. So we're already starting to recruit for those positions. We also brought on board development review and cultural

[03:23:08] resources consultant support to help enhance our capacity for case review. And thank you again for the board for additional resources for that. We're also making a lot of strides towards moving towards a fully online land use case review process from start to finish. And so we've created an online special use permit application and want to continue to roll out or create online applications for other types of land use cases.

[03:23:37] We've also conducted staff training on how to do their commenting within Intergov, as well as engage with the enterprise permitting and licensing user group. We're also doing post-submission meetings at acceptance, improve the submission to review workflow, and we've also created a new request form for the extension of the review time period procedure for rezoning applications rezoning applications are the only land use type that have a specified time frame to for the board to for a public hearing for the board to take action to take action in the state code that is

[03:24:13] one year and so we are definitely be mindful of that and be even more mindful and one thing I will note is this image is a screenshot of the land review process improvements initiative page on PWC works that page has several metrics related to our case review process including average timeframes for rezoning applications and other types of cases and so what we've done is we've created a new form where applicants if they're if it looks like their rezoning application for whatever reason may go may need to go beyond one year they can

[03:24:51] essentially requests saying they acknowledge this and they're requesting for the case to continue beyond one year. Shifting to small area plans, as I noted, we have three small area plans that are active. The Vint Hill Corridor small area plan, which we launched last year in a Brentsville district, and then the Fettler Park small area plan in a Potomac district, and the Yorkshire small area plan in a Coles district we will be launching this summer. We now have our consultant teams on board for both of those and and i'll share a few more details in a moment wanted to

[03:25:31] highlight the community kickoff meeting for the vent hill corridor small area plan it took place in november we had a huge turnout for that and thank you supervisor gordy for your participation supervisor stewart was also there as well so we had really great input and feedback from residents there our team also participated in the noakesville day event in may where they conducted additional community engagement for the vent hill corridor small area plan and so you know went out to the community and was able to get a lot of additional ideas and feedback from residents

[03:26:10] just in terms of some of the upcoming activities for the vent hill corridor small area plan we are also have embarked on some more targeted stakeholder focus groups to continue that engagement and we are currently working on the existing conditions analysis for the yorkshire small area plan as well as frettler park as i noted we are doing a consultant onboarding very shortly and plan to do the community kickoffs this fall and targeting fall 2028 for for completion and board

[03:26:46] adoption in terms of the uh three other small area plans um and next in the queue the sudley district small area plan last year we did a uli washington technical advisory panel to kind of jump start looking at that area and then earlier this year we did submit a state grant which we didn't get but it was a really great idea to um to get some state funding to support placemaking as well as some other activation activities so we still have the idea even though

[03:27:20] we didn't get that particular grant but we do plan to launch that as our very next smart area plan during this this current fiscal year and then for potomac mills and tackis mill those are the latest two for which we received directives during this past fiscal year for potomac mills we're going to look at seeing if there are some smaller activities that we could do first potentially a market study, for example, and to look at some grant opportunities that can help to support that. Also working with economic development in terms of looking at, you know,

[03:27:58] applying redevelopment tools, because I know they have a big initiative around that. And then for Takis Mill as well, you know, also looking at is that an opportunity for like a market study as a first step. So we're basically looking to see what can we do in advance of launching a full small area plan. So shifting to the comprehensive zoning ordinance update, and I know Supervisor Bailey, this was one of the projects that you had requested an update on, and so we've been making a lot of progress on this, and so happy to share what we've done so far.

[03:28:31] So just to kind of give an overview of this effort, so Chapter 32 for our zoning ordinance has not seen a comprehensive ground-up update in decades. There have been zoning tax amendments over the years but not sort of a full you know look at the entire ordinance so this project will consider updates to the ordinance to among other things implement the modern mixed-use walkable communities called for in our 2040 comprehensive plan we are leading this effort the planning office is leading this effort in collaboration with the consultant team from aecom to provide technical support and additional capacity.

[03:29:12] In terms of progress to date that the planning office has conducted, we've done a review and analysis of the full ordinance and created a zoning ordinance dependency matrix, which is to look at how different sections relate to each other.

[03:29:28] So as we look at opportunities to make changes to one section, we're mindful about how that may impact other parts of the zoning ordinance. We've also conducted a special use permit analysis to evaluate which uses may be appropriate for the board to consider shifting to buy-right or administrative review versus those that could stay under the legislative process.

[03:29:49] So this was part of the consultant support to help us to start to think through that. There are, for example, certain types of applications that go through the SUP process, where even us as staff think, you know, this is a smaller scale thing.

[03:30:05] If we have some, you know, standards in the zoning ordinance, maybe that could be handled that way. So that the types of applications that really need the full, you know, the full review, the full public hearing process and board action, we can really focus on those. So we hope to have some recommendations ultimately around that.

[03:30:24] Additionally, and I'll talk about this in a moment, we've also been doing a lot of coordination with several other county agencies as part of this effort. For AECOM, it's part of sort of this phase that we've been in since we launched this project last summer is really kind of the setting the foundation and kind of doing our homework.

[03:30:46] In terms of not only what are some of the elements of the scope that we know we want to address as part of this update, but what else should we be looking at? And what are some potential approaches that we should be aware of so we can consider as part of drafting these changes.

[03:31:03] And so AECOM was tasked with conducting a best practices research as well as doing their own zoning ordinance diagnostic. The diagnostic was an idea that I got from another jurisdiction, another state going to a conference, which is a way, again, of having another set of eyes, looking at the ordinance and identifying what may be some other opportunities for improvements.

[03:31:27] They will also be supporting us in a technical drafting of proposed changes that we will bring to the board. They have already started facilitating some internal project charrettes, which I'll talk about in a moment. And they will also have also started producing some technical memos to help inform our work and help us to make some decisions about what proposed changes we would like to prepare.

[03:31:49] So the planning office formed a zoning ordinance update advisory group to bring internal agency perspectives directly into the drafting process from the very beginning. Alongside this advisory group in Charette's, we have also started a series of focus group discussions with agencies on specific technical topics.

[03:32:13] This is really important because we want to you know understand what the agency's needs are both. What are some issues or? things that they've been seeing as they've been Interacting with the zoning ordinance that we should be aware of and that we make consider adding to the list to prepare proposed changes Also, I'm technique testing technical issues So working through complex provisions before they're drafted drafted at scale and also Feeding findings back into the draft or NIST text so they will be part of and have already been a part of the review team even with the initial consultant

[03:32:51] Deliverables that that have been produced to date. So we've completed two successful charrettes with our internal charrettes with our department and other agency partners in our consultant team and some of the departments that are included in the advisory group are transportation and capital construction Housing office, economic development and tourism, development services, both land development and zoning administration, the office of sustainability and public works.

[03:33:21] And these are some photos from both charrettes. One was in May and one was in June. And so you can see we really got, you know, really great participation, both not only across our department, but from multiple departments. And they are already fully into the mix in helping us to think through, you know, continuing to develop and build out the scope and actually to start the drafting process.

[03:33:47] So as I noted, this first phase is really sort of setting the foundation, setting the doing up during our homework. And our consultants have completed final drafts that we are currently doing a last review of and plan to publish very shortly.

[03:34:06] The first is the best practices report. The second is the zoning diagnostic, and our consultants also did an equity framework to help evaluate how proposed ordinance changes could affect access, affordability, and equitable outcomes countywide.

[03:34:23] So this is what most people really want to know about, which proposed changes are going to come first, and how are we going to approach this? And I've already shared kind of informally with board members, we went through a very deliberative and intentional process with our consultants to help us think through the approach.

[03:34:43] Should we bring all the proposed changes all at once, or should we take a batching approach? And different jurisdictions have done one or the other, so we did consider that very intentionally, and where we landed was to take the batching approach. And so this will be a phased approach where we will bring proposed ordinance changes in sequential batches for public review, planning commission public hearing recommendations, and then board public hearing action.

[03:35:10] And there's a number of benefits to this. It manages, helps to manage the interconnection. So those foundational pieces and core definitions will be drafted first. That will help to set the foundation for later changes that depend upon that kind of foundation and the zoning ordinance.

[03:35:29] It helps to advance priorities sooner, and I know this is very important to the board, and I've communicated that with our team as well as our agency partners, that high-priority items such as the board's housing directive can move forward without waiting for the rest of the changes to be drafted.

[03:35:50] And this will help to support public engagement. The smaller focus batches may help facilitate the publics, the Planning Commission, and a board's review. And each batch will get its own complete cycle of review rather than bringing all the proposed changes across the entire zoning ordinance all at once.

[03:36:10] So here is our list of batches. The first thing I will say is that other than the first batch, the rest of the batches are subject to change as we start to get into the project, but I will highlight what we are planning to do and starting with the first batch.

[03:36:30] so this is foundations and housing so bringing proposed changes related to core definitions and procedures plus the board's housing priorities so looking at all the sections related to housing in the zoning ordinance as well as looking at opportunities to expand housing types and housing choices so and that includes looking at the residential districts also looking at planned mixed residential and mixed use and also accessory dwelling units among other types and just to walk through the rest of the batches that we have planned the second would be use classifications

[03:37:07] in rural ag districts the third is commercial office and industrial based districts and so this would also include the pbd pmd rpc districts the fourth is overlays and cross cutting standards and then the last batch we see that as the opportunity to look at proposed changes related to emerging topics other topics other issues that may come up as we're doing engagement energy related standards and also doing a final cross-reference and consistency check across the

[03:37:41] full ordinance again because other batches will be moving forward to the board for action and then we're already working on other batches and making sure that everything will work cohesively when we get to the finish again just a bit more about the first batch so our game plan is to bring batch one to the board by the end of this calendar year early early next year january 2027 i've really asked the team to focus on getting it to the board by the end of this year because i know you're very eager to begin to start taking action on it but again this is really looking at some of the

[03:38:18] foundational pieces, core definitions, core procedures, et cetera, and really focusing on the housing pieces. Just to talk about engagement and next steps. So we do plan to do a lot more community and stakeholder engagement. One of the things that we really want to do is create an educational campaign to help facilitate the community's participation. In this process, you know, talk about zoning is not something that, you know, your average person would know about, but it's actually

[03:38:53] very important in terms of shaping the communities where residents live and work. And so we want to create some educational materials about zoning as well as this effort. Do stage engagement. So we'll be doing, we may be engaging with different stakeholders at different times, depending upon certain topics, to do some deeper dives, as well as doing stakeholder focus groups. And, you know, what's really important is equitable participation so that we provide opportunities and pathways for residents and any stakeholder to be able to participate in this effort. In terms of our immediate next steps is to publish

[03:39:32] those initial deliverables from our consultants and then we're jumping right into the first batch of drafting so that's our priority this summer as well so that we can get this to the board later this year. We will continue focus groups especially as we are starting to dig into the drafting um and again like i said we want to get this to you all by the end of this year january the latest for the first batch i also wanted to note that um you may recall there are other zoning tax amendments that will that will be moving um on separate tracks or parallel tracks while we're working on the overall update uh the data center

[03:40:12] opportunity zone overlay district uh public hearing is at the planning commission tomorrow and we will be bringing that to the board in september there's also the state mandated changes that have been initiated from this last general assembly session the board also just initiated the e-commerce overlay district update we're also waiting for recommendations coming soon related to the agritourism and arts overlay district from the agribusiness and agritourism study that economic development tourism is working on and we have other ctas that have already been

[03:40:47] initiated, such as the telecom and small cell facilities, technology overlay district, and some technical updates that we also want to continue to move those along too. All right, shifting to board directives. So as I noted earlier, we currently have 25 open directives assigned to the planning office. And we put together this chart to look at what the recent trend has been over the last few years. And so these are board directives assigned to the planning office by calendar year the sort of gold color are closed directives that were closed during that calendar

[03:41:25] year and we're going off a calendar year not fiscal year here and the blue are the directives that were issued during that calendar year and what we've seen since 2024 is a big jump compared to previous years and in for 2026 and this is through july 7th the planning office has received 11 directives during 2025 we received a total of 10 as well as 10 in 2024 so we're definitely you know seeing an increased volume of directives and we're you know obviously keeping track of these

[03:42:02] so you may recall the planning office provided to the county executive and submitted and transmitted to you all in a memo from june 8th with updates we do this sort of every quarter or so with updates on the status of open directives.

[03:42:21] And since then, there have been additional directives that were issued. And so this slide basically provides status update on those. This is in your presentation, so the details are there. But several of them, there has been some actions that have been related to those directives that have been issued since the beginning of June through last week.

[03:42:42] So moving on to other projects in the Planning Offices Work Program. I noted earlier, we've been working on the Sustainability and Resilience Comprehensive Plan Amendment that we also launched last year.

[03:42:59] And this is really a great example of interdepartmental collaboration. The planning office is leading it because it is a comprehensive plan amendment. But we're working on this hand-in-hand with the Office of Sustainability, with the Office of Emergency Management, as well as Transportation.

[03:43:17] And they are part of our core team working alongside with us, with our consultants, our HI. And here are some photos from our community kickoff meetings. We held three community kickoff meetings earlier this year, one virtual meeting and two in-person meetings in February and March.

[03:43:37] And again, got some really great questions and feedback from those meetings from our residents. In terms of the CPA, our next step is drafting the CPA. So we've done a lot of that, excuse me, some foundational work for this as well.

[03:43:58] Our consultants also did best practices research. One of the objectives of this project is to incorporate key elements of the Community Energy and Sustainability Master Plan into our comprehensive plan. And so they helped us do a whole scan of that document.

[03:44:15] We did a scan of the comprehensive plan to identify existing policies and actions that could be candidates for updates in addition to the creation of proposed additions to the comprehensive plan, and also working very closely with emergency management on how we can build up resilience in our comprehensive plan as well.

[03:44:36] And so again, for the summer through late fall, we're going to be focusing on drafting the cpa text again with the goal to bring um to bring the draft text to public hearing later this year early 2027. we've also been working on the thoroughfare historic overlay district and i know i've talked about this project uh with um provided some updates to the board previously we've also we kicked off the project back in 2024 we've already completed three community meetings the last one was in September of last year and this involves both developing and

[03:45:16] submitting a National Register of Historic Places and Virginia landmark register nomination and that is actually going through the state process one of the things that came out of the early community engagement was a request to expand the proposed boundaries for the National Register nomination there are There's much stricter criteria for what could be included in the boundary, but we got that feedback from community members and folded that into the nomination, and that's still going through the state review process.

[03:45:48] But additionally, last fall, we did kick off the historic overlay district process with the community members to say this is a process that the county ultimately has a final say on, the board has a final say on it. and so that's where we have transitioned into doing that effort and as a part of that we will be developing design guidelines and we actually just got our consultants on board to help us to develop that and that will provide design architectural guidelines to inform once the historic overlay district is established by the board those guidelines will inform what types of

[03:46:26] changes property owners will be able to make to their properties while still um supporting the the overall goals of the historic district so i want to end with um just talking about our fy 27 major initiatives and several of these projects i've already talked about earlier we have several small area plans underway or soon to launch our comprehensive plan amendment related to sustainability and resilience the zoning ordinance a number of efforts the comprehensive update the data center overlay district we are going to be coming back to the

[03:47:02] the board with some additional proposed changes related to data center development standards as well as bringing to the board actions related to the state mandated changes for our cultural resources team which is part of our countywide planning division led by Tony Alston as well as Justin Patton our county archaeologists I just talked about the thoroughfare historic overlay District. And we are also working on a county register historic site for Blackburn's Ford.

[03:47:34] And we have a meeting coming up with Supervisor Vega on some updates related to that. And then we will also start to prep work for 11 other county register historic sites that were recommended by the Historic Historical Commission that we want to start to focus on as part of FY28. The other piece is that we're going to be later this year we're going to be moving across the hallway on the second floor in dsb to larger office spaces since we have outgrown our space and so that's another thing we'll be working on this year and that concludes my presentation i'm happy to answer

[03:48:12] any questions all right thank you so much i'm going to go to supervisor gordy thank you madam chair um thank you tanya for the presentation and thanks to the planning team for all the work and And, you know, I know you guys get beat up quite a bit over, you know, the time it takes to take up some of these cases.

[03:48:32] But I do remind the developers, they're the ones who keep submitting the applications. And if they would slow down a little bit, our staff could catch up. So it's a little bit of, you know, a challenge of supply and demand. And so I appreciate the work that you guys are doing to try to address that.

[03:48:51] One of the things that I also was appreciative of seeing is regarding the SUPs and that you guys are looking at seeing if there are some of these SUPs that can just be dealt with administratively. I know we have some that we require to go through the full process while other localities may have different approaches to it.

[03:49:13] And so appreciate you taking the time to do that. One thing I did want to kind of discuss and get your perspective on, and I wish Christina was in here, you know, is we're working on the Nexus 234 and we're looking at potential areas within that corridor to develop.

[03:49:35] We've got folks that are coming in and wanting to proactively rezone their land without having a specific end user um but we have a policy of no uh balloon uh you know bubble plans right so you know and we're talking we're talking about non-data center projects things that are are are proffering data centers out um but we are running out of land in innovation so it's about trying to find other areas that become more shovel ready to help us um offer up opportunities for economic

[03:50:11] development can you speak to how we find balance between you know this requirement of no bubble plans but also providing the you know the opportunities for land uh for rezonings to help us on the economic development side so that we can offer it up to an end user at some point but not knowing who that is today sure certainly and this is this is a topic that i have discussed with Ms. Nguyen as well and it's really about you know first of all the board has the ability to rezone a site you have that that authority that's not necessarily tied to a specific development

[03:50:49] proposal what we've talked about I know I've had some initial conversations with board members as well is you know focusing on targeted sites that are priorities for the county that can help to support and implement county priorities and so the innovation district is definitely one of those areas where i think there are opportunities to look at you know are there some key sites uh that uh you know we may want to propose to the board to do rezoning that's not tied to a specific development proposal but ones where economic development can then use and then offer that as an incentive because the entitlement is already done so that is that is definitely a tool and and

[03:51:28] again that's a you know targeted opportunities uh to leverage you know the board's authority for that for that particular purpose even though yes for the planning office we do tell applicants because we do get for other applications other sites that are not in those targeted areas they just want to give us a bubble plan which is basically no details and so we basically say we don't accept that because we have nothing to evaluate that against the zoning ordinance says you're supposed to provide building footprints and other details but when we're talking about you know what are targeted for priorities what are economic development priorities

[03:52:02] that's where I think we can take a different approach, and the board can proactively rezone sites to basically prepare for economic development attraction. Yeah, and I appreciate that. And, you know, we have some sites, you know, parking is a challenge for commercial vehicles, and I know we've got some folks that are looking at rezoning some land to provide for that commercial development.

[03:52:24] There are no buildings. It's just going to be parking. And so, you know, having – if we have a requirement for building footprints where there are no buildings, that, you know, again, it's – so having that flexibility is something I really appreciate you guys helping us work through some of these unique challenges that we're now finding.

[03:52:43] And, you know, we're seeing these challenges in our neighborhoods where trucks are parking where they shouldn't be parking. So I really appreciate that. And then, you know, one of the things that I do go back to is, you know, again, that M2 zoning of, you know, which is highly restrictive.

[03:52:59] But, you know, there are some things that are in M1 that could probably be in M2 because they're really not heavy industrial. And just trying to provide greater flexibility for us to meet some of the demand, because we are, because of data center by right development is displacing so much of our other commercial and industrial, we absolutely need space to accommodate bringing those folks in.

[03:53:25] So I know my time is up, but just want to continue to push that button on M2. Thank you. Supervisor Vega. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Ms. Washington, for your presentation. certainly want to thank the team for all of the work that you all do I often get asked what do you do as a county supervisor and I explain to folks what we do and it's always surprising to folks in the community when they learn that the bulk of what we do as supervisors has to do with land use and so the planning office plays a very important and critical role in the work that we do day in and day out so certainly want to thank you all for the work that you all do you know

[03:54:04] I think that this presentation verifies, I would say, my concerns about all of the directives that we keep issuing in regards to the amount of work that it adds to not just the planning office, but just to county staff in general. And so I'm going to use this opportunity to just remind my lovely colleagues on the day is that you all are mindful when issuing a directive and that if there is another avenue to get answers that perhaps we take that vehicle because as we can see for this office specifically, directives do add quite a bit to the workload that you all

[03:54:41] are experiencing. And so, you know, for me, it's always been about efficiency. And while I'm happy to see that we're in the process of hiring three senior planners, my question is, what additional vacancies do we have? And what does this recruitment process timeline look like? I would have to assume that the longer a position goes vacant, the more workload that adds for other members of the team.

[03:55:06] And so I'm just curious, aside from these three that we're getting ready to fill, what are the other vacancies and the time frame that it takes for us to fill those positions? Sure. If I can, I'll maybe use your question as an opportunity to talk more broadly about how we've been doing on hiring. So for FY26, we did 13 hires. That includes the three new FTEs that we received during that fiscal year, and this is across the department.

[03:55:35] We have some staff turnover, some employees who left for other positions, as well as employees, several employees, internal candidates who applied for positions in these open competitions and were selected, and so their positions became open. And so we were able to do 13 hires across all of that fiscal year.

[03:55:56] I will say that we have been doing a really great job filling positions very quickly. The practice, for instance, with these three FTEs, the senior planner FTEs, we got them officially July 1st. They were already on the street, like, as soon as possible. And so I would definitely give credit to Dominika Bowie.

[03:56:13] You don't see her very often here. She's our assistant director for operations. She works very closely with HR to hop on vacancies as soon as possible. So we do fill them very quickly. We do have one additional FTE that we received this fiscal year, And that is with our Community Planning and Revitalization Division that is going to be going out for recruitment very soon.

[03:56:36] Other than those four, we have two previously existing vacancies that we're already in a process of recruiting in to get those filled. I also wanted to note that last week we had three brand new staff people who joined us, two in Community Planning and Revitalization to fill some vacancies there.

[03:56:56] And then one in land use review. And these are three employees who have not worked in Prince William County government before as well. So we've been very successful in attracting candidates from across the country as well as across the region. And so, like I said, we currently have six vacancies, the two existing ones plus the four brand new ones.

[03:57:17] But we're already working on, you know, getting those filled. Thank you for that. My next question has to do with consultants. I always talk about consultants and the amount of money that we spend on, you know, consultants. And here's why I ask. I often wonder how sustainable this model is.

[03:57:35] And I would love to hear your opinion on whether or not this might, in some ways, or maybe not, be contributing to the burnout, you know, that we've heard from through your presentation. You know, is it better, you know, to continue to utilize consultants rather than hiring a full-time person for the position?

[03:58:00] So I think kind of to answer your question, my experience in terms of using consultants, you can use them in two different ways. One as staff augmentation. The other is for targeted projects for a certain time period for a certain expertise.

[03:58:17] Yes, they help to augment staff in terms of being able to do more work, but therefore very defined projects And I would say for the planning office just you know broadly speaking our office does still need more staff Because even putting aside the tasks that we give consultants to work on we have a you know Very extensive work program As well as other projects that we should be working on that we have not been able to get to

[03:58:47] Not just, you know, board directives that are in the queue, but the comprehensive plan, you know, that was last updated in 2022 also identifies a number of different actions and activities that we also should be doing. There are some additional comprehensive plan updates that we know internally that we would like to work on.

[03:59:06] But I think given the fact that, you know, Prince William County is a growing county, it's 510,000 residents, last number I heard, and our growing workload plus the caseload, and not just, you know, the workload, but just opportunities for more innovative and equitable land use planning to support a growing community that is more complex than it has been in the past, that is very diverse in a lot of different ways.

[03:59:34] we do need more staff capacity to do that so I will continue to you know make those requests at the same times in terms of consultants you know when you work on a project like a small area plan those are big projects a comprehensive zoning ordinance update is is an even bigger project and so having consultants to work alongside staff is really critical because there are such extensive projects the other benefit is that the consultants can spend their time doing the best practices research while our staff could spend the time doing a deep dive into you know special use permits and other elements so we also don't use

[04:00:13] consultants any in the sense of we just give them the work and we do a hands-off we don't operate like that and I I don't operate like that as a leader in organization so all the work that the consultants are doing we are deeply involved in it we are consulting with them we are giving them feedback we're giving them direction so it's really a collaborative process but again for those types of projects we have those consultants on board for the duration of those projects and then we're done and if we have another project that we're starting we'll have a consultant team on board but then we're done so we don't

[04:00:48] so we tend to use consultants more for those more targeted sort of shorter term projects we do have more of the staff augmentation model of consultants for land use review and cultural resources and that's really to help expand our staff capacity on a more short-term basis to be able to get through out land use cases that to me is not is a model that I don't want to depend on into the future because frankly it costs more money to have consultants to do that worked in our staff but also because the the way to address that is to build our staff capacity you know for case review in that instance understood madam

[04:01:27] Chair. Yeah, I have a quick follow-up and one more question. Okay. Do you have a general idea of how much of your budget goes to consultants? I don't have it right offhand, but we can provide that. Thank you. It is definitely in our budget book, but we can provide that as well. Okay.

[04:01:46] Thank you. And then the last question that I had is in your presentation, it says that a little over 70% of cases were consolidated and 59% of planning commission cases were expedited. And so my question is does expedited and or consolidated uh genuinely uh save you all actual hours i see some heads shaking no and there goes my answer um but to finish the question um you know i guess it just adds to more stress is where i was going and and and i appreciate the honesty

[04:02:24] because that's what we need right because if we don't know then um you know we cannot uh provide additional resources and so i i appreciate um the confirmation that was my question i i think it was answered but if you would like to elaborate expand or add you're more than welcome to so for every land use case regardless if it's on the expedited agenda if it's at the planning commission i'm sorry the um i'm getting mixed yes expedite agenda for the planning commission or the consolidated agenda for the board we still you know we produce the staff report the presentation

[04:03:00] So we do the same level of effort and work because at the end of the day, these are formal decisions that the board or if it's a public facility review, that stops with the Planning Commission. So we still have to produce the staff reports and do the analysis.

[04:03:17] I think the key benefit of having so many cases on the expediting and consolidated agenda is that those cases, we can get more cases to public hearing and to final action faster. Because if we, so for example, I'm kind of just pulling off the top of my head, but there are some board meetings where we may have, let's say, five cases on a consolidated agenda and two or three in the evening agenda.

[04:03:44] You wouldn't want to do eight cases in the evening agenda if we had to do a full, you know, the full public hearing for those cases that ended up on a consolidated agenda. So that actually enables the board to be able to take final action on a lot more cases in a shorter period of time.

[04:04:00] if we had to in in the cases that end up on an expedited and consolidated agenda are those where everybody is happy with it the staff are good with it the supervisor of that district is good with it they're we haven't heard you know a lot of community opposition and so that's why they're they're put on those those parts of the agenda without you know having to go through the full presentations and discussion because everybody's good with it that means that you all can finish those cases a lot you can finish more cases in a shorter period of time if all of those cases went to the evening public hearing realistically depending upon a case you can get to maybe two or

[04:04:40] three cases in a public uh in the evening portion of a board member board meeting as part of public hearing but that means it'll just take longer for you to get to make take final action if all of those cases were on the evening agenda so it's actually the the level of work for our staff is, you know, essentially the same, but the board is able to complete a lot more cases a lot sooner, which means we're able to close out cases a lot sooner, and those applicants can get their approvals or whatever the decision is on their cases a lot sooner.

[04:05:12] Thank you for that response. We get a lot more done. However, your amount of time in reviewing these are compressed into a shorter, more stressful window for staff. I think that should be the final thing that the board hears.

[04:05:27] Thank you. All right, I'm going to jump in because I wanted to pick up on something that she was talking about, but caseload. How much is, do you roughly understand how many cases some of our planners have in front of them, like Alex's team or Tony's team?

[04:05:45] Like how many cases, or for Tony to not guess, how many small area plans or whatever is each person working on? Okay, is that Keisha? I'm sorry, Keisha. So it's the divisions that handle land use cases are primarily the land use review division that's led by Alex Venegas and the countywide planning division that's led by Tony Alston.

[04:06:06] Keisha Hall's division, they manage small area plans. They do support reviewing land use cases, but it's the other two divisions that actually lead those. All the new names confuse me. And so I would say it, you know, it really varies per staff person in terms of the number of cases or the types of cases.

[04:06:28] I will also note that, you know, we appreciate the additional FTEs that we've received from the board, certainly in the two and a half years that I've been with the department. And so we have been able to expand our staff capacity to so that that helps to reduce the number of cases per case planner.

[04:06:46] Additionally, as I noted earlier, last year we did come to the board to request consultant dollars to bring on board some consultant assistance. They'll also assist with case reviews both to support land use review as well as cultural resources review.

[04:07:04] So we do have some additional capacity in that respect. I appreciate that, but I think it would also be helpful for us because we know you need more staff. We know this. But how many cases people are handling, and maybe a comparison against other jurisdictions.

[04:07:21] I know that Loudoun is a smaller county, and I believe they have more planning staff. So that's something I think we should be able to. Do you have information on that? I do not have that information, but I did reach out to my colleagues in Loudoun, Stafford County, and the industry standard is about 8 to 15 on the high end.

[04:07:42] I still have planners that have 38 cases. So we're making progress because we haven't hired those three additional staff members, but that would bring our number down. So I think that's getting us in the general ballpark of where we would like to be when we compare ourselves to our neighbors in Stafford, Fairfax, and Loudoun County.

[04:08:04] All right, I appreciate that. You know, I'm not going to formally ask for it, but I hope before next budget cycle we have some better numbers so that we know what it is we need for your department. We are growing county, and I know that we're putting a lot on you and your team. In addition to the development community, I know that you're hearing a lot from them.

[04:08:22] I mean, they wanted everything yesterday, and that's not possible. Even if we were fully staffed and had extra staff, that's still just not possible. I just wanted to point out something from my colleagues. Page 28, with all of the directives, that shows the need for either A, you're right, we need to rein in some of the directives, but I'm also seeing it as we really need to think about that next comp plan.

[04:08:46] Again, I think that's something we can have some preliminary discussions about. It's something I think a new board should be able to work on. But we are seeing a lot of directives. And a lot of people I know want to put their imprint on things. I just think that also speaks to a need that we're going to have to look at how we grow and who we are as a county.

[04:09:07] So that's more of a comment than anything else. Supervisor Bodie. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Director Washington, and to all your team for all the work you're doing, as was said and echoed several times. We know you guys are doing a lot. We know the caseloads have increased. We know that there are increasingly complex cases, comprehensive plan amendments, zoning tax amendments, all these things that, frankly, have needed to be looked at for quite some time that you're all looking at.

[04:09:32] So I wanted to first say thank you for the work. Go through some of the elements of your presentation, Director Washington, and I appreciate the detail here. In terms of the batches for the zoning tax, the comprehensive zoning ordinance amendment, You mentioned that batch two, if I recall correctly, is your sort of semi-rural agricultural designations, what have you.

[04:09:56] I know that Supervisor Vega gave a directive recently on ORPA and having a zoning district that sort of conforms to ORPA. I know that before he passed away, Sue Ezra Weir and myself were working on some of that too. Is the ORPA zoning going to fit into that second batch because of how it's sort of classified?

[04:10:14] Most likely, yes. Appreciate that. And then in terms of the overall work, knowing that that first batch will be coming before us, I hope and expect it's going to be at the end of the year. So it's exactly four years versus four years and change from us adopting the comp plan.

[04:10:32] Are there going to be touch points between now and December with the board? Yes, we can definitely look at those opportunities. Again, we're just at the stage of just beginning to, you know, to start working on the first batch. but we can definitely look at those opportunities to have touch points.

[04:10:51] We have monthly meetings with pretty much every board member, so we can also use those more informal opportunities, but we can definitely build that into our process. I appreciate that because one of the concerns I have with something as big and important as this, especially with the ADUs and some other aspects of the housing changes in particular, is oftentimes with other large changes we've had in the past is staff will come to the board when it's 85%, 90% done, And it's a month before we're actually going to adopt it.

[04:11:20] So there's not a lot of time for us to make shifts and changes on that. So it would be good to have some good touch points, especially a month or two, even two or three months ahead of us adopting it. So if we need to make some changes, substantial changes, you get a distraction from us so we're not having to play with advertising and what have you to get it done.

[04:11:38] So the example I can give really quickly on that is the affordable housing, the affordable dwelling ordinance where, you know, we started working on that. Loudoun changed there substantially. Staff was sort of going on the pre-existing one that Loudoun had before.

[04:11:56] And suddenly we have to make a change to it a month later because we found improvements in that. So I would really like for us to avoid that kind of dynamic, knowing that we need to get this right the first time. In terms of the knowing that at the same time you're working on this large conference zoning ordinance update and you have emerging issues and final reconciliation near the end there, how can we walk and chew bubble gum at the same time?

[04:12:25] There's a lot of low-hanging fruit. We've discussed quite a few of them, you know, dead storage for storage, what have you, even people giving things as simple as swimming lessons in their homes, what have you. How can we make sure that, especially going into this process, but especially coming out of it, you have the resources to have folks who can do the spot zoning ordinance updates and things like that, knowing there's these emerging things that we frankly can't always assume when we go into these larger changes?

[04:12:53] Sure. So as part of the first batch, we have already thought about, you know, including we note here sort of what we call low hanging fruit amendments for some things that may be sort of quicker fixes, especially things that we know have been on our radar and may or may not fit into some of those other categories later.

[04:13:12] so we do have that um as part of our consideration for that first batch what are some of those quicker fixes of things that we can you know bring to the board to take action on sooner rather than later appreciate that i'm trying a couple more questions can i take my second round appreciate that thank you madam chair um appreciate that that makes a lot of sense to me so i appreciate you guys being nimble in that regard knowing that again there's these other issues quick wins low hanging fruit that frankly hopefully doesn't take a lot of work to do i'm going in the direction of directives and i appreciate supervisor vega and some of my colleagues talking about this i'm going

[04:13:48] to take a slightly different take to that because frankly some of the directives that we've given especially over the last couple years have been follow-up directives to previous directives either because they've been murky in terms of direction or frankly that directive at the end of the memo we get from the county executive ask for another directive so in some circumstances myself and other board members have had to give two, sometimes even three directives on the very same policy issue, and I don't think that's been the norm in the past.

[04:14:14] So I just wanted to say that for my colleagues, that sometimes these directives just have to be given to continue moving the ball forward, because that's the very direction we're given by the county executive to move them forward. That said, my question there is, as we continue talking, I know the chair sort of mentioned comprehensive plan amendments, things like that. How can we make sure that we're helping empower you all as we give these directives, knowing that each new directive is additional work, knowing that that may compound someone's workload and caseload alongside the SUPs and rezonings,

[04:14:50] these other larger processes? How can we make sure that we're being sensitive to that as we continue to give directives, especially when sometimes, like I said before, these directives come because that's the very direction we're giving from the county executive to move certain policy issues forward you know i think you know one important consideration is early communication you know if a board member has an idea for a directive you know we're very happy to talk with you about what that idea might be is there is a directive the mechanism to you know move forward on that or is there some other mechanism to be able to work on that request sometimes it's

[04:15:26] a smaller scale it might be a smaller scale request it might be a project but i think the key thing is early communication you know with our staff when we can talk through what the interest is what the issues are that you you know want to address that potentially could be through a directive or and to see you know is a directive that's really needed to make progress on that or is there some other way that either there might be some other activity we may have already underway or as part of our work program that may help address that directive or is there some other mechanism that we could look at or at

[04:16:01] least to think through how we if it does necessitate like a new project for example is there another way that we can kind of think about when we can put that in as part of our work program and so I think the early communication is I think very helpful from our perspective you know prior to a directive being issued because then we can talk through it and if a directive is a mechanism number one we know it's coming and we may be able to help you know provide some suggestions about how to draft it, how to structure it, and talk through kind of what the potential expectations are, you know, moving forward once it's issued.

[04:16:40] Appreciate that. And then one more question in the comments. You mentioned during your presentation a couple of the data center oriented data, especially the overlay and the work that's going into that. I know another project your folks have been working on for a couple of years now is data center impacts on us improving and strengthening our guidelines and our regulations and restrictions around that? Where does that sit in all this other body of work? Sure. So we, you know, have been working quite diligently on that throughout last year. We do have a consultant support for that.

[04:17:15] But with some of the more recent data center directives, I kind of got put on hold. However, I've already talked with a team to say we're getting that work started. So we're actually already working on updating our scope with that consultant so that we can go back and complete the work that has already been underway to look at the development standards in the zoning ordinance as well as the DCSM they've actually already been doing a lot of work in consultations with other departments so we just need to finish it and I think now particularly because we

[04:17:51] have the overlay district zta that kind of kind of sets a path forward um with how to handle data center applications moving forward that at least that's a framework to inform how you know going back to finishing the work on a development standards so that's so yeah so we we are are actively working with them to update their um their scope of work be mindful of what's already been happening so far so that we can get that to the finish line i appreciate in the last couple seconds i have i appreciate that because every month every week we go without adopting some of these new standards people are bringing cases whether they be residential or they be data

[04:18:27] centers whether the industrial and we're basically fighting with one hand tied behind our back because we have these regulations coming but they're not adopted yet so it runs into an issue appreciate that thank you thank you so much supervisor bailey thank you madam chair tanya thank you for your presentation it's very thorough and it is uh very transparent and it takes it i know it took to what my colleagues have said it took time out of your approving to come to the planning commission to get this done and so but it's very appreciative because we needed to see and hear this and see

[04:19:01] what your plan is and you've been saying it but this is really thorough and transparent and so there's a balance with that and so the balance uh has also for us and partnering with you has to be with how we partner with stakeholders and the industry, the community.

[04:19:21] And so that word, charrette, I haven't seen that in a long time. Thank you for bringing that back. That's an OG term, but it works for us. But that balance has to take part with those partners as well. And so my question in that transparency is this.

[04:19:37] And that's why I did the directive for the zoning ordinance. What is the end goal, the intent with the zoning ordinance piece? Is it to retire old stuff that you're working with, and I'm being very direct about it, or is it to revise the standards and the development?

[04:19:59] And I'm saying that because in that partnership, there has to be a clear understanding. And then the second part of that question is, how do we translate that to those partners? Certainly. So in terms of the comprehensive zoning ordinance update, And I'm kind of going back to when we brought that to the board for initiation last year.

[04:20:21] There are a number of objectives that we want to accomplish. So to speak to the examples that you mentioned, it includes those as well as other important elements. So one important element is the zoning ordinance is ultimately a tool to implement the comprehensive plan.

[04:20:40] The comprehensive plan was last updated by the board in late 2022. The development standards in the zoning ordinance should work in alignment to support the policies in a comprehensive plan. And we have a situation where there are elements of the zoning ordinance that can use some updating in order to help to support the implementation of the updated comprehensive plan.

[04:21:05] So that has always been sort of one of the bigger objectives to make sure that the zoning ordinance does work truly as a tool to implement the comprehensive plan. It can do that cohesively. Additionally, there are other sort of important ways, other elements of the scope of work for the zoning ordinance update that are intended to help to implement particular policy objectives.

[04:21:29] One is around housing and expanding the ability to build multiple types of housing in the county. Another important element is to support green zoning. So this goes back to the CESMP that's led by the Office of Sustainability as well as other ways to update our zoning ordinance to help support and implement the county's sustainability and resilience goals.

[04:21:55] So that comprehensive plan element project that we're working on for sustainability and resilience, that will get done before the zoning ordinance update will be completed. But that work will be folded into that and looking at, again, how the zoning ordinance can help to implement those updated policies for sustainability and resilience.

[04:22:15] There are some other elements that we want to look at in particular. But I think it's really around how can we work with the board to update the zoning ordinance so that it supports the Prince William County of today and the county of the future as reflected in the comprehensive plan.

[04:22:33] Okay. Okay, one minute. My other question is, with what you just said, Prince William County of today, that is a paradigm shift for our community, for our county, for us, and how we govern. That's a paradigm shift.

[04:22:49] And so my question to you, one of the things that you have in your presentation is that community and stakeholder engagement and bringing the community along with what your process is and how we've done business and how things are changing and what the requirements are, particularly with housing what do you offer to us in terms of how we can partner with you to get that done sure so you know we are we are still sort of building out our community engagement sort of the fuller package of community engagement for the zoning ordinance update but I think an important you know

[04:23:26] way that we can partner with board members is you know looking at opportunities to leverage meetings that you host or that we can work with you as you know to help host community meetings in your district particularly for you know again part of what we want to accomplish is you know education around the zoning ordinance it's not a very exciting topic if you're not you know you don't do the kind of work that we do but it is very impactful and it has direct impact on the communities where residents live and so how could we translate that and that's part of what we're gonna be doing so that we can have this not only be a process where community members can be a part of it

[04:24:02] but where they see value in it and how the zoning ordinance has a direct impact on the communities where they live. So we definitely, you know, would like to work with board members, you know, to help host meetings, to help get information out to residents as we continue to work through the process.

[04:24:20] So there's definitely some different opportunities for us to work, you know, with each of you to engage residents in your districts. Thank you, Madam Chair. Supervisor Stewart. Thank you very much, Ms. Washington, for your presentation.

[04:24:37] Just something to continue where Supervisor Bode left off. Data centers have an outsized impact currently at this moment, just in history, just on everything, housing, schools, parks, et cetera.

[04:24:58] And you iterated that certain directives have been put on hold, that you were working with a consultant with, and some of those findings and directives were put on hold.

[04:25:14] Also, the disbanding of the data center ordinance advisory group, were there any findings that that group also came up with that were also put on hold? So the findings or some of the recommendations or initial input from that staff from that advisory group is still part of the larger effort that we're doing to update the development standards in the zoning ordinance and the DCSM.

[04:25:42] When I said that was put on hold, it was because we were working off of another directive to look at the overlay district. And so it was mainly just put on hold so we can focus on something that was identified as a priority.

[04:25:59] But we are already going to be restarting that work so that we can complete it. The consultants actually did a lot of work, initial work already, in terms of some potential draft language doing engagement with affected departments. So what we are doing now is, you know, the overlay district ZTA, we're moving that to public hearing and now we're able to go back and to finish that work and so that's really what we're focusing on now alongside with you know the overlay district ZTA going to the board by September we want to finish out the development standards work so it's really more we actually you know

[04:26:38] did a lot of initial work already is mainly just getting it to the finish line so that we can bring the actual proposals to public hearing into the board's consideration got it and and again i i also get that your staff is stretched thin right now um with everything that you have going on and so i i do get that certain things have to be put um on the proverbial back burner and but considering the the impact that this has not just

[04:27:09] on our county but neighboring counties just and and you know the quality of life fiscal impacts and other things, if that could be brought up, or just maybe going forward to find spaces where this could be worked on in a continuum that is perpetual, right? Because there's a lot with the industry that's changing day by day. Technology is changing. Standards are changing, et cetera,

[04:27:43] et cetera. And, you know, if there's something that we could do to help that to keep flowing, I know I, for one, and I only speak for, you know, my one-eighth, but I, for one, would like to help facilitate that so that, as a county, we don't fall behind.

[04:28:05] Understand. I will say, with regards to that consultant team, like I said, we are already in a process of getting that work started again. So we're updating, working with them to update their scope of work to do a new purchase order since we're now in a new fiscal year so that we can finish it as soon as possible.

[04:28:25] So I've already given a direction to our internal team as well as the consultants. We need to get this work done to update the development standards and to bring that to the board this year. So we are working on that now as a priority. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. Supervisor Ingrid.

[04:28:42] Thank you, Madam Chair. I won't be long. I think all the questions and discussion have been super relevant. And I want to say to this board, I think we have made y'all's lives a living nightmare because we have used directives like executive orders and really have pushed a lot.

[04:29:02] Now, I heard what you said that if you have other things that you guys could be prioritizing if you didn't have all of this. I say that because I don't want to be a hypocrite because I have a directive that talks about cul-de-sacs and nose in parking and I just want to know is that something that was on your radar to look at later because what I don't want to do is add something that you potentially would have wanted to look at because for me and I think it should stand a reason for the board that's a public safety issue when it comes to fire and rescue turning rigs around in those cul-de-sacs and I think what's happened over time it's become an issue so I don't know if that's something you're

[04:29:41] looking at but I don't want to give a directive if that is and to clear your plate of directives so that you can focus on things that you should be focusing on certainly so that particular one was not one that was on our radar we're happy to assist you know with your consideration of a potential directive there might be a question as to which department would actually be the lead for that so that it may depending upon the nature of the director may or may not come to the planning office, it may go to another department. Okay, and I just bring it up because I am very aware and sensitive to everything you just said, and I get it, because your department is the one that has probably took the brunt of a lot of these directives

[04:30:21] just over the years. So I hear you, I've heard you, I just want to make sure as I give that one, it's not something that's putting you, you know, boxing you more into what you already have to do. So, thank you. And thank you, Supervisor Angry, for that. All right, so thank you, Director Washington, for your presentation.

[04:30:42] Hold on, I lost my place. All right, Chris, do you want to call up who's next? All right, thank you again very much, Director Washington, and to your entire team. Appreciate all the work that you do. And for Item 7C, Madam Chair, we are asking Executive Director Christina Nguyen to come up.

[04:31:03] I see that the entire team steering committee here for Nexus 234 is here as well. She's going to lead us off in this presentation, and then we'll hear from other leaders. You can take it.

[04:31:20] Good afternoon, Chair Jefferson, members of the board. I'm Christina Wynn, Prince William Economic Development and Tourism. We are here today to talk about Nexus 234, give you an update of our involvement, the county's involvement in the district to date.

[04:31:41] We have also invited the Nexus 234 Steering Committee to give their update specific on their work. Lovie Hamill, she is the chair of the Steering Committee, is here with us, as well as Amy Adams, who is the executive director of Nexus 234, as well as the executive director for the Institute for BioHealth for George Mason University, and really has been leading this effort.

[04:32:08] The purpose of this is to have a very short and timely conversation regarding governance and where we are with the Innovation District and get any feedback from you all on next steps. So quickly, as background, we've been working on the Innovation District since 2023.

[04:32:30] This supports our strategic plan, so this work aligns with what the board has set out in a vision. As a reminder, the board has taken two previous actions, one with the initial approval for a $50,000 grant to look and study if there was viability to the Innovation District, and then second with a $250,000 grant to go towards the implementation of the Innovation District, which is where we are at today.

[04:33:04] Um, we are about almost halfway through that implementation grant. Uh, the Nexus, just as background, uh, the Nexus 234 steering committee, it's 31 member, um, group consisting of, uh, really public private partnership between the county, George Mason, uh, the city of Manassas, as well as the chamber and, um, our industries.

[04:33:29] And so they have been providing a lot of strategic input and direction regarding how do we actually get this innovation district stood up and operating on its own with a funding model that is a long-sustaining model.

[04:33:46] So at this point, I'm going to turn it over to the Innovation District Steering Committee, Lovie and Amy, to go briefly through kind of some of their results to date and then also give you a prelude of what they're thinking in terms of the governance and funding model.

[04:34:08] So with that, I'm going to hand it over to Amy. Thank you. Thank you so much, Christina, and thank you for your partnership. Also, Madam Chair, Executive Shorter, board members, thank you for the invitation to come and present. I also want to extend a special thank you to Supervisor Gordy, who is serving on our steering committee.

[04:34:28] For the Innovation District, I want to congratulate you all. We are Northern Virginia's first Innovation District. So congratulations. Thank you for your partnership. This is a 6,000-acre innovation district anchored by the SciTech campus in partnership with Prince William County and City of Manassas.

[04:34:48] What does this mean? This means creating new companies, helping companies to grow, adding jobs to our region, and most importantly, it's creating impact for our residents so that they can thrive and continue to have a great quality of life and hopefully not have to commute out of the county and the city, but really stay here with the growing base of jobs.

[04:35:12] This has not happened overnight. This is 30 years in the making. So this is really taking those investments that Prince William County, George Mason, and the university have made, stitching them together for scaled economic impact. And so we know that we have business parks throughout the Innovation District.

[04:35:31] This is different. An Innovation District is more than space and infrastructure. It's creating the placemaking that drives collaboration. That collaboration leads to innovation. It leads to new companies. It leads to connecting the workers with the companies, again, to fill those needs and create that vibrant ecosystem.

[04:35:53] What I will say is if we don't do this, right, we are going to fall behind because there are hubs of innovation that are established and continuing to pop up across the United States, and that's where people want to work. That's where businesses want to be, again, in that vibrant location.

[04:36:10] It's not just about going to your place of business and leaving. It's about something much more. So thank you, again, for really helping to make this happen. We are in a very strategic location, so I think this helps us to be one of the top innovation districts in the nation.

[04:36:29] And I have some good news towards the end of my part of the presentation. We have, through the planning study that Christina mentioned, we identified the four strategic sectors. And let me just make sure I note, the impacts is not just in creating jobs within these sectors, but the multiplier on the service industries, the accountants, the law firms, the real estate agents, et cetera, that really support these companies' growth.

[04:36:56] There's statistics that say that for every innovation district job, there's an additional 1.54 additional jobs that support that. And so we, for a long time, have been investing in the life sciences. And so I think it's a great pilot, right? So we can go from discovery at the university to startups in the Endeavor Lab that the county has invested in, to the step-up space in the Northern Virginia Bioscience Center, and then soon to the new industrial flex that St. John's Properties is providing, to the land, right, for companies to come in and manufacture. From an aerospace and

[04:37:33] defense. Having the Washington Manassas Airport, the growing aerospace cluster, is huge. We actually hosted yesterday Nexus 234 convened Prince William County Schools, Manassas City Schools, Fairfax County Schools, Northern Virginia Community College, our colleagues at George Mason, Juan Rivera from the airport, and others to think about the future workforce and how we create a significant initiative to make sure that we're feeling those needs we are we have micron in our backyard right so in in the innovation district this is huge again think about cluster development around all

[04:38:09] of these areas and what that means for the amount of companies and jobs that it can provide to our residents and it's no surprise we have data centers and they're they're here and the innovation district really stands ready to help support solving the challenges right that with water with energy, etc., right? That's what this is about. It's about driving innovation to solve challenges and, again, to drive economic growth. This is what we do. Again, I've mentioned placemaking.

[04:38:38] We've all known for many years this is what we should be doing, right? There's been a lack of bandwidth. This is not something that George Mason alone or the Prince William County or City Manassas is going to do, and that's why the Innovation District is so important. What we are doing is we're helping to connect businesses to resources like core facilities where they can work on equipment that they may not be able to afford otherwise to mentors when you when we're talking especially to early stage companies they need that additional support and if they don't get it here they're going to go somewhere else it's also making sure that we're aligning our education programs and creating boot camps and other things to

[04:39:17] connect the transitioning workers and students into jobs. It's about convening, making sure that we are bringing together companies, government, academia, investors, again, to drive innovation that will lead to new companies as well. And then finally, in hearing from our companies, it's creating learning pathways for their workers within their businesses, right? So they are not paying to send them out to Chicago and losing time, or really being able to combine efforts where multiple companies can send their personnel for continued professional learning.

[04:39:55] And so for the programming that we're offering, I want to first focus in on commercialization. Really excited to announce our international soft landing program. For this, this means we are on the international stage. We had 22 companies apply for this program, and this is, again, creating additional needs for real estate, legal, et cetera, because we're connecting them to those service providers.

[04:40:26] It means, again, establishing companies here that will root and grow. This is not the sales teams. This is bringing the companies that have those technologies to develop and manufacture here. In May, we hosted 10 of the top of the 22 companies that applied for the Nexus 234 Innovation District.

[04:40:47] And I'll tell you a common theme that we heard from these companies, and it's how supportive the community was. And this is really important to them. We already have folks that are applying for their visas and getting ready to come and really excited about it because they see the partnerships.

[04:41:05] They were connected with faculty at the university where they could go after grant funding and really diversify their portfolio with students, right, for talent, with other businesses like ATCC or AI companies.

[04:41:21] And so I'm really, really excited about this. And this is just one example. One of our other services that we're offering to support commercialization is our Mason Enterprise Tech Mentors. that are providing one-on-one support and in-person support, which is really important, right? This isn't a virtual. This is in-person.

[04:41:38] They've already, to date, supported 38 companies in Prince William County and the city of Manassas. Those companies have gone on to raise $2.3 million. Again, these are early-stage companies, and this is just the beginning. So just remember, we only started one year ago, so these impacts are going to multiply.

[04:41:57] We had a new company that was formed through, again, placemaking. An entrepreneur meeting innovators at one of our events actually hosted at Endeavor, and now they are a resident at Endeavor. So this is what it's all about.

[04:42:13] We are also focused on workforce because that's something that we heard clearly from our businesses that they wanted to see. And so the programs that we are offering, how they're also supporting the business's growth. Number one, it's connecting the businesses with the talent so that they can, through internships, through capstone experiences.

[04:42:35] It's helping to solve their problems right through these experiential learning. It's offering boot camps that align with their need and create the awareness so that we can transition these individuals into the companies quickly.

[04:42:53] One that I'm really excited about, we partnered with IEEE. This is a professional engineering society. Through this, we got on the radars of students that were from this area, right, that are going to Auburn University, Georgia Tech, et cetera.

[04:43:08] They saw this in their university's newsletter and came to Nexus 234. They were able to network, right, with our local employers. And so this is what it's all about, right. When I talk to some students who are graduating, they say, oh, I don't know if I want to come back to northern Virginia.

[04:43:24] I don't want to drive in D.C. and I say, you know what, if you want to build something, you want to be in Prince William County and City Monastas, right? That's where it's all about. This is an example. So we had Bob Schneider here. He was actually a capstone mentor.

[04:43:41] So this serves many purposes. Again, it can solve a company's problems. It's also, again, that opportunity to tap into the talent so that you can have that direct hire after these students graduate. But it has also led to new innovation for the projects that we funded through nexus 234 this is with new companies as well that's new to capstones as well as startups in early stage it just wouldn't have that that bandwidth to do it or service providers like omni ride three of those four projects actually came out with provisional patents i already have

[04:44:17] a student who alexandria is trying to recruit and we're trying to keep them here right to really build that business. And so that, again, is what it's all about, is that innovation and generation of new companies.

[04:44:33] This just gives you an example of how we've been able to connect directly students and interns, and we don't care if it's George Mason or Nova or any other individual, and that's, I think, one of the unique things and why it's a unique partnership is in my work I'm able to think about how this benefits every person or every organization, not just my own institution. And so this is what I was referring to, right? We have long invested in that placemaking and the life sciences. And in March, we were recognized by Real FDI, which is an economic development magazine that's international as the top 10 life science

[04:45:12] investments in the world. In the United States, the only other location that was recognized was Research Triangle Park. And that's where we want to be. And so we want to make sure that we are really championing that to attract, again, that talent in those companies. And so these are the folks who have really come to the table financially as founding partners and really rolled up their sleeves as well. And so really grateful to all of those on the screen. And with that, I want to turn over to one of our founding partners, Lovie Hamill. She is the president and CEO of Employment

[04:45:48] Enterprises, and also the chair of our steering committee. Thank you, Amy. Thank you for having me here today. I really appreciate it. I think this is the most important innovation district in Virginia. It was the first, and I think it's the most important, and I mean that. And I think it's also one of the most vital things that we'll be able to do for our business community over the next 10 to 15 years. And I liked sitting here today. I got here early so I could listen to a lot of the presentations, because I think it's about talking about the future, because the future

[04:46:27] is going to be very different than as we look in the past. Those of you who don't know me, I am Lovie Hamill. I'm founder and CEO of Employment Enterprises. We're a workforce staffing company who actually started here in the county. Well, I have to say, we started in the city for two years, and then we expanded into the county, and we've been around for 46 years. And we've been able to really, with the great foundation here, we were able to go to a national basis. I have 3,000 employees working all over the United States, Puerto Rico, and Canada right now. And we can make

[04:47:07] other companies like mine. And I think they will come to the Innovation District. And I'm pleased to have my name up here and just say that everybody here invested in a vision. We didn't even have a name when we started this. But everyone decided to work together as a business community and academics with Mason and public, the city and the county. And that's unusual. I work all over the United States. It's unusual to see that kind of collaboration, but we got it. And people ask me, you know, why did people do that? Well, they did it because one, we had collaboration. Two,

[04:47:45] they did it because we were able to tell them that we're going to go for two matching funds, two-to-one matching funds, that other people were going to put money behind that. And that was, I think, especially important when I went out to the business community. Because they have said, you know, I've done things before and it doesn't get off the ground.

[04:48:04] But the fact that there was going to be two-to-one matching funds made a huge difference. And people were willing to give for that Go Virginia grant. And they also said, I think it will be the catalyst and the spark that will get the business community working well and together in this community.

[04:48:21] And that's what they're saying on the steering committee. And that's why we are where we are today. And we've been very deliberate in our approach. And I'm so sad with this technology, so please forgive me in advance if I mess it up. But we've tried to be very deliberate and bring everyone along together, especially the businesses.

[04:48:42] So we did studies with Stiletto, pre and post, to really look at what does an innovation district look like from governance. We did some case studies. We looked at the financial modeling, and we really wanted to develop something that had long-term ability and not to have to be remodeled all the time, but it also needed to be flexible.

[04:49:09] And what we feel is that we're starting to move into that governed stage. We've had this come through, and we have three things that we have to do. We have to get predictable funding. I heard the big F word. Yes, everybody has to have the predictable funding. We need the strong partnerships, which we've already shown, and we also need to have the flexible structure.

[04:49:35] And I say that we need the flexible structure because the businesses and the niches that we're talking about that you saw, the life sciences, forensics, aerospace, semiconductors, AI, cybersecurity, and data centers, the one thing that I continue to hear and I know from being a workforce company that these are all high-paying jobs, that they're actually in their high growth, and they're not going to be replaced by AI.

[04:50:03] These are industries that we want in our community, and we want the innovation that goes around them. So I think it's important that we keep that flexibility because we're going to have to get the workforce and retain the workforce that can support these industries.

[04:50:21] And that's where the placemaking becomes so important as we go forward. We have to have the structure that can build that placemaking, and we can build on the successes that we just heard Amy talk about. Because these are just the start. We just started. This was just a year, I believe, June, that we've come through and started with these successes.

[04:50:43] So we have talked about, we are in phase one. I call this the entrepreneurial phase. Being an entrepreneur, we have just really gotten started with the phase one. And the emphasis here is to really talk about what do we need to move forward.

[04:51:01] And we're trying to work for our governance, which is a 501C. And what we need to do is secure the commitments so we can move towards that long-term funding because we know that's where we have to go. But right now, we're still in the development stage of governance, and what we're doing is putting together a board of directors that can collaborate, all the groups, the businesses, the city, the county, and Mason.

[04:51:34] Can't forget Mason. But that's where we are right now, and that's a phased-in approach. and that what we're trying to do is move phase by phase so we can get to that phase two which will be the long-term funding and that's where we have needs right now we need each of the partners to be willing to work with us as we finish up this go virginia grant because we have another year to work on it and for successes so we can ask for each partner to take an equal share and we've done into three areas prince william and the city being the public george mason and then

[04:52:10] the industry. And we're taking equal share to do in this phase two to push us forward. Now one of the things that I've been doing is on the industry, the fundraising. Just give you an update on where I am. We had the kickoff for Nexus 234 three months ago, maybe. We've already brought in three additional founding partners, so $150,000. So we're about 46% towards our goal already. As a side, this Thursday I have a meet and greet out there and showing people doing quite a few tours people

[04:52:50] are interesting people are calling now instead of me calling out and saying hey would you like to come down and see our Nexus 234 they're calling me and say I'd like to come down and do a tour and then go over and have lunch at that two silos place I hear about you know I want to see the amenities I want to see what you have down there so we're starting to build that kind of interest And so we need to be able to continue to do that and invite people down here to show them what we have.

[04:53:17] Because really, it's about trying to get the new businesses, and it's also expanding the businesses that we have. The innovation is coming from getting businesses to come down and innovate with the training that they're going to get from George Mason, the services they're going to get from some existing clients, existing businesses, and to be able to grow and locate here and expand here.

[04:53:43] So this is really what we're trying to do on an annual basis as we're in phase two, and that's the ask. We have a budget of $980,000, and of course the next question everybody asks as a business is how you're going to spend it. So this is what our budget would look like.

[04:53:58] We would do this for the next two years as we're really working towards that governance of how do we get that long-term sustainable funding. At the same time, working with Amy, we would get another $670,000 in funding from other sources.

[04:54:15] Other sources are grants through Virginia, other sources through the VC. We have a VC community that's interested in talking about how do we invest in new businesses, maybe making one just for this particular area, the capstone programs that are going on that we talked about, and also the certificate programs and the micro-credentials, which I think is going to be a huge change in our workforce and why people will want to be down here at the Nexus 234.

[04:54:48] because they're going to be right next to the training. They're going to be right next to the certificate programs. They can develop them here in this county instead of us having to send people to other places. We can work with the university and the Northern Virginia Community College to get them done right here in Prince William County.

[04:55:07] That also satisfies what our workforce wants. They want to be here at a place. They also want to train here, and they also want to live here. and you have your Innovation District Retail Center and housing starting to come out. All of that showcases to keep people here in our Nexus 234.

[04:55:26] So you always let the business person do the ask. I'm coming up and doing the ask. I put my money behind it. I want to thank you for the money that you have, really the leadership. I would tell you that Prince William County is a leader.

[04:55:42] You were a leader when you put together the Innovation District 20-some years ago. i mean i was here but i can't remember exactly when it was you were a leader when you gave us funds so we could go for the go virginia and a leader now to help us get to the long-term sustainability that we're asking for so thank you for listening to me i'm happy to answer any questions all right thank you so very much i'm going to go to supervisor oh i'm sorry you're not done uh i go girl we can move on because it is just getting towards what your the questions and

[04:56:19] driving towards the um the topics which is just as a reminder the proposed governance structure from the steering committee is this independent 5013c6 that would be outside of the county right it would be an independent organization um with a board of directors and a memorandum of understanding between all of the parties that would contribute and then of course the steering committee is asking for some sort of commitment that would come back through the budget process

[04:56:57] for some long-term funding. And so just wanting to make sure that that's what we're talking about today. Nope. Sorry to cut you. All right. So I'm going to go to Supervisor Gordy for the first bite of the apple. Thank you, Madam Chair. And before I ask my question, I just want to recognize Tom Flynn. Uh, this guy has supposed to be retired. Um, but you know, he, he keeps showing up. Um, you know, so, uh, I want to thank Tom, uh, for his, you know, how he continues to represent the

[04:57:34] County and working, um, to help drive this forward. He's been through this process for a very long time. Um, and just, you know, he, he's committed to it. Um, thank you, uh, uh, Amy. Thank you, lovey thank you christina for the presentation today um you know as we think about you know the things that we have to do on the governance side and you know there those as we start to look at those you know the bylaws the structure you know the board members the appointments all those types of things that those are all important um but i would also ask us you know from a county

[04:58:11] perspective uh to me that's easy right um when we think about all the other things that go into supporting the success of this from planning to development services to um transportation all those types of things um you know what would you offer to us as a board as some things that we should also be looking at to help support not just this governance piece of it, which I'm all for and

[04:58:48] I'm absolutely committed to, but also just the, you know, from the infrastructure side of things, how can we also help making sure that we're in alignment and not lagging behind so that we can be with you step by step and as we attract those businesses and those companies into the area.

[04:59:09] So I'll kick that off. And so one of the a few things that we are hearing from the companies and others transportation, I think the transportation coming before us was was beautiful, right? That is a bottleneck, right? Because there isn't transportation. The obviously the pedestrian bridges is going to be huge. I constantly see individuals trying to cross 234 right to get to their internships, etc. And so that is going to be instrumental.

[04:59:40] But getting that microtransit, getting that bi-directional, we are having people come from D.C. right here. And so making sure that they can get here during the hours of business rather than the opposite hours. And so that is going to be really huge.

[04:59:56] Something that we also continue to hear from the industries and others who engaged in the planning of the Innovation District is affordable housing. I think another thing to consider is I think the life sciences is a really nice example of how investments have been made to really go from the discovery to the startup, right, to the step-up space and having just all stages of development.

[05:00:25] It actually is what distinguishes us from other markets because then we also have the land to grow. I think, you know, starting to see that to support those other sectors, right? Because we have the wet lab and life sciences, but we don't have it across the other sectors. So thinking about that, and the St. John's properties is definitely something that really tees that up.

[05:00:45] And so, Christina, Levy, anything else you'd like to offer there? Thank you for that. And, you know, as kind of going back now to, you know, just kind of, you know, the ask that you're having here today. And clearly, you know, I don't see, you know, we're calling it funding.

[05:01:05] I'm calling it investment because there is going to be a return on we're not just giving money with no expectation. There's going to be a return. There are going to be business created. There's going to be jobs created. And so, you know, and so I look at this as an investment framework for the county.

[05:01:24] And if we continue to put forward this investment into this, we are going to see a, I would say, more than a double-digit, potentially a triple-digit return, because we are literally starting at ground level here, and we have the greatest potential for growth over the long term.

[05:01:45] And so we are already seeing success. We are already seeing that our investment is creating a return. And so from my one-eighth of this perspective, I'm very appreciative of the vision that you guys have put forward in giving us as a county the opportunity to be able to make this investment into the innovation part.

[05:02:11] But we're really making an investment into our entire community, our entire county, because, again, this has been something that I've been trying to understand how we can be better at this for the past, since I moved here in 2007, is how do we get people to live here and work here and not have to commute?

[05:02:31] Because I lived here, I moved here, and had to commute an hour and 45 minutes. It was not fun. And so this is going to allow people to live here, work here, spend more time with their kids, get them out of their cars, and be more involved in our community.

[05:02:47] Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you so very much. Supervisor Bailey. Thank you, Madam Chair. Love you. It's great seeing you. Great seeing you. It's been 20-plus years, and we're still here. That's all I can say. And, Amy, thank you for your effervescence and your energy, and to the team as well.

[05:03:08] Now, Tom, we told you you couldn't retire. I don't know what you're doing. But at any rate, I have two questions. One is, I think this is phenomenal. I agree with what my colleague just said. And how one of the things that I introduced via directive, it was a nice directive, was a community benefits agreement potentiality for the county.

[05:03:33] And I see that as potentially a tool for the model that you're presenting from businesses that are coming here to keep them here? Is that an opportunity for this kind of model? I think that's a great question.

[05:03:52] I can answer it from sort of the workforce jobs perspective. And I think this is an especially important topic because we have a shrinking workforce. We have demographics. We have more people who are going to be retiring and less people.

[05:04:10] I think last year was the largest graduating class that we will have out of high schools. So we're going to have to compete very hard for the workforce. And it's important that they be able to live and work here and have a place to stay and feel like it's their home.

[05:04:28] Because we're going to compete with other places like the Mosaic District and just other, you know, go up to National Harbor. Just different places are going to want those same employees. We have two things going for us, the benefits of the community that we're building, the placemaking.

[05:04:48] And we're also going to have the type of industries, the studies and the due diligence that we did ahead of time to really talk about the industries that we can, that people want to work in. That's right. And people want to go into the AI.

[05:05:06] They want to be in the cyber. The space and the aviation, I mean, look at the SpaceX and the public, you know, and they just went public. I mean, people want to work in these industries. So we've been also given the community benefits on top of it that you can live here and you have the bus service around and you can go over and have your entertainment and it's easy to get to Dulles Airport and back.

[05:05:34] Or perhaps you can actually fly out of the city airport. That's going to be extremely important to the workforce that we're trying to get to come here. So I see that all over the United States.

[05:05:49] I have people that are going to where they feel the best jobs and the best place to live. And I see the best jobs, the best industries. And they're changing. They're not the ones that we would expect. Thank you for your answer.

[05:06:06] And so the answer is potentially yes. Yes. Okay, so the last thing that I just want to say is someone just commented and said, and it may have been you, Lovie, we have the land to grow. And I think that's very insightful. And the land to grow is not necessarily only with the data center industry.

[05:06:26] It's with other industries. And I think this opens the door for that to come in and to make sure that we are growing in a sustainable way with a good, healthy commercial tax base, but also making sure that it's sustainable.

[05:06:44] So that's all I got. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Supervisor Brody. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Lovie, Amy, Christina, Ethan, I see you back there. Tom, everyone else who's continued their work on this. I'll be very brief, as much brief as I can.

[05:06:59] So just two questions from me. Looking at this last slide, because that's where I'm going to be going with this. refining our accountability measures and performance metrics. Obviously, you have all done a massive undertaking of looking at the best practices from existing innovation districts, ones that are still developing out what worked, what didn't work, what have you.

[05:07:20] What do those sort of accountability measures and performance metrics look like and how we could be continuing to fine-tune those should we move forward with this to continue to pivot and improve as things sort of roll out? So this actually aligns very well with the metrics that we have included in the Go Virginia grant.

[05:07:40] So you can break that down to jobs, right, the number of jobs added, the number of businesses recruited, the number of businesses created, and also the individuals trained, the number of patents, right, that will be leading to the next companies, the number, the amount of money raised by the companies that are supported.

[05:08:07] So those are all metrics that we are very carefully tracking to make sure that we're really creating a return on that investment. And, again, I think the most important thing is we are creating an environment that's where our residents will thrive, right? And if we aren't doing that, right, we have to course correct to make sure we are.

[05:08:25] Appreciate that. Because a couple sort of thoughts there. One, I appreciate that. Two sort of question follow-up from there is you mentioned retention, well, not retention, but recruitment, training, sort of growing folks. What about retention? Because you just mentioned something that's important where we are the biggest, smallest region in the country, whereby people get trained up here.

[05:08:47] They get poached two, three years from now from an alphabet agency, from Maryland, from another jurisdiction in northern Virginia. How are we going to really look at retention? Because what we don't want is grow folks, and then we lose them out the back door, and we put all this money and investment into them, and then some other locality or some other part of the region benefits from that growth.

[05:09:04] Hands down. So a fantastic question, and that is really going to be a result of density of the companies in those sectors, right? When they have additional companies to go to to grow, that's a good thing, and the companies see that, right?

[05:09:20] So one of the things I will say, so I've done some studies in the life sciences that looks at this region, and there is actually some very strong retention rates. I think it's the collaborative nature, the quality of life, et cetera. However, whenever I've asked them, like, what do you need to go to that next level to think, and what are some of the gaps, right?

[05:09:39] Some of it's that executive level talent, et cetera. It is the density, that we need more density around these sectors. And there's been a clear message from the existing large global companies that they want to see cluster development, right? They want to see their suppliers.

[05:09:55] They want to see their buyers. And that has been across sectors that we have heard that. And I think that also leads to the retention, that keeping them here locally is really critical. Appreciate that. So I'll just end with the ask here. I'm going to sort of piggyback and echo what Suraz Gordy said.

[05:10:12] One, completely in support of us continuing to work on this. I think it is very much an investment that we will see massive returns on that will help keep our county sustainable in the future. I think at MOU and having it be an independent sort of organization is very smart. It helps keep it insulated from sort of political winds and sort of self-interested parties on all ends of the spectrum.

[05:10:34] Board appointments, reporting requirements, funding framework all make sense to me. Having that look at sustainable funding over time can sustain itself as opposed to just relying on governments that just fund it over time. I love what you said about the accountability mechanisms because, again, if we're going to be putting investments in this, we want to see it go and we want to see it pivot and be nimble enough to sort of stand the test of time.

[05:10:55] And I really look forward to this being future-proof. So we're looking forward to continued work. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so very much to everyone who's come out. This is very exciting for us. I'm going to get in trouble, but I'm going to say that this really could be the heart of Prince William County.

[05:11:15] This is, yes, I said it, Yesli. I said it and I meant it. If you want to believe that, I'll allow you. I love the county. I love all parts of the county equally. However, there is a first among equals.

[05:11:31] You know, I live in the Potomac District. I hear you down there. This is such an exciting project for the community. And I want to thank everyone who's been working on this, particularly you, Amy. You know, when I first met you, I was impressed with how dynamic you are and the vision that you had for this area.

[05:11:49] So I want to take time to make sure that I specifically call you out. i appreciate that all that you have done um so thank you everyone for coming out today and joining us and thank you christina for lining up this presentation are you ready to sneak out she's ready to sneak out all right we are going to go on to agenda item number eight and that is supervisor's time before i go around the horn there was a couple things that um we need to discuss take votes on the first item is 8a and that's to amend our calendar so that we have a joint meeting with the school board on wednesday september 23rd at 6 p.m i know we've previously

[05:12:24] discussed this before i ask for a motion i just want to see if there's any questions madam chair supervisor vega are we going to be discussing the budget at all yes okay perfect would you like to make the motion so moved second all right um vega bailey and any discussion all right let's go ahead take our votes all right thank you so very much and i want to go on to 8b supervisor gordy thank

[05:13:03] you madam chair um i move that we approve item 8b a resolution uh regarding uh the um proposed routes 5 and 12 of the noakesville to bristow 230 kv electric transmission line project second it's improperly moved and seconded any discussion supervisor actually gordy do you have any before i call on bode do you have anything you want to say on this yes ma'am if i could yes um yeah this resolution there there's been a lot of uh churn going on in the community i think there's been a little there's been some misunderstanding um i just want everybody to understand this resolution

[05:13:39] it passed well it will effectively eliminate two of the proposed transmission routes that would adversely affect thousands of residential homes and through three neighborhoods while wiping out vast amounts of tree preserve areas along the county-owned broad run linear park the routes would cross and run through the broad run linear park in six locations as supervisors we have limit authority as it relates to addressing new transmission routing. One authority we have is passing a resolution to prohibit the lines across county-owned property, and that is the intent of this resolution. While this resolution would effectively eliminate two routes from

[05:14:17] Dominion's submission for the Noakesville or Bristow route, there remain other routes where our district or our direct authorities to address them are limited. From the time I first met with Dominion, regarding their plan, we have discussed the potential for undergrounding the routes. In fact, their original plan had an undergrounding route. Unfortunately, it went through a historic area, a battlefield, and they realized that was probably not the right place to do this.

[05:14:45] Nonetheless, STAC infrastructure has allocated space at their Bristow site for a switching station to bring the lines under broad run and then up out underground from underground on their site. So we know that they have the capacity to do this on their end.

[05:15:05] If we pass this resolution, we can now focus all of our attention and our united effort on seeking to have the lines put underground, and I will be coming back to the board in the future seeking support for a resolution asking Dominion and the State Corporation Commission to underground the lines from Noakesville through Bristow under Broad Run into the substation. So this is not the end. This is not eliminating our previous positions. This is just taking an action that

[05:15:39] we as a board can take with the authority that we are allowed in order to address these transmission routes. But there is still more work to do. And when I get into my supervisor's time, I'll talk more about upcoming opportunities to address them thank you so i wanted to actually really quickly jump in because i spoke to supervisor gordy and encouraged this to be a resolution so that we can have a public discussion we've received some emails about it we've had people who speak here today and i want to say this is not partisan we are not prioritizing one community over the other

[05:16:18] What we are simply saying is that we will not grant easements over county property. And we're doing that, again, so that we can eliminate some of the proposed routes. Now, we do not formally vote on the lines. I received a lot of emails saying that, asking us to vote no.

[05:16:36] We do not formally vote on the lines. That is not something that we have the authority to do. And we are very much committed to mitigating harm along other potential routes. This is simply taking out some of the routes that Dominion is looking at.

[05:16:56] I know we're going to continue to have discussion around this. I look forward to you bringing other measures before this board so that we can continue this conversation. I just have to emphasize that what my colleague is doing is not prioritizing one community over the other.

[05:17:13] It is simply refocusing ourselves and trying to mitigate communities that can be potentially impacted. Supervisor Bodie. Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. I'll already just echo exactly what you just said and what Supervisor Gordie said. I know that there's a lot of angst and anxiety from communities that will be benefited by this and ones that are still having fights to fight.

[05:17:36] If we had easements and other things in some of these other routes, we'd be doing the same thing for there. It just happens to be there's a couple of these proposed routes that actually run through easements that the county controls and other ones that don't. As was said before, I think we're unified in that whatever route is ultimately taken by Dominion with partners with the SEC and other partners has to be the least impactful as possible to communities and residences.

[05:17:59] I think we've always all said that, and I think that, as was said, this action does not actually undermine that or contradict that previous assertion. And I know, again, there were some communications given to us, sent to us by residents, even said as public comment time, that somehow this undermines or contradicts what was said before.

[05:18:18] Nothing in this contradicts that. We continue to be unified in the fact that we want to see this infrastructure taken as far away from residents as possible, undergrounded and the most least impacting as possible, and working with our partners at Dominion to make sure that wherever we can, we are undergrounding lines where it makes sense in order to make sure that we're safeguarding communities and helping make sure that folks as they grapple with this infrastructure know that we're looking out for them too thank you madam chair supervisor stewart thank you madam chair so just so that i'm clear

[05:18:53] this is not to say not in my backyard but this is to say let's do this in order to ultimately underground these these lines bring scc to the table to have a talk about how we get that facilitated just wanted to get that on the record did you have a follow-up supervisor gordy no follow-up madam chair thanks for your comments my colleagues and uh and i appreciate their support

[05:19:22] all right thank you so very much let's go ahead and take our votes unanimous all right thank you very much i know that we have some proposed directives on here i don't i know in the interest of time um you know i don't know if anyone really wants to talk about anything or interest of time All right, we'll move on.

[05:19:56] These are for people's review for our July 21st board session. I am now going to go around the horn, and I will go first, and I'll make it quick. These are proposed.

[05:20:12] Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, they're for today. Oh, I apologize. They are for today. All right, I'm thinking that, yes, because people give their notes of intent. So I'm going to start with Supervisor Angry. Thank you, Madam Chair. It's here. Do I need to read it?

[05:20:29] You do not need to read it. does anyone have any objections madam chair supervisor i do not object um i just for staff mr shorter if somehow and whatever information comes back to us we can address any potential concerns to policing private roads not every road in the county is a public road and so there may be some limitations but i don't object and i cannot remember our verbiage from last week and i don't have it um on my um but i think for each of these there was no opposition to this so this we'll move forward just if people want to say i would like to offer this proposed directive

[05:21:05] um without objection i would like to offer this proposed directive without objection on angled parking okay so there are no objections right no one no one going on for all right so supervisor bode and if you have something you want to add you know but i i don't think that i think people have read and reviewed but supervisor bode ad yeah thank you madam church Just very quickly, again, follow up from the last directive that was given.

[05:21:32] Appreciate staff's feedback on what will be a preservation first framework that would also allow us to do a canopy fund. I know that Supervisor Vega and I have been in conversation about making sure there is minimal budget impact as possible, while still furthering the idea behind this.

[05:21:48] So I just would like to offer this directive as written. Madam Chair. Supervisor Vega. Thank you. I have been in communications with Supervisor Bodie, and I will be adding or requesting, rather, that we add a friendly amendment. Do I read the friendly amendment in this new process?

[05:22:07] Yes, and wait, I just have one question. Even though we are taking action, Mrs. Robel, is she allowed to do the friendly amendment under the new rules? Yes, Madam Chair, members of the board. This is on the agenda, and I think the friendly amendment is consistent with the theme of the proposed directive.

[05:22:27] And since the Supervisor Vega, has the full board seen your proposed amendment? I don't think so. Okay. Therefore, just to make sure that the full board understands what you're asking to do, I would recommend that you read it to make sure that they all understand. I can do that, Madam Chair.

[05:22:44] And just for the record, I did run this by the county attorney, so she has seen this. And since this is a new process, usually we do amendments on the fly. before, which is why I did not send it to everybody, but moving forward, I will. So the friendly amendment is I support reviewing the county's authority under Virginia code 15.2-961.1 to strengthen tree conservation during the development process. However, I want to ensure that any tree canopy fund established under this authority remains directly tied to development and does not create a new obligation for county taxpayers. I would ask that the directive be amended to clarify that any recommendations for tree canopy funds focus on funding mechanisms

[05:23:22] authorized under Virginia Code 15.2-961.1 and associated with development-related tree canopy requirements rather than the use of general county revenue. The county executive, I did include you in that email as well. Okay. And I accept. All right. Is there, are there any objections? If not, we're moving on. 8E, Supervisor LaCroix. I'm hoping that nobody's objecting to this.

[05:23:51] We have, even though dogs rule, and this is a cat directive, there's over 50,000 cats that need to be trapped and neutered and spayed and vaccinated. And our animal shelter is not able to hold them all right now.

[05:24:11] And so we have other organizations that really are wanting to and willing to do the work for us. So that's what my directive is about, is allowing them to use these funds. Any objection?

[05:24:29] Madam Chair. Supervisor Vega. I do object, one, because it is an off-cycle budget ask, but two, Mr. Shorter, could you provide clarification in regards to the funds that have been in question and how those funds are still there? They just haven't been utilized because we're having some issues with the HVAC system, but the money is there, and maybe that will satisfy you, but I'll let the county executive.

[05:24:53] Sure. So my understanding of what has come to the individual board members and the board collectively is that the $48,000 that was originally budgeted as part of the FY26 budget was unspent, and that was due to some construction issues at the Animal Services Center.

[05:25:12] That $48,000 is for FY26, and any unspent funds for FY26 will hit the bottom line and go into reserves consistent with the principles of sound financial management that the board has collectively approved.

[05:25:29] As part of the FY27 budget, the program has a new $48,000 that they will spend on the same programming. What this directive does, my understanding, is that it is directing us to provide a new, essentially new pot of money to allow for contract relationships with third-party animal services organizations that will assist the county in providing neuter services.

[05:26:02] So it is additional funding, not intended to do the same thing that we are doing at, well, actually it will do the same thing that we're doing at the Animal Services Center, but it will increase the capacity to do so. Okay.

[05:26:22] All right. Thank you so very much. So does anyone have any other further questions? If not, I'll go ahead and take a vote and we can have any discussion in there. I'm sorry. Motion. Yes, motion. Sorry. All right. Any other questions? Nope. Let's go in. I know I'm asking, does anyone, you're moving.

[05:26:40] I'd like to make a motion. All right. Any further discussion? I support this. I know that this is something that we need. I understand, you know, thank you for raising your concerns about the financial implications.

[05:26:56] Anyone else? All right. Let's take our votes. Motion passes 7 to 1, Supervisor Vega, voting day. All right.

[05:27:13] Thank you so very much. We love cats. At least I do. All right. So I'm going to go first, and then I'm just going to go around. I want to let everyone know that we are extending the dates for our clothing drive. We are going to have to remove some of our pickup locations, but if you have any clothing for the professional clothing drive that my office is hosting in conjunction with House of Mercy, you are free.

[05:27:34] We will have a bin outside of my office through Friday. We've already collected several clothes, and I appreciate everyone who's been cleaning out their closets, but if you have anything to contribute, we would love to be able to have it. I want to move on. We had some people who came late.

[05:27:51] Unfortunately, they were not able to speak from the Eastern Prince William Basketball Association. And, you know, thank you, Mr. Schroeder, for your email and your update, but I think that this is something we also might need to discuss with the school board, like one-on-one.

[05:28:08] My issue is that we have an actual agreement with the schools. And if we have schools that are not honoring that agreement, that is a problem for us. It's a problem for the community. And I don't want people to book through our park system I'm thinking they're actually going to have access to a property and then to receive a cancellation an hour before.

[05:28:31] That's not professional. That's not how I want to handle things in the community. It is something that, you know, meeting with them, speaking with them. And I understand these issues. My son actually played basketball with them. And things would be, you know, the last minute we're supposed to go to one school and then we're directed to another.

[05:28:47] Our game is canceled. That's just not something I want to teach our children. It's not good sportsmanship. So I think that we might have to elevate this. I do want staff to continue to work on this issue, but I think that us as elected officials might need to have conversations with our counterparts.

[05:29:05] Could we perhaps add this to the agenda? I was thinking about that, but I want to have some individual conversations for us, but it could be something that we do. So with that, I am going to move on to Supervisor Vega. She has nothing. Supervisor LaCroix. You mean our supervisor time?

[05:29:24] Okay. Yes, I do have some. I wanted to say that we, my chief of staff and I, went door-to-door down Route 1, and we talked to all the businesses and asked them to adopt the lawn and the weeds and everything up to the curb in front of their business and around to the sides.

[05:29:45] And we got a very good reception from everyone, and it was great. The second thing I wanted to say is on Friday night, we had the honor of going to see Jesus Christ Superstar at the Flazzo Building.

[05:30:02] And it was the Hard House Inclusive Productions, and it features people with or without disabilities. And it was very moving, and I'm surprised that nobody else has come because it's an incredibly moving experience.

[05:30:19] Then we also on Saturday did the Route 1 cleanup from 9 to 12, where we picked up garbage for three hours in the blazing hot. But it was a really good group, and Prince William Beautiful said it was the biggest crowd they've ever gotten.

[05:30:35] So we were actually able to go both ways and then meet back in the center at McDonald's. And finally, last night we had our Latino Roundtable, And we had a really in-depth discussion on how we could assist our Latino population.

[05:30:56] And we had all the Latino leaders there to give us suggestions and talk to us about everything that we could possibly learn. And so that is a big step that we're taking in my district, and I'm very proud to represent and have the staff that I have.

[05:31:15] They're wonderful. And I'm proud to represent Woodbridge. Thank you. Supervisor Gordy. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a couple of items to remind the community about. On Thursday, July 16th, Dominion will be holding an open house to discuss the Wheeler to Gainesville and the Vent Hill to Devlin transmission projects.

[05:31:38] That will be at Patriot High School from 530 to 730. And then on July the 23rd, also on Thursday, Dominion will be hosting a open house regarding the Noakesville to Bristow transmission line project from 530 to 730, also at Patriot High School.

[05:31:58] And, of course, we want everyone to come out. Again, we have a united message now underground the lines. And the one thing I do want to ask my colleagues, and this goes back to instruction from our county attorney, is I know I will be there.

[05:32:14] Will there be other members, and do we need to notice this meeting? Yes, we do. There's going to be three or more. Yep. Yes. So I recommend that we notice the July the 23rd meeting so that we stay legal.

[05:32:34] I'll give you this. That's all I have. Thank you. All right, Supervisor Bailey. Whoa, you got me, Matt. I'm sure you got me. Okay, just wanted to take this opportunity to thank Ms. Katie Cho for coming, the new CEO for BRE.

[05:32:53] Her presentation was awesome. Today we met with the Manassas Regional Airport Authority, and it was absolutely wonderful in meeting with them and creating a stronger collaboration as we go forward and supporting Supervisor Gordy and his district for what's going to happen bigly there.

[05:33:14] So it was a great meeting, and it was a great meeting to talk about VRE in its entirety. So I appreciate Katie coming. On the 9th, I had a wonderful virtual town hall on 311 that Katie and Brian presented for me, and we had over 40 participants virtually.

[05:33:34] No excitement on that night except for 3-1-1, and we had a great time talking about it in the town hall. And then on the 12th, congratulations to Bishop Leonard Lacy at the United Fellowship Church Ministries. He invited me to come as he's kicking off his Moving Forward Capital Campaign special projects for the community at large, and so congratulations to him.

[05:33:58] And then I just want to welcome my wonderful new interns, Ms. Ashley James, who is a rising sophomore at VCU, and Ms. Jordan Fisher, who is a rising junior at Spelman College, who participated in our internship program here in the county.

[05:34:15] So they're exciting, and they're smart, important, and kind, and I'm just enjoying having them there. We'll be participating with my colleagues at the Baco Region 8 meeting on 7-18. I want to give a notice of intent to submit a resume, which is on file, for Anthony Whitehead to serve on the Cherry Hill Community Development Authority.

[05:34:39] And thank you, Anthony, for saying yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. Supervisor Stewart. Thank you, Madam Chair. So last week I toured the Northern Virginia Community College Manassas campus. It was great. The faculty there is awesome. I like the fact that they are training people on AI-proof careers.

[05:35:00] And I'd also like to submit my notice of intent to appoint Elena Schlossberg-Kunkel to the PDR committee. Supervisor Bode. Thank you, Madam Chair.

[05:35:15] Supervisor Stewart stepped on my reminder for the board that we're supposed to do that next week, but appreciate you being an overachiever, sir, and getting that ahead of time. Just a couple of quick things from me. This afternoon, I went and visited the Literacy Volunteers of America, Prince William, that's in Tackett's Mill, just a stone's throw away from my office.

[05:35:37] They're doing a lot of great work there with giving immigrants, language learners of all magnitudes, the resources, the support they need to really thrive in our community. And knowing how heavy our community is on immigrants, on folks that are learning English for the first time, on learning the culture in Princeton County in the U.S. for the first time, it's really invaluable work.

[05:36:00] And I always appreciate the questions they ask. I also last night had a very successful Purcell Road town hall meeting. As of over the weekend, we only had about 20 people showed up. About, I mean, twice of that actually showed up last night.

[05:36:17] Want to give a shout-out to Lieutenant Peake, Captain Castilla, Richard Wyman, and Kathy Holzlander for being part of that panel. We had a really great discussion about traffic safety, community services, neighborhood services, the limitations of what we can and can't do, and the fact that folks really want improvements out there.

[05:36:36] We're still hesitant to give any right-of-way of their properties to do anything around it. There's a push and pull there. But if nothing else, folks really felt heard as part of that conversation as we continue to look at that. And just finally, I wanted to echo something that the chair mentioned with the Eastern Prince William Basketball Association.

[05:36:53] I agree wholeheartedly. It's already a tense situation where you have what's believed to be an honored agreement for folks to utilize the middle school and elementary school courts to do their practices, their tournaments, knowing that it takes a lot of logistics to get all these kids, all these families together to do something, only to be told an hour before the meet that suddenly, hey, sorry, we double booked.

[05:37:19] We didn't notice a clerical error, too bad, so sad. So that's one. But two, there's just the dissonance between that way of doing it and the high schools, which have a lot more of their own control and aren't through the county. So as we continue to work through that, I agree with the chair that we should probably elevate it.

[05:37:35] I did have a conversation with the school board chairman about it. He said that him and some of our counterparts on the school board are somewhat aware of it, But it seems like a lot more of their advocacy is towards our board versus their board. So we need to sort of talk about that. The last thing I would say is we continue to have conversations around third spaces, on rec space, on gymnasium space, as a county.

[05:37:56] A more longer-term fix is just for us to look at how we can expand our inventory with that as well. And I'm open to that conversation. Thank you, Madam Chair. Supervisor Angry, take us home. Thanks, Madam Chair. Real quick, I just want to get this started now since we only have one meeting left and then August is recess.

[05:38:12] August 29th, we're going to be having our Neabsco District Town Hall. If you haven't noticed, Neabsco District has changed, been upgraded, a lot of things going on. So we're going to have a town hall that pretty much goes over everything. Courts District, Minerville Road, Prince William Parkway, Spooey Project, public safety parks, recreations, and more.

[05:38:33] Additional information will follow. That is all, Madam Chair. Thanks. All right. Thank you so very much. Everyone, take five, and we are going to closed session. Thank you.

[05:39:00] We are back from closed session.

[05:39:29] Can I get a motion to certify? So moved. Second. All right, it's been multiple seconds. I'll give it to Gordy. And let's go ahead and take our votes. Okay. Vote unanimous.

[05:39:48] Supervisor Vega absent from vote. Move to adjourn. Second. Jeez. Gordy and everybody on this issue. Yeah. All right, Stuart. I'll give it to Stuart. Gordy. All right, everyone. Our next meeting is going to be on Tuesday, July 21st.

[05:40:08] Yes, I know. I'm talking because you go too fast. I got a gavel. all right she's doing the yes i can verify she got it vote unanimous supervisor vega absent from vote thank you very much have a good evening everyone get home safe

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